PART TWENTY-TWO

 

The Somerset & Wiltshire Line

 

Updated September 2011

 

 

 

 

This is the family line of Barry Collett (Ref. 22R1) of Reading, and Phillip Bain (Ref. 22R4) of Australia, to whom thanks must go for contributing details of this family line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first record of this line is the marriage between Thomas Collett and Mary Skrine in 1608 at Bathford near Bath.  There was also a Thomas Collett who was the churchwarden at Bathford in 1676.

 

 

 

 

 

The earlier dates shown below are only estimates, in the absence of any better information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22F1

THOMAS COLLETT

 

 

 

22G1

THOMAS COLLETT

May have been born circa 1580-1590

 

 

 

 

22G1

THOMAS COLLETT is known to have married Mary Skrine at Bathford in 1608.  It is also believed that he was the Thomas Collett who was the churchwarden at Bathford in 1676.

 

 

 

Mary Skrine’s family lived in Warleigh Mansion, a manor house in Bathford.  They were the local non-conformist gentry, and remained living in that area until the last of the male line was killed in France during the Great War of 1914-1918.

 

 

 

22H1

WILLIAM COLLETT

May have been born circa 1620-1630

 

 

 

 

22H1

WILLIAM COLLETT married Mary Pearce at the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul in Bath in 1656. 

 

 

 

22I1

THOMAS COLLETT

May have been born circa 1656-1660

 

 

 

 

22I1

THOMAS COLLETT married Elizabeth and died in 1741 at Box, midway between Bath and Chippenham in Wiltshire.

 

 

 

22J1

Anthony Collett

May have been born circa 1680-1690

 

22J2

SIMON COLLETT

Born circa 1680

 

 

 

 

22J1

Anthony Collett was married to Elizabeth and the majority of their thirteen children died at an early age, perhaps due to plague or serious illness. 

 

 

 

Anthony, who died at Bathford on 20.04.1731, and his wife, both passed away in their middle-ages around the same time as the four eldest children of Anthony’s nephew Thomas Collett, his brother Simon’s eldest son, (below) who also died at St James in Bath between 1734 and 1741.

 

 

 

Anthony’s wife Elizabeth died on 29.10.1738 and her Will was proved on 09.06.1740.  In that document she was referred to as ‘Elizabeth Collett widow of Bathford’. 

 

 

 

However, there was an earlier Will that was proved closer to the date of her death, and in that Will, proved on 14.06.1739, she was described the deceased as ‘Elizabeth Collett widow of Bath’.

 

 

 

22K1

Anthony Collett

Born on 01.02.1705; died 12.02.1705

 

22K2

Anthony Collett

Born in 1707; died on 19.09.1734

 

22K3

Walter Collett

Born on 04.12.1709; died 28.07.1727

 

22K4

Peter Collett

Born on 02.12.1712; died in May 1713

 

22K5

Peter Collett

Born on 22.05.1714

 

22K6

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 20.12.1715; died in Jan 1716

 

22K7

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 28.12.1716; died in Jan 1717

 

22K8

Betty Collett

Born on 17.03.1718; died in May 1719

 

22K9

Mary Collett

Born on 22.01.1720; died in Aug 1721

 

22K10

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 07.04.1721; died 22.03.1739

 

22K11

Catherine Collett

Born on 17.06.1722

 

22K12

Sarah Collett

Born on 15.12.1723

 

22K13

Ann Collett

Born on 02.07.1728; died 22.03.1729

 

 

 

 

22J2

SIMON COLLETT was born in 1680 and he was known to be a Quaker.  It was in 1704 that he married Sarah with whom he had four known children.  It is believed that it was Simon Collett who established the Southgate Wine Vaults in Bath around 1717, which was eventually managed by his son Thomas, and which became Collett & Falkner under Simon’s grandson Thomas Collett around 1783, and then his great grandson Thomas Collett in 1832.

 

 

 

The names of Simon’s and Sarah’s two sons Thomas (1705-1763) and Simon (1713-1789) appear on the Shire Voting Rolls for Bristol in 1729, where they were described as apprentice brewers and bakers.  Their names also appeared in the attendance list of the Society of Friends, and again as witnesses at Quaker marriages conducted during that time.

 

 

 

In addition, the details of their son’s marriages and their deaths were recorded in Quaker records along with the names of their immediate relatives.  Most of the Collett family, including Thomas and Simons were buried by the Society of Friends in the Quaker graveyard at Somerset.

 

 

 

Simon Collett, the elder, died at Box on 10.06.1745 and was buried at St Michael’s in Bath.  His wife Sarah Collett died on 08.05.1742 in the parish of Lyncombe-with-Widcombe in Bath.

 

 

 

22K14

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1705

 

22K15

Anthony Collett

Born on 20.02.1707

 

22K16

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 18.10.1709; died 27.10.1728

 

22K17

Simon Collett

Born in 1713

 

 

 

 

22K14

THOMAS COLLETT was born at Bath in 1705, the eldest son of Simon and Sarah Collett.  Thomas served an apprenticeship as a brewer and a baker in Bristol with his brother Simon (below), and both of them were recorded in the 1729 Shire Voting Rolls, as well as being listed in the Society of Friends, and as witnesses at numerous Quaker weddings.

 

 

 

It was around 1730 that Thomas is understood to have married (1) Hannah Collett.  However, she tragically died on 27.11.1740 after having given Thomas four children, of which three died prior to Hannah’s death and the fourth died during the following year.  A recent discovery suggests that Thomas may have married Esther Coole, rather than Hannah Collett, and that the wedding took place at the Abbey of St Peter & St Paul in Bath on 05.12.1732, where William Collett of this family married Mary Pearce in 1656.

 

 

 

This may indicate some form of plague or illness had beset the family at that time.  Hannah was buried at St James in Bath, where all four of her children were born and died.

 

 

 

Thirteen months later Thomas married (2) Sarah Rose at Devizes on 27.12.1741 in accordance with the rite of the Society of Friends, the Quakers.  Sarah was born on 06.10.1710 at Devizes in Wiltshire.  The couple’s eldest son Simon was born at St James in Bath, while their second son was born at Slaughterford in Wiltshire.

