PART TWENTY-ONE

The Cornwall Line – 1840 to 1890

This is the second of three sections of this family line

Updated September 2011

The earlier update included the details of the family of Edward Charles Collett (Ref. 21Q36) 1865-1942, whose family sailed to Canada in 1912, where his widow and his six children established the present day Collette family.

The file also includes the family line of Lynne Sharp of Cornwall, the daughter of June Collett (Ref. 21S50), and the cousin of Christine St Johanser nee Collett (Ref. 21R75),

together with Andrée Salisbury (Ref. 21R66) of Cornwall, and

Richard Wm Collett of Melbourne, great grandson of Wm Hosking Collett (Ref. 21Q55)

This was originally the family line of Gordon Rookledge Collett (the line

being indicated by the names in capitals) to which has been added the line

of Christine St Johanser nee Collett (Ref. 21R75) of New Zealand

(this being indicated by the underlined names),

and the line of David Parsons (see Ref. 21T29)

In addition to kindly providing the information on his family line,

David has also brought to our attention an excellent website covering births,

deaths and marriages which has been invaluable in updating this file

www.cornwall-opc-database.org

Appendix A has been added to include many of the early Collett families of Veryan,

while Appendix B includes the known details of Daniel Collett of St Gluvias,

both of which have no apparent connection to this family line at the moment

Appendix C has been added courtesy of Keith Rookledge and this traces the

Rookledge family line back from Mrs Elsie Alice Goodwin-Rookledge (Ref. 21Q2)

