PART EIGHTEEN

The Main Suffolk Line - 1820 to 2008

This is the third of three sections of the eighteenth part of the Collett family

Updated January 2010

This update relates to Mabel May Collett (Ref. 18Q53), the information for which

has been kindly provided by Mary-Ann Dunn nee Collett (Ref. 18S18),

and Kate Collett (Ref. 18P69) the great grandmother of Steve Keeble

The Dec ‘09 update was thanks to Jane Reuben nee Collett (Ref. 18S27) of Surrey

Gordon Alan Collett (Ref. 18S30) kindly provided some of his family details

The information for the April 09 update related to Lionel C G Collett (Ref. 18Q87)

which was kindly provided by his great grandson Mark Norman

The information for the February 2009 update was kindly provided by Judith Jones

and relates to the family of John Collett (Ref. 18P104)

The previous update to the file provided details of the family line of siblings Rachael

and Andrew Collett down to Andrew’s son Sean Francis Collett (Ref. 18T13) who was

born in 2002 from Henry Colet in 1360, the line being identified by the names in italic print.

Prior to November 2007 the details for the family of Woodthorpe Collett were

contained in a separate appendix to this line. I am now please to say that the

confirming link has been established that ties the family into this line

18O60	Christopher Collett was born at Mettingham in 1836 and was baptised there on 25.02.1836, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Collett. It was at Mettingham where his parents are known to have lived for part of their life together and where Christopher’s own first-born son was born.
	He married Lucy Sones who was born at Chediston near Halesworth when he was in his early twenties. By 1861 the family of three was stilling at Mettingham where Christopher was aged 25, Lucy was 23 and son George was one year old. Not long after they left Mettingham and moved the eight miles south to Chediston near Halesworth where Lucy had been born in 1838.
	It may have been a return to Lucy’s parents home that the couple made the move since their stay there was a short one. However, it was long enough for their second child and first daughter to be born there, and again this may have been why they moved to Chediston to be near Lucy’s mother.
	Shortly after this the family then moved to Rendham between Framlingham and Saxmundham where Christopher’s next three children were born. The census of 1871 listed the family of seven as Christopher aged 34, Lucy aged 33 and their children as George 11, Ann 9, Frederick 4, Walter H 2, and Alfred aged 1.
	One more child was born into the family while they were still living at Rendham but shortly after a major family move took place that saw them move to Winton in Manchester where Christopher’s and Lucy’s final child was born. Sadly though between 1871 and the move to Lancashire the family suffered the loss of son Walter who appears to have died as an infant.
	And so it was that the couple’s last child was given the same name in memory of the dead child. Another family move happened after new Walter was born since by the spring of 1881 the family was living at 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell a district that today is part of Eccles.
	Christopher was aged 44 and was working as a farm labourer and his place of birth was confirmed as Mettingham. Lucy was 42 and of Chediston and the children still living in the family home with them were Ann 19 of Chediston, Frederick 14, Alfred 11, and Henry aged 8, all three boys born at Rendham, and six years old Walter of Winton.
	Daughter Ann was recorded as having the occupation of a general domestic servant although at the time she was unemployed.
	18P74	George Collett				Born in 1859 at Mettingham
	18P75	Ann Catherine Collett				Born in 1862 at Chediston
	18P76	Frederick C Collett				Born in 1866 at Rendham
	18P77	Walter H Collett				Born in 1868 at Rendham
	18P78	Alfred Collett				Born in 1870 at Rendham
	18P79	Henry Collett				Born in 1872 at Rendham
	18P80	Walter Collett				Born in 1875 at Winton, Manchester
18O61	John Collett was born in 1819 but the location still has to be established. He married Elizabeth around 1839 with whom he had a daughter born the following year. By June 1841 John was aged 21 and was living with his wife aged 24 and their one year old child in the Depwade, Quiltcross & Hoxne registration district where his parents and family were also living at that time.
	Ten years later it would seem that it was just John aged 30 and his daughter aged 11 living in the registration district of Depwade & Diss, with no sign of his wife. Also living in the same district was John’s brother Thomas (below).
	18P81	Emma Collett				Born in 1840
18O62	Thomas Collett was born in 1822 and it is unclear where this took place. In June 1841 Thomas was aged 18 and was still living with his family in the Depwade, Quiltcross & Hoxne registration district.
	By 1851 Thomas had joined his married brother and was living in the Depwade & Diss district of Suffolk and was unmarried at the age of 28.
18O64	Benjamin Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1824 and he was seventeen at the time of the Fressingfield census of 1841. Just over two years later Benjamin married Sarah Ann Spalding at Fressingfield on 26.12.1843. Sarah Ann was also born a Fressingfield and was a few years old than Benjamin having been born around 1820, the daughter of James Spalding and Hannah Rose.
	One year before they were married Sarah gave birth to a base-born child Sarah Ann Spalding who was born at Fressingfield where she was baptised on 23.12.1842. It seems curious that in the list of children below, the couple’s first known child was not born until eight years after they were married. It is therefore possible that there were older children born into the family during the 1840s.
	During the 1850s Sarah presented Benjamin with four children although only three of them were confirmed in the census of 1861 for Hoxne & Stradbroke. In this Benjamin was 37, Sarah was 40 and their children were Jane 7, Keziah 4 and Anthony aged 2. All of them were confirmed as having been born at Fressingfield. It is possible that for some reason their son James was staying at Harleston at that time, as a James Collett aged eight years was listed there in the 1861 Census for the Harleston & Depwade registration district. This photograph taken on glass and damaged over time shows the ‘1861 family’ of Keziah, Benjamin, Sarah holding Anthony, and Jane just prior to Benjamin’s death. The group is standing outside a house that is today the Fox & Goose public house in Fressingfield.
	It was during the following year that Benjamin died at Fressingfield in 1862. The cause of death was given as phthisis which was a wasting disease usually contracted by those working with cattle or leather and commonly referred to as the cobbler’s illness. It was the same form of tuberculosis that also killed Benjamin’s father at Fressingfield earlier that same year.
	It is possible that Benjamin was buried in a family grave with his father at St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church in Fressingfield.
	So nine years later Sarah was a widow aged 52 and according to the 1871 Census for Fressingfield she had still living with her three of her children. However, on this occasion they were a different three from those ten years earlier. They were Jane 19, James 18 and Anthony aged 12.
	Sarah’s daughter Keziah would have been aged 14 in 1871 so her absence from the family might indicate she was working away from home or that she had possibly passed away.
	What happened to the family during the next decade is not known for sure but around 1875 Sarah left Fressingfield and seems to have abandoned her Collett children when she moved to Kent with her oldest daughter Sarah Ann who was married to William Brundish of Fressingfield.
	Sarah Ann and William had married around 1863 and their first five children had been born in Suffolk, while two further children were born after their move to Erith in Kent.
