Part 57 The Bakers of Abbots Morton in Worcestershire

PART FIFTY-SEVEN

The Collett Family of Bakers from Abbots Morton in Worcestershire

(incorporating the Colletts of Badsey)

Updated July 2022

The early generations of this family had their name recorded as Collet and the earliest record at Badsey was the marriage of Joan Collet and Thomas Pegyn on 1^st February 1561. An appendix in this file, includes the details of other Colletts who made their home at Badsey.

Unplaced Colletts recorded on the Badsey History website include, Edward Collett who was a witness at a wedding on 31^st August 1788, and William Collett, born 1758, who was buried there on 13^th June 1823 at the age of 65. Another was the family of William Collett (Ref. 76N4) who was born at Willersey, who moved to Badsey after leaving school prior to 1861, where he married a Badsey lass with whom he created a whole new branch of family from 1864 onwards.

That new line is Part 76 – Bidford-on-Avon to North America and Australia

57k1	John Collett was born around 1700 and he married Elizabeth Wyatt at Badsey, east of Evesham, on 5^th October 1741, and it is their eldest child who starts this introductory section of this family line. Further research is required to determine who John Collett was, and the location where he was born. One option is that he was the John Collett baptised at Ashchurch near Tewkesbury on 22^nd December 1700, the son of William and Ann Collett. If that proves to be correct then William Collett (Ref. 5J9) and his wife, the parents of John Collett, can be found in *Part 5 – The Tewkesbury Line*. What is known for sure is that William Collett, the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Wyatt, was baptised at Badsey on Tuesday 18^th January 1742, and that he was followed by the birth of two sisters. John Collett died at the age of 62 on 16^th January 1763, and was buried at Badsey on Sunday 18^th January 1763, leaving his widow with their three children. However, it was just a few months later, on 15^th October 1763, that Mrs Elizabeth Collett, widow, married Henry Smith. The second marriage for Elizabeth appears not to have produced any children, and her husband Henry Smith died during December 1789, with Elizabeth following ten years later, when she was buried at Badsey on 16^th August 1799.

	57l1	William Collett					Born in 1741 at Badsey
	57l2	Ann Collett					Born in 1747 at Badsey
	57l3	Elizabeth Collett					Born in 1757 at Badsey


57l1	William Collett was baptised at Badsey on 18^th January 1742, the son of farmer John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Wyatt. Following the death of his father in 1763 it would appear that William took on farming the land that had been previously worked by his late father. It was six years later that he married (1) Nancy Bird at Badsey on 5^th October 1769, the witness to the marriage being William’s sister Ann (below). Nancy Bird was a minor, since she was baptised at Badsey on 7^th April 1751, and needed the consent of her parents Henry and Elizabeth Bird to wed the much older William Collett. In addition to being the witness at the wedding of his sister Ann three weeks after he became a married man, William was also named as a witness at two marriages in 1767. The first of them took place on 9^th February 1767, and the second on 9^th June 1767. Later records suggest that William may be been attached to the Badsey Church in some way, as a further seven entries in the parish records indicate that he was a witness in 1770, 1772, 1781, 1785, 1786, and 1795.

	Nine months after they were married, nineteen-year-old Nancy Collett presented her husband William with a son William, who was born at Badsey and baptised there on 8^th July 1770. However, young Nancy did not survive the ordeal, and the parish records at Badsey show that Nancy Collett, the mother of William Collett junior, and the wife of William Collett senior, died on 8^th August 1770 and was buried in the churchyard of St James’ Church on Friday 10^th August 1770.

	Almost two years after the death of his wife William married (2) Mary White on Saturday 6^th June 1772 at Wickhamford parish church. Mary was the daughter of William and Elisabeth White of Wickhamford, who was baptised there on 10^th February 1731. Although Mary was nearly ten years older than William, she presented him with a son, John Collett, who was born and baptised at Badsey in 1775. It is established that father and son were referred to in the Badsey Society’s ‘Badsey & Adlington Enclosure Map Project’ where it specifically relates to the land at Badsey known as The Stockey comprising Great Stockey and Little Stockey, both adjacent to the Vicarage in Badsey. The land was owned by the Williams family long before 1747, and in 1787 it belonged to the Reverend Thomas Williams of Bere Regis in Dorset. He was christened at Chasleton, near Morton in Marsh, on 1^st May 1748, the son of the Reverend Edward Williams, Rector of Chastleton and wife Margaret Walker of Evesham.

	It was also in 1787 that William Collett [the elder] paid rent to the Rev. Williams, as verified in the 1787 Land Tax which stated that the Reverend Thomas Williams was the owner of Stockey, and that it was rented out to tenant farmer William Collett. Since that is the earliest Land Tax document unearthed, it is assumed that William Collett farmed the Stockey land prior to 1787, that it was possibly farmed by his father John Collett prior to his death in 1763. It is very interesting to note that the annual tax for Stockey paid by William Collett in 1787 was Nine Pounds Six Shillings Ten Pence, exactly the same sum that was charged to his son William in 1818, and again thirteen years later in 1831.

	Also, at that same time in 1787, William Collett was farming other land under a tenancy agreement with [a] the Reverend Drummond and [b] Christopher Whiting, as well as another plot owned by John Millard and John Benton, which William farmed in partnership with his brother-in-law James Bird. There was also a plot of land that William farmed which was jointly owned by him and a Mary Roberts. William Collett, farmer of Badsey, died there and was buried there on Friday 29^th July 1814, at the age of 72. His eldest son William was then solely responsible for the farm, and his widow Mary was to remain living in the old farmhouse. Mary Collett nee White died when she was 95, following which she was buried at Badsey on Tuesday 20^th May 1825.

	The Will of William Collett of Badsey was made on 16^th February 1814, and proved on 18^th November 1814 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and read as follows: I, William Collett the elder of Badsey, gentleman, give to my second son, John Collett, my messuage, garden, orchard, land outbuildings and appurtenances now in my occupation at Badsey, paying to my eldest son William the sum of £450 but without interest at the end of 12 months after my decease and permitting my dear wife to have the exclusive use of one of the bedrooms in the same in which there is a fireplace and also the accommodation of board with him and his family for so long as she shall choose and he allowing out of the ? I have hereafter bequeathed to her such reasonable recompense for the same as my Executors shall think right from time to time I give and bequeath to my Executors the sum of £1100 to invest for me in the public funds upon trust that they my said executors shall and shall pay the interest and the dividends of the said stock for the benefit of my dear wife Mary and on the decease of my wife then I bequeath the money equally between my said two sons And I give to my said two sons all my monies securities for money, debts, furniture and other personal estate subject to the payment of my debts legacies equally to be divide between them. It is my will that my dear wife shall have the use of my own furniture for her life for which purpose I direct that an inventory of the same be taken immediately after my decease and given to my son William to prevent disputes on the division of the same on my wife’s death

	I direct my executors to pay out of my personal estate the following legacies within six months after my decease, namely. To Mrs Jane Kelsall, my wife’s daughter by her first husband, the sum of £40. To my wife’s son William White now or late of Oxford £10 and the sum of £30 which he owes to my wife’s grandson David White of Bretforton £10. To Mary the wife of William Caldicott of Honeybourne, one of my wife’s granddaughters, the sum of £10. To such old widows and old men belonging to Badsey exclusive of Aldington as my executors shall choose the sum of £5 to be paid within two years after my decease in different proportions and at several times at the discretion of my Executors. And all my other chattels and estate I give to my eldest son William Executors: My two sons William and John Collett Signed: William Collett

	57m1	William Collett					Born in 1770 at Badsey
	The following is the only known child of William Collett by his second wife Mary White:
	57m2	John Collett					Born in 1775 at Badsey


57l2	Ann Collett was baptised at St James’ Church in Badsey on 17^th April 1747, the eldest of the two daughters of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Wyatt. Ann was the witness at the wedding of her brother William (above) during the first week of October in 1769, and three weeks later he was witness at her wedding, when she married Benjamin Gould at Badsey on 25^th October 1769.


57l3	Elizabeth Collett was born at Badsey, where she was baptised on 25^th June 1757. Her father John Collett died in 1763 when she was only six years old, and ten years later Elizabeth died on 5^th November 1773 and was buried in the family grave at Badsey with her father on 7^th November 1773. The headstone that marks the grave also includes the name of her brother’s wife Nancy Collett (above) who had died three years earlier in 1770.


57m1	William Collett was born at Badsey and was baptised there on 8^th July 1770, the son of farmer William Collett and his wife Nancy Bird. Following the death of his mother within days of his birth, his father married for a second time in 1772 and William continued to live with his father and his stepmother in the first decade of the new century, while working on his father’s farm holding in Badsey. It was not until he was nearly thirty-five that he married Mary Yardington at Badsey on Wednesday 1^st May 1805, although sadly the marriage apparently did not produce any children for the couple. Mary Yardington was baptised at Bishampton on 3^rd November 1776, the daughter of John Yardington and his wife Elisabeth Fletcher. William and Mary continued to live with William’s father after they were married, and it seems very likely that the younger man eventually took over his father’s farming operations, allowing the older man to retire.

	During 1811, the last year before the act of enclosing the lands in Badsey was due, the two William Colletts held leases under the Reverend Thomas Williams, and upon the death of his father three years later in 1814, William continued to farm the land leased from the agents for the Reverend Thomas Williams, as confirmed by the 1818 Land Tax Records, when he was paying Nine Pounds Six Shillings Ten Pence in tax. Also, at that time, and in addition to the land he farmed at Badsey, William Collett had land at Aldington, just north of Badsey, which he leased from Thomas Williams, and he still owned the house near the church, the tenant for which was Thomas Smith. The 1820 Edition of the Worcestershire General & Commercial Directory included an entry for William Collett, a farmer at Badsey. Six years later the 1826 Tax Return once again showed that William Collett was still farming the land at Badsey belonging to Thomas Williams, and that Thomas Smith was still the occupant of the house belonging to William Collett.

	Five years after that, the 1831 Badsey Land Tax returns show that the land referred to as Stockey was owned by the estate of the late Reverend Thomas Williams, and that the occupier of the land at that time was William Collett, who paid Nine Pounds Six Shillings Ten Pence, the usual amount, to the exchequer on that property, and strangely the same amount paid by his father in 1787. In January 1837 the widow of William’s half-brother John Collett (below) passed away, having four years earlier purchased a seven-acre-field to the west of Badsey Brook known as Jarrett’s Ground. Upon her death that land was transferred into the ownership of William Collett, all in accordance of the Will of her husband John Collett, gentleman and farmer of Badsey, whose Will was proved in 1832 – reproduced below. Four years later the Badsey census of 1841 recorded William and Mary still living there at The Firs, 27 High Street, where William Collett was 70 and a farmer, while his wife Mary Collett was 63. By that time in their lives, The Firs was a large detached house near the church, where the couple employed a domestic servant Ann Mayo who was 19. The Firs was owned by William Collett, who had taken up living there after tenant Thomas Smith (above) had vacated the property.

	It was nearly nine years later that William Collett, aged 80, died on 5^th April 1850, following which he was buried at Badsey on 9^th April 1850, although no Will has ever been found. After his death the land to the west of Badsey Brook passed, at his bequest, to Edward Appelbee. In 1877, Edward’s widow, Elizabeth Appelbee and her son Thomas, sold the land to John Pickup Lord when it became part of what was known as the Wickhamford Estate. During the year following the death of her husband, the widow Mary Collett nee Yardington was again living at The Firs, 27 High Street in Badsey, when she was described as Mary Collett from Bishampton, a landed proprietor aged 73, employing two domestic servants, Matilda Watson aged 43, and Anne Ewins who was 37. According to the next census in 1861, Matilda Pyne Watson was by then the companion of Mary Collett, when both of them were still living at The Firs in Badsey. Mary Collett of Bishampton, aged 83, was again described as a land proprietor, while Matilda Pyne Watson, who was 53, was described as companion and housekeeper. Helping Matilda manage the house was sixteen-year-old domestic servant Harriet Warner.