21P37		William Henry Collett was born at Treworthal on 17.05.1837 and was baptised at Philleigh on 19.05.1837, the son of Robert and Grace Collett. It was also at Treworthal that he was four years old at the time of the census in 1841. Ten years later, when he was 13, he was already working as an agricultural labourer, while he was still living with his family at Treworthal.
		Around the end of the 1850s William was living at Illogan where he was working as a labourer and it was there that he met his future wife. William married Grace Jewell at Philleigh on 31.12.1859 and it was at Philleigh that the couple initially settled and where their first child was born.
		Shortly after, William and Grace moved to Philleigh where the couple’s first child was baptised even though it had been born while they were still living at Illogan.
		By 1865 they were living in the village of Kea just south of Truro where their second child was born. The next two children were born when the family was living in Truro, after which they returned to Philleigh where their last child was born.
		The 1871 Census confirmed that the family was living at Truro and comprised William and Grace, who were both aged 33, with only their two sons Robert and Edward living with them on that occasion, since their daughter Elizabeth Grace Collett had already passed away on 31^st August 1869.
		William has not been located in the next census in 1881, when his wife Grace was forty-three and described as married and an agricultural labourer’s wife. Living with her at Treworthal village were her sons Edward, James, and John, and her daughter Mary. Her eldest son was already working away from home at that time.
		The couple’s youngest son was baptised at Philleigh in the middle of May that year and a month later the family were attending the funeral of the boy’s father in St Philleigh Church. William Henry Collett died on 22.06.1881 at the age of 44 and was buried in the churchyard at St Philleigh.
		A single headstone marks the grave of William H Collett, and the same grave and headstone was used for his parents Robert Davey Collett and Grace Collett in 1884 and 1888 respectively. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		Widow Grace Collett was 53 in 1891 and was living within the Truro, St Just registration district with her youngest son John who was twelve years old. Also living there with her was her two years old grandson William H Collett, the son of Edward Charles Collett, whose wife had died during the previous year. Ten years later in 1901, Grace Collett of Philleigh was still living there at sixty-three, but was on her own by then.
		Sometime during the following decade Grace move away from Philleigh and settled in St Just where she was recorded as living at the time of the census in 1911. She was 73 years of age by that time.
		21Q35	Robert Davey Collett	Born in 1861
		21Q36	Edward Charles Collett	Born in 1865
		21Q37	Elizabeth Grace Collett	Born in 1868
		21Q38	James Henry Collett	Born in 1872
		21Q39	Albert Collett	Born in 1874
		21Q40	Mary Lavinia Collett	Born in 1876
		21Q41	John Collett	Born in 1878
21P38		Anne Collett was born at Treworthal in 1839 but was baptised at Philleigh on 23.02.1840. She was one year old in 1841 and in the 1861 Census she was twenty-one years of age. Anne never married but stayed at the family home looking after her aging parents when all the other members of the family had left.
		According to the census in 1881 Anne was forty years old and was a spinster living with her elderly parents at Treworthal. At that time she was a boot binder presumably working alongside her boot and shoemaker father Robert Davey Collett.
		Both of her parents died within the next three years and on 5^th October 1888 Anne Collett died at the age of 48 and was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church where a gravestone marked the grave. The inscription on the headstone gives a clue to how she must have been viewed by the family. It reads “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”. The Will of Anne Collett was proved at Bodmin.
21P39		James Collett was born at Treworthal on 01.06.1842 and was baptised at Philleigh on 24.07.1842, the son of shoemaker Robert Davey Collett and Grace Dingle. In the 1851 Census for Treworthal he was 8 years old and was living with his family, and was still there ten years later at the age of 18.
		Four years later James married Mary Ann Dingle at Philleigh on 30.12.1875, Mary Ann very likely related in some way to James’ mother. It is therefore possible that James Collett and Mary Ann Dingle were cousins. An alternative source of information gives the date of the couple’s wedding day as 14^th October 1871, which seems doubtful bearing in mind the year of the birth of their first child.
		Mary Ann had been born at Philleigh in 1840 and was two years older than James. His occupation was that of a shoemaker, like his father, and in 1881 James 38 and Mary 40, were living at ‘village lane’ in St Just-in-Roseland with their three children who were all born there. Richard Collett was 4, Mary A Collett was 3, and Benjamin Collett was one year old.
		Ten years later, according to the census for St Just in 1891, James Collett was 48, and his wife Mary Ann Collett was 50. Still living there with them were their three children, Richard, age 14, Mary Ann, age 13, and Benjamin who was 11. It was eighteen months later that Mary Ann Collett died at St Just-in-Roseland, where she was buried on 4^th September 1892, aged 52.
		By the time of the next census in March 1901, widower James Collett, age 58 and confirmed as having been born at Philleigh, was still working as a shoemaker at St Just. None of his three children had left home by then, and none of them was married, and they were recorded as Richard Collett, age 24, Mary Collett, age 23, and Benjamin Collett who was 21.
		By April 1911 the census for St Just-in-Roseland confirmed that James Collett at sixty-eight was still living there with two of his three children. They were Richard who was thirty-four and Mary Ann who was thirty-three.
		21Q42	Richard Collett	Born in 1876
		21Q43	Mary Ann Collett	Born in 1877
		21Q44	Benjamin Dingle Collett	Born in 1879
21P40		Francis Collett was born at Treworthal in 1844 and was baptised at Philleigh on 27.10.1844, the son of Robert Davey Collett and Grace Dingle. He was recorded as being 16 years of age in the 1861 Census for Treworthal, when he was living there with his family. Francis followed in his father’s profession and later became a boot and shoemaker.
		When he was 27, Francis married Elizabeth Richards on 14.10.1871 at Philleigh, where she had been born in 1843. By 1881 the couple, aged 36 and 37 respectively, were living in Treworthal where Francis was still employed as a shoemaker, while Elizabeth managed a grocer’s shop in the village and was described as a grocer and tea dealer. Both of their children were listed in the census as having been born at Philleigh, and they were aged eight years and six years respectively.
		Ten years later in 1891, only the same four members of the family were still living at Treworthal within the Truro & St Just registration area. Francis Collett was 46, his wife Elizabeth was 47, their daughter Elizabeth Collett was 18, and their son William who was 16.
		Sometime between 1881 and 1901 Francis had ceased his work as a boot maker and devoted his time to working in the village grocer’s shop with his wife. This was confirmed in the census of 1901 when Francis Collett, age 56, and Elizabeth Collett, age 57, were both described as having the same occupation, that of a grocer. Unlike the earlier census records, on that occasion Elizabeth gave her place of birth as St Just-in-Roseland, while her husband’s birth place was still Philleigh.
		In the census of 1911 Francis and Elizabeth were still residing in the village of Treworthal. Francis Collett, who was confirmed as having been born there, was 66, while his wife Elizabeth, who was confirmed as having been born at St Just, was 67. Living with the couple, and perhaps looking after them in their old age, was their married daughter Elizabeth Grace Woodward, with her husband William Woodward, and their son Cyril Woodward.
		Twelve years after that, Francis Collett died at Treworthal on 11.03.1923 at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of Philleigh. Four years later his wife Elizabeth died on 20.02.1927 when she was 83, following which she was buried with her husband.
		A single headstone marks the joint grave on which is engraved the words “Until the day break and the shadows flee away”.
		21Q45	Elizabeth Grace Collett	Born in 1872
		21Q46	William Collett	Born in 1874
21P41		Richard Davey Collett was born at Treworthal in 1846, but baptised at nearby Philleigh on 07.03.1847. The census in 1851 recorded him as Richard D Collett living with his family at Treworthal at the age of four years. Ten years later in the next census in 1861 he was simply Richard Collett age 14, when he was still living at Treworthal with his family.
		It seems highly likely that Richard Davey Collett died on 5^th March 1867, at the age of 21, the cause of death being scarlet fever, which had already taken the life of his younger sister Elizabeth Grace Collett (below). It was with his sister, and older brother Robert Davey Collett (above), that he was buried within the churchyard of St Philleigh Church, where a single headstone marks the grave of all three children of Robert Davey Collett and his wife Grace. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
21P42		Elizabeth Grace Collett was born at Treworthal in 1851 and was baptised at Philleigh on 11.01.1852, the daughter of Robert Davey Collett and his wife Grace. By the time of the April census in 1861 she was recorded in the census return as being aged nine years.
		Sadly on 07.02.1864 when she was twelve years old, Elizabeth Grace Collett died from scarlet fever and was buried with her brothers Robert Davey Collett and Richard Davey Collett in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church. A single gravestone inscribed with all three of their names marks the grave. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
21P43		Grace Collett was born at Philleigh in 1841 and by the age of 19 she was living with her widowed father John, and her brother John, at their home in Philleigh. Ten years later at the time of the 1871 Census, Grace was unmarried and was still living with her father in Philleigh at the age of 29.