	According to the 1881 Census Sarah Collett of Fressingfield was a 62 years old washerwoman and mother-in-law to head of the household William Brundish a general labourer aged 39. At that time he and his wife and family were living at 25 Bottle Road in Erith.
	18P82	Jane Collett				Born in 1851
	18P83	James Collett				Born in 1852
	18P84	Keziah Collett				Born in 1856
	18P85	Anthony Collett				Born in 1858
18O65	William Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1826 and was aged 15 in the 1841 Census. He later married Mary Ann Borley and is known to have had at least one child born when he was 53. His wife was twelve years his junior and came from Beyton near Bury St Edmunds.
	William was a master painter and in 1881 he was employing one man and a boy from his home at 6 Sparhawk Street in Bury St Edmunds. The only slight problem was that on that occasion he gave his place of birth as Halesworth which lies seven miles east of Fressingfield.
	Living with William and Mary Ann was their one year old son Albert who was born at Bury St Edmunds, and scholar Jane Borley aged 10 who was curiously described as daughter-in-law to head of the house William. It is more likely that she was actually his step-daughter and the daughter of his wife from a previous marriage.
	No trace of the family has been found in any later census records.
	18P86	Albert G Collett				Born in 1879 at Bury St Edmunds
18O66	Charles Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1829 and it was there that he was baptised on 02.08.1829, the son of Benjamin and Bertha Collett. However, it is known that his mother died around 1832 and that Charles did not survived beyond childhood, as his father remarried and named another of his later sons as Charles Collett.
18O67	Keziah Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1832 and was baptised there on 12.08.1832. The baptism record confirmed that her parents were Benjamin and Bertha Collett, although by the time the baptism took place Keziah’s mother Bertha had died, possible during the birth.
18O70	Charles Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1838 but was not baptised there until 26.04.1840. The Fressingfield baptism recorded confirmed that Charles was the son of Benjamin Collett and his second wife Sarah.
18O71	George Collett was born at Fressingfield in after June 1840 as he was under one year old by June 1841. In 1861 at the age of 19 he was only child still living with his parents at their Fressingfield home.
	Within one or two years George had married Harriet who was also of Fressingfield having been born there around the same time as George. Over the following eighteen years the marriage produced nine children for George and Harriet and all born at Fressingfield.
	And it was at Fressingfield that the family was living in 1881. Their place of residence was listed as Catchpool Gardens where agricultural labourer George was 40 as was his wife Harriet. The only children that were missing were the two eldest sons who had left home to seek work elsewhere.
	The children still living at the address were Benjamin 15, Keziah 12, George 10, Esau 6, William 5 and Sarah aged 2. Son Benjamin had left school and was employed was as an agricultural labourer like his family.
	Later that year in 1881 the family moved the three miles east to Cratfield where towards the end of the year son James was born. Another move quickly followed since by the time of the birth of their tenth and last child George and Harriet were living at Stradbroke.
	According to the 1901 Census, George at 60 years of age was a stockman on a farm at Stradbroke. Living with him was his wife Harriet also 60 but who on this occasion gave her place of birth as Saxted. The only members of the family still living with them were the four youngest children.
	These were William Collett 25 a non-domestic groom, Sarah Collett 22 a domestic housemaid, James Collett 19 who was an ordinary farm labourer, and Kate Collett who was eighteen who was employed as a general domestic servant.
	Ten years later George Collett was 70 and Harriet his wife was 69, and at that time the couple were still living at Stradbroke, although no other member of the family was living with them by then.
	18P87	Henry Collett				Born in 1861
	18P88	Benjamin Collett				Born in 1865
	18P89	Keziah Collett				Born in 1868
	18P90	George Collett				Born in 1870
	18P91	Esau Collett				Born in 1874
	18P92	William Collett				Born in 1876
	18P93	Sarah Collett				Born in 1878
	18P94	James Collett				Born in 1881
	18P95	Kate Collett				Born in 1882
18O73	John Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew on 01.08.1829. At the time of the first national census in June 1841 John was aged 12 and was living with his family at Ilketshall St Andrew. He left school with his School Certificate a few years later.
	He joined the army at Halesworth when he was aged seventeen years and nine months. He was initially with the 16^th Regiment but later transferred to the 54^th Regiment. John spent a total of twenty years and two days with the army, of which eight years and eight months was spent in India.
	The records confirm he was a private in the 54^th Regiment and spent some time living and servicing in India. He married (1) Mary Penney on 08.04.1857 at Stoke Dameral in Devon and within a few years the couple were living in India where their two daughters were born. The first was born at Cawnpore and the second at Maradabad in Calcutta.
	Within two years of the birth of their second child the family was extended by the addition of a son who was also born while John and Mary were still living in Calcutta. He finally retired from the army in May 1873 and was the recipient of the Indian Mutiny Medal and Good Conduct Medal. He also received two good conduct awards from the army.
	Upon leaving the army John and Mary returned to Ilketshall St Andrew where he took up work as a labourer. Sadly Mary died in 1874 of cancer of the womb. Now a widower with three young children John later met and married (2) Charlotte Carver on 23.07.1875. Charlotte was ten years younger than John and had been born in 1839 at Homersfield which lies between Harleston and Bungay.
	Tragically the marriage lasted only six weeks when John died from a stroke on 05.09.1875. His death certificate incorrectly gave his age as 43, whereas John was actually 46 years old on 1^st August that year.
	John and Mary were both buried in the churchyard at Ilketshall St Lawrence.
	Having lost her husband in the second half of 1875 Charlotte gave birth to a daughter in 1877, the father of which has not been discovered. In order to support her new daughter Charlotte handed the child into the care of farm labourer William Howlett with whose family she was living in 1881.
	By that time the widow Charlotte Collett aged 41 had left Ilketshall and was working twenty-five miles away as a cook at the home of farmer John Read at Gosling Hall Farm in Debenham between Stowmarket and Framlingham.
	John’s two daughters were both living and working in London by that time, see their separate entries for more details, while his son John was living with his uncle William Collett (below) at Ilketshall St John.
	18P96	Elizabeth Collett				Born on 08.06.1861
	18P97	Sarah Collett				Born on 19.12.1862
	18P98	John Christian George Collett				Born on 21.12.1864
	18P99	Harriet Collett (not John’s daughter)				Born in 1877
18O74	Charles Collett was born at Ilketshall St Lawrence in 1831. He married Mary who was born at Thurton between Norwich and Loddon in Norfolk in 1826. This very likely took place around the time that Charles would have been twenty-five years old.
	By early April in 1871 Charles and Mary had two children and in the census for Gorleston these were recorded as George aged 13 and Charles aged 7. Charles was 40 years of age and his wife Mary A Collett was 44 and they and their youngest son were living at 4 Common Lane in Gorleston from where Charles was a general labourer working at the dockyard in Gorleston.
	Charles’ son George had left home by 1881 leaving the family of three still living at 4 Common Lane. Charles was 50, Mary 54 and Charles junior was sixteen and his place of birth was confirmed as Oulton.
