PART EIGHTEEN

The Main Suffolk Line - 1870 to 2010

This is the fifth of five sections of Part 18 of the Collett family

Updated August 2011

The contributors to thank for this update are Gillian Hawley, Liz Whittaker,

Gordon Collett, cousins Alan Collett and Sue Hammler, and Robert Porter

The new information in May 2011 was provide by John Davies,

great grandson of Edith Florence Davies nee Collett (Ref 18Q118), and

Sue Hammler, the daughter of Cecil Benjamin Collett (Ref. 18Q56)

The information for the previous update was generously provide by

Katerina Antalopoulos, the granddaughter of Emily Collett (Ref. 18P27).

The Jan ‘10 update related to Mabel May Collett (Ref. 18Q60), the information for which

was kindly provided by Mary-Ann Dunn nee Collett (Ref. 18S22),

and Kate Collett (Ref. 18P81) the great grandmother of Steve Keeble

The Dec ‘09 update was thanks to Jane Reuben nee Collett (Ref. 18S30) of Surrey

Gordon Alan Collett (Ref. 18S37) kindly provided some of his family details

The information for the April 09 update related to Lionel C G Collett (Ref. 18Q112)

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. 18P128)

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.

18P85	Horace Collett was born at Broome in 1872 and was nine years old in April 1881 when living with his family at The Black Horse Inn in Ditchingham.
	By 1891 Horace Collett of Broome was aged 18 and had left the family home and was living and working within the Hartney Wintney & Farnborough registration area. This may indicate he had joined the army and this could be the reason he was not listed in the UK in 1901.
	Curiously there was one other Collett living in the same area in 1891. This was Owen Collett aged 19, of whom no other record has been found either before or after 1891, and including the census of 1911.
	According to the census of 1911, unmarried Horace was thirty-nine and was once again living at the home of his mother Ellen who had since moved to Ipswich with her two youngest sons Arthur and Sidney (below).
18P86	Florence Collett may have been born at Broome like her brother Horace (above), although she was baptised at Ditchingham on 26.09.1873, the daughter of Robert and Ellen Collett. By the time of the 1881 Census Florence was aged 8 and was living with her parents at the Black Horse Inn at Ditchingham. She was also still living with her parents ten years later at their home in Broome at the age of 18, but fifteen days after the census day in 1891 she was married.
	Florence married Henry Bird at the parish church in Broome on 20.04.1891. The parish register confirmed that Henry Bird of Ditchingham was 21 and a labourer, while Florence was 19 (?) and a domestic servant from Broome whose father was labourer Robert Collett. The witnesses at the church were Robert Collett and Rose Saws.
	Over the next seven years Florence presented her husband with three children while they were living in Broome. These were William Bird, Marion Bird, and Ellen Bird. In March 1901 the census for the village of Broome recorded the Bird family as Henry aged 31 of Ilketshall St Lawrence (?) and just his two oldest children, William who was 8 and Marion who was 5.
	It may have been the absence of Henry’s wife Florence, that the couple’s youngest child, three years old Ellen Bird, was staying nearby in Broome with her grandmother Ellen Collett.
	According to the 1901 Census for the Borough of West Ham in London, Florence Bird 29 and from Broome was recorded there with her new husband George Bird of Ditchingham, the brother of her previous husband Henry. George was aged 30 and was a carpenter’s labourer and living with the couple was their daughter Alice M Bird who was one year old and born at Islington.
	This would indicate that her marriage to Henry Bird had only lasted for about seven years, following which she had ‘runaway’ to London with his brother. Four further children were added to the family over the next ten years, and by April 1911 the larger family was living at 25 Poplar Walk in Lambeth.
	George Bird was a gardener aged 39 from Norfolk, his wife Florence from Norfolk was 38, and their five children were Alice 11, George 9, Gladys 6, Ivy 3, and Grace who was one year old. The first three children had been born at Islington, the next at Dulwich, and the last at Norwood.
18P87	Kate Collett was born at Ditchingham in 1874 and was baptised there on 06.03.1874, the daughter of Robert Collett and his second wife Ellen. At the time of the census in 1881 Kate was seven years old and living with her family at the Black Horse Inn at Ditchingham. During the next decade her family left Ditchingham and moved to Broome where they were living in 1891, but with Kate absent at that time. Kate was around twenty-four years of age when she married Charles Bloomfield, the wedding taking place at Loddon in Norfolk in 1898. The couple initially lived at Broome where their first child was born, before moving to 5 Small Lea Cottages in Cheshunt. The move to Hertfordshire was very likely the result of Charles taking up employment as a carman with the London & North Eastern Railway.
	The photograph above was kindly supplied by Steve Keeble and is believed to have been taken around 1924, possibly even on the occasion of Kate’s fiftieth birthday.
	Kate was around twenty-four years of age when she married Charles Bloomfield, the wedding taking place at Loddon in Norfolk in 1898. The couple initially lived at Broome where their first child was born, before moving to 5 Small Lea Cottages in Cheshunt. The move to Hertfordshire was very likely the result of Charles taking up employment as a carman with the London & North Eastern Railway.
	This was confirmed by the census in March 1901 when Charles of Suffolk was 29, Kate of Broome (sic) was 27, and their son Arthur Bloomfield was just one year old. Living with the family was boarder Arthur Cranfield who was 22 and a stockman from Suffolk.
	Sometime during the next year or so the family left Cheshunt and moved to 11 Kings Road in nearby Waltham Cross to be closer to the railway station. And it was while the family was living there that Kate presented Charles with their second child Percy Bloomfield in 1903.
	According to the census of 1911, the family was still living at 11 Kings Road, from where Charles was still working as a carman. The census return recorded that Charles Bloomfield of Wingfield in Suffolk was 39, and that his wife of twelve years Kate, was 37 and from Ditchingham in Norfolk, while their two sons were eleven and seven respectively.
	Living with the family as boarders on this occasion were two bachelors, carpenter Charles Miller, 37 from Notting Hill, and 28 years old John Clark from Watford, a worker at the Royal Gunpowder Factory.
	Tragically it was just three years later that Kate was made a widow when Charles died as a result of an accident while working on the railway. This happened in 1914 when he suffered a fatal head injury caused by a collision with an overhead beam.
	Of their two children very little is known about Percy, except that he died in 1936. As regards Arthur Bloomfield, he volunteered for the army in 1915 but, being below the minimum age, he said he was older in order to be accepted. He joined a Norfolk Regiment and gained the crossed guns emblem of a marksman.
	In 1916 he was sent to France and was given the role of a Lewis Gunner in trenches. During the Battle of the Somme in August that same year, Arthur sustained a serious shrapnel injury to the head which resulted in his return to England for recuperation and his ultimate retirement from the army.
	It was a few years late in 1922 that Arthur Bloomfield married Winifred Jackson with whom he had two children. Their first child was Audrey, who was born in 1923 and who died in 1979. It was around the birth of the second child that sadly Winifred died. Dorine was born in 1928 just prior to the death of her mother, following which Arthur returned to live in Suffolk with his two daughters.
	Majuba Cottage in Beccles, where Arthur and the girls settled, had previously been owned by the late Henry Keable, Arthur’s uncle through marriage to his aunt Maria Bloomfield. Upon the death of Henry Keable in 1924, the property was purchased by Mr H Theobald for £580 and was eventually rented by Arthur Bloomfield from 1928.
	At the time of the sale in 1924, Majuba Cottage, at Swines Green, off Ingate Place in Beccles was described as being ‘A well built freehold dwelling house containing 2 sitting rooms, kitchen and 3 bedrooms, with offices in rear, stable, cart shed, piggeries, granary, fowl houses, and other outbuildings AND valuable enclosure of productive land, the whole containing 3 roods and 35 perches, well adapted for a Poultry Farm, Market Garden or Building Purposes, having a frontage of 252 feet upon the High Road’. It was built in 1901 of bricks made from clay from the Beccles brick kilns.
	Arthur’s mother Kate also lived with the family at Majuba Cottage, where she acted as mother to her two granddaughters. This arrangement continued for a further five years, until the passing of Kate Bloomfield nee Collett while she lay in her bed at Majuba Cottage in 1933 at nearly sixty years of age.
	Her son Arthur Bloomfield was seventy-five years old when he died in 1974.
	All of this information has been kindly provided by Steve Keeble who was born in 1960, the son of Dorine Bloomfield and Stanley Charles Keeble who were married in 1959.
18P88	Robert Collett was born at Ditchingham in 1875 and very likely at the Black Horse Inn in Ditchingham where his family was living in 1881 when Robert was six years old. By the time he was sixteen he and his family were living at Woodton just north-west of Bungay.
	No trace of Robert Collett, the son of Robert and Ellen who was sixteen years old in 1891, has been found so far in the 1901 Census, nor have any details been discovered relating him at anytime thereafter. So what became of him is not known at this time if, in fact, he did survive beyond his teenage years.
18P89	Jessie Collett was born at Ditchingham in 1878 and was aged 3 in 1881 when living with her family at the Black Horse Inn in Ditchingham. Upon leaving school she entered into domestic service and by 1901 she was living and working in the St Margaret’s district of Ipswich where at 23 she was employed as a parlour maid, at which time she was referred to as Jessie.