		It would appear that she never married and, following the death of her father, she left Cornwall and moved to Bristol. By early April 1881 and at the age of 39, Grace Collett was assistant housekeeper at the lodging house at 23 All Saints Road in Clifton.
		The lodging house was the home and property of the widow Hermina Collett, age 41, who had been born at Sidmouth in Devon. The census stated their relationship was that of cousins, the family connection being through Hermina’s later husband James Henry Collett (below) who was Grace’s cousin. Grace’s father John Collett was the brother of James Henry’s father William Collett.
		Grace Collett was still living with her cousin in 1891. She was 49 and was living with Hermina and her son Willie at Barton Regis in the Clifton area of Bristol. It was around seven years later that Grace Collett died, her death being recorded during the second quarter of 1898. By that time in her life her address was given as The Vicarage House at Crantock in Cornwall, where she was presumably working right up to her passing.
21P45		Mary Ann Collett was born at Philleigh in July 1841, the eldest of five children of William Collett and Asenath Downick. The child’s baptism was recorded in the St Mawes Wesleyan Circuit Records on 07.09.1841, with a note that she was eight weeks old.
		In 1851, when she was 9 years old, Mary Ann was living with her family at White Lane in Philleigh, and ten years later she was still living with them at the age of 19.
		Sometime during the next few years Mary Ann and her three brothers (below) all left the family, so by 1871 it was only her younger sister Sarah who was living with her parents at White Lane. By that time it is assumed that Mary Ann was married.
21P46		John Kitto Collett was born at Philleigh in October 1842, the eldest of three sons of William Collett and Asenath Downick. His baptism four weeks after he was born was recorded in the St Mawes Wesleyan Circuit Records on 17.11.1842. He was eight years in 1851 when living with his family at White Lane in Philleigh, and was still living there in 1861 when he was 18.
		Sometime before 1871 he married Jane who was born at Phillick in 1843. This is understood to be Phillack near St Ives, and during the next ten years their marriage produced five children for John and Jane. In 1871 the census listed just John K Collett as 28, Jane Collett as 27, and their baby Mary Ann Collett who was under one year old.
		Whether the census enumerator made a mistake in 1881, or whether it was an error in translation, but John K Collett was stated as being a blacksmith aged thirty-eight and born at Phillick, as were all of his children, rather than Philleigh.
		At that time in April 1881 John K Collett, age 38, and his family were living in Bodriggy Street in Phillack. John’s wife was recorded as Jane Collett who was 37, and their five children were Mary Ann who was 10, James H Collett who was nine, John Collett who was six, Elizabeth E Collett who was three, plus one month old Bessie R Collett.
		The family was still living at Phillack ten years later, but by then John R Collett was a widower with the passing of his wife Jane sometime during the previous ten years. Only his three youngest children were still living with him on that occasion and these were John 16, Ellen 13, and Bessie who was 10.
		Since John was not listed with his two unmarried daughter in the census returns for 1901 it might be safe to assume that he had died in the 1890s. In order to survive John’s two daughters were working as general domestic servants while still living in Phillack.
		Elizabeth E Collett was twenty-three and Bessie J Collett was twenty, but unlike the earlier census returns, on this occasion their place of birth was given at Hayle in Cornwall. The two Collett sisters were the only people of the Collett name still living in Phillack at that time.
		21Q47	Mary Ann Collett	Born in 1870 at Phillick
		21Q48	James H Collett	Born in 1872
		21Q49	John R Collett	Born in 1874
		21Q50	Elizabeth Ellen Collett	Born in 1877
		21Q51	Bessie Jane Collett	Born in 1880
21P47		Robert Collett was born at Philleigh in 1843 and was the third child and second son of William Collett and Asenath Downick. By the time of the census in March 1851, he was seven years old while still living with his parents at White Lane in Philleigh.
		Upon leaving school Robert also left Philleigh when he went to work for farmer Joseph Dash at Gerrans about two miles south of Philleigh. According to the census in 1861, Robert Collett was a carter aged 17 from Philleigh and was employed as the one boy on Treleggan Farm in Gerrans.
		Living at the adjacent farm cottage in Gerrans, was William Collett and his family, and he was Robert’s father’s cousin from Philleigh, and not Robert’s father, as might have been expected.
		No record of Robert Collett of Philleigh has been found in any census after 1861.
21P48		James Henry Collett was born at Philleigh on 01.12.1845, the youngest of the three sons of William Collett and Asenath Downick. The St Mawes Wesleyan Circuit Records state that he was baptised on 02.01.1846. He was five years old in 1851 when he was living with his family at White Lane in Philleigh, and was still living there with them in 1861 at the age of 16.
		Some years later, towards the end of the 1860s, James married Hermina and it then appears that the couple settled in Bristol where their son was born. The census in 1871 recorded the family in Bristol as James Henry Collett aged 25 and from Cornwall, his wife Hermina who was 31, and their son William Henry who was ten months old.
		Tragically, it would seem, James passed away shortly after this, when he died at Bristol just after his twenty-fifth birthday. Ten years later in April 1881 at the age of 41, his widow Hermina Collett from Sidmouth in Devon was the proprietor of a lodging house at 23 All Saints Road in Clifton, Bristol.
		Living with her at that time, and assisting her run the lodging house, was spinster Grace Collett 39, the first cousin of her late husband James Henry Collett. Grace was described as assistant housekeeper.
		The absence of Hermina’s son at this time was due to him being educated at 2 Frederick Street in the St Philip district of Bristol when he was ten years old and recorded simply as William Collett of Bristol.
		Ten years later Hermina Collett was 51 and was living with her son Willie Collett at Barton Regis in the Clifton area of Bristol. Still living with Hermina was her late husband’s cousin Grace Collett.
		Towards the end of the next decade Hermina’s son became a married man and started a family of his own, while he was still living in Bristol. According to the Bristol census in March 1901, Hermina Collett, age 61 and from Sidmouth in Devon, was living with her son William and his wife, and she was still living with them ten years later when she was 71.
		21Q52	William Henry Collett	Born in June 1870
21P49		Sarah J Collett was born at Philleigh in 1847, the youngest of the five children of William Collett and Asenath Downick. It seems odd that Sarah was missing from the 1851 Census listing for the family which was living in White Lane at Philleigh at that time. However, she was back living with them in 1861, when she was 13 years of age.
		In the next census of 1871, Sarah was simply recorded as S J Collett of Philleigh, the daughter of William Collett and his wife Asenath who were still living at White Lane in Philleigh although, rather curiously her age was noted as 16, rather than 23, which may have just been a transcription error.
		With no record for Sarah Collett having been found in 1881, it must be assumed that she was married by then.
21P50		Susanna Collett was born at Philleigh where she was baptised on 18.03.1821. In the first census in 1841 she was still living at Philleigh with her family and was aged 20.
		Six years later Susanna, as the daughter of Peter Collett and Margery Broad, married James Ferrell at Philleigh on 13.05.1847. Upon the death of Susanna’ father in 1865 two of Susanna’s children were mentioned in his Will. These were grandchildren Samuel Ferrell and Mary Ferrell.
		In 1866 William Collett (below) married Emma Jane Ferrell who was very likely the younger sister of James Ferrell.
21P52		Jane Broad Collett was born at Philleigh and baptised there on 30.10.1825. She was confirmed as being aged 15 in the 1841 Census when she was living at Philleigh with her family.
		It was also at Philleigh where she married Joseph Ward on 08.08.1850. Joseph was baptised at St Gerrans on 15.12.1822. Following their wedding Jane and Joseph moved to Truro where their first three children were born.
		However, before their first child was born, and only seven months after they were married, Jane Ward nee Collett was visiting her parents at Church Town in Philleigh, when in the census of 1851, she was described as a policeman’s wife aged 25 and from Philleigh.
		It was Joseph’s work as a Parish Constable at Truro and Camborne that was the reason for the family moving from Truro to Camborne where the couple’s fourth child was born. By 1858 the family were living at St Just in Penwith, and that same year the Cornwall County Police Constabulary was established.
		Joseph was promoted to Inspector while at St Just in Penwith and it was there that the couple’s next five children were born. Sometime shortly after the death of her father in July 1865, the family made a final moved to Chyandour near Penzance where the couple’s last child was born. It was as Jane Ward that she was referred to in her father’s Will.
		Over the months following the birth of their last child, Jane developed consumption and sadly died on at Chyandour on Christmas Eve in 1867, leaving her husband to bring up ten children. However, it was at nearby Gulval that Jane was buried on 28^th December 1867, the cause of death recorded as chronic disease of knee joints and tubercular disease of the lungs.
		It was also around this time that Joseph was also suffering with failing health, as a result of which, he was the first officer to be invalided out of the Cornwall Constabulary. His departure from the force, secured with it a pension of one hundred guineas, set the pension standard for all future retirements.
		Following his retirement, he spent his final years at Gulval where he died on 27.11.1870 at the age of just 48, the cause of death being a haemorrhage of the lungs.
		Their children were: Eliza Jane Ward (born 22.10.1851); Ellen Ward (born 21.01.1853); Richard John Ward (born 20.04.1854); Joseph Ward (born 21.01.1856); Alfred Ward (born 25.08.1858); James Ward (born 15.06.1859); William Henry Ward (born 07.02.1861); Peter Collett Ward (born 05.04.1863); Albert Ward (born 29.03.1865); and Arthur Ward (born 21.12.1866).