	Just after the turn of the century Charles at 70 was a ‘danzman’ while his wife Mary was 74 and both of them were still living at Gorleston.
	18P100	George Collett				Born in 1857
	18P101	Charles George Collett				Born in 1864
18O75	Lucy Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew in 1836 and was living there with her family in 1841 aged four years. At the age of 26 she married twenty-two years old George Gowing who was born at Wrentham near Wangford, the ceremony taking place at Wangford in 1862.
	Immediately after the marriage Lucy returned to Ilketshall St Andrew with her husband where they lived for the remainder of their lives and where they raised three sons and four daughters, these being Harry, Emma, Charles, Julia, Ellen, Sarah and James. The couple’s first four children were confirmed in the 1871 Census as being aged 7, 6, 5 and 3 years.
	The census of 1881 confirmed the family was living in a dwelling house at Great Common in Ilketshall St Andrew where George Gowing aged 41 was employed as an agricultural labourer and hay cutter while his wife Lucy was 45 years old.
	By that time eldest son Harry aged 17 was working as an indoor farm servant at nearby Shipmeadow at Codfish Hall Farm, the home of bachelor farmer John Riches. Lucy’s and George’s eldest daughter Emma, who would have been aged 16, has not been located in 1881 and may have died during the 1870s.
	Of the remaining children Charles aged 15 was working with his father as an agricultural labourer and hay cutter, while the four younger ones were still at school. These were Julia aged 13, Ellen 10, Sarah 6 and James aged 5 years.
	Twenty years later in 1901 all of the children with the exception of youngest son James had left the family home at Ilketshall St Andrew leaving just Lucy aged 64 and George aged 60 whose occupation was that of a thatcher. Son James Gowing was aged 25 and was employed as a thatcher’s assistant working with his father.
	Of the other members of the family, sons Harry aged 37 and Charles aged 34 were also still living in Ilketshall St Andrew. Harry was married to Mary Ann aged 37 of Rumburgh by whom he had two children these being Herbert aged 10 and Edith aged 8. Both children had been born at Ilketshall St Andrew where Harry was employed as an agricultural labourer.
	Son Charles was also working as an agricultural labourer and was married to Elizabeth aged 38 of Reydon in Suffolk with whom he had six children. These were all born at Ilketshall St Andrew and were Harriet aged 12, George 10, Ellen 8, Hubert 7, Laura 4 and baby Ernest who was not yet one year old.
	There is still a strong presence of Gowing family members living in this area of Suffolk in 2008.
18O76	William Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew in 1838 and was two years old in June 1841 when he was living with his family in the Blything & Wangford registration district.
	He was an agricultural labourer and he married Emma Rackham on 13.11.1863. Emma was born at Heckingham in Norfolk on 19.07.1837 and was the daughter of John Rackham and Elizabeth Balls.
	It would appear that the couple initially settled in the village of Ilketshall St Andrew where their first child was born, but moved shortly after to Ilketshall St John where their daughter was born.
	The location and movement of the family was then further complicated when the couple’s next child was born at Ilketshall St Andrew, while the one after that was baptised at Ilketshall St John.
	In 1871 the family was living within the Bungay & Wangford registration district when William was 33, his wife Emma was 34, and just three of their four children were listed with them. These were Sarah who was five, John who was three, and William who was not yet one year old. Where son Robert was on this occasion has not been determine, although it is known that he survived into adulthood.
	By 1881 William and Emma had returned to Ilketshall St John where William was an agricultural labourer aged 43. His wife Emma was 44 and the only one of their children still living with the couple was their son John who was thirteen.
	Also living with the family, and working with son John, was the boy’s cousin John Collett aged 16 who was born in India. His relationship to head of the house William was nephew and he was the son of William’s older brother John (above) who spent some time in India with the British Army.
	At that time William’s and Emma’s daughter Sarah was working at The Rectory in Ilketshall St John.
	Just after the end of the century according to the census of 1901 William gave his age as being 60 and Emma as being 61. The couple were living at Lowestoft by then and William’s occupation was that of a general labourer.
	Emma Collett nee Rackham died on 25.05.1908, and with no record of her husband in the census three years later, it must be assumed that William had also died sometime after 1901.
	18P102	Robert Collett				Born in 1863
	18P103	Sarah Collett				Born in 1865
	18P104	John Collett				Born in 1867
	18P105	William Collett				Born in 1870
18O77	Robert Collett was born in 1840 and very likely at Ilketshall St Andrew where certainly two of his older brothers (above) were born. Apart from the 1841 Census in which he was one year old, no other records of him have so far been found.
	It is possible that he joined his older brother John (above) by working in India. The only reason for thinking this is his lack of appearance in the UK Census of 1861 when it is established that brother John was in India at that time, and his absence from the 1871 Census as well.
	Coupled with this ‘lack of positive information’ it is known that a Robert Benjamin Collett died at Ghazuabad in India on 21.09.1880. This Robert was an engine driver for the East India Railway.
18O78	Dinah Collett was born at Wilby in 1851, the daughter of John and Margaret Collett. She married Henry Brunning of Horham who was a few years younger than Dinah having been born in 1855. By 1881 the marriage had not produced any children for the couple, who were living with Dinah’s father at Cole Street in Wilby. Dinah Brunning of Wilby was 30 and her agricultural labourer husband Henry was 25.
18O80	James Collett was born at Wilby in 1863 and was eighteen at the time of the Wilby census of 1881. By that time he was an agricultural labourer working with his widowed father John Collett, the pair of them living at Cole Street in Wilby.
18O81	Martha Collett was born at Wilby on 13.07.1841 and was the eldest daughter of James Collett and Lucy Mutimer. It was at Wissett nears Halesworth that she married Joseph Peck on 12.12.1860.
18O82	Emma Collett was born at Wilby on 19.03.1844. She married Henry Godfrey at Needham in Norfolk on 02.03.1868. Tragically the marriage only lasted for four years when Emma died at Rushall in Suffolk on 06.02.1872.
18O83	William Collett was born at Needham in 1846 where he was baptised on 03.08.1846. At the age of 14 he was living with his family at Needham. During the 1870s he married Martha who was twenty years older than William (see 1881 Census which may include a transcribing error).
	So by 1881 the couple were living at Mill Lane in Attleborough where 24 years old William from Needham was employed as a corn miller. Martha was born at Alburgh near Harleston and was listed as being aged 44. However, no trace of either of them has been found in later censuses.
18O86	James Collett was born at Needham in 1852 and it was there that he was baptised on 23.08.1852. It would appear that he was married in the late 1870s but tragically the marriage last only a short time as his wife died, possibly in childbirth.
	By April 1881 James was a childless widower at only 28 years of age. The census for that year placed him as a visitor at 7 Cox Buildings, George Street in Great Yarmouth the home of his sister Rachel French (below). James’ birthplace was stated as being Needham and his occupation was that of a blacksmith journeyman.
18O87	Rachel Collett was born at Needham in 1825 where she was baptised on 24.04.1855. She married William French and in 1881 the couple were living at 7 Cox Buildings, George Street in Great Yarmouth. William, who was born at Norwich, was employed as a boiler maker journeyman.