 

 

 

This branch of the Collett family onwards became quite prominent as Quakers in Somerset and Wiltshire for many decades to come, and worked as bakers, brewers, clothiers, and later as bankers and lawyers.  Upon the death of his father in 1745, Thomas inherited the wine business founded in 1717 by his father, which in turn was passed onto his son Thomas at the time of his death.

 

 

 

Thomas Collett died at Bath on 31.01.1763 and his Will was proved on 09.05.1763.  In that document he was referred to as ‘Thomas Collett distiller of Bath’.  Following the death of her husband, it was his widow, Mrs Sarah Collett, who was recorded in the Bath City Rate Books as the payer of the rates on the business property at 11 Horse Street in Bath.  According to the records, she was the payee from 1769 until the first decade of the new century, which would mean that she must have been around one hundred years old when she died.

 

 

 

Their business success brought wealth to the family who lived on the family estate at Ridgeside (below left) and Jaggards House (below right) at Corsham in Wiltshire, and at Bathford in the City of Bath.  Members of this family later took their businesses to Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester and London.

 

 

 

 

 

A certain Captain J Collett of Bristol, who served with the Prince of Wales Regiment in the American Wars, returned to the city in 1781 to marry Miss Dubois.  His return to England would have coincided with the British surrender to George Washington on 18th October that year.  However, to date, no link has been found connecting Captain Collett to this family line.

 

 

 

Jaggards House had important connections with the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War.

 

 

 

22L1

Joseph Collett

Born on 26.12.1733; died 17.08.1734

 

22L2

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 16.08.1736; died 25.02.1737

 

22L3

Thomas Collett

Born on 25.10.1737; died 23.11.1737

 

22L4

Mary Collett

Born on 16.09.1739; died 04.07.1741

 

The following are the children of Thomas Collett and his second wife Sarah Rose:

 

22L5

Simon Collett

Born on 25.07.1742

 

22L6

THOMAS COLLETT

Born on 09.03.1745

 

 

 

 

22K17

Simon Collett was born at Bath in 1713, the youngest known child of Simon and Sarah Collett.  In 1729 Simon, together with his older brother Thomas (above) were listed in the Shire Voting Rolls for Bristol, where the two brothers were described as apprentice brewers and bakers.  Their names also appeared in the attendance list of the Society of Friends, and again as witnesses at Quaker marriages conducted during that time.

 

 

 

Eight years later Simon married Jane Bristow on 07.11.1737 at Slaughterford in Wiltshire, but was married for less than ten years, when Jane died on 18.04.1757 at St James in Bath. 

 

 

 

Simon Collett died at Bath on 28.03.1789 and his Will was proved on 17.06.1789.  In that document he was referred to as ‘Simon Collett baker of Bath’.

 

 

 

The death notice published in the Bath Chronicle on 2nd April 1789 for Simon Collett read "Mr Simon Collett in St James' Street, Bath, in his 76th year on Saturday".  In addition to this, two years earlier there was an advertisement in the Bath Chronicle, dated 8th February 1787 which read "Property to let from Midsummer - baker's shop opposite Three Tuns Inn, Stall Street, Bath occupied by Mr Simon Collett for many years, now in possession of Messrs Salmon.  Enquiries Mr Masters, 21 Orchard Street, Bath".

 

 

 

It is highly likely that all of the children of Simon and Jane were born at Bath, although it is only known for sure that the couple’s first two children, and their last one, were born there, and that their second child also died there shortly after he was born.

 

 

 

The reference to Stall Street in Bath may be of interest, since it was there a few years earlier that John Collett, a shoe-maker, also lived arrived.  He was listed as one of the ten witnesses for the prosecution at Somerset Wells Assizes during the trial of John Butler who was accused of taking part in the Gordon Riot of 1870.  Lord George Gordon became the President of the Protestant Association in 1780 to force the repeal of the legislation contained within the Papists Act of 1778.  An articulate, albeit eccentric propagandist, Gordon inflamed the mob with fears of papism and a return to absolute monarchical rule. He intimated that Catholics in the military would, given a chance, join forces with their co-religionists on the Continent and attack Britain, this at the height of the American War of Independence when Britain was fighting the American rebels, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic.

 

 

 

Who shoe-maker John Collett of Stall Street, Bath was has yet to be determined, since they is no one by that name or with that occupation in this family line.  However, Stall Street was also the address for Collett & Falkner (Wine & Spirit Co) in 1784 – see below.

 

 

 

22L7

Sarah Collett

Born on 12.09.1739

 

22L8

Jane Collett

Born on 25.11.1740; died 09.12.1740

 

22L9

Ann Collett

Born on 17.03.1742

 

22L10

Isaac Collett

Born on 21.01.1744

 

22L11

Jane Collett

Born on 12.01.1746; died 18.10.1749

 

22L12

Hannah Collett

Born on 24.09.1746; died 10.06.1748

 

 

 

 

22L6

THOMAS COLLETT was born at Slaughterford in Wiltshire on 09.03.1745.  He married Mary Jones on 17.11.1771.  Mary was born at Trowbridge in Wiltshire on 19.03.1755, following which her son was born at Lyncombe-with-Widcombe in Bath. 

 

Thomas Collett was a wine merchant, a banker and a brewer and was a significant figure in Bath around 1783, when he was listed as one of the principals of the Tufnell and Falkner Bank.  It is interesting to note that Thomas’ cousin Isaac Collett (below) and four other Bath businessmen established a bank in Bath in 1775.

 

It is also understood that it was Thomas, rather than his cousin Isaac, in partnership with Francis Falkner, who set up the wine and spirits company of Collett & Falkner.  This initially operated from premises from premises in St James Street in the centre of Bath, although another record gave the address as Stall Street.

 

 

 

By 1791 the company was operating from Horse Street in Bath, and was referred to as Collett & Faulkner, Brandy, Rum and Wine Merchants.  In 1805 the wine was presented in sealed earthenware pot (bottles), and they also carried the name Collett & Falkner, and the address of Horse Street, Bath. 