	Two years later, elderly Mary Collett decided it was time to draw up a Will and, on 9^th October 1863 in the presence of Evesham solicitor Henry New, she signed the document. The two witnesses were two clerks employed by Henry New. Just over fifteen months later, at the age of 87, Mary Collett died on 24^th January 1865 [see FOONOTE below] and was buried in the churchyard at Badsey, with her husband, on Tuesday 31^st January 1865, where a cross and a foot stone were erected to their memory. The death of Mary Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 24). Within her Will, proved at Worcester on 6^th March 1865, was a bequest of £100 for her companion Matilda Payne Watson, together with money to provide blankets for the poor people of Badsey. The bulk of her estate was passed onto the Tovey family, her nephews Thomas Yardington Tovey and William Tovey inheriting Bowers Hill Farm. Her house, of The Firs, the garden and orchard, was divided equally between the same two nephews. Another dwelling and garden occupied by Joseph Jones was also bequeathed to the two Tovey brothers, as well as several parcels of land referred to as Badsey grounds, comprising 22 acres being worked by Mrs Ingles – another connection to the Collett family, with the wedding of James Collett (Ref. 76M1) and Mary Ingles taking place at Willersey in 1837 *in Part 76 – Bidford-on-Avon to North America & Australia*. Also, under the terms of the same Will, another member of the Tovey family, Joseph Tovey, received four acres of land known as Abraham's Well.

	Bowers Hill Farm was still the home of the Tovey family in 1881, when the census that year recorded the aforementioned William Tovey’s widow Elizabeth still living there. Elizabeth, aged 60 and from South Littleton, was a farmer of 99 acres employing three men and two boys. Her eldest son William Collett Tovey, who was 31, was the farm manager, his brother Edgar Tovey, aged 19, was also working on the farm, while Elizabeth’s youngest son Albert Tovey was 18 and an apprentice chemist. Elizabeth’s two daughters were Ellen Tovey aged 31, and Mary Tovey who was 13. Serving the family was Catherine Archer aged 42 and the housekeeper. Apart from Elizabeth, all of the other members of the householder were born at Church Lench. Elizabeth Tovey’s brother-in-law Thomas Yardington Tovey was still living and working his own farm at Church Lench, which he had owned prior to inheriting his share of his aunt’s estate in 1865. What is of interest is that in 1871, and six years after the death of his aunt Mary Collett, her companion Matilda Paine Watson was a visitor at his farm in Church Lench.

	FOOTNOTE: In 1812, at the time of the Badsey Enclosure Act, a plot of land referred to as Church End, was part of the garden of an old enclosure which belonged to William Collett. It comprised a house (The Firs, High Street) and land amounting to just over an acre. It passed out of the Colletts’ hands in 1865, following the death of Mary Collett, when it was sold at public auction at the Cross Keys Inn at Evesham, when it was purchased by the aforementioned Captain John Pickup Lord. The Firs was later bought by Victor Cockerton in 1920, whose grandson was still living there in 2008. The eastern-most section of the plot was sold in the 1990s for the building of three bungalows, when the close in which they were built, off Chapel Street, Badsey, was named Church End.


57m2	John Collett was baptised at Badsey on 4^th February 1775, the only child of William Collett by his second wife Mary White. With his father being an established farmer in Badsey, it was logical that John was also farming by the time he was thirty-three. The Badsey Land Tax Records for 1808 show that John Collett paid Five Pounds for land that was owned by his father William. In addition to that, John was also paying land tax on property that he farmed and which he rented from Charles Whiting and the Reverend Philott. Six years earlier John Collett married Ann Wheeler at Badsey on 13^th May 1802, at a time when his older stepbrother William Collett (above) was still a bachelor. Less than six months after they were married Ann presented John with a daughter who was baptised on 12^th November 1802. Sadly, the child was only three years old when she died and was buried at Badsey on 19^th November 1805.

	Over twenty years later the 1826 Badsey Land Tax Records confirm that John Collett was still living at Badsey in the house that he owned, and that he was still farming land that was also in his ownership. It was five years after that when John Collett died at Badsey, where he was buried on 30^th September 1831 at the age of 56. It seems highly likely that John was in some way attached to the church, since the name John Collett is a witness at two wedding ceremonies in Badsey, the first on 29^th September 1813, and the second on 8^th November 1814.

	The Will of John Collett of Badsey was proved at the Prerogative Court in Canterbury on 8^th March 1832, and reads as follows: I, John Collett of Badsey, gentleman, give all that my messuage, tenement and the barns thereto belonging situate at Badsey now in my own possession and also the orchard thereto belonging in the occupation of James Harris and Joseph Knight and all other the messuages lands and hereditaments parts or shares of messuages, lands and hereditaments with the appurtenances unto the use of my dear wife Ann Collett for and during the term of her natural life and after her decease, I give the same unto the use of William Collett of Badsey, farmer. I give all my personal estate and effects and household furniture unto my wife Ann Collett and unto William Collett and the survivor of them save the sum of £300 to Jane Kelsall of Evesham, widow

	Two years after the death of her husband, Ann Collett nee Wheeler purchased a field to the west of Badsey Brook in 1833 from her uncle John Jones. John was the brother of Ann’s mother and had originally bought the seven acres of land known as Jarrett’s Ground in 1803 for £1,128. Ann Collett nee Wheeler survived her husband by less than six years when she died during the first month of 1837 at Badsey where she was buried on 24^th January 1837, at the age of 64. Following her death, the land known as Jarrett’s Ground, also known as Gerrard’s Piece, was passed to her husband’s half-brother William Collett (above). The Will of Ann Collett of Badsey was proved at Worcester on 21^st June 1837

	Many years later, the following notice was published in the local press. “At the Northwick Arms Hotel, Evesham, on Monday 26^th March 1866 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, by order of the Trustees for sale acting under the Will of the late Mrs Ann collett, deceased, subject to conditions and in one lot: All those three closes of arable land called Gerrard’s Piece, situate in the hamlet of Aldington in the parish of Badsey in the county of Worcester, containing by a recent admeasurement 26a or 36p, and now in the occupation of Richard Ashwin, Esq. This land is near to the borough of Evesham and is bounded on the north by the Evesham and Bretforton Turnpike Road, on the east by Badsey Brook and land of E Wilson, Esq, on the south by land of Captain Lord and on the west by land of Francis Darwin, Esq, in Bengeworth in the borough of Evesham. On the day of the sale, the land was purchased by the aforementioned Captain John Pickup Lord who, during the previous year on 10^th July 1865, at the Cross Keys Inn auction in Evesham, had purchased the land forming the estate of the late Mrs Mary Collett, the widow of William Collett (above).

	57n1	Ann Collett				Born in 1802 at Badsey; infant death




	APPENDIX

	However, in addition to what is written above about the Badsey Land Tax Records, they also included details of another Collett, unconnected to the family above. He was William Collett (Ref. 57L7) who farmed land within the parish, and who is believed to be from nearby Broadway. This therefore, is the story of his family line.


57K1	Richard Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold around 1717 and it was there also that he married Elizabeth Keen on 3^rd October 1741. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samuel Keen and Elizabeth Beal and was baptised at Stow on 31^st January 1721. Their marriage produced seven children born at Broadway, although the first of them was born ten years after they were married, which perhaps indicates that Richard was absent from the family home in the early days of their relationship, or that any earlier children did not survive.

	57L1	Ann Collett						Born in 1750 at Broadway
	57L2	William Collett						Born in 1751 at Broadway
	57L3	Richard Collett						Born in 1753 at Broadway
	57L4	John Collett						Born in 1754 at Broadway
	57L5	Richard Collett						Born in 1754 at Broadway
	57L6	John Collett						Born in 1755 at Broadway
	57L7	William Collett						Born in 1757 at Broadway


57L1	Ann Collett was born at Broadway in 1750, where she was baptised on 20^th May 1750, the eldest known child of Richard and Elizabeth Collett of Stow-on-the-Wold.


57L2	William Collett was born at Broadway in 1751, the eldest son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett, and was baptised there on 17^th July 1751, but sadly he died there while still very young.


57L3	Richard Collett was born at Broadway during the first half of 1753 and it was there also that he was baptised on 7^th October 1753, but like his brother William (above), he too did not survive.


57L4	John Collett was born at Broadway most likely during last month of 1753 or the first month of 1754. He was baptised there in May that year but as with his two brothers before him, he did not survive beyond infancy.


57L5	Richard Collett was born at Broadway around September 1754, and was baptised there on 7^th October 1754, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.


57L6	John Collett was born at Broadway in the second quarter of 1755, and it was there that he was baptised on 18^th May 1755, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.


57L7	William Collett was born at Broadway in 1757 where he was baptised on 21^st December 1757, the youngest child of Richard Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold and his wife Elizabeth Keen from Worcestershire. It was when William was 32 that he married Mary Salter at Badsey on 19^th July 1790, with whom he had three children, all of them baptised at Badsey. William was a tenant farmer in Badsey, as confirmed by the Badsey Land Tax records. Sometime during the 1830s William Collett died, following which his wife left the village of Badsey. The census in June 1841 identified his widow Mary Collett living at Abbots Morton with the family of her married son William Collett, where she was recorded with a rounded age of 75 and living on independent means.

	57M1	John Collett					Born in 1791 at Badsey
	57M2	Maria Collett					Born in 1794 at Badsey
	57M3	William Collett					Born in 1804 at Badsey


57M1	John Collett was born at Badsey where he was baptised on 20^th August 1791, the first child of William Collett and his wife Mary Salter. Towards the end of 1814, John Collett was one of the witnesses at the Badsey wedding of his sister Maria (below). It was also at Badsey that John Collet married Jane Hitch on 25^th December 1817. As far as can be determined John and Jane certainly had a daughter Mary, who was born around 1832, likely to be their last child, leaving the previous thirteen years for earlier children. The three of them were listed in the Church Lench census of 1841, when they were residing in the village of Atch Lench, just south-east of Church Lench. John and Jane Collett were both 45, a rounded age, while their daughter Mary Collett was nine years old. Two other family were also recorded at the property, and they were mother and daughter Mary and Elizabeth Hitchings, and Charles and Phoebe Hacker, with their daughter Maria. Ten years later it was just John and Jane who were living alone Evesham Road in Church Lench, where John of Badsey was 59 and an agricultural labourer and Jane from Atch Lench was 55. Nine years later, the death of John Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 1) during the second quarter of 1860. By that time, John was already widowed, the death of Jane Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 36) during the third quarter of 1857.

	57N1	Mary Collett					Born in 1832 at Atch Lench


57M2	Maria Collett was born at Badsey during 1794, where she was baptised at Maria Collett on 30^th November 1794, the daughter of William and Mary Collett. Within the Badsey baptism records is the name of John Collet, the son of Maria Collet, who was baptised on 29^th November 1812. There is a possibility that he was the base-born child of Maria Collett. Two years later Maria Collet of Badsey was married, following the reading of banns, to Charles Hartwell, also of Badsey, at Badsey on 8^th November 1814, when the witnesses were John Collett (Maria’s brother) and Mary Hartwell, and both the bride and groom signed the parish register with the mark of a cross. Their children were baptised at Badsey, the first being William Hartwell baptised on 29^th October 1815, followed by Mary Harwell, baptised on 25^th January 1818, and Charles Hartwell on 26^th December 1825. They were followed by George Hartwell and Joseph Hartwell, who were baptised on 23^rd December 1827 and 23^rd January 1833, respectively. In 1841 the family living at Badsey comprised Charles who was 50, Maria who was 48, Charles junior who was 19, Elizabeth Hartwell who was 16, George who was 13, and David Hartwell who was 10 years of age. Only one of their seven known children was still living with the couple in 1851, when Charles Hartwell was 62, a pauper and a farm labourer, Maria Hartwell was 57, and George Hartwell was 22 and a labourer working on a farm. All three on them was recorded as having been born at Badsey. Six years later, the death of Maria Hartwell, nee Collett, was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 32) during the second quarter of 1857.