	Although Rachel aged 25 and William aged 22 had no children at that time, there were three other people staying at the same address. These were Rachel’s visiting brother James Collett (above), boarder Charles Collerson 18 a railway engine cleaner from Norwich, and visitor Emma Langton a dressmaker aged 22 of Great Yarmouth.
18O88	George Collett was born at Needham and was baptised there on 10.02.1858. He was aged 3 years and 13 years in the Needham censuses of 1861 and 1871.
	In 1881 he was an unmarried 23 years old platelayer working on the railway and living with his widowed mother Lucy Collett at Lakenham in Norfolk.
	George married (1) Amy shortly after the census day and the marriage produced three children for the couple while they were living in Norwich. However, it seems very likely that Amy died after the birth of their third child since there is no record of her in either of the censuses for 1891 or 1901.
	With three young children and no wife, George returned to live with his mother Lucy. By April 1891 George was 33 and he and his three children, together with his mother who was 74, were once again living in his home town of Needham. George’s three children were recorded as Ruth 7, David 6, and Philip who was three.
	During the next decade George’s mother passed away, following which the family of four moved back to Norwich where George was continuing his employment as a platelayer at the age of 43.
	His daughter Ruth, as the oldest child at the age of seventeen, was listed as having no occupation. This was probably because she was very likely acting as housekeeper for her father and two brothers David who was sixteen, and Philip who was thirteen.
	Sometime over the next few years George married (2) Hannah and by April 1911 the couple were still living in Norwich. George was 53 and Hannah was 56. Still living with the couple were George’s two sons David and Philip. By that time George’s daughter Ruth was living and working in London.
	A few years later it would appear that George and Hannah left Norwich and moved back to Lakenham. And it was at 40 Harford Street in the town that George was living in October 1914 when he learned of the death of his son David at the Battle of Loos.
	18P106	Ruth Collett				Born in 1883
	18P107	David Collett				Born in 1885
	18P108	Philip Collett				Born in 1887
18O90	HAMMOND COLLETT was baptised at Wilby on 31.03.1839. At the age of eleven in 1850 Hammond and his siblings were living with his mother Dinah at the Hoxne Union Workhouse while his father served a two-week sentence in Ipswich prison.
	By the time of the census on 30^th March 1851 Hammond was still living at the Hoxne Union Workhouse but this time with his father Robert and his two brothers and one of his three sisters.
	It was around the time of the 1861 Census that Hammond was working as a carter for a local farmer in Wilby when he was dismissed from the job. In 1863 he was a witness at the wedding of his sister Susan Collett (below). It is interesting to note that both signed their names in the marriage register which, despite coming from an impoverished family, indicates the educated status of the family from previous more wealthy generations.
	A little while later he moved to Brentford to seek work where, in 1864 he secured employment as a malt-man working for one of the many breweries that flanked the River Thames within the Brentford area. It was through his work that he met Isaac Bradford a maltster at the brewery and through whom he was introduced to his daughter Mary Bradford.
	Hammond married Mary during the first quarter of 1865 at Brentford, Mary having been born on 26.12.1840 at Kingston-upon-Thames, her mother being Hannah Bradford nee Iles.
	By 1881 the couple had produced a family of seven children and was living at Back Lane in Chiswick. Hammond was listed as aged 41 of Wilby, while Mary was aged 40 and of Kingston Upon Thames. Living with them were six of their seven children.
	These were: Hammond aged 12; Mary A aged 11; Alfred Lewis aged 9; Robert aged 5; Ada E aged 3; and John aged 6 months. The last two of these children had been born at Brentford while the others were born at Chiswick. Only eldest daughter Annie was absent at that time.
	Just after the turn of the century Hammond Collett of Suffolk was aged 62 and was working as a general labourer at Chiswick. He was living there with his wife Mary and their daughters Ada and Rosetta close to where their married son Hammond was living with his family.
	Eight years later Hammond (senior) died in 1909 at 70 years of age. His wife lived on for a few more years and in April 1911 she was living with her son Robert and his family in Chiswick, where she was described as widow Mary Collett aged seventy years.
	18P109	Annie Collett				Born Apr-Jun 1866
	18P110	Hammond Isaac Collett				Born in 1868
	18P111	Mary A Collett				Born in 1870
	18P112	Alfred Lewis Collett				Born in 1872
	18P113	ROBERT COLLETT				Born on 14.08.1875
	18P114	Ada E Collett				Born in 1878
	18P115	John Collett				Born in September 1880
	18P116	Rosetta Collett				Born circa 1882
18O91	Susan Collett was baptised on 28.02.1841 at Wilby where she married Amos Sharman of Brundish on 30.04.1863. Both Susan and her brother Hammond Collett (above), who was a witness at the wedding ceremony, signed the register.
	By 1881 Susan and Amos and their family were still residents of Wilby, living at Wilby Green. Their children were: Elijah aged 13; Georgiana aged 11; David aged 9; Alvina aged 7; and Arthur J Sharman aged 5, and all born at Wilby. Amos died at Brundish after 1881 as did Susan.
18O92	John Collett was baptised at Wilby on 02.07.1843. He married Sarah Mallett of Pimlico around 1866. Their first two children were born at Chelsea with the remainder being born and baptised at Wilby, and buried there as well.
	In 1881 the family was living at Framlingham Road in Wilby. John was a 34 years old bricklayer and his wife Sarah was aged 36. With them were their children John aged 13, Ephraim 11, Robert 9, Alfred 8, James 5, Charles 4, Sarah 3, and Emily aged 6 months, the first two being born at Chelsea with the rest born at Wilby.
	Also living at Framlingham Road in Wilby at that time was John’s brother Alfred Collett (below) and his family who were also next door neighbours but with one property in between.
	Just after the turn of the century John aged 57 and Sarah aged 56 were still living at Wilby. Sarah’s place of birth was confirmed as Pimlico while John occupation was that of a bricklayer.
	Following the death of his wife Sarah during the first decade of the new century, John left Wilby and moved the seven miles west to Hartismere near Eye to live with his married son Alfred Louis Collett and his family where, in 1911 he was sixty-seven.
	It seems very likely that John Collett was the last member of the family to live in Wilby after many centuries of continuous residency, since no one of the Collett name was living there in April 1911.
	18P117	John Collett		Born in 1867
	18P118	Ephraim George Collett		Born in 1869
	18P119	Robert Collett		Baptised 17.11.1871
	18P120	Alfred Lewis Collett		Baptised on 13.04.1873
	18P121	Harry Collett		Baptised on 27.09.1874
	18P122	James Collett		Baptised on 30.05.1875
	18P123	Charles Collett		Baptised on 20.08.1876
	18P124	Sarah Ann Collett		Baptised on 21.04.1878
	18P125	Amelia Betsy Collett		Baptised on 01.06.1879
	18P126	Emily Collett		Born in September 1880
	18P127	Mary Ann Collett		Baptised on 21.01.1883
	18P128	Ernest Collett		Baptised on 21.05.1884
	18P129	Arthur Collett		Baptised on 25.10.1885
18O93	Robert Collett was born at Wilby where he was baptised on 11.03.1845. He died twenty-one months after and was buried at Wilby on 11.12.1846.
18O94	Ann Collett was born at Wilby in 1849 and was baptised there on 05.08.1849. The baptism record confirmed that she was the daughter of Robert Collett and his wife Dinah.
18O95	Alfred Collett was born at Wilby in the first quarter of 1851. At the age of fourteen he was baptised on 09.07.1865 at Wilby where he later married Caroline Smith on 14.06.1874. Caroline was born in around 1853-1854 at Brundish and all of their children were baptised at Wilby.
