PART
SEVENTY-NINE
The
Second Oddington (Glos) Line
including
a branch line from nearby Evenlode
1780
to 2010
Issued March 2024
During
the compilation of this latest family line, it was discovered that, as with the
two Thomas Collett referred to above, two more conflicting Thomas Colletts were
revealed, one being the son of Thomas Collett and Sarah Hyatt, the other Thomas
also born around the same time as their son.
Sadly, so far, the parents of that second Thomas have not been
determined. However, whilst the story of
Thomas the son of Sarah Hyatt Collett born at Oddington was previously known
and is now recorded here, the one clue maybe linking the new Thomas to this
family line was the fact that in 1851 and again in 1861, he said he was born at
Evenlode, a hamlet just two miles north of Oddington and midway between
Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh. Unfortunately,
no direct link for him to this new family line has been identified so, for the
time being his, and his family’s, details are included in Appendix One at the
end of this file
Thomas Collett [79M1] was born around 1781 and he married (1)
Sarah Hyatt at Oddington on 5th January 1801. She was the daughter of William and Sarah
Hyatt and was baptised at Oddington on 4th April 1784. Who Thomas’ parents were, has yet to be
determined. All their nine children were
born and baptised Oddington. The last
child was born in 1816 and the ordeal may have resulted in the death of Sarah
Collett nee Hyatt, although no record of her death has been found either in
that year or the following three years
The
subsequent marriage by licence of Thomas
Collett, a widower, and (2) Ann Taylor took place at Oddington on 29th
January 1820. It is interesting that Thomas
Collett [64M3] referred to above, married Elizabeth Taylor at Oddington in
1803, so maybe she was an older sister of Ann Taylor. That second marriage for Thomas produced a
further three children, again born and baptised at Oddington. What is curious though is the baptism record
for the middle of those three extra children.
In this, Ann Collett who was born in 1826 was baptised at Oddington on
30th April 1826, when she was described as the daughter of Thomas
and Sarah Collett, while the census in 1841 confirmed his wife was Ann
That
year, Thomas Collett had a rounded age of 60, while his wife Ann Collett had a
rounded age of 50. What is particularly
interesting though, is that all the baptism records so far found for the
children of Thomas Collett, named the mother as Sarah. Living with Thomas and Ann, at Oddington in
1841, were two of the couple’s three children, daughters Elizabeth Collett who
was 19, and Sarah Collett who was 13. Absent
daughter Ann Collett was 14 and working in Cheltenham on that census day
By
the time of the census in 1851, Thomas Collett was recorded with a more
accurate age of 69, when he was described a labourer from Oddington, who was living
at Adlestrop, north-east of Oddington, when his wife was named as Ann Collett
who was 63 and born at Adlestrop. On
that same day, their daughter Sarah Collett from Oddington, was 22 years of
age, who was working as servant/housekeeper at premises in nearby
Moreton-in-Marsh. During the following
decade, Thomas Collett died at Oddington, with his death recorded at nearby
Stow-on-the Wold, either during 1856, 1858, or 1859, there being a record of
the death of Thomas Collett in each of those three years. According to the Oddington census in 1861, his
widow Ann Collett from Adlestrop was 72 and, with her unmarried daughter Sarah
Collett, aged 33, was living at the Oddington home of gardener Rob Phillips
aged 38, his wife Ann Phillips aged 36, and their three-year-old daughter Ellen
Phillips. Ann Collett was described as
the mother-in-law of head of the household Rob, making his wife Ann as her
daughter and the older sister of Sarah Collett.
It was two years later, that Ann Collett, widow of the late Thomas
Collett, died at Oddington, following which her death was also recorded at
Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 29) during the second quarter of 1863
79N1
– William Collett was
born in 1801 at Oddington
79N2
– Hannah Collett was
born in 1803 at Oddington
79N3
– Richard Collett was
born in 1804 at Oddington
79N4
- Thomas Collett was
born in 1807 at Oddington
79N5
– Jane Collett was born
in 1808 at Oddington
79N6
– George Collett was
born in 1810 at Oddington
79N7
- James Collett was
born in 1812 at Oddington
79N8
- Charles Collett was
born in 1814 at Oddington
79N9
- Mary Collett was born
in 1816 at Oddington
The
following are the three children of Thomas Collett by his second wife Ann:
79N10
- Elizabeth Collett was
born in 1820 at Oddington
79N11
– Ann Collett was born
in 1826 at Oddington
79N12
– Sarah Collett was
born in 1827 at Oddington
William
Collett [79N1] was born
at Oddington on 9th March 1801 where he was baptised at the Parish
Church in Oddington on 7th April 1801, the first-born child of
Thomas Collett and his first wife Sarah Hyatt.
By the time he was in his thirties, it was at Chadlington in
Oxfordshire, just a few miles east of Oddington, that William Collett was
living and working as a farming bailiff.
That information was confirmed at the time he became a married man, when
William Collett of Chadlington married Elizabeth Kearsy at Chadlington on 21st
March 1835, when the witnesses were Robert Townsend and Elizabeth Trinder. Elizabeth Kearsy was also born in 1801 and she
died in 1859. She was the daughter of
Charles and Elizabeth Kearsey, the five times great uncle and aunt of Don
Cameron of Belmont in New South Wales whose family details can be found in Part
62 – The Trowbridge to New Zealand Line
Apart
from their first child, their son Edwin, who was born and baptised at
Chadlington, all of William and Elizabeth’s subsequent children were born after
the couple had moved to the nearby Oxfordshire hamlet of Dean. However, with no church there, it is known
that the children were baptised at All Saints Church, the parish church in
Spelsbury just north of Charlbury. It
was only as recently as 2012 that the whereabouts of the couple’s son Edwin was
revealed in the census of 1841, when previously it was only known that he was
absent from the family group that year.
The main body of the family was living at Dean, within the parish of
Spelsbury in the Chipping Norton registration district, where William Collett (not
born in the county of Oxfordshire) was 40, his wife Elizabeth was 35, and
their sons were John Collett who was three, and William Collett who was two,
all three of them born in Oxfordshire. On
that occasion, William and Elizabeth employed a female servant, 15-year-old
Charlotte Will, who also had living with them, Elizabeth’s father Charles
Kearsy who was 80 and not born in Oxfordshire.
It is now established that on that same day, Edwin Collett of
Oxfordshire aged six years, was a pupil at a school in Stow-on-the-Wold which
was owned and operated by John and Frances Kearsy, possibly relatives of his
mother’s family
Ten
years later, the Spelsbury census for 1851, recorded the Collett family living at
Dean as William Collett from Oddington in Gloucestershire who was 50 and a farm
steward, Elizabeth Collett who was 48, Edwin Collett who was 16, John Collett who
was 13, and William Collett who was 11. All
of them said to have been born at Chadlington, when clearly John and William
had not. Three other people were with
the family that day, and they were William’s father-in-law Charles Kearsy aged
92, visitor Mary Hyatt from Oddington (Glos) who was 65 and possibly related to
William’s mother formerly Sarah, and domestic servant Sarah Lainchbury of
Spelsbury who was 16. At that same time,
their daughter Mary Collett from Dean was eight years old and attending the
school at Stow-on-the-Wold managed by Frances Kearsey who, by then was a
widow. Their absent son Charles Collett
from Dean, was six years old and staying with his mother’s brother, Richard
Kearsy and his wife Mary, in the St Giles area of Oxford. Also, by that time, the family’s youngest son
had already died
It
was over eight years later that ‘William Collett of Dean’ was buried at All
Saints Church in Spelsbury on 25th October 1859, aged 59 years, his
death recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 12).
It is unclear where his widow was two years later. After a further ten years, Elizabeth Collett
of Chadlington, and head of the household, was living there when she was
described in the 1871 census as a farmer’s widow aged 66. It was as Elizabeth K Collett, aged 78 and
born at Chadlington, that she was a visitor at the Manor House on Church Street
in Charlbury, the home of farmer John Gardner, aged 67, and his wife Ann who was
68. The other residents at the property
on the day of the census in 1881, were Minnie A Gardner who was five, John W
Gardner who was four, Louise M Gardner who was one year old, plus 14-year-old
nursery maid Jane Betts of Chadlington, and 17-year-old Elizabeth Reason who
was a domestic servant from Winderton in Warwickshire. The last of them was boarder Alice Brooks
aged 75 and born at Northleigh in Oxfordshire, where Ann Gardner had also been
born, so possibly her older sister. Almost
exactly five years later, Elizabeth Collett, the widow of William Collett, died
at Chadlington and was buried with her husband at Spelsbury on 25th
March 1886, when she was 83 years of age
79O1 – Edwin Collett was born in 1835 at Chadlington
79O2 – John William Collett was born in 1837 at Dean, near
Spelsbury
79O3 – William Collett was born in 1839 at Dean, near
Spelsbury
79O4 – Mary Elizabeth Collett was born in 1842 at Dean, near
Spelsbury
79O5 – Charles Collett was born in 1844 at Dean, near
Spelsbury
79O6 – James Richard Collett was born in 1847 at Dean, near
Spelsbury
Hannah
Collett [79N2] was born
Oddington on 21st February 1803 and a month later was baptised there
on 23rd March 1803, another child of Thomas and Sarah Collett
Richard
Collett [79N3] was born
at Oddington on 12th December 1804, another son of Thomas and Sarah
Collett. It would be very easy to
confuse Richard with Richard Collett (Ref. 33N7) aged 37 in 1841, the husband
of Sarah who was 32, whose family details can be found in Part 33 – The
Bourton-on-the-Water Line 1770 to 1835.
However, there is a strong possibility that Richard Collett of Oddington
was a married man who had a son Richard Henry Collett also born at Oddington,
but in 1834. Until proved otherwise the
child Richard Henry Collett has been included here while awaiting confirmation
of his parents
79O7 – Richard Henry Collett was born in 1834 at Oddington
Thomas
Collett [79N4] was born
at Oddington on 12th July 1807 and was also baptised there on 11th
September 1807, when his parents were confirmed as Thomas and Sarah Collett. It is possible that he was married twice in
his life, with the first occasion at Oddington where Thomas married (1) Mary
Cole on 26th August 1829, where their three children were born and
baptised, the parents confirmed as Thomas and Mary. However, Mary may have died during the birth
of her youngest child in 1836, although no such record of death has been
found.
According
to the first national census in June 1841 for Oddington, Thomas Collett had a
rounded age of 30, while his wife was named as Ann (possibly Mary Ann)
who had a rounded age was 40. Living
with them at that time were their three sons, who were George Collett aged
nine, William Collett aged seven, and Henry Collett who was four years old. Only Thomas’ wife had not been born in
Gloucestershire. Whether Thomas was with
his family that day is questionable, because another Thomas Collett, with a
rounded age of 35, was being held at the County Gaol and House of Correction in
Claines, just north of Worcester, where his wife had been born and where his
London-born niece Elizabeth Collett was baptised on 6th June 1847,
the only child of Thomas’ younger brother James and his deceased wife Jane
Elizabeth
temporarily lived with Thomas and Mary from the day her mother died, with
Thomas registering her birth at Droitwich in Worcestershire (Ref. xviii 231)
during the second quarter of 1847.
Therefore, it would have been Thomas who arranged for the child to be
baptised, with the name Thomas, not James, entered in the baptism
register. Four years after that event the
Lower Oddington census of 1851, recorded head of the household Thomas Collett
from Oddington as being 45 years old, whose occupation was that of a
blacksmith. His wife was named as Mary
Collett who was 53 and from Claines, just north of Worcester. The only one of their three sons still living
with the couple that census day was Henry who was 14 and a carpenter of
Oddington. Also staying with the family
was three-year-old Elizabeth Collett, their niece from London. It is interesting to note that, at that same
time, Thomas’ two absent sons were living and working in London, where they
were recorded together in the census of 1851 in the Charing Cross area of the
city
Just
over one year after that census day, Mary Collett died at Oddington, with her
death recorded at nearby Winchcombe (Ref. 6a 2) during the third quarter of
1852. It seems that widower Thomas
Collett then married (2) Ann from Eastington in Worcester and their daughter
was born shortly thereafter in Cheltenham.
Where they were in 1861 has still not been determined. They later returned to the St Michael parish
of south Worcester, where they were living in 1871 when Thomas Collett from
Oddington was 65 and a gardener, his wife Ann Collett was 54 and a provisions
dealer from Eastington, and their daughter Priscilla Collett from Cheltenham was
18 and employed as boot trader. Employed
by the family was a servant, Jane Bailey aged 15 and from Worcester. There followed two major family events, the
death of Thomas Collett and the marriage of daughter Priscilla Collett, after
which Thomas’ widowed had the young couple living with her, but later was living
with them and their family
The
death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 168) during the
fourth quarter of 1875, when he was 69 years old. No record of his youngest children’s wedding
has been found but, according to the Worcester St Helen census in 1881, head of
the household was widow Ann Collett from Eastington who was 64, whose
occupation was recorded as “keeps usters shop”.
Living there with her was her daughter Priscilla Fletcher from
Cheltenham who was 28 and a machinist, her son-in-law William Fletcher from
Worcester who was 29 and a labourer, plus a boarder Mary Wheeler also from
Worcester who was 50. Ten years later,
William Fletcher was the head of the household at Lich Street in Worcester who,
by 1891 was 39 and employed as a vice-man at an ironworks. Also, by then, he and Priscilla, aged 38, had
two children Susan A Fletcher and William H Fletcher who were
seven and five years old respectively. Completing the family was William’s
mother-in-law Ann Collett from Eastington, a widow who was 78
79O8 – George Collett was born in 1832 at Oddington
79O9 – William Collett was born in 1834 at Oddington
79O10 – Henry Collett was born in 1836 at Oddington
The following is the only child of
Thomas Collett by his second wife Ann:
79O11 – Priscilla Collett was born in
1852 at Cheltenham
Jane
Collett [79N5] was born
on 10th December 1808 at Oddington, the fifth known child of Thomas
Collett and Sarah Hyatt, who was baptised at Oddington on 24th
January 1809. There is speculation that
she may have been known as Mary Jane
George
Collett [79N6] was born
as George Collett at Oddington on 3rd August 1810 and was recorded
in the Family Bible as George Collett.
However, on the later occasion of the baptism of his two eldest
children, he was referred to as William George Collett. He was the sixth child of Thomas Collett and
Sarah Hyatt. Curiously, unlike his older
siblings, no baptism record for him has been found, although there was George
Collett who was baptised at Oddington on 1st January 1811, but he
was described as the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. Later census records appear to indicate that
there was only one Thomas Collett born at Oddington in Gloucestershire during
that time. Furthermore, in the census of
1881, both George, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth, and James, the son Thomas
and Sarah, were both residing at Harborne, near Selly Oak to the south of
Birmingham. Therefore, an assumption has
been made that they were indeed brothers, thus making George the son of Thomas
Collett and Sarah Hyatt
It
was using the name William that George Collett, the son of Thomas and Sarah, married
(1) Elizabeth Bishop during the first quarter of 1840. The marriage was recorded at Woodstock (Ref.
xvi 133), but probably took place at Combe where, previously, Elizabeth had
lived with older sister Lucy Bishop. Where
George (or William) was a year later has still to be discovered, when his wife
was expecting the birth of their first child.
On the census day in June 1841, Elizabeth Collett had a rounded age of
20 years when she was staying with unmarried Lucy Bishop, who had been born at
Combe in 1799, at her home in the village of Combe just west of Woodstock. Over the following fourteen years, Elizabeth
presented George with six known children, born at various locations, suggesting
that the family moved around for George’s job of work
The
couple’s first two children were born at Combe, with their baptisms confirming the
parents’ names as William George Collett and his wife Elizabeth. After the birth of the second child, the
family of four returned to Upper Oddington near Stow-on-the-Wold, where the
next two children were born. All of that
was confirmed in the next census for Oddington in 1851. However, on the census day that year, head of
the household George Collett was working away from home, less than three miles away
across the county boundary into Warwickshire and very close to the county
boundary with Oxfordshire. At that time
in his life, it was as George Collett, a married man from Oddington who was 39,
who was employed by Henry Lardner, a maltster and a brewer from Bledington in
Gloucestershire, at his family home in Little Compton, within the Chipping
Norton registration district. On that
same day, the family of William George Collett was recorded at Upper Oddington,
where his wife Elizabeth Collett from Combe was 33 and a gloveress, and their
four children were Georgiana Collett who was nine and William Collett who was
six, both born at Combe, and Henry Collett who was two and Louisa Collett who
was just two weeks old, both born at Oddington
Two
years later, the couple’s fifth child was born when the family had moved to
Chipping Norton, but then, not long after, they were living at Fernhall Heath
in Worcestershire for the birth of their last child. Fernhall Heath lies midway between Worcester
and Droitwich, adjacent to which is the village of Claines which had connection
with other members of this branch of the Collett family. The death of Elizabeth Collett nee Bishop was
recorded at Droitwich (Ref. 6c 29) during the third quarter of 1859, following
which she was buried at Claines on 18th August 1859. Elizabeth had been baptised at Minister
Lovell on 5th April 1818, the daughter of Allen and Ann Bishop, her
third child given her father’s name
According
to the Droitwich census in 1861, widower George Collett from Oddington was an
agricultural labourer aged 46 (sic), and living with him was Henry Collett aged
13, and Louisa Collett who was 10, both born at Oddington, Pamela Susan Collett
who was seven and born at Chipping Norton, and Alfred Collett who was five
years old and born at Fernhill Heath.
Living and working on the same street in Droitwich was George’s eldest
daughter Georgiana Elizabeth Collett who was 18. After eight years as a widower, George
Collett was married for a second time when the marriage of George Collett and
the much younger (2) Mary Pimble was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 318) during
the last three months of 1867. Mary was
the daughter of Samuel and Hannah Pimble who was born at High Green, midway
between Worcester and Tewkesbury, and baptised at the nearby parish Church of
St Mary Magdalene in Croome D’Abitot on 25th October 1833. In 1851, Mary Pimble from High Green was 17
and a general domestic servant employed at the Twyning, Gloucestershire, home
of William and Sarah Glover and their large family. On their wedding day, George Collett was 57
and Mary Pimble was 34, who gave birth to three children over the following
nine years. Not long after they were
married, they were temporarily living in Worcester, where their first child was
born, before spending a short while at Smethwick, west of Birmingham, where the
next two children were born.
On
the day of the census in 1871, George was not recorded with his family. Instead, his new wife and their first child,
had George’s youngest son Alfred with them, when they were staying with Mary’s
younger married sister Ann Weaver and her family at their home within the
Worcester South registration district.
As Ann Pimble, she was baptised at Bredon on 12th August
1835, another daughter of Samuel and Hannah Pimble. Mary Collett from High Green was 35 and
working as a shoe binder, most likely with her brother-in-law Charles Weaver,
who was a shoemaker. Her daughter Ann
Collett was two years of age and born at Worcester, and her stepson was Alfred
Collett who was 15 also born at Worcester, who had already left school and was
working as a sawyer. Ten years later,
head of the household George Collett was back with his family at 10 James
Street in Harborne, three miles south of Birmingham, within the Kings Norton
registration district. George Collett
from Oddington was 70 and still working as a general labourer in 1881. His wife Mary from High Green was 45 and a
laundress, and with the couple were their three children. Ann Collett from Worcester was 12, Charles
Collett was eight and Thomas Collett was four, both born at Smethwick, when all
three children were attending school
By
that time, George’s son Alfred Collett was a married man with a family of his
own, and was living nearby at Basons End in Harborne. Within days of the census that year, George
Collett died at 10 James Street in Harborne at the age of 70, his death
recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6a 234) during the second quarter of 1881. Following the loss of her husband, Mary and her
two youngest sons returned to Smethwick, where they were living in 1891. At that time in her life, Mary was a widow
aged 57 who had no job of work, who was supported by her sons Charles Collett who
was 18, and Thomas Collett who was 13.
Ten years later Mary Collett from High Green was 67 and was still living
in Smethwick, at Bearwood Road, with her unmarried son Thomas who was 23 and a
general labourer, her older son Charles was already married by then. Two other people were recorded at the address
and they were Mary’s grandson William Hillman who was eight years of age and
from Smethwick, the eldest son of Mary’s married daughter Annie Hillman, plus a
boarder Mary Charles from Birmingham who was 78. Mary continued to live at Smethwick, where
Mary Collett from Twyning in Gloucestershire was 77 years old in the April
census of 1911, when she was staying at the home of her married son Charles
Collett and his family. It was two years
after that day, when Mary Collett, nee Pimble, passed away at the age of 79,
her death recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 78) during the
second quarter of 1913
79O12 – Georgiana Elizabeth Collett was born in 1841 at Combe, near
Woodstock
79O13 – William Collett was born in 1844 at Combe, near
Woodstock
79O14 – Henry Allen Collett was born in 1848 at Oddington
79O15
– Louisa Mary Collett
was born in 1851 at Oddington
79O16
– Pamela Susan Collett
was born in 1853 at Chipping Norton
79O17
– Alfred Collett was
born in 1855 at Fernhill Heath, near Droitwich
The
following are the children of George Collett by his second wife Mary Pimble:
79O18
– Ann Collett was born
in 1868 at Worcester
79O19
– Charles Collett was
born in 1873 at Smethwick
79O20
– Thomas Collett was
born in 1876 at Smethwick
James
Collett [79N7] was born
on 12th September 1812 at Oddington, and it was four months later
when he was baptised there on 29th January 1813, another son of
Thomas and Sarah Collett. What is known
is that he married Jane who presented him with a daughter, but tragically died
either during the birth, or very shortly thereafter. At that difficult time in his life, James
handed the baby into the care of his older brother Thomas (above), and
his with Mary, as part of their growing family, who arranged for the birth to
be registered and for the child’s baptism.
That situation was confirmed in the Oddington census of 1851, when
Elizabeth Collett from London three years of age and living with her uncle and
aunt Thomas and Mary Collett. Where
James was that day, has not been discovered, in fact he was next identified in
1871 living at Harborne, south of Birmingham, where his brother George (above)
and his nephew Alfred, George’s married son, were living ten years later in
1881
At
that time in his life in 1871, widower James Collett from Oddington was 58 and
described as a traveller, when he was living at the home of his unmarried
daughter. Head of the household
Elizabeth Collett from London, Middlesex, was 23 and working as blacking maker
in the boot and shoe industry. It seems
Elizabeth was married during the 1870s since, James Collett from Oddington was
working as an agent at the age of 66, while a lodger at 337 Bearwood Road in
Harborne, the home of spinster Kate Micklewright, a grocer of 32 years from
Stourbridge. Eight years later, the
death of James Collett was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 227) during the
third quarter of 1889, when he was 76 years old
79O21 – Elizabeth Collett was born
during 1847 in London
Charles
Collett [79N8] was born
on 3rd November 1814 at Oddington and was six years old when he was
baptised there on 1st May 1821 in a joint ceremony with his two
younger sisters Elizabeth and Mary (below). All three of them were confirmed as the
children of Thomas and Sarah Collett. At
the time of the census in 1841, Charles Collett was given a rounded age of 20,
when he was living at Chipping Norton. Two
years later Charles was in London when he married the widow Mary Ann Farmer in
the City (Ref. ii 159) during the first three months of 1843. The wedding took place at the Church of All
Hallows the Great, just west of the Tower of London, on 19th
February 1843 when the groom’s father was confirmed as Thomas Collett, and the
bride’s father as Samuel Thomas. His
daughter, born Mary Ann Thomas in 1816, was baptised at St Luke’s Church in
Chelsea in 14th July 1816, when her mother was named as Fanny
Thomas. It was at St George in the East
that the first marriage of Mary Ann Thomas and Robert Farmer was recorded in
1939 and around nine months later Mary Ann was a widow. All-Hallows-the-Great,
where Charles and Mary Ann were married was first mentioned in 1235 but was destroyed
in the Great Fire of London of 1666, after which it was rebuilt by the office
of Sir Christopher Wren. In the end,
All-Hallows-the-Great was demolished in 1894 when many bodies were disinterred
from the churchyard and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery
It
was also in London that the couple’s first three children were born and
baptised in Stepney. Tragically, their eldest
son was only eighteen months old when he died at Stepney. Less than two years after their loss, Mary
Ann was expecting the birth of another child in 1851, when the family was
living within the Goodmans Fields district of Whitechapel in London, with the
census return revealing that Charles Collett from Oddington was 37, whose
occupation was that of a cooper. His
wife Mary Ann was 33 and born at Blackfriars in London, while their daughter
Sarah Ann Collett was five years old and had been born at Stepney. Very shortly after the census day that year,
Mary Ann presented Charles with another son, Alfred Hyatt Collett, the child’s
unusual second forename was the maiden-name of his paternal grandmother, Sarah
Hyatt of Oddington
Following
the birth of their son, the family left the city, when they moved to Great
Rollright in Oxfordshire, not far from Chipping Norton. It was while they were living there that the
couple’s last known child was born, and it was there also where the family was
residing at the time of the next census in 1861. On that occasion the family was recorded as
Charles Collett from Oddington who was 46 and a baker, Mary Ann Collett who was
40 and from Surrey was ‘a baker’s wife’, and their three children were Sarah
Ann Collett who was 15 and ‘a baker’s daughter, Alfred H Collett who was nine
and ‘a scholar’, both born at Stepney, and Mary Elizabeth Collett who was not
yet one year old and born at Great Rollright
Charles
Collett from Oddington was a baker and a shopkeeper at Great Rollright, as
confirmed in the next census of 1871.