	57N2	John Collett					Baptised on 29.11.1812 at Badsey


57M3	William Collett was born at Badsey in 1804 according to the census in 1851, and was baptised there on 6^th January 1805, the third child of tenant farmer William Collett and his wife Mary Salter. William was in his early twenties when he married Ann Hulbert at Abberton in Worcestershire on 3^rd April 1826. Over the following year the couple settled in nearby Abbots Morton, to the west of Alcester, and it was there that all of their children were born. At the time of the census in 1841 William and Ann were still living in the village of Abbots Morton, where they were also still living three years later for the birth of their last known child. The census return recorded William Collett with a rounded age of 35, when he was working as an agricultural labourer and when his wife Ann had a rounded age of 40. Living with them on that occasion were just four of their five known children and they were William who was 12, Thomas who was seven, Richard who was four and Mary who was two years old. The couple’s missing child was their son John Collett who was 10 years old and appears to have been the youngest of five male pupils at a boys’ school in Abbots Morton managed by William and Mary Ann Cowley. Living with the family at Abbots Morton was William’s widowed mother Mary Collett who had a rounded age of 75.

	Ten years later in 1851 William Collett, aged 47 and from Badsey, was an agricultural labourer still living in Abbots Morton with his family. His wife Ann, who was 48, had been born at Flyford Flavel, just one mile from Abberton, where the couple were married. The only children still living with them at that time were their daughter Mary Maria Collett who was 12 and still at school, and their son Anthony Collett who was six years old and also attending the local school. All of the couple’s five other children were living in West Bromwich that day, with four of them together in lodgings at Spon Lane in West Bromwich, with just son Thomas on his own in the town. Those four children were William Collett who was 22, John Collett who was 20, Richard Collett who was 14, all of them working as labourers, plus their youngest sister Elizabeth Collett who was eight years of age and attending school. During the following decade, three members of the family died. The first of them was daughter Elizabeth Collett, whose death was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 28) during the third quarter of 1855, while five years after the death of William Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 18) during the fourth quarter of 1860. By that time, his wife had already passed away, when the death of Ann Collett was recorded as Evesham (Ref. 6c 23) during the first three months of 1857.

	57N3		William Collett				Born in 1828 at Abbots Morton
	57N4		John Collett				Born in 1830 at Abbots Morton
	57N5		Thomas Collett				Born in 1832 at Abbots Morton
	57N6		Richard Collett				Born in 1836 at Abbots Morton
	57N7		Mary Maria Collett				Born in 1838 at Abbots Morton
	57N8		Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1842; died 1855
	57N9		Anthony Collett				Born in 1844 at Abbots Morton


57N3	William Collett was born at Abbots Morton in Worcestershire in 1828, where he was baptised on 6^th May 1828, the eldest child of William and Ann Collett. He was 12 years old in the census of 1841 when he was still living with his family in Abbots Morton but, upon leaving the village school, he left the family home to seek his own way in the world when he travelled to West Bromwich. According to the census in 1851 William Collett from Abbots Morton was 22 and working as a labourer when he and three of his younger siblings were lodgers at Spon Lane in West Bromwich. Possibly working with him were his brothers John and Richard, while the fourth member of the group was their sister Elizabeth who was still attending school. Why there were there, when their parents were still residing in Abbots Morton, is not known. It was in the middle of the following decade when the marriage of William Collett and Mary Downing was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 19) during the third quarter of 1856. Once married, they settled in Smethwick with the first of their six children born there in the next year.

	By 1861 they had two daughters when William Collett from Abbots Morton was 32 and, was living at Smethwick in the Kings Norton & Harborne registration district with his wife Mary, who was also 32, and their two daughters Ann Collett who was three and Alice Collett who was one year old. Both girls had been born at Smethwick, where their mother had also been born and, living not far away at Handsworth at that time was William’s younger sister Mary Collett (below) and his brother John Collett (below). Further children were added to the family over the next decade and all of them were born while the family was still living at Smethwick. So by 1871, the family comprised William Collett from Abbots Morton who was 42 and a labourer at the local glassworks, his wife Mary who was also 42, and their five children Ann Collett who was 13, Alice Collett who 11, Thomas Collett who was seven, John Collett who was five and Arthur Collett who was three years old. On that census day it seems very likely that Mary and William were expecting the arrival of their next child, since later that same year a further son was born into the family. Sometime after the birth of that child the family left Smethwick and settled in nearby Harborne, just south of Smethwick, where William took up a new occupation.

	According to the census of 1881 William Collett and his family were living at The Baker’s Shop at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, where William worked as the baker at the age of 52. Only his eldest daughter Ann had left the family home by then and, it must be assumed that at the age of 23, she was married by that time in her life. The remaining family members were William’s wife Mary, who was also 52, their daughter Alice who was 21 with no stated occupation and their sons Thomas H Collett who was 17, John Collett who was 15, Arthur Collett who was 13 and Frank Collett who was nine. Both of the younger boys were still attending school and all of them were confirmed as having been born locally at Smethwick. William Collett died in 1888 at the age of 60, when his death was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 154) during the second quarter of the year.

	Three years later his widow had taken over her husband role as a baker, when the 1891 census recorded her living at Oldbury Road, but where the road was in Smethwick rather than Harborne. At the age of 62, Mary Collett only had her youngest child Frank living there with her, whose occupation was also that of a baker. After a further ten years, and on the day of the census in 1901, widow Mary was living with her married daughter Alice Field at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick. Mary Collett from Smethwick was 72 and described as the mother-in-law of head of the household Thomas Henry Field. Just over six years after that day, Mary passed away, perhaps was still was still living with her daughter, when the death of Mary Collett was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 143) during the third quarter of 1907 at the age of 78.

	57O1		Ann Collett				Born in 1857 at Smethwick
	57O2		Alice Collett				Born in 1859 at Smethwick
	57O3		Thomas Henry Collett				Born in 1864 at Smethwick
	57O4		John Collett				Born in 1866 at Smethwick
	57O5		Arthur Collett				Born in 1868 at Smethwick
	57O6		Frank Collett				Born in 1871 at Smethwick


57N4	John Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1830, where he was baptised on 26^th December 1830, the son of William and Ann Collett. Curiously he was not living with his family at Abbots Morton on the day of the census in 1841 instead, at the age of 10 years, John Collett was the youngest of five schoolboys at an all boys’ school in Abbots Morton managed by William and Mary Ann Cowley. It is possible that he never returned to live with his parents in Abbots Morton since, by the time of the next census in 1851, John Collett from Abbots Morton was with his eldest brother William (above) and two other younger siblings in lodgings at Spon Lane in West Bromwich, where John was 20 and employed as a labourer. The head of the household was very interesting, as she was unmarried householder Sarah Smith, aged 23, the later wife of John Collett, who was already carrying his child. Six months later the marriage of John Collett and Sarah Smith took place on 13^th October 1851 at St Martin’s Church in Birmingham, two months after the birth of their daughter. On the day of the census in 1851, John’s parents were still residing in Abbots Morton with John’s two youngest siblings. The next census in 1861 identified John and Sarah living at George Street in Harborne. John Collett from Abbots Morton was 30 and a glasshouse labourer, his wife Sarah Collett was 33 and born at Smethwick, while their daughter Mary Ann Collett was 11 years of age and had been born at Spon Lane in West Bromwich. Visiting the family was Rosina White, also from West Bromwich, who was nine years old.

	Ten years later it was a similar situation, when the family of three was still recorded as residing at George Street in Harborne. John Collett from Abbots Morton was 40 and a labourer in a local glass works, Sarah Collett from Smethwick was 43 and their daughter Mary Ann Collett from West Bromwich was 21 and was due to be married later that same year. Living with the family that day was Henry Bull who was seven years old and from Brierley Hill near Dudley who was described as son (adopted). He was again living with John and Sarah ten years later in 1881. By that time John and Sarah were living at Lottie Road in Northfield, just south of Selly Oak, when John Collett from Abbots Morton was 50 and was working as a bricklayer’s labourer. Lodging with him and his wife Sarah, who was 53 and from West Bromwich, was their adopted son Henry Bull from Brierley Hill who was 17 and a chocolate maker.

	General labourer John, and Sarah, were both listed in the Northfield census return for 1891 as being 60 when they were still living on Lottie Road. Again living with them was Henry Bull aged 27 who was continuing his employment as a chocolate maker. In addition to their adopted son, John and Sarah had living with them their grandson William Geddes who was 18 and the eldest child of the couple’s daughter. He was still with them in 1901 when they were living at 246 High Street in Northfield. At the age of 70, John Collett from Abbots Morton was back to working as a bricklayer’s labourer, Sarah Collett from Smethwick was 73 and their Smethwick born grandson William Geddes was 29 who, by then, was employed as a letter carrier by the General Post Office. Less than six years after that census day, the death of John Collett was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 140) during the first quarter of 1907, at the age of 76. It is interesting that, on the occasion of marriage of his only known child, the father of the bride was named as John Roberts Collett, his daughter said to be Mary Ann Roberts Collett. A year after being made a widow, the death of Sarah Collett was also recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 180) during the first three months of 1908, at the age of 78.

	57O7		Mary Ann Collett				Born in 1850 at West Bromwich


57N5	Thomas Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1832, and was baptised there on 3^rd February 1832, the son of William and Ann Collett. The census in 1841 recorded him as Thomas Collett who was seven years of age and living with his family at Abbots Morton. By the time he was 19, he was living in the West Bromwich area, where four of his siblings were together in lodgings at a house in Spon Lane. Thomas was 24 when he married Sarah Ann Simcox who was born at West Bromwich in 1832, their marriage recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 794) during the second quarter of 1856. Sarah Ann was the sister of Emma Simcox (below) who married Thomas’ brother Richard, they being the daughters of Edwin and Rebecca Simcox, Sarah Ann having been baptised at All Saints Church in West Bromwich on 15^th July 1832.

	It was also at West Bromwich that Thomas and Sarah Ann seem to have spent their whole life together, and it was there that all of their children were born. During the first fifteen years of their marriage Sarah Ann presented Thomas with seven children, the first two of them recorded with the couple at 77 Spon Lane in west Bromwich in the census of 1861. Thomas Collett from Abbots Morton was 28 and a baker employing one man, who was his brother Anthony Collett from Abbots Morton who was 16 and an apprentice. Thomas’ wife was Sarah Ann Collett who was 25, and their two children were William Collett who was two and Elizabeth Collett who was five months old. Also staying with the family was Sarah’s sister Jane Simcox who was 12 and employed by the family as a domestic servant.

	Ten years later in 1871 the family was made up of Thomas and Sarah Ann both aged 38, and their children Elizabeth Collett who was 10, Frederick Thomas Collett who was seven, Sarah Ann Collett who was five, Thomas Collett who was four, Mary Collett who was two, and baby Arthur Collett who was not yet one year old. Their son William would have been 12, who presumably did not survive beyond childhood. No further children were born to the couple after that time and by 1881 Thomas Collett of Abbots Morton was 48 and his occupation was that of a master baker, like his eldest brother William (above). At that time, he and his wife Sarah, who was also 48, were living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich with their six children. Elizabeth Collett was 20, Frederick T Collett was 17, Sarah A Collett was 15, Thomas Collett was 14, Mary Collett was 12, and Arthur Collett who was 10.