18P90	Arthur Collett was born at Ditchingham in 1883. Sometime before 1889 his family left Ditchingham and moved to Broome where they were living in 1891 when Arthur was seven years old.
	Ten years later at seventeen years of age, Arthur was working as a railway porter while living with his mother, and widow, Ellen Collett and his youngest brother Sidney (below) at her home in Broome.
	In April 1911 Arthur was still not married at the age of twenty-seven, when he was still living with his mother Ellen Collett who had settled in Ipswich by that time.
18P91	Sidney W Collett was born at Broome in 1888 where he was living with his widowed mother Ellen in 1901 at the age of twelve years. Also still living in the family home at Broome was Sidney’s older brother Arthur (above).
	By the time of the census of 1911 Sidney was twenty-two and he and his mother had moved to the Ipswich area. Also living there with them was Sidney’s two unmarried brothers Horace and Arthur (above).
18P92	George Collett was born at Mettingham in 1859 and was baptised there on 29.05.1859, the eldest child of Christopher Collett of Mettingham and his wife Lucy Jones. George was one year old in the Mettingham census in 1861 when he was living there with his parents. He was still with his parents ten years later when the family was living at Wrentham, north of Southwold, when he was 11 years old.
	When George was in his early to middle teenage years his younger brother Walter Henry Collett died while he was still very young, and that tragic event may have been the reason why his family moved north to Lancashire shortly thereafter.
	So by the time of the census of 1881, George Collett, age 22 and from Mettingham, was living at 65 Rowbotham Street in Manchester. He was a boarder at the home of Henry Cooper who was a railway porter, while George himself was a railway ticket collector.
	Just two or three years later George married Matilda (Martha) with whom he had three children before 1891. The census that year recorded the family as living in the Pendleton area of Salford and comprised George of Mettingham aged 32, his wife Matilda J Collett who was 34, and their children ‘Florance M Collett’ who was six, George Collett who was two, and Walter Collett who was under one year old.
	Within a couple of years of the census George’s wife presented him with their fourth and last child. However, it is very curious that no record of the family has so far been discovered in the census of 1901.
	What is certainly known is that the whole family was recorded in the census of 1911 as living within the Fylde registration district of Lancashire. George of Mettingham was 53, his wife Martha Jane was 55, and their children were ‘Florance Mary’ 26, George 22, Walter 20, and Ernest Victor who was 17.
	All three of George’s sons were confirmed as having been born at Pendleton. Also listed with the family was six months old Gertrude Lucy Collett, the first grandchild for George and Martha. With no apparent wife for sons George and Walter, it is possible that the baby was the base-born child of their daughter Florence, so for completeness, and in the absence of any more detailed information, this is where the child has been located.
	18Q62	Florence Mary Collett		Born in 1884 at Patricroft, Salford
	18Q63	George Collett		Born in 1888 at Pendleton, Salford
	18Q64	Walter Collett		Born in 1890 at Pendleton, Salford
	18Q65	Ernest Victor Collett		Born in 1893 at Pendleton, Salford
18P93	Ann Catherine Collett was born at Chediston in 1862, the second child and eldest daughter of Christopher Collett and Lucy Jones. Her mother was born at Chediston and it is therefore highly likely that Ann was born at the home of her maternal grandparents, since she was the only child of Christopher and Lucy to be born there.
	Not long after she was born her family was living at Cuckholds Green in Wrentham near Southwold, and around the time of the death of her brother Walter Henry Collett (below) around 1873, Ann and her family moved to Lancashire.
	This move was confirmed in the census of 1881 when the family was living at 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell. Ann was recorded as Catherine Collett, age 18, on that occasion, by which time she had entered into domestic service on leaving school. However, whilst her occupation was stated as being that of a general domestic servant, she was also described as being unemployed at that time.
	With both of her parents appearing to have passed away during the following decade, it was only her three brothers (below) who were still living in Barton-upon-Irwell in 1891, which may indicate that Ann Catherine Collett was married by then.
18P94	Frederick Christopher Collett was born at Wrentham near Southwold on 24.07.1866, and was baptised there on 29.07.1866, the son of Henry and Lucy Collett. And it was at Cuckholds Green in Wrentham that Frederick C Collett, age four years, was living with his family in 1871, and was already attending the village school.
	Around 1874 the family travelled to Lancashire where they were living in 1881. By then Fred C Collett, age 14, had left school and had begun work as a domestic groom, while still living with his family at 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell.
	His father died towards the end of the following year, and he was followed a few years after by Frederick’s mother. So by the time of the next census in 1891 the only Colletts still living in the Barton-upon-Irwell area was Frederick and his two brothers Henry and Walter William (below). For whatever reason, on that occasion Frederick was recorded as Christopher Collett who was 24.
	It is a few years later that Frederick Collett married Margaret from St Asaph near Denbigh in North Wales and shortly after they were married the couple settled in Wigan where their children were born.
	By the time of the census in 1901 the marriage had produced their first children. The census returned confirmed that Frederick C Collett, age 33, was a green grocer. Curiously he gave his place of birth as Patricroft, which was within the Barton-upon-Irwell area that he was living with his family after they moved to Lancashire. So this was very likely said in ignorance of his Suffolk birth.
	At that time his wife Margaret J Collett was 30, and their daughter Fanny Collett was four years old. During the following year the family was added to by the birth of a second daughter at Wigan and before they moved to Ormskirk in Lancashire.
	And it was at Ormskirk that the family was living at the time of the April census in 1911. Frederick Collett was 44, Margaret Collett was 40, Fanny Collett was 14, and Clara Collett was eight years old, both confirmed as born at Wigan.
	18Q66	Fanny Collett		Born in 1896 at Wigan
	18Q67	Clara Collett		Born in 1902 at Wigan
18P95	Walter Henry Collett was born at Wrentham in 1868, but was not baptised until he was around two years old. It was also at Wrentham that Walter was baptised on 10.07.1870, the son of Henry and Lucy Collett. This was confirmed in the Wrentham census of 1871, hen Walter H Collett was two years old. However, whether as a result of an accident or an illness, Walter died two years later, following his family left Suffolk for Lancashire where his parents named their last son after their deceased son.
18P96	Alfred Collett was born at Wrentham in 1870 and was one year old in the Wrentham census of 1871 when he was living at Cuckholds Green with his family. Towards the middle of the 1870s his family moved north to Manchester, and in 1881 they were living at 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell where schoolboy Alfred was 11.
	His father died at the end of the following year, and his mother passed away a little after that. It is also possible that Alfred Collett was another victim of whatever killed his parents, since no record of him has been found after 1881.
18P97	Henry Collett was born at Wrentham in 1872 and before the death of his brother Walter (above). Henry was only one year old when his brother died, and at that time his parents swapped living in Suffolk with a new life in Lancashire.
	It was at 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell that Henry Collett was eight years old in the census of 1881, when he was living there with his family and attending the local school. Following the death of his parents in the following few years, Henry Collett of Wrentham was 18 in the Barton-upon-Irwell census of 1891, when he had living with him his younger brother Walter William, and close by his older brother Frederick Christopher.
	Two years later, around 1893, Henry married Catherine who was born at Warrington in 1872. Over the next eight years Catherine presented Henry with four children, including twins and, according to the census in 1901, they were all born at Patricroft, which is an area of Barton-upon-Irwell.
	The census return listed the family living within the Eccles registration district, which included Barton-upon-Irwell and Patricroft. Henry and Catherine were both 28, and at that time in his life Henry from Wrentham was a house decorator. Their children were recorded as Bertha Collett who was six, Christopher Collett who was five, and twins Alfred and Elsie who were two years old.
	During the next year the couple’s last child was born and on the occasion of the census in 1911 the place of birth of the children was given as Winton in Eccles, which was where Henry’s parents had originally settle after their move from Suffolk, and where his youngest brother Walter (below) was born.
	In April 1911 the family was living in Winton within the Barton-upon-Irwell area and comprised Henry and Catherine, who was 39, Bertha 16, Christopher 15, Alfred 12, Elsie 12, and Dora who was eight years old.
	18Q68	Bertha Collett		Born in 1894 at Winton, Eccles
	18Q69	Christopher Collett		Born in 1895 at Winton, Eccles
	18Q70	Alfred Collett twin		Born in 1898 at Winton, Eccles
	18Q71	Elsie Collett twin		Born in 1898 at Winton, Eccles
	18Q72	Dora Collett		Born in 1902 at Winton, Eccles