The property in which the family was living, presumably including the
shop, was described as adjacent to part of the Baptist Chapel. By that time in his life Charles was 52,
while his wife was named as Mary Ann from Surrey who was 50. Their three children were recorded as,
unmarried daughter Sarah Ann Collett who was 24 from Stepney with no stated
occupation, son Alfred H Collett who was 19 and from Stepney, who was described
as a baker’s son, and Mary E Collett of Great Rollright who was attending the
village school at the age of 10, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton during
the summer/autumn of 1860
Ten
years later the couple was again recorded at Great Rollright in the census of
1881, but with just one of their three surviving children still living there
with them, their two older children being already married by then. The census again confirmed that Charles
Collett, aged 62, was a baker from Oddington, Mary Ann Collett was 60 and ‘a
baker’s wife’, and their daughter Mary E Collett from Great Rollright was 20
with no stated occupation. Also living
with the family on that occasion was Charles and Mary Ann’s granddaughter
Florence M Tomkins from Chipping Norton, the five-year-old child of their married
daughter Sarah Ann. Charles Collett was
75 when he died at Great Rollright immediately prior to the census day in 1891,
his death recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 355) during the second quarter
of 1891. A few days after his passing, his
widow Mary Ann Collett was 73 and a beer retailer from Christchurch in Surrey,
her son Alfred having been a publican at Chipping Norton in 1881. Still living at South End in Great Rollright
with Mary in 1891 was her unmarried daughter Mary E Collett who was 28 who had
no job of work
What
happened to Mary’s daughter Mary Elizabeth after 1891 is not known, while Mary’s
occupation as a beer retailer is interesting because, she moved the short
distance to Hook Norton, the home of the well-known brewery, when she went to
live with her married son Alfred. The
1901 census, confirmed that Mary Ann Collett from Christchurch Surrey, was 84
and a widow residing at Scotland End in Hook Norton, the home of Alfred Hyatt
Collett and his wife Emma Collett. Nine
years later, the death of Mary Ann Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton
register office (Ref. 3a 125) during the first quarter of 1910, when she was 92
79O22 – Sarah Ann Collett was born in 1846 at Stepney, London
79O23 – Charles Clement Collett was born in 1848 at Stepney
79O24 – Alfred Hyatt Collett was born in 1851 at Stepney, London
79O25 – Mary Elizabeth Collett was born in 1860 at Great Rollright,
Oxfordshire
Mary
Collett [79N9] was born
on 21st March 1816 at Oddington and was five years old when she was
baptised there in a joint ceremony with her older brother Charles (above)
and her half-sister Elizabeth (below) on 1st May 1821, the
daughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett. By
the time of the census in 1841, when she would have been 24 years of age, she
was not living in the family home in Oddington and was very likely married by
then
Elizabeth
Collett [79N10] was
born at Oddington on 7th December 1820, the first of three daughters
born to Thomas Collett by his second wife Ann Taylor. Her father’s first wife died after giving
birth to two unbaptised children.
Therefore, when Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Oddington on 1st
May 1821, two of her half-siblings. Charles and Mary (above) were also
baptised with her. Curiously, the parish
register claimed that all three were the children of Thomas and Sarah Collett. Elizabeth Collett was 19 years of age in the
Oddington census of 1841, when she was the older of two daughters still living there
with her parents Thomas and Ann Collett who were 60 and 50 years old
respectively, her younger sister being Sarah (below) who was 13. On reaching the age of twenty-one, the
marriage of Elizabeth Collett and Richard Cook at Oddington was recorded at
Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. x 104) during the last three months of 1842. Richard was a labourer and the eldest son of
Mary Ann Cook, with Richard 33 and Elizabeth 29 still living in Oddington in
1851, where the childless couple had Richard’s mother and two younger siblings
Thomas and Mary Ann Cook living with them.
Every member of the household had been born at Oddington
Ann
Collett [79N11] was
born at Oddington on 30th April 1826, another daughter of Thomas and
Ann Collett. When her two sisters,
Elizabeth (above) and Sarah (below), were still living in parents
Thomas and Ann at Oddington in 1841, Ann Collett aged 14 was a domestic servant
at the Cheltenham home of John and Eliza Davies. Ten years later, on the day of the census in
1851, Ann Collet from Oddington was 25 and a house-maid, one of six domestic
servants employed by B J Whippy, magistrate, deputy lieutenant, and land owner,
at his home at Lee Place in Charlbury six miles north of Witney in the Evenlode
Valley
That
same day, Ann’s future husband Robert Phillips was 26 and an agricultural
labourer who was living at Upper Oddington with his father Richard Phillips of
Oddington and his much younger stepmother Catherine Phillips. Six years later the marriage of Ann Collett
and Robert Phillips took place at Oddington in 1857, the event recorded at
Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 629) during the second quarter of the year. By 1861 the couple and their first-born child
were living within the Parish of Oddington, where Rob Phillips was 38 and a
gardener, Ann Phillips was 36, and Ellen Phillips was three years of age. Staying with the family was Ann’s elderly widowed
mother Ann Collett from Adlestrop who was 72, together with Ann’s younger
unmarried sister Sarah Collett aged 33
The
enlarged family was again residing in Oddington in 1871 when Robert Phillips
was 47 and a gardener, Ann Phillips was 44 and a dressmaker, and their three
children were Ellen Phillips 13, Robert Phillips who was eight, both
a school, and Frank Phillips who was one year old. One more child was added to the family which,
in 1881, was still living in Oddington where Robert was 55 and a gardener and
domestic servant, Ann was 52, and their three sons were Robert who was 19,
Frank who was 11, and Albert R Phillips who was eight. Sometime during the following decade, the
family moved the short distance south to Icombe, where the reduced family was
recorded in 1891. On that occasion,
Robert Phillips was 66 and a groom and a gardener, Ann W Phillips (?) was 64,
Frank Phillips was 21 and working alongside his father, while Albert Phillips was
18 and a baker’s assistant
Two
years earlier, Ann’s sister Sarah Collett passed away and, never having married
and having no offspring, her Will named Ann Phillips and Robert Phillips as the
two main beneficiaries. Just over ten
years after receiving the bequeath, the death of Robert Phillips was recorded
at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 153) during the last three months
of 1899, when he was 77 years old. After
two years as a widow, Ann Phillips from Oddington was 74 and was recorded as the
postmistress at Church Icombe post office in the census of 1901. However, two years later, during the second
quarter of 1903, the death of widow Ann Phillips was recorded at nearby Stow-on-the-Wold
register office (Ref. 6a 235) at the age of 77
Sarah
Collett [79N12] was
born at Oddington on 5th January 1827 and was the third and last
child of Thomas Collett and Ann Taylor, his second wife. In the Oddington census of 1841, Sarah
Collett was 13 when she was still living there with her parents Thomas and Ann
and her older sister Elizabeth (above).
On leaving school, she entered domestic service and by 1851 she was
employed as a housekeeper at a property in Moreton-on-Marsh where Sarah Collett
from Oddington was 22. After a further
ten years, unmarried Sarah Collett from Oddington aged 33, together with her
elderly mother Ann, were staying at the Oddington home of Sarah’s older married
sister Ann Phillip, her husband Rob, and their daughter Ellen. Sarah never married and was still residing at
Oddington when she died there on 2nd March 1889 at the age of 61,
her death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 188) later that same month. Before her passing, she had made her Will in
which the two beneficiaries were her sister Ann Phillips, and her husband
Robert Phillips, the Will proved at Gloucester on 21st March that
same year
Edwin
Collett [79O1] was born
in 1835 at Chadlington, where he was baptised on 26th July 1835 in
the church of St Nicholas, when his parents were confirmed as William Collett
and Elizabeth Kearsy, their first child.
In the census of 1841, Edwin Collett, who was
six, was a pupil at the school in Stow-on-the-Wold which was owned and operated
by John and Frances Kearsey, who were very likely related to Edwin’s
mother. Ten years later he had left
school but had no stated occupation, when he was living with his family at Dean
within the parish of Spelsbury in the Chipping Norton registration
district. He was 16 and his place of
birth was confirmed as Chadlington. It
was just under three years later, when Edwin became a married man around his
nineteenth birthday
It
was on 16th January 1854 at St Albans in Hertfordshire when Edwin
Collett married Sarah Walklate who had been born there around 1830, the
daughter of Joseph and Ann Walklate. The
record of their marriage (Ref. 3a 2) also confirmed that Edwin was the son of
William Collett. After nearly seven
years together, the childless couple was residing at Churchill in Oxfordshire,
where Edwin Collett from Chadlington was 26 and a cattle dealer, while Sarah
Collett from St Albans was 28. Staying
with them was Edwin’s younger brother William Collett (below) from Dean,
who was assisting his older brother. No
trace of Edwin and Sarah has been found in any census return after 1861, so it
is possible that they left England for one of the colonies
John
William Collett [79O2]
was born in 1837 at Dean, near Spelsbury, when his birth was recorded at
Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 45) during the fourth quarter of the year. He was baptised at Spelsbury on 14th
January 1838, the second child of William and Elizabeth Collett and was three
years of age in the Dean census of 1841.
He was still living there again in 1851, when he was 13. Nine years later, the marriage of John
William Collett and Anne Lardner was conducted at the parish church in South
Hinksey in Oxford on 2nd October 1860. Once they were married the couple initially
settled in Charlbury for the first few years of their married life
together. Anne was the daughter of
butcher Thomas Lardner of Churchill and his wife Mary, and was baptised at
Churchill on 18th November 1838.
It may well have been John’s work as a butcher that brought him into
contact with Thomas Lardner, and through that working relationship he developed
an attraction to his daughter.
It
may be of interest, that Susanna
Collett [64M4] of Oddington, Gloucestershire, married Thomas Lardner at
Bledington on 1st January 1816, while the uncle of John William
Collett, George Collett [79N6] aka William George, was employed at nearby
Little Compton by maltster and brewer Henry Lardner of Bledington, where he was
born in 1816
By
the time of the Charlbury census in 1861, Anne was due to give birth to John’s
first child, which was born nearly four months later that same year. The census return that year recorded the
expectant pair as John Collett from Dean who was 23 and a butcher, and his wife
Annie Collett from Churchill who was 22.
The couple’s first two children were baptised at Charlbury having been
born respectively at Charlbury and at Churchill, a village two miles south west
of Chipping Norton and eight miles from Charlbury. The next three children were all born after
John and Anne had settled in London. In
1871 the family was residing within the Clerkenwell St James area of the city,
where John Collett from Dean was 32 and a policeman, and his wife Annie Collett
from Churchill was 31. The two children
living there with them were Agnes Collett also from Churchill, who was seven,
and John Collett of Clerkenwell who was three years of age. John’s eldest son was living with Annie
parents on that occasion, at their home on Heath Road in Churchill. Retired butcher Thomas Lardner of Churchill
was 68, his wife Mary from Lechlade was 66, and staying with them and attending
the local school was Alan J L Collett of Charlbury who was nine years old
By
the time of the next census in 1881, the family was reunited and was living at
13 Guildford Street East in Clerkenwell.
Head of the house John Collett was a Police Constable with the Great
Western Railway, was 42 years old and his place of birth was given as Dean in
Oxfordshire. His wife was listed as
Annie and she was born at Churchill and was 41 years of age. Their children were listed as Alan Collett
who was 19 and born at Charlbury, Agnes M Collett aged 17 and born at
Churchill, John W Collett aged 13 and born at Clerkenwell, as were the last two
children, Annie E Collett who was six years old, and William T Collett who was
only one month old. Ten years later in
1891, the family was recorded once again living in the Holborn & Amwell
registration district of London, but at 15 Granville Square in
Clerkenwell. John W Collett was 52 and a
policeman employed by the Great Northern Railway, his wife Annie Collett was
51, and still living there with them were their two daughters and only two of
their three sons. They were Alan Collett
who was 29, Agnes Collett who was 27, Annie Collett who was 15, and William
Collett who was 11, when once again the two youngest children were confirmed as
having been born at Clerkenwell
The
family was still living in Clerkenwell area, at Percy Circus, just after the start
of the new century. The 1901 Census
confirmed that John W Collett of Dean, aged 63, was employed within the carriage
department of the Great Northern Railway.
His wife Annie Collett of Churchill was 62, and still living with the
couple were three of their unmarried children.
They were Alan J L Collett from Charlbury who was 39, Agnes M Collett from
Churchill who was 37, and William T Collett of Clerkenwell who was 21. Following the death of his wife in London
during the first few years of the new century, John William Collett returned to
the county of his birth and in 1911 was living in the grounds of Wychwood House
at Shorthampton, a hamlet just two miles from Dean, where he was born. Living with him at Maizer House, which had
six-and-a-half acres of grassland, was his eldest daughter who was acting as
his housekeeper. Widower John William
Collett from Dean was 73 and Agnes Mary Collett from Churchill was 47. However, it was a few months later that he
passed away, still at the age of 73, when the death of John W Collett was
recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 64) during the third
quarter of 1911. The Will of John William
Collett was proved in Oxford on 21st September 1911, which also
confirmed that he had died a month earlier on 24th August 1911. The main beneficiary was his youngest child,
William Thomas Collett
79P1 – Alan John Lardner Collett was born in 1861 at Charlbury
79P2 – Agnes Mary Collett was born in 1863 at Churchill
79P3 –John William Collett was born in 1868 at Clerkenwell, London
79P4 – Anne Ethelfreda Collett was born in 1875 at Clerkenwell, London
79P5 – William Thomas Collett was born in 1881 at Clerkenwell, London
William
Collett [79O3] was born
in 1839 at Dean, near Spelsbury, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref.
xvi 9) during the second quarter of the year.
He was only a few months old when he was baptised at Spelsbury on 4th
August 1839, another son of William and Elizabeth Collett. He was two years of age in the census of
1841, and was a scholar aged 11 years in 1851, when his place of birth was
recorded as Chadlington, the same as his mother and two older brothers. By 1861his father had died leaving William living
with his recently married brother Edwin and his wife Sarah at Churchill in
Oxfordshire, when his place of birth was confirmed as the hamlet of Dean. At the age of 21, William was described as an
assistant to his older brother who was a cattle dealer. It is unclear whether he ever married, but he
died at Nuneham 8aney, south of Oxford, following which he was buried at
Spelsbury on 4th January 1875, aged 35 years. It was there also that his father had been
buried in 1859
Mary
Elizabeth Collett [79O4]
was born in 1842 at Dean, near Spelsbury, while it was at Chipping Norton that
her birth was recorded (Ref. xvi 40) during the third quarter of the year. She was then baptised at the parish church in
Spelsbury on 2nd October 1842, the daughter of William Collett and
Elizabeth Kearsy. Just like her younger
brother Charles (below), Mary too was absent from the family home in
Dean in 1851. On that census day, Mary
Collett from Dean was eight years old and attending the school at
Stow-on-the-Wold, where the headmistress was Frances Kearsey. Mary’s older brother Edwin (above),
had been a pupil there in 1841
Mary
had not reached full age when she married Thomas Wells at St Giles Church on 21st
August 1861. Thomas may have been a
member of the Wells/Kearsy family living at Oxford St Giles in 1851, with whom
her brother Charles Collett (below) was living at that time. The Charlbury census conducted in 1871
confirmed that Thomas Wells from Chadlington was 35 and a butcher, Mary E Wells
from Dean was 28, and their three Charlbury born children were Edward Wells
who was eight, John Wells who was five, and Sarah Elizabeth Wells
who was one year old. Around the middle
of the following decade, the family moved from Oxfordshire to Swindon in
Wiltshire, where they were living in 1881 and 1891
The
change of location may had been the result in a change in occupation for Thomas
who was working as a carpenter in 1881.
More children have been added to his family, offset by some who were
missing. The census that year listed the
family as Thomas Well from Chadlington aged 45, Mary E Wells from Dean aged 38,
George W Wells aged 16, John Wells aged 14, Francis Thomas Wells
aged eight, Charles H Wells aged five, and Edith Mary Wells who
was two years old and born after the family settled in Swindon. All of Edith’s brothers had been born at
Charlbury
The
couple’s last child, Frederick J Wells, was also born at Swindon, and was eight
years of age in the town’s census of 1891.
The other five children living with Thomas and Mary E Wells that year
were listed the same as in 1881, just ten years old, when once again Thomas was
working as a carpenter. On that
occasion, the family home was on Carr Street in Swindon
Charles
Collett [79O5] was born
in 1844 at Dean, near Spelsbury, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref.
xvi 6) during the second quarter of that year. He was the penultimate child of William
Collett and Elizabeth Kearsy who was not living with his family in 1851. Instead, Charles Collett from Dean aged six
years and the nephew of Richard Kearsy was recorded in the St Giles district of
Oxford, just north of the city centre.
Richard from Chadlington was 62 and a pianoforte tuner, his wife Mary
from Cumnor was 49, their married daughter Emma Wells from Chipping Norton was
30, and her husband was Edward Wells was 26 and an assistant to his
father-in-law. With no record of him
found in 1861, it is possible the death of Charles Collett recorded at
Headington in 1857 was Charles Collett from Dean
James
Richard Collett [79O6]
was born in 1847 at Dean, near Spelsbury, with his birth recorded at Chipping
Norton (Ref. xvi 23) during the first quarter of the year, the youngest child
of William Collett and Elizabeth Kearsy.
It was at Spelsbury that he was baptised on 11th July 1847
and where, less than two years later, he was buried on 14th April
1849 at just two years of age. His death,
as simply James Collett, was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 13) but
curiously during the third quarter of that year
Richard
Henry Collett [79O7]
was born in 1834 at Oddington, as confirmed by the census in 1871 and the later
record of his death. No record of his
birth or baptism has been found, and no census details appear to exist for his
from 1841 through to 1861. It was during
the 1860s that Richard married Maria E Browne but, once again, no record of their
wedding has been found. What is known is
that Maria was born at Upton with Tetbury just south of Minchinhampton in
Gloucestershire. She was the daughter of
house and estate agent William Browne and his wife Grace. In both 1851 and 1861 the family was residing
at Oxford Place in Charlton Kings when, both census returns recorded Maria
still living with her parents at the age of 26 and 36 respective, with no
occupation, but confirming that she had been born at Minchinhampton. The next census in 1871 recorded the pair of
them as Richard Henry Collett from Oddington who was 37 and a farmer, and Maria
E Collett from Upton with Tetbury who was 46, when they were living in the Farm
House at Oddington. The farm comprised
100 acres on which Richard employed three men and two boys. What happened to the couple after 1871
remains unsolved, while the later death of Richard Collett was recorded at
Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 371) during the last quarter of 1896, when
he was recorded as being 62 years of age
George
Collett [79O8] was born
in 1832 at Oddington where he was baptised on 5th December 1832, the
eldest of the three sons of Thomas Collett and his first wife Mary Cole. In the census of 1841, he was nine years old
when living with his family at Oddington.
It is understood that, on leaving school, George, and his brother
William (below), travelled to London, where they were both employed as
porters within the area of St Martin–in-the-Fields. The positions may have been secured by their
uncle James Collett, since it is known that he was living in that area during
1847 when his daughter was born. Both
George and William were still living and working at St Martin-in-the-Fields in
1851, but separately. The census return
confirmed that George Collett from Oddington in Gloucestershire was 19 and that
he was working as a grocer’s porter, while lodging at 14 St Martin’s Street,
the home of interpreter Edward Cole from Middlesex and his wife Mina from
Wiltshire. Whether a coincidence or not,
Edward Cole may have been related to George’s mother
No
record of George has so far been found anywhere within the census returns in
1861, while two years earlier it is established that he married Fanny Dennis at
Holy Trinity Church in Chelsea on 28th July 1859. The details of their marriage confirmed that
George Collett was of full age, was employed as a servant, and that he was the
son of blacksmith Thomas Collett. Fanny Dennis
was the daughter of gardener William Dennis and both she and George were
residing in Upper Chelsea at that time.
The witnesses were Muriel Dennis, Elizabeth Brown and Henry Collett who
was George’s younger brother (below) who was later married at the same
church in 1874
Twelve
years later George and Fanny were living and working within the St George’s
Hanover Square district of London, as recorded in the census return of
1871. George Collett from
Gloucestershire was 39 and a porter, his wife Fanny from Essex was 43, and
living there with them was Fanny’s widowed mother Mary Dennis. Two other people were recorded at the same
address and they were Edward Salzman and Mary Randall
According
to the following census in 1881, George was again confirmed as a married man
living and working at Marlborough House, St Martin-in-the-Fields, where he was
employed as a domestic gate porter. He
was 49 and his place of birth was confirmed as Oddington in
Gloucestershire. Where his wife was on
the day of the census is still a mystery.
His employer on that occasion was German born British subject Maurice
Holzman, who was private secretary to the Princess of Wales
George
Collett from Gloucestershire, aged 59, was still recorded in the St George
Hanover Square census of 1891, by which time he was a widower. It was just prior to the census day that
year, when the death of Fanny Collett, aged 66, was recorded at St George
Hanover Square (Ref. 1a 198) during the first quarter of 1891. Eight years later, George Collett died in
London at the age of 67, with his death also recorded at St George Hanover
Square register office (Ref. 1a 369) during the first three months of 1899
William
Collett [79O9] was born
in 1834 at Oddington and was baptised there on 1st June 1834, the
second son of Thomas and Mary Collett.
In June 1841 he was seven years of age when he was living at Oddington
with his parents and his two brothers.
It was with his older brother George (above) that William
travelled to London for work purposes, and it was at St Martin-in-the Fields
that they were both recorded separately in 1851. William Collett from Oddington was 16 and a
porter lodging at 18 Warwick Street, the home of master saddler Robert Cuff and
his wife and their son
During
the second half of the following decade William Collett married the much older
Ann Williams from Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, their wedding taking place at
the Church of St Thomas in Dudley on 2nd May 1858. Shortly after they were married, and with Ann
already pregnant, the couple was temporarily living in the Shalstone area of Buckinghamshire,
where their only known child was born and baptised at Gawcott on 28th
November 1858. The birth of Mary Ann
Martin Collett was recorded at Buckingham (Ref. 3a 15) during the third quarter
on that year. After that, the family of
three returned to Gloucestershire and, in 1861, they were living at Broadwell,
just north of Stow-on-the-Wold and Oddington.
William was listed in the census as being head of the household at the
age of 26, by which time he was described as a coal agent from Oddington. With him was his wife Ann who was 38 and from
Stonehouse, together with their daughter Mary Ann Collett who was two years old
and born at Shalstone, to the west of Buckingham
Another
family move took place during the 1860s, with the three of them recorded at Lye
in Worcestershire in 1871, when William was 36 and a railway signalman, Ann was
48, and Mary Ann Martin Collett was 12. In
1881, by which time their daughter may have been married, William and Ann were
living in the Rowley Regis, Dudley, area of Staffordshire. It is likely that it was William’s work that
had resulted in the move north, due to a promotion with the Midland Railway
Company. The census that year identified
William Collett from Oddington as being 46 and a railway stationmaster on the
main line through Rowley Regis Station, when Ann Collett from Stonehouse who
was 60 years of age. William’s
occupation was again that of a railway stationmaster in 1891, but by then the
couple was still living on the main line, midway between Lye and Rowley Regis,
at Old Hill Railway Station on the Halesowen Road. William Collett was 56 and wife Ann was 65. At that time in their life, they were
employing a domestic servant, 15-year-old Annie Woodhouse. Just under one year later, the death of
William Collett was recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6c 82) during the
first three months of 1892, at the age of 57.
It was during the third quarter of that same year, that the death of Ann
Collett was also recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 27), when she was 72
79P6 - Mary Ann Martin Collett was born
in 1858 at Shalstone, Buckinghamshire
Henry
Collett [79O10] was
born in 1836 at Oddington, the third son of Thomas Collett and Mary Cole. It was also at Oddington where he was
baptised on 4th September 1836 and was four years old in the
Oddington census of 1841. On completing
his education, Henry took up the trade of a carpenter, which was how he was
earning a living in 1851, when he was 14 and still living with his parents at
Oddington, who also had their niece Elizabeth Collett from London with them. During the following year, his mother died
and his father was remarried. Seven
years later, in July 1859, Henry Collett was a witness at the wedding of his
older brother George (above) at Holy Trinity Church in Chelsea,
London. However, no record of him has
been found within the census returns for 1861 and 1871. Three years after the later, the marriage of Henry
Collett and the much older Maria Ellen Martin, a widow, at Holy Trinity Church
in Chelsea on 13th July 1874.
Henry was described as the son of blacksmith Thomas Collett, while Maria
was the daughter of farmer William Brislder
Ten
years later Henry was only visiting Oddington on the day of the census in
1881. He was 44, had been born at
Oddington, was a married man and an annuitant, a visitor at the home of baker
Daniel Potter and his family. A search
for his wife Maria has not revealed her whereabouts on that same day. After a further ten years, Henry and Maria
were living alone at Riverside in Taplow within the Eton registration district
of Buckinghamshire on the day of the census in 1891. Henry Collett from Oddington was 54 and was
once again working as a carpenter. His
wife Maria E Collett was 66 and it was eight years after that census day that
Maria died at Taplow at the age of 74.
The death of Maria Ellen Collett was recorded at Eton register office
(Ref. 3a 279) during the third quarter of 1898.