	Only the three youngest children were still at school, while curiously the older children were not credited with having any occupation. In fact, Thomas and his family were supported by a servant, Henry Sutton, aged 22 from Worcester, who was also employed as a baker. Most of the family were still together ten years later. Only the couple’s eldest daughter Elizabeth was missing from the family home in 1891, since she was already married by that time, when every member of the household, excluding Thomas’ wife and eldest daughter, were employed by him as baker’s assistants. According to the census in 1891, baker Thomas Collett was 58, Sarah Ann Collett was 57, Frederick T Collett was 27, Sarah Ann Collett was 25, Thomas Collett was 24, Mary Collett was 22, and Arthur Collett who was 20. Staying with the family, was Thomas’ nephew Arthur Collett, aged 23 and from Smethwick, who was working with him as a baker’s assistant. At that time in his life, Thomas was affluent enough to employ two male baker’s assistants James Griffin and Henry Price. In addition to the Collett family of Thomas and Sarah Ann, there was also living in that same area at that same time, Emma Collett (Ref. 15N28) who was 16 and whose family feature in Part 15 – The Kenilworth & Coventry Line.

	Thomas Collett, aged 68, and a retired baker from Abbots Morton was still living in the Smethwick area of Handsworth in March 1901. Living there with him at 168 Saint Pauls Road was his wife Sarah A Collett, aged 65 and from West Bromwich, together with three of their unmarried children. The eldest of them was their son Thomas Collett, aged 34 and a baker, who had taken over the family business from his father and who was employing his younger brother Arthur Collett, aged 30, as a journeyman baker, who presumably was the delivery man. It would also appear that the family was supported by daughters Sarah Collett who was 35 and Mary Collett who was 32 who, with no stated occupation, were very likely keeping house for their elderly parents and their two brothers. Also living with the family at that time, was Marion Stevens who was 11 and born in Walsall, who was the granddaughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett, the first child from the marriage of their eldest daughter Elizabeth Stevens nee Collett. By that time Elizabeth had three younger children living with her and her husband nearby in Smethwick.

	Both Thomas and Sarah enjoyed a long life together and, by the time of the census in 1911, both of them were 78 years of age and recorded as living at 168 St Pauls Road a seven-roomed accommodation in Smethwick. Still living there with them, were their two unmarried daughters, and their youngest son Arthur, who was also unmarried. Sarah Ann Collett was 46, Mary Collett was 42, and Arthur Collett was 40, all three of them born at West Bromwich like their mother. The census return also confirmed that Sarah had given birth to a total of eight children, six of whom were still alive, they being the only ones listed below. Apart from Arthur, all of the other members of the household were described as having no occupation. It was exactly two years later that Sarah Ann Collett nee Simcox passed away at the age of 80, her death recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 100) during the second quarter of 1913. Thomas Collett outlived his wife by eight years and was residing at Glencoe in St Pauls Road in West Smethwick when he died on 21^st August 1921. His estate was valued at £9,366 4 Shillings 11d and probate was granted at Lichfield on 27^th October jointly to three of his children. They were named as Frederick Thomas Collett, a baker, Thomas Collett, a baker, and Mary Collett, a spinster.

	57O8		William Collett				Born in 1858 at West Bromwich
	57O9		Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1860 at West Bromwich
	57O10		Frederick Thomas Collett				Born in 1863 at West Bromwich
	57O11		Sarah Ann Collett				Born in 1865 at West Bromwich
	57O12		Thomas Collett				Born in 1867 at West Bromwich
	57O13		Mary Collett				Born in 1868 at West Bromwich
	57O14		Arthur Collett				Born in 1870 at West Bromwich


57N6	Richard Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1836, where he was also baptised on 16^th October 1836, the son of William and Ann Collett. Richard was four years old in the Abbots Morton census of 1841, but ten years after that he had finished his education, when Richard Collett from Abbots Morton was 14 and had already started working as a labourer when he was in lodgings on Spon Lane in West Bromwich with three of his siblings, his two older brothers both being labourers. No record of Richard has been found within the census of 1861 when he would have still been at bachelor at 25. However, it was two years later when Richard Collett married Emma Simcox from West Bromwich, where their wedding was recorded (Ref. 6b 13) during the third quarter of 1863. It was there also that their four known children were born and where the family was living in 1871 at Trinity Road, just one dwelling from the Cricketer’s Arms. The inn was still there in 2015, although Trinity Road and Lower Trinity Street (see below) has been replaced by a new road named Trinity Way. Emma Simcox was born on 16^th February 1841, the daughter of Edwin and Rebecca Simcox, and the sister of Sarah Ann Simcox (above) who married Richard’s brother Thomas Collett.

	The couple’s first two children were living with them in 1871 when Richard Collett from Abbots Morton was 34 years old and a labourer at an iron foundry. His wife Emma Collett was 29 and their two daughters were Ann Collett who was four and Sarah Collett who was one year old. Two further children were born into the family during the next four years, but then tragedy struck the family when the death of Richard Collett was recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 178) during the first three months of 1877, at the age of 42. That fact was confirmed in the 1881 Census when Emma Collett from West Bromwich was listed as a widow at the age of 39. At that time she was living with her four children at 13 Lower Trinity Street in West Bromwich. She was described as head of the household but with no stated occupation nor any reference to her late husband’s profession. Emma’s children were confirmed as Annie Collett who was 14, Sarah Collett who was 11, Mary Jane Collett who was eight, and John Collett who was five years old, all having been born at West Bromwich. To make ends meet Emma was letting a room in the house which was occupied by spinster Sarah Essen from Long Buckby in Northamptonshire who was sixty-four.

	Just least than two years later widow Emma Collett married John Jones, a widower from Bedfordshire, the event recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 108) during the first quarter of 1883. The marriage took place at the Church of St Martin in Birmingham on 23^rd February 1883, when Emma was 41 and John was 49. John was recorded at the son of Samuel Jones, while Emma’s father was curiously named as Edwin Hopkiss. By census in 1891 Emma Jones from West Bromwich was 49 when she and her husband John, aged 57 and a storekeeper at an iron works, were living at 83 George Street in Harborne near Smethwick within the Kings Norton area of Birmingham. Living there with the couple, but described as boarders, were three of Emma’s four children and they were Sarah Collett who was 21, Mary Jane Collett who was 18 and John Collett who was 15. All three of them were confirmed as having been born at West Bromwich and were working as bedstead painters. Also living at Harborne at that same time was Richard Greenland Collett (Ref. 9O7) and his family from the West Bromwich. See Part 9 – The Aldsworth Line.

	John Jones from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire was 68 and a labourer at an iron works in Smethwick on the day of the census in March 1901. His wife Emma Jones from West Bromwich was 59 and still living with the couple was Emma’s daughter Sarah Collett aged 32 and a warehouse worker. Also living with the three of them was Emma’s son John together with his wife Elizabeth. Over the next decade John Jones passed away, following which Emma Jones from West Bromwich was 70 when she was recorded within the Hitchin area of Hertfordshire on the day of the census in 1911.

	57O15	William Edwin Collett			Born in 1864 at West Bromwich
	57O16	Ann Collett			Born in 1866 at West Bromwich
	57O17	Sarah Collett			Born in 1869 at West Bromwich
	57O18	Mary Jane Collett			Born in 1872 at West Bromwich
	57O19	John Richard Collett			Born in 1875 at West Bromwich

	The following four paragraphs were inserted here in error, when it was originally believed they related to Richard Collett of Abbots Morton. Further research conducted in 2015, actually revealed that it relates to a completely different Richard Collett who was born at Hook Norton in Oxfordshire. It is now hoped that the family can be eventually relocated in its rightful place. But firstly, we now know that Richard was the fourth child of Samuel and Elizabeth Collett, the family living within the Shottery area to the west of the centre of Stratford-on-Avon in 1841. The census that year listed the family as Samuel Collett aged 35, his wife Elizabeth aged 30, Thomas Collett aged 13, Ann Collett aged 11, Henry Collett who was nine, Richard Collett who was six, and Mary Collett who was four years old. Mary was the only member of the household who was born in Warwickshire, her birth recorded at Stratford-on-Avon (Ref. xvi 8) during the first quarter of 1838.

	The census in 1851 confirmed that Samuel was a labourer from Hook Norton, where his first four children were also born, the last two children born when the family was residing in Stratford-on-Avon, after which the family moved to Pope Street in Birmingham, where they were living in 1851. By that time, the couple’s eldest child had left the family home, leaving labourer Samuel who was 46, Elizabeth from Barton in Oxfordshire was 44, Ann was 21, Henry was 19, Richard was 15, Mary was 13, and George Collett was three years of age.

	It would have been around 1856 that Richard was first married and during the following year their only child was born. Tragically, his first wife did not survive, while no record of Richard or his daughter Amy have been found within the census of 1861. Five years later, Richard Collett, a widower of 31, residing at Aston Manor and the son of Samuel Collett, married Mary Ann Sophia Bowler, a spinster of 23 from Duddeston and the daughter of Thomas Bowler, at Aston, Birmingham, on 9^th December 1866. In 1871 they were living within the St George area of Birmingham at No 1 House, 13 Court Tower Street. Richard Collett was 35 and a glass cutter from Hook Norton in Oxfordshire. His wife Mary Ann Collett was 32 and from the Aston district of Birmingham, while Richard’s daughter Amy Collett was 13 and a steel toy worker who had been born in Birmingham. Living with the family was Bridget Mae who was 22 and another steel toy worker from Birmingham who was described as the cousin of Richard Collett.

	By the time of the next census in 1881 Richard Collett from Hook Norton in Oxfordshire was working as a glass cutter at the age of 45. His place of residence was 18 New John Street in Birmingham and living there with him was his wife Mary Ann Sophia Collett, aged 40 and from Birmingham, and their daughter Amy Collett, aged 22, who was the unmarried mother of baby Lilian Collett who was four months old, although the child was recorded as the daughter-in-law of head of the household Richard Collett.

	Also living at the same address was schoolgirl Kate Mernaugh from Ireland who was 14, who was described as Richard’s niece, most likely through his wife. With only having the one child, Richard and Mary had, by 1881, adopted Arthur Johnson who had been born in Birmingham during the previous year. The family also had a lodger staying with them on that occasion and he was George Bliss who was 22 and from Birmingham who was a pearl piece maker. Ten years later the couple was still living in Birmingham St George, at Great King Street, from where Richard Collett, aged 55, was employed as a glass flint cutter, when his wife Mary S Collett was 54. Two others were living at the property with them, and they were adopted son Arthur Johnson who was 11, and granddaughter Minnie Collett who was two years old. Richard died during the next decade leaving Mary A Collett from Birmingham was still living there aged 65, when she was described as a wood farmery shopkeeper.

	*57O20*		*Amy Collett*				Born in 1858 at Birmingham
	57O20a		Arthur Johnson - adopted				Born in 1879 at Birmingham


57N7	Mary Maria Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1838, although unlike her brothers, no baptism record for her has been found to date. Over the following years it would appear that she and her siblings moved north to the Midlands. By 1861 she was recorded as living and working within the West Bromwich & Handsworth registration district of the West Midlands at the age of 22. Her married brothers William and John were also living in that same area on the occasion. No trace of her as Mary Collett has been found thereafter, so it can probably be assumed that she was married sometime during the 1860s.


57N9	Anthony Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1844. So far no obvious records for him have been found in 1841 and 1851. However, by 1861, Anthony Collett from Abbots Morton was 16 and an apprentice baker when he was living with and employed by his older brother Thomas Collett at 77 Spon Lane in West Bromwich. By 1871 he was still living in West Bromwich when he was 26, while just a few years later he married Eliza who was born at nearby Oldbury in 1849 with whom he had four children before 1881. According to that year’s census Anthony and Eliza were living at 127 Bilston Road in Wolverhampton and just like his older brothers, Anthony was also a master baker who employed one man to assist him. Eliza was 31 and their four children were Anthony who was five, Adelaide who was three, Emily who was two, and one-year-old Lizzie. The family was supported by 15 years old Prudence Westwood of Sedgley. The first three children had been born while the family was living at West Bromwich, while Lizzie had been born after the move to Wolverhampton.