	According to the 1881 Census, Alfred aged 30 and of Wilby, was a cattle drover living at Framlingham Road in Wilby. Living with him was his family comprising wife Caroline aged 27 of Brundish, sons Cornelius aged 6 and David aged 5, and daughters Elizabeth aged 3 and Anna aged 10 months, all of Wilby. Also living with them was Alfred’s widowed mother Dinah Collett.
	Living at the next house but one from Alfred in Framlingham Road in Wilby was his brother John Collett and his family (above).
	Just after the turn of the century Alfred was living in the St Margaret’s district of Ipswich from where he continued to work as a cattle drover. On that occasion he gave his aged as 52 and his place of birth as Stradbroke, which is the next village to Wilby. Rather oddly his wife was absent at that time – see note below.
	However, the couple were still listed in the census of 1911, by which time they had left Ipswich and instead were living at Eye, seven miles west of Wilby. Alfred Collett of Wilby was sixty, while his wife Caroline Collett of Brundish was fifty-eight.
	Staying with the couple was thirteen years old Ethel Collett who was born at Stradbroke and who was living at Stradbroke in 1901 at the age of three. It is also worth noting that a Caroline Collett of Brundish was also living at Stradbroke in 1901 – hence the reason why she was not with her husband in Ipswich. However, for this Caroline her age was recorded as being 38 instead of 48.
	It therefore seems likely, in the absence of any better information, that Ethel Minnie Collett, as she was recorded in 1901, was indeed a late child for Caroline and Alfred Collett
	18P130	Cornelius Bradman Collett				Baptised on 01.11.1874
	18P131	David Collett				Baptised on 20.08.1876
	18P132	Elizabeth Collett				Baptised on 21.04.1878
	18P133	Anna Collett				Baptised on 05.09.1880
	18P134	Dinah Collett				Baptised on 21.01.1883
	18P135	Ethel Minnie Collett				Born in 1897 at Stradbroke
18P1	Anthony Collett was born in 1836 at Ubbeston which is mid-way between Framlingham and Halesworth. He was Rector of Hastings from 1880 to 1895 and a vicar in Kent from 1895 to 1905. In the 1881 Census he was living at The Rectory in Hastingleigh near Ashford in Kent.
	During the next few years it would appear that Anthony married Mary Sherwood and in the census of 1891 the couple were either visiting Torquay on holiday or were living there at that time. Anthony was 55 and Mary Sherwood Collett was 54.
	It is very likely that Anthony as a man of the cloth was comforting Lucy Ellen Collett who had just been made a widow by the death of her husband Charles Preston Collett. Lucy E Collett was 47 while her husband had been much older and would have been 64 had he been alive at that time.
	The full census return for Torquay listed Lucy and her two youngest children Laura (Lesley) Collett 12, and Arthur (Preston) Collett who was 10, together with Anthony and Mary.
18P2	Harriet Collett, who was born around 1838, married the Reverend John Ley, Rector of Waldron in Sussex and they lived in Guildford.
18P3	Maria Collett was born at Ubbeston Green in 1841 She never married and in 1881 was living with her widowed mother Harriet Pett Collett (Ref. 18O1) and her sister Frances Ellen Collett (below) at 6 Camden Crescent, Dover St James in Kent. She died in 1894
18P4	Frances Ellen Collett was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1851. By 1881 at the age of 30 she was not married and was living with her widowed mother Harriet Pett Collett and her sister Maria Collett (above) at 6 Camden Crescent, Dover St James in Kent.
18P5	Thomas Trusson Collett of Ringleton was born in 1840 and married his cousin Georgiana Collett (below) in 1865. She was born at Monkton in Kent in either 1836 or 1837.
	It would appear that, following their wedding, the couple initially settled down to live at Upper Clapham in London where their first two children were born.
	Sometime in the early 1870s the family then moved to Kent where they lived in the village of Woodnesborough near Sandwich which was where their other two children were born.
	Surprisingly a search of the 1881 Census has so far not revealed the whereabouts of Thomas or Georgiana and the three youngest members of their family, although it is known that their children were educated in England and ended their lives in the country, where they also died.
	What the census does reveal was that their eldest son Thomas aged 13 was attending The Lines Private School at Sutton Valence in Kent as a boarder.
	Thomas died just over four months after the national census when he passed away on 19.08.1881 aged just 41.
	18Q1	Thomas Collett				Born in 1867
	18Q2	William George Collett				Born in 1869
	18Q3	Charles Collett				Born in 1875
	18Q4	Katharine Collett				Born on 28.12.1878
18P6	Ann F Collett was born at Woodnesborough in 1842 and she never married. In 1881 she was living with her brother George Collett (below) at No. 5 St Mary’s Road in Camberwell in Surrey. She died in 1941.
18P7	James Tomlin Collett was born in 1843 and died the following year in 1844.
18P8	George Collett was born at Woodnesborough in 1844. He never married and in 1881 was a Rochester Diocesan Clergyman with a Master of Arts degree living at 5 St Mary’s Road in Camberwell. Listed at the house with him was his 39 years old sister Ann F Collett (above), plus four servants. Later on he became Vicar of Basildon and he died in 1918.
18P9	Catherine Collett was born at Monkton in Kent in 1835. She married cashier wine trader Benjamin T Whittington around 1860. In 1881 the couple were living with their four children at 19 St Johns Road in Islington. The youngest child at the time was her 9 years old son Collett A Whittington. Catherine died a few years later in 1884.
18P10	Georgiana Collett was born around 1836 and 1837 at Monkton. She married her cousin Thomas Trusson Collett (above) of Ringleton in 1865.
18P11	George Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1838, the eldest son of George Collett and Sarah Crofts King. Tragically he died in 1844 aged just six years.
18P12	George Alfred Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1848 and was the son of George Collett and Sarah Crofts King. George was only two years old when his mother Sarah died in March 1850.
	At the time of the census in 1881 George was 33 and was living with his father George Collett (Ref. 18O7) and his brother Cornelius Collett (below) at Main Road, Walter’s Hall in Monkton. The census stated that he earned his income from land.
	Shortly after the census date George married Georgina Ching Clemson who was born at Monkton in 1850. The couple’s first son was born at Camberwell whereas the remaining sons were born at Monkton, with their daughter having been born at Ramsgate.
	The census in 1891 for the Minster registration district which included Monkton listed the family as George 43, Georgina 40, George 8, Alfred 7, Dorothy 5, Harold 4, and Percy who was two.
	By the turn of the century the George and Georgina were still living at Monkton where George later died in 1907.
	According to the 1901 Census George Alfred was 53 and he and his eldest son George Clemson aged 18 were both stated as being farmers. Only the two youngest sons Harold aged 14 and Percy aged 12 were not living at the family home at that time, since they were both attending a school in Margate.
	Following the death of her husband, widow Georgina left Monkton and moved the seven miles south to Woodnesborough where she was living in 1911. Georgina Collett of Monkton was 64 and her living companion was Katharine Collett who was 32.
	It seems very likely that the elderly Georgina was looking after her much younger niece ‘one-step removed’ because later that same year spinster Katharine Collett passed away. Also by this time Georgina’s son George and daughter Dorothy were both unmarried and living in London.
	The only other child of Georgina’s for whom a record has been found is Harold who had moved to Wokingham by 1911. No other record for any of Georgina’s remaining two children has so far been found.