		Jane and Joseph are the great great grandparents of Bill O’Reilly who, with Myra Cordrey, manages and maintains the wonderful Cornwall OPC database which has been extensively used in compiling The Cornwall Line of the Collett family.
		Additional thanks must also go to Bill for his help and assistance with updating this file, following publication of an earlier version displayed on the Collett website at the end of May 2008.
21P54		Catherine Collett was born at Philleigh in 1829 and was named after her dead sibling. It was at Philleigh that she was baptised on 03.01.1830 and where she was recorded as being eleven years old in the census of 1841. Ten years later she was 21, by which time she was working as a housekeeper at premises in Treworlas, the next village to Philleigh.
		Almost exactly nine years later Catherine married her cousin Francis Collett (below) at Philleigh on 03.03.1860. Francis had been living with her family since before the census in 1851, where he was working as an apprentice blacksmith with Catherine’s father.
		At the time of the census in 1861, Francis 27 and Catherine 31 were confirmed as husband and wife when they were still living with Catherine’s parents at Philleigh. Also on that same day in 1861, Catherine was with-child and, exactly one month later to the day, she presented Francis with their first child.
		Following the death of her mother three months later in August 1861, Catherine and Francis continued to live with Catherine’s father at Philleigh, until his death in 1865. In his Will proved in August 1865 Catherine’s husband Francis Collett was referred to as son-in-law.
		The continuation of the story of the life of Catherine Collett can be found under Ref. 21P60.
21P55		Peter Collett was born at Philleigh in 1835 and was baptised at the Wesleyan Church in St Mawes on 16.08.1835. He was aged 5 in the Philleigh census of June 1841 and 15 in the Church Town, Philleigh census of 1851.
		Also living with the family at Church Town in 1851 was Peter’s cousin, 17 years old Francis Collett (below) who was a blacksmith’s apprentice. During the next decade Peter left Philleigh and by 1861 at the age of 25, he was living and working in the Penryn & Falmouth district of Cornwall and was still a bachelor. Just four months after the census day, Peter’s mother died, followed by his father four years after that.
		It was during the following year that Peter married the much younger Emily Hosking at Phillack on 28.03.1866. Emily was born in 1848 and was the youngest daughter of George and Eliza Hosking of Phillack. In 1861 Emily was 13 years of age and was living with her family in Phillack.
		During the year prior to his wedding, Peter’s father (Peter Collett) died in July 1865 and in his Will Peter was referred to as ‘my son Peter Collett of Phillack’.
		Shortly after their wedding day Emily presented her husband with their first child, and over the following four years two more children were born into the family, while they were still living at Phillack. So by the time of the 1871 Census for the Redruth & Phillack area the family comprised Peter Collett 35, Emily Collett 23, Edith E Collett who was four, Maud M Collett who was two, and Willie H Collett who was five months old. Emily was presumably with-child on the day of the census, since later that same year the couple’s fourth child was born at nearby Hayle.
		A total of three children were added to the family while they were living at Hayle near Phillack, following which the whole family had moved to London by the time of the birth of Peter’s and Emily’s seventh child.
		It would appear that it was from London that the family sailed to Australia before the end of the 1870s, since it was there in Victoria that the couple’s final two children were born. The family initially settled in Victoria, but not long after the family finally settled in Melbourne. Sadly when the youngest child was around three years old, Peter Collett simply walked out on his family and his whereabouts after that time have never been discovered. Nor has any record of his death ever been unearthed.
		21Q53	Edith Emily Collett	Born in 1866 at Phillack
		21Q54	Maud Mary Collett	Born in 1868 at Phillack
		21Q55	William Hosking Collett	Born in 1870 at Phillack
		21Q56	Nellie Collett	Born in 1871 at Hayle, nr Phillack
		21Q57	Frank Collett	Born in 1873 at Hayle, nr Phillack
		21Q58	Peter Collett	Born in 1875 at Hayle, nr Phillack
		21Q59	Alfred Collett	Born in 1876 at London
		21Q60	Edward Percival Collett	Born in 1881 at Sandridge, Victoria
		21Q61	Horace Collett	Born in 1884 at Port Melbourne, Vic.
21P56		Ann Billing Collett was born at St Gorran in 1825. By 1851 both of Ann’s parents had died and in the 1851 Census she was recorded as Ann Collick aged 25 and at that time she was living at the home of Peter Whetter.
		Peter Whetter was probably her cousin or her uncle as Ann’s mother was Philippa Whetter the daughter of Jacob Whetter prior to marrying her father James Collett.
		Later that same year Ann married widower Thomas Ball at Philleigh on 04.12.1851. Thomas’ previous wife had been Nancy Collett (Ref. 21O13) whom he had married on 19.12.1840 at Gerrans, Nancy having been his second wife and Ann’s aunt two-times removed.
		In the 1860s as Ann Billing Ball she was one of the witnesses to the writing of the Will of her uncle Peter Collett (Ref. 21O46) who died on 03.07.1865.
21P57		Susanna Collett was born at St Gorran in 1827 although her age was given as being twelve in the 1841 Census for St Austell & Truro.
21P58		Susan Collett was born at St Gorran in 1829 and she later married Michael Mitchell at Philleigh on 29.12.1849.
21P59		Mary Collett was born at St Gorran in 1831 and was ten years of age in the Bodmin, St Austell & Truro census of 1841 when living with her mother and two younger brothers Francis and Joseph (below).
21P60		Francis Collett was born in 1833 at St Gorran near Mevagissey where his mother had been born. In June 1841 he was aged 7 and was living with his mother, sister Mary (above) and brother Joseph (below) within the Bodmin, St Austell & Truro area.
		What is interesting is that in the 1851 Census Francis, at the age of 17, was living at the Church Town, Philleigh home of his uncle and master blacksmith Peter Collett (Ref. 21O46) and his wife Margery Broad, where he was described as nephew and his occupation was that of a blacksmith’s apprentice.
		It is very likely that Francis went to live with his uncle on leaving school in order to learn how to become a blacksmith. So from around 1848 until 1860 Francis was living and working with his uncle Peter where he must have fallen in love with his cousin Catherine Collett, Peter’s youngest daughter.
		What is known is that he married (1) Catherine Collett (Ref. 21P54) at Philleigh on 03.03.1860. The census the following year confirmed that Francis was 27, his wife Catherine was 31, and that they were living in the Church Town area of Philleigh with Catherine’s parents. In addition to this, Catherine was heavily pregnant with the couple’s first child, which was born exactly one month to the day after the 1861 Census.
		In the end, the marriage produced a total of seven children for Francis and Catherine, and all of them born while the couple were living at Philleigh. The Church Town, Philleigh census for 1871 confirmed that Francis’ and Catherine’s family had increased to five children, although by then six children had been born into the family.
		It was also at that time that Francis Collett was 37 and was working as a blacksmith, and it seems highly likely that he had taken over the family business previously managed by Catherine’s father.
		His wife Catherine was 41 and their five surviving children were Samuel 9, Margery 8, Francis 7, Catherine 5 and Albert 3. Tragically the latest addition to the family, Edward, had only survived a short while after the birth, and that was the reason he was missing from the census record in April 1871.
		The loss was partially compensated for five months later that same year when Catherine presented Francis with their seventh and last child. However, eighteen months later at 43 years of age, Catherine Collett died on 14.04.1873 and was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of Philleigh on 17^th April 1873.
		During the following years Francis Collett married (2) widow Rebecca Glanville, formerly Rebecca Collett (Ref. 21P74) who was born at Whitstable in Kent in 1840. Rebecca was the daughter of Francis Cock Collett, the brother of Francis’ father James Collett. Therefore Francis and Rebecca were first cousins. Perhaps because of Rebecca’s age there were no children resulting from this marriage.
		According to the 1881 Census for the village of Philleigh, Francis was eight years older than his new wife, he being 48, while Rebecca was 40. Francis’ occupation was that of a blacksmith for which he employed one man to assist him. This was John Hawkins aged 20 of Philleigh.
		In addition to his blacksmith business, Francis also had a smallholding of 13 acres which appeared to be farmed by his two oldest sons Samuel 19 and Francis 17.
		All of his children had been born at Philleigh and those still living at Church Town in Philleigh with him in 1881 were his two eldest sons, plus daughter Kate aged 15 and his two youngest sons Albert 13 and Edmund 9. Only his daughter Margery was absent from the family home on that day.
		A double tragedy hit the family in 1886 and 1890 when, first Francis’ daughter Margery died, and this was followed by the death of his son Francis.
		So by the time of the census of 1891 only the three youngest children were still living at Philleigh with their parents and these were aged 25, 23 and 19 respectively, although the census recorded Edmunds name in error as Edward. The children’s father was listed as 57, while his wife Rebecca was 50, and by that time Francis Collett’s occupation was that of a farmer.
		Ten years later in 1901 all of the children had left the family home in Philleigh except for bachelor Edmund who was twenty-nine and was still recorded as being a farmer’s son as he had in previous census details.
		The census that year confirmed that Francis Collett had been born at Gorran and that, even though he was sixty-eight years old, he continued to work as a farmer. His wife Rebecca Collett from Kent was sixty, and still living with them was their daughter Katie who was thirty-four.