18P98	Walter William Collett was born at Winton in Eccles in 1874, the youngest son of Suffolk couple Henry Collett of Mettingham and Lucy Jones of Chediston. His parents had only just moved to Lancashire when he was born, and this also happened following the death of his older brother Walter Henry Collett, after whom he was named.
	After the family had initially settled in Winton, they moved into 33 King Street in Barton-upon-Irwell sometime before 1881, since it was there that they were living at the time of the census that year. Walter Collett was six years old by then, and was attending the local school.
	That reference to him in the census of 1881, appears to be the last occasion in his life when he was noted in public records as Walter Collett. From the subsequent records thereafter, it looks as though, as an adult, that he opted to use his second name instead.
	With both of his parents dying during the next decade, 16 years old ‘William Collett’ was living at Barton-upon-Irwell with his older brother Henry (above) by the time of the census in 1891. Around four years later William Collett married Eda from Salford who was a few years older than Walter.
	Once they were married William and Eda lived much of their early life together in Winton. The marriage only produced one daughter for the couple, who was born at Winton where the three of them were living in March 1901. ‘William Collett’ of Winton was 26, his wife Eda from nearby Salford was 31, and their daughter Lillian Collett was four years old.
	It was the same situation ten years later, when the family was still living in Winton, where ‘William Collett’ was 36, Eda Collett was 40, and Lillian Collett was 14.
	18Q73	Lillian Collett		Born in 1896 at Winton, Eccles
18P100	Sarah Ann Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1843. While the Suffolk Marriage Records show that her parents Benjamin Collett of Fressingfield and Sarah Ann Spalding of Earl Soham were married at Fressingfield on 26.12.1843, Sarah Ann Collett was baptised there on 09.07.1843.
	Therefore there is a strong possibility that Sarah Ann Spalding, the base-born child of Sarah Ann Spalding who was born/baptised at Fressingfield on 23.12.1842, was the same child as Sarah Ann Collett, since only one of them has been identified in the census of 1851.
	On that occasion, Sarah Ann Collett was eight years old and was living with her parents at their home in New Street in Fressingfield, although she was not living there ten years later at the age of eighteen.
	One year after the census in 1862, Sarah Ann’s father died and during the following year she married William Brundish of Fressingfield. William was born on 14.12.1844, the son of Charles Brundish and Cecilia Celia Mayhew.
	The couple’s first four children were born while they were still living at Fressingfield as confirmed by the census in 1871 which listed the family as William 29, Sarah Ann 28, Mary seven, William five, George four, and Jane Brundish who was two years old.
	Shortly after 1871 the Brundish family left Suffolk when they moved to the south of England and settled in Erith in Kent where the couple’s next two children were born.
	By the time of the next census in 1881 the family was living at 25 Bottle Road in Erith. Also by that time Sarah Ann’ mother, sixty-two years of Sarah Collett was living with the family. William Brundish at thirty-nine was head of the house and a general labourer, while Sarah Collett of Fressingfield was referred to as his mother-in-law.
	According to the census in March 1901 Sarah A Brundish was fifty-eight, William Brundish was fifty-nine, and at that time the couple from Fressingfield were still living in Erith, where William was working as a general labourer.
18P101	Samuel Collett was born at Fressingfield during 1844, the first son of Benjamin Collett and Sarah Ann Spalding. Tragically he only survived for a few months, when he died and was buried at Fressingfield on 17.05.1845.
18P102	Jane Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1845 where she was baptised at St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church on 30.11.1845, the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Collett. Unlike her brother Samuel (above) who died before she was born, Jane survived for over two years when she died at Fressingfield during 1848.
18P103	Sam Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1846 and was baptised as Sam Collett the son of Benjamin and Sarah Collett on 15.03.1846. His absence from the census of 1851, coupled with the absence of his three immediately adjacent siblings perhaps indicates that all four of them suffered infant deaths.
18P104	Matilda Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1847 where she was baptised on 31.10.1847. The baptism record at St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church confirmed she was the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Ann Collett. Matilda was the couple’s third child to suffer an infant death, when she died at Fressingfield and was buried there on 25.07.1849.
18P105	Edward Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1849 and it was there that he was baptised on 13.03.1849, the son of Benjamin and Sarah Collett. Sadly he only survived for less than a week after he was baptised, when he died was buried at Fressingfield on 19.03.1849.
18P106	Harry James Collett was born at Fressingfield on 14.10.1850, and was baptised there on 20.07.1851, the son of Benjamin and Sarah Collett, but died shortly after.
18P107	Jane Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1852, where she was baptised on 14.08.1853, the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Collett. Jane was seven years old by the time of the census in 1861 when she was living there with her parents. Her father died at Fressingfield during 1862 so by 1871, and at the age of 19, she was still living there with her widowed mother and her brother Anthony (below).
	Jane continued to live at Fressingfield until the mid 1870s when she became a married woman. Jane Collett was the great great grandmother of Glen Dersley who kindly provided some of the details regarding Jane’s father and her grandfather.
	In the census of 1901 there were just two Janes who were born at Fressingfield around 1852 and both were living in Norfolk at that time. The first, and most likely, was Jane Day who was twenty-nine and living at Barnham Broom near Wymondham, while the other was Jane Doggett who was twenty-eight and living in Norwich who was a charwoman, perhaps indicating an unmarried status.
	Living with Jane Day, was her husband Henry Day 51, who was an ordinary agricultural labourer from Stratton St Michael, and their two sons Edward John Day 11, and Frederick Leonard Day who was seven.
18P108	Keziah Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1856 and was baptised there on 10.08.1856, the youngest daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Collett. According to the census in 1861, Keziah was four years old while living with his parents in Fressingfield. During the following year her father died, and she was not living with her widowed mother in 1871 when she would have been fourteen.
18P109	Anthony Harry Collett was born at Fressingfield on 18.02.1858 but was not baptised there until 14.09.1862 in a joint ceremony with his brother William (below). In the Fressingfield census of 1861, Anthony was two years old when living there with his family.
	It was during the following year that his father Benjamin Collett died, so in the census of 1871 when Anthony was 12 years of age, he was still living at Fressingfield with his widowed mother Sarah and his older sister Jane (above).
	No further record of Anthony or Harry Collett has been found after that time.
18P110	William Collett was born at Fressingfield on 03.06.1862, and it was during that same year that his father died. He was baptised there in a joint ceremony with his brother Anthony (above) at the church of St Peter’s and St Paul’s on 14.09.1862, the last of eleven children of Benjamin and Sarah Collett.
	However, like five of his siblings before him, William Collett died while he was still very young, and was buried at Fressingfield on 21.03.1863.
18P111	Henry Collett was born at Westport, County Mayo in Ireland in 1848, the first of five children of William and Ann Collett. His father was a private with the Dragoon Guards and, when Henry was around one year old, he was transferred from Ireland to Wales and was based at Brecon Barracks in 1851.
	Henry was two years old by that time and was living with his mother and baby sister Bethiah in the St Mary district of Brecon. Within the next ten years his father was retired from the guards and during that decade the family moved from Brecon to Dartmoor, from Dartmoor to Fressingfield, and finally to Whitehaven.
	It was at St Bees in Whitehaven that Henry, age 12, was living with his family in 1861. Following the death of his father during the 1860s, Henry eventually left his family to take up the occupation of a joiner, and by 1871 he was living and working in Kendal where he appears to have spent the rest of his life.
	It was also during the first quarter of the previous year that Henry married (1) Isabella Bousfield. The marriage was conducted at Kendal, where Isabella was baptised on 16.02.1851, the daughter of Robert and Ann Bousfield.
	The newly married couple were recorded in the Kendal census of 1871 when Henry Collett and his wife Isabella Collett were both 22. By the time Isabella was very likely pregnant with their first child. During the next two decades Isabella presented Henry with at least six children, although there was a gap of ten years between the fifth and the sixth child. Within this time period, other children may have been added to the family, but did not survive.
	In 1881 the family was confirmed in that year’s census as living at 10 Serpentine Road in Kendal. Henry Collett from Ireland was 32 and a house carpenter, his wife Isabella from Kendal was also 32, and by that time they had five of their children with them, and all of them born at Kendal.
	They were Ann Collett who was nine, Mary E Collett who was seven, Maggie Collett who was five, William H Collett who was four, and Robert Collett who was one year old. Also living with the family as a boarder, was unmarried Sarah Armstrong, age 24, a woollen weaver from Kendal.