At the end of March in 1901, Henry Collett from Oddington in
Gloucestershire was 64 and a widower and a carpenter who was living alone at Station
Road in Taplow. Henry was still living
in Taplow at the start of April in 1911, but at Sidney Cottage, when he was 74
and was still working as a carpenter. It
was over seven and a half years later that Henry Collett died in
Buckinghamshire in 1918 at the age of 83, his death recorded at Eton register
office (Ref. 3a 80) during the last quarter of that year
Georgiana
Elizabeth Collett [79O12]
was born near the end of 1841 at Combe in Oxfordshire, her birth recorded at
nearby Woodstock (Ref. xxi 36) during the first month of 1842. She was baptised at Combe, using her full birth-name,
on 10th January 1842, the eldest child of William George Collett and
his first wife Elizabeth Bishop. Her
father was born as George Collett at Oddington in Gloucestershire, but was
named as William Collett upon the occasion of his wedding at Combe. When she was around five years old, the
family moved to Upper Oddington where nine-year-old Georgiana Collett was
living with her family on the day of the census of 1851. At that very young age, she had already left
school and was working with her mother as a gloveress, a very traditional
occupation associated with the town of Woodstock
During
the two years following the Upper Oddington census of 1851, and after a short
time living at Chipping Norton, Georgiana’s family eventually settled in
Droitwich in 1854, and it was there a few years later that her mother
died. By the time of the Droitwich
census in 1861, Georgiana had left the family home, but was living and working
in the same street where her widowed father was living with the rest of her
family. The census confirmed that
Georgiana Elizabeth Collett from Combe was 18, and that she was employed as a
gloveress. It was during the second
quarter of the following year that she married (1) George Griffiths, the
marriage being registered at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 12) during the second quarter
of 1862. The wedding of Georgiana
Collett and George Griffiths took place at St Andrew’s Church in Droitwich on
29th June 1862
The
couple’s only child, Elizabeth Griffiths, was born at Droitwich during the
second quarter of 1863 and, when Elizabeth was only four years of age, her
father suffered a premature death at the age of 26. The death of George Griffiths was recorded at
Droitwich (Ref. 6c 57) during the last three months of 1867, after which he was
buried at Worcester on 21st November 1867. Therefore, by the time of the next Droitwich census
in 1871, Georgiana Griffiths from Woodstock was a widow at the age of 27, when
she was again working as a gloveress, while living with her at her home in Fox
Alley, Dodderhill in Droitwich, was her daughter Elizabeth Griffiths who
was seven and from Droitwich, and Georgiana’s unmarried sister Louisa Collett,
aged 20 and from Oddington, and her base-born daughter of the same name who was
three years old and born at Droitwich
Just
over one year later, Georgiana Griffiths married (2) John Crane, who was a pan
smith. Once married the couple lived at
Miller Street in Droitwich, although there were no children resulting from
their marriage. John was some years
younger than his wife, which prompted Georgiana to reduce her recorded age in
subsequent census returns, presumably out of embarrassment for the reverse
difference in their ages. On the first
occasion in 1881, pan smith John Crane from Droitwich was 35 and his wife from
Combe was 36, instead of 39. By that
time, Elizabeth Griffith was 16. Ten
years after that, the same three people were residing at 36 Burrish Street in
Droitwich, when they were respectively 44, 46, and 24. Staying with them, was four-year-old Mary
Higgs who was described as the niece of John Crane. Daughter Elizabeth Griffiths was very likely
married by 1901, leaving just John Crane aged 53 and a general labourer and
Georgiana Crane aged 55, still living at Burrish Street
According
to the census in 1911, Georgiana was continuing to reduce her age, saying she
was only 65, while John was more accurately recorded as being 63, by which time
he was employed as a market gardener. The
couple was reported to have been married for thirty-seven years, when they were
again residing at 36 Burrish Street in Droitwich. It was during nine years later, the second
quarter of 1920, that the death of Georgiana Elizabeth Crane, nee Collett, was
recorded at Droitwich register office (Ref. 6c 114) at the age of 78 – her
correct age. The later death of widower
John Crane was also recorded at Droitwich register office (Ref. 6c 103) during
the fourth quarter of 1926, when he was 82
William
Collett [79O13] was
born in 1844 at Combe, near Woodstock, the eldest son of William George Collett
and Elizabeth Bishop. Like his sister (above),
William was baptised at Combe on 9th June 1844, when he was
confirmed as the son of William George and Elizabeth Collett. Two weeks earlier, another William Collett
(Ref. 38o27) was baptised at Combe on 26th May 1844 and he was the
son of Richard and Rachel Collett, who later married Sarah Elizabeth Carless at
Woodstock in 1899, whose family is featured in Part 38 – The Oxford Stonemasons
Line (Combe). William, the son of
William George Collett was six years old in the Gloucestershire Upper Oddington
census of 1851, his father being absent from the family home that day. Thereafter, nothing is known about him
Henry
Allen Collett [79O14] was
born in 1848 at Oddington, when his birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold
(Ref. xi 40) during the second quarter of the year. He was another son of William and Elizabeth
Collett and two years old in the Oddington census of 1851. The family later moved to Droitwich, via
Chipping Norton, where Henry’s mother died in 1859. He was 13 years old in 1861, when he was
living with his widowed father at Droitwich in Worcestershire. Six years later, Henry Collett married Hannah
Huckfield during the last quarter of 1867, the marriage recorded at Pershore in
Worcestershire (Ref. 6c 321). The
wedding ceremony was conducted on 9th December 1867 at St John the
Baptist Church in Fladbury, three miles east of Pershore. Just over three years after that day, Henry
Collett was an agricultural labourer in 1871 when he was 24 and said he had
been born at Stow (on-the-Wold). He was recorded as living in the Dodderhill area of
Droitwich with his wife Hannah Collett, aged 25 and from Bishampton – just
north of Fladbury, and their first-born child, William B Collett who was one
year old. A few months later, Hannah discovered
that she was pregnant with the couple’s second child
During the next decade, Henry progressed
from being an agricultural labourer to become a farm bailiff by 1881. Henry Collett from Oddington was 35 and was
living on a farm at Hadzor, just to the east of Droitwich. On that day his wife Hannah was 33 and from
Bishampton, when their three children were William Collett from Worcester who
was 11, Gertrude Collett who was nine, and Alfred Collett who was seven, both said
to have been born at Dodderhill, north-east of Droitwich. Later in their lives, both Gertrude and
Alfred recorded the place of their birth as Hanbury, three miles east of
Droitwich, just south of Dodderhill. Four
other males were listed with the Collett family in 1881, two brothers from the
Seymour family from Worcester, and father and son of the Wood family from
Tewkesbury. All four of them were
seamen, the two eldest in each case being a ship’s captains, with the younger
ones being ‘ship’s mates’
One more child was added to the family
in 1886 and it may around that time when Henry gave up being associated with
the land, when he became a railway labourer, as confirmed in the census of
1891. On that occasion, the family was
living at 337 Dawlish Road in the Northfield district of Kings Norton. Henry Collett was 46 and employed as a
railway labourer, his wife Anna (Hannah) Collett was 45, when three of their
four children were still living with them.
They were William Collett who was 21, Gertrude Collett who was 19, both
working for the railway company, and five-year-old Harry Collett. Living not far away, was their missing son
Alfred who was 16 and living in King’s Norton where he was working by then. Ten years later in March 1901, the whole
family was reunited while still living at Dawlish Road in Northfield
According to the census return, Henry
Collett was 53 and was working as a builder’s labourer by then. His wife Hannah Collett from Bishampton was
54, and their four children were William from Worcester who was 30 and working
as a builder’s labourer with his father, Gertrude who was 28, Alfred who was 26
and a copper-wire drawer, and Harry who was 15 and employed as a plumber’s
boy. The three youngest children were
all confirmed as having been born at Droitwich.
On that census day in 1901 there were two visitors at the Collett family
home, and the first of them was Eliza Huckfield from Fladbury who was a
housekeeper aged 46 and the younger unmarried sister-in-law of Henry
Collett. The second named visitor was
eight-year-old Athol V Hutchin from India who does not appear in any later
census, although Athol Hutchinson married Adelaine Phyllis N Westle at
Birmingham in 1933, she having been born at Aston in Birmingham in 1907. What is very interesting though, is that in
1881 Eliza Huckfield aged 26 was a cook and domestic servant in the service of widow
Magdalene M Hutchin from India at her home in Fulham, London. Three of her four children had been born in India,
and therefore young Athol may well have been a grandson
Six and a half years after the 1901
census day, the death of Henry Collett was recorded at the Kings Norton
register office (Ref. 6c 278) during the last three months of 1907, when he was
62 years old and still residing at Northfield.
His passing was confirmed in the Selly Oak, Northfield, census of 1911,
when Hannah Collett from Bishampton was a widow at the age of 65, who had
living there with her, her unmarried daughter Gertrude Collett aged 33, and her
unmarried son Harry Collett who was 23. By that time, her
eldest son William was married and living in the Erdington area of Birmingham
with his previously married wife and her two children from that marriage. Hannah’s other missing son Alfred was also
married with a family of his own by then.
After a further four years as a widow, Hannah Collett nee Huckfield died
at Northfield, with her passing also recorded at Kings Norton register office
(Ref. 6d 50) during the third quarter of 1915, when she was 67
79P7 - William B Collett was born in 1870 at Worcester
79P8 - Gertrude Collett was born in 1872 at Dodderhill (Hanbury),
near Droitwich
79P9 - Alfred Collett was born in 1874 at Dodderhill (Hanbury),
near Droitwich
79P10 - Harry Collett was born in 1886 at Hadzor, near
Droitwich
Louisa
Mary Collett [79O15]
was born in 1851 at Oddington, while her birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold
(Ref. xi 36) during the first three months of the year. She was the fourth child of George and
Elizabeth Collett and was two weeks old in the Oddington census of 1851 and was
only eight years old when her mother died during the summer of 1859. By 1861, Louisa she was living with her
father at Droitwich at the age of ten, then in 1868, when she was 17 years old,
she gave birth to a daughter while living at Dodderhill, near Droitwich, with
her father and his second wife. Her
base-born daughter Louisa Collett was baptised at Dodderhill on 11th
June 1868, when the parish record confirmed the child’s mother, and only
parent, was Louisa Collett
By
the time of the census in 1871, unmarried Louisa Collett, aged 20 and working
as a gloveress, was living with her married, but already widowed, sister
Georgiana Griffiths and her daughter Elizabeth at their home in Fox Alley,
Droitwich. Also living there with them
was Louisa’s daughter, three-year-old Louisa Collett. One year later Louisa Collett gave birth to a
second base-born child, when Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Droitwich in
1872, where the parish baptism register confirmed that she was the daughter of
Louisa Collett. However, it was after a
further three years that Louisa Collett married the slightly younger John
Solloway, their wedding recorded at Droitwich (Ref. 6c 166) during the third
quarter of 1875
Six
years after that, Louisa Solloway was 30 when she and her husband John were living
in a house on Worcester Road in Droitwich St Andrews on the day of the census
in 1881. John Solloway from
Kidderminster was 28 and a general labourer when, completing the family group
were Louisa’s two daughters Louisa Collett who was 13, and Elizabeth Collett
who was eight years old. It was at
Princes Row within the Aston area of Birmingham that the couple was residing in
1891, where John Solloway was 38 and was described as a scavenger, while his
wife Louisa Solloway was 40. Eight years
later, the death of John Solloway was recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 6d 59) during the second quarter of 1899
79P11
- Louisa Collett was
born in 1868 at Droitwich
79P12
- Mary Elizabeth Collett
was born in 1872 at Droitwich
Pamela
Susan Collett [79O16]
was born in 1853 at Chipping Norton, where her birth was also recorded (Ref. 3a
140) during the third quarter of the year, another daughter of George and
Elizabeth Collett. She was six years of
age when her mother died and, in the Droitwich census of 1861, Pamela Susan
Collett was seven years old when living with her widowed father and three of
her siblings. No further record of her
has been found
Alfred
Collett [79O17] was
born in 1855 at Fernhill Heath with his birth recorded at nearby Droitwich
(Ref. 6c 34) during the final three months of the year. He was the last child of George Collett and
Elizabeth Bishop who died when Alfred was only three years of age, as confirmed
by the Droitwich census of 1861 when five-year-old Alfred was living with his
widowed father and three older siblings.
Towards the end of 1867, Alfred’s father remarried and in 1871 Alfred
Collett was 15 and was working as a sawyer, when he was with his stepmother at
her sister’s home in Worcester South. Four years later Alfred became a married man
The
marriage of Alfred Collett and Clara Dickens was recorded at King’s Norton
(Ref. 6c 302) during the second quarter of 1875, when they had not reached full
age. Clara was born at Smethwick in
1856, where she was baptised on 12th November 1856, the daughter of
Thomas and Elizabeth Dickens. Alfred’s
place of birth reported in the 1881 census return simply said Worcester,
Fernhill Heath being just north-east of the city, when he was a labourer aged
26. The census form also stated that he
was blind, which may have been partially, as it did not stop him from
working. His wife Clara was 24, and
their first three children were confirmed as Alfred junior aged six, Ellen aged
four, and George who was two. At that
time in their life, they were living at Basons End in Harborne, within the King’s
Norton registration district, although all their children were later recorded
as having been born at Smethwick.
Staying with the young family in 1881, was Clara’s younger brother Cornelius
Dickens who was 19 and an iron worker from Smethwick
According
to the census in 1891, the couple and their three children were living in
Smethwick where Alfred Collett from Fernhill Heath was 36 and a labourer at a
local ironworks. His wife Clara was 34
and their children were Alfred Collett junior who was 15, born at Smethwick,
and already employed as a labourer in a nail works, Ellen E Collett who was 13,
George H Collett who was 12, Florence Collett who was eight, Rose Collett who
was three, and Charles Collett who was under one year old. At least two more children were added to the
family during the following decade
The
enlarged family was residing at Westfield Road in Smethwick in 1901, when every
member of the household, except head of the house Alfred, was recorded as
having been born in Smethwick, when 48-year-old Alfred from Fernhill Heath was
an iron worker. Clara was 46, Alfred was
25, Ellen was 23, George was 21, Florence was 18, Rose was 13, Charles was 10,
Edith was nine, and Edward was one year old.
Clara Collett died eight years later, her death recorded at Kings Heath
register office (Ref. 6c 64) during the first quarter of 1909, when she was 53
years of age. Following the death of his
wife, widower Alfred Collett from Fernhill Heath was 56 and a labourer at a gas
works corporation, when he was still living in Smethwick with six of his
children in 1911. They were Ellen 32,
Florence 27, Rose 23, Charles 20, Edith 19, and Edward 11. By that time Alfred’s two eldest missing sons
were married and were living nearby within the Smethwick registration
district. Alfred Collett was 87 years
old when he died, his death recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 6b 64)
during the first three months of 1940
79P13
– Alfred Collett was
born in 1876 at Smethwick
79P14
– Ellen Eliza Collett
was born in 1877 at Smethwick
79P15
– George Henry Collett
was born in 1879 at Smethwick
79P16
– Florence Collett was
born in 1882 at Smethwick
79P17
– Mary Maud Collett was
born in 1885 at Smethwick
79P18
– Rose Collett was born
in 1888 at Smethwick
79P19
– Charles Thomas Collett
was born in 1890 at Smethwick
79P20
– Edith Collett was
born in 1892 at Smethwick
79P21
– Edward Collett was
born in 1899 at Smethwick
Ann
Collett [79O18] was born at Worcester
near the end of 1868, the eldest of the three children of George Collett by his
second wife Mary Pimble. Ann’s birth was
recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 240) during the first three months of 1869. It was also at All Saints Church in Worcester
that she was baptised on 31st January 1869, when her parents were
confirmed as George and Mary Collett. Two
years later, Ann Collett of Worcester was two years old when she and her
mother, together with her half-brother Alfred Collett (above), were
staying at the Worcester South home of Charles and Ann Weaver and their young
family, Ann being Mary Pimble’s younger sister.
Shortly after that census Ann and her parents settled in Smethwick,
where her two younger brothers were born.
Sometime after the birth of her youngest brother Thomas (below)
in 1876, the family moved from Smethwick to 10 James Street in Harborne, three
miles south-west of Birmingham, where Ann Collett from Worcester was 12 years
old, and where her father died around that same time. Surprisingly it was only seven years later
that the marriage of Annie Collett and Alfred Wade Collett took place at
Smethwick and was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 250) during the third
quarter of 1888. Alfred from
Kidderminster, was the son of James Hillman and his much younger wife Mary Ann
Wade. The couple’s apparently rushed
wedding, may have been because Annie was already carrying Alfred’s child
By
the time of the next census in 1891, Alfred and Annie had given birth to their
first two children at Smethwick, where they were residing at Bearwood Road and,
where ten years later, Annie’s mother was also living who one of Annie’s later
Hillman children staying with her. In
1891 the family of four comprised Alfred Hillman who was 24 and a weighing
clerk, Annie Hillman was 23, and their two daughters were Lucy Hillman who was
two, and Dora Hillman who was under one year old. Six more children were later added to their
family, five of them prior to the next census in 1901, and all of them born at
Bearwood Road in Smethwick. The much
larger family living at Bearwood Road in 1901 had one absentee, that being the
couple’s eight-year-old son William Hillman, amongst five sisters. That may have been because of a problem of
overcrowding in the family home. On that
day, William was also living in Bearwood Road, but at the home of his widowed
grandmother Mary Collett. The remainder
of his family was recorded as Fred Hillman aged 33 and from Kidderminster who
was a warehouseman with a company making screws, Annie Hillman aged 31 and from
Worcester, Lucy Hillman 12, Dora Hillman 10, May Hillman who was six, Elsie
Hillman who was three, Lily Hillman who was one year old, and baby James
Hillman. The birthplace of all the
children was confirmed as Smethwick. After
the birth of the couple’s last child a few years later, the whole family was
living together at Smethwick in 1911.
Fred
Hillman was 44 and a warehouseman in the metal tube trade, and Annie Hillman
was 42. On registering the births of
their eight children at Kings Norton register office, the first seven were
given the second forename of Wade, like their father and, although they were
never included in the census returns, they were Lucy Wade Hillman born
in 1889, Dora Wade Hillman born in 1891, William Wade Collett
born in 1893, May Wade Hillman born in 1895, Elsie Wade Hillman
born in 1897, Lily Wade Hillman born in 1899, James Wade Hillman
born in 1900, and Dorothy Hillman born in 1904
Charles
Collett [79O19] was
born at Smethwick early in 1873, with his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref.
6c 88). He was eight years old in 1881,
by which time he and his family were residing at 10 James Street in Harborne,
Birmingham. After another ten years, general
labourer Charles, aged 18, and his brother Thomas (below), were the only
members of the family still living with their widowed mother back in Smethwick
at Queens Street. It was during the
third quarter of 1896 that Charles Collett married Elizabeth Lenton, the
wedding recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 73), with whom he had two before the
end of the century. The birth of
Elizabeth Lenton had been recorded at Aston, in Birmingham (Ref. 6d 77), during
the first months of 1877. On the
occasion of the Smethwick census in 1901, the family of four was recorded at
Great Arthur Street, where Charles Collett from Smethwick was 28 and working as
a machine packer. His wife Elizabeth
Collett from Birmingham was 24, and their two Smethwick born children were
Charles who was three and Daisy who was two.
To supplement her husband’s wages, Elizabeth took in lodgers, on that
day it was John Lenton aged 29, Elizabeth’s older brother. Daughter Daisy Collett, whose birth was
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 336) died just prior to her
seventh birthday, with her death also recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 60)
during the first three months of 1906. By
then two new children had been added to the family, both born at Smethwick
where the family was recorded again in 1911.
Charles Collett of Smethwick was 38 and an engineer packer, Elizabeth
was 34, Charles E Collett was 13, George Collett was nine, and Lily Collett was
six years old, all of them attending school.
Staying with the family was Charles’ elderly mother, widow Mary Collett
aged 77 from Twyning, Gloucestershire
Charles
Collett was 49 when he died at Smethwick, with his death recorded at Kings
Norton register office (Ref. 6d 120) during the first quarter of 1923. His widow passed away over thirty years
later. As regards his two youngest
children, only their birth and their listing in the 1911 census have been
found. The birth of George Collett, like
all four children, was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 91)
during the second quarter of 1902, and the birth of Lily Collett was also
recorded there (Ref. 6c 66) during the third quarter of 1905
79P22
– Charles Edward Collett
was born in 1897 at Smethwick
79P23
– Daisy Collett was born in 1899 at Smethwick; died there in 1906
79P24
– George Collett was
born in 1902 at Smethwick
79P25
– Lily Collett was born in 1905 at Smethwick
Thomas Collett [79O20]
was born at Smethwick near the end of 1876, the last of the three children of
George Collett and Mary Pimble, whose birth was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c
55) during the first quarter of 1877. He
was four years of age in the Harborne census of 1881 when he and his family
were living at 10 James Street where his father died just a few weeks after
that census day. When that happened,
Thomas and older brother Charles (above) returned to Smethwick with
their mother, where they were living on Queens Street in 1891, when Thomas was
13 and employed as a stamper at a nearby ironworks. Just after the start of the new century,
Thomas Collett from Smethwick was 23 and a general labourer when he was again
living with his widowed mother at Bearwood Road in Smethwick. By 1911, Thomas Collett was an inmate at the
Kings Norton Union Workhouse at Northfield near Selly Oak, where he was a
general labourer aged 33
Sarah
Ann Collett [79O22] was
born in early 1846 at Stepney in London, where her birth was recorded (Ref. ii
40) and was baptised at the Church of St Philip the Apostle in Stepney on 22nd
March 1846, the first-born child of Charles Collett and Mary Ann Harmer. She was five years old in the census of 1851
when Sarah and her family were living at Goodmans Field in Whitechapel. Sometime during the 1850s, the family left
London and moved north to Oxfordshire, where they settled in the village of
Great Rollright. That situation was confirmed
in the Great Rollright census of 1861 when baker’s daughter Sarah Ann Collett
from Stepney was 15 years of age. She
was still there with her parents in 1871 when, at the age of 24, she had no
stated occupation. However, it seems
highly likely that single Sarah was expecting the birth of a base-born child on
that census, the child later being raised by Sarah’s married brother Alfred who
had no children of his own
It
was four years later when the marriage of Sarah Ann Collett and Henry Tompkins was
recorded at Banbury (Ref. 3a 317) during the second quarter of 1875. In 1881 Sarah Ann’s five-year-old daughter,
Florence M Tompkins from Chipping Norton, was staying with her paternal
grandparents Charles and Mary Ann Collett at Great Rollright. On that same day, Henry Tompkins from
Dunthrop, Heythrop, was 33 and a coach builder and a publican. The hamlet of Dunthrop lies within the parish
of Heythrop, and it may have been at an inn in the village of Heythrop where
Henry was the inn keeper. Recorded with
him in the census of 1881 was his wife and their two youngest children; Sarah A
Tompkins from Stepney was 34, while her two youngest daughters were
three-year-old Alma E Tompkins, and Lilian A Tompkins who was two years of age,
both from nearby Chipping Norton. That
same census return also included the (incorrect) details for the couples absent
eldest daughter Florence, as mentioned above with her grandparents, being
just three years old. Staying at the inn
with the family were two male boarders, William Calvert and Joseph Shipman
Henry
Tompkins was born at Heythrop in 1850 and was the son of George and Elizabeth
Tompkins, with whom he was still living in 1871 when he was 21 and a
wheelwright. The birth of Florence
Mary Tompkins was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 234) during the second
quarter of 1876, the birth of Alma Ellen Tompkins was recorded at
Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 55) during the third quarter of 1877, while it was
there also that the birth of Lilian Annie Tompkins was recorded (Ref. 3a
46) during the third quarter of 1879. In
the census of 1891 Florence M Tompkins was 14 when she was living at Southcombe
(midway between Chipping Norton and Heythrop) and the home of her maternal
grandfather, widowed George Tompkins from Heythrop, a retired groom aged 77 who
had previously been employed at Dunthrop Farm. Another, slightly older granddaughter, Adele
Tompkins from Battersea in London, was 16 and the housekeeper
By
that time, Sarah Ann had given birth to two more children while, also living
with the family at Southcombe was another daughter who was the same age as
their eldest child Florence, for whom no birth record has been found, and who
does not appear in the census of 1881.
Head of the household, Henry Tompkins was 42 and continuing his dual
occupation as a coach builder and a publican, Sarah A Tompkins was 39 and from
London, Alma E Tompkins was 14 and born at Chipping Norton, Lilian Tomkins was
11, Percival Henry Tompkins was eight, and Jessie Sarah Tompkins
was seven years of age. Both of their
births were also recorded at Chipping Norton, Percival during the third quarter
of 1882 (Ref. 3a 321), and Jessie during the first three months of 1884 (Ref.
3a 332)
According
to the Chipping Norton census for 1901, Henry Tompkins from Dunthrop was 50 who
had returned to his former work as a wheelwright, Sarah Ann was 48 but said she
had been born at Great Rollright, Percival Henry was 18 and a wheelwright – who
was a coach builder by 1911, and Jessie Sarah was 17 with no occupation. The couple’s other daughter Lilian, was
recorded at New Milverton near Leamington Spa in Warwick, where Lily A Tompkins
from Chipping Norton was 21 and a domestic servant and housemaid at the home of
John and Edith Kimmond
Eight
years later, at the age of 62, the death of Henry Tompkins was recorded at
Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 361) during the third quarter of 1909.
Less than two years after being made a widow, Sarah Ann aged 58 and her
daughter Jessie Sarah aged 27 and from Southcombe, were still residing Chipping
Norton, neither of them having a job of work.
Jessie was married just after that census day. Something quite extraordinary happened during
the years following the death of Henry Tompkins. After he died on 2nd August 1909,
Henry’s Will was proved in Oxford on 2nd September 1909 when the
sole beneficiary was Sarah Ann Tompkins, his widow. Fourteen years later, and after Sarah Ann
passed away on 22nd May 1923, her Will was also proved at Oxford on 13th
July 1923, when Charlie Collett was named as the sole beneficiary. That must have been disputed and caused her
husband’s Will to be reviewed, with a second probate review completed at Oxford
on 25th August 1923, when the main beneficiary was Alma Ellen
Collett, the second being Charles Collett
This
information provides a direct link between Part 64 and Part 59 – The Colletts
of Kingham (Oxfordshire) to the USS Collett, through Charles Collett (Ref.
59P25) and his wife Alma Ellen Collett, formerly Alma Ellen Tompkins. Her birth was recorded at Chipping Norton
during the summer of 1877, placing her as a generation younger than Henry
Tompkins, which raises the question, was his daughter Alice E Tompkins, who was
14 in 1891, actually Alma Ellen Tompkins, which seems the most obvious assumption
79P26 - Emma L Collett was born in 1871
at Middleton Cheney, near Banbury
Charles
Clement Collett [79O23]
was born at Stepney either at the end of 1847 or just after the start of 1848,
his birth recorded at Stepney (Ref. ii 10) and was baptised there on 27th
February 1848, the eldest son of Charles and Mary Ann Collett. It was also when the family was still living
in the Stepney area of London when he died, his death recorded at Stepney (Ref.
ii 3) during the third quarter of 1849
Alfred
Hyatt Collett [79O24]
was born in 1851 at Stepney, the only surviving son of Charles and Mary Ann
Collett, whose birth was recorded at Whitechapel (Ref. ii 39) during the second
quarter of that year. He was then baptised
at St Philips Church in Stepney on 27th July 1851 and was nine years
old and a baker’s son in the census of 1861, by which time he and his family
were residing in Great Rollright, near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. He was still living there with his family ten
years later in 1871, when Alfred H Collett from Stepney was 19 years of age and
a baker’s son. Around thirty months
after that census day, when Alfred was twenty-two, he married previously
married Emma Clarke, their wedding day recorded at Banbury (Ref. 3a 181) during
the last quarter of 1873
It
may have been upon becoming a married man that Alfred stopped working with his
father, when he took on the role of publican.
It was with that occupation that Alfred H Collett from London, aged 29,
was living and working at Back Lane in Chipping Norton in 1881. His wife Emma Collett from Appleton in
Berkshire who was 32 and living there with the couple was Emma L Collett who
was 10 years old and born at Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire who was
described as Alfred’s niece, being the base-born daughter of his older
unmarried sister Sarah Ann Collett (above)
During
the next decade Alfred and Emma left the inn at Back Lane in Chipping Norton
and by 1891 they were living at Scotland Road in Hook Norton, within the
Bloxham area of Banbury, when Alfred was 39 and a farmer from London, and Emma
was 42 and from Berkshire. It was ten
years after that when Alfred was named in the census of 1901 under his full
name, by which time the couple was still living at Scotland Road in the village
of Hook Norton. Alfred Hyatt Collett
(Hyatt being his grandmother’s maiden-name) was 49 and a farmer, whose place of
birth was incorrectly recorded as Christchurch in Surrey, instead of Stepney in
London. His wife Emma Collett from
Appleton was 50 and living with the couple was Alfred’s elderly mother Mary Ann
Collett from Christchurch in Surrey, who died there nine years later. Alfred Hyatt Collett was 58 years old when he
died at Banbury, perhaps in hospital, where his death was recorded (Ref. 3a
312) during the third quarter of 1909.
His widow Emma Collett was still living in Hook Norton at the start of
April in 1911, when she was 63
Mary
Elizabeth Collett [79O25]
was born in 1860 at Great Rollright, Oxfordshire, her birth recorded at
Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 168) during the third quarter of 1860, the last child
of Charles Collett and Mary Ann Harmer.
She was therefore around six months old on the day of the Great Rollright
census in 1861, and was 10 years of age in 1871, when she was still living
there with her family and at school.