 

 

 

It was at 11 Horse Street that Collett & Falkner was based right up to 1809, but the records in Bath indicated that it was at 9 Horse Street that the company was based from 1819 to 1824.  Horse Street was later renamed Southgate Street, and it was at 9 Southgate Street that the business was located from 1826 until 1883.  The company then ceased to be Collett & Falkner following the death of Thomas Collett and his son Thomas, who briefly managed the business after the death of his father.  In addition to this, Thomas Collett (senior) also ran a clothier business, as had his father before him. 

 

 

 

Thomas’ wife Mary died at Jaggards House in Corsham on 06.09.1813, while Thomas died almost twenty years later on 28.03.1832 at Ridgeside in Corsham.  Mary was buried at Bathford Friends Cemetery in Bath.

 

 

 

On his death in 1832 the local newspaper, the Bath Chronicle, carried a substantial obituary to Thomas Collett (senior) that praised him for his decency, honesty and his importance to the people of Bath.  Although he son Thomas was very likely involved in the wine partnership, it was on the death of his father that Thomas Collett junior took over the sole interest for the family in the wine company.  However, Thomas’ son only managed to carry on for twenty-one months before he died at the end of the following year, at which time he too was honoured with an equally impressive obituary – see under his separate entry below.

 

 

 

22M1

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1779

 

22M2

Mary Ann Collett

Born circa 1790

 

 

 

 

22L9

Ann Collett was born on 17.03.1742 and probably at Bath.  However, she died at family home at Ridgeside in Corsham on 12.03.1833.

 

 

 

 

22L10

Isaac Collett was born at Bath on 21.01.1744, the only known son of Bath baker Simon Collett and his wife Jane Bristow. 

 

 

 

It was Isaac Collett who, with four other businessmen, established a private bank in Bath in 1775 which was a past constituent of today’s Royal Bank of Scotland.  The bank originally operated under the name Atwood, Abrahams, Collett, Salmon & Harris.

 

 

 

These gentlemen were all prominent figures in Bath at that time, and they were Dr Atwood who was a surgeon, William Abrahams who was a clothier, Isaac Collett who was a wine merchant, John Salmon who was an insurance agent, and William Harris who was an ironmonger.

 

 

 

Approximately three years after founding the bank, Isaac Collett married Mary around 1778, and very likely at Bath.  It was certainly in the St James district of Bath that the couple settled and where their known children were born. 

 

 

 

Two years later the following article appeared in the Bath Chronicle of 9th November 1780.  “Publications: "Works of late Thos. Wilson, Bishop of Sodor & Man" - new subscribers since last publication inc. Mr Isaac Collett, wine merchant; Mr Francis Falkner, wine merchant; Mr Joseph Albin, cabinet maker; & Mr John Harris, shoemaker, all of Bath.”

 

 

 

It is curious that it was Isaac Collett the wine merchant, rather than Thomas Collett the wine merchant, who paid rates on 11 Horse Street in Bath, according to the Bath City Rate Books.  The records indicate that this was the case from 1769 to 1811, when also listed as rate payers for the same address was Mrs Sarah Collett (the widow of Thomas Collett Ref. 22K14), Francis Falkner, together with the company of Collett & Falkner.  This raises the question, as to whether Isaac was involved in the wine and spirit company with his cousin Thomas Collett, the son of Mrs Sarah Collett and the partner of Francis Falkner.

 

 

 

In 1783 an alternative bank was set up in Bath, this being the Tufnell & Falkner Bank, for which Isaac’s cousin Thomas Collett (above) was named as a principal.  Whether by merger, or as a separate organisation, in 1810 the bank originally set up by Isaac Collett and his partners became the Tufnell, Stroud, Collett, Payne & Hope Bank, while two years later it was the Tufnell, Falkner & Falkner Bank.  A little while after that it was re-named again when it became the Tufnell, Collett, Payne & Hope Bank, when it was also known as the ‘Bladud Bank’, a reference to the building in Bath in which it operated.

 

 

 

Isaac Collett was also mentioned in Bath records for 1787 when he was one of ten men listed on 11th October that year as holding an agricultural game certificate.

 

 

 

In 1825 the firm of Tufnell, Collett, Payne & Hope was dissolved and was re-styled as Tufnell, Collett & Co, separating it from the Payne & Hope Wells Bank (est. 1800, failed 1831) and previously run by the same partners.  The bank of Tufnell, Collett & Co opened a branch in Chippenham in 1830 and was subsequently known as Tufnell, Falkner & Co, probably following the death of Isaac Collett.  The partners of this company were Richard Falkner and Francis Henry Falkner.

 

 

 

Isaac’s wife Mary, who was born in 1743, died on 03.03.1830 and was buried at Bathford in Bath.  Her Will was proved on 06.09.1830 in which she was referred to as ‘Mary Collett widow of Corsham’, indicating that her husband had died sometime after 1825 and before 1830.

 

 

 

22M3

Sarah Collett

Born circa 1779/80

 

22M4

Isaac Collett

Born on 16.02.1781

 

22M5

Mary Collett

Born on 17.07.1789

 

 

 

 

22M1

THOMAS COLLETT was born in the parish of Lyncome-with-Widcombe at Bath in 1779, the only son of Thomas Collett and Mary Jones. 

 

He married (1) Ann Fisher on 19.08.1806 at Bathwick Church in Bath.  Ann was born at Wedmore south of Cheddar in Somerset in 1789 and her well-to-do Bathford family had connections with the Skrine family.  Ann died on 28.01.1825 at Corsham.

 

For the next seven years Thomas lived the life of a widower and then on 04.08.1832 he married (2) Ann Pheunicia Stump who was born in 1786.  However, the marriage was short lived, when Thomas died sixteen months later on 10.12.1833 at Worcester.

 

Three years after the death of her husband, Ann Pheunicia sailed to Tasmania with stepson Arthur Thomas Collett and his new wife. 

 

 

 

It is interesting to note that Joseph and Ann Stump were the witnesses at the marriage of Martha Collett (Ref. 35L23) and John Stump at Kington St Michael on 23.09.1811.  They were possibly the parents of John Stump, and it may have also been this Ann Stump who later became the second wife of Thomas Collett.  Kington St Michael is less than five miles north of Corsham.