	Henry’s and Isabella’s last known child was born during the year before the next census in 1891, but it would appear from the later family records, that the child did not survive beyond a few years, and his death may have coincided with that of his mother.
	However, in 1891 the family living in Kendal comprised Henry and Isabella, aged 42, and their six children Ann Collett 19, Mary E Collett 18, Margaret Collett 16, William H Collett 14, Robert B Collett 11, and John F Collett who was one year old.
	Just less than three years later Isabella Collett died during the first quarter of 1894, and it was exactly one year later, in the first quarter of 1895, that Henry Collett married (2) Mary Alice Foster at Leeds. Mary was born at Scarborough in 1859 and was a widow. That second marriage for Henry produced a further son for him, who was born during the following year.
	Just after the start of the new century, Henry and Mary were still living in Kendal when the only members of their family still living with them were their three youngest surviving sons. Henry Collett from Ireland was 62, and a joiner and a carpenter, his wife Mary A Collett from Seaton in Yorkshire was 42, and the three sons were William Hy Collett, age 24, Robert B Collett, age 21, and Harold Collett who was four years old. William and Robert were joiners, probably working with their father.
	By April 1911 only Henry’s son from his marriage with his second wife was still living with the couple. The Kendal census that year listed the three of them as Henry Collett, who was 63, Mary Alice Collett, who was 53, and Harold Collett who was 14.
	18Q74	Ann Collett		Born in 1871
	18Q75	Mary E Collett		Born in 1873 at Kendal
	18Q76	Margaret Collett		Born in 1875
	18Q77	William Henry Collett		Born in 1877
	18Q78	Robert B Collett		Born in 1879
	18Q79	John F Collett		Born in 1890
	18Q80	Harold Collett		Born in 1896
18P112	Bertha Ann Collett was born in Ireland during 1849, and this may have taken place at Mulligan. She was the eldest daughter of William and Ann Collett, and was very likely named after her grandmother Bertha Philpot. At one year old she was living with her mother and brother Henry (above) at St Mary Brecon, while her father was billeted with the Dragoon Guards in the Brecon Barracks. Her name was recorded as Bethiah Collett.
	Over the next few years the family moved around England as a result of her father’s service with the army. In 1861 the family had settled in St Bees in Whitehaven when, as Bethia Ann Collett, she was ten years old. And it was also as Bethia Ann Collett that she was recorded in the census of 1871 when she was living at 103 Scotch Street in St Bees with her widowed mother and three of her younger siblings. At that time she was 21 and was working as an assistant stationer.
	During the last three months of the following year Bertha Ann Collett married John William Tanner, the marriage being registered in Kendal in the fourth quarter of 1872. It was also in Kendal that Bertha’s brother Henry Collett had been married two years earlier, and where he living with his wife from that day forward.
	To date, no record of the couple has been found in the census of 1881, or any later records.
18P113	John Collett was born at Dartmoor in Devon during 1851, the son of William and Ann Collett. By the time of the census in 1861 John’s father had retired from serving with the Dragoon Guards and the family was living in St Bees in Whitehaven, where John was nine years old.
	After a further ten years, and following the death of his father prior to 1871, John was living at 103 Scotch Street in St Bees with his widowed mother and three of his siblings, where he was 19 and an unemployed grocer. Curiously no further record of John Collett has been found after 1871.
18P114	William Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1855, the son of William Collett of Fressingfield and his wife Ann. In 1861 William was five years old while living with his family at St Bees in Whitehaven. Ten years later according to the census in 1871, and following the death of his father, William was 15 and was living with his widowed mother and his family at 103 Scotch Street in Whitehaven.
	Around three years after that, it would appear that William became a married man, and he and his (1) wife had a son William who was born in Berwick-on-Tweed. However, it would also appear that the child’s mother did not survive the ordeal, since father and son were living with William’s mother once again in 1881.
	William was 25 and employed as a labourer at a foundry, while his son aged five years, was described as grandson to head of the household Ann Collett from Ravenglass, at her home at 41 Hawke Street in Barrow-in-Furness. It was eighteen months later, during the third quarter of 1882, that William Collett married Frances Nelson at Barrow-in-Furness. Frances was born at Whitehaven in 1861.
	Over the following ten years Frances presented her husband with three sons, who were all born while the couple continued to live in Barrow-in-Furness. During that time William’s eldest and only son from his first marriage left Barrow when he sought work in Halifax.
	So by the time of the census in 1891, when William Collett said he was 33, when he was actually 35, he was employed as a railway porter while living at Barrow-in-Furness with his wife Frances who was 29, and their first two sons John W Collett who was four, and Thomas H Collett who was two years old.
	Frances was within a few months of giving birth to the couple’s third son on the day of the census, he being born later that same year, or very early in the following year. The family was complete by the time of the census in 1901. William, age 44 and from Fressingfield, was a railway checker still living in Barrow. Frances was 38, and the three children were John W Collett 14, Thomas H Collett 12, and Robert Collett who was nine years old. Son John had left school and was working as a railway clerk.
	All five of them were still together, as a family living in Barrow, ten years later in April 1911. William was 53, Frances was 49, John William was 24, Thomas Henry was 22, and Robert was 19.
	18Q81	William Collett		Born in 1875 at Berwick-on-Tweed
	18Q82	John William Collett		Born in 1886 at Barrow-in-Furness
	18Q83	Thomas Henry Collett		Born in 1888 at Barrow-in-Furness
	18Q84	Robert Collett		Born in 1891 at Barrow-in-Furness
18P115	Elizabeth Collett was born at St Bees in Whitehaven in 1857, the youngest child of William Collett of Fressingfield and Ann from Ravenglass in Cumberland. She was three years old in 1861, and sometime in the following few years her father died, so by 1871 she was 13 and living at 103 Scotch Street in St Bees with her widowed mother and three older siblings.
	It was in late 1876 at Barrow-in-Furness that Elizabeth Collett married Elijah Creber who was born at Dudley in Worcestershire in 1856. Shortly after they were married Elizabeth gave birth to the first of their children while the couple were still living in Barrow.
	It was also in Barrow, at 30 Cook Street, that the family was living at the time of the census in 1881, not far from where Elizabeth’s mother Ann was living at that time. Elijah Creber was 24 and a labourer at the local ironworks, his wife Elizabeth was 23, and by then they had two children, Sarah Ann Creber who was four, and William Creber who was one year old and born at Dudley.
	Five more children were added to the family during the next decade, so by 1891 the family living at Barrow was made up of Elijah Creber 34, Elizabeth Creber 33, Sarah Ann Creber 14, William Creber 11, James who was nine, Elijah who was seven, Elizabeth who was five, John who was three, and Annie B Creber who was just one year old.
18P116	Henry Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1862, where he was baptised on 26.07.1863, the eldest child of George Collett and Harriet Cracknell. It was in the census of 1871 that he was referred to as Harry Collett aged eight years. By the time of the 1881 Census he had left the family home in Fressingfield and, at the age of 19, Henry Collett was living and working at Weybread, between Fressingfield and Harleston.
	He was described as an industrial farm servant, employed at the home of John and Emily Anness. The farm holding was one hundred acres for which John Anness employed eight men and one boy, the latter presumably referring to Henry Collett. There was only one other person living at the farmhouse and that was 18 years old Emily Youell of Pulham Market.
	It was at Cratfield on 17.04.1883 that Henry married Elizabeth Randall, the daughter of labourer William Randall of Laxfield and his wife Mary Ann from Bungay. Elizabeth was born at Cratfield around 1854 and was therefore some years older than her husband. Two years before they were married, Elizabeth Randall from Cratfield was 26 and was living there with her parents at the time of the census in 1881.
	Over the twelve years after they were married, Elizabeth presented Henry with five sons and a daughter. The first three boys, and her daughter, were all born while the couple were still living at Cratfield.
	Around 1890 the family left Cratfield when they moved to Redenhall just outside Harleston where the couple’s last two sons were born. The census of 1891 causes some confusion and some concern, since it would appear that Elizabeth Collett, age 36, was listed with her husband and three of their children, while also being recorded visiting her father with two of her children.
	Married agricultural labourer Henry Collett of Fressingfield, age 28, was living at Bungay Road in Redenhall with Harleston. Included on the census return with him was his wife Elizabeth Collett who was 36 and from Laxfield (sic), and three of their children, Henry Collett who was six, Maria Collett who was four, and George Collett who was two years old. All three children confirmed as born at Cratfield.
	Still living at Cratfield, from where the Collett family had only recently moved, was Elizabeth’s father sixty years old agricultural labourer William Randall of Laxfield. He was living in Bell Lane in Cratfield and with him, according to the census return, was his married daughter Elizabeth aged 36, and two grandchildren William Collett who was seven, and Maria Collett who was four.