	A further four more children were born into the family over the next ten years which by 1891 was living at 267 Bilston Road in Wolverhampton. The family listed in the census was Anthony Collett from Abbots Morton who was 46 and a baker, his Eliza Collett from Oldbury was 42, and with them were their sons Anthony Albert who was 15 and a baker, and Enoch who was four, plus their daughters Gertrude who was 13, Emily who was 12, Lizzie who was 11, Annie who was nine, Mary who was eight, and Fanny aged six years. Both Anthony Collett senior and junior were listed in error as Aubrey.

	By the turn of the century most members of the family were still living in Wolverhampton. Anthony of Abbots Morton was still working as a master baker aged 56, and with him was his wife Eliza aged 52 and their seven children. The full list, excluding Anthony who was married by then, was made up of Adelaide who was 23 with no occupation, Emily who was 22 and a dress mantle maker, Lizzie who was 21 and a school teacher, as was Mary who was 18, Fanny who was 16 and a tailoress and Ernest who was 14 and a clerk at an iron works. For some reason Annie who was 19 was another daughter who was not listed with an occupation, so she may have been helping her mother to support the family.

	57O21		Anthony Albert Collett				Born in 1875 at West Bromwich
	57O22		Adelaide Gertrude Collett				Born in 1877 at West Bromwich
	57O23		Emily Collett				Born in 1878 at West Bromwich
	57O24		Elizabeth (Lizzie) Collett				Born in 1879 at Wolverhampton
	57O25		Anne (Annie) Collett				Born in 1881 at Wolverhampton
	57O26		Mary Collett				Born in 1882 at Wolverhampton
	57O27		Fanny Collett				Born in 1884 at Wolverhampton
	57O28		Enoch Ernest Collett				Born in 1886 at Wolverhampton
	57O29		Alice Collett				Born in 1887 at Wolverhampton
	57O30		Edna Collett				Born in 1889 at Wolverhampton


57O1	Ann Collett was born at Spon Lane in Smethwick in 1857, the first of the six children of William Collett and Mary Downing, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 28) during the second quarter of the year. Ann was three and 13 years old in 1861 and 1871 when still living with her family in Smethwick. Eight years later the marriage of Ann Collett and John Robert Worthing was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 20) during the second quarter of 1879, the wedding conducted at Smethwick. John was born at Oldbury where he was baptised on 16^th July 1854, the son of John and Charlotte Worthing. It was at Wollaston that the couple initially settled and by 1881 they and their first child were living at Cobden Street where J Robert Working from Oldbury was 26 and a general clerk working in a solicitor’s office, Ann Worthing from West Smethwick was 24, and their daughter Lilian M Worthing was no yet one year old.

	Their time at Cobden Street was very short-lived and, by the time of the birth of the couple’s second child, they living at Sycamore Road in Smethwick, where they were still living in 1891. John was still a solicitor’s clerk, although he appears to have been known by his second forename, since the census that year, as ten years previously, was recorded as Robert Working aged 36. On that occasion his wife was described as Ann Worthing from Spon Lane in Smethwick who was 33, when their three children were listed as Lilian M Worthing who was ten, Robert C Worthing who was nine, and son Leslie Worthing who was three years old.

	One more child was added to the family, which was again residing in Smethwick at the time of the birth and later in 1901, when John Robert Worthing from Oldbury was 45 and a law clerk, and Ann Worthing was 43. All four of their children were still living with them, and were Lilian who was 20, Robert who was 19, Leslie who was 13 and Claude Worthing who was five years old. After a further ten years, it was only the youngest child Claude Arthur Worthing, aged 15, who was living at Smethwick with law clerk Robert, aged 55, and Ann who was 53, who was said to have no occupation. The couple continued to live in Smethwick where, just over thirty-three years later, the death of John R Worthing was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 6b 110) during the last quarter of 1944, at the age of 90.


57O2	Alice Collett was born at Smethwick in 1859, the second child of William and Mary Collett. In the next two Smethwick censuses Alice was one year and 11 years of age, but by 1881 the family had left Smethwick and was running The Baker’s Shop at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, when Alice Collett was 21. Just over four years later Alice Collett married Thomas Henry Field of Smethwick at Harborne in Staffordshire on 13^th September 1885. He was 27 and was a fitter and gas engineer and their first child was born at Smethwick in 1887, with a second born two years later. The Smethwick census of 1891 recorded the family of four as Thomas Field who was 32, Alice Field who was 31, Horace Field who was three and Elsie M Field who was one year old.

	It would appear that daughter Elsie did not survive, while a second son was added to the family in 1893 and it was at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick that the family was residing in 1901. Thomas H Field was 42, Alice Field was 41, Horace Field was 13 and Laurence Field was seven. Staying with the family at that time was Alice’s widowed elderly mother Mary Collett who was described as the mother-in-law of Alice’s husband. On the day of the census in 1901 Alice may well have been close to presenting Thomas with their last child, who was born shortly thereafter. By April 1911 Thomas Henry Field was 52, Alice Field was 51, Laurence Field was 17 and Beatrice Alice Field was nine years old.

	The census return completed at the start of that month, revealed that Alice and Thomas had been married for twenty-five years and that during those years Alice had given birth to five children, although only three were still alive. Both Thomas and his son Laurence were working together as railway wagon builders, when the family was still living at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick, a seven-roomed accommodation.


57O3	Thomas Henry Collett was born at Smethwick, perhaps at the end of 1863 or early in 1864, since his birth was recorded there during the first three months of the latter. He and his family were still living in Smethwick in 1871, aged seven years, after which, around 1880, the family moved to Harborne where they were living at 178 Oldbury Road in 1881. As the eldest son of baker William Collett, he did not follow in his father’s footsteps like his younger brothers, but instead Thomas Collett became a schoolteacher. The 1881 Census listed his occupation as that of a pupil teacher at the relatively young age of just 17. It was therefore very likely that his work eventually took him away from the West Midlands, since it was at Reading (Ref. 2c 312), during the first three months of 1890, that Thomas Henry Collett married Beatrice Maria Trask, from Woolwich in London. Later that same year their first child was born at Reading. By the time of the census in the following year, Thomas H Collett, aged 27 and from Smethwick, was an assistant teacher at an elementary school, living at Erleigh Road in Reading, near to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. His wife Beatrice M Collett was also 27, when the first of their four known children was listed with them, with son Thomas A Collett being only a few months old.

	Before the end of that decade Beatrice presented Thomas with three more children, the first of which was also born at Reading like their first child, but around the middle of the 1890s the family moved to Lewisham, where their last two children were born. However, just one year later the family was recorded in the census of 1901 as living within the City of London, in the parish of St Paul Deptford, within the London Borough of Lewisham. Thomas H Collett from Smethwick was 37, as was his wife Beatrice M Collett who was born at Woolwich in London, and by that time Thomas was an Assistant Elementary Teacher at the London School of Business. Living with the couple were their sons Thomas A Collett who was ten and Frank A Collett who was eight, both of whom had been born at Reading, their daughter Dorothy M Collett who was two and baby Robert C Collett who was one year old and had been born at Lewisham las had his sister Dorothy.

	Within the next ten years Thomas’ eldest son left the family home, so by 1911 the family comprised Thomas Henry Collett who was 47 and an assistant teacher with the London County Council, his wife Beatrice Maria Collett was also 47, and their three youngest children Frank Ambrose Collett who was 18, Dorothy Mary Collett who was 12, and Robert Cecil Collett who was 11 years old. At that time the family was living in Brockley with the parish of St Paul Deptford in the South London Borough of Lewisham. Thomas’ place of birth was again confirmed as Smethwick, while the three children were confirmed as having been born at Reading and Lewisham. The death of Thomas H Collett was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 5c 67) during the first quarter of 1958, when he was 94 years old.

	57P1		Thomas Arthur Collett				Born in 1890 at Reading
	57P2		Frank Ambrose Collett				Born in 1893 at Reading
	57P3		Dorothy Mary Collett				Born in 1898 at Lewisham
	57P4		Robert Cecil Collett				Born in 1899 at Lewisham


57O4	John Collett was born at Smethwick either very near the end of 1865 or early in 1886, since his birth was recorded at Smethwick (Ref. 6c 119) during the first three months of 1866. He was five years old in 1871 and was 15 in 1881, by which time the family had moved from Smethwick to Harborne where they were living at the Baker’s Shop at 178 Oldbury Road. John’s occupation at that time was that of a glass cutter. Towards the end of that decade, the marriage of John Collett and Nellie Ward was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 230) during the third quarter of 1889. Their marriage was blessed with the birth of their first child by the time of the census in 1891, when the family was recorded at Oldbury Road in Smethwick where John Collett aged 25 and from Smethwick was a baker, his wife Nellie Collett from Smethwick as 22, and their daughter Minnie, also from Smethwick, was under one year old.

	Over the next ten years three more children were added to the family, so in the census for 1901 the Smethwick family comprised John Collett, aged 35, who was working as a general labourer, his wife Nellie who was 32, Minnie Collett who was 10, Mabel E Collett who was seven, Ida N Collett who was two, and Florrie M Collett who was not yet one year old. Every member of the household was confirmed as having been born at Smethwick. Just two further children were born into the family during the following years and, by 1911 the family still living in Smethwick was recorded as John Collett who was 45 and a baker, Nellie Collett who was 42, Minnie Collett aged 20, Mabel Collett aged 17, Nellie Collett aged 12, Florrie Collett who was 10, Harry Collett who was four, and Barbara Collett who was one year old.

	The birth of all of the couple’s six children was recorded at Kings Norton, Minnie’s during the third quarter of 1890 (Ref. 6c 332, and Mabel’s during the second quarter of 1893 Ref. 6c 273), whose marriage to John H Gandy was also recorded there during the second quarter of 1920 (Ref. 6d 82). The birth of Ida was recorded there (Ref. 6c 185) during the first three months of 1899, as was the birth of Florence (Ref. 6c 276) during the third quarter of 1900, and the birth of Barbara Kathleen G Collett during the first three months of 1910 (Ref. 6c 25).

	57P5		Minnie Collett				Born in 1890 at Smethwick
	57P6		Mabel Eileen Collett				Born in 1893 at Smethwick
	57P7		Ida Nellie Collett				Born in 1899 at Smethwick
	57P8		Florence Mary Collett				Born in 1900 at Smethwick
	57P9		Harry Eric Collett				Born in 1906 at Smethwick
	57P10		Barbara Kathleen G Collett				Born in 1910 at Smethwick


57O5	Arthur Collett was born at Smethwick in 1868, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6c 259) during the second quarter of that year. He was three years old and 13 years of age in the two census returns for 1871 and 1881. For the latter, he was living with his family at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, which was also the village’s Baker Shop. On leaving school Arthur commenced a career in baking and by 1891 he was a baker’s assistant aged 23, who was living and working at the Spon Lane, West Bromwich, home of his uncle Thomas Collett (Ref. 57N5), a baker. Five years after that census day, the marriage of Arthur Collett and Sarah Young was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 324) during the final three months of 1896. Sarah from Handsworth gave birth to three children who were born at Smethwick, two of whom were recorded with the couple in 1901, when Arthur Collett was 33 and described as a baker and a corn and flour dealer. His wife Sarah Collett was 32, while their daughters were Alice G Collett who was two and Edith M Collett who was only a few weeks old. In addition to the family’s general domestic servant, 17-year-old Elizabeth Cull, also recorded at the dwelling was Arthur’s younger brother Frank Collett (below), a baker ‘working with his brother’.

	It was during the summer months in the following year that Sarah gave birth to the last child, who was only nine years of age when the death of Sarah Collett was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 48). Sarah died at Smethwick when she was 42 years old just days before the census in 1901. On that day Arthur Collett was a widower aged 43 and a baker and flour dealer, his daughters were Alice Gwendoline who was 12 and Edith Mary who was 10, and his son Arthur Frederick who was eight. Undertaking domestic duties was Dorothy Long who was only 15. Every member of the household had been born at Smethwick. Thirty-two years later, when Arthur was 75, he died at Smethwick, with his death recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 38) during the third quarter of 1943.