	18Q5	George Clemson Collett				Born in 1882
	18Q6	Alfred Collett				Born in 1883
	18Q7	Dorothy Collett				Born in 1885
	18Q8	Harold Willis Collett				Born in 1887
	18Q9	Percy Stapleton Collett				Born in 1888
18P13	Cornelius Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1857 and was the first son from the second marriage of George Collett to Elizabeth Smith following the death of his first wife some seven years earlier.
	In 1881 Cornelius was an unmarried 23 years old Cambridge undergraduate living with his father George Collett and his brother George Alfred Collett (above) at Main Road, Walter’s Hall in Monkton. He later married Edith Solly.
18P14	Isabella Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1859 where she was confirmed as the daughter of George Collett and Elizabeth Smith.
18P15	Emily Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1861, the daughter of George Collett and Elizabeth Smith.
18P16	Alice Maud Collett was born at Walter’s Hall in Monkton in 1863. By 1881 at the age of 18 she was attending a private school at 20 Sinclair Road in London, the establishment of the sisters Maria Jane Lambley and Emily Harriet Lambley of Hilmorton in Warwickshire.
	Alice Collett later married the Reverend T W Tidmarsh the Rector of Slapton.
18P17	Ellen Mary Collett was born in 1846 and was later known to be of Bury St Edmunds.
18P18	Augusta Celia Collett was born at Chelsworth in 1848 and she emigrated to North America, possibly with her younger brothers Frederick William and John Anthony (below). It is also known that she lived in California like her brother Frederick, so may have actually been living with him.
18P19	Sophia Elizabeth Collett was born at Chelsworth in 1849. She never married and in 1881 at the age of 32 she was a visitor at the home of Richard D Gough the 81 years old Magistrate for Brecon at Yniscedwyn House in Lower Ystradgynlais in Brecon. She died on 15.08.1899 around her fiftieth birthday.
18P20	Mary Louisa Collett was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1850 and in 1881 she was thirty-one and was still a spinster living with her parents at The Rectory in Hawstead. She later became a Deaconess in London.
18P21	William Charles Collett was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1852. In 1881 he was aged 29 and was a colonial managing clerk working in Wimbledon where he was in lodgings at 13 Ridgeway, the home of master tailor William Kearns.
18P22	Agnes Maria Collett was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1855. She married the Reverend A Woodforde, the Vicar of Locking in Somerset.
18P23	Frederick William Collett, who was born in 1860, emigrated to North America and was believed to be living somewhere in California possibly with his sister Augusta Celia Collett (above).
18P24	Leonora Julia Collett was born in 1872 and was known to be of Bury St Edmunds like her older sister Ellen Mary Collett (above).
18P25	John Anthony Collett was born in 1874 and emigrated to North America where he was known to be living in Washington State.
18P26	Alfred Master Collett was born at Weymouth in 1859. He was educated at Keble Collage in Oxford where he matriculated on 15^th October 1877 aged 18. He later gained a BA in 1880 and an MA in 1884. At the time of the 1881 Census he was at home with his mother at 7 Grosvenor Road in Radipole in Weymouth, his father being a civil engineer working in London at that time.
	He later went on to become the Reverend Alfred Master Collett.
18P27	Emily Collett was born at Beverley in 1861, where her recently married parents were living at that time. She was however, baptised at Brightwell Church in Brightwell-cum-Foxhall near Ipswich on 18.08.1861 where her grandfather was the Reverend Woodthorpe Collett, the father of Emily’s mother Elizabeth.
	The baptism record for Brightwell-cum-Foxhall confirmed that Emily was the daughter of Trusson and Elizabeth Charlotte Collett.
	Emily and her parents continued to live in Beverley for a few more years before they moved into London where they were living in 1881, although their whereabouts ten years earlier has not been determined.
	The census in 1881 confirmed that Emily and her parents were living at 178 Goldhawk Road in Hammersmith, where her father Trusson’s occupation was that of a clerk. Emily’s place of birth was Beverley and, although she was nineteen years old, she was listed as a scholar which would indicate that she was participating in higher education.
	Emily was still living with her parents ten years later at the age of twenty-nine. By March 1901 Emily was not living them and was very likely married by then. Within the census of 1901 there are two possibilities; one is Emily Wheatley and Emily Wilson. Both were forty years old and born at Beverley.
	Emily Wheatley was living in York, while Emily Wilson was a resident of Beverley St Martins.
18P28	Helen Clara Collett was born at Dover in 1849 where she was baptised on 11.04.1849, the daughter of William Lloyd Collett and Frances Harriet Collett nee Smith.
18P29	Alfred Collett was born at Shepherds Bush in 1855. In the Census of 1881 he was listed as a 26 year old civil engineer living at the vicarage home of his father the Reverend William Lloyd Collett (Ref. 18O23) at the vicarage in Coverdale Road in Hammersmith.
	He was a Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (M.I.C.E.) and it may have been his work that resulted in him sailing to South America in the early 1880s where he was later joined by his sister Jessie Susette Collett (below).
	And it was in Argentina at St John’s Anglican Cathedral in Buenos Aires that on 29.04.1886 Alfred married Ida M Wilkinson the daughter of James Wilkinson. The witnesses at the wedding did not include Alfred’s sister Jessie suggesting that she travelled to South America after this date.
	The cathedral record confirmed that Alfred and Ida were both from England and were residents of Buenos Aires at the time of their marriage.
	18Q10	Reginald Collett				Born after 1886 in Argentina
18P31	Jessie Susette Collett was born at Shepherds Bush in 1860 and at the time of the 1881 Census she was living in the family home at the Vicarage in Coverdale Road in Hammersmith and was aged 20 years.
	It would appear that Jessie may have been persuaded to leave England for South America by her brother Alfred (above) who had already travelled to that distant continent sometime before 1886.
	She was not a witness at Alfred’s wedding in April that year perhaps indicating that she arrived after that event. What is known though is that she married James Collett Mason at St John’s Anglican Cathedral in Buenos Aires on 20.08.1887 and that her brother Alfred Collett (above) was a witness at the ceremony.
	The cathedral record confirmed that Jessie from England was a resident in the Belgrano district of the city, while James also from England was living in Santa Fe Province.
	Research undertaken by Avryll Sixtus has provided the proof that Jessie and her husband James were in fact cousins with their union being the end of a loop that started with the marriage of Mary Collett of Eyke and William Wallis Mason back in 1783 at Westcote near Stow-on-the-Wold.
	Jessie’s and James’ first child, their daughter Margaret Marion Collett-Mason, was born while the couple were living in Buenos Aires. The next four children were born at Rosario in Argentina. It was the couple’s youngest child William Collett-Mason who inherited everything from his father to the detriment of his siblings.
	Strangely there was an Asline Collett-Mason listed in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia as someone who supported the effort during the Great War of 1914 to 1918 by serving at a depot in Australia. However the entry would also indicate that Asline was a male since the next-of-kin was listed as his wife Mrs Mason.
	18Q11	Margaret Marion Collett-Mason				Born on 16.06.1888
	18Q12	Ascelin Frances Collett-Mason				Born on 08.04.1890
	18Q13	Kathlees Lucy Collett-Mason				Born on 23.03.1892
	18Q14	Augusta F Collett-Mason				Born circa 1893/4
	18Q15	Guillermo Wallis Collett-Mason				Born on 25.08.1895