	It therefore seems likely, although it can never be proved, that Henry’s and Elizabeth’s eldest son William had stayed with Elizabeth’s father when the family moved to Redenhall, probably because Elizabeth was with-child and was expecting to give birth at any time around the day of the census.
	However, there is no simple explanation as to why Elizabeth and her daughter Maria were listed in two places at the same time.
	Not long after the census day in 1891 Elizabeth gave birth to another son, the first of two boys to be born while the family was living at Redenhall.
	By March 1901 the family had been rejoined by the eldest son William, perhaps following the death of Elizabeth’s father who has not been identified in the same census. Henry and Elizabeth and their family were living at Cloutergate Cottage in Redenhall, but by that time their daughter Maria had already left the family home, and was the only child missing on that occasion.
	The full census details revealed that Henry, who was referred to as Harry Collett, was from Fressingfield and working with horses as a teamster of a farm at the age of thirty-eight. On this occasion his ‘older’ wife Elizabeth gave her age as being forty-two and confirmed that she had been born at Laxfield.
	Living with the couple were their five sons, the oldest three possibly working on the same farm as their father, since each of them was described as being an ordinary farm labourer. The five boys were William 17, Harry 15, George 12, Charles 9, and Ernest who was seven years old, the first born at Cratfield and the last two at Redenhall.
	Ten years later Henry was still calling himself Harry, the name he very likely used for the rest of his life. The April census of 1911 confirmed that he and his family were still living at Redenhall. Harry Collett of Fressingfield was 49, and his wife Elizabeth Collett of Laxfield was 52.
	The only children still living with them were the two youngest Charles Collett 19, and Ernest Collett who was 18. Sons William, Harry and George were all married by then but were still living nearby, William in Redenhall, with Harry and George in Harleston.
	Also married by then with a family of her own was Harry’s daughter Maria and she and her family were also living at Redenhall at that time.
	18Q85	William Collett		Born in 1883
	18Q86	Harry Collett		Born in 1885
	18Q87	Maria Collett		Born in 1886
	18Q88	George Collett		Born in 1888
	18Q89	Charles Collett		Born in 1891 at Redenhall, Harleston
	18Q90	Ernest Collett		Born in 1893 at Redenhall, Harleston
18P117	Mary Ann Collett was born at Fressingfield on 21.06.1864, the eldest daughter of George and Harriet Collett. She was also baptised there on 29.04.1866, and all of this was confirmed by the census in 1871 which listed her as Mary Ann Collett aged six years. However, within a year of the census day she died at Fressingfield, where she was buried on 04.01.1872 aged seven years.
18P118	Benjamin Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1866 and was baptised there on 29.04.1866 in a joint ceremony with his sister Mary Ann (above). He was five years old in 1871 and was 15 by the time of the 1881 Census when he was living with his family at Catchpool Gardens in Fressingfield.
	By the time of the next census in 1891, Benjamin was a married man, having wed Emily Emma Conby who was born at nearby Metfield in 1870. It would appear that the wedding ceremony must have taken place just prior to the census that year, with the childless couple living at St James South Elham, where their only child was born just after the census day. Benjamin was 24, and his wife Emily Emma Collett was 22.
	Later that same year, Emily presented Benjamin with a daughter while they were still living in the village of St James South Elham. Sometime after the birth, the family of three moved to Thetford and in 1901 were living in the village of Barnham near the River Little Ouse.
	The census recorded that Benjamin Collett, age 35 and from Fressingfield, was a teamster on a local farm, just like his older brother Harry (above), his wife Emily Emma Collett from Metfield was 30, and their daughter Emma Conby Collett was 10 years old.
	It was very likely Benjamin’s work with horses that took the family to the Loddon area of Norfolk over the next few years. Since it was there that the family was living in 1911. Benjamin Collett was 43, his wife Emily Emma was 41, and on that occasion their daughter was recorded as Emma Emily Collett age 19.
	18Q91	Emma Emily Conby Collett		Born in 1891 at St James South Elham
18P120	George Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1870 and it was there that he was baptised on 27.11.1870, the son of George and Harriet Collett. He was living at Catchpool Gardens in Fressingfield with his family in 1881 when he was ten years old. Although his family then moved to Stradbroke, George was not living with them in 1891.
	It was on 14.10.1892 at Fressingfield that George Collett married Eliza Pearce the daughter of horseman Frederick Pearce. Once they were married it seems likely that George and his wife emigrated, because no record of them has been found anywhere in Great Britain in 1901 or 1911.
18P121	William Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1872, where he was baptised on 27.10.1872. He barely survived for sixteen months when he died and was buried at Fressingfield on 02.03.1874.
18P122	Esau Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1874 and was baptised there on 28.03.1874, just twenty-six days after his brother William (above) had been buried there. Esau was six years old in 1881 when he was living there with his family at Catchpool Gardens.
	Upon leaving school, Esau also left the family home to seek work, and by 1891, at the age of 17, he was living and working at Redlingfield as an agricultural labourer. By the end of the century Esau Collett had left Suffolk altogether, and had moved into London where, in March 1901, he was recorded as a bachelor at 26. He was living and working in the Hackney registration district, where his occupation was that of a horse-keeper.
	Just a short while after that time, Esau married Mary Ann with whom he had six children during the following decade. Although the children were not born at Hackney, it was within the Hackney area that the family was living in April 1911.
	According to the census Esau Collett was 36, his wife Mary Ann Collett was 35, and their six children were Mary Collett who was eight, George Collett who was seven, Edith Collett who was five, Charles Collett who was four, John Collett who was one year old, and baby Frank who was just two months old.
	18Q92	Mary Collett		Born in 1902
	18Q93	George Collett		Born in 1903
	18Q94	Edith Collett		Born in 1905
	18Q95	Charles Collett		Born in 1906
	18Q96	John Collett		Born in 1909
	18Q97	Frank Collett		Born in January 1910
18P123	William Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1876 and was named after his late brother. He was the son of George and Harriet Collett and was baptised at Fressingfield on 27.02.1876. He was four years old and living with his family at Catchpool Gardens in Fressingfield in 1881. He was still living with his parents ten years later in 1891 when he was 15.
	After the turn of the century, when William Collett was 25, he was still a bachelor living with his parents, but at Stradbroke, where his occupation was that of a non-domestic groom. However, like his older brother George Collett (above), no record of William has been found within the census of 1911, so he too may have moved abroad.
18P124	Sarah Collett was born at Fressingfield in 1878 and was 2 years old in April 1881 when living with her family at Catchpool Gardens in Fressingfield, and was 12 ten years after that. When her parents moved to Stradbroke after 1891 Sarah moved with them, and at the age of 22 she was living with them at Stradbroke, from where she was employed as a domestic housemaid.
18P125	James Collett was born at Cratfield after his parents moved there from Fressingfield. He was born in 1881 but after 3^rd April. Their time spent at Cratfield lasted only around five years, since by 1891, his family was living within the Wangford & Bungay registration district, where James was nine. A further family move took place after that, with the family living at Stradbroke in 1901, when James was 19 and an ordinary farm labourer.
18P126	May Collett was born at Cratfield in 1885, the youngest child of George Collett and Harriet Cracknell, and she was five years old in the Wangford & Bungay census of 1891. Ten years later she had left the family home, which by then was a Stradbroke. Instead May Collett, age 15 and from Cratfield, was a general domestic servant at Fressingfield-cum-Withersdale.
	An error was made at the time of the next census in 1911. The census return that year listed May Coblett from Cratfield as 25, and living and working in the Brentford area of Middlesex.
18P127	Elizabeth Collett was born at Cawnpore in India on 08.06.1861. Elizabeth and her sister Sarah (below) were the daughters of Private John Collett of Ilketshall St Andrew who was serving in India with the 54^th Regiment at the time of their birth.
	In May 1873 the family returned to England and to Ilketshall St Andrew where, in 1874, Elizabeth’s mother died followed in the next year by her father who had only just remarried. Upon the death of her mother Elizabeth and her two siblings were taken into the family of their father’s brother William Collett, but by April 1881 Elizabeth was living and working in the Streatham area of South London.
	By then she was 20 and her place of birth was confirmed as Cawnpore. She was employed as a parlour maid at Matlock Lodge in Streatham which was the home of John and Ann Saunders.
	What is of particular interest is the fact that working as a cook at the same address was 37 years old spinster Elizabeth Collett of Kennington in Surrey. And as yet it has not been determined if she was an aunt of the younger Elizabeth or some more distant relative.
	Almost exactly ten years later, when Elizabeth was thirty, she married Charles Henry Howard at Camden Town in London on 28.03.1891 with whom she had five daughters and one son. According to the census of 1901 Elizabeth Howard of India was aged 39 and living at St Pancras with her family.