 

 

 

The group arrived at Van Dieman’s Land in early 1837 and Pheunicia spent the remainder of her life living with the family.  She returned to England with her stepson Arthur and his wife and their children in 1855/56, and initially settled in London, then Buckinghamshire, before moving to Ilfracombe in North Devon, where they were living at the time of the census in 1861.  However, two years later, in April 1863, the widow of Arthur Collett returned to Tasmania with her eight surviving children, to be reunited with the other members of the Collett family who had remained there in 1855/56.

 

 

 

The Ilfracombe census in 1861 described 76 years old Ann (Pheunicia) Collett as a fund holder and the stepmother of head of the household Arthur Collett, while her place of birth was recorded as Tasmania, Australia.  Following the death of her stepson, and the departure of his family back to Tasmania, it was only a few weeks after their leaving that Ann Pheunicia Collett died on 01.05.1863 at East Budleigh just north of Budleigh Salterton in Devon.

 

 

 

Both of the children of Thomas Collett and his first wife Ann Fisher were born while the couple was living at Lyncombe-with-Widcombe.  Upon the death of his father in March 1832, it is understood from newspaper advertisements in the Bath & Cheltenham Gazette and the Bath Journal at that time that Thomas took over his father’s interest in the wine merchants set up by his father in the company of Collett & Falkner of Bath.

 

 

 

This assumption has been made because both articles were published during the first week of in January 1834, and referred to the recent passing of Thomas Collett, which had happened just tthree weeks earlier, whereas Thomas’ father had died around twenty-two months prior to publication.

 

 

 

Thomas’ obituary in the 19th December 1833 edition of the Bath Chronicle read as follows: “Dec 10 at Worcester, after a protracted illness, aged 54, Thomas Collett Esq, of this city, banker, and of Ridgeside in Wiltshire.  As few individuals were more highly respected or deservedly beloved, so there are few whose death will be more deeply regretted or sincerely lamented; amenity of temper, kindness of heart, and steadfastness in friendship, richly embalm his memory with those who knew and appreciated his worth”

 

 

 

The very similar advertisements in the local Bath papers on 6th and 7th January 1834 read as follows:

Southgate Wine Vaults Bath

Established A.D. 1717

The Nobility, Gentry, and Public, are respectfully informed that, in consequence of the death of Mr Collett, one of the proprietors of the above Concern, is deprived of a name that has been associated with it for nearly One Hundred and Twenty Years, and that the Business will in future be conducted under the firm of Falkner and Son, who being possessed of the whole of the very choice and valuable stock of wines and spirits hope, by their united exertions, to secure a continuance of that liberal support hitherto experienced, and for which the surviving Partner, Mr Falkner begs to return his most grateful thanks.

 

 

 

22N1

Mary Ann Collett

Born on 15.11.1807

 

22N2

ARTHUR THOMAS COLLETT

Born on 25.06.1809

 

 

 

 

22M2

Mary Ann Collett was born in Wiltshire around 1790.  She married (1) Doctor Onesphorus Windle Bartley on 20.12.1809 at Corsham.  He was born on 07.07.1778 at Bristol and he died on 18.08.1818 at Bathford and was buried there at the Quaker Burial Ground.

 

 

 

The short marriage produced two children for Mary Ann, the first born at Nailsworth south of Gloucester, where she died the following year, the second also at Nailsworth, and the third at Bristol.

 

 

 

Mary Ann then married (2) Jean Baptiste Lequeyer on 16.01.1822.  It seems more than likely that she met and married Jean while on the island of Jersey since it was there that she died on 13.01.1880.

 

 

 

22N3

Mary Bartley

Born on 17.08.1811; died in 1812

 

22N4

Mary Bartley

Born in 1813

 

22N5

Onesiphorus Bartley

Born on 04.04.1815

 

 

 

 

22M5

Mary Collett was born at St James in Bath on 17.07.1789 and, like her cousin Mary Ann Collett, she too married into the Bartley family.

 

 

 

 

22N1

Mary Ann Collett was born at Lyncombe-with Widcombe on 15.11.1807.  She died at Nailsworth on 27.03.1811 aged three and a quarter years.

 

 

 

 

22N2

ARTHUR THOMAS COLLETT was born at Lyncombe-with-Widcombe on 25.06.1809.  He attended Wadham College in Oxford where he matriculated on 14th January 1826 aged 16.  In an Oxford report Arthur’s father was referred to as ‘Thomas Collett of Widcombe in Somerset, bart’ and this indicated that he was entitled to use a heraldic coat of arms.

 

 

 

A little while later he left Oxford and is believed to have attended Edinburgh University to complete a Law Degree.  It is interesting to note that Oxford was an Anglican stronghold and that Edinburgh was a refuge for non-Anglican students, and this may have been the reason for his move to Scotland.

 

 

 

Arthur Thomas Collett married (1) Sarah Lowe on 06.09.1836 at John Wesley’s Church of St Bartolphs Without at Aldergate, which lies behind St Paul’s Cathedral in London.  Arthur appears to be the first in the family line to switch to the Wesleyan Church from being a Quaker. 

 

 

 

Arthur’s first wife Sarah was born at Winslow in Cheshire on 13.03.1808.  Shortly after the marriage in 1836, the couple sailed to Tasmania on the ship the Royal George, and it was there that Arthur took up the position as magistrate and coroner.  It was virtually on his arrival Tasmania in 1837 that he was made a Justice of the Peace, and that same year saw the birth of the first child for Arthur and Sarah.

 

 

 

The couple initially made their home in Launceston, where their first three children were born, and later settled in nearby Evandale.  And it was at Evandale that Arthur offered a home to his stepmother Ann Pheunicia Collett nee Stump, who stayed with the family until her death.  Ann came from a wool producing (broking and weaving) family in Corsham, Wiltshire, and must have held a special place in Arthur’s life, as his first daughter was named in her honour.