	57P11		Alice Gwendoline Collett				Born in 1898 at Smethwick
	57P12		Edith Mary Collett				Born in 1901 at Smethwick
	57P13		Arthur Frederick Collett				Born in 1902 at Smethwick


57O6	Frank Collett was born at Smethwick in 1871, his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 204) during the fourth quarter of the year. Sometime between 1871 and 1881 Frank and his family left Smethwick and moved the short distance to 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne. According to the Harborne census in 1881, Frank was nine years old and from Smethwick. By 1891 Frank Collett aged 19 years was the only member of his family still living with his widowed mother Mary at Oldbury Road, but in Smethwick, where both mother and son were working as bakers. Ten years later he was a baker working for his older brother Arthur (above), following the death of their father, the baker William Collett. That was confirmed in the census of 1901 which listed Frank Collett from Smethwick as being aged 29 and staying at the Smethwick home of Arthur and Sarah Collett and their young family. Although not positively identified within the next census of 1911, it was six years after that when the marriage of Frank Collett and Jane H Hayward was recorded at Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 113) during the last quarter of 1917.


57O7	Mary Ann Collett was born at West Bromwich, her birth recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 29) during the third quarter of 1852, although she may have been born over a year earlier when her parents John Collett from Abbots Morton and Sarah Smith from Smethwick were not married on the census day in 1851, in fact they married during the last three months of that year. The conflict was highlighted in the subsequent census returns when Mary Ann was 11 years old in 1861 and 21 in 1871, on both occasions she and her parents were recorded at George Street in Harborne. It was within six months of the latter, when the marriage of Mary Ann R Collett and Thomas Geddes was recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 125) during the third quarter of 1871. The wedding ceremony was conducted at Redditch on 21^st August 1871, when the bride was recorded in the parish register as Mary Ann Roberts Collett, the daughter of John Roberts Collett, and the groom Thomas Geddes being the son of William Geddes. Six children were born to the couple during the first ten years of their life together.

	The couple’s first two children were born while they were still living in West Bromwich, but were living at Northfield near Selly Oak for the birth of their remaining children. In 1881 the family was recorded as living at the High street in Northfield when Thomas Geddes was 30 and a metal worker, Mary Ann Geddes was 31, William Geddes was nine, Mary Ann Geddes was seven, Elizabeth Geddes was five, Sarah Geddes was three, John Thomas Geddes was two and Ada Geddes was under one year old.

	Four more children were added to the family during the following decade and by 1891, the family at Northfield comprised Thomas Geddes 40, Mary Ann 41, Elizabeth 15, Sarah 13, John Thomas 12, Ada 10, Isabella Geddes who was eight, Harriet Geddes who was five, Bertie Geddes who was three and Lilian Geddes who was two. Their eldest child William had already left home by then, possibly because of the shortage of space at home, and was living nearby with his Collett grandparents at Northfield, where he was 18 in 1891 and 29 in 1901, by which time he was working for the General Post Office as a letter carrier. According to the next census in 1911, the family was still living at Northfield, where Thomas was 60 and an out-of-work brass carter, Mary Ann was 61, Ada was 32, John Thomas was 30 and a tube drawer at a local steel tube works, and Lily was 22.


57O9	Elizabeth Collett was born at West Bromwich towards the end of 1860, the eldest daughter of Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Simcox and the eldest of their children to survive, after her older brother suffered a premature death. She was very much a new-born baby when she was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich on 14^th December 1860, with her birth not recorded until early in 1861 (Ref. 6b 137). She was five months old in the census of 1861 when she was living with her family at 77 Spon Lane in West Bromwich. In the next census of 1871 Elizabeth was 10 years old, by which time her older brother William was no longer alive, and she was 20 when she was still living with her family at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich in 1881. It was on 18^th November 1888 that Elizabeth Collett, aged 28, and John Stevens, aged 29, were married at St John’s Church in West Bromwich. The bride was confirmed as the daughter of Thomas Collett of 213 Spon Lane, with John’s father named as Thomas Stevens. They initially lived at Walsall, where their first child was born, although the family was living Ladywood district of Birmingham by the time of the next census in 1891. Elizabeth Stevens from West Bromwich was 30, her husband John Stevens was 31, and their daughter Marion Stevens was one year old. It is very likely Elizabeth was pregnant with the couple’s second child on the day of the census since he was born later that same year at Ladywood.

	Three further children were born to Elizabeth and John over the following years, and in March 1901 the family was living in the Smethwick area of Handsworth. According to that month’s census John Stevens was 41 and an iron puddler from Bilston, his wife Elizabeth from West Bromwich was 40, and living with them were just three of their four children, while Elizabeth was already expecting the couple’s fifth and final child. Perhaps because of the impending arrival of their last baby, Elizabeth’s eldest child, her daughter Marion Stevens aged 11 years, was staying nearby with the child’s grandparents Thomas and Sarah Collett at 168 Saint Pauls Road in Smethwick.

	The three children living with Elizabeth and John were recorded as Thomas Stevens who was 10 and born at Ladywood, Gertrude Stevens who was eight and born at Smethwick, and John Stevens who was six years old and also born after the family had settled in Smethwick. Living just a few dwellings along Saint Pauls Road in Smethwick from where the couple’s eldest daughter was staying, at number 174, were the parents of John Stevens. They were William Stevens, aged 75 from Norwich who was a retired licenced victualler, and his wife Mary A Stevens who was 74 and from Oldbury, near Smethwick.

	Sadly, for Elizabeth and her family, it would appear that John Stevens died while only in his forties. According to the Smethwick census in April 1911, Elizabeth Stevens from West Bromwich was a widow at 51, and living with her by then were just her four youngest children. Marion Stevens would have been around 21 and was very probably married by then. The other four children were listed as Thomas Stevens who was 19, Gertrude Stevens who was 18, John Stevens who was 16, and Ruth Stevens who was nine years old.


57O10	Frederick Thomas Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1863, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6b 142) during the second quarter of the year. He was a few weeks old when Frederick Thomas Collett, the eldest surviving son of Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Simcox was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich on 26^th July 1863. He was seven years old in the census of 1871 and was 17 in 1881, while living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich with his family. On leaving school, Frederick followed his father into the family bakery business. By 1891 Frederick was 27 and a baker’s assistant, still living with and working with his father at Spon Lane. Nearly four years later, the marriage of Frederick Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes was recorded at Solihull (Ref. 6d 343) during the first three months of 1895. The marriage produced the eight children listed below and, although in subsequent census returns they were all said to have been born in West Bromwich, the majority of them were baptised at Harborne where they may have also been born. Ada was born at Birmingham in 1873 and was the daughter of master pork butcher Joseph Wickes of Lutterworth and his wife Ann from Leicester. At the time of the 1881 Census, the Wickes family was living at 13 Digbeth in Birmingham, where it is possible that Ada was born.

	By 1901 Frederick had progressed in his profession to become a master baker, as his father had been twenty years earlier. He was still living within the parish of West Bromwich at that time in his life and, on that occasion, he had living there with him his wife and two of their first three children. The census that year confirmed Frederick T Collett was 37 and that he had been born in West Bromwich, where his two children Bernard, who was four years old, and Sydney, who was not yet one year old, had also been born. His wife Ada Collett was 27 and the census return also confirmed that she had been born in Birmingham. It would appear that their eldest son Ronald, who was five, was staying with Ada’s parents in Kings Norton, just south of Birmingham at that time, perhaps to allow Ada to spend more time with the latest addition to her family. During the next decade a further five children were added to the family, although one of them died just after being born, and the last child was born within the six months following completion of the census return in 1911.

	By that time Frederick Thomas Collett from West Bromwich was 47 and was simply described as a baker. His wife Ada Collett from Birmingham was 37, and the census return that year recorded that she and Frederick had been married for sixteen years. Their six children were listed as, Ronald Frederick Collett aged 15, Bernard Collett aged 14, Sydney Thomas Collett aged 10, Phyllis Collett who was eight, Kathleen Collett who was seven, and Norman Wickes Collett who was two years old, and all of them born at West Bromwich. It is not known if any further children were born into the family during the following years. It is interesting that Frederick and his family were still living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich in April 1911, where Frederick had been living with his parents thirty years earlier. It is therefore possible that, upon his father’s retirement from being a baker, Frederick took over the responsibility of continuing to manage the family bakery business which was obviously based at Spon Lane. Six years later Frederick and Ada Collett were living at 177 Heathfield Road in the Handsworth area of West Bromwich, when they received the tragic news of the death of their eldest son Ronald who was killed at Ypres during September 1917.

	Four years earlier Frederick’s mother passed away at the age of 80, while his father was 88 when he died at St Pauls Road in West Smethwick in 1921. The probate process was finalised at Lichfield on 27^th October when Frederick Thomas Collett, a baker, was named as one of the three executors of his father’s estate of over £9,000, together with his brother Thomas Collett and sister Mary Collett (both below). Eleven years later, Frederick Thomas Collett was the main beneficiary under the terms of his youngest brother Arthur Collett’s (below) Will which was proved in 1932. By the time Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne Frederick Thomas Collett had died, while that year his widow was living at 65 College Road in New Oscott to the south of Sutton Coldfield. And it was there that Ada Collett nee Wickes died on 10^th June 1952, following which her Will was proved five months later at Birmingham on 11^th November 1952. The executors to her Will were her sons Bernard Collett and Norman Wickes Collett, when her estate was valued at £7,318 12 Shillings 4d.

	57P14		Ronald Frederick Collett				Born in 1895 at Harborne
	57P15		Bernard Collett				Born in 1897 at Harborne
	57P16		Sydney Thomas Collett				Born in 1900 at Harborne
	57P17		Phyllis Collett				Born in 1902 at Harborne
	57P18		Kathleen Collett				Born in 1904 at Harborne
	57P19		Wilfred Collett				Born in 1906 at West Bromwich
	57P20		Norman Wickes Collett				Born in 1908 at West Bromwich
	57P21		Dorothy M Collett				Born in 1911 at West Bromwich


57O11	Sarah Ann Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1865 and it would appear that she never married during her life. When she was 25, she was still living with her family at Spon Lane in West Bromwich, from where she was working as a domestic housemaid. Certainly, by April 1901, Sarah Ann was 35 when she was still living with her widowed mother Sarah Ann Collett at Smethwick, together with other of her unmarried siblings. Ten years later, and following the death of her mother, spinster Sarah Ann Collett of West Bromwich, at the age of 46, was living with her sister Mary (below) and brother Arthur (below) at Kings Norton.


57O12	Thomas Collett was born in 1867 at West Bromwich, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 207) during the first three months of that year. He was another son of Thomas and Sarah Ann Collett and was four years old in 1871, and was 14 and still attending school in 1881, when he was living at the family home at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich. Ten years later he was 24 and again still living at Spon Lane with his family, when he was another son who was a baker’s assistant working in the family business. By March 1901 he was still a bachelor at the age of 34, while still living with his parents at 168 Saint Pauls Road in the Smethwick area of Handsworth. His place of birth was again confirmed as West Bromwich, and his occupation at that time was that of a baker, like his older brother Frederick Thomas Collett (above) and his father who had retired from the business. Just over four years later, Thomas Collett married Emma Wilkins at Bridgnorth in Shropshire on 26^th July 1905, when Thomas was 38 and the son of Thomas Collett, while Emma was 40 and the daughter of Frederick Wilkins. Their special day was also recorded at Bridgnorth register office (Ref. 6a 149).