	Sadly the marriage only survived for twelve years when Elizabeth died in 1903 leaving Charles with a young family to raise. The tragic event happened while the family was living in Walton near Felixstowe.
	A further tragedy struck the family six years later when Charles’ daughter Annie Amelia Sarah Howard died from diphtheria on 15.01.1909 at 9 years of age. The family was living at 53 Kings Street in Walton at the time and the house is still there in 2008.
18P128	Sarah Collett was born at Maradabad in India on 19.12.1862. She returned to England with her family in May 1873 and settled in Ilketshall St Andrew where she was orphaned by the deaths of her mother in 1874 and her father in 1875. Initially Sarah and her sister Elizabeth (above) and brother John (below) lived with their uncle William Collett at Ilketshall St John, but it was at Hornsey in North London that she was living and working by the time of the census in April 1881.
	Sarah was confirmed as being 18 and born in India. The address where she was working as a general servant was 23 Upper Tollington Park which runs from Finsbury Park to the Hornsey Road (A103) which is still there today.
	This was the home of Charles W Leach of Wakefield who was described as a mantle warehouseman.
	Five years later on 03.04.1886 Sarah married William Saunders Smith at St Lukes Marylebone in London and by March 1901 Sarah, who was recorded as being born at Maradabad, Calcutta in India, was living in the St Pancras area of London aged 39.
18P129	John Christian George Collett was born at Port William, Calcutta in India on 21.12.1864 and was possibly the only son of John Collett and Mary Penney. John Collett senior was a private with 54^th Regiment serving in India during the 1860s and 1870s.
	Like his sisters Elizabeth and Sarah (above) John had returned to England in May 1873 but had tragically lost both parents by 1875, first his mother in 1874, then his father in 1875. As a result of the first death, the three children of John Collett were taken into the care of their uncle William Collett (Ref. 18O86) and initially lived with him at his home at Ilketshall St John.
	Five years later the census in 1881 confirmed that John was 16 and that he was living with his uncle William Collett at Ilketshall St John. His occupation then was that of an agricultural labourer. It seems very likely he was working alongside his younger cousin John Collett (below) who was also listed as an agricultural labourer.
	It was when John was in his late twenties that he met Anna (Annie) Meadows who was born in 1872 at Earl Soham near Framlingham and the couple were later married at Wangford Parish Church on 08.02.1893. The marriage produced thirteen children for John and Annie made up of eight daughters and five sons.
	The couple initially lived at Wrentham, near Southwold, where their first child was born before the family settled at Willow Marsh in Yoxford where the next four children were born. It may have also been at Willow Marsh where all of the remaining children were born.
	According to the 1901 Census John C G Collett, age 37, had been born at Port William in Calcutta. He was employed as a yardman working on a farm at Yoxford midway between Blythburgh and Saxmundham with his wife Annie aged 26 of Earl Soham and their five children.
	The children at that time were John W G Collett who was seven and from Wrentham, Alice aged five who was born at Yoxford but was at St Pancras in London on the day of the census, Annie E Collett who was four 4, William S Collett who was two, and Elizabeth C Collett who was not yet one year old.
	Also living with the family in March 1901 was a cook and domestic servant by the name of Kate Collett who was aged 26 and born at Great Malvern in Worcestershire.
	At some time in his later life John Christian George Collett moved the three miles east to Westleton where he died on 14.06.1941.
	18Q98	John William George Collett		Born on 04.10.1893
	18Q99	Alice Mary Collett		Born on 09.07.1895
	18Q100	Annie Elizabeth Collett		Born on 04.04.1896
	18Q101	William Saunders Collett		Born on 22.10.1898
	18Q102	Elizabeth Cissie May Collett		Born on 31.05.1900
	18Q103	Francis Ernest James Collett		Born on 16.10.1901
	18Q104	Violet Hazel Collett		Born on 01.06.1903
	18Q105	Ivy Sarah Collett		Born on 11.09.1906
	18Q106	Robert Charles Collett		Born on 10.04.1908
	18Q107	Lillian Emma Collett		Born on 19.05.1910
	18Q108	Claude Victor Collett		Born on 26.03.1912
	18Q109	Louisa May Collett		Born on 16.03.1913
	18Q110	Dorothy Vera Collett		Born on 08.10.1914
18P130	Harriet Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew, but this may have taken place in 1876 following the death of her father in later 1875, or in 1877. What is known is that Harriet Collett was baptised there on 12.08.1877, the daughter of John Collett and Charlotte Carver. However, if she had been born in 1877 she would have been the base-born daughter of Charlotte Collett, the widow of John Collett who had passed away during September 1875, and it may be the latter that was the case.
	From the time of the death of her husband’s first wife in 1874, the children from his previous marriage had been cared for by the family of John Collett’s younger brother William Collett. It therefore made sense for Harriet to be placed in the care of another family to enable Charlotte to leave Ilketshall to seek work elsewhere, and the fact that she did not go to a Collett family very likely indicates that Harriet was born out of wedlock.
	Harriet’s placement with an unrelated family was confirmed by the census in 1881 when, at the age of just three years, Harriet Collett was listed as a boarder and lodger at the home of farm labourer William Howlett at Black Common in Ilketshall St Andrew.
	The only other fact known about Harriet was that in 1891 she living at Gorleston where she was 14 years old. At sometime she very likely married, as there was no record of her as Harriet Collett in the census of 1901.
18P131	George Collett was born at Reedham in 1857 but shortly after he was born his family, Charles and Mary Ann Collett, moved to Oulton near Lowestoft. He was three years old in 1861, and by the time he was thirteen in 1871, he and his family were living at Gorleston, south of Great Yarmouth.
	At the time of the census of 1881, George Collett was 23 had left his east coast home and was a seaman with the vessel ‘Robert & Mary’ sailing out of Littlehampton in Sussex on the south coast. On that occasion he gave his place of birth as Oulton where he was living just after he was born and where his brother Charles (below) had been born.
	Not obvious record for George Collett of Reedham has been found in any census after this time, and it is possible that he may have been the victim of an accident at sea.
18P132	Charles George Collett was born at Oulton near Lowestoft in 1864, the second of two sons of Charles Collett and Mary Ann Ellis. At the age of sixteen he was living with his parents at 4 Common Lane in Gorleston where he was employed as a general labourer.
	Just around the time of his twentieth birthday Charles married Lavinia Anna Howlett during the first quarter of 1894. Lavinia was a dressmaker who born at Bungay in the third quarter of 1858, the daughter of gardener William and Sarah Howlett. It was also around that same time that the couple’s first child was born, and a further three children were added to the family by the end of the decade.
	The census of 1891 confirmed the family living at Common Lane in Gorleston as dairyman Charles age 26, Lavine 32, and their children Sarah aged 6, Bertie 3, and Albert who was not yet one year old. It seems very likely that Lavinia was also expecting the couple’s fifth child at the time of the census and it is not clear where her eldest son Lionel was at that time when he would have been four.
	Ten years later Charles appeared to be working in Essex, while his wife was still living at Gorleston near Great Yarmouth with their children. Charles was 36 years of age and was working as a general labourer at a chemical works in Barking in Essex. His place of birth was confirmed in the census of 1901 as having been Oulton.
	Lavinia Collett was 42 and was confirmed as having been born at Bungay. She was a dressmaker living at Gorleston near Great Yarmouth with her children Sarah (who was referred to as Lavinia) aged 16, Lionel 15, Bertie 13, Sidney (Albert) 10, and Grace who was eight years old.
	By April 1911 the family still living at Gorleston comprised Charles 47 and Lavinia 56, together with just two of their children, these being Albert Edward Sidney Collett who was 20 and Grace Nellie Kate Collett who was eighteen. Charles was of Oulton, while the two children were both of Gorleston.
	18Q111	Sarah Mary Collett	Born in 1884 at Southtown, Gt Yarmouth
	18Q112	Lionel Charles George Collett	Born in 1885
	18Q113	Bertie H V Collett	Born in 1887
	18Q114	Albert Edward Sidney Collett	Born in 1890 at Gorleston-on-Sea
	18Q115	Grace Nellie Kate Collett	Born in 1892 at Gorleston-on-Sea
18P133	Sarah Collett was born in 1865 at Ilketshall and was baptised at Ilketshall St Andrew on 18.03.1866, the daughter of William and Emma Collett. Upon leaving school she entered into domestic service and at the age of 15 she was a housemaid at The Rectory of St John the Baptist Church in Ilketshall St Andrew. Sarah’s employer was the Rector John Beatty, age 70 and from Londonderry, and his Irish wife Maria.
	Towards the end of that decade Sarah from Ilketshall St Andrew married Charles Minister. He was the son of agricultural labourer Joseph Minister of Thurlton in Norfolk and his wife Sarah Ann from nearby Thorpe, and was born at Thurlton near Loddon during 1864. By the time of the census in 1891, Sarah had presented Charles with the first of their four known children.
	On that occasion the family of three was living in the village of Thurlton, where they were also recorded in 1901 and 1911. Charles Minister was 26, his wife Sarah was 25, and their son Sidney C Minister was not yet one year old. During the following year Charles and Sarah Minister were the witnesses at the 1892 wedding of Sarah’s brother John Collett (below) at Reydon parish church near Southwold.