18P35	Laura Lesley Collett was born at Torquay in 1878 and was two years old at the time of the census in 1881 when she was living with her family at Warberry Road in Tor-Moham in Torquay. Almost ten years later her father Charles Preston Collett died and so by April 1891 Laura was 12 and was living with her widowed mother and younger brother Arthur (below).
	No trace has been found of her mother but by April 1911 Laura Lesley Collett was 32 and was living at Lewisham in London.
18P36	Arthur Preston Collett was born at Torquay in September 1880 and was seven months old on 3^rd April 1881 when he was living with his family in Warberry Road at Tor-Moham in Torquay. Ten years later he was recorded as being aged ten and was still living with his parents in Torquay.
	No record of Arthur has so far been found in 1901 which may indicate that he was in the army in South Africa. And again no record of him has been found in the census of 1911. However, it is known that he married Sheila at some later time and that the couple eventually returned to Arthur’s family roots in Suffolk.
	So far it is established that the marriage produced at least two children, and that Arthur and Sheila were living in Felixstowe in 1945 when they receive the news that their daughter Phyllis had been killed during the Second World War.
	18Q16	Candace Collett				Date of birth unknown but after 1911
	18Q17	Phyllis Anne Collett				Born in 1922
18P37	Edward P Collett was born in Leicester in 1862. At the age of 18 years he was a medical student studying dentistry at Hasting where he was living with his parents at 12 Springfield Road.
18P39	Charles Hubert Edgar Collett was born at Paddington in London in 1862. He followed his father into the world of finance and at the age of 18 years was a stockbroker’s clerk working in London while living at the family home in 13 Windsor Road in Ealing.
18P40	Anthony Keeling Collett was born at Cromhall near Wootton-under-Edge on 22.08.1877, the eldest son of the Reverend William Michael Collett. He was aged 3 years in the census of 1881 when he was living with his family at The Rectory in Cromhall. Ten years later, following the death of his father and at the age of thirteen, Anthony was living with his widowed mother at Axbridge in Somerset.
	He was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire and on 26^th January 1896 was an elected scholar at Oriel College in Oxford on payment of £10. It was at Oriel College where he matriculated on 22^nd October 1896. Two years later in 1898 he obtained a Third Class in Classical Moderations and, after a further two years, a Second Class in Final Classical School in 1900. 1900 was also the year he was made Bishop Fraser’s Scholar. During this period he also attended the University of Berlin.
	The following year Anthony was twenty-three and was living at Theale in Berkshire where he was working as a journalist. Following this he worked for The Globe and four years later in 1905 he was on the staff of the St James’ Gazette.
	He was later employed by the magazine County Gentleman and this was followed by over twenty years writing for The Times. He was initially a writer on nature, but held the position of leader writer from 1908 to 1922.
	He lived most of his adult life in London, but travelled to Italy, Wales and Scotland. During the First World War he enlisted as a private with the Post Office Rifles. After gaining a commission, Anthony saw active service in France where he was involved in the battle at Vimy Ridge. Following an injury, he was invalided back to England and spent the last part of the war in the Historical Section of the War Office.
	His love of nature lead to him writing a number of books on the subject. He never married and died on 22.08.1922 of a wasting illness while attending a London nursing home.
18P41	John Colet Collett was born at Cromhall on 30.08.1880. From 1893 to 1897 he was educated at Rossall School in Fleetwood, following which he became a Civil Engineering Student studying at Heysham in Lancashire, as confirmed by the Census of 1901 in which he was listed as being aged 20 years and of Cromhall.
18P42	Ada Wright was born on 08.08.1884 at 2 Craven’s Terrace off Albert Street in Kingston-upon-Hull. She married Walter Benson on 27.07.1907 at the Newport Registration Office in Monmouthshire. Walter was the son of Thomas Boulton Benson and Selina Stanton Mumby and was born on 29.11.1885.
	Once they were married Ada and Walter moved to Scotland and it was while they were in Glasgow that their first child was born. Shortly after the family of three moved to the Manchester area and while they were living at 11 Walton Road in Blackley their second child was born.
	A final move took the family just one mile from Blackley to Harpurhey where Ada’s and Walter’s remaining children were born.
	During his life Walter was a musician and it was his work that eventually was the cause of his death. Tragically on 06.10.1926, while working as a musical director for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), he was killed in a motorcycle accident in Aberdeen where he was buried.
	Ada remained living at Harpurhey after her husband’s death and, twenty-five years later, it was there that she passed away on 18.05.1951 aged 66.
	18Q18	Selina Benson					Born on 03.06.1908
	18Q19	Ernest Walter Benson					Born on 09.05.1910
	18Q20	Francis William Benson					Born on 19.07.1912 (twin)
	18Q21	Edna Benson					Born on 19.07.1912 (twin)
	18Q22	Hector Benson					Born on 21.10.1913
	18Q23	Myra Benson					Born on 18.03.1917
18P46	Elizabeth Honor Collett was born at Sunderland in 1876 and moved with her family, first to Hull and then to Ipswich where they were living in 1890.
	She married William Hallows in 1899 at Islington in London. William was born at Romford in Essex in 1877 and so far the couple have not been located two years later in the 1901 Census.
18P47	Charles Frederick W Collett was born at Sunderland in 1879 and two years later his family were living in the Holy Trinity district of Hull at 4 Johnsons Place. In 1890 the family had returned to their Suffolk roots and were living at Vine Cottage in St George’s Ipswich.
	Ten years later Charles at the age of 21 was still living with his family in the St Margaret’s area of Ipswich where he was working as a coach painter.
18P49	Matilda Collett was born at Mettingham in 1848. She was the eldest child of William and Mary Ann Collett and appears to have been separated from her family. In 1861 she was aged 13 and was the only Collett living in the Aldeby & Loddon registration district.
	Within the next ten years Matilda made her way to London and by 1871 she was working in domestic service in West Islington. It also seems very likely that she secured work for her two younger sisters since they were both working together in Islington by 1881.
	According to the census of 1881 Matilda was still a spinster and at the age of 34 was working as a domestic servant at the home of Charles Weedon at 13 Thornhill Square in Islington. Her place of birth was confirmed as Mettingham.
	During the next decade Matilda returned to East Anglia and in 1891 was recorded as being aged 44 and living in Gorleston & Mutford census area. Ten years later aged 54 Matilda was living at Belton Entire where her cousin Eliza Collett (wife of George) was living with her son George.
	By the time of the census of 1911 Matilda Collett of Mettingham was still living in Mutford at the age of sixty-five, but on this occasion it was alone.
18P50	Benjamin Collett was born at Mettingham in 1851 and by the time of the 1871 census, as the oldest member of his family, he had already moved out of his parent’s home. This may have coincided with their move from Mettingham to Burgh Castle.
	He became a fisherman and in 1871 was missing from the census records so it is likely that he was at sea on that day. Within a few years of that census day Benjamin married Emily Pearson of Burgh Castle. She was the daughter of Mary Ann Pearson.
	According to the 1881 Census fisherman Benjamin aged 30 and of Mettingham was living with his family at 12 Manor House in Burgh Castle. His wife Emily was 28 and their three children were Selina 6, sons George 3 and Jessie 2, all three of them having been born at Burgh Castle.