Alan John Lardner Collett [79P1] was born at Charlbury, his birth
recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 48) during the third quarter of 1861. It was also at Charlbury that he was baptised
on 28th July 1861, the first-born child of butcher John Collett and
his wife Anne Lardner. Shortly after he
was born his parents left Charlbury when they moved the eight miles to
Churchill where Alan’s maternal grandparents lived. And it was with his grandparents, retired
butcher Thomas Lardner and his wife Mary that he was living in 1871. Recorded in the census that year as Allan J L
Collett, aged nine years, he was described as a scholar of Charlbury, while
living at Heath Road in Churchill. By
that time the rest of his family was living in London
According
to the next census in 1881 Alan was once again living with his family at their
new home at 13 Guildford Street East in Clerkenwell, London where Allan
Collett, then aged 19, was working as a carman.
It was as Allan Collett, age 29, that he was recorded in the Holborn
& Amwell census of 1891, when he was still living with his family at 15
Granville Square in Clerkenwell.
Sometime over the next ten years, Alan must have suffered a serious
accident while at work, since he was listed in the March census in 1901 as
being an invalid. That year’s census
return confirmed he was born at Charlbury, that he was 39, and still living
with his parents at Percy Circus in Clerkenwell. It has not been determined if he was ever
married, nor has any record of him been found in the census of 1911, by which
time his father and his sister Agnes had returned to Dean in Oxfordshire,
following the death of Alan’s mother
Agnes Mary Collett [79P2] was born in the village of Churchill in
1863 and was baptised at Churchill on 5th July 1863, the second
child and eldest daughter of John William Collett and Ann Lardner. Not long after she was born her parents left
Oxfordshire when they moved into London.
According to the census in 1871 the family, less Agnes’ older brother
Alan (above) was living within the Holborn &Amwell area of
Clerkenwell, where Agnes was seven years old.
Ten years later in 1881, as Agnes M Collett, she was 17 and was living
with her family at 13 Guildford Street East in Clerkenwell. She was still living in Clerkenwell with her
parents after a further ten years, when she was 27, but by which time the
family home was at 15 Granville Square in Clerkenwell
It
seems unlikely that she ever married since, in the census of 1901, Agnes M
Collett from Churchill in Oxfordshire was 37, and was a spinster who was still
living with her parents at Percy Circus in Clerkenwell. Ten years later she was still unmarried, but
by then she and her widowed father had left London and were once again living
in Oxfordshire. The 1911 Census listed
Agnes Mary Collett, aged 47, living in the hamlet of Dean with her father John
William Collett who was 73. Unmarried
Agnes Mary Collett was living at 88 Windmill Street in Gravesend, Kent when she
died on 15th January 1942.
Probate for her Will was resolved at Llandudno on 30th March
1942 in favour of her brother William Thomas Collett, a bank messenger, and his
wife May Helen Kate Collett, when her estate was valued at £1,844 5 Shillings and
3 Pence
John
William Collett [79P3] was
born around 1868 at Clerkenwell in London, the third child of John and Anne
Collett who had only just arrived there from Oxfordshire. In 1871, at the age of three, John Collett
was living with his family in the Holborn & Amwell district of London,
which included Clerkenwell. Ten years
later he was living with his parents at 13 Guildford Street East from where
John W Collett, aged 13, had already left school and was working as a carrier
and a parcel boy. Ten years after that
day John William Collett was a married man, when his family was still living in
Clerkenwell, at 15 Granville Square. It
was new information received from Norman Collett during 2012, which confirmed
that John William Collett had married Charlotte Sabina Roots near the end of
1889, the event recorded at West Ham (Ref. 4a 329) during the fourth quarter of
that year. Charlotte had been born at
Poplar during 1865. In 1891 the
childless couple was living at Green Lane in West Ham, where John W Collett was
25 and a gas stoker and his wife Charlotte was 24. The new information also confirmed that John
and Charlotte had a son William Albert Collett who was born at West Ham on 15th
June 1897. It now transpires that he was
just one of five sons born to John and Charlotte
The next census return for West Ham
listed the family living at Kelland Road in Plaistow as John W Collett from
Whitechapel, who was 35 and a general labourer at a local gas works, his wife
Charlotte S Collett from West Ham who was 34, and their four West Ham born
sons. They were John T Collett who was
nine, Henry E Collett and William A Collet who were both three years old, and
Walter S Collett who was one year old.
With the couple’s advancing years only one more child was added to the
family during the following year.
According to the West Ham census in 1911, the family was residing in the
parish of St Mary Plaistow. John William
Collett was 45 and a dock labourer, Charlotte Collett was 44, John T Collett
was 19 and another dock labourer, Henry E Collett was 13, as was William A
Collett, both still at school, Walter S Collett was 10, and Leonard A Collett
was eight years old. Every member of the
household was recorded as having been born at Plaistow which, between 1915 and
1920, was living at 33 Meredith Street in Plaistow, from where sons John and
William were married respectively in those two years. Kelland Road and Meredith Street are very
close to each other. Charlotte Sabina
Collett was 53 years old when her death was recorded at West Ham register
office (Ref. 4a 13) during the fourth quarter of 1919. Just over a year later the death of widowed
John William Collett was recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 85) at
the end of 1920 or not long after the start of 1921, at the age of 56
79Q1
– John Thomas Collett
was born in 1891 at Plaistow, West Ham
79Q2 – Henry Edward Collett was born in 1897 at Plaistow, West Ham
79Q3 – William Albert Collett was born in 1897 at Plaistow, West Ham
79Q4 – Walter Samuel Collett was born in 1900 at Plaistow, West Ham
79Q5 – Leonard Arthur Collett was born in 1902 at Plaistow, West Ham
Anne
Ethelfreda Collett [79P4], referred
to as Mary, was born at Clerkenwell in 1875.
According to the Census of 1881 she was Annie E Collett aged six, when
she was living with her family at 13 Guildford Street East in Clerkenwell. Ten years after that she was again listed as
Annie Collett in the Holborn & Amwell census of 1891 when she was 15 and
still living with her family. Sadly, it
was only ten months later, at the tender age of just 16 years, that she died at
15 Granville Square in the Clerkenwell area of London. She passed away on 18th January
1892, the cause of death being influenza and pneumonia. Five days later she was buried with her
brother John William Collett (above) at Spelsbury in Oxfordshire on 23rd
January 1892in 1875 at Clerkenwell, London
William Thomas Collett [79P5] was born at 13 Guildford Street East in
Clerkenwell in either February or March 1881 since, in the census for that
year, he was listed as being aged one month.
It was simply as William Collett of Clerkenwell aged 11, that he was
recorded in the Holborn & Amwell census of 1891 when he was living at 15
Granville Square in Clerkenwell with his family. Just after the turn of the century William
was still living at Clerkenwell with his parents, but at Percy Circus. According to the census return for March
1901, William T Collett was 21 and his place of birth was confirmed as
Clerkenwell. His occupation at that time
was that of a carman, like his older brother Alan (above) prior to his
accident. During the summer of the
following year, the marriage of William Thomas Collett of Clerkenwell and May Helen
K Croxford, also of Clerkenwell, was recorded at Holborn register office (Ref.
1b 16) during the third quarter of 1902. By April 1911 the childless couple had moved
to Churchill in Oxfordshire, where William’s mother Annie Lardner had been
born. The census that year recorded the
couple as William Thomas Collett of Clerkenwell, who was 31, and his wife May
Collett, also from Clerkenwell, who was 29.
At the time of the death of his eldest sister Agnes Mary Collett (above)
in 1942, when she was living at 88 Windmill Street in Gravesend, it was William
Thomas and his wife May Helen Kate Collett who were named as the executors of
her estate. On that occasion William’s
occupation was that of a bank messenger
William
B Collett [79P7] was
born at Worcester in 1870, the eldest of the four known children of Henry Allen
Collett and Hannah Huckfield. By the
time he was one year old, he and his parents were living at Dodderhill, near
Droitwich, where the next two children were born. It was at Hadzor, to the east of Droitwich,
that William was 11 years of age in 1881, when he and his family were living on
a farm, his father being a farm bailiff.
After a further ten years, 21-year-old William was working alongside his
father as a railway labourer when he was still living with his parents, but at
335 Dawlish Road in Northfield (Kings Norton). It was there also that the family was still in
1901, by which time unmarried William Collett from Worcester was 30 years old
and again working with his father, as a builder’s labourer. Just over four years later the marriage of
William Collett, a bachelor, and Esther Walker, the widow of George Walker, was
recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 152) during the third quarter of
1905. Esther already had two children
from her first marriage to George, and they were George Benjamin Walker born in
1894, and William James Walker born in 1901, both born at Erdington, where the
family was living in 1911. The census
that year recorded the group of four as William Collett from Droitwich who was
40 and a builder’s labourer, Esther Collett from Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, who
was 43, George Benjamin Walker who was 17, and William James Walker who was
nine years of age. George and Esther
Walker had previously given birth to two daughters, Alice in 1892 and Esther in
1896 who, like their father, did not survive
What
happened next is still a mystery, because two years later the marriage of
William B Collett and Agnes Miriam Rump was recorded at the London Holborn
register office (Ref. 1b 94) during the second quarter of 1913. Agnes was born at Islington on 30th
April 1883, a daughter of metropolitan policeman Edward Dunning Rump and his
wife Caroline. In 1911, and at the age
of 27, Agnes was single and employed as a telephone operator with the National
Telephone Company Limited, when she was still living with her large family in
Clerkenwell. Her marriage to William
produced three children, the births of all three recorded at Islington register
office, where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Rump. The birth of their first child was recorded
during the second quarter of 1914 (Ref. 1b 125), the next during the second quarter
of 1916 (Ref. 1b 118), and the third during the last quarter of 1921 (Ref. 1b
82). The later death of William B
Collett, aged 85 years, was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 42)
during the second quarter of 1955. After
another fifteen years, his widow was residing in Surrey, when the death of
Agnes Miriam Collett was recorded at Sutton register office (Ref. 5e 100)
during the last three months of 1970, when she was 87
79Q6 – William E Collett was born in
1914 at Islington
79Q7 – Doris A Collett was born in 1916
at Islington
79Q8 – Winifred A Collett was born in 1921
at Islington
Gertrude
Collett [79P8] was born
in 1872 at Dodderhill (Hanbury), near Droitwich, her birth recorded at
Droitwich (Ref. 6c 232) during the second quarter of that year. She was four years old when her family moved
the short distance to a farm at Hadzor, where Gertrude Collett from Dodderhill
was nine years old in 1881. On leaving
school she secured a job with the local railway station at Northfield, and in
1891 when she was 19, Gertrude and her family were living at 335 Dawlish Road
in Northfield (Kings Norton). Curiously,
like her older brother William (above), she was described as a railway
labourer. She was again living with her
parents at Dawlish Road in 1901, by which time she was 28 with no stated
occupation and when her place of birth was simply recorded as Droitwich. With the passing of her father in 1907,
unmarried Gertrude was living with her widowed mother and younger brother Harry
at Northfield Selly Oak in 1911, when Gertrude Collett from Hanbury was 38 and
presumably acting as the housekeeper who her elderly mother. She never married, with the death of Gertrude
Collett recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 70) during the last
three months of 1949, when she was 77 years old
Alfred
Collett [79P9] was born
at Dodderhill (Hanbury) near Droitwich at the end of 1873, the third child of
Henry Allen Collett and Hannah Huckfield, whose birth was recorded at Droitwich
(Ref. 6c 134) during the first months of 1874.
At the time of the census in 1881 when Alfred was seven years old, he
was living with his family on a farm at Hadzor to the east of Droitwich. On leaving school he also left the family
home which, by then was at 337 Dawlish Road in the Northfield district of Kings
Norton. That was confirmed by the census
in 1891 when 16 years old Alfred Collett was living and working close to where
his family was living. During the next
ten years Alfred returned to the family home in Northfield, where he was living
in March 1901, when he was 26 and his occupation was that of a copper wire
drawer. Two years later, during the
second quarter of 1903, Alfred married enamel painter Emily Johnson, the event
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 146), with whom he had a
daughter who was born the following year.
The Kings Norton (Bournbrook Selly Oak) census return for April 1911
listed the family at Northfield as Alfred Collett from Hanbury near Droitwich,
who was 35 and a wire drawer working for a copper and brass metal manufacturer.
His wife Emily Collett from Bromsgrove
was 31, and their daughter Ellen Victoria Collett was seven years old and born
at nearby Selly Oak
79Q9 – Ellen Victoria Collett was born
in 1904 at Selly Oak
Harry
Collett [79P10] was
born in 1887 at Hadzor, near Droitwich, and was five years old and living with
his family at 337 Dawlish Road in Northfield by 1891. It was also at Dawlish Road that he was again
living with his parents in 1901, when he was 14 and said to have been born at
Droitwich. He was the last of the four
children of Henry Allen Collett and Hannah Huckfield. Following the death of his father in 1907,
Harry Collett, aged 23 and from Hadzor, was one of only two children still
living with their widowed mother at Selly Oak, near Northfield, in 1911 when he
was working at a local metal works as an emery bobber. It may be that he never married, and that he
was said to be around 72 years old when the death of Harry Collett was recorded
at Wednesbury register office (Ref. 9b 53) in nearby Staffordshire during the
third quarter of 1961
Louisa
Collett [79P11] was
born at Dodderhill, near Droitwich, in 1868 and it was there at Droitwich that
her birth was recorded (Ref. 6c 278) during the second quarter of the year, and
where she was baptised on 11th June 1868, the base-born daughter of
Louisa Collett and an unknown father. In
1871 Louisa was three years old when living at Fox Alley with her unmarried
mother, at the home of her widowed aunt Georgiana Griffiths and her daughter
Elizabeth Griffiths. During the
following year her mother gave birth to another daughter, mostly like a
half-sister to Louisa, while after a further three years Louisa’s mother
married John Solloway. By 1881 Louisa
and her sister Elizabeth (below) were living at Worcester Road in
Droitwich with their mother and stepfather, when Louisa Collett was 13. It was as Louisa Collett that she married
Alfred Lakin during the third quarter of 1885 at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 83),
following which she presented him with one daughter, Elsie May Lakin who
was born in Birmingham between July and September 1886. Alfred Lakin was a brass burnisher and once
married the family lived in Erdington.
On leaving school Elsie May Lakin worked in a dyer’s warehouse before
marrying Thomas Edgar Lockhart, an engineer’s tool merchant, in the Aston
district of Birmingham during the autumn of 1908. Two years after they were married Elsie
presented Thomas with a daughter May Elsie Lockhart who was born at Erdington
in 1910
Mary
Elizabeth Collett [79P12]
was born in 1872 at Droitwich, as Elizabeth Collett she was eight years old and
living with her family at Worcester Road in Droitwich in 1881. Her birth as Mary Elizabeth was recorded at
Droitwich (Ref. 6c 239) during the second quarter of 1872, following which she
was baptised as Mary Elizabeth Collett at St Andrew’s Church on 5th
May 1872, when she was simply described as the daughter of Louisa Collett. It was three years later that her mother
married John Solloway from Kidderminster who was 28 and a general
labourer. It is not known whether he was
the father of Mary Elizabeth, but he was too young to be the father of Mary’s
older half-sister Louisa (above).
No record of her has been found after 1881
Alfred Collett [79P13]
was born in 1876 at Smethwick, the first of the nine children of Alfred Collett
and Clara Dickens, whose birth was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 212)
during the first quarter of that year, and nine months after his parents were
married there. It was also at Smethwick
that he was baptised on 22nd Aug 1876. In successive census returns from 1881 to
1901 he was living with his family in the parish of Smethwick. When he was five years old the family home
was at Basons End in Harborne, by the time he was 15, he
had left school and was working as a labourer in a nail factory, when he and
the family were living at Church Road in Smethwick, and it was at Westfield
Road in Smethwick that the family was residing in 1901, when unmarried
Alfred was 25 and working in hardware. Around
twelve months after that census day, the marriage of Alfred Collett and Eliza
Farmer Yates was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 279) during
the second quarter of 1902
By 1911 they had two children who were
born at Smethwick, where the family was living at the time of the census that
year. Alfred Collett was 35 and working
as a grindery warehouseman with a nail and shoe tip manufacturer. His wife Eliza Farmer Collett was 30, son Alfred
George Collett was five, and son Eric William Collett was just one year
old. Every member of the household had
been born at Smethwick. As far as can be
deduced, it was ten years later that the only daughter of Alfred and Eliza was
born at Smethwick, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Yates. The couple was still living in Smethwick when
Alfred Collett died at the age of 64, with his passing recorded at Kings Norton
register office (Ref. 6b 62) during the first three months of 1940. The later death of Eliza Farmer Collett was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 6) during the third quarter of
1963, when she was 81, having been born at Smethwick in the spring of 1882, the
daughter of George and Hannah Yates
79Q10
– Alfred George Collett was
born in 1906 at Smethwick
79Q11
– Eric William Collett
was born in 1910 at Smethwick
79Q12
– Doris Lilian Collett
was born in 1921 at Smethwick
Ellen
Eliza Collett [79P14]
was born in 1877 at Smethwick, the second child and eldest daughter of Alfred
and Clara Collett. Her birth was
recorded at Kings Norton (Ref.6c 164) during the third quarter of 1877,
although it was three years after when she was baptised at Smethwick on 12th
August 1880. As Ellen Collett she was
four years old in the Harborne census of 1881 when living with her family at
Basons End. By 1891 Ellen E Collett had
left school and at the age of 13, she was most likely helping her mother with
the large family, since the census that year did not credit her with any job of
work, when the family was living at Church Road in Smethwick. It was at Westfield Road in Smethwick that the
family was living in 1901 when she was 23.
Two years after her mother died in 1909, the Smethwick census confirmed
that Ellen was the eldest daughter of widowed Alfred Collett, when she was the
housekeeper for the rest of her family at the age of 33. Looking after her family obviously delayed
the opportunity for Ellen to become a married woman, since it was thirteen
years later that the marriage of Ellen Eliza Collett and Samuel Morris was
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 90) during the first three
months of 1924.
George
Henry Collett [79P15]
was born in 1879 at Smethwick, his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 94)
during the third quarter of the year. Shortly
after that George Henry was baptised at Smethwick on 4th September
1879, the third child and second son of Alfred and Clara Collett. Although born at Smethwick, it was at Basons
End in Harborne that George Collett was two years old in 1881, but his family
returned to Church Road in Smethwick during the following years, where George
Henry Collett was 12 years old in 1891. A
decade later and the family was recorded as residing at Westfield Road in
Smethwick, by which time George was 21 and an employee with the local
corporation. Later that year the
marriage of George Henry Collett and Kate Harriet Sandel took place at
Smethwick and was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 34) during
the fourth quarter of 1901. Kate was the
daughter of John and Ellen Sandel of White Road in Smethwick, and her birth was
recorded at West Bromwich in the spring of 1880
According
to the Smethwick census conducted in 1911, the childless couple were described
as George Henry Collett of Smethwick who was 31, whose occupation was that of
an engine driver at an engineering works, while his wife Kate Harriet Collett
was also 31 and from Perry Barr in the Aston area of Birmingham. Staying with them that day was Kate’s younger
brother Jack Sandel of Smethwick who was 21 and working for the Birmingham and
Midland Tram Company. Also visiting the
couple was their niece Dorothy Taylor from Sedgley area of Dudley who was two
years of age. Kate Harriet Collett was
68 years old when her death was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 9b
103) during the last three months of 1948.
What happened to her husband has not yet been discovered
Florence
Collett [79P16] was
born in 1882 at Smethwick, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 23)
during the last three months of the year. Her baptism was conducted at Smethwick on 30th
November 1882, another daughter of Alfred and Clara Collett who were living at
Church Road in Smethwick in 1891, where Florence was nine years old. The family then moved to Westfield Road in
Smethwick, where Florence was 18 and a laundress in 1901. She was still a single lady in 1911 and was
again working as a laundress at a nearby laundry in Smethwick, where she was
living with her father and five siblings. Around six months later the marriage of
Florence Collett and Bertie S Cole was recorded at Kings Norton register office
(Ref. 6c 138) during the third quarter of 1911, although nothing of the couple
has so far been found after that time
Mary
Maud Collett [79P17]
was born at Smethwick near the end of 1885, her birth recorded at Kings Norton
(Ref. 6c 179) during the last three months of the year. Tragically, she did not survive, with the
death of Mary Maud Collett also recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 9c 139) during
the first three months of 1887. Just
prior to that, Mary Maud Collett was baptised at Smethwick on 13th
January 1887, the daughter of Alfred and Clara Collett
Rose
Collett [79P18] was
born at the start of 1888 in Smethwick, while her birth was recorded at Kings
Norton (Ref. 6c 181) during the first two months of the year, after which Rose
was baptised at Smethwick on 1st March 1888, another daughter of
Alfred and Clara Collett. She may have
been born at Church Road, where she was living with her family in 1891 at the
age of three years. It was at Westfield
Road in Smethwick that Rose and her family were living in 1901, when she was
13. On leaving school, Rose was employed
at a laundry, as confirmed by the census in 1911, when she was 23, single and a
laundress who was still living in Smethwick with her family, following the
death of her mother two years earlier.
Towards the end of that same year, the marriage of Rose Collett and John
Southam took place at Smethwick and was recorded at Kings Norton register
office (Ref. 6c 61) during the last three months of 1911. John was born at Smethwick and his birth was
also recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 180) during the first three month of
1886. No record of any children has been
found. Rose Southam, nee Collett, died
on 28th December 1950 at the age of 62 and was buried at Quinton
Cemetery in Halesowen
Charles
Thomas Collett [79P19]
was born at Church Road in Smethwick, either near the end of 1889 or very early
in 1890, with his birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 157) during the first
month of 1890. It was at Smethwick that
he was baptised on 20th February 1890, another son of Alfred and
Clara Collett with whom he was living at Church Road in 1891 at the age of one
year. He was recorded as simply Charles
Collett in 1901 who was ten years old and living with his family at Westfield
Road in Smethwick. At the start of the
next decade, he was 20 and working as a milling machine hand in a factory
making casement window frames. On that
occasion he was still living in Smethwick, but with his widowed father after
his mother had died in 1909.
Edith
Alice Collett [79P20]
was born in 1892 at Smethwick, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 148)
during the second quarter of the year, the youngest daughter of Alfred and
Clara Collett with whom she was living at Westfield Road in Smethwick in 1901
at the age of nine years. In 1908 her
mother died, leaving Edith living at Smethwick with her father and five
siblings, when she was 19 and a laundress working at a local laundry with her
older sister Rose (above)
Edward Collett [79P21]
was born at Westfield Road in Smethwick in 1899, the last child of Alfred
Collett and Clara Dickens. His birth was
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 302) during the third quarter
of the year. It was also at Westfield
Road that he was living with his large family in 1901, when he was one year old.
Sadly, his mother died when he was nine
years old so, by the time of the following census in 1911, Edward was 11 years
of age when he was living with his widowed father and five older siblings in
Smethwick. Nine years after that census
day, the marriage of Edward Collett and Florence Hughes took place at Smethwick
and was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 68) during the second
quarter of 1920. Florence was also born
at Smethwick and her birth was also recorded at Kings Norton register office
(Ref. 6c 114) during the second quarter of 1899, the daughter of Thomas and
Mary (Polly) Hughes. Over the next
nineteen years, Florence presented Edward with six children, although not all
of them survived. The births of their
first three children were recorded at Kings Norton, the next at Dudley, and the
last two at Smethwick register office.
In each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hughes. The birth of the sixth child was recorded
without including a name (Ref. 6d 113) during the second quarter of 1939. Twenty years after the birth of their final
child, the death of Edward Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 9c 264) during the second quarter of 1959 when he was 59 years old. It was later that same year when the death of
Florence Collett, also aged 59, was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref.
9b 138) during the third quarter of 1959
79Q13
– Edward G Collett was
born in 1921 at Smethwick
79Q14
– Florence Alice Collett
was born in 1922 at Smethwick
79Q15
– Hazel Collett was
born in 1924 at Smethwick
79Q16
– Doris H Collett was
born in 1926 at Dudley
79Q17
– Douglas Collett was
born in 1934 at Smethwick
79Q18
– a Collett daughter was born in 1939 at Smethwick
Charles Edward Collett [79P22]
was born at Smethwick in 1897, where he was baptised on 19th August
1897, the eldest of the four children of Charles Collett and Elizabeth
Lenton. His birth was recorded at Kings
Norton (Ref. 6c 79) during the third quarter of that year. He may have been born at Great Arthur Street
in Smethwick, where the family was living in 1901 when Charles was three years old.
He was 13 years old in 1911, when he was
still attending school in Smethwick and again living there with his family. His military record states that in 1916
Charles Edward Collett from Smethwick was serving with the 57th
Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, No. 51142. Two years later, the marriage of Charles
Edward Collett and Kate Gibbs was recorded at Kings Norton register office
(Ref. 6d 123) during the third quarter of 1918.
Not long after their wedding day, Kate gave birth to the first of the
couple’s two known children when they were still living in Smethwick. It would also appear that they lived much of their
life in Smethwick. Charles Edward
Collett was 60 years old when he died at Smethwick where his passing was
recorded during the second quarter of 1959 (Ref. 9b 96)
79Q19
– Leslie Charles Collett was
born in 1918 at Smethwick
79Q20
– Lilian Annie Collett was
born in 1923 at Smethwick
George
Collett [79P24] was
born at Smethwick in 1902, his birth recorded at Kings Norton register office
(Ref. 6c 91) during the second quarter of the year. He was another son of Charles Collett and
Elizabeth Lenton and was nine years of age in the Smethwick census of
1911. Eleven years later, the marriage
of George Collett and Florence E Robbins was recorded at West Bromwich register
office (Ref. 6b 9) during the first three months of 1922, just prior to his
twentieth birthday. It was towards the
end of that same year when the couple’s first or four children was born at
Smethwick, who was named after George’s older sister Daisy, who had died in
1906 at just seven years of age. Just
after she was born, George’s father suffered a premature death before his
fiftieth birthday when he was still living at Smethwick and before baby Daisy
Florence Collett was christened.
Florence Elizabeth Robbins was the daughter of George and Minnie Robbins
from Oxfordshire, although Florence was born at Walworth in London in 1899. At the time of the death of Florence
Elizabeth Collett at Smethwick in the summer of 1959, she was recorded as being
59 years old
79Q21
– Daisy Florence Collett was
born in 1922 at Smethwick
79Q22
– George Eric Collett was
born in 1923 at Smethwick
79Q23
– Ronald Collett was
born in 1926 at Smethwick
79Q24
– Mavis Collett was
born in 1929 at Smethwick
John
Thomas Collett [79Q1] was
born at Plaistow, within the West Ham area of East London on 1st
July 1891, the eldest child of John William Collett and Charlotte Sabina Roots,
who was only three weeks old when he was baptised at St Andrew’s Church as John
Thomas Collett on 21st July 1891. At the age of nine years, John T Collett and
his family were residing at Kelland Road in Plaistow where, in 1911 he was 19
years old and working alongside his father as a dock labourer. His place of birth was confirmed at Plaistow. Four years after that census day, John Thomas
Collett married Caroline Bartlett by the reading of banns at St Andrew’s Church
in Plaistow on 11th July 1915.