	The Minister family was complete nine years later, when the Thurlton census of 1901 recorded them as farm labourer Charles of Thurlton who was 36, Sarah from Suffolk St Andrews (Ilketshall St Andrew) who was 35, and their four children, Sidney who was 10, Ernest who was eight, Mabel who was six, and Oscar who was three years old.
	Ten years later the Thurlton census of 1911 provided the full names of each member of the family. Charles and Sarah were 46 and 45 respectively, while their children were listed as Sidney Charles Minister, who was 20, Ernest Arthur Minister who was 18, Mabel Emma Minister, who was 16, and Oscar William Minister who was 13 years of age. Sarah’s place of birth was recorded as St Andrews, with the other members of her family all having been born at Thurlton.
18P134	John Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew on 26.10.1867, where he was also baptised two months later on 28.12.1867. The baptism record confirmed that he was the son of William Collett and Emma Rackham. According to the census of 1881, John was 13 and an agricultural labourer when he was living with his parents at Ilketshall St John. Also living with the family was John’s older cousin, the orphaned John Collett (above) who was born in India. This picture of John Collett was provided by his great great grandson John Davies, and is an extract from a larger photograph which included the two sons of his daughter Edith Florence Davies, together with one of their sons.
	John Collett married Louisa Clara Haward on 02.01.1892 at the parish church in Reydon, within the Blything registration district where the event was recorded during the March quarter of 1892. Louisa Haward was born at Reydon, the birth being recorded within the Blything registration district in the March quarter of 1869, and was the daughter of George Haward of Wrentham and Matilda Marjoram of Mutford. The witnesses at the wedding were Charles and Sarah Minister, Sarah very likely being John’s married sister (above).
	By the turn of the century Louisa had presented John with the first four of their eight children. The 1901 Census placed the family as living at 42 Church Street in Southwold. John was 33 and his occupation was that of a corporation carter, presumably meaning that he was employed by the local council.
	Louisa his wife was listed as being 32 and born at Reydon one mile north of Southwold. The four children living with the couple in April 1901 were Lily aged 8, Ellen aged 7, John aged 6, and Edith who was five years old. The first three children had been born while the family was living at Easton Bavents, while the fourth was born after they had moved into Southwold.
	The parish of Easton Bavents was located just immediately north of Southwold, but today it does not exist, as the whole area was subject to coastal erosion and has since fallen into the sea.
	Of the four children born after April 1901, one is known to have been Daisy who was born during September 1907. The census of 1911 revealed that the family was still living in Southwold, in the Blything registration district, where John was 44, his wife Louisa was 43, and the children still living with the couple were Edith 14, Agnes 7, Dorothy 6, Daisy 3, and Roland who was two.
	18Q116	Lillian (Lily) Emma Collett		Born in December 1892
	18Q117	Ellen Collett		Born in December 1893
	18Q118	William John Collett		Born in March 1895
	18Q119	Edith Florence Collett		Born in 1896
	18Q120	Agnes Bessie Collett		Born in 1903
	18Q121	Dorothy Mary Collett		Born in 1905
	18Q122	Daisy Evelyn Gertrude Collett		Born in September 1907
	18Q123	Roland Sidney George Collett		Born in 1909
18P135	William Collett was born in the village of Ilketshall St Andrew in 1869 and was baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist on 24.09.1869, the son of William Collett and Emma Rackham. Rather confusingly, he was recorded as being under one year old by the time of the Ilketshall census of 1871, although no later record of him has been found.
18P136	Robert Collett was born at Ilketshall St Andrew in early 1864, the only known child of Robert Collett and Lydia Ann Brighton. Tragically his father died while he was still very young, so by 1871, and at the age of only seven years, he was living at Ilketshall St Andrew with his widowed mother Lydia Ann Collett, and his widowed grandmother Mary Brighton.
	It may be of interest that, in his later years, Robert gave his place of birth as Shipmeadow, a village approximately two miles north of Ilketshall St Andrew. Upon leaving school he became a fisherman like his father, and in early 1881 it would appear that he set sail out of Pakefield near Lowestoft on board the fishing boat ‘Au Revoir’.
	By the third of April in 1881 the boat was moored at Falmouth in Cornwall. According to the census return that day, fisherman Robert Collett of Ilketshall St Andrew was 17, and was one of eight fishermen employed by master fisherman Daniel Colby Adams of Pakefield.
	Also by that time Robert’s widowed mother Lydia had married widower William Artis, following the death of his first wife Amy Girling, with the couple living at Carlton Colville. It is therefore significant that, during the first quarter of 1889, Robert Collett married Lois Girling, the marriage being registered in the Mutford area. Lois Girling was born at Ilketshall St Lawrence in 1865, and was the daughter of agricultural labourer Henry and Eliza Girling, Henry being the brother of the late Amy Artis nee Girling.
	Prior to this Lois Girling had given birth to a base-born son who continued to carry his mother’s maiden name, although nothing more is known about the child at this time, except that he was the grandfather of Brian Girling.
	Lois Girling was the fifth child of agricultural labourer Henry Girling and his wife Eliza Barber. Henry was born at Westhall, near Halesworth in 1824, while his wife was from Ilketshall St Margaret, where she was born in 1831. The couple’s first two children, William and Robert Henry Artis, were born at Ilketshall St Andrew, while the remainder of their children were all born at Ilketshall St Lawrence.
	In the Ilketshall St Lawrence census of 1871, Lois Girling was six years old when she was living there with her parents and her six siblings. An eighth child was added to the family during the following few months, but by 1881 three of the child had left the family home in Ilketshall St Lawrence to make their own way in the world.
	They were: eldest son William Girling, who was 25 and married to Eliza with whom he already had four children while living at Mutford Bridge in Oulton, from where William was employed as a railway carman; Charlotte Girling, age 18, who was a kitchen maid at Bramford Hall near Ipswich, the home of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Scott; and Lois (Louis) Girling, age 17, from Ilketshall St Lawrence who was a domestic servant at Lorne Villa in Carlton Colville, the home of farmer Elijah Lee and his wife.
	It was around six years after that, when Lois found she was with-child, and in 1888 she gave birth to a son out of wedlock, and it was early in the following year that she married Robert Collett. This may have taken place at Carlton Colville within the Mutford registration district, since it was there during August 1890 that their first child was born.
	Following the birth of their son, Robert and Lois, moved to Lancashire, very likely for work purposes, since it has been established that the couple were living at 15 Carno Street in the Wavertree district of Liverpool West Derby by the time of the census in 1891.
	The census return confirmed that Robert Collett from Shipmeadow in Suffolk was 27 and that, at that time in his life, he was employed as a railway porter. His wife Lois Collett from St Lawrence, Suffolk was 26, and their eight month old son Francis W C Collett had been born at Carlton Colville in Suffolk.
	Lodging with the family were two other men who were also employed on the railway, and both of these came from Suffolk. In addition to these, all of the occupants of the two adjoining houses in Carno Street had also been born within the North Suffolk area, perhaps indicating a mass exodus to the north of England in search of work.
	It was while Robert and his family were still living at 15 Carno Street in Wavertree, that Lois presented her husband with the couple’s second child, who was born during the following year.
	During the next year or two, the family left Wavertree when they moved the four miles south to Garston on the east bank of the Mersey River between Liverpool and Widnes. That move may have coincided with a change of occupation for Robert. It was also at Garston that a further three children were added to the family.
	So by 1901 Robert Collett, age 37 and from Shipmeadow, was living at 68 King Street in Garston, very close to the docks where he was employed as a dock labourer. Living at the house with him was his 36 years old wife Lois Collett of Ilketshall St Lawrence, together with four of their five known children.
	They were, William Collett who was 10 years old and born at Carlton Colville near Lowestoft, Ethel Collett who was five, Albert Collett who was two, and Florence Collett who was 11 months old. Where their daughter Norah was at that time, remains a mystery. The only possibility might be Nora K Collett, at Bootle-cum-Linacre but, although she was born within the Liverpool area, she was 11 years old in 1901, rather than eight years of age.
	Despite a thorough search of the 1911 Census, no record of Robert, his wife Lois, or their children Francis William, Ethel Maude, or Albert has been found. However, for whatever reason, the two sisters Norah and Florence had returned to Suffolk and were living at the home of their grandmother Lydia Artis, formerly Collett.
	It is therefore possible that the remainder of the family had sailed out of Liverpool for a new life in one of the colonies. There is also an unsubstantiated claim that suggests a further child, Robert Collett, was born to Robert and Lois sometime shortly after 1901, and he has been included here in the hope that evidence may come to light in the future to prove, or disprove this.
	18Q124	Francis William C Collett		Born in August 1890 at Carlton Colville