		It was just over one year later that Francis Collett died at Philleigh on 19.05.1902 and was buried with his first wife Catherine, and alongside the grave of his two children Margery and Francis in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in Philleigh. A single headstone marked his and his wife’s grave on which it stated he was sixty-eight when he died, together with the inscription “Forever with the Lord”.
		Upon the death of her husband, Rebecca left Philleigh and moved to Kenwyn in Truro and at the time of the census in 1911 she was living there at the home of her stepson Albert Collett and his family.
		Rebecca Collett was seventy years old by then and amazingly still had another twenty years of her life in front of her. It was on 26.02.1932 that Rebecca Collett died at the age of 92 and was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of Philleigh.
		It would appear from the two epitaphs on the headstone that marks her grave, that Francis’ daughter Catherine Collett, who died twenty years later in 1952, was also buried in the same grave in the churchyard at Philleigh. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		21Q62	Samuel James Collett	Born on 07.05.1861
		21Q63	Margery Collett	Born in 1862
		21Q64	Francis Collett	Born in 1863
		21Q65	Catherine Collett	Born on 30.11.1865
		21Q66	Albert Collett	Born on 31.08.1867
		21Q67	Edward Peter Collett	Baptised on 21.02.1869
		21Q68	Edmund Collett	Born on 05.09.1871
21P61		James Collett was born at Gorran in 1836 and he was five years old in the June census of 1841 for the St Austell & Truro registration area. By that time in his young life his father James Collett appears to have died.
		Tragically James’ mother Philippa died five years later and it has not been determined exactly what happened to James after 1846 when he was made an orphan, but it seems likely that he was taken into care by a family in Philleigh since it was there that he said he was from when he married in 1871.
		The only confirmed record of James Collett prior to this was in the census of 1861 when he was aged 25 and listed as being a member of the Royal Navy and ‘at sea in foreign parts or colonies’.
		What is known is that he was married on two occasions, the first time to (1) Ellen Cornelius Ripper at Philleigh on 07.11.1863. The marriage produced two daughters for the couple, although it may have been the second of these which resulted in the death of Ellen on 19.09.1869 at the age 35, following which she was buried at Philleigh in the grounds of St Philleigh Church. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
		It was less than two years later, on 14.03.1871, that widower James Collett of Philleigh, the son of James Collett and Philippa Whetter, married (2) Cecilia Paul at the Church of St Paul in Truro. Cecilia was the daughter of Andrew Paul.
		Just over two weeks after they were married, James and Cecilia were living at White Lane in Philleigh. The census that year recorded the family as follows. James Collett from St Gorran was 34 and a travelling draper, while his wife Cecilia Collett from St Day (in Gwennap) was 24. It was also at St Day that James’ eldest daughter from his previous marriage had been born. This was Clara Augusta Collett who was 4, while her younger sister Alice Maud Collett was two years old and born at Truro.
		James was wealthy enough to employ a servant, in the form of 18 years old Annie Hubber from St Columb, who was living with, and working for, the family at that time. Living just two doors away from James and his family, was William and Asenath Collett with their daughter Sarah J Collett who was James’ uncle, one-step-removed.
		Just over ten months after they were married Cecilia presented her husband with the first of their three children, who was born at Philleigh during the last week of January 1872. Tragically he only survived for eleven weeks when he died on 19.04.1872.
		Over the next few years two more children were added to the family while they were still living at White Lane. However, further tragedy hit the family when James Collett, then aged only 38, died at Truro on 07.01.1875, following which he was buried with his first wife Ellen in the churchyard at Philleigh.
		A single gravestone in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church bears the following inscription “In affectionate remembrance of Ellen Cornelius the beloved wife of James Collett of this parish who died at Truro Sept 19^th 1869 aged 35 years – Her end was peace” under which is “Also the above James Collett who died Truro Jan 7^th 1875 aged 38 years – In sure and certain hope of Resurrection to eternal life”. (see Headstone Epitaphs)
	It would seem that the death of her husband resulted in Cecilia taking the children north to Lancashire, although the reason is not known. What is known is that, according to the census of 1881, the widow Cecilia Collett and her two children and two stepchildren were living at 91 Breck Road in Everton on Merseyside. Cecilia was 34 and had been born at Gwennap St Day between Redruth and Penryn, and her occupation was that of a confectioner.
	Living with her were Clara who was 14 and also born at Gwennap St Day, Alice aged 12 who was born at Truro, as were Florence and James who were aged 8 and 6 respectively.
		Ten years later in 1891 only the two youngest children were still living with Cecilia in Everton and they were Florence L Collett who was 18, and James A P Collett who was 16.
	Just after the end of the century Cecilia was still living in Everton where she was 53 and was then working as a florist. She was the only Collett listed as living in Everton at the end of March 1901.
	Cecilia Collett was again living alone in Everton ten years later. Her place of birth was confirmed as Gwennap in Cornwall and at that time she was recorded as being 64. On this occasion there was another Collett listed in the Everton census of 1911, and this was twenty-one years old Henry Collett who was living at an ‘institution’.
		21Q69	Clara Augusta Collett	Born in 1866 at Gwennap St Day
		21Q70	Alice Maud Collett	Born in 1868 at Truro
		21Q71	Archibald Luke Collett	Born in 1871
		21Q72	Florence L Collett	Born in 1872 at Truro
		21Q73	James A P Collett	Born in 1874 at Truro
21P62		Joseph Collett was born at St Gorran in May 1841 and was just fourteen days old on 6^th June 1841 according to the Bodmin, St Austell & Truro census when he was living with his mother Philippa, his sister Mary and his brother Francis.
		By the time of the next census in 1851 his age was given as being ten years old. From that date onwards there is no record of Joseph in any subsequent census returns.
21P64		Josepha Chenoweth was born at St Just-in-Roseland on 24.02.1822 and it was there also that she married John Mitchell Hooker on 10.05.1840. Between 1851 and 1854 Josepha and John left St Just-in-Roseland with their first six children, who had been born there, and moved to London.
		A further four children were added to the family in London, all of whom were born at Shoreditch. By the time of the 1881 the family was living at 45 Wenlock Street in Shoreditch and comprised carpenter John aged 60, his wife Josepha aged 59, with children Ann 34, Mary a tie maker aged 30, John 26 a warehouseman, Josepha and Thirza aged 24 and 21 who were also tie makers, and Richard a picture framer maker aged 19. See the continuation for Richard below.
		In addition to their own children, Josepha and John also had three of their grandchildren living with them. The first of these was Fred Hooker aged 16 who was working as a junior clerk. He was born at Ruan in Cornwall and was the son of Joseph Hooker (born in 1840), the couple’s oldest son.
		The other two grandchildren were the children of their oldest daughter Anne (born in 1846) who had married Philip Newton. And they were grandson George Newton aged 15 who was a junior clerk, and his sister Lily aged 13 who was still at school.
		All of the London born children, including the two grandchildren, were listed as having been born at Hoxton, rather than Shoreditch.
		With ten years of that census day Josepha died at Islington on 03.01.1889, while her husband John passed away twelve years later on 16.03.1901 when living at Hackney.
		21Q74	Richard Francis Chenoweth Hooker		Born on 12.06.1861
21P67		Thomas Chenoweth was born at St Just on 13.02.1828. Just before the census of 1851 he married Jane who was born at Veryan in 1830. The census that year recorded the couple living at Treworthal where 23 years old Thomas was a blacksmith.
21P68		Richard Philips Chenoweth was born on 28.02.1830 at St Just-in-Roseland. In 1860 he married Elizabeth Williams Tyzzer of St Austell. The banns were read in St just on three consecutive weeks commencing on 29.07.1860.
		He was a farmer of 47 acres and lived all his life in St Just-in-Roseland where he was buried on 6^th November 1890. Nine and a half years before he died he was living at Churchtown Farm in St Just-in-Roseland with his wife Elizabeth and their three children, William aged 19, Josepha aged 13 and Elizabeth aged 10. Their son Joseph was not listed anywhere in the UK in 1881.
		The full baptism details of Richard’s children are as follows: William Richard Chenoweth (bapt. 23.02.1862); Joseph Phillips Chenoweth (bapt. 28.10.1863); Josepha Jane Chenoweth (bapt. 17.12.1867); and Elizabeth Mary Chenoweth (bapt. 23.06.1870).
21P69		Francis Collett Chenoweth was born at St Just-in-Roseland on 01.04.1832. He married Gemma Thomas around 1858, Gemma having been born at Gorran in 1834. All three of their children were born at St Just-in-Roseland.
		According to the 1881 Census Francis aged 49 was a farmer like his older brother Richard (above) and was living at Methrose in Gorran with his wife Emma, rather than Gemma, who was aged 48.
		The couple’s first five children were born at St Just, while the next three were born at Gorran. Son Charles was listed as a carpenter, while the two oldest sons and two oldest daughters were simply listed as farmer’s sons and farmer’s daughters.
		The eight children were: Richard Chenoweth (born 1859); John J Chenoweth (born 1860); Charles Chenoweth, the carpenter (born 1863); Rebecca Collett Chenoweth (born 02.10.1866); Maria Chenoweth (born 1868); Ralph Chenoweth (born 1870); Frederick Chenoweth (born 1876); and Jane Chenoweth (born 1878).
21P71		Simon Chenoweth was born at St Just-in-Roseland on 01.05.1836. He was a carpenter and he married Elizabeth around 1870 with whom he had four children, the first two being born at St Just and the other two at Gerrans.