	Also living with the family was Emily’s widowed mother Mary Ann Pearson aged 63 of Norwich. During the next ten years it would appear that Benjamin died as he was not listed in the census of 1891 or 1901.
	In 1891 Emily was still living at Burgh Castle and the family was recorded as Emily J Collett aged 38, son George W Collett 13, Jessie 12 and Louis aged 9. Ten years later it was only Emily aged 48 and Louis aged 18 that were still living at Burgh Castle where Emily was employed as a washer and laundress at that time.
	After a few more years Emily’s son Louis was married and started a family of his own. However, by April 1911, Louis, his wife and two daughters were still living at Burgh Castle, and still living with him was his mother Emily who was 58.
	18Q24	Selina Collett				Born in 1875 at Burgh Castle
	18Q25	George William Collett				Born in 1877
	18Q26	Jessie (Jesse) Collett				Born in 1878
	18Q27	Louis Arthur Collett				Born in 1882
18P51	William Collett was born at Mettingham in 1853 and by 1871 he and his family were living at Burgh Castle where he was 17 years old.
	Around 1873 he married Elizabeth of Reedham in Norfolk and the couple spent the first few years of the married life together living at Wheatacre, between Beccles and Lowestoft. And it was there that their first two children were born.
	They later moved to Lowestoft where two further children were born before 1881. By the time of the census that year 28 years old William was employed as a fisherman and was living with his family at 2 Hervey Street in Lowestoft.
	His wife was aged 27 and their four children were sons Thomas aged 5 and Frank aged 3 both born at Wheatacre in Norfolk, and daughters Frances one year old and Dinah who was just three months old. Both girls had been born after the family had moved to Lowestoft.
	Three more children were born into the family during the 1880s so by the 1891 Elizabeth was 38 and was then living at Gorleston with her children. Her sons were Thomas 14, Frank 13, George 5, Louis (Lewis) 4, and Albert who was one, while her daughters were Daisy 9, Beatrice 8, and Ethel who was 6.
	No record has been found of her husband William in 1891 so as a fisherman he may have been at sea, but he was back with his wife and family at Gorleston by March 1901.
	At the age of 47 William Collett of Mettingham was working as a skipper at the local seaman’s mission in Gorleston. His wife Elizabeth was 47 and from Reedham, and the children still living with their parents were Ethel 16, George 15, Lewis 13, all three of them born at Lowestoft, and Albert 11, and Jessie who was nine, both of them born at Gorleston.
	Ten years later in 1911 the family was still living in Gorleston where William and Elizabeth were both fifty-seven, and the only children still living with them on this occasion were Lewis 23, Albert 21, and daughter Jessie who was nineteen.
	18Q28	Thomas William Collett				Born in 1875
	18Q29	Frank Ernest Collett				Born in 1877
	18Q30	Beatrice Frances Collett				Born in 1879
	18Q31	Dinah Daisy Collett				Born in December 1880
	18Q32	Ethel Maude Collett				Born in 1883 at Lowestoft
	18Q33	George Collett				Born in 1885
	18Q34	Lewis Collett				Born in 1887
	18Q35	Albert Collett			Born in 1889
	18Q36	Jessie Collett			Born in 1891
18P52	Dinah Collett was born at Mettingham in 1857. Following her family’s move to Burgh Castle in the late 1860s Dinah was 13 at the time of the Burgh Castle census of 1871. Dinah later joined up with her sister Jemima (below) and the two of them headed for London to find work, where their older sister Matilda was already gainfully employed.
	Matilda was working in the Islington area of London and it may have been Matilda who arranged for her two younger sisters to enter into domestic service in that area. By 1881 Dinah was aged 23 and of Mettingham, and was working as a nurse to four years old Cecil J Benson at the home of his parents Joseph and Rebecca Benson at 57 Hilldrop Road, where he sister also worked.
	Joseph Benson was a Baptist minister, while both he and his wife were credited as being the managers of a firm of coal merchants.
18P53	George Collett was born at Mettingham in 1859 and was one year old in the 1861 Census for that village and was living there with his parents. He was still with his parents ten years later aged 12 by which time the family was living at Burgh Castle.
	Burgh Castle overlooks Breydon Water on the eastern edge of the Norfolk Broads and close to the North Sea, so it made sense that George’s occupation was that of a fisherman.
	Around 1880 he married Eliza who was born at Belton in 1859. According to the 1881 Census George and Eliza were both aged 22 and were living less than two miles north of Belton in Burgh Castle at 3 High Road. Also living in Burgh Castle at that time were George’s parents William and Mary Ann Collett, and his brother Benjamin (above).
	George and Eliza have not been located in 1891 but by 1901 Eliza was aged 42 of Belton was living at Belton Entire with her son George who was thirteen. His place of birth was given as nearby Gorleston.
	Eliza’s occupation was given as a washer and laundress and she was living with 54 years old Matilda Collett (18P49) of Mettingham whose occupation was stated as being a charwoman. Matilda was a cousin of George Collett.
	18Q37	George Collett				Born in 1888
18P54	James Collett was born at Mettingham in 1860 and was listed as being aged ten years in the census of 1871 when living with his family at Burgh Castle.
	It is possible, although not confirmed, that James married Elizabeth of Burgh Castle who was a few years older than James and that they had a daughter before James was twenty years of age. James may also have been a fisherman like his brother George (above).
	In the census of 1881 Elizabeth Collett was twenty-five and was living at 5 Manby Road in Gorleston, near Burgh Castle. While Elizabeth was recorded as being married, she was also listed as head of the house and a charwoman. The absence of her husband may indicate that he was a fisherman and that he was away at sea on that occasion.
	Listed with Elizabeth were her two daughters, Susan Collett who was two years old and born at Burgh Castle, Mary Ann Collett who was just three months old and who had been born after the family had more to Gorleston from Burgh Castle.
	No further record of any member of this family has been discovered in any subsequent census.
	18Q38	Susan Collett				Born in 1878
	18Q39	Mary Ann Collett				Born in January 1881
18P55	Jemima Collett was born at Mettingham in 1862. Her parents moved to Burgh Castle in the late 1860s and it was there she living aged 8 in 1871. Sometime during the 1870s Jemima and her sister Dinah (above) followed their older sister Matilda into London for the purpose of seeking work.
	Both girls were lucky enough to be taken on by coal merchant and baptist minister Joseph Benson and his wife at their home at 57 Hilldrop Road in Islington. Jemima was listed as being aged 18 and of Mettingham and was employed as a domestic servant.
	It would appear that Jemima never married, since at the age of 48, Jemima Collett of Mettingham was living in the Islington area of London.
18P56	Cornelius Bradman Collett was born at Mettingham in 1863. During the late 1860s the family moved to Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth where he was listed as aged 7 in 1871. On leaving school he joined the crew of the ‘Joseph & Henry’ a fishing boat sailing out of Great Yarmouth, as recorded in the 1881 Census when he was sixteen years old.
	A little while later he gave up being a fisherman and made the long journey north to Durham with his brother Henry (below) and was recorded as living at West Hartlepool at 27 in the census of 1891.
	A short while after Henry married Elizabeth with whom he had three children. So by 1901 Cornelius Bradman Collett of Mettingham was 37 years of age and his occupation was recorded as being that of a man in charge of a wheeling steel works in West Hartlepool.