 

 

 

However, tragedy struck the family just eleven days, after the birth of the couple’s fourth child at Evandale, when Sarah died at Launceston on 29.06.1842.  A few years later Arthur married (2) Sophia Sarah Jones Huxtable on 27.06.1845 at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Evandale.  That second marriage produced a total of eleven children, seven of whom were born in Tasmania.

 

 

 

It was while the couple were stilling living at Evandale that their first two children were born.  There seems to have been a move to Morven soon after, since it was there that the couple’s next three children were born.  It would also appear that the family later returned to Evandale, where their last two Tasmanian offspring were born.

 

 

 

See Ref. 22Q10 for another Australian marriage between the Collett and Huxtable families.

 

 

 

Sophia was the daughter of Hackney surgeon Doctor William Huxtable and was born at Redcliffe hill in Bristol on 06.07.1818.  Around 1850 Dr Huxtable worked closely with Dr Joseph Lister who was credited with the introduction of antiseptic in surgical procedures to reduce infection. 

 

 

 

Arthur became a significant landowner and political figure in the young colony and was even an advocate for changing the name from Van Dieman’s Land to Tasmania.  He purchased an 880-acre sheep farm in central Tasmania that he christened ‘Ridgeside’ after the Collett family home at Corsham in England and leased a further 6,000 acres for rearing sheep.

 

 

 

In 1840 he sought election to the Legislative Assembly, an advisory body made up of the Colony’s leading citizens that was a precursor to a fully elected legislature. He ran on a platform of promoting Tasmanian meat and other foodstuffs in preference to imported products.  By 1846 Arthur had opened a butcher’s shop in Charles Street in Launceston with his nephew Theodore Bartley, under the name ‘Van Dieman’s Land Meat Company’ which traded for more than eleven years.

 

 

 

It was around ten years later that the Arthur and Sophia sailed to England, leaving Theodore Bartley to manage the butcher’s shop.  Once back in England the family lived for a while at Islington in London, where Sophia gave birth to their son Robert.  Shortly after the birth, the family took up residence at Parmoor House in Frieth, within the Buckinghamshire parish of Hambleden, near High Wycombe, where the couple’s last two children were born.

 

 

 

It is believed that the decision to return to England was prompted by a fall-out with the Anglican Bishop of Launceston and other figures of the Colonial establishment in Tasmania.  Prior to his return to England, Arthur sold the bulk of his land holding to his other nephew William Bartley.

 

 

 

The 12th Century Parmoor House is noted in history as originally belonging to the Knights Templar, as the birth place of Sir Stafford Cripps the post-war Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the place of safety for King Zog of Albania during World War Two.

 

 

 

During the months following the birth of their last child at Parmoor House, Arthur and Sophia, together with Arthur’s widowed stepmother Ann Pheunicia Collett, left Buckinghamshire and in 1861 they were recorded living at Adelaide Terrace in Ilfracombe, North Devon. 

 

 

 

On that occasion the family was recorded as Arthur Collett, age 51, a retired magistrate who was born at Bath, his wife Sophia, age 42 and from Bristol, and their two daughters Emily Collett who was seven, and Mary Ann Collett who was five, both from Tasmania, and their three sons Robert Collett who was four and from Islington, and George Collett who was three and his place of birth was confirmed as Parmoor House, Bucks.  It is unclear where Arthur’s youngest son, Alfred, was at that time.

 

 

 

Still living with the family was Arthur’s stepmother, the widow Ann Collett, age 76, who was listed as being a fund holder, while her place of birth was given as Tasmania.  If that was true, then it was perhaps through her influence that the Collett family had emigrated to that island in 1837.

 

 

 

Also at that same time, in March 1861, Arthur’s and Sophia’s three eldest surviving children were attending a boarding school in Wiltshire.  The census that month listed the three brothers as Paul Collett, age 14, Thomas Collett, age 13, and Theodore B Collett, who was 11.  The census return for the boarding school at Pickwick Road in Corsham also confirmed all three boys had been born at Evandale in Tasmania, even though Theodore is understood to have been born at Morven.

 

 

 

Sometime later that same year Arthur and his family moved to Somerset where, on 10.10.1861, Arthur Thomas Collett was tragically killed when he fell from his horse.  The incident, which was reported in an obituary in The Times, happened at Hele Hill in Wellington in Somerset, when it was thought that he had a stroke which caused him to fall from his horse onto the Bath Road.  He never recovered from the injuries that he sustained, and was buried at Widcombe, to the south of the Kennet & Avon Canal in his home town of Bath.

 

 

 

At the time of his death Arthur was working at law in Taunton.  During his life he was sometimes referred to as Arthur Collett of Corsham.

 

 

 

Upon settlement of his estate in early 1863, the bulk of which amounted to £6,000 and was inherited by his eldest son William Pountney Collett, his wife Sophia returned south to the southern hemisphere to rejoin her own Huxtable family, with the ultimately intention of living on the remnants of her husband’s land holding.

 

 

 

For the return journey to Australia on board the ship ‘The Anglesey’, Sophia was accompanied by her eight children: Paul Collett who was 16, Thomas Collett who was 15, Theodore Collett who was 12, Emily Collett who was nine, Margaret Collett who was seven, Robert Collett who was six, George who was five, and Alfred Collett who was three years old.

 

 

 

The Anglesey arrived at Port Fairy in Victoria during April 1863, and Sophia first lived near Warnambool in Victoria, and then followed her son Thomas to where he had taken up land at Healesville and Lilydale.  A few years later she and the younger children settled just across the water at Evandale near Launceston in Tasmania, before finally taking over Arthur’s remaining land holdings at Oatlands on the north side of Lake Dulverton, just north of Hobart.

 

 

 

During the 1840s Sophia had been a school teacher and had taught at the Ellenthorpe School for Girls in Launceston.  And it was her dire financial situation that forced her back in to teaching later in her life, after the death of her husband and her return to Tasmania.

 

 

 

Sadly, Sophia was almost penniless at the time of her death on 06.05.1877 and during the preceding couple of years she had worked at a store in Oatlands.  She was eventually laid to rest at the Methodist and Presbyterian Cemetery in Oatlands.