	That situation was confirmed by the census in 1911, which indicated that the couple had been married for five years. At that, time the childless couple was living on the outskirts of Redditch, following Thomas’ retirement from the bakery business. Thomas Collett from West Bromwich was 45 and a retired baker living at Rose Cottage in Mappleborough Green, to the north of Studley, with his wife Emma Collett from Birmingham who was 46. Ten years later Thomas Collett, a baker, was named as one of the three executors of his father estate at Lichfield in October 1921. Twenty-two years later, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 105) during the last quarter of 1943, when he was said to be 75 years old.


57O13	Mary Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1868 and was two years of age in 1871 and 12 years old in 1881 when living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich with her family. By 1891 she was 22 and working in the family business with her father, three of her brothers and a cousin, as a baker’s assistant. By 1901 she was 32 and was living with her widowed mother and other unmarried siblings. Following the death of her mother, Mary continued to live with her sister Sarah Ann (above) and brother Arthur (below) and by 1911 the three of them were living in Kings Norton where Mary was recorded as being 42 and from West Bromwich. Mary never married and was described as the spinster Mary Collett when she was named as one of the three executors of her father estate following his death in 1921.


57O14	Arthur Collett was born at West Bromwich, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 42) during the third quarter of 1870, the last child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Simcox. He was around six months old in 1871 and was ten years of age in 1881. At that time, he was living with his master baker father and his family and later took up the same occupation, he and two brothers, a sister and a cousin, all working with her father at Spon Lan in West Bromwich in 1891. According to the census of 1901 Arthur was aged 30 and of West Bromwich and was living in Smethwick where he was described as a journeyman baker. By April 1911, he was still a bachelor at the age of 40, when he was living at 168 St Paul Road in Smethwick, the home of his parents where his two older unmarried sisters Sarah Ann Collett and Mary Collett (above) were also living. The place of birth for all three was confirmed as West Bromwich, while Arthur’s occupation was that of a baker. Twenty-one years later, Arthur Collett died in Birmingham on 9^th July 1932, where his Will was proved on 26^th August 1932, the main beneficiary being his older brother Frederick Thomas Collett (above), most likely confirming that he never married or had any children of his own.


57O15	William Edwin Collett was born in 1864 at West Bromwich, around a year after his parents Richard Collett and Emma Simcox. His birth was registered at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 645) during the third quarter of the year. William Edwin Collett was then baptised at Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich on 25^th September 1864 and confirmed as the son of Richard and Emma Collett. He would have been six years old in the census if 1871, but was not listed with his family. It is possible, but not proved, that William was just over one year old when he died and was buried at Holy Trinity Church on 3^rd December 1865. What is curious, is that the child’s name was recorded as William Edward Collett, as was his death recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 427).


57O16	Ann Collett was born in 1866 at West Bromwich, where her birth was registered (Ref. 6b 649) during third quarter of the year, the eldest daughter of Richard Collett and Emma Simcox. She was four years of age in 1871 when living with her family in West Bromwich where, as 14-year-old Annie Collett, she was again living in 1881, but at 13 Lower Trinity Street.


57O17	Sarah Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1869, the third child of Richard Collett from Abbots Morton and his wife Emma of West Bromwich. Her birth was registered at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 684) during the third quarter of that year. She was just one year old in the census of 1871 when living at Trinity Road in West Bromwich and was eleven years of age by April 1881 when she was living with her widowed mother Emma at 13 Lower Trinity Street in West Bromwich. When her mother married John Jones, the family moved to Harborne where Sarah and her two younger siblings were living in 1891. That year Sarah Collett from West Bromwich was 21 and a bedstead painter, as were her two siblings, when they were described as boarders at 83 George Street. Ten years later Sarah Collett was 32 and working as warehouse worker in nearby Smethwick, but her absence from the census in 1911 may indicate that she was married by then.

	In 1891, Sarah Collett from West Bromwich was 21 and employed as a bedstead painter when she was a boarder staying at George Street in Smethwick. That was the home of John Jones aged 57 and from Leyton Bromyard in Buckinghamshire who was a stock-taker at a local ironworks. His wife was Emma Jones from West Bromwich who was 49, and their daughter Rosanna Jones who was 20 and another bedstead painter. Also boarding with the Jones family that census day were two of Sarah’s younger siblings, Mary Jane Collett aged 18 and John Collett who was 15, both of them also bedstead painters. After a further ten years, Sarah Collett from West Bromwich was 32 and working as a warehouse woman, when she was still residing with John and Emma Jones at George Street in Smethwick. John Jones aged 68 and from Leyton Bromyard in Buckinghamshire was a labourer at a local ironworks and the stepfather of Sarah Collett. His wife was Emma Jones from West Bromwich who was 59, while completing the household was John Collett who was 25 and a steam train maker from West Bromwich, who was described as the couple’s stepson.


57O18	Mary Jane Collett was born at Trinity Road in West Bromwich possibly at the end of 1872, or early in the following year, her birth registered at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 804) during the first two months of 1873. It was at Holy Trinity Church that she was baptised on 23^rd February 1872, another daughter of Richard and Emma Collett. She was eight years old in the West Bromwich census of 1881 when she was living at 13 Lower Trinity Street. By that time, her father had already died so she was listed with her mother, the widow Emma Collett, and her three siblings. In the following years her mother married John Jones who took the family to live in Harborne where, in 1891, they were living at 83 George Street when Mary Jane Collett was 18 and a bedstead painter. It was back in West Bromwich that the marriage of Mary Jane Collett and Edward Jackson was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 1113) during the third quarter of 1892.

	By the time of the census in 1901, Edward and Mary had given birth to a son and two daughters. On that day the family was residing at Florence Road in West Bromwich, where Edward was 29 and a journey man butcher, Mary Jane was 28, Percy Jackson was eight years old, Florence May Jackson was six, and Elsie Dorothy Jackson was two years old. Every member of the household had been born at West Bromwich. The next child added to the family was also born at West Bromwich, before Edward’s work resulted in the family moving south to Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where the couple’s last child was born.

	It was in Hitchin that the enlarged family was living in 1911, when Edward Jackson was 39 and again working as a journeyman butcher. His wife Mary Jane Jackson was 38, and staying with the family was Mary’s widowed mother Emma Jones who was 70 years old. The couple’s five children were Percy Jackson a printer aged 18, Florence Jackson who was 16 and a book folder, Elsie Jackson was 12 and still attending school, as was Frank Edward Jackson who was nine, and Robert Jackson who was three years old and born at Hitchin.


57O19	John Richard Collett was born at West Bromwich either at the end of 1875 or very early in 1876, the youngest of the five known children of Richard Collett and Emma Simcox, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6b 862) during the first three months of the latter. Shortly after he was born his father died so by April 1881 at the age of five years John Collett was living with his widowed mother and his three older sisters at 13 Lower Trinity Street in West Bromwich. Over the following years John’s mother re-married and her new husband John Jones took the family to live in Harborne. By the time John Collett from West Bromwich was 15 when he was a boarder at 83 George Street in Harborne, the home of John and Emma Jones, from where he was employed as a bedstead painter working with his two older sisters Sarah and Mary Jane.

	In the March census of 1901, unmarried John Collett was 25, a steam engine maker, and the stepson of John Jones, and the son of Emma Jones, formerly Collett nee Simcox, when he and his older sister Sarah (above) were living at Smethwick. Just under six years later, the marriage of John Richard Collett and Elizabeth Gill was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 114) during the first three months of 1907. Once married, the couple settled in West Bromwich where they were living in 1911, when John R Collett from West Bromwich was 35 and his occupation was that of a whitesmith and steam gauge maker. His wife Elizabeth Collett was 34 and from Netherton near Evesham, and their two sons were Joseph R Collett who was three, and Norman J Collett who was three months old, both of them born when the family was living in West Bromwich. The death of John R Collett was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 49) during the third quarter of 1936 at 60 years of age.

	57P22	Joseph Richard Collett		Born in 1908 at West Bromwich
	57P23	Norman John T Collett		Born in 1911 at West Bromwich


57O20	*Amy Collett* was born at Birmingham in 1858, the only child of Richard and Mary Ann Sophia Collett. Although no record of her or her parents has been positively identified within the census of 1861, in the Birmingham St George census of 1871 Amy Collett was 13. She was still living with her parents ten years later at 18 New John Street in Birmingham, from where 22-year-old Amy was employed as a fancy nail maker. Also listed as living with the family, was four-month-old Lillian Collett of Birmingham, who was described in error as ‘daughter-in-law’ to head of household Richard Collett, even though the child was more than likely the base-born daughter of unmarried Amy Collett. It is possible that Amy was married sometime during the following years, and that may have resulted in her daughter also taking up the surname of her husband, since neither Amy or Lillian have been discovered in any subsequent census with the Collett name.

	57O19/1		Lillian Collett				Born during December 1880


57O21	Anthony Albert Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1876, the eldest child of baker Anthony and his wife Eliza. His birth was recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 215) during the first three months of the year and he was baptised there over a year later on 17^th June 1877 at the Church of Holy Trinity. When he was around three years of age his family left West Bromwich and moved to Wolverhampton, where they were living in 1881 at 127 Bilston Road, when Anthony was five years old. Ten years later Anthony had left school and at the age of 15 was a baker working with his father when the family was residing at 267 Bilston Road in Wolverhampton. On that occasion both Anthony and his father were incorrectly recorded in the census return as Aubrey Collett. It was nine years after that when he married Amy Louisa Harriman from Wolverhampton at Wolverhampton (Ref. 6b 977) during the third quarter of 1900. Amy Collett was 27 in 1901 when she was living with baker Anthony Collett, who was 25, at 29 Placwell Road in Wolverhampton.

	Amy presented Anthony with two children during the first decade of the new century and by April 1911 the family of four was recorded at 14 Holloway Street in Wolverhampton. Anthony Albert Collett from West Bromwich was 35 and a baker who had been married to Amy Louisa Collett from Wolverhampton for ten years, during which time they had given birth to just the two children living with them. They were Elsie Collett who was eight and Albert Collett who was six years old. Anthony Albert Collett was 57 when he died in 1933, his death recorded at Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 515) during the last three months of that year. The birth of both of their children was recorded at Wolverhampton register office, Elsie (Ref. 6b 84) during the second quarter of 1902 and Albert (Ref. 6b 302) during the first quarter of 1905.

	57P24		Elsie Collett				Born in 1902 at Wolverhampton
	57P25		Albert Collett				Born in 1904 at Wolverhampton


57P1	Thomas Arthur Collett was born at Erleigh Road in Reading, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2c 337) during the third quarter of 1890, the first of the four known children of Thomas Henry Collett and his wife Beatrice Maria Trask. The census conducted during the following year listed the family of three residing at Erleigh Road when Thomas A Collett was still under one year old. Around the middle of the 1890s the family moved to Lewisham, where Thomas’ two youngest sibling were born and where the family was living in 1901 when Thomas was ten years old. It was also at St Paul Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham, that his family was recorded in 1911. On completing his education during that same decade, Thomas entered the world of electrical engineering which eventually took him to working in the Rugby area of Warwickshire where, Thomas Arthur Collett from Reading was 20, unmarried, an electrical machine tester and a boarder at the Rugby home of Frederick and Louie Hopkins. He later returned to Reading where the marriage of Thomas A Collett and Eleanor F Wright was recorded (Ref. 2c 53) during the third quarter of 1920. Eleanor was born at Henham in Essex, the daughter of Robert and Margaret Wright. It was back in London where Eleanor Frances Collett died on 1^st March 1930 and, following a period of four months, her Will was proved on 7^th July 1930, with the sole beneficiary being Mary Collett. It was eight years after being widowed that Thomas Arthur Collett died at Reading on 9^th February 1938, his Will proved there on 22^nd March 1938, which named the two main beneficiaries as John Roy Hunt and Rosina Elizabeth Wells.

	While three children from a Collett/Wright marriage have been located at Bishops Stortford between 1921 and 1925, it is rather odd that those three Collett offspring were not beneficiaries under the terms of the above Wills of Thomas and Eleanor. Just for interest, the three children were: (a) Edna M Collett born 1921, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 61; (b) Eleanor J Collett, born 1923, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 73; Gordon A Collett, born 1925, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 44.