John was 24 and a railway servant still living in the Collett family
home at 33 Meredith Street, very close to Kelland Road, and was confirmed as
the son of John William Collett, a labourer.
Caroline was 27 and the daughter of shopkeeper John Thomas Bartlett, who
was also one of the witnesses, together with Ruby Bartlett, Caroline’s youngest
sister at 23. In 1901 Caroline and her
family were living at Bloomfield Road in Mile End Old Town, where she had been
born, the penultimate child of John Bartlett and Emma Chappell. On completing her education, Caroline joined
the well-known company of map makers Collins Bartholomew, established around
1850 in Scotland, where she worked as a machinist, when she and her family were
still living at Mile End Old Town, but at Burdett Road
The
marriage of John and Caroline produced two children when they were still living
in the West Ham area of East London, where their births were recorded and where
their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bartlett. Sometime later, and after the tragic death of
their baby son, the family moved out of London, and it was at Epping, still in
Essex, that the family was living from around the mid-to-late 1920s. Their daughter was married there in 1932 and,
just over a year later the premature death of Caroline Collett was recorded at
Epping register office (Ref. 4a 90), either at the end of 1933 or early in
1934, when she was only 46. Her husband
later settled in Romford, where his passing was recorded (Ref. 5a 103) during
the first quarter of 1956 when he was 64 years old. The birth of their son was recorded at West
Ham (Ref. 4a 5) during the third quarter of 1921, where his death was recorded
around six months later (Ref. 4a 143)
79R1 – Gladys Caroline Collett
was born in 1916 at West Ham
79R2
– Reginald J B Collett was born in 1921 at West Ham and died there in 1922
Henry
Edward Collett [79Q2]
was born on 15th June 1897 at Plaistow, West Ham, where his birth
was recorded (Ref. 4a 89) during the third quarter of the year, the twin
brother of William Albert (below), another two sons of John William and
Catherine Sabina Collett. The twins were
baptised a month later, in a joint ceremony on 11th July 1897 at St
Andrew’s Church in Plaistow. In 1901 the
twins were three years of age when they were living at the family home on
Kelland Road in Plaistow, where they were both 13 in 1911 and still at school. It was near the end of 1922 when Henry E
Collett and Violet Weaver were married, their wedding recorded at Billericay
register office (Ref. 4a 65) during the last quarter of the year. Violet was born at Forest Gate in West Ham on
6th March 1902, the daughter of Joseph and Hilda Weaver, who was
baptised on 11th September 1902.
During their first six years together, Violet presented Henry, who was
known as Harry, with three children when the family was still living at
Billericay. However, their total time
together was short-lived when, within a few months of the birth of their last
child, the death of Harry E Collett was recorded at the Essex Orsett register
office (Ref. 4a 48) during the final three months of 1928, at the age of only
32. Violet was residing in the County of
Essex at Braintree, where her death at the age of 70 was recorded (Ref. 4a 58)
during the second quarter of 1972
79R3 –
George E Collett was born in 1923 at Billericay, Essex
79R4
– Edith H Collett was born in 1925 at Billericay, Essex
79R5
– Gwendoline J Collett was born in 1928 at Billericay, Essex
William
Albert Collett [79Q3]
was born at Plaistow on 15th June 1897, the twin brother of Henry
Edward (above), his birth recorded a little while later at West Ham
(Ref. 4a 106) during the third quarter of 1897.
As another son of John and Catherine Collett, he was baptised at St
Andrew’s Church in Plaistow on 11th July 1987, the same day as his
twin brother. The Plaistow census in
1901 recorded him and his family at Kelland Road, where William A Collett was
three years old, and where he was 13 in 1911.
Ten years later William Albert Collett and Edith Emily Watts were
married by banns at St Andrew’s Church in Plaistow on 14th August
1920, the wedding recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 58). Edith had also been born at West Ham, on 24th
March 1898, the daughter of Herbert William Watts deceased of 77 Fisher Street
in Canning Town, just to the south of Plaistow.
William was living with his family at 33 Meredith Street in Plaistow and
was confirmed as the son of labourer John William Collett, whose occupation was
that of a lino-type operator. The couple
both signed the register in their own hand, while the two witnesses were
William’s younger brother Walter (below) and Elsie V King. The marriage of William and Edith resulted in
the birth of two children when they were still living in the West Ham area of
London. The births were recorded at West
Ham register office and confirmed that the mother’s maiden-name was Watts. It was at East Ham register office (Ref. 5a
40) that the death of William Albert Collett was recorded during the last three
months of 1956, when he was 59 years old.
Many years after being widowed, the death of Edith Emily Collett was
recorded at Poplar & Bethnal Green register office (Ref. 14 79) towards the
end of 1982 when she was 84 years old
79R6 – Joan
E Collett was born in 1922 at West Ham
79R7
– Norman William Collett was born in 1924 at West Ham
Walter
Samuel Collett [79Q4]
was born at Kelland Road in Plaistow on 13th March 1900 and was
baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 8th April 1900, the fourth son of
John and Charlotte Collett. His birth
was recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 117) and he was one year old
in the Plaistow census of 1901 when he was with his family at Kelland
Road. As Walter S Collett he was 10
years of age in the Plaistow census of 1911.
Four years later the family was living at 33 Meredith Street in
Plaistow, just around the corner from Kelland Road. He later served with the Royal Engineers,
service number 620124, when his date of birth and place of birth was confirmed
as 1900 and Plaistow. A few years after the
war, when he was still living at 33 Meredith Street in 1923, he became a
married man at the age of 22 although, by then, both of his parents were no
longer alive. It was on 1st
February 1923 that Walter Samuel Collett was married to Ruby Lilian Wylie after
the reading of banns at St Andrew’s Church.
Walter was a warehouseman, the son of John William Collett, deceased,
and Ruby was 19 and from 56 Howard’s Road, the daughter of seaman Henry
Wylie. The couple signed the register in
their own hand, with the two witnesses not being a member of either family. The event was recorded at West Ham register
office (Ref. 4a 125). Walter Samuel
Collett was 65 years old when he died, his death recorded at East Ham register
office (Ref. 5b 147) during the second quarter of 1965. His widow was born on 6th March
1904 and she was living within the Newham area of Essex when the death of Ruby
Lilian Collett was recorded there (Vol. 15 8) just after the start of 1982
Leonard
Arthur Collett [79Q5]
was born at Plaistow in 1902, the last child of John William Collett and
Charlotte Sabina Roots. Using his full
name, he was baptised at St Andrew’s Church in Plaistow on 30th
December 1902 and, for the Plaistow census in 1911, Leonard A Collett was eight
years of age. He was 21 years old when
the marriage of Leonard Arthur Collett and Alice F Osborne was recorded at West
Ham register office (Ref. 4a 18) during the second quarter of 1924. Near the end of the following year, Alice
presented Leonard with a daughter, their only known child. The couple was only married for eight years
when the death of Leonard Arthur Collett was recorded at West Ham register
office (Ref. 4a 86) during the last three months of 1932, when he was almost 30
years of age. Five years later, by which
time daughter Joyce was twelve years old, Alice F Collett married Fane Dailey,
the event recorded at East Ham register office (Ref. 4a 24) during the third
quarter of 1937
79R8 – Joyce A M Collett
was born in 1925 at West Ham
Alfred
George Collett [79Q10]
was born on 17th January 1906 at Smethwick, the first-born child of
Alfred Collett and Eliza Farmer Yates. His
birth was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 226) and it is
known that he died in Birmingham during the summer of 1988. He was five years old in 1911, when he and
his family were still living in Smethwick.
It was at Birmingham in 1928 that the marriage of Alfred George Collett
and Elsie Elizabeth Fellows was recorded at the Birmingham South register
office (Ref. 6d 120) during the last quarter of that year. Elsie was born at Smethwick on 21st
February 1907, the only child of William and Florence Fellows, whose birth was
recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 235). Although
their two sons were born in Birmingham, the eldest of them was baptised at
Smethwick and at the recording of both births, the mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Fellows. Apart from the
recording of the birth of their younger son at Birmingham South register office
(Ref. 6d 113) during the second quarter of 1932, no further details relating to
him have been found. Elsie Elizabeth
Collett was 71 years old when her death was recorded at Birmingham register
office (Vol. 32 110) in the summer of 1978.
Alfred survived his wife by nearly ten years, when the death of Alfred
George Collett was also recorded at Birmingham during June of 1988 at the age
of 82
79R9 – Alan Collett
was born in 1930 at Birmingham
79R10
– Ronald Collett was born in 1932 at Birmingham
Eric
William Collett [79Q11]
was born at Smethwick on 18th March 1910, his birth recorded at
Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 88) during the second quarter of the
year. Not long after Eric William
Collett was baptised at Smethwick on 14th April 1910, another son of
Alfred and Eliza Farmer Collett. He
lived a very long life and was 90 years of age when the death of Eric William
Collett was recorded at the North-East Lincolnshire register office in Grimsby during
March 2000. It has not been determined
whether he ever married
Doris
Lilian Collett [79Q12] was
born on 13th November 1921 at Smethwick, although her birth was
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 57) during the fourth quarter
of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Yates. She was the third and last child of Alfred
Collett and Eliza Farmer Yates. She was
nearly twenty-three years old when the marriage of Doris L Collett and
Alexander R Forbes was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 6b 135)
during the second quarter of 1944. The
birth’ of their three children were also recorded Smethwick, when the mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Collett, and they were Janet C Forbes born in 1946, Roger
D Forbes born in 1949, and Pamela A Forbes born in 1951. The death of Doris Lilian Forbes was recorded
at Dudley in April 2002
Edward
G Collett [79Q13] was
born in 1921 at Smethwick, the first of the six children of Edward Collett and
Florence Hughes, the birth recoded at Kings Norton Q2 (Ref. 6d 46) during the
second quarter of 1921, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hughes. Tragically, he dd not reach his second
birthday, when the death of Edward G Collett was recorded at Kings Norton at
the start of 1923 (Ref. 6d 122)
Florence
Alice Collett [79Q14]
was born on 20th August 1922 at Smethwick and her birth was recorded
at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 37) during the third quarter of the
year when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hughes. The later marriage of Florence A Collett and
Arthur Badger was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 31) during
the last quarter of 1942. The first of
their three children was Florence A Badger, whose birth was recorded at
Smethwick (Ref. 6b 125) during the second quarter of 1943, around six months
after the couple’s wedding day. She was
followed by the birth of two brothers, whose births were recorded at
Birmingham, Arthur E Badger in early 1946 (Ref. 6d 50), and Roy W
Badger near the end of 1949 (Ref. 9c 16).
The mother’s maiden-name for all three children was confirmed as
Collett. Florence Alice Badger was only
48 when her death was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 110)
during the fourth quarter of 1970
Hazel
Collett [79Q15] was
born in 1924 at Smethwick, her birth also recorded at Kings Norton Q3 (Ref. 6d
11) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Hughes. It was in 1943 that
the marriage of Hazel Collett and James S Cleland was recorded at Smethwick
register office (Ref. 6b 48) during the first quarter of that year. The couple’s only known child was their
daughter Hazel M Cleland, whose birth was recorded at Smethwick register
office (Ref. 6b 147) during the last three months of 1943, when the mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Collett. Hazel Cleland
was 85 years old when she passed away at Birmingham on 18th January
2010
Doris
H Collett [79Q16] was
born in 1926, with her birth recorded at Dudley register office (Ref. 6b 22)
during the first three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Hughes. It was also at
Dudley, that the wedding of Doris H Collett and James Westwood was recorded
(Ref. 6c 30) during the first quarter of 1945, when she was nineteen years of
age. The births of the couple’s two sons
were recorded at Rowley Regis register office (Refs. 9b 27 and 9b 92) for Brian
J Westwood early in 1950 and Graham C Westwood in 1955, on both
occasions, the mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Collett
Douglas
Collett [79Q17] was
born at Smethwick in 1934, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 37) during the
third quarter of the year, another son of Edward and Florence Collett. The birth recorded also confirmed his
mother’s maiden-name as Hughes. At the
age of twenty-seven the marriage of Douglas Collett and June M Hillman was
recorded at the Worcestershire Oldbury register office (Ref. 9d 121) at the
start of 1962. Five years later the
first of their two children was born at Birmingham, as was the second child,
six years afterwards.
79R11 – Gary Mark Collett
was born in 1967 at Birmingham
79R12 – Penni Louise Collett
was born in 1973 at Birmingham
Leslie
Charles Collett [79Q19]
was born on 25th October 1918 at Smethwick, with his birth recorded
at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 76) during the last quarter of the
year. It was at Smethwick that he was
baptised on 4th December 1918, the first-born child of Charles
Edward Collett and Kate Gibbs who were only married during the third quarter of
1918. He was 28 years old when the
marriage of Leslie Charles Collett and Dorothy Ethel Hancox was recorded at Smethwick
register office (Ref. 9b 136) during the second quarter of 1947. Within five years their family was complete,
with the birth of two daughters who were both born at Smethwick and baptised
there and confirmed as the children of Leslie Charles Collett and his wife
Dorothy Ethel Hancox. The later death of
Leslie Charles Collett was recorded at Birmingham during the month of October
1986, when he was 68 years old. His wife
was born on 9th January 1922, so was 75 when she died at Smethwick
on 1st December 1997 and when her death was also recorded at
Birmingham register office
79R13
– Lorraine Lesley Collett was
born in 1950 at Birmingham
79R14
– Maureen Elizabeth Collett
was born in 1952 at Smethwick
Lilian
Annie Collett [79Q20]
was born in 1923 at Smethwick, the younger of the two children of Charles and
Kate Collett. She was baptised at
Smethwick on 11th September 1923, before her birth was recorded at
Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 83) during the fourth quarter of that
same year. After a further twenty-eight
years, when Lilian Annie Collett was still residing in Smethwick, she married
Stanley J C Lakin during the first three months of 1952 (Ref. 9b 76).
Daisy
Florence Collett [79Q21] was
born at Smethwick in 1922 and was the first of the four children of George
Collett and Florence Elizabeth Robbins.
Her birth was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 34)
during the third quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Robbins. A year after she
was born, it was at Smethwick that Daisy was baptised on 11th
September 1923. Daisy was twenty-nine
years old when she married Albert S Perry, their wedding recorded at Smethwick
register office (Ref. 9b 58) during the first three months of 1952. The couple’s only known child was born
towards the end of that same year, with the birth of Kenneth A Perry
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 114) during the fourth quarter
of 1952, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Many years later, Daisy Perry died on 2nd
January 1987 and was buried at the Dudley Cemetery
George
Eric Collett [79Q22] was
born at Smethwick on 4th March 1925, the first of two sons for
George and Florence Collett. He was
baptised at Smethwick on 17th March 1925, which was before his birth
was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 37) during the second
quarter of that year. George was
approaching his twenty-first birthday when the marriage of George E Collett and
Rita F Box was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 6b 106) during the
last three months of 1945. Their only
child was a honeymoon baby, whose birth was also recorded at Smethwick (Ref. 6b
132) nine months later during the second quarter of 1946, when his mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Box. Rita Florence Box
was born at Smethwick on 6th April 1925, when she was baptised on 24th
April that same year, the daughter of Thomas Box and Linda Norgrove. As Rita Florence Collett her death was
recorded at Sandwell register office in December 2000, when she was 75. Five years earlier, the death of George Eric
Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office during the month of April in
1995
79R15 – Eric R Collett was born in 1946 at Smethwick
Ronald
Collett [79Q23] was
born at Smethwick in 1926, with his birth recorded at the Birmingham South
register office (Ref. 6d 42) during the first quarter of that year, when his
mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Robbins.
He was subsequently baptised at Smethwick on 16th March 1926,
the third child of George and Florence Collett.
Just after the Second World War, when Ronald was twenty-one, he married
Gerda J T Ramm during the second quarter of 1947, their wedding recorded at
Smethwick register office (Ref. 9b 46).
The only Ramm found was in Denmark in 1930, so it is possible Gerda and
her family were evacuated to England during the war. As far as can be determined, it would appear
the couple never had any children, with the later death of Ronald Collett on 28th
April 1998 being recorded at Smethwick, where he was also buried in the
cemetery there, at the age of 72. His
wife survived him by three years and, upon her passing on 6th
November 2001, from was buried with Ronald at Smethwick Cemetery
Mavis
Collett [79Q24] was born
at Smethwick near the end of February or at the start of March in 1929 and was
the last child born to George Collett and Florence Elizabeth Robbins. Her birth recorded at West Bromwich register
office (Ref. 6b 14) during the second quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Robbins. However, prior
to her parents registering the birth, Mavis Collett was baptised at Smethwick
on 5th March 1929. It was
during the third quarter of 1954 when the marriage of Mavis Collett and Frederick
W Whitehouse was recorded at Smethwick (Ref. 9b 133), with whom she had two
sons. The birth of both sons was
recorded at Birmingham register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Collett. They were Brian
J Whitehouse (Ref. 9c 53) during the first three months of 1958, and Keith
Whitehouse (Ref. 9c 64) during the second quarter of 1966. It may be interesting to note that the first
wife of Mavis’ nephew, Eric R Collett (above), was Annette M Foyan whose
mother’s maiden-name was Whitehouse
Gladys
Caroline Collett [79R1]
was born in 1916 at West Ham, the only surviving child of John Thomas Collett
and Caroline Bartlett. Her birth was
recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 128) during the second quarter of
that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bartlett. It was there also, that she was baptised on
26th June 1916. She was a
child-bride, being only sixteen years of age when her marriage to Frank E
Wainwright was recorded at Essex Epping register office (Ref. 4a 114) during
the fourth quarter of 1932. Their only
son, William A Wainwright was born in 1935 his birth, like his mother’s,
was also recorded at West Ham (Ref. 4a 127) during the third quarter of the
year
George
E Collett [79R3] was
born at Billericay in Essex during the second quarter of 1923, where his birth
was recorded (Ref. 4a 140), when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Weaver. He was the first of the three
children of Henry Edward Collett and Violet Weaver
Edith
H Collett [79R4] was
born in 1925 at Billericay, her birth recorded there during the third quarter
of the year (Ref. 4a 65), her mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Weaver. Edith was almost twenty-one years old when
she married, the marriage of Edith H Collett and Alfred S King was recorded at
Brentwood in Essex (Ref. 4a 7) during the third quarter of 1946. Two children were born to Alfred and Edith,
and they were Jeanette A King whose birth was recorded at Brentwood
(Ref. 4a 81) during the first three months of 1948, and Marion E King
with her birth recorded at the Essex Thurrock register office (Ref. 4a 110)
during the fourth quarter of 1951. For
both births, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett
Gwendoline
J Collett [79R5] was
born in 1928 and her birth was recorded at Billericay register office (Ref. 4a
22) during the third quarter of the year, the last child of Henry Edward Collett
and Violet Weaver.
Joan
E Collett [79R6] was the
first-born child of William Albert Collett and Edith Emily Watts. Her birth was recorded at West Ham register
office (Ref. 4a 52) during the third quarter of 1922, when her mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Watts. It is possible,
although not proved, that she was the Joan E Collett who married Frederick J
Carter at Islington in 1948, where the event was recorded (Ref. 5a 77) during
the last three months of the year. If
so, then the birth of their first child Alan E Carter, was recorded at
the Essex South-Western register office during the summer of 1951, with the
birth of the second child Janice A Carter recorded at East Ham early in
1954
Norman
William Collett [79R7] was
born at East Ham on 13th August 1924, the son of William Albert
Collett and his wife Edith Emily Watts.
Whether an error in transcription, his birth was recorded at West Ham
register office (Ref. 4a 36) during the third quarter of the year, when his
mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Watts and when the year was said to be
1929 (sic). The later marriage of Norman
William Collett and Muriel Cornford was recorded at the Lewisham London
register office (Ref. 5d 10) during the third quarter of 1952. Muriel was born at Forest Hill in south-east
London on 25th August 1928, with whom Norman had a son who was born
at Bromley in Kent during 1958. And it
was in 2012 that Norman kindly provided new information regarding his branch of
this Collett family
79S1
– David William Collett was born on 8th April 1958 at Bromley, Kent
Joyce
A M Collett [79R8] was
born in 1925 at West Ham where her birth was recorded (Ref. 4a 56) during the
last quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Osborne. Joyce was the only child of Leonard
Arthur Collett and Alice F Osborne. It
was also as Joyce A M Collett that she married John W Chandler, their wedding
recorded at East Ham register office (Ref. 4a 149) during the second quarter of
1944. The birth registers across the
country provide details of eight children born into a Chandler-Collett family,
some at Aldershot and some at Islington, and just one at West Ham in 1960
Alan
Collett [79R9] was born
in 1930 at Birmingham with his birth recorded at the Birmingham South register
office (Ref. 6d 37) during the third quarter of the year. His mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Fellows, being the eldest of the two sons of Alfred George Collett and Elsie
Elizabeth Fellows. Alan was baptised on
9th July 1930 at St Michael & All Angel’s Church in Smethwick
and it was twenty-five years later that that he marriage Jean Beatrice
Weatherall. Their wedding was recorded
at Smethwick register office (Ref. 9b 5) during the third quarter of 1955. The
couple’s only child was born three years later
79S2
– Yvonne Beatrice Collett
was born in 1958 at Smethwick
Gary
Mark Collett [79R11]
was born in Birmingham during 1967, the older of the two children of Douglas
Collett and June M Hillman. His birth,
like that of his younger sister (below), was recorded at Birmingham
register office (Ref. 9c 154 and 9c 97) during the third quarter of 1967, when
his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hillman. He was still living in the same area of the
country when Gary Mark Collett married Kerry A Waldron in 1986, the event
recorded at Sandwell register office during the month of October that
year. Their marriage resulted in the
birth of three children, all of them recorded at Birmingham register office,
when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Waldron
79S3
– Leigh Collett was born in 1987 at Birmingham
79S4
– Joel Collett was born in 1989 at Birmingham
79S5
– Rose Collett was born in 1992 at Birmingham
Penni
Louise Collett [79R12]
was born in 1973 at Birmingham. She was
the second of the two children of Douglas Collett and June M Hillman, whose
birth was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 97) during the third
quarter of that year. The birth record
confirmed that her mother’s maiden-name was Hillman. She was eighteen years old, when the marriage
of Penni Louise Collett and Nicholas C Mapp was recorded at Sandwell register office
during August 1991. Over the following
years, Penni presented Nicholas with two children. Their births were recorded at Birmingham
register office in December 1998 and July 2002 respectively, and they were Brandon
Nicholas Mapp and Ellese Louise Mapp
Lorraine
Lesley Collett [79R13] was
born in 1950 at Birmingham, and baptised at Smethwick on 4th June
1950, the eldest of the two daughters of Leslie Charles Collett and Dorothy
Ethel Hancox. The subsequent marriage of
Lorraine Lesley Collett and Victor J J Lampon was recorded at Sandwell register
office (Vol. 33 17), just north of Smethwick, during the summer of 1974 and a
year after the wedding of her younger sister (below). Over the following eight years Lorraine gave
birth to two sons, whose births were recorded at Birmingham register office,
when Collett was confirmed as the mother’s maiden-name. They were Adam James Lampon during the
summer of 1980 and Paul James Lampon at the end of 1982. Their father, Victor James J Lampon was born
at Saffron Walden in 1943, and it was his mother’s maiden-name of James was
given to him and his two sons
Maureen
Elizabeth Collett [79R14]
was born in 1952 at Smethwick, where she was baptised on 11th May
1952, the youngest daughter of Leslie and Dorothy Collett. Although she was the younger sister of
Lorraine (above), she was the first of the two siblings to be
married. The marriage of Maureen
Elizabeth Collett and Michael J Cresser was recorded at nearby Warley register
office (Ref. 9d 36) during the second quarter of 1973. The births of their two children were
recorded at Birmingham register office, Elizabeth Louise Cresser near
the end of 1978 and Martin Stephen Cresser towards the end of 1981. On both occasions, the mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Collett
Eric
R Collett [79R15] was
born at Smethwick in 1946, the only child of George Eric Collett and Rita F
Box, his birth also recorded there nine months after his parents were married,
during the second quarter of 1946 (Ref. 6b 132), when his mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Box. It would appear Eric
was married twice in his life, the first marriage not producing any issue. On that first occasion, the marriage of Eric
R Collett and (1) Annette M Foyan was recorded at Warley register office (Ref.
9d 112) during the third quarter of 1967. Annette was born as Smethwick in 1946, her
mother’s maiden-name being Whitehouse, with Eric’s aunt Mavis Collett marrying
Frederick W Whitehouse in 1954 at Smethwick.
Eric and Annette were later divorced, with Annette M Collett marrying
Robert E Babington at Birmingham in 1974.
Three years later, the marriage of Eric R Collett and (2) Patricia
Dempsey was recorded at Sandwell register office (Vol. 33 27) during the third
quarter of 1977. Patricia may have been
some years younger than Eric and, whilst it is certain they had two children,
it is possible they were followed by another two children, who are yet to be
confirmed, with all their births recorded at Birmingham. For completeness, all four children are
listed here
79S6 - Ryan Dominic Collett was born in
1981 at Birmingham
79S7 – Lauren Bethany Collett was born
in 1988 at Birmingham
79S8 – Connell James Collett was born in
1995 at Birmingham
79S9 - Liam Collett was born in 1997 at
Birmingham
Yvonne
Beatrice Collett [79S2]
was born at Smethwick in 1958, her birth recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 9c 48) during the third quarter of that year. She was baptised at Smethwick on 26th
October 1958, the only child of Alan Collett and Jean Beatrice Weatherall. The later married of Yvonne Beatrice Collett
and Gordon N M Cappell was recorded at Solihull South register office during the
month of October in 1984. It was also at
Solihull South where the births of their two children were recorded. Samuel Callum M Cappell was born in
December 1990 and Georgina Rama Cappell in 1994, when their mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Collett
APPENDIX ONE
This is the family line of Thomas
Collett of Evenlode in Gloucestershire
Thomas
Collett [79n1] was born
at Evenlode, two miles north of Oddington in 1809.