 

 

 

22O1

Arthur Thomas Collett

Born on 29.10.1837

 

22O2

Ann Pheunicia Collett

Born on 31.10.1838

 

22O3

William Pountney Collett

Born on 07.07.1840

 

22O4

Frederick Collett

Born on 18.06.1842

 

The following are the children of Arthur Collett and his second wife Sophia Huxtable:

 

22O5

Paul Collett

Born circa 1845

 

22O6

Thomas Collett

Born in 1846

 

22O7

Ann Collett

Born in 1848

 

22O8

Theodore Bartley Collett

Born on 04.06.1849

 

22O9

Ann Collett

Born on 02.05.1850

 

22O10

Edward Collett

Born on 02.02.1852

 

22O11

Emily Collett

Born on 24.05.1854

 

22O12

Margaret Ann Collett

Born in 1855

 

22O13

ROBERT COLLETT

Born in November 1856

 

22O14

George Edward Collett

Born in 1858

 

22O15

Alfred Collett

Born in 1860

 

 

 

 

22N4

Onesiphorus Bartley was born at Bristol on 04.04.1815.  At sometime during the following thirty years he sailed to Canada where, on 01.09.1844, he married Sarah Carroll at St Paul’s Woodstock in Ontario.  After only eight years of being married Sarah died in 1852 at Paris in Ontario but not before presenting her husband with two children.

 

 

 

22O16

Edwin Carroll Bartley

Born in 1849

 

22O17

Eugenia Bartley mar Thomas Sparks

Born after 1845 and before 1852

 

 

 

 

22O1

Arthur Thomas Collett was born at Launceston in Tasmania on 29.10.1837, the eldest child of Arthur Thomas Collett and Sarah Lowe.

 

 

 

 

22O2

Ann Pheunicia Collett was born at Launceston on 31.10.1838 and died there less than a year later on 28.07.1839.  She was the eldest daughter of Arthur and Sarah Collett, and was named after her grandmother, her father’s stepmother.

 

 

 

 

22O3

William Pountney Collett was born Launceston on 07.07.1840, the son of Arthur and Sarah Collett.

 

 

 

 

22O4

Frederick Collett was born at Evandale, near Launceston on 18.06.1842 and tragically, just eleven days after he was born, his mother Sarah Collett died.

 

 

 

 

22O5

Paul Collett was born at Evandale in Tasmania around 1845, the first child of Arthur Thomas Collett by his second wife Sophia Huxtable.  Not much is known about Paul, except that he and his parents sailed to England around 1856, and upon arrival he and his two younger brothers Thomas and Theodore (below) were educated at Pickwick Road Boarding School in Corsham, where he was recorded as a pupil at 14 in the census of 1861.  Between the years 1856 and 1861 the remainder of his family lived in London initially, before residing at Parmoor House near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, and by March 1861 his parents were living in Ilfracombe, North Devon.

 

 

 

Paul was still living in England when his father died later that same year, following which he and the rest of the family accompanied their widowed mother for her return voyage back to Australia in 1863.  Paul was listed as being 16 years of age on the passenger list of the ship ‘The Anglesey’, but what happened to him after that time is not known at this time.

 

 

22O6

Thomas Collett was born at Evandale in 1846, the second son of Arthur Thomas Collett and his second wife Sophia Huxtable.  Like his brothers Paul (above) and Theodore (below), Thomas also attended Pickwick Road Boarding School in Corsham, where he was recorded as 13 and born at Evandale in the census in 1861.  With the death of his father in the second half of 1861, Thomas returned to Australia with his mother and the rest of the family in 1863, when he was included on the passenger list of ‘The Anglesey’ as being 15.

 

Thomas Collett later married (1) Gertrude Baulich, and after that he then married (2) Adeline Bonner at Ulverstone in Tasmania on 03.10.1888.  His daughter Lily came from the first marriage.

 

 

 

Thomas Collett was living at Longford in Tasmania when he died.

 

 

 

22P1

Lily Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

22O7

Ann Collett may have been born at Morven in 1848, the daughter of Arthur and Sophia Collett.  Sadly it was there also that she died shortly after on 22.10.1848.

 

 

 

 

22O8

Theodore Bartley Collett was born at Morven on 04.06.1849, the son of Arthur and Sophia Collett.  He was only around seven years old when he and his parents travelled to England on business.  While they were in England, Theodore and his two older brothers were sent to Pickwick Road Boarding School in Corsham where, in 1861, he was recorded as being 11 years of age and born at Evandale.  However, shortly thereafter, and following the death of his father later that same year, Theodore and the rest of the family made the return journey back to Australia.  Theodore’s age on the passenger list of ‘The Anglesey’ was 12.

 

 

 

Theodore later married eighteen years old Annie Saltmarsh on 10.04.1878 at Longford in Tasmania, when his age was recorded as being 28.  Annie was born at Longford in 1860, and the marriage produced four daughters and a son.  Both of the older girls were born at Port Sorell in Tasmania, while the other three children were born at Hobart. 

 

 

 

Theodore died at Mersey in Tasmania on 07.07.1899.

 

 

 

22P2

Mary Collett

Born in 1881

 

22P3

Maude Mersey Collett

Born on 03.09.1883

 

22P4

Arthur Collett

Born on 06.11.1885

 

22P5

Mabel Collett

Born on 30.07.1887

 

22P6

Florence Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

22O9

Ann Collett was born at Morven on 02.07.1850 where she died the following year on 24.03.1851.

 

 

 

 

22O10

Edward Collett was born at Morven on 02.05.1852 and died just over two years later at Evandale on 09.03.1854.  It was two years after his death that his parents Arthur and Sophia Collett returned to England in the early half of 1856.

 

 

 

 

22O11

Emily Collett was born at Evandale on 24.05.1854.  She may have been less than two years old when she made the long sea journey from Tasmania to England with her parents in late 1855 or early 1856.  Once in England the family spent a short time initially at Islington in London, before living for a few years at Parmoor House in Frieth near High Wycombe.