		It was at Portscatho in Gerrans that the family was living in 1881. The children were: Elizabeth R Chenoweth (born 1873); Charles Chenoweth (born 1875); John Chenoweth (born 1877); and Frederick Chenoweth (born 1887).
21P72		Sarah Johns Collett was born on the Scilly Isles in 1836. Shortly after the birth she and her parents moved to Whitstable in Kent but around 1847 they returned to the Scilly Isles. By 1861 Sarah was 24 and she and her sister Grace (below) where still living in St Mary’s while the rest of their family had moved to Falmouth.
		And it was while at St Mary’s that she met and married William Rogers on 17.05.1862. William was aged 25 and was a shoemaker of St Mary’s, the son of shoemaker Isaac Rogers. Sarah was also 25 and of St Mary’s and was listed as the daughter of coastguard Francis Collett.
		Three and a half years later Sarah’s younger sister Susan Collett (below) married William Rogers’ brother Isaac Rogers at St Mary’s.
21P73		Grace Collett was born at Seasalter in Whitstable in Kent in 1838, where it is believed she lived with her family until around 1847, when they moved back to the Scilly Isles where her older sister Sarah (above) was born. And it was in the Scilly Isles that Grace was living with her sister in 1861 aged 22.
		Ten years later Grace was still a spinster aged 32 and was the only child of Francis and Sarah Collett to still be living with them at St Mary’s in Scilly.
		There appears to be no record of Grace in the 1881 Census and she may have been married by then.
21P74		Rebecca Collett was born at Seasalter in Whitstable in 1840. When she was five years of age her parents moved back to the Scilly Isles with their children where Rebecca was married by banns to Philip Glanville on 31.05.1859. Philip Glanville of Tresco was a 29 years old coastguard and was the son of labourer John Glanville.
		Rebecca was ten years younger than her husband and was recorded as being of Bryher, was aged 19, and was the daughter of coastguard Francis Collett.
		It would appear that Philip Glanville died during the late 1860s or early 1870s since, as the widow Rebecca Glanville, she later married her cousin Francis Collett prior to 1881, he having lost his wife in 1873. Once married the couple settled in Philleigh.
		The continuation of the story of the life of Rebecca Collett can be found under Ref. 21P60.
21P75		Susan Collett was born at Whitstable in 1842. By 1846 the family had returned to the Scilly Isles where Susan’s oldest sister was born. Sometime in the mid-to-late 1850s the family, less her three older sisters, moved to Falmouth where they were living in 1861 and where Susan was aged 18.
		Sometime during the next four and a half years Susan had returned again to the Scilly Isles where she married Isaac Rogers at St Mary’s on 30.12.1865. Isaac was the brother of William Rogers who had married Susan’s sister Sarah (above) in 1862 and was the son of shoemaker Isaac Rogers.
		Isaac junior was 32 and of St Mary’s at the time of the wedding ceremony and was employed as a shipwright. Susan was described as of full age and of St Mary’s and would have been aged 23 compared to her husband of 32 years. Her father was confirmed as Francis Collett, a coastguard.
		Over the next fifteen years or so she presented her Isaac with five children, all of whom were born at St Mary’s.
		However, by 1881 Susan was a widow aged 38 living at The Parade in St Mary’s with her five children. Her place of birth was confirmed as having been Whitstable and her occupation was that of a lodging house keeper. This might indicate that she was today’s equivalent of a landlady.
		In addition to her five children, Susan had living with her, her widowed mother Sarah Collett who was the assistant lodging house keeper.
		The children of the family were: Isaac Rogers (born 1866); Elizabeth Rogers (born 1867); William Rogers (born 1868); Clara C Rogers (born 1870); and Joseph J Rogers (born 1871).
21P76		William Francis Collett was born at Whitstable in Kent in 1844. Before he reached his sixteenth birthday in 1861 he and his family were much travelled. From Kent they moved to the Scilly Isles and from there to Falmouth where they were living in 1861.
		Before 1870 the family had moved back to the Scilly Isles. And it was there in St Mary’s that William was living when he died at just 26 years of age. He was buried at St Mary’s on 2^nd February 1871.
21P77		Mary Johns Collett was born at Tresco on the Scilly Isles in 1846 and her second name was her mother’s maiden name. Sadly she did not survive for very long and was buried on the Scilly Isles on 17^th August 1846.
21P78		Joseph Wills Collett was born at Tresco in 1848. In 1861 he and the majority of his family were living at Falmouth where he was aged 12.
21P79		Richard James Collett was born at Tresco on the Scilly Isles in 1852 and was aged 8 and living with his family at Falmouth in 1861. Shortly after Richard and his parents returned to the Scilly Isles where, in 1871 at the aged of 18, he was living at St Mary’s with his father, his mother and his older sister Grace.
		Richard married Elizabeth Ann Jenkins of Bryher on 28.10.1875 at St Mary’s. Elizabeth at 26 was three years old than Richard and was the daughter of boatman Samuel Jenkins. Richard of St Mary’s was listed as a boot and shoemaker and his father was recorded as lifeguard Francis Collett deceased.
		By the time of the 1881 Census their marriage had produced two children for the couple, both born at St Mary’s where the family was living in Well Lane. His wife Elizabeth A Collett was four years older having been born at St Mary’s in 1848.
		Richard’s occupation was that of a master boot and shoemaker and he was employing one apprentice at that time. On that occasion Elizabeth was very likely with-child, since the couple’s third child was born later that same year.
		Ten years later and their family was almost complete, there having been a further three children born into the family. For the census of 1891 the family was listed as still living on the Isles of Scilly.
		Richard was aged 38 and living with him was his wife Elizabeth and their five children Lillie G Collett 14, Francis H Collett 13, Clara E Collett 9, Annie M Collett 7, and Ethel J Collett who was four years old. Elizabeth was very likely with-child once more on the census day as the couple’s sixth and last child was born later in the year.
		Just after the turn of the century the whole family was still together with the exception of their only son Francis who had joined the Royal Navy by then.
		The family was still living at St Mary’s where Richard was forty-eight and was working as a boat man. His place of birth was again confirmed as having been Tresco. The census record also confirmed that his wife Elizabeth, who was fifty-one, had been born at St Mary’s, as had all of their children.
		Apart from himself, the only other member of the family listed with an occupation was Richard’s daughter Clara who was a dressmaker at the age of nineteen. The other children still living at the family home were listed as Lillie 24, Annie 17, Ethel 14, and Nannie who was 9.
		By the time of the next census in April 1911 only two of Richard’s children were still living on the Scilly Isles with him and Elizabeth. Richard James Collett was fifty-eight, his wife Elizabeth Ann was sixty-two, Annie Maud Collett was twenty-seven, and Nannie who was nineteen.
		21Q75	Lillie G Collett	Born in 1876
		21Q76	Francis H Collett	Born in 1877
		21Q77	Clara E Collett	Born in 1881
		21Q78	Annie Maud Collett	Born in 1883
		21Q79	Ethel J Collett	Born in 1886
		21Q80	Nannie E Collett	Born in 1891
21P80		Frances Collett was born at Tresco in 1857 but did not survive beyond nine weeks. Following her death she was buried on the Scilly Isles on 25^th April 1857.
21P81		Joshua Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1837 and was baptised there on 02.02.1838. He was unmarried and aged 23 in 1861. It must have been just after the census day that Joshua emigrated to North America, where his three children were born in the early 1870s.
		Adjusting to life in the new world may have been difficult for the young Collett family since during the mid 1870s Joshua and the children made the return trip back to Cornwall. According to the 1881 Census Joshua was married but there was no wife living with him. However, because of the discovery of some new information it is possible that his wife and the mother of his three children may have died in Canada and this may have prompted their return.
		The new information would indicate that, following his return to England, Joshua married (2) Matilda who was born at Mereworth in Kent in 1839 and with whom he had a fourth child George born at Battersea in London in 1878.
		According to the 1881 Census, Joshua’s occupation was that of a blacksmith employing one man and a boy to work with him at The Praze in St Gluvias Penryn.
		The census that year recorded Joshua aged 43 as married and living with two of his three children who were both born in Canada. The missing child was his daughter Ellen who was staying with Joshua’s sister Ellen and her husband at Iron Mill in Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire.
		In addition to the two children with him at that time, was his widowed sister-in-law Sarah Collett aged 39 of Tanworth-in Arden, Warwickshire who was staying with him. And with her was her one year old daughter Elizabeth who was born at Penryn and described as Joshua’s niece.
		This would indicate that Sarah had been married to Joshua’s brother who had since passed away. Therefore the corresponding age fit would place Sarah’s husband as Joshua’s younger brother James (below).
		It also seems likely that Joshua’s second wife Matilda never fully accepted the role as stepmother to his three children since, following his death before 1891, the two youngest children were taken under the care of their uncle Hugh Collett (below), while Matilda agreed to have the oldest child.
		This was the only option open to the family as Joshua’s sister Elizabeth had died around the same time as Joshua and his only other male sibling James had died ten years earlier. Joshua’s only other surviving sibling was his sister Ellen (below) who was married and living in Gloucestershire.
		Rather curiously Joshua’s presumed second wife Matilda was recorded in the 1881 Census as living at St Michael Penkevil at the home of Joshua’s unmarried brother Hugh Collett and the boys’ mother 74 years old Elizabeth Collett. With Matilda was her son George Collett aged 2 years.