	18Q125	Norah Collett		Born in 1892 at Wavertree, Merseyside
	18Q126	Ethel Maude Collett		Born in 1895 at Garston, Merseyside
	18Q127	Albert Collett		Born in 1898 at Garston, Merseyside
	18Q128	Florence Collett		Born in May 1900
	18Q129	Robert Collett - unconfirmed		Born in 1903
18P137	Ruth Collett was born at Norwich in 1883. She was the oldest of the three children of George Collett whose wife died shortly after the birth of the third child. It would appear that following this tragic event George and his children moved to Needham where they were living in 1891 with George’s widowed mother Lucy. Ruth was recorded as being seven years of age.
	Sometime during the next decade the family returned to Norwich where in 1901 seventeen years old Ruth was very likely performing the role of housekeeper to her widowed father and her two younger brothers since the census return that year did not credit her with having an occupation.
	When Ruth’s father married for a second time during the first ten years of the new century, Ruth left Norwich and moved to London. By April 1911 she was living in the Hackney area of the city at the age of 27 and her place of birth was confirmed as Norwich.
18P138	David Collett was born at Norwich in 1885. Upon the birth of his younger brother Philip (below) the children’s mother Amy died and they and their father left Norwich to live at Needham with their grandmother Lucy Collett, as confirmed by the census of in 1891 when he was six years old.
	However, before the end of the century, and following the death of David’s grandmother, David’s father George, together with his three children returned to Norwich where the four of them were living in 1901 when David was sixteen was working as a labourer at a starch factory.
	During the early years of the new century David’s father remarried so by 1911 David who was twenty-six and his brother Philip were recorded as living at Norwich with their father and step-mother Hannah.
	With the war starting in Europe, David joined the 1^st Battalion Norfolk Regiment in which he was Private Collett 6531. Sadly, not long after the start of the Great War, David was killed in action during the Battle of Loos.
	He died on 18.10.1914 and his name is one of the 13,000 listed on the Le Touret Memorial which commemorates those soldiers killed at the Battle of Loos who have no known grave. The name of David Collett can be found in Panel 8.
	David’s army record confirmed that his father was George Collett of 40 Harford Street, in Lakenham, and that his mother was Amy Collett.
18P139	Philip Collett was born at Norwich in 1887 but tragically, either at the time or just after, his mother passed away leaving Philip and his two older siblings and their father George. Following this sad event George took his three young children to live with his widowed mother Lucy at Needham.
	This was confirmed in the census of 1891 when Philip was three years old. Over the next few years his grandmother Lucy died in her late seventies and by 1901 Philip and his family had moved back to Norwich where he was recorded as being thirteen and born there.
	It was in the next few years that Philip’s father was married again and by April 1901 Philip was 23 and living at Norwich with his father George and stepmother Hannah.
18P140	Annie Collett was born between April and June in 1866 but may have died before April 1881 as there was no record of her in that year’s census.
18P141	Hammond Isaac Collett was born at Chiswick in 1868. He married Jessie Elizabeth who was born in 1873 at Brisbane in Australia and they lived the early days of their married life in Brentford where their first two children were born. Around the middle of the 1890s the family moved to Chiswick.
	It was at Chiswick that Hammond’s parents were living and it was while Hammond and Jessie were at Chiswick that their remaining children were.
	Towards the end of the century Hammond entered the service of the British Army initially with the 2^nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment but later transferred to the Queens Mounted Infantry.
	It was during his time with the latter regiment that he saw action in the Second Boer War at Cape Colony from October to December 1899 and the following year in February at Tugela and the Relief of Ladysmith. He was also involved in the final battle of the War at Transvaal in April 1902.
	However, he may have been on leave at the end of March in 1901 as the census recorded the family living at Chiswick as Hammond 32 who was working as a labourer navvy, his wife Jesse from Brisbane aged 27, and their three sons Hammond (junior) aged 9, William 8, and John who was four years old.
	It seems highly likely that Jesse was with-child at the time of the census since latter that same year she gave birth to the couple’s four child, and their first of three daughters, and all born while the family was still living at Chiswick.
	And it was at Chiswick that the whole family was living in April 1911. Hammond was 41, his wife Jessie Elizabeth was 38, and their children were Hammond Alexander 19, William Alfred 18, John Isaac 14, Jessie Elizabeth 9, Rosetta 6, Rene Rebecca 4, and one year old Albert.
	Hammond later served as a gunner 42708 with the Royal Field Artillery during the First World War and was later promoted to bombardier. He survived the war and received the Victory Medal, British War Medal, 1915 Star Medal and the Silver War Medal. The last of these medals was awarded to those men who were invalided out of the service due to an injury or health problem caused by the war.
	The London Gazette for 21^st September 1916 includes the name of Hammond Collett in a list of men who were awarded the Military Medal. This date may indicate that he was involved in the Battle of the Somme.
	What happen to Hammond and his family after the war has still to be discovered.
	18Q130	Hammond Alexander Collett		Born during Apr-Jun 1891
	18Q131	William Alfred Collett		Born in 1892 at Brentford
	18Q132	John Isaac Collett		Born in 1896 at Chiswick
	18Q133	Jessie Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1901 at Chiswick
	18Q134	Rosetta Collett		Born in 1904 at Chiswick
	18Q135	Rene Rebecca Collett		Born in 1906 at Chiswick
	18Q136	Albert Collett		Born in 1910 at Chiswick
18P143	Alfred Lewis Collett was born at Chiswick around 1871 and was nine years old when living with his family at Back Lane in Chiswick in 1881. He married Rose Punter who was born on 17.12.1880 and was the daughter of James Punter and Mary Ann Huggins. In 1891 Alfred was a bargeman’s mate working on the River Thames at Brentford.
	Like his two brothers Hammond Isaac (above) and Robert (below), Alfred served as a professional soldier with the 2^nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment and on 2^nd December 1899 he sailed with the regiment from Southampton on board the SS Avondale Castle for South Africa where they arrived at Cape Town on Boxing Day.
	During the period from 2^nd December to 31^st May 1901, while fighting in the Second Boer War, Private Alfred managed to write a diary of his experiences and this can be found on the website: www.muralartist.co.uk/diary/diary.htm
	Back at home in England, Alfred moved from Brentford to Kew in 1906 and took up residence at 21 Cambridge Cottages just a few doors from his brother Robert Collett (below). Alfred and his wife Rose lived at this address until Alfred died.
	According to the census in April 1911, the marriage of Alfred and Rose had produced two children by 1911 and at the time the family was living at 21 Cambridge Cottages in Kew. Alfred Lewis Collett (senior) was 39 and from Chiswick, his wife Rose was 30, and their two children were Alfred Lewis Collett who was 4, and ‘Frida’ Collett who was three years old.
	Their son Alfred was previously understood to have been born in 1903 and at Chiswick, but the census gave the place of birth for both children as being within the Richmond area, to where the couple are believed to have moved in 1906. Alfred junior’s date of birth has therefore been amended.
	18Q137	Alfred Lewis Collett		Born on 08.09.1906
	18Q138	Freda Collett		Born in 1907 at Richmond
18P144	ROBERT COLLETT was born at Chiswick on 14.08.1875. He married Edith Martha Sykes on 26.12.1903 at Brentford. Edith was born on 14.10.1884 the daughter of John Sykes and Maria Harper. In 1891 Robert was a labourer, an occupation that he continued with for those parts of his life when he was not in military service.
	As with his two older brothers Hammond and Alfred, Robert was a member of the 2^nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment and saw active service during the Second Boer War. At some point during his military career he transferred to the Queens Mounted Infantry of the Middlesex Regiment as did his brother Hammond Collett (above).
	It is generally known within the family that he fought at Klerksdorp in 1901 and was awarded the Victoria South Africa Medal 1901 with clasps for the campaigns at Transvaal, Orange Free State, Ladysmith, Tugela Heights and Cape Colony. He also received the Edward VII South Africa Medal with 1901 and 1902 clasps. Robert also served with the British Army during the First World War.
	According to the census of 1911 the family was still living in Chiswick where Robert was 35, Edith Martha was 27, and their two children at that time were Robert John Collett who was six, and William Hammond Collett who was one year old.
	Also living with the family on this occasion was Robert’s elderly widowed mother Mary Collett who was seventy years old.
	Between the wars Robert resumed his job as a labourer securing a job with the Port of London Authority. It was originally thought that the family left Chiswick in 1906 to move to 15 Cambridge Cottages at Kew but it would seem that this only applied to Robert’s brother Alfred (above), although Robert and his family did move there a little while after 1911.
	It was certainly at 15 Cambridge Cottages where Robert lived for the remainder of his life. Living close by at 21 Cambridge Cottages was his brother Alfred Collett who had moved there in 1906. Robert died in July 1954 and Edith his wife died at Richmond sixteen years later on 25.12.1970.
	18Q139	ROBERT JOHN COLLETT		Born on 06.04.1904
	18Q140	William Hammond Collett		Born in 1910
	18Q141<