57P2	Frank Ambrose Collett was born at Reading on 18^th March 1893, the second son of Thomas and Beatrice Collett, where his birth was later recorded (Ref. 2c 262) during the second quarter of that year. His father’s work as a school teacher eventually took the family to St Paul Deptford in London where they were living within the London Borough of Lewisham in 1901, when Frank A Collett from Reading was eight years old and attending school. Ten years later, when Frank Ambrose Collett was 18, he and his family were still residing within the Lewisham St Paul Deptford area of South London. At that time in his life, Frank was an engraver’s apprentice and general engraver. The only fact currently known about Frank Ambrose Collett is that he was 79 when died when his death was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 5a 171) during the third quarter of 1972.


57P3	Dorothy Mary Collett was born in 1898, the third of the four children of Thomas and Beatrice Collett, her birth recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 220) during the second quarter of the year. She was two years of age in 1901, when the family was recorded in the City of London parish of St Paul Deptford. Dorothy Mary Collett from Lewisham was 12 and attending school in Brockley where she and her family were living in 1911, within the London Borough of Lewisham, in the parish of St Paul Deptford. That area of South London, is not far from Greenwich, and it was at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 89) that the marriage of Dorothy M Collett and Arthur W Rush was recorded during the first three months of 1924. Their daughter Gillian M Rush was born two years later, her birth also recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 114) during the second quarter of 1926, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.


57P4	Robert Cecil Collett was born at Lewisham near to the end of 1899, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 28) during the last three months of the year. His father was school teacher Thomas Henry Collett from Smethwick and his mother was Beatrice Maria Trask from Woolwich. In 1901 Robert C Collett was one year old when he was living with his family living in the St Paul Deptford parish in the London Borough of Lewisham, where the family was still living in 1911, when Robert Cecil Collett was 11 years of age. It was previously thought that he may have been Robert William Cecil Collett who later became a doctor and was sometime based at Loddon Hall Road in Twyford near Reading, where his two older siblings were born. However, this was disproved in 2020 when the following details were discovered. Two Roberts have been found, the first of them being Robert W C Collett whose birth was recorded at the Gloucestershire Stroud register office (Ref. 6a 120) during the second quarter of 1931, whose mother’s maiden-name was Swinford and whose older sister was Doreen L Collett born Q4 in 1928. The later marriage of Robert W C Collett and Margaret A Gardner was also recorded at Stroud (Ref. 7b 106) during the second quarter of 1949. The birth of the second Robert W C Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 143) during the last three months of 1940, when his mother’s maiden-name was Jones. Thereafter, two marriages were recorded in quick succession, the first for Robert W C Collett and Jennifer A Plummer at Bexley in Kent (Ref. 5a 185) during the second quarter of 1965, the second for Robert W C Collett and Freda M Pearson at the London Camberwell register office (Ref. 5a 1) during the second quarter of 1966. Only one other related record has been unearthed and that was the marriage of Robert W C Collett and Janet C Condliffe which was recorded at Weston-Super-Mare register office during the summer of 1993.


57P9	Harry Eric Collett was born at Smethwick on 28^th June 1906 who, as Harry Collett, was four years old in the Smethwick census of 1911. His birth, like those of his siblings, was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 286). It was as Harry Eric Collett that he was baptised at Smethwick on 19^th July 1906 the son of John and Nellie Collett. He later married Rose E Denton, their wedding recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 136) during the last three months of 1928. Harry Eric Collett was 85 when he died, his death recorded at Sandwell in the west Midlands (Ref. 33 1067) during February 1992.


57P11	Alice Gwendoline Collett was born at Smethwick in 1898 with her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 304) during the third quarter of the year, the eldest of the three children of Arthur Collett and Sarah Young.


57P12	Edith Mary Collett was born at Smethwick in 1901, the second daughter of Arthur and Sarah Collett whose birth was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 128) during the first three months of that year.


57P13	Arthur Frederick Collett was born at Smethwick in 1902 and was the last child born to Arthur Collett and Sarah Young, his birth also recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 350) during the third quarter of the year. He was around thirty-one years old when the marriage of Arthur F Collett and Nellie C Povey was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 96) during the third quarter of 1933. Thirty months into their marriage, Nellie present Arthur with a son, their only known child, when the birth of John Collett was also recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 45) during the first three months of 1936, the mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Povey.

	57Q1		John Collett				Born in 1936 at West Bromwich


57P14	Ronald Frederick Collett was born either towards the of 1895, his parents having married near the start of that year, or early in 1896. Furthermore, he may have been born at West Bromwich, where his birth was recorded, or at Harborne where he was baptised. He was the eldest child of Frederick Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes, with his birth recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 195) during the first two months of 1896 and his baptism at Harborne conducted on 1^st March 1896. At the time of the West Bromwich census of 1901, Ronald’s mother had just given birth to her third child, and that may have been the reason why, five-year-old Ronald was staying with his grandparents at Harborne. Ten years later the whole family, comprising Ronald’s parents and his five siblings were recorded as still living within the West Bromwich registration district when Ronald was 15 and a baker’s son working at home. With the outbreak of war three years later, eighteen years old Ronald joined the 2^nd/6^th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment as Private Collett 24228 and during 1917 he was fighting on the frontline in the Battle of Polygon Wood which formed part of the Third Battle of Ypres.

	Sadly, he was killed in action on 29^th September 1917 and was buried at Bridge House Cemetery near Ieper in Belgium. The cemetery contains just forty-five graves of which four are unidentified and was named after a farmhouse and was established by 59^th North Midland Division at the end of September 1917. At the time of his death, at the age of 22, he was still a bachelor, and by which time his parents as his next-of-kin were living in the Handsworth area between West Bromwich and Birmingham.


57P15	Bernard Collett was born in 1897 and possibly at Harborne or West Bromwich where his birth recorded (Ref. 6b 181) during the first quarter of that year, the eldest surviving son of Frederick Thomas and Ada Collett. His siblings were baptised at Harborne, to the south of West Bromwich, but no such baptism record has been found for Bernard. He was four years old and 14 years of age in the two West Bromwich census returns in 1901 and 1911, when he was living at 213 Spon Lane with his family and recorded as having been born at West Bromwich. Around the time of the First World War his parents left West Bromwich, and during the war they were recorded as residing at 177 Heathfield Road in Handsworth. His father died prior to 1950 and around that time his mother was recorded at 65 College Street in New Oscott, just south of Sutton Coldfield. Upon the death of his mother in June 1952, Bernard was named as one of the two executors in her Will, with his brother Norman Wickes Collett (below), which was proved at Birmingham in November that same year, the value of her estate being just over £7,318.


57P16	Sydney Thomas Collett was born in 1900 either at Harborne or at West Bromwich where his birth recorded (Ref. 6b 289) during the third quarter of the year, although it was at Harborne that he was baptised on 25^th November 1900, another son of Frederick and Ada Collett. He was only a few months old in the West Bromwich census of 1901 and was 10 years of age in 1911, when he was still attending school in West Bromwich while living there with his family.


57P17	Phyllis Collett was born in 1902 and, as with all of her siblings, her birth was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref.6b 102) during the second quarter of that year and where she was living with her family in 1911 at the age of eight years. Also like her siblings, Phyllis Collett, the daughter of Frederick and Ada Collett was baptised at Harborne, on 21^st September 1902.


57P18	Kathleen Collett was born early in 1904, another daughter of Frederick and Ada Collett. Like the majority of her siblings, her birth was recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 166), as also stated in the 1911 census return when she was seven years of age, while it was at Harborne that she was baptised on 1^st May 1904.


57P19	Wilfred Collett was born in 1906 and died shortly after his birth, both events recorded at West Bromwich register office, and both during the third quarter of the year (Ref. 6b 301 & Ref. 6b 228).


57P20	Norman Wickes Collett was born at West Bromwich either near the end of 1908 or soon after the start of 1909, with his birth recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 283) during the first quarter of 1909, the youngest son of Frederick and Ada Collett, and was two years old at the time of the census in 1911 when he and his family were living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich. Just a few years later he and his parents moved to 177 Heathfield Road in Handsworth. Sometime after the First World War and perhaps up to around the time of the Second World War, Norman’s father passed away and in 1952 his widowed mother was living at 65 College Street in New Oscott, Sutton Coldfield where she died on 10^th June 1952. Norman Wickes Collett, a draughtsman, was named as one of the two executors in his mother’s Will, which was proved at Birmingham on 11^th November 1952, his eldest brother Bernard (above) being the other.


57P21	Dorothy M Collett was born in 1911 at West Bromwich, where her parents were living on the day of the census that year, and where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 103) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wickes. She was the last child born to Frederick Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes. It is possible, but not proved, that she may have married Thomas W Palmer at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 41) during the first three months of 1930.


57P22	Joseph Richard Collett was born at West Bromwich on 16^th December 1907, the older of the two sons of John Richard Collett and Elizabeth Gill. It was also at West Bromwich register office where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 909) during the first quarter of 1908, and where he was three years old in the census of 1911. During the summer of 1933, Joseph R Collett and Ethel Victoria W Culwick were married, the wedding recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 1893) in the third quarter of that year. Ethel was the youngest child of Thomas and Mary Jane Culwick and was also born at West Bromwich, which was where the births of the couple’s two children were registered. Joseph Richard Collett was sixty-nine when he died on 23^rd June 1977, his death recorded in Staffordshire, with his body laid to rest at Heath Lane Cemetery in Sandwell.

	57Q2		Geoffrey S Collett				Born in 1935 at West Bromwich
	57Q3		Michael W Collett				Born in 1937 at West Bromwich


57P23	Norman John T Collett born at West Bromwich in 1911 where he was living with his family on the day of the census, being only a few months old. It was there also that his birth recorded (Ref. 6b 854) during the first three months of 1911. He was 29 years old when the marriage of Norman J T Collett and Vera G Hackett was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6c 2123) during the first quarter of 1940. Seven years later the couple’s only known child was born at West Bromwich.

	57Q4		Judith A Collett				Born in 1947 at West Bromwich


57Q2	Geoffrey S Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1935, the eldest son of Joseph Richard Collett and Ethel Victoria Culwick. His birth was recorded at West Bromwich in the third quarter of 1935 (Ref. 6b 1057) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Culwick. He was twenty years of age when the marriage of Geoffrey S Collett and Jeanette E Pearson was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 9b 127) during the last quarter of 1955. As far as can be determined, no record of any children has been found.


57Q3	Michael W Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1937, where his birth was recorded during the first quarter of that year (Ref. 6b 946), his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Culwick. Seven years after attending his older brother’s wedding, the marriage of Michael W Collett and Pamela M Seedhouse was recorded at Lichfield register office (Ref. 9b 37) during the second quarter of 1963. It was also at Lichfield where the births of the couple’s two children were recorded, their daughter (Ref. 9b 87) during the second quarter of 1966 and their son (Ref. 9b 1) during the third quarter of 1967, with Seedhouse confirmed as their mother’s maiden-name.

	57R1		Wendy Alexandra Collett				Born in 1966 at Lichfield
	57R2		Neil Anthony Collett				Born in 1967 at Lichfield


57Q4	Judith A Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1947 and was the only known child of Norman John Collett and Vera G Hackett. It was also at West Bromwich where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9b 1520) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hackett. The later marriage of Judith A Collett and Peter R Taylor was recorded at nearby Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 9b 72) during the second quarter of 1972, with whom she had two sons at Wolverhampton. The birth of Mark David Taylor was recorded there (Ref. 9b 20) towards the end of 1973, and followed by Simon Paul Taylor in 1976 whose birth was registered there (Ref. 34 72) in the spring of that year. In both cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

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57O19

57O17

57O19

57P22