 

 

 

According to the census in 1861 Emily Collett, age seven and from Tasmania, was living with her parents at Adelaide Terrace in Ilfracombe.  Later that same year her father was killed in a riding accident, and once his estate was settled, Emily and her mother and the rest of the family sailed back to Australia on board the ship The Anglesey.

 

 

 

Emily Collett was 23 at the time of her marriage to Charles Smith at Morven on 30.01.1878, while he was exactly twice her age, he being 46 years old.  The married produced a daughter and two sons.  Their daughter Una Smith later married to became Mrs Una Thorpe, while Emily’s two sons were Thomas, and Charles who was born at Horton on 13.12.1881.

 

 

 

 

22O12

Margaret Ann Collett was born at Evandale in 1855, the second daughter of Arthur Collett and his second wife Sophia Sarah Jane Huxtable.  Not long after she was born her parents sailed back to England, where the family settled in Islington first, then Frieth in Buckinghamshire, followed by Ilfracombe in North Devon.

 

 

 

It was at the latter that ‘Mary Ann Collett’, age five years and from Tasmania, was living with her parents at the time of the census in 1861.  Also living with the family at Adelaide Terrace in Ilfracombe was Margaret’s elderly grandmother Ann Collett, also from Tasmania.  Tragically six months later her father died while in Somerset, following which her mother Sophia returned to Tasmania on board ‘The Anglesey’ in April 1863 to be reunited with the other members of her wider family.

 

 

 

It is perhaps curious that in the 1861 Census, and the first ship’s passenger list, that Margaret Ann Collett was referred to as Mary Ann Collett, whilst on the passenger list for ‘The Anglesey’ in 1863 she was correctly named as Margaret Ann Collett.  It was later in her life that Margaret Ann Collett married to become Margaret Ann Conolace.

 

 

 

 

22O13

ROBERT COLLETT was previous thought to have been born at Parmoor House in Frieth in Buckinghamshire during November 1856.  However, within the census of 1861, when he and his parents were living at Adelaide Terrace in Ilfracombe, Robert Collett, who was four years old, was recorded as having been born at Islington in London, the son of retired magistrate Arthur Collett and his wife Sophia, who had only just arrived in England from Tasmania a little earlier in 1856.

 

 

 

Just six months after the spring census in 1861, Robert’s family was living in Somerset when his father died as a result of falling, or being thrown, from his horse.  It took over a year to settle his estate, at which time Robert’s widowed mother travelled back to Australia on the ship ‘The Anglesey’ with her children, which arrived there in April 1863.

 

 

 

Robert received a good education from his mother and remained a staunch Methodist all his life.  It was at Lilydale in Victoria that Robert married Margaret Ann White on 07.03.1881.  Ann was born in 1857 at Healesville in Victoria, the eldest child of local farmer John Bishop White and Mary Bruce of Healesville. 

 

 

 

Robert initially worked with his older brother Thomas, before becoming a dairy farmer near Warragul in Gippsland.  He and Margaret had twelve children although only nine of them survived and most of these settled around the Gippsland region.  Later in his life Robert became a Sunday school teacher at Ecklin South near Camperdown.

 

 

 

The couple’s two eldest children were born while the family was living at Lilydale, while daughter Emily Harriet was born and died at Calton, son Frederick at Mitcham, with Charles Robert and Alick both born at Mepunga East, all in Victoria.

 

 

 

Margaret died at Warragul in Victoria on 02.05.1930 and was followed nine and a half years later by Robert who died at Prahran in Victoria on 02.12.1939.

 

 

 

22P7

Mary Sophia Collett

Born in 1883

 

22P8

Arthur Clarence Collett

Born in 1884

 

22P9

George Collett

Born in 1885; died in 1885

 

22P10

Emily Harriet Collett

Born in 1886; died in 1886

 

22P11

George Edward Collett

Born in 1887; died in 1887

 

22P12

FREDERICK ALEXANDER COLLETT

Born in 1888

 

22P13

Charles Robert Collett

Born in 1890

 

22P14

Annie Olivia Collett

Born in 1892

 

22P15

Stanley James George Collett

Born on 31.10.1893

 

22P16

Alick Harold David Collett

Born in 1896

 

22P17

Alice Collett

Born in 1898

 

 

 

 

22O14

George Edward Collett was born at Parmoor House in Frieth in Buckinghamshire during 1858 one year after his parents had arrived in England from Tasmania.  It was at Parmoor House that the family lived for a couple of years before they moved to Ilfracombe, where they were living in 1861 at Adelaide Terrace.  The census that year simply recorded him as George Collett age three years from Parmoor House, Bucks.

 

 

 

Later that same year, George and his family were living in Somerset when his father died from injuries her sustained in a riding accident.  Upon settlement of his father’s estate, George accompanied his mother and the rest of his family back to Australia on board the vessel ‘The Anglesey’, which disembarked during April 1863.

 

 

 

George would appear to have been nearly thirty years old when he married Helen Maud Collett towards the latter end of the 1880s.  All of their sons were born when the family was living at Marrickville in New South Wales, whereas the family was living at Richmond towards the turn of the century when their daughter was born.

 

 

 

22P18

Gerald Arthur Collett

Born on 05.06.1889

 

22P19

Edgar George Collett

Born in 1891

 

22P20

Bernard Clifford Collett

Born in 1892

 

22P21

Albert John Collett

Born in 1893

 

22P22

Lucy H Collett

Born in 1898

 

 

 

 

22O15

Alfred Collett was born at Parmoor House in Frieth near High Wycombe in 1860, the last child of magistrate Arthur Thomas Collett and his second wife Sophia Huxtable.  He was only a few months old when his family left Parmoor House and moved down to North Devon, where they were recorded as living in 1861.

 

 

 

The census that year placed the family living at Adelaide Terrace in Ilfracombe although Alfred, who would have been one year old, was curiously not with them, nor has his whereabouts at that time been discovered.  However, he was around eighteen months old where his father died later in 1861, following which he sailed with his widowed mother and the rest of her young family back to Australia on the ship The Anglesey, which arrived at Port Fairy in Victoria during April 1863.  The ship’s passenger list included the name of Alfred Collett who was three years old.