		According to the census of 1901 Matilda Collett of Mereworth was sixty-one and was living at St Gluvias on the north side of Penryn with her bachelor son George who was twenty-two.
		Ten years later in April 1911 Matilda of Mereworth was seventy-two and was still living at St Gluvias with her son George. Of the three other Colletts living in St Gluvias at this time, only Annie aged twenty-seven has not been accounted for, and she was the only one born there and may have been the base-born daughter of Elizabeth Ann Collett aged 50 who was living with her mother Ann.
		21Q81	Elizabeth Maria Collett	Born in 1871
		21Q82	Ellen Collett	Born in 1872
		21Q83	William Hugh Collett	Born in 1873
		21Q84	George Collett	Born in 1878
21P82		Elizabeth Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1839 and was baptised there on 18.08.1839. It would appear that she never married and lived with her parents at St Michael Penkevil where she also died aged 51. Her death was recorded there on 01.08.1890.
21P83		Ellen Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil and it was there that she was baptised on 25.10.1840. She was still living there with her family in 1861 at the age of 20. By the time she was 40 in 1881 Ellen was married to William G Coombe of Wickham Bishop in Essex where he had been born in 1846.
		William was a gardener and the childless couple were living at Iron Mills in Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. Staying with them was Ellen’s niece Ellen Collett the daughter of Ellen’s brother Joshua (above) who had recently returned from Canada where his 8 years old child had been born.
21P84		James Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1842 and baptised there on 18.09.1842. He was aged 18 at the time of the 1861 Census when he was still living with his parents at St Michael Penkevil.
		During the late 1870s James married Sarah who was born at Tanworth-in Arden, Warwickshire in 1842. But tragically by 1881 Sarah was a widow and was staying with her brother-in-law and James’ brother Joshua (above) at his home in The Praze in St Gluvias Penryn. With Sarah was her one year old daughter Elizabeth Collett who was born at Penryn and described as Joshua’s niece.
		The child’s age and James’ absence from the 1881 Census would indicate that he had possibly died after the birth of his daughter and certainly before 3^rd April 1881.
		Sarah eventually returned to her late husband’s home village of St Michael Penkevil where she died in 1887 aged 47. Her death was recorded there on 07.08.1887. Following her death, Sarah’s twelve years old daughter Elizabeth was taken into the care of her uncle Hugh Collett (below).
		21Q85	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1879
21P85		Hugh Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1846 and it was there that he was baptised on 21.06.1846. He was still living there with his parents in 1861 and 1871 aged 14 and 24 respectively. Originally Hugh could not be located in 1881 but it has since been discovered his surname was transcribed as Pollett and not Collett.
		As Hugh Pollett aged 34 he was still living at St Michael Penkevil in 1881. His address in the village was simply given as No. 11 and his occupation as head of the household was confirmed as being that of a blacksmith.
		Living with him was his mother Elizabeth of Philleigh who was 74, together with his unmarried sister Elizabeth aged 41, who was performing the role of housekeeper for her brother. Both brother and sister were confirmed as having been born at St Michael Penkevil.
		Completing the household was Hugh’s sister-in-law Matilda Collett (Pollett) aged 42 and of Mereworth in Kent, together with her son George aged two years who was listed as Hugh’s nephew. It may be assumed that this was perhaps the second wife of Hugh’s brother Joshua Collett (above).
		Hugh never married and was still living at St Michael Penkevil in 1891 and still working as a blacksmith. By that time four major catastrophes had befallen his family which dramatically changed Hugh’s life.
		The first tragedy was the death of his brother James who died around 1880. This left his widow Sarah to raise their daughter which she did with the support of Hugh’s and James’ older brother Joshua, until Sarah died in 1887.
		Three years later Hugh’s housekeeper and elder sister Elizabeth died around the same time that Joshua also died. This left Joshua’s three Canadian born children and James’ and Sarah’s daughter without any other family member to take care of the four children, so this duty fell to Hugh.
		Hugh’s only other sister Ellen was married and was living in Gloucestershire, so he really was the only possible solution to the crisis.
		According to the 1891 Census bachelor Hugh Collett was aged 44, was still living at St Michael Penkevil, and was continuing to work as a blacksmith.
		Living with him was his niece Ellen Collett aged 18 who was born in Canada, her brother 17 years old William H Collett also born in Canada, and their cousin and Hugh’s other niece Elizabeth Collett aged 11, all of whom had been made orphans by the recent deaths of their respective parents.
		Ten years later only nephew William had left the home of his uncle Hugh and this was to be married. According to the census of 1901 Hugh was aged 54 and was still working as a blacksmith in St Michael Penkevil.
		And still living with him were his two unmarried nieces, Ellen who was performing the duties of his housekeeper, and the younger Elizabeth who was simply listed as ‘living with uncle’.
		No record of Hugh Collett has been found in the census of 1911 so it is possible that he had died during the previous ten years. By this time, and perhaps as a result of the death of her guardian, Hugh’s niece Elizabeth Collett was living in London.
21P86		Henry Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1848 and baptised there on 08.08.1848.
21P87		Emma Collett was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1849 and was baptised at the end of that year on 23.12.1849. As with the baptisms of all her siblings (above), her parents were recorded as being Hugh and Elizabeth Collett.
21P88		John Vivian Collett was born in 1833 at Camborne where he was baptised on 01.03.1834. The baptism record recorded his surname incorrectly as Collect. His second Christian name was taken from his mother’s maiden name.
		Tragically John’s mother Catherine died shortly after the birth of John’s brother Henry (below) and the two boys were then taken into the care of the Vivian family, who were their grandparents, at their home in Camborne.
		And it was there that John aged 7 and Henry aged 5 were recorded as living in the first national census in June 1841, although their surname was spelt with only had one t.
		William Odgers Collett, the boy’s father, remarried in December that year and sometime after John and Henry returned to live with him and his new wife Jane.
		Ten years later in 1851 John aged 17 and his brother aged 15 were still living with their father at Treluckey Mill midway between Cuby-with-Tregony and St Michael Caerhayes.
		Five or six years later John married Elizabeth Jane Knight and by the time of the 1861 Census they had two children and were living at Grampound in the St Austell registration district. Their children were listed as Catherine aged 2 and Caleb aged just four months, both having been born at nearby Creed.
		John was aged 27 and his place of birth was given as Camborne, while his wife Elizabeth was 24 and from Roche. John’s occupation at that time was stated as being that of a tin miner.
		During the next decade a further three children were added to the family so the 1871 Census recorded the family as John aged 37 and born at Camborne, Elizabeth aged 34, and their children Catherine 12, Caleb 10, Edith 8, William 5, and Florence aged 2. At this time they were living in the village of St Ewe in St Austell, Mevagissey registration district.
		The reference to their youngest daughter as Florence may well be a misinterpretation of the name Salome who would have been aged two years in early April 1871. She was possibly born in late 1868 and was baptised at the Bible Christian Chapel in Paramore on 02.06.1869. Certainly it was as Salome that she was listed in the census of 1881 at 12 years of age.
		Therefore the original assumption that they may have been twin sisters is probably incorrect and until further evidence to contrary is unearthed it will be assumed that Florence and Salome was one and the same daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett.
		Shortly after the census day in 1871 the couple was blessed with the arrival of another daughter Lavinia. And on 8^th October that same year Lavinia was baptised at St Ewe where the family still living and where, according to the baptism record, her father John was employed as a husbandman.
		Rather strangely the baptism listed in the St Ewes’ parish records was a joint ceremony for Lavinia and her slightly older sister Salome who had been baptised with a different church less than two years earlier, perhaps indicating a change of faith.
		Apparently just two more children were added to the family, one either side of the 1881 Census day.
		By the time of the census John was working as a clay labourer. His place of birth was confirmed as Camborne and his age as 47. His wife Elizabeth was 44 and had been born at Roche five miles north of St Austell where the family was then living at 6 Wheal Prosper in Roche.
		Living with the couple in April 1881 was their son William aged 16 and a clay labourer like his father, and the family’s latest child David aged 4. Also living with them were their daughters Salome aged 12 and Lavinia aged 9. The three eldest children had been born at St Ewe while David had been born after the couple had moved to Roche.
		Within the following year Elizabeth presented John with their ninth child and last known children who was born while the family was still living at Roche, where it appears they spent the rest of their life.
		By 1891 only the three youngest children were still living with the couple at Roche. These were Lavinia aged 20, David aged 14 and eight years old Richard. John was then 57 and his wife 53.
		Just after the turn of the century only Richard then aged 18 was still living with his parents at Roche and both father and son were employed as china clay workers. John was confirmed as being 67 and born at Camborne, while his wife Elizabeth was 64 years, and both she and his son were born at Roche.