With no birth or baptism unearthed for him, his parents are still not
known, although there is a
possibility that they were Thomas Collett and his wife Catharine. What is known for sure is that in 1841 Thomas
Collett was living with his wife Elizabeth at Hill Street in Birmingham with
two of their first three children, following the couple’s wedding day at
Edgbaston, Birmingham. However, three
weeks prior to being married, Elizabeth gave birth to the couple’s first of
seven children, all of whom were born in Birmingham. It was there on 18th April 1837
that Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Bagnall were married. Elizabeth was born on 21st May
1810 and was nearly six years of age when she was baptised at St Martin’s
Church in Birmingham on 15th April 1816, the daughter of John and
Elizabeth Bagnall
Towards
the end of the year following the couple’s wedding day, their second child was
born and was baptised two months later, with the third child born just prior to
the day of census in 1841, so that year the family comprised Thomas Collett
with a rounded age of 30, as was Elizabeth, Thomas junior who was four, Mary
Ann who was two, and Elizabeth who was five months old. Completing the group at Hill Street was
Elizabeth Atkinson who was 15, most likely a general domestic service
That
year the larger family was still living at Hill Street in Birmingham when
Thomas Collett from Evenlode was 42 and a carver and a cutter. All the other members of the family had been
born at Birmingham, with his wife Elizabeth being 40 years old. Their children that day were Thomas who was
14, Mary Ann who was 12, Elizabeth who was 10, William who was nine, Caroline
who was five, and Sarah who was three years of age. The five eldest children were all attending
school. Employed by the family that day
were two servants, Mary Waggot aged 14 and Thomas Butten an errand boy, while
staying with the family and working with Thomas were George Jacker 30 and a
wood turner, and James Aldhouse an apprentice wood turner who was 20. One more child was born just after that day
to complete the family
The
family was again living at Hill Street in Birmingham in 1861, when all seven
children were still living at the family home.
Head of the house Thomas Collett from Evenlode was 52 and a cabinet
maker, Elizabeth A Collett was 51, Thomas Collett was 24 and a wood turner and
a carver, Mary A Collett was 22 and a dressmaker, Elizabeth Collett was 20 with
no occupation, William Collett was 19 and a wood turner, Caroline Collett was
15 and an assistant teacher, Sarah Collett was 13 and a school, as was Alfred Collett
who was nine years old. Thomas Collett
died six years later at Birmingham on 6th December 1867 but it was
almost forty years later that his Will passed successfully through the probate
service, also in Birmingham on 12th November 1906, when the main
beneficiary was his married daughter Caroline Cooper. The death of Thomas Collett aged 58 was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d
84) confirming his year of birth being 1809
Interestingly
in 1871, the widow of Thomas Collett was staying with her very recently married
daughter Caroline Cooper and her husband Francis at their home in Wolverhampton,
their wedding day having been just before that census day. Elizabeth A Collett was 60 and described as
the mother-in-law of Francis S Cooper, a grocer from Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, North Wales,
and she was again living with them in 1881, but at James Street in Wednesfield
area of Wolverhampton where she was recorded as Elizabeth Ann Collett aged
70. By that time there were three Cooper
grandchildren. With more children added
to the family during the next decade, there was no room for Elizabeth who, in
1891 was an inmate at the Wolverhampton Union Workhouse where she was described
as simply Elizabeth Collett aged 80 who was a widow and a pauper from
Birmingham. Nearly nine months later the
death of eighty-year-old Elizabeth Collett was recorded at register office
(Ref. 6b 376) during the last three months of 1891, after which she was buried
at Merridale Cemetery in Wolverhampton on 22nd December 1911
79o1
– Thomas Collett was
born in 1837 at Birmingham
79o2
– Mary Ann Collett was
born in 1838 at Birmingham
79o3
– Elizabeth Collett was
born in 1840 at Birmingham
79o4
– William Collett was
born in 1841 at Birmingham
79o5
– Caroline Collett was
born in 1845 at Birmingham
79o6
– Sarah Collett was
born in 1847 at Birmingham
79o7
– Alfred Collett was
born in 1851 at Birmingham
Thomas Collett
[79o1] was born on 29th March 1837 at Birmingham, where he
baptised at St Martin’s Church on 7th June 1837, the first of the
seven children of Thomas Collett from Evenlode and his wife Elizabeth Bagnall
who were not married when he was born, but were by the time he was
baptised. The Church of St Martin was an
older church built many centuries earlier, which was demolished in 1873 when a
new church was built on the same site and renamed St Martin in the Bullring,
after which the much shopping centre was named.
He may have been born at Hill Street in Birmingham where his parents
were living from 1841 through to 1861.
Thomas was four years old in 1841, 14 years of age and at school in
1851, and was 24 in 1861, by which time he had followed in his father’s
footsteps as wood turner and a carver. Seven
weeks after that census day James became a married man and started a family of
his own
The service for the marriage of Thomas
Collett of Birmingham and Jane Wilson of Nottingham was conducted at St
Philip’s Cathedral Church in Birmingham on 9th June 1861 and
recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 187) during the second quarter of the year. Jane’s birth was registered at Nottingham
(Ref. xv 606) during the second quarter of 1842, and was one of the many
daughters of musician and Chelsea Pensioner Charles Wilson and his wife Selina
of Mansfield Road in Nottingham. It was
not long after their wedding day when Jane gave birth to the couple’s first
child, Thomas junior, whose birth was registered at Aston (Ref. 6d 234) during
the third quarter of 1861. The next four
children were born in Birmingham, with the family temporarily residing in the
Longbridge, King’s Norton area south of Birmingham in 1871, where son Walter
was born
That
situation was confirmed in the census conducted on 2nd April 1871,
when the young family was residing at 245 Longbridge Lane in Longbridge. They were recorded as Thos Collett aged 34,
Jane Collett who was 28, Thomas Collett junior who was nine, James A Collett
who was eight, Harry Collett who was seven, Charles Collett who was six, Arthur
Collett who was two, and Walter Collett who was two months old.
No record of the family has been found in 1881, but by 1891 Thomas
junior and Charles were married and had started families of their own. According to the census return that year, the
remainder of the family comprised Thomas Collett senior who was 52 and a gold
refiner living at Great Hampton Row in Birmingham with his wife Jane Collett
from Nottingham who was 49, and their six children. They were listed as James A Collett aged 28
and a porter, Harry Collett aged 27 and a polisher (of gold), Arthur
Collett aged 23 who was a gold ring maker, Wilfred Collett aged 16 who was a
machinist, Gertrude Collett aged 12 and at school, as was John Collett who was
seven years old. Another two absent sons
that day were Charles or would have been 26 and Walter who would have been
20. Apart from Jane, everyone had been
born in Birmingham. Three years later
the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d
70) during the last three months of 1894 at the age of 57, when he was buried
at Warstone Lane cemetery in November 1894
The
mention of Great Hampton Row in 1891 is very interesting because in 1851 it was
the location for the Collett family of William Thomas, born in 1826 and the son
of George and Amy Collett, and his wife Elizabeth. For more details, go to Appendix Two
Just
over six years after being made a widow, Jane Collett from Nottingham was head
of the household at 37 Ventnor Road in the St Saviour’s parish of Birmingham at
the age of 58 in the census of 1901. On
that day only five of her seven children were still living with her, and they
were James A Collett who was 38 and a cycle packer, Walter Collett who was 30
and barman, Wilfred Collett was 25 and a spanner maker, Gertrude Collett was 21
and a jewellery polisher of gold, and John Collett was 16 and a warehouseman in
a cycle factory. At the end of that
decade, widow Jane Collett was 69 and had just three unmarried grown-up
children living with her in Birmingham.
They were James who was 48 and a labourer at a local cycle works,
Gertrude who was 32 and a jeweller’s polisher, and John was 27 and a labourer
at a nearby brewery. Twelve years later
the death of Jane Collett aged 80 was recorded at Warwickshire register office
(Ref. 6d 247) in 1923
79p1
– Thomas Collett was
born in 1861 at Aston, Birmingham
79p2
– James Alfred Collett
was born in 1862 at Birmingham
79p3
– Harry Collett was
born in 1864 at Birmingham
79p4
– Charles Collett was
born in 1865 at Birmingham
79p5
– Arthur Collett was
born in 1869 at Birmingham
79p6
– Walter Collett was
born in 1871 at Kings Norton, Worcestershire
79p7
– Wilfred Collett was
born in 1876 at Birmingham
79p8
– Gertrude Collett was
born in 1879 at Birmingham
79p9
– John Collett was born
in 1883 at Birmingham
Mary
Ann Collett [79o2] was
born on 10th December 1838 at Birmingham and was baptised at St
Martin’s Church on 20th February 1839, the eldest daughter of Thomas
and Elizabeth Collett. She too may have
been born at Hill Street where she was living with her family in 1841 aged two
years, in 1851 aged 12, and again in 1861 when she was 22 and a
dressmaker. It is possible that she
never married, and that it was the daughter Thomas and Elizabeth whose death
was recorded at Birmingham’s Aston register office (Ref. 6d 162) during the
fourth quarter of 1899
Elizabeth
Collett [79o3] was born
at Hill Street in Birmingham on 23rd October 1840 and was baptised
at St Martin’s Church on 10th February 1841. She was another daughter of Thomas and
Elizabeth Collett, whose birth was registered at Birmingham (Ref. xvi 312), and
with whom she was living at Hill Street in June 1841 when she was five months
old. It was also at Hill Street that
Elizabeth was still living with her family in 1851 aged ten years, and in 1861
when she was 20 but without any stated occupation. Seven years later the marriage of Elizabeth
Collett and Daniel Pullin Dean was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 96) during
the third quarter of 1868, but curiously, no record of the couple has been
found in 1871 or 1881
By
1891 Daniel Pullin Dean was 57 and a maltster living with his family at Hill
Street, Oldland in Somerset, having been born at Hillesley in
Gloucestershire. Elizabeth Dean was 49, Frank
Pullin Dean was 21 and a boot clicker, as was George Frederick Dean
who was 16, Florence Elizabeth Dean who was 13 and at school, as were Maud
Mary Dean who was 11, and Alfred Ernest Dean aged ten years. A change of location and a change of career
took place for Daniel Pullin Dean who, by 1901 was a greengrocer aged 67 residing
at Clouds Hill Road in Bristol.
Elizabeth Dean from Birmingham was 59, Florence was 23 and a draper’s
assistant, and Mary was 21 with no work indicated. During the following years Daniel died in
Bristol leaving his widow and daughter Maud the only occupants of the family
home in Bristol. Elizabeth Dean was 70
and living on private means, when unmarried Maud Mary Dean was 31 and still had
no occupation. Just one month later
Elizabeth Dean, nee Collett, died Eastville in Bristol and was buried at Greenbank
Cemetery on 5th May 1911
William
Collett [79o4] was born
at Hill Street in Birmingham on 24th October 1841 with his birth
registered at Birmingham (Ref. xvi 353) at the start of 1842. He was three years old when he was baptised at
St Martin’s Church on 26th December 1844, the fourth child of Thomas
and Elizabeth Collett. His family was
still living at Hill Street in 1851 when William was nine years of age and
attending school. On completing his
education, he worked alongside his father, and in 1861, when the family was
again living at Hill Street, nineteen-year-old William was a wood turner. Four months before the next census in 1871,
the marriage of William Collett, son of Thomas, and Emma Tart, daughter of
Thomas, took place at Birmingham on 14th November 1870, when William
was 28 and Emma was 24, with their wedding day recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d
137). Emma Tart had been born at Chatham
in Kent in 1846 and was the daughter of Kidderminster farm labourer Thomas Tart
and his wife Mary from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, Emma having given birth to
two daughters prior to being married to William, who were both raised as his
children whether they were or not
Rather
strangely the Birmingham census in 1871 identified William Collett aged 29 and
a wood turner, as one of 42 all male lodgers at an establishment where the
superintendent was Thomas Brown, who had his wife and two children with him. All 42 lodgers were described by their
occupation when, perhaps, they were actually inmates at a workhouse, hospital,
or prison
Very
annoyingly, no record indicating the whereabouts of William’s wife Emma and her
two daughters Rose and Ada at that time in 1871 have been found. It is also odd that no birth record for
either Rose or Ada has been located. In
fact, there are many unanswered questions relating to this family which,
hopefully will be resolved sometime in the future
Initially,
William and Emma raised their family in Birmingham, where their first three
children were born, before spending a short time in Ireland, where the fourth
child was born. After that the family
was residing at 8a Christian Street in Liverpool by 1881, where William Collett
from Birmingham was 39 and working as a cabinet wood turner. His wife Emma Collett from Chatham in Kent
was 34 and their four children were Ada Collett who was 12, Amy Collett who was
seven, Caroline Collett who was four, and William A Collett who was one year
old. Although William Alfred did not
suffer an infant death, it is curious that a later son born into the family was
also given the same name, albeit with a different second forename. Even more curious is the fact that after birth
of the couple’s eighth and last child, no trace of the family has been found in
Britain from 1890 onwards
It
is known that, while daughter Rose Emma was married very young at Stroud in
1884, she also gave birth to a daughter there during the following year, the
remainder of her children were born in Brooklyn, New York. Furthermore, it is established that their son
William Alfred was in Ireland when he became a married man in 1911, and son Thomas
was married in Vancouver in 1916, although prior to that he was still living in
England in 1891 and 1911, but not with his family, and he became an America
citizen in 1921
Upon
the baptism of their seventh child in 1883, the parents of William Henry
Collett were recorded as William and Emma Elizabeth Collett, the very first
time Emma was credited with having a second forename.
79p10 - Rose Emma Collett was born in 1867 at Birmingham
79p11
- Ada Florence Collett
was born in 1869 at Birmingham
79p12
- Amy Collett was born
in 1874 at Birmingham
79p13
- Caroline Collett was
born in 1876 at Birmingham
79p14 - William Alfred Collett was born in 1879 at Palmerston, in
Ireland
79p15 - Thomas Collett was born in 1882 at Liverpool
79p16
- William Henry Collett
was born in 1883 at Liverpool
79p17
- Alfred Collett was
born in 1885 at Liverpool
Caroline
Collett [79o5] was born
at Hill Street in Birmingham on 25th August 1845 and was nearly one
year old by the time she was baptised at St Martin’s Church on 15th
July 1846. She was five years of age and
15 years old in 1851 and 1861 when still living with her family at Hill
Street. On the latter occasion Caroline
had already completed her education and was working as a teacher’s assistant. Almost exactly ten years later, the marriage
of Caroline Collett and Francis Salter Cooper was recorded at Birmingham (Ref.
6d 95) during the first quarter of 1871.
Very shortly thereafter, the census that year recorded the childless
couple living in Wolverhampton where grocer Francis S Cooper from Llanidloes, Wales, was 23,
and Caroline Cooper from Birmingham was 24.
Staying with them at that time was Caroline’s widowed mother,
60-year-old Elizabeth A Collett from Birmingham. Over the following ten years Caroline gave
birth to three children who were living with the couple at James Street in
Wednesfield, Wolverhampton in 1881, when still living with the family was
Elizabeth Ann Collett aged 70. Also, by
that time, Francis Salter Cooper was no longer a grocer but instead was a
railway shipping clerk at 33 years of age, when his place of birth was said to
be Buttington in Shropshire (sic), with Buttington in Welshpool, Powys, lying over twenty miles north east
of Llanidloes. His wife Caroline was
35 and their children were Bertha Louisa Cooper who was nine, Mabel
Gertrude Cooper who was four, and Ernest Alfred Cooper who was one
year old
Two
more children completed the family which was living at Lower Walsall Street in
Wolverhampton in 1891, where Francis S Cooper was 43 and a railway foreman in
the goods department. Caroline was 45,
Mabel was 14, Ernest was 11, Lilian Frances Cooper was eight, and Violet
Beatrice Cooper was three years old.
The family moved to Wolverhampton Road in Heath Town during the last
decade of the outgoing century, where they were living on the day of the census
in 1901. Francis was 53 and a
time-keeper at a local iron works, Caroline was 54 and a school mistress, Mabel
was 24 and a mother’s helper, Ernest was
21 and an electrical engineer, Lilian was 18 and a domestic nurse, and Violet
was 13 was no longer at school but have no job of work. Tragically for the family Violet Beatrice
Cooper died in 1907 when she was 20 years of age, with her premature death
recorded at Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 317) during the last three
months of that year.
Sarah
Collett [79o6] was born
at Hill Street in Birmingham on 30th September 1847, with her birth
registered at Birmingham (Ref. xvi 245).
She was five months old when she was baptised at St Martin’s Church on
23rd February 1848, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth
Collett, and was three years of age in the census of 1851 still living at Hill
Street in Birmingham. Sarah was still
attending school in 1861 aged 13 when the family was again recorded at their
Hill Street home. By 1871 her family was
living in Wolverhampton, but without Sarah.
That is because she had died on 6th September 1867 and was
buried at Merridale Cemetery in Wolverhampton, where her mother was laid to
rest at the end of 1911
Alfred
Collett [79o7] was born
at Hill Street in Birmingham in 1851, but was not baptised at St Martin’s
Church until 7th February 1855, the seventh and last child of Thomas
Collett and Elizabeth Bagnall. However,
his birth was registered at Birmingham (Ref. xvi 408) during the last three
months of 1851 and was confirmed as being nine years old in the census of 1861
when he and his family were still living at Hill Street. After a non-appearance in the next three
census returns, Alfred Collett re-appears in 1901 by which time he is married
and has taken on his wife’s children from her previous marriage. Alfred Collett aged 49 and from Birmingham
was a metal polisher and head of the household living at Dale Road in Northfield. His wife Jemima Collett was 45, when his
step-children were Frederick Dixon who was 15 and a metal roller, Howard Dixon
13, Ellen Dixon 10, and Emma Dixon who was eight years old.
It
would seem highly likely that the Alfred Collett who was buried at Warstone
Lane Cemetery in Birmingham in October 1907 was indeed this Alfred Collett,
whose eldest brother Thomas Collett (above) and two of his sons were
also buried there. Although no trace of
widow Jemima or her Dixon children have been identified within the census of
1911, the later death of Jemima Collett, born in 1855, was recorded at the
Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 18) in 1924, after which she was buried
at Lodge Hill Cemetery in Birmingham in October that year
Thomas
Collett [79p1] was born
in Birmingham, with his birth registered at Aston (Ref. 6d 234) during the
third quarter of 1861, shortly after his parents, Thomas Collett and Jane
Wilson were married on 9th June that same year. No record of the family has been located within
the census years of 1871 and 1881, but by 1891, when his family was residing at
Great Hampton Row in Birmingham, Thomas had already been married for nearly
three years. The wedding of Thomas
Collett and Rose Frances Hill took place at St Georges Church in Birmingham on
5th August 1888, the information kindly supplied by Roger Collett in
Canada. The confirmed details stated
that bachelor Thomas was 27 and a gold stamper (in jewellery) residing
at 23 Great Hampton Row, when his father was named as Thomas Collett, a
refiner. His wife Rose was 23 and was from
Great Hampton Row, the daughter of jeweller Matthew Hill. Thomas and Rose both signed the register in
their own hand. Rose Frances Hill was
born on 7th July 1864, and was baptised 7th August, the
daughter of jeweller Matthew Payne Hill and his wife Maria Ophelia of Brougham
Street in Lozells, Aston
According
to the census in 1891, Thomas was living at Unett Street, midway between
Lozells and Birmingham city centre, in a dwelling immediately adjacent to that
of his younger married brother Charles and his family, both presumably working
together in the jewellery trade. Thomas
Collett was 29 and a gold jeweller and stamper, his wife Rose F Collett was 26,
and their daughter Rose Collett was under one year old. Further children were added to their family,
but with the family’s surname misinterpreted in the census of 1901 as
Corlet. By then the enlarged family was
residing at 13 Carlton Avenue, off Clifford Street, within the Aston Manor
district of Birmingham, where Thomas’ younger married brother Arthur (below)
and his family were also living in 1901.
By then Thomas was 39 and again working as a jeweller’s stamper, Rose
Frances was 36, Rose was ten years old, Walter Thomas was nine, Herbert was
five, and baby Marie was eight months old.
Sadly, Marie never reached her third birthday, with her death recorded
at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 223) during the second quarter of 1903, her
birth recorded there (Ref. 6d 426) during the third quarter of 1900. She was laid to rest on 9th May
1903, when the family’s home address was recorded as 13 Carlton Avenue,
Clifford Street, Aston
By
1911 the five remaining members of the family were still residing in Aston
Manor, just north-east of Lozells, where Thomas Collett was 49 and a jeweller’s
stamper, and Rose Frances Collett was 46.
Their three children were Rose Collett who was 20 and a jewellery case
maker, Walter Thomas Collett who was 19 and a silversmith’s toolmaker, and
Herbert Collett who was 15 and a silversmith’s die-sinker. Just under three years later, and at the age
of 51, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 6d 394) in March 1914 and was buried at Witton Cemetery in Birmingham. Eighteen years after being made a widow, the
death of Rose Frances Collett, aged 68, was recorded at Warwickshire register
office (Ref. 6d 301) in 1932. She had
just celebrated her 68th birthday when she was buried with her late
husband at Witton Cemetery during the month of July that year
79q1 – Rose Collett was born in 1890 at Birmingham
79q2 – Walter Thomas Collett was born in 1892 at Birmingham
79q3 – Herbert Collett was born in 1895 at Birmingham
79q4 – Marie Collett was born in 1900 at
Aston Manor, Birmingham; died 1903
James
Alfred Collett [79p2]
was born in Birmingham towards the end of 1862, where his birth was registered
(Ref. 6d 59) during the fourth quarter of the year. Something strange happened to the family
after that because, while all his younger siblings were born in Birmingham from
1865 through to 1883, no record of the family has been found within the census
return for 1881. Eventually in 1891 the
family was living at Great Hampton Row in Birmingham, by which time James A
Collett was 28 and employed as a porter, the first-born child of Thomas Collett
and Jane Wilson. After his father died
in 1894, unmarried James continued to live with his widowed mother at Ventnor
Road in Birmingham from where he was working as a cycle packer at the age 38,
and again recorded as James A Collett.
It was the same situation in 1911 when James was 48 and still employed
at the local cycle works, where he was a labourer. Fifteen years later James died in Birmingham
with the death of James Alfred Collett recorded at Warwickshire register office
(Ref. 6d 454) in 1927 when he was 64
Harry
Collett [79p3] was born
at Birmingham in 1864 where his birth was registered (Ref. 6d 60) during the
first three months of that year, the second child of Thomas and Jane
Collett. He followed in the family
tradition working with gold and at the age of 27 was a gold polisher when he
was still living at the family home on Great Hampton Row. Following the death of his father in 1894,
the death of Harry Collett aged 35 was recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 6d 97) during the last month of 1899 when he was buried at Warstone Lane
Cemetery in December that year
Charles
Collett [79p4] was born
at Birmingham in 1865, when his birth was registered there (Ref. 6d 50) during
the third quarter of the year, although no record of him can be found in the
1871 and 1881 census returns. In 1891
his family was living at Great Hampton Row in Birmingham, by which time he and
his brother Thomas (above) had already left the family home to be married. Charles was married twice in his life, the
first time to (1) Florence Lavinia Carey at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 334) towards
the end of 1886. Florence was born in
Birmingham on 13th February 1866, where she was baptised at St
George’s Church on 18th March 1866, the daughter of Henry and Maria
Carey. At the age of five years, Flora
Lavinia Carey was staying with her grandparents Richard Hesketh, a jeweller,
and Harriet Hesketh, and their family at Birmingham. And it was the same situation in 1881 when
Florence Carey was 15, by which time jeweller Richard Hesketh and his family
were residing at Fisher Street in Birmingham, which was where Charles’
first-born child was living by 1901 following the death of her mother a year
earlier
According
to the next census in 1891, Charles and Florence were living at Unett Street in
Birmingham, right next door to his older married brother Thomas (above)
who, it is assumed, were working together in the jeweller trade. On that day Charles Collett was 25 and a
jeweller, his wife Florence L Collett was 24, and their daughter Gertrude Maria
Collett was three years of age. The
family also had three female boarders staying with them that day. It is possible other children may have been
added to the family during the next decade, although by 1901, Florence had
already died during the birth of couple’s second and last known child. After fourteen years together, and at the age
of 34, Florence Lavinia Collett died in Birmingham where her premature death
was recorded (Ref. 6d 66) during the second quarter of 1900. It is therefore highly likely that she died after
giving birth to their son Reginald born, who was baptised during March that
same year
Those
two events were confirmed in the 1901 census, when Charles Collett, a widower
aged 35 from Birmingham, was a jeweller and gold ring maker living at Back Key
Hill, in Birmingham with one-year-old son Reginald Collett. Employed as Charles’ housekeeper was Emma
Hesketh aged 25 and married, a member of his former wife’s extended family. Completing the household was Clarice Potter
who was three years of age and simply described as a boarder. She was born as Clarice Victoria Potter, with
her birth recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 38) during the second
quarter of 1897, and was the daughter of Emma Potter, daughter of George
Potter, who had married Leonard Hesketh on 14th July 1895 at the
Church of St Peter & St Paul in the Aston district of Birmingham. On the census day in 1901 Emma’ husband,
silversmith Leonard Hesketh from Birmingham, was a lodger with a family
relative at Hoole Street in Nether Hallam within the West Riding of Yorkshire,
when he claimed prematurely that he was a single man
To
complicate matters further, Charles’ first-born child Gertrude had already been
passed into the care of the Hesketh/Carey family, with whom she was living in
1901 at the age of 14, when she was described as the niece of head of the
household unmarried Emily Hesketh, aged 42, at Fisher Street in
Birmingham. Also living at the same
address were unmarried brothers Albert Carey 37, a jeweller, and Charles Carey
33, a machine tool maker, who were the sons of Henry and Maria Carey, being two
siblings of the late Florence Lavinia Collett, nee Carey
All
these facts, when taken together, appear to lead up to a complex family situation,
a latter-day love triangle; on one corner Leonard Hesketh, a silversmith, on
another his wife Emma Hesketh nee Potter, and Charles Collett, a jeweller, on
the third corner. All three linked
through a connection with the wider Hesketh jewellery family of Richard and Harriet,
and therefore all well-known to each other.
Maybe the relationship between Leonard and Emma was not a good one, with
Emma able to give solace to Charles after the loss of his wife Florence,
involving perhaps too much care and attention!
The obvious outcome was that Emma took on the role of housekeeper for
Charles Collett, which must have been the last straw for Leonard, who was
presumable successful in securing a quick divorce from Emma. Eighteen months after the census day in 1901,
Leonard emigrated to America as a single man onboard the S S Teutonic out of
Liverpool bound for New York on 3rd September 1902, where he was
remarried in 1905. It was also around the
same time when the marriage of Charles Collett and (2) Emma Hesketh was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 354) during the third quarter
of 1902
There
being a ten-year age different between Charles and his second wife, it is not
too surprising that five further children were added to the family in the nine years
after they were married. All the
children were born in Birmingham, with all seven of them living with the couple
on the day of the census in 1911.