		John Vivian Collett died at Roche on 01.11.1908 at the age seventy-five and was followed, just over two years later, by his wife Elizabeth Jane Collett nee Knight who died at Roche on 12.01.1911 when she was seventy-three.
		21Q86	Catherine Collett	Born in 1858
		21Q87	Caleb Knight Collett	Born in 1860
		21Q88	Edith Jane Collett	Born in 1862
		21Q89	William Collett	Born in 1865
		21Q90	Salome Collett	Born in 1868
		21Q91	Lavinia Collett	Born in 1871
		21Q92	David Knight Collett	Born in 1876
		21Q93	Richard Knight Collett	Born in 1882
21P89		Henry Collett was born in 1835 and this possibly took place at Camborne where his brother John (above) was born. However, unlike his brother who was baptised at Camborne, Henry was baptised at St Ewe on 25.12.1835.
		A little while after Henry was born his mother Catherine died, possibly as result of his birth or during the birth of another child that also did not survive. So by June 1841 Henry’s father William Odgers Collett was a widower, and Henry aged 5 and his older brother John aged 7 were being looked after by their grandparents at Camborne.
		Henry’s father was married for a second time in December 1841 and sometime thereafter Henry and his brother John returned to live with William and his new wife Jane.
		Ten years later in 1851 Henry was aged 15 and was still living with this father at Treluckey Mill but by 1861 he had left the family home and was living and working in the Penzance area of Cornwall where he was recorded as a bachelor aged 24.
		No other record of Henry after this time has so far been found.
21P90		George Collett was baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 09.04.1842. It would appear that he died while still very young as a few years after another George was born into the family.
21P91		Mary J Collett was born in 1843 and at the age of seventeen was living with her family in the Probus & Truro registration district. She was still living with her parents ten years later in 1871 when she was still a spinster aged 27. The only other siblings living at the family home at that time were Ann, Fanny and Edwin.
21P92		William Collett was born at St Michael Caerhays on 09.08.1845 and was later baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 02.11.1845. Within the census of 1851 his surname was recorded incorrectly as Collick. Just before his twenty-first birthday William married (1) Emma Jane Ferrell in Truro during June 1866.
		Emma presented William with two children before she passed away during the March quarter of 1874. Both of the children were born at Ladock where Emma had been born in early 1838.
		Emma Jane Ferrell seems likely to have been the younger sister of James Ferrell who married Susanna Collett (above) at Philleigh on 13.05.1847. Susanna’s father was Peter Collett and in his Will of 1865 his grandchildren Samuel Ferrell and Mary Ferrell were named as beneficiaries under the terms of the Will.
		During the year following the death of his wife, William married (2) Jane Smith at St Leonards-on-Sea near Hasting on 22.04.1775. Jane had been born at St Leonards and was baptised on 22.03.1844 in Hastings. However, it would appear that William returned to Ladock with Jane, as it was there that the couple’s first three children were born.
		In 1881 the family of seven was living at Bissick Mill in Ladock where 35 years old William was a corn miller. However, soon after the April census day in 1881 the family moved to Hayle near St Ives where the couple’s fourth child was born.
		The time spent at Hayle may only have been a fairly short few years since, by the time of the birth of their sixth and last child the family was living at Penryn. And it was at Penryn where the family was living from 1886 through to the end of March 1901.
		According to the 1891 Census William was 45, and his wife Jane 48. Their two older children were not living with them anymore so the family just comprised Ellen 13, Emily 12, Annie 10, Kate 8, Clara 6 and Arthur 4.
		The following census of 1901 recorded William as 55 and still working as a miller and his wife Jane as 57. Living with them were daughters Ellen aged 24 who was a dressmaker, Emily aged 22 who was a grocer’s assistant, Katie aged 18 who was a draper’s apprentice, and their son Arthur aged 14.
		The couple’s eldest daughter Elizabeth had already left the family home by then, but there is uncertainty about what had happened to their youngest daughter Clara who would have been 16 years old.
		Towards the end of 1902 Jane died, leaving William to marry (3) widow Mary Lucilla Nicholls nee Tremayne two years later around December 1904. Mary was born around 1850 and in April 1911 William Collett from St Michael Caerhays was living at Tavistock in Devon with his wife Mary Luscilla Collett. William was sixty-five and his wife was sixty.
		William Collett and his third wife Mary both died at Falmouth during the June quarter of 1926.
		21Q94	William Collett	Born in 1866
		21Q95	Elizabeth Jane Collett	Born in 1868
		21Q96	Ellen Maud Collett	Born in 1875
		21Q97	Emily Mary Collett	Born in 1878
		21Q98	Annie Collett	Born in 1880
		21Q99	Kate Collett	Born in 1882
		21Q100	Clara Louise Collett	Born in 1884
		21Q101	Arthur James Collett	Born in 1886
21P93		George Collett was baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 26.09.1847. The census of 1851 confirmed that George and his family were living at Cuby-with-Tregony and he was still living there at the age of thirteen in 1861.
		It would appear that six or seven years later he married Louisa Tonkin who was born at Tregony in 1847. The couple were married at Cuby-with-Tregony on 12.03.1867 and it was there that all of their six children were born.
		By 1871 the family living at Tregony comprised George and Louisa both aged 24, and their daughters Alma aged 3, Mary aged 1 and baby Emma.
		Sadly, for whatever reason, George did not survive to see his children into adulthood as he died around the end of the 1870s. By the time of the 1881 Census Louisa was a widowed aged 33 and was living with five of her six children at Bridgend near Lostwithiel in the district of St Winnow.
		Louisa was working as a char woman to support her young family who were Mary aged 12, Emma 10, George 8, Joshua 6 and William 4. Also living with the family was one year old John Smith of Devonport who was described as a boarder.
		Louisa’s missing eldest daughter Alma was aged 14 and was working away from home as a general servant at the home of farmer Walter H Wevell at Polmenna Farm in Lostwithiel in the St Winnow registration district.
		Sometime after the early 1880s Louisa and her family moved nearer to Truro and by 1891 they were living in Truro, St Clement. Louisa was then aged 44 and the children still living with her were Mary 20, Emma 18, George 17, Joshua 15, and William aged 14.
		Just after the turn of the century Louisa was aged 55 and was living at St Clement although, unlike the earlier census, it was then referred to as St Clement Urban which identified it as a suburb on the fringe of the city of Truro.
		No record of Louisa Collett has been found in the census of 1911, so it is likely that she may have died by then.
		21Q102	Alma M Collett	Born in 1867
		21Q103	Mary Harriet Collett	Born in 1869
		21Q104	Emma R Collett	Born in 1871 at Cuby-with-Tregony
		21Q105	George Collett	Born in 1872
		21Q106	Joshua Collett	Born in 1874
		21Q107	William James Collett	Born in 1877
21P94		James Collett was born at Treluckey Mill near Cuby-with-Tregony in 1849. At the age of two years in 1851 and 12 years old in 1861 he was still living at Treluckey Mill with his family.
		Some years later when he was a resident of Brighton in Michigan USA he informed people that he had been born at Brighton in England. However, he did not fully explain that the Brighton he was referring to was a hamlet in Cornwall, just a few miles from where he was actually born, and not the well-known seaside resort in Sussex.
		By April 1871 he was aged 22 and was still in Cornwall, although he is believed to have married (1) Jane by the end of that year or sometime during the following year. Jane was born in 1850 and together they left England for North America before 1873.
		It is thought that the couple initially sailed to Canada to be reunited with James’ cousin Joshua Collett (Ref. 21P81) who was living at Stratford in Ontario, midway between Detroit and Toronto in the early 1870s. James was a joiner and a carpenter, while Joshua was a blacksmith. Following the birth of his third child in 1874 Joshua returned to Cornwall with his three children.
		Joshua’s return to England may have been the reason that prompted James and Jane to leave Canada to cross the border the short distance to Brighton in Michigan, about forty miles north-west of Detroit.
		The couple’s first child was born while James and Jane were still in Canada and was very likely born at Stratford where Joshua’s son was also born before he left for England. The couple’s remaining five children were born at Brighton.
		It was during that first decade in North America that James established himself as a successful builder and by 1881 he had built the Old Town Hall at 200 West St Paul Street in Brighton, Michigan for the sum of $2,300. Also that same year he completed the building of St Paul’s Episcopal Church in the same street.
		However, tragedy struck the family during the few months after the birth of their only son when Jane died in 1885. She was buried at the Old Village Cemetery in Brighton. Following her death James left Brighton and moved his family to nearby Detroit in April 1886.
		Sometime later James was joined by his nephew Caleb Knight Collett (Ref. 21Q87) who had travelled to Michigan with his grandmother in early 1885. James was the half brother to Caleb’s father John Vivian Collett, both James and John having the same father William Odgers Collett but with different mothers.
		Upon arrival in the USA Caleb had initially worked in the Calumet and Hecla copper mines in the Michigan Upper Peninsula before eventually being employed by his uncle James as a carpenter.
		For the next nine years he continued with his building work, whilst tending to the needs of his six children until, on 18.08.1895, he married (2) Susan Parshall Abraham.
		By the turn of the century James had returned to Brighton and in August 1904 it was reported in the local newspaper that James Collett and a force of carpenters were building a house for a Mister Purdy. It was also around this time that he was working on the construction of an elementary school to the north of Union School on Rickett Road in Brighton. This opene