Charles Collett was 46 and a jeweller and a goldsmith, and his wife Emma
was recorded as being 39 (instead of 35) and married in 1897 (the
year her daughter had been born, and subsequently adopted by Charles). Their children who were attending school were Clarice
Victoria Collett who was 13, Reginald Charles Collett who was 11, Horace
Wilfred Collett who was eight, Ivy Hilda Collett who was six, Leslie Arthur
Collett who was four and the youngest school pupil, plus two-year-old Marian
Adelaide Collett, and Phyllis May Collett who was seven months old. Boarding with the family that census day was
12-year-old Ethel May Williams a school girl born in Birmingham, as was every
member of the Collett family. She had
been born at Coleshill on 13th June 1899, when her birth was
recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 355) and was the youngest child of
brass founder Thomas Williams and his wife Mary Jane Williams of Cardigan
Street in Aston in 1901
Despite
saying she was 39, Emma went on to have three more daughters, the last of them
when she was in her mid-forties. In each
of those three cases, the birth records confirmed that the mother’s maiden-name
was Potter. Their youngest child was
fourteen when her father passed away. Charles
Collett, who was born in 1865, was 70 years of age when he died in 1935 (Ref.
6d 498), with his widow also 70 years old when her death was also recorded at
Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 87) in 1943
79q5
– Gertrude Maria Collett
was born in 1887 at Birmingham
79q6
– Clarice Victoria Collett
(adopted) was born in 1897 at Birmingham
79q7
– Reginald Charles Collett
was born in 1900 at Birmingham
The
following are the eight children of Charles Collett by his second wife Emma
Hesketh:
79q8
– Horace Wilfred Collett
was born in 1902 at Birmingham
79q9
– Ivy Hilda Collett was
born in 1904 at Birmingham
79q10
– Leslie Arthur Collett
was born in 1906 at Birmingham
79q11
– Marian Adelaide Collett was
born in 1909 at Birmingham
79q12
– Phyllis May Collett
was born in 1910 at Birmingham
79q13
– Christabel G Collett
was born in 1914 at Birmingham
79q14
– Joan Irene Collett
was born in 1918 at Birmingham
79q15
– Edna Joyce Collett
was born in 1921 at Birmingham
Arthur
Collett [79p5] was born
in Birmingham and was another son of Thomas and Jane Collett, whose birth was
registered at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 76) during the second quarter of 1869. The next record of Arthur was in 1891 when he
said he was 23 rather than 22, when he was working alongside his father and
brother Harry as a gold ring maker living with his family at Great Hampton
Street in Birmingham. After the family
suffered the double deaths of Arthur’s father and his brother Harry (above),
Arthur was the second son missing from the family home at Ventnor Road in
the Birmingham census of 1901. The
reason he was absent that day was because, eight years prior to that census day,
Arthur Collett had married Alice Lawrence from Birmingham, with their wedding being recorded at Kings Norton register
office (Ref. 6c 52) during the last quarter of 1893. Before the end of the century Alice had given
birth to two of the couple’s three known children at Aston Manor
The
four members of the family were residing at Carlton Avenue in the Aston Manor
area of Birmingham in 1901, where Arthur and Alice were preparing for the
imminent birth of their third child, who was born within two days of that
census day. Arthur Collett was 32 and a
gold ring maker, Alice Collett was 29, and their two sons were Arthur Wilfred
Collett aged six, and Albert Collett who was four years old. During the next few years, the family moved
to Smethwick where they were recorded in 1911.
At the age of 42, Arthur was again continuing to work as a gold ring
maker in the jewellery trade, his wife Alice was 39, Arthur Wilfred was 16 and
employed as a manufacturer’s clerk, Albert was 14 and a gold ring maker working
with his father, and Henry was nine years old and born at Aston Manor like his
brothers. The much later death of Arthur
Collett, who had been born in 1869, was recorded at Warwickshire register
office (Ref. 9c 213) in 1848
79q16
– Arthur Wilfred Collett
was born in 1894 at Aston Manor, Birmingham
79q17
– Albert Collett was
born in 1896 at Aston Manor, Birmingham
79q18
– Henry Collett was
born in 1901 at Aston Manor, Birmingham
Walter
Collett [79p6] was born at 245 Longbridge Lane,
Longbridge, to the south of Birmingham during the month of February in 1871,
with his birth was registered at King’s Norton (Ref. 6c 423) just over two
months later, in the second quarter of 1871.
He was the sixth
child of Thomas and Jane Collett and was two months old in the census of 1871
when he and the family were recorded at 245 Longbridge Lane. Unfortunately, no record of Walter or his
family has been found within the census for 1881, even though they were
positively identified in 1891 when living at Great Hampton Street in
Birmingham, by which time Walter was not with them. The first record of him after that year was
six years later when he sailed out of the Port of Liverpool bound for Quebec in
Canada on board the S S State of California of the Allan Line on 30th
September 1897. He was included on the
passenger list as Walter Collett aged 25, a labourer and a single man
However,
less than four years later he was back with his family at 37 Ventnor Road in
Birmingham, by which time his father had died, with Walter from Bromsgrove
(sic) being 30 and the oldest of the five children still living with their
widowed mother. The census return completed
by his mother stated that he had been born at Bromsgrove and that he was
employed as a barman. Ten years later
unmarried Walter Collett was 40 and a barman at a public house in Birmingham
when he said he had been born in Birmingham.
Five years after that census day, the death of Walter Collett aged 45 was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 192) during the third quarter
of 1916, following which he was buried at Warstone Lane Cemetery in the month
of September that year
Wilfred
Collett [79p7] was born
in Birmingham at the start of 1876 where his birth was registered (Ref. 6d 251)
during the first quarter of the year, another son of Thomas and Jane Collett. Where he and his family were for the next
fifteen years is not known, even though his two younger siblings were born in
Birmingham. It was within the Birmingham
census of 1891 that they were revealed living at Great Hampton Street where
Wilfred was 16 years old a working as a machinist. By 1901, when his widowed mother was residing
at 37 Ventnor Road in Birmingham, Wilfred Collett was 25 and a metal spinner in
the electro-plating industry. It was in
the summer of 1906 that Wilfred Collett married Mary Sanders, when their
wedding was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 561), with whom he had
two children at Aston Manor, where the family was living in 1911. That day Wilfred was 35 and again employed as
a metal spinner, Mary Collett from Birmingham was 32, Frank William Collett was
three, and Edna Mary Collett was one year old
Nearly
four years after the Great War, the couple may have been surprised when Mary
was expecting the birth of their third child, thirteen years after the birth of
their second child, when once again the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Sanders. Wilfred appears to have lived
all his life in the Birmingham area, since it was there also that he died in 1954
at the age of 78, when the death of Wilfred Collett was recorded at Birmingham
register office (Ref. 9c 89). It was
during the month of October in 1954 that his body was laid to rest at Witton
Cemetery in Birmingham. Not long after
being made a widow, the death of Mary Collett, nee Sanders, born in 1878, was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 219) during the second quarter
of 1955 when she was 77. Afterwards she
was reunited with her husband when she was also buried at Witton Cemetery in
June 1955
79q19 – Frank William Collett was born in 1907 at Aston Manor,
Birmingham
79q20 – Edna Mary Collett was born in 1909 at Aston Manor,
Birmingham
79q21 – Joyce Evelyn Collett was born in 1922 at Birmingham
Gertrude
Collett [79p8] was born
in 1879 at Birmingham where her birth was registered (Ref. 6d 240) during the
second quarter of that year. She was the
youngest daughter of Thomas and Jane Collett and was 12 years old and at school
in 1891 when living with her family at Great Hampton Street in Birmingham. Gertrude was 16 when her father died and in
1901, at the age of 21 she was a polisher of gold in the family jewellery
business, when living with her widowed mother at 37 Ventnor Road in
Birmingham. Just Gertrude and two of her
unmarried brothers were the only children still living with their mother in
1911, with Gertrude again earning a living being a jeweller’s polisher aged
32. During the First World War Gertrude
Collett married William Baker with their wedding day recorded at Birmingham
register office (Ref. 6d 418) during the first three months of 1917. With Gertrude nearing thirty-nine, their
marriage produced no issue. Gertrude was
still living in the Birmingham area when she died in 1962, her passing recorded
at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 153) at the age of 83
John
Collett [79p9] was born
at Birmingham in 1884, the last child of Thomas Collett and Jane Wilson, whose
birth was registered at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 165) during the second quarter of
the year. He may have been born at Great
Hampton Street where he and his family were living in 1891, when John was seven
years of age. He was ten years old when
his father died and in 1901 John was 16, had left school, and was employed as a
warehouseman at a cycle factory. On that
occasion he was living with his widowed mother and the rest of his family at 37
Ventnor Road in Birmingham, and was one of only three children still with their
mother at Birmingham in 1911, by which time John Collett was 27 and a labourer
in a brewery. After a further three
years, the marriage of John Collett and Bertha Ratley was recorded at
Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 640) during the second quarter of
1914. Nearly ten years later, with the
war interfering, Bertha presented John with two children and on each occasion
of the registering of their births the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Ratley
Prior to the start of the First World
War, Bertha is believed to have given birth to an earlier son who died in 1914,
although the only Birmingham birth of a Frederick Collett that year was the son
of a Collett-Cransaz family born on 10th April 1914, who married
Blanche E Edwards in 1931 at Birmingham, where he died on 14th July
1987 age 73
Certainly, in addition to the couple’s
confirmed children Stanley and Janet, Bertha had an extra-marital affair around
the end of the 1920s, resulting in the birth of a daughter in 1929. Following the birth, Bertha abandoned the
child in Cofton Park, to the south of Longbridge, Birmingham, and was not heard
of again after that sad incident, possibly because she changed her name. Upon her disappearance, her husband John was
not able to care for his children for health reasons, having been discharged
from the army with trench foot, an ongoing ailment for him. Stanley and Janet were subsequently adopted by
the children’s aunt and uncle, Gertrude and William Baker, Gertrude being
John’s older sister (above).
Stanley retained his Collett surname, with Janet having taken the Baker
surname, with that being how she was referred to on her wedding day. John Collett born in 1884, died in 1933 at
the age of 49, when his death was recorded at Warwickshire register office
(Ref. 6d 182)
79q22 – Stanley Collett was born in 1923 at Aston, Birmingham
79q23 – Janet Gertrude Collett was born in 1925 at Birmingham
Rose
Emma Collett [79p10]
was born in 1867 at Birmingham and is believed to be the first-born child of Emma
Tart and born three years before she married William Collett. No record of her birth has been found and
there is no obvious evidence to suggest where Rose and sister Ada were living
with their mother in 1871, certainly not with William Collett who was recorded
as a lodger in Birmingham in 1871.
Sister Ada (below) was living with William and Emma in 1881, when
Rose was not with their family. Instead,
three years later, when she was around 17 years of age, the marriage of Rose
Emma Collett and Charles Chandler Davis was recorded at Stroud (Ref. 6a 469)
during the first three months of 1884.
The following year their first child was born in England before they
sailed off to a new life in America. The
birth of Frances Florinda Davis was also recorded at Stroud (Ref. 6a
232) during the summer of 1885
The
couple’s second known child, daughter Rose Alice Rebecca Davis, was born
in New York in 1893 where her parents were confirmed as English born Charles
Alfred Davis and Rose Emma Collett. Rose
Alice Rebecca Davis was sixteen when she died at 549 Gates Avenue in Brooklyn
on 19th August 1909 aged 16 and was buried at The Evergreen Cemetery,
where her mother was later buried. The
couple’s younger daughter was Mary M Davis who was born in 1906 in the USA who
was eighteen when she died in Bushwick Hospital on 6th August 1924, prior
to which she had been working as a paper box maker from the family home at 919
Gates Avenue in Brooklyn. Her body was
then laid to rest with her younger sister Rose at The Evergreen Cemetery on 8th
August 1924. In the Brooklyn census of
1910 Charles A Davis was 46, Rose E Davis was 44, Frances F Davis was 25, all
three born in England, plus Charles C Davis who was 19, Maude E Davis
who was 14, and Marie M Davis who was three years old, all of them born
in New York
Rose
Emma Davis from England was 68 when she died in New York on 18th
January 1935 and was buried at The Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn on 21st
January 1935, when she was described as the married daughter of English parents
William and Emma, and the wife of Charles Davis
Ada
Florence Collett [79p11]
was born in Birmingham during 1869, although no record of her birth has been
unearthed, nor is there any record of her, or her older sister Rose (above),
or their mother Emma Tart in the census of 1871 a few months after Emma had
married William Collett. The first seven
years of her life were spent in Birmingham before the family made a temporary
move to Ireland. By the time the next
census was conducted in 1881, Ada and her family were recorded as living at 8a
Christian Street in Liverpool, where Ada was 12 years of age and born in
Birmingham. Six years later she may have
been considering marriage, because in was on 8th April 1887 was Ada
Florence Collett was baptised in Liverpool.
It was just over three years after that event that she married Joseph
Radford at St Alban’s Church in Liverpool on 25th December
1890. Ada was 21 and confirmed as the
daughter of William Collett, while Joseph was 22 and the son of Joseph Radford
Once
they were married their first home was at Currie Street in Liverpool where they
were living in 1891. Ten years later,
and with four children, the family was residing at Gwladys Street in the
Walton-on-the-Hill area of Liverpool, where Joseph Radford from Liverpool was a
marine cook aged 32, Ada Radford was also 32, and the four children were James
Radford aged nine, Joseph Radford who was six, Ada Radford who was five, and
Elsie Radford who was four years old.
One more child was added to the family, with the whole family still
together and living at Walton-on-the-Hill in 1911. Head of the household Joseph was a ship’s chef
at 42, Ada Florence was 42 and a housewife with no occupation, James Radford
was 19 and an assistant cook, Joseph Leslie Radford was 16 and an
assistant boiler maker, Ada Eliza Radford was 15 having no stated job of
work, Elsie Radford was 14 with no occupation, and Hilda Radford
was seven years of age
At
the end of her life, Ada Florence Radford was living at 65 Stuart Road in Walton,
Liverpool, where she died and was buried at Anfield Cemetery on 25th
July 1949 at the age of 80. Her death
was subsequently recorded at Lancashire register office (Ref. 10d 124). For the last seventeen years of her life she
was a widow, with the death of Joseph Radford also recorded at Lancashire
register office (Ref. 8b 524) in 1932 at the age of 63
Amy
Collett [79p12] was
born at Birmingham in 1874, with her birth registered at Aston (Ref. 6d 359)
during the second quarter of 1874, another daughter of William Collett and Emma
Tart. After a brief visit to Ireland in
the second half of that decade, Amy Collett from Birmingham aged seven years,
was living with her family in Liverpool at 8a Christian Street, from where she
was attending school. Ten weeks after
that census day the premature death of seven-year-old Amy Collett was recorded
at Liverpool, when she was buried there on 14th June 1881
Caroline
Collett [79p13] was
born in Birmingham on 5th August 1876, prior to the family moving to
Ireland where they were still living
when Caroline’s brother William (below) was born. When he was still an infant the family moved
again to 8a Christian Street in Liverpool where Caroline was four years of age
in the census of 1881, and from where she was later baptised on 12th
November 1886. On leaving school
Caroline entered domestic service and in 1891, at the age of 14, Caroline
Collett from Birmingham was a servant at the Toxteth Park home of plumber and
painter Thomas Williams and his family at North Hill Street. During the six months prior to the next
census day in 1901, the marriage of Caroline Collett and Johnson P Morewood was
recorded at Toxteth Park register office (Ref. 8b 441) during the last three
months of 1900. It was as Johnson
Pommoret Morewood that his birth was registered at Bury, Lancashire, (Ref. 8c
546) during the last three months of 1875, the son of newspaper editor and
manager Johnson Pommoret Morewood senior and his wife Eliza
By
the last day of March in 1901 the childless couple was recorded at Beloe Street
in Toxteth Park (near the Mersey River) where Johnson P Morewood was 25
and the manager of a public house, and his wife Caroline from Birmingham was 24. Their marriage later produced a daughter,
possibly their only child who was living with the couple in 1911. According to the census return Johnson P
Morewood from Radcliffe in Lancashire was 35 and a licenced victualler employed
by the local brewery company, Caroline Morewood was 34, and when their daughter
Nora Collett Morewood was three years old and born in Liverpool. Their home was in the Toxteth Park area of
the city, when the fourth member of the household was Caroline’s unmarried
brother Thomas Collett (below), with the fifth person being domestic
servant Elizabeth Beckett aged 25
Caroline’s
husband served with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War
service number 121638, with his home address stated in his military record of
1917 as being Heswall on the Wirral in Cheshire when Johnson was 42 years
old. Seventeen year later the family
home was again in Cheshire, when the death of Johnson P Morewood was recorded
there (Ref. 8a 509) in 1934 when he was 59.
After being widowed, Caroline returned to Lancashire where, twenty years
later, the death of Caroline Morewood was recorded at Lancashire register
office (Ref. 10c 207) in 1955 when she was 79.
It was during the previous year when their daughter, aged 46, married
Walter Law, with the wedding recorded at Wirral register office (Ref. 10a 1777)
during the third quarter of 1954. After
a marriage lasting twenty-nine years, the death of Nora Collett Law was
recorded at Birkenhead (Vo. 37 0909) during the second quarter of 1983 at the
age of 75, when the date of her birth was reported to be 25th
December 1907
William
Alfred Collett [79p14]
was born on 31st May 1879 at Palmerston, South Dublin in Ireland
when his birth was registered at Dublin South during the third quarter of that
year, confirming he was the child of William Collett and Emma Tart
Collett. At the age of 17 he was in
military service when his date and place of birth were confirmed as 1879 and
Dublin. The following year he was in
Manchester and a serving member of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment No.
5537. In 1911 he was back in Dublin, where
he became a married man during the first three months of that year, as recorded
at the General Registry (Vol. 2 - Page 596) but without the name of his bride.
Thomas
Collett [79p15] was
born at Liverpool on 2nd February 1882, where his birth was recorded
(Ref. 8b 176) during the first quarter of the year. He was eight years old in the census of 1891
when he was a lodger at Soho Street in the Everton district of Liverpool from where
he was attending school. On leaving
school and living in a major port like Liverpool, it was perhaps inevitable
that he chose a career on the sea. And
that may have been the reason for his absence in 1901. By 1911 Thomas Collett from Liverpool was a
mariner-seaman in the service of the Merchant Navy at the age of 29. That day he was on dry land and staying at
the home of his older marriage sister Caroline Morewood and her husband Johnson
P Morewood within the Toxteth Park area of Liverpool.
Later
in his life his work took him to Canada where, as a bachelor aged 34 and from
Liverpool, he was married by license at St Mary’s Church, Kerrisdale,
Vancouver, British Columbia on 16th October 1916 to Dublin born Mary
Fishwick Shadwick spinster, the daughter of master mariner William Shadwick and
Sarah Smith. Thomas was Chief Steward
with the RMS Empress of Japan, which was given as his place of residence, the
son of cabinet maker William Collett and Emma Tart. On 21st May 1921 Thomas became an
American citizen at King County in Washington, when his Declaration of
Intention included the following information:
Thomas
Collett aged 39, a caterer, was born in Liverpool on 2nd February
1882, residing at 111, 32nd Avenue in Seattle, who emigrated from
Vancouver on the vessel Princess Charlotte, his wife’s name being Mary Collett
born in Dublin, who resides in Seattle. “It
is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance to George V, King
of Great Britain and Ireland, and confirmed I arrived at Seattle Port on 5th
May 1920”. It was back in Vancouver
where Thomas Collett died at the age of 60 on 23rd September 1942,
when it was confirmed that he had been born in England, was the son of William
Collett, and that his wife was Mary
William Henry Collett [79p16]
was born at Liverpool in 1883 and was baptised at St Catherine’s Church, Edge
Hill, Liverpool on 2nd September 1883 when, for the first and only time,
his parents were named as William Collett and Emma Elizabeth Collett. His birth was registered at West Derby -
Liverpool (Ref. 8b 563) during the third quarter of 1883. Just like most of his family, no record of
William has been found until 1916, with his military service record. The document confirmed that William Henry
Collett served with the Lancashire & Cheshire Battalion of the Royal
Garrison Artillery, and that he was residing in Liverpool where he had been
born in 1883, and was now 32. Having
found nothing later, it is possible that William emigrated to America to be
reunited with his older siblings
Alfred
Collett [79p17] was
born at Liverpool on 9th January 1885, with his birth recorded there
(Ref. 8b 31), and where he was baptised on 28th January 1885 at St
Peter’s Church, the last child of William Collett and Emma Tart. Whilst no death of a young Alfred Collett has
been found in Liverpool, he does not appear in any census return from 1891 to
1911, so what happened to him remains a mystery, the same as for other members
of the puzzling family
Rose
Collett [79q1] was born
in 1890 at Birmingham, the first of the four children of Thomas Collett and
Rose Frances Hill and was baptised on 29th June 1890, her birth
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 108) during the third quarter
of the year. She was very likely born at
Unett Street in the city, where she was living with her parents in 1891 when
Rose Collett was ten months old. With a
growing family, a move to 13 Carlton Avenue in Aston Manor took place prior to
the next census in 1901, where the completed family was living that census day,
and where Rose Collett was ten years of age.
They were still living there in 1903 when Rose’s two-year-old sister
Marie died. On leaving school Rose
joined the family jewellery business and in 1911 she was employed as a
jewellery case maker at the age of 20. No
obvious record has been found to suggest she married. It is therefore possible the that death of
Rose Collett recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 9d 204) in 1950
when she was 60 years old, was this Rose Collett. Her Will was proved at Birmingham on 28th
November 1950, following her death on 5th August that year, when the
beneficiaries were named as Florence Rose Turley, Edna Mary Archer, and Hettie
Margaret Joan Atkins
Walter
Thomas Collett [79q2]
was born in 1892 at Birmingham and possibly at Unett Street where his parents
Thomas and Rose Collett were recorded twelve months before he was born. His birth was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d
120) during the second quarter of 1892 and was nine years of age in the census
of 1901 when he and his family were living at 13 Carlton Avenue in Aston
Manor. Walter and his two surviving
siblings entered the family’s jewellery business when they finished their
schooling, with Walter Thomas Collett taking on the occupation of a silversmith’s
toolmaker which was how he was recorded in the Aston Manor census of 1911, at
the age of 19. It was after a further
nine years that the marriage of Walter Thomas Collett , aged 28, and the son of
Thomas Collett, and Emily Elizabeth Raven, aged 31 and the daughter of William
Raven, took place in Aston on 2nd September 1920. However, it does appear that they had no
issue, and it was many years later, when Walter was 55, that he was still
living in the Birmingham area when he died on 8th January 1948, with
his death recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 124)
Herbert
Collett [79q3] was born
in Birmingham on 30th December 1895 where his birth was recorded (Ref.
6d 117) during the first three months of 1896, another son of Thomas and Rose
Collett. It was at 13 Carlton Avenue in
Aston Manor that he was living with his family in 1901 at the age of five
years. Ten years later he had already
left school and was working with his father and two surviving older siblings in
the family jewellery business. On the
day of the census for Aston Manor in 1911, 15-year-old Herbert Collett was
employed as a silversmith’s die-sinker. Although he was the younger brother, it was
early in 1920 when he became a married man, that is around six months before
his brother Walter (above). The
marriage of Herbert Collett and Bertha Wagelein was recorded at Birmingham
register office (Ref. 6d 434) during the first three months of 1920
Four
years later the couple’s only known child was born, when the birth of Peter
Collett was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 680) during
the fourth quarter of 1924, with his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as
Wagelein. It is possible, but not yet
confirmed, that Peter may have married Margaret F Beardmore early in 1951, the
wedding recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 1790). Later that same year, on 3rd July
1951, married Peter Collett an engineer, sailed from Liverpool to Montreal on
the Empress of France of the Canadian Pacific Shipping Line, which may or may
not be the son of Herbert and Margaret Collett.
The later death of Herbert Collett was recorded at the Solihull South
register office (Vol. 34 0079) during 1978
79r1
– Peter Collett was born in 1924 at Birmingham
Gertrude
Maria Collett [79q5]
was born on 29th August 1887 at Birmingham, where her birth was
registered (Ref. 6d 115) during the last three months of that year. She was the first-born child of Charles
Collett and his first wife Florence Lavinia Carey, who were married ten months
before she was born. Gertrude M Collett
was three years old in the Birmingham census of 1891, when she and her parents
were living at Unett Street, next door to Getrude’s uncle Thomas Collett, her
father’s eldest sibling. It is unclear
whether any other children were added to the family during the last decade of
the old century. However, perhaps it was
on the untimely death of her mother, after giving birth to Gertrude’s only
known younger sibling, that she was given into the care of a member was her
late mother’s extended family. That
situation was certainly confirmed in the Birmingham census of 1901, when
Gertrude Collett aged 14 and a niece, was living with unmarried 42-year-old
Emily Hesketh at her home on Fisher Street in Birmingham, the same address
where Gertrude’s fifteen-year-old mother Florence Carey was living with her
Hesketh grandparents in 1871. Also recorded
with Emily and Gertrude in 1901 were two unmarried brothers of Florence Carey,
they being Albert and Charles Carey, and therefore Gertrude’s uncles
Nine
years later, at the age of 23, Getrude Maria Collett, daughter of jeweller
Charles Collett, married Francis Edwin Eadie, also 23 and a jeweller, the son
Edwin Eadie, at St James’ Church in Handsworth on 17th September
1910. Six months after their wedding
day, the pair of them was residing in Handsworth where Edwin Francis Eadie was
24 and a manufacturing jeweller and a gold barrack maker. His wife Gertrude Maria Eadie was still 23, when
they were both confirmed as having been born in Birmingham. Just prior to the first anniversary of their
marriage, Gertrude gave birth to daughter Irene May Eadie at Handsworth
on 8th September 1911, whose birth was recorded at West Bromwich
register office (Ref. 6b 1398). At
two-weeks-old, Irene May Eadie was baptised at St James’ Church in Handsworth
on 24th September 1911, when she was confirmed as the child of
Francis Edwin Eadie and Getrude Maria Eadie.
She was the couple’s only child and, during the summer of 1935 and four
years after the death of her father, the marriage of Irene May Eadie and
William C Cotterell was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d
1545). The much later death of Gertrude
Maria Eadie was recorded at Staffordshire register office (Ref. 9b 757) during
1973 at the age of 85, having spent the last forty-one years of her life as a
widow
Clarice
Victoria Collett [79q6]
was born as Clarice Victoria Potter, the base-born daughter of Charles
Collett’s second wife Emma Hesketh, nee Potter, to whom he was married in the
autumn of 1902, after the death of his first wife in 1900, and after Emma’s
divorce from her husband Leonard Hesket who was then living in America. Clarice was born at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 38) during
the second quarter of 1897 and in 1901 was three years of age and a boarder at
the Back Key Hill home in Birmingham of jeweller Charles Collett, whose
housekeeper was Clarice’s married but separate mother Emma Hesketh. It was after Emma had married Charles that
Clarice adopted the Collett surname, as confirmed in the next census of 1911
when Clarice Victoria Collett was 13 years of age and still attending the
nearby school in Birmingham. It was also
as Clarice Victoria Collett that she married Albert E Hearn, with their wedding
day recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 237) during the first three months of
1919. Their marriage produced three
children, all three recorded at Birmingham register office when the mother’s
maiden-name was Collett. They were Norman
H Hearn in 1927, Donald H Hearn in 1930, and Barry E Hearn in
1933
Reginald
Charles Collett [79q7]
was born in 3rd March 1900 at Birmingham, possibly at Back Key Hill,
where Reginald Collett was one-year-old in the census of 1901. His birth was recorded at Birmingham register
office (Ref. 6d 119) after which he was baptised there on 21st March
1900. He was the only son produced from
the fourteen-year marriage of his father Charles Collett by his first wife
Florence Lavinia Carey, who died shortly after he was born. Living with Reginald and his father at Back
Key Hill in 1901 was live-in housekeeper and domestic servant Emma Hesketh
(married and separated) together with her daughter Clarice (above). Reginald Charles Collett was eleven years of
age in 1911, when he was living with his family within the All-Saints district
of Birmingham from where he was attending school. Four years following that census day,
Reginald Collett born at Aston in 1900 was a member of the 3rd/5th
Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment at the age of 15, who was
residing in Birmingham and presumably under training and preparation for active
service on reaching 16 years of age
What
action, if any, he faced during the Great War, is not yet known, while it was
just over three years after peace in Europe was secured that he became a
married man. The wedding of Reginald
Charles Collett and Harriet Smith was recorded at Birmingham register office
(Ref. 6d 369) during the first quarter of 1922.
Thereafter, over the next nineteen years, the births of four children
have been found within the Birmingham area to parents with Collett and Smith
surnames. Whether they were the issue of
Reginald and Harriet remains to be confirmed, with all of them currently listed
below. In every case, the mother’s
maiden-name was recorded as Smith.
Towards the end of his life Reginald Charles Collett was living within
the Lichfield area of Staffordshire, when he died during August 1989, with his
death recorded at Lichfield register office (Vol. 30 705) at the age of 89
79r2
– John Henry Collett
was born in 1923
79r3
– Betty M Collett was
born in 1928 at Meriden
79r4
– Robert E Collett was
born in 1938 at Birmingham
79r5
– Ian V Collett was
born in 1941 at Birmingham
Horace
Wilfred Collett [79q8]
was born at Back Key Hill in Birmingham on 2nd May 1902 (Ref. 6d
145), the first of the eight children of Charles Collett, jeweller, and his
second wife Emma Hesketh, formerly Potter.
By the time he was eight years of age, he and family were living within
the All-Saints district of Birmingham, when Horace Wilfred was attending
school. It seems unlikely that he was
involved in the First World War, and it was ten year later, at the age of 25,
that the marriage of Horace Wilfred Collett and Laura B Harper was recorded at the
Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 617) during the first quarter of
1928. Curiously, it was fourteen years
after they were married that Laura gave birth to a son, whose birth was
recorded at Birmingham, where the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Harper. The later death of Horace Wilfred
Collett was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Vol 32 0126) in 1983 when
he was 81, with the last eighteen years of his life spent as a widower,
following the passing of his wife Laura B Collett which was also recorded at
Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 213) during 1965 at the age of 61
79r6 – Michael J Collett was born in 1942 at Birmingham
Ivy
Hilda Collett [79q9]
was born on 20th July 1904 at Birmingham where her birth was
recorded (Ref. 6d 183) during the third quarter of the year, the eldest
daughter of Charles and Emma Collett.
Under her full name she was listed with her family in 1911 at the age of
six years. It was during the spring of
1930 that the marriage of Ivy Hilda Collett and Edward C Withers was recorded
at Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 1292). The first of the couple’s three children was
born towards the end of that same year, with the birth of Eileen Withers
recorded at Birmingham South register office (Ref. 6d 436) during the last
three months of 1930. One year later
their second child was born, with the birth registered and re-register, as
follows. The first recording at
Birmingham South register office (Ref. 6d 412 - 106) was done so under the name
Ellen Clarke-Withers, which was superseded by the subsequent entry (Ref. 6d 412
– 113) for Ellen Withers. The
couple’s last child, and only son Colin Withers, was recorded at
Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 338) during the last three months of
1943. In each case, the mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
The error with the Clarke name may have come from that being Edward’s
second forename. Whilst no record of his
death has been found, his wife enjoyed a very long life, and was living within
the Solihull area of the West Midlands when Ivy Hilda Withers died on 1st
July 2002 just prior to her 98th birthday
Leslie
Arthur Collett [79q10]
was born in 1906 at Birmingham where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 52) during
the first three months of that year, the third child of Charles and Emma
Collett. By 1911 he was attending school
at the age of four years and, on reaching 21, the marriage of Leslie Arthur
Collett and Amy Elliott was conducted at Birmingham on 20th August
1927. Amy was 19 years old and the daughter
of Ernest Elliott, with Leslie’s father confirmed as Charles Collett when the
event was recorded at Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 997). The births of the couple’s first three
children were recorded at the Birmingham North register office, where their
mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Elliott, as it was for the fourth and
last child’s birth which was recorded ten years later at the Warwickshire
register office. Leslie Arthur Collett
was 60 years old when he died in 1967, and when his death was recorded at
Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 118)
79r7 – Joan Irene Collett was born in 1928 at Birmingham
79r8 – Edna Doreen Collett was born in 1930 at Birmingham
79r9 – Marjorie Ann Collett was born in 1936 at Birmingham
79r10 – David Michael Collett was born in 1946 at Warwickshire
Marian
Adelaide Collett [79q11] was
born at Birmingham on 23rd March 1909, with her birth recorded there
(Ref. 6d 72) during the first quarter of the year. She was the fourth of the eight children of
Charles Collett and his second wife Emma Hesketh, and was two years of age in
the Birmingham census of 1911. She was
22 years old when Marian A Collett married (1) George Allbrook, when their
wedding was recorded Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 1135) during the
last three months of 1930. No children
were born to the couple and, following the death of George Allbrook in 1996
aged 59, widow Marian A Allbrook married (2) Alfred W Phillips in the summer of
1970, with the event recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 9c 1410). As Marian Phillips aged nearly 94, her death
was recorded at Coventry register office (Vol. 0631a a69a) in March 2003
Phyllis
May Collett [79q12] was
born on 3rd September 1910 at Birmingham where her birth was
recorded (Ref. 6d 50) during the last quarter of that year. She was also baptised there on 28th
September 1910, another daughter of Charles and Emma Collett, and was seven
months old in the Birmingham All Saints census registration district in 1911. It was during the summer of 1933 when Phyllis
May Collett married Edward Wilkes with their wedding day recorded at Birmingham
register office (Ref. 6d 1075). Their
marriage gave the couple two children; Christine Wilkes whose birth was
recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 952) at the start of 1942, and John A Wilkes
whose birth was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 1088) in
1944. For each event the mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. And
it was as Phyllis May Wilkes that she died in 1989 aged 78, when her death was
recorded at Warwickshire register office (Vol. 32 1194)
Christabel
G Collett [79q13] was
born at Birmingham on 31st December 1913, with her birth recorded
there (Ref. 6d 418) during the first quarter of 1914, the sixth child of
Charles Collett and Emma Hesketh, nee Potter.
The birth record also confirmed that the mother’s maiden-name was
Potter. Twenty-four years later, as
Christobel G Collett, she married Eric G E Morris in Birmingham where their
wedding was recorded (Ref. 6d 164) during the third quarter of 1938. It was very likely that it was Eric’s
occupation that resulted in their children being born at different
locations. First was Shirley A Morris
in 1935, with her birth recorded at Meriden Warwickshire register office (Ref.
6d 864) in the fourth quarter of the year.
Next was Graham F Morris in 1937 at Nuneaton (Ref. 6d 1102) during
the second quarter of the year, followed by Janet Morris in 1939 at
Birmingham (Ref. 6d 33) during the fourth quarter of the year. It was after a return to Nuneaton that the
couple’s last child Michael J Morris was born (Ref. 6d 1267) during the
first three months of 1942. It each
case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Many years later, and again as Christobel, she
was two weeks short of her 101st birthday when she died at
Bridgnorth in Shropshire on 18th December 2014, with Christobel
Morris being buried at St Leonard’s Churchyard in Bridgnorth
Joan
Irene Collett [79q14]
was born in 1918 at Birmingham where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 340) during
the second quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Potter. It was also at Birmingham
register office that two marriages of Joan I Collett were recorded, the first
in 1939 to Wilfred Churchward (Ref. 6d 1815) during the last three months of
the year, and the second in the spring of 1947 to George Wills. The latter one was the husband of the younger
Joan Irene Collett [79r8]. Therefore, by
eliminating George Wills, it can safely be assumed that Joan I Collett married
Wilfred Churchward. For the first time,
it was the baptism record for the first of their three children that revealed
Joan’s full name to be Joan Irene Collett, the same as her younger niece
[79r8]. The couple’s three Birmingham
born children were Roger Churchward on 2nd September 1943 and
baptised on 10th October who married Elaine Wright, Sheila E
Churchward in 1946 who married Anthony E Gandley in 1967, and Jill I
Churchward in 1951 who married Brian L Hillman in 1970.
Edna
Joyce Collett [79q15]
was born on 3rd October 1921 in Birmingham where her birth was
recorded (Ref. 6d 444), and where she was baptised on 12th October
1921, the last of the eight children of Charles Collett and his second and much
younger wife Emma Hesketh, nee Potter
Arthur
Wilfred Collett [79q16]
was born in 1894 at Aston Manor in Birmingham, with his birth recorded Aston
register office (Ref. 6d 415) during the second quarter of the year. He was the first child of Arthur Collett and
Alice Lawrence whose marriage had been recorded at Kings Norton during the last
three months of the previous year, possibly making Arthur a honeymoon baby. He was baptised at the Church of St Matthias
on 13th June 1894 and was six years old in the Aston Manor census of
1901, when his family was residing at Carlton Avenue. On leaving school he took up work as a clerk
for a local manufacturer, as confirmed in the Smethwick census of 1911. During the First World War, Arthur Wilfred
Collett from Warwickshire served with the Royal Engineers, the 1st
Northumbrian Field Company, and was 27 years of age when he was discharged in
1921. Three years earlier the marriage
of Arthur W Collett and Doris E Packer was recorded at Kings Norton register
office (Ref. 6d 184) during the third quarter of 1918
After
ten years together, Doris gave birth to the first of their two daughters, with
the births of both girls recorded at the Worcestershire Stourbridge register
office (Ref. 6c 12) in the last three months of 1928, and (Ref. 6c 19) in the
third quarter of 1930. On both occasions
the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Packer. The youngest child was nearly three years old
when the death of Arthur Wilfred Collett, born in 1894, was recorded at
Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 84) in 1933 when he was approaching
39. His Will was proved at Birmingham on
22nd November 1933, when the probate documentation confirmed that he
died at Birlingham in Worcestershire on 6th October 1933 when the
main beneficiary was his widow Doris Evelyn Collett. Doris Evelyn Packer was born on 25th
January 1895, her birth recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6a 38),
the daughter of Gideon James Packer and his wife Harriet Packer. Doris lived a long life and was 97 when she
died, the death of Doris Evelyn Collett recorded at Warwickshire register
office (Vol. 32 390) in 1992
79r11
– Gillian Collett was born in 1928 at Stourbridge
79r12
– Christie M Collett was born in 1930 at Stourbridge
Albert
Collett [79q17] was
born in 1896 at Aston Manor, Birmingham and his birth was recorded at Aston
register office (Ref. 6d 430) during the third quarter of 1896, another son of
Arthur and Alice Collett. He was
baptised at St Matthias’ Church on 26th August 1896 and was four
years old and living at Carlton Avenue in Aston Manor in 1901 and, upon
completing his schooling, he joined his father in the business of making gold
rings, which was confirmed in the Smethwick census of 1911, when he was 14
years of age. The marriage of Albert
Collett and Marie Jones was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 1105)
during the second quarter of 1916. The
couple’s only known child died at the age of one year, with the death of Annie
Collett also recorded at Aston register office (Ref.6d 472) in June 1918, and
was buried that same month at Witton Cemetery in Birmingham. Albert Collett was 82 when he died with his
death recorded at Warwickshire register office (Vol. 31 0399) in 1978
79r13
– Annie Collett was born in 1917 at Aston, Birmingham; infant death
Henry
Collett [79q18] was
born on 13th April 1901 at Carlton Avenue, off Clifford Street,
Aston Manor, Birmingham, eleven days after the day of the census that year, and
was baptised at St Matthias’ Church on 1st May 1901, the last of the
three children of Arthur Collett and Alice Lawrence. He was nine years old in the following census
in 1911, when he was attending school and living with his family in Smethwick. The only other detail currently known about
Henry is the recording of his death at Warwickshire register office (Vol. 32
0462) in 1975, when he was 74
Frank
William Collett [79q19]
was born at Aston Manor, Birmingham on 7th May 1907 and was three
years of age in the Aston Manor census of 1911.
He was the eldest of the three children of Wilfred Collett and Mary
Sanders, with his birth recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 391) during
the second quarter of 1907. At the age
of 32, the marriage of Frank William Collett and (1) Edna Mabel Fletcher was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 530) during the first three
months of 1940. Their daughter was born
at Birmingham just over twelve months later and she was seventeen years of age
when her mother died in 1958. The death
of Edna Mabel Collett was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 9c 84)
in 1958 when she was 51. Two years later
Frank W Collett, a widower, married (2) Ethel Daisy Westwood, with their
wedding recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 135) during the fourth
quarter of 1960. Forty-six years later Frank
William Collett was almost one hundred years old when he died on 21st
March 2007 in the Harborne area of Birmingham. His second wife Ethel had passed away four
years earlier, when the death of Ethel Daisy Collett was recorded at
Warwickshire register office (Vol. 0611b b24b) in 2003, with her date of birth
reported as 4th August 1910
79r14 – Audrey Jean Collett was born in 1941 at Birmingham
Edna
Mary Collett [79q20]
was born at Aston Manor in 1909 and was one year old at Aston Manor on the
census day in 1911. Her birth was
recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 361) during the third quarter of the
year, and she was the second child of Wilfred and Mary Collett. Tragically, she was only three years old when
she died on 9th November 1912, with her premature death recorded at
Aston register office (Ref. 6d 536)
Joyce
Evelyn Collett [79q21]
was born at Birmingham on 15th August 1922, where she was baptised on
24th September 1922, the last child Wilfred Collett and Mary
Sanders. Her birth was recorded at Aston
register office (Ref. 6d 1013) when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Sanders. It was during the summer of
1950 when the marriage of Joyce Evelyn Collett and Leonard V Poole was recorded
at Sutton Coldfield register office (Ref. 9c 2896). Three years into their life together Joyce
present Leonard with their only child, with the birth of Kathryn Joyce Poole
also recorded at Sutton Coldfield (Ref. 9c 1550) during the third quarter of
1954. The later death of Joyce Evelyn
Poole was recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 0611a a21b) during the
summer of 2001 at the age of 79. Prior
to her passing, Joyce would have attended the marriage of her daughter to
Stephen A Williams at Walsall in 1976
Stanley
Collett [79q22] was
born in Birmingham on 31st August 1923, with his birth recorded at
Aston register office (Ref. 6d 855) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed
at Ratley, being the older of the two children of John Collett and Bertha
Ratley. At the age of only six years, his mother took herself
away from her family after giving birth to a daughter who was not the child of
John Collett. When that happened Stanley
and his sister Janet (below) were placed in the care of their father’s
married sister Gertrude, due to their father’s poor health following his
service to King & Country during World War One. Stanley was 25 when he married Doris Jones with
their wedding recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 1058) in the last
three months of 1948. Over the following
eleven years Doris gave birth to five children whose births were recorded at
Birmingham register office when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Jones. Stanley was 63 when he died and
his passing was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Vol. 32 1502) in 1986
79r15 – Brian Collett was born in 1950 at Birmingham
79r16 – Barry Collett was born in 1951 at Birmingham
79r17 – Anthony S Collett was born in 1953 at Birmingham
79r18 – Sandra Collett was born in 1955 at Birmingham
79r19 – Maxine Collett was born in 1959 at Birmingham
Janet
Gertrude Collett [79q23]
was born at Birmingham on
6th October 1925, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 573)
during the last quarter of the year, when her mother-s maiden-name was
confirmed as Ratley. Tragically, due to her mother
abandoning the family in 1929, Janet and her brother were adopted by their
father’s married sister Gertrude Baker nee Collett, and her husband Wiliam
Baker. Janet Gertrude Baker was around
21 years of age when she married Harry Price by licence during the spring of
1946, with their wedding recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 126). The births of their four children were also
registered there, with their mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Baker. They were Linda Janet Price in 1947, Keith
T Price in 1948, Gillian Gertrude Price in 1949, and Thomas J
Price in 1950. The much later death
of Janet Gertrude Price happened when she passed away at Birmingham, within the
B17 post code, on 8th September 2010 at the age of 85. The last thirty-three years of her life were
spent as a widow, following the death of Harry Price at Birmingham towards the
end of 1977, when his date of birth was confirmed as 12th May 1925
John
Henry Collett [79r2]
was born on 4th January 1923, the first of the four children of
Reginald Charles Collett and Harriet Smith who were married nine months
earlier. John’s two youngest siblings were
born when the family was living in Birmingham, having previously resided in the
Solihull area of Birmingham. For the
later marriage of John H Collett in the West Midlands area of the country there
were two possible such events. The first
of them, in the summer of 1950, can be discounted as that was the wedding of
John Henry Collett [15O62] and Jeanne C Williams, with the second being with
Margaret E Swain which was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 499)
during the first three months of 1952.
It was also at Birmingham that the couple was still living when their
three known children were born, and where their mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Swain. The later death of
John Henry Collett was recorded at the Mid-Warwickshire register office (Vol.
7751b b36b) during the month of March in 1998 at the age of 75
79s1 - Patricia E Collett – her birth
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 443 in 1953 3rd Qrt
79s2 - Joyce Collett – her birth
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 682) in 1959 3rd Qrt
79s3 - Edward John Collett – his birth
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 1586) in 1972 2nd
Qrt
Betty
M Collett [79r3] was
born in 1928 with her birth recorded at Meriden register office (Ref. 6d 936)
during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was
recorded as Smith. She was the likely
second child of Reginald Collett and Harriet Smith, who never married and who
died in September 1996 and was buried at Lodge Hill Cemetery & Crematorium
in Birmingham
Robert
E Collett [79r4] was
born at Birmingham in 1938 where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 333) during
the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Smith. No further details of his life
are currently known
Ian
V Collett [79r5] was
born at Birmingham in 1941 and his birth was also recorded there (Ref. 6d 853) during
the last four months of the years, when
his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Smith. He was very likely the fourth and last child
of Reginald Charles Collett and Harriet Smith.
Unlike his older brother Robert (above), about whom nothing is
known, it would appear that Ian became a married man, either at the end of
1969, or early in the following year, with the marriage of Ian V Collett and
Margaret E Wear recorded at Ludlow, Shropshire, register office (Ref. 9a 313)
during the first three month of 1970. Once they were married, Ian and Margaret
settled in or around the town of Hereford, since it was at Hereford register
office that the births of their three children were recorded during the
following decade, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wear. From the records for the couple’s two eldest
children, the family continued its association with Shropshire, where Suzanne was
married, and where Darren’s first child’s birth was recorded
79s4 – Suzanne Collett was born in 1972 at Hereford
79s5 – Darren Edward Collett was born in 1974 at Hereford
79s6 – Hannah Louise Collett was born in
1979 at Hereford (Vol. 29 377) 2nd Qrt
Michael
J Collett [79r6] was
born in 1942 at Birmingham where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 290) during
the last quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Harper. He was the only known child of
Horace Wilfred Collett and Laura B Harper.
It was towards the end of 1964 when the marriage of Michael J Collett
and Cynthia A Collins was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 171).
Their only known child was born the
following year, with his birth also recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 9c 25718s)
during the final three months of 1965.
It is possible, although not verified, that son Stephen married
Jacqueline A Labinjo during the summer of 1987, when their wedding was recorded
at Solihull South register office (Vol. 34 313)
79s7
– Stephen E Collett was born in 1965 at Birmingham
Joan
Irene Collett [79r7]
was born at Birmingham in 1928 with her birth recorded at the Birmingham North register
office (Ref. 6d 652) during the first quarter of the year, when her mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Elliott.
She was the first-born child of Leslie Arthur Collett and Amy Elliott. Joan was 19 years old when she married George
Wills in Birmingham on 14th June 1947, who was 26 and the son of
Francis George Wills. It was during the
following year that the first of the couple’s two children were born, with the
birth of Alan George Wills recorded at Warwickshire register office
(Ref. 9c 110) in 1948, while the birth of Marilyn Irene Wills was
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 109) at the start of 1953. Both records confirmed that the mother’s
maiden-name was Collett. Son Alan George
was baptised in Birmingham on 20th June 1948, which also revealed he
was the son of George Wills and had been born on 21st May 1948. Joan Irene Wills was 83 when she passed away
at West Bromwich on 26th November 2011
Edna
Doreen Collett [79r8]
was born in Birmingham on 7th June 1930 and her birth was recorded
at the Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 573) during the third quarter
of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Elliott. Edna was almost three weeks old when she was baptised
on 26th June 1930, the second child of Leslie and Amy Collett. She was only eighteen years of age when Edna
Doreen Collett married Albert Howell during the first months of 1949, the event
recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 726). It was also at Birmingham register office
that the births of their two children were recorded, when the mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
They were Teresa Ann Howell who was born early in 1951 (Ref. 9c
831), and Stephen P Howell who was born nearly five years later at the
end of 1955 (Ref. 9c 268). Their
daughter was baptised at Birmingham during the month of March in 1951 when the
family had been living at Lodge Street, the baptism record also confirmed the
date of birth of Teresa as 21st January that year
Marjorie
Ann Collett [79r9] was
born at Birmingham in 1936 and her birth, like those of her two older sisters (above)
was recorded at Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 276) at the start of
that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Elliott. Again, like her two older sisters, Marjorie
was also under twenty years of age when she was married. The wedding of 19-year-old Marjorie Ann
Collett and Donald Frank Timms took place in Birmingham on 23rd July
1955, when Donald from Hockley was 24 and the son of William Timms. The couple’s only child was Janet A Timms,
whose birth was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 9c 743) during the summer of 1957,
when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett
David
Michael Collett [79r10]
was born on 19th March 1946 with his birth recorded at Warwickshire
register office (Ref. 6d 257), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Elliott. He was the fourth child and
only son of Leslie Arthur Collett and Amy Elliott, and was baptised on 7th
April 1946. David was 24 when he married
Susan B Norton at Aldridge and Brownhills where their wedding was recorded (Ref.
9b 13) towards the end of 1970. Their
two children were both born in Birmingham where their births were recorded,
when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Norton. Their son’s birth was recorded during the
third quarter of 1974 (Vol. 32 0548), and their daughter’s exactly four years
after during the third quarter of 1978 (Vol. 32 378)
79s8 - Robert David Collett was born in
1974 at Birmingham
79s9 - Sheryl Anne Collett was born in
1978 at Birmingham
Audrey
Jean Collett [79r14]
was born at Birmingham on 21st March 1941 and was baptised there on
23rd April 1941, the only known child of Frank William Collett and
Edna Mabel Fletcher. No record has been
found to indicate that Audrey ever married
Brian
Collett [79r15] was
born early in 1950 at Birmingham where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9c 243)
during the first quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Jones. He was the eldest of
the five children of Stanley Collett and Doris Jones, and sadly did not survive. The death of baby Brian was also recorded at
Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 796) during that same first three months of
1950, and was buried in Birmingham at Warstone Lane Cemetery in March that year
Barry
Collett [79r16] was
born at Birmingham towards the end of 1951, with his birth recorded there (Ref.
9c 110) during the last quarter of the year when his mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Jones. He was another son
of Stanley and Doris Collett. The later
marriage of Barry Collett and Denise A Wathen was recorded at Birmingham
register office (Vol. 32 0720) during the fourth quarter of 1975 when he was 24
years of age. The birth of his son and
namesake was also recorded there during the same three months (Vol. 32 0327),
as was his infant death on 20th December 1975. Four years and ten years after suffering the
dreadful loss of their son, Denise gave birth to two daughters, whose births were
recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 32 433) during March 1985, when
their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wathen
79s10 – Barry Collett was born in 1975
at Birmingham
79s11
– Laura Ann Collett was born in 1979 at Birmingham
79s12 – Sarah Collett was born in 1985
at Birmingham
Anthony
S Collett [79r17] was
born in 1953 at Birmingham where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9c 103) during
the third quarter of the year, his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Jones, the
third child of Stanley and Doris Collett.
It is understood
that Tony never married
Sandra
Collett [79r18] was
born at Birmingham in 1955 with her birth recorded there (Ref. 9c 100) in the
last three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Jones, being the eldest daughter of Stanley and Doris Collett. In the summer of 1972, the marriage of Sandra Collett and Anthony
Hutton was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 1578) during the
third quarter of the year. Their
marriage produced two children, Lee Hutton born in 1973, and Sarah Kate Hutton
in 1985
Maxine
Collett [79r19] was
born at Birmingham in 1959 when her birth, as the last child of Stanley Collett
and Doris Jones, was recorded there (Ref. 9c 109) towards the end of the year,
when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jones. Maxine never married
Suzanne
Collett [79s4] was born
in Herefordshire during the spring of 1972 with her birth recorded at Hereford
register office (Ref. 3a 83), the eldest of the three children of Reginald
Charles Collett and Harriet Smith. She
was 26 years old when she married Jonathan R Charles in Shropshire during
September in 1998, their wedding recorded at Ludlow register office (Vol. 712
1590). Only two children were born into
a Charles/Collett family around that time and their birth were recorded at
Poole in Dorset; Jack William Charles in 1999, and Rosie May Charles in 2002,
when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Poole is a long way south of Ludlow, so they
may not be the children of Jonathan and Suzanne
Darren
Edward Collett [79s5]
was born in Herefordshire during the first few weeks and months of 1974 when
his birth was recorded at Hereford register office (Ref. 3a 81), whose mother’s
maiden-name was Smith. It was during the
summer of 2001 when Darren Edward Collett married Sharon M Vobe, with their
wedding day also recorded at Hereford (Vol. 516 1230). Four years later their son Oliver George
Collett was born during December in 2005, with his birth recorded at Shropshire
register office (Vol. 7171f f1e) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Vobe
Laura Ann Collett [79s11]
was born at Birmingham on 19th February 1979, the older of the two
surviving children of Barry Collett and Denise A Wathen. The later marriage of Laura A Collett and
David G Barker was recorded at Birmingham register office (Vol. 061 0044) at
the start of 2005. The couple were
blessed with the birth of two daughters Amy Ann Barker on 28th
September 2010, and Rosie Ann Barker on 20th December
2014. And it was Laura Barker, nee
Collett, who kindly provided her family details which resulted in the
production of the new version of this family line in March 2024