 

 

 

As the youngest child of the family, over the following years, he accompanied his mother as she moved from one place to another, finally ending up in Tasmania, where he died at Longford on 21.09.1873 at the age of just 13 years.

 

 

 

 

22P2

Mary Collett was born at Port Sorell in Tasmania in 1881 and she later married Charles Marshall Foster.  Mary died in 1955.

 

 

 

 

22P3

Maude Mersey Collett was born at Port Sorell on 03.09.1883 and she later married Mr Hughes.

 

 

 

 

22P4

Arthur Collett was born at Hobart in Tasmania on 06.11.1885 and he saw active service during the First World War.  At the time he enlisted he was not married.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Railton in Tasmania (rather than Hobart); he enlisted at Claremont in Tasmania; his service number was 1678; and his mother and next-of-kin was Annie Collett his father having died in 1899.

 

 

 

 

22P5

Mabel Collett was born at Hobart on 30.07.1887 and she later married Mr W Edwards.

 

 

 

 

22P6

Florence Collett, who was born at Hobart but whose date of birth is not known, is known to have married Alf Guillard.

 

 

 

 

22P7

Mary Sophia Collett was born at Lilydale in 1883 and she later married Fred Digney.

 

 

 

 

22P8

Arthur Clarence Collett, who was referred to as Artie, was born in 1884.  He married Margaret (Maggie) Emily Gardner in 1909.  Margaret was born at Woolsthorpe in Victoria on 16.06.1886 and she died in 1979. 

 

 

 

She was the daughter of Andrew Gardner and the sister of Mary-Ann Gardner who married Arthur’s brother Frederick Alexander Collett – see below.  Like her sister, she too was in service at the Quamby and Union Stations immediately prior to being married.

 

 

 

Arthur, who was a trader in horses and livestock, died eleven years before his wife in 1968 at Longwarry in Victoria.  Their daughter was born at Warnambool in Victoria.

 

 

 

22Q1

Emily Isabel Collett

Born on 31.01.1911

 

 

 

 

22P12

FREDERICK ALEXANDER COLLETT was born at Mitcham in Victoria in 1888 and he married Mary-Ann Gardner on 06.10.1909 at St Andrew’s Manse in Colac, Victoria.  Mary-Ann, who was referred to as Mollie, was born at Woolsthorpe near Warnambool on 28.01.1887 and was the daughter of Andrew Gardner a station (farm) manager originally from Glasgow.  Mary-Ann died on 24.07.1966 at Cobram in Victoria where she was buried and where Frederick died on 26.09.1976.

 

 

 

Frederick was employed in a variety of jobs throughout his working life.  He ran a dairy in north-west Melbourne, managed orchards, and raised pigs.  On one occasion he worked for the tramways company in Melbourne and on another occasion he delivered milk around Moonee Ponds and Ascot Vale.  He often told stories about how he knew members of Ned Kelly’s family while working at Benalla.

 

 

 

Prior to marrying Frederick, Mary-Ann was in service at Quamby and Union Stations and this work may have been the reason for her excellent skills with farmhouse cooking and preserving fruits.

 

 

 

At the time of the birth of their first child Frederick and Mary-Ann were living at Warnambool, followed by Cobden where their second child was born, and then at Kyneton for the birth of their third child.  By the time of the birth of the fourth child the family was living at Elmhurst.

 

 

 

Sometime during the next eight years the family moved again, so at the time of the arrival of the fifth child Eunice, the family was living at Whittlesea.  By 1927 they were living in a large two-storey house near the corner of Swanston Street and three doors from the City Baths, where their children learned to swim.

 

 

 

They also lived close to Frederick’s second cousin Florrie White who had married into the Crocksford family, a major draper in Melbourne.  A decade later, and during the Second World War, Frederick was farming in Gippsland at Toora. 

 

 

 

22Q2

Hazel Marjorie Collett

Born on 09.08.1910

 

22Q3

LEONARD ALEXANDER COLLETT

Born on 31.12.1911

 

22Q4

Dorothy Margaret Collett

Born on 12.03.1914

 

22Q5

Cecil Eric Collett

Born on 07.09.1915

 

22Q6

Eunice Isobel Collett

Born on 19.01.1923

 

22Q7

Joyce Coral Collett

Born on 31.03.1930

 

 

 

 

22P13

Charles Robert Collett was born at Mepunga East in Victoria in 1890.  He saw active service during the First World War and on his return from Europe he married Myrtle.  At one time in their life together they lived at Newtown in Victoria.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Melbourne (rather than Mepunga); he enlisted at Broadmeadows in Victoria; his service number was 82; and his father and next-of-kin was Robert Collett.

 

 

 

Sadly their son Robert followed his father’s example and was involved in the armed forces, but tragically lost his life in 1941 as a result of injuries sustained while a driver with the Australian Army Service Corp.  At the time of his death Charles and Myrtle were living at Alice Springs where their son was buried.

 

 

 

22Q8

Robert Hope Bruce Collett

Born on 23.07.1920

 

 

 

 

22P14

Annie Olivia Collett was born in 1892 and she married Dudley Palmer and died in 1982.  There is another school of thought that she never married, but lived in a grand apartment in Cromwell Road in South Yarra.  It is known that she spent some of her time looking after the daughter of her sister Alice Knights nee Collett at their Gippsland dairy farm.

 

 

 

 

22P15

Stanley James George Collett was born on 31.10.1893.  He married Elsie Wilson on 24.09.1919.  Elsie was born on 24.05.1894 and died in 1954 and had a son Alvon from a previous relationship.  Stanley died on 29.04.1969. 

 

 

 

 

22P16

Alick Harold David Collett was born at Mepunga in 1896.  He was brought up on his father’s farm but, when the opportunity came, he enlisted with the Australia Infantry Force and saw active service in France during the First World War where he was involved with looking after the horses. 

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Melbourne (rather than Mepunga); he enlisted at Warnambool in Victoria; his service number was 1519; and his wife and next-of-kin was Edith Catharine Collett.

 

 

 

At the end of the war in 1918, the AIF troops were offered an immediate return to Australia or a period of leave in England.  Alick opted for the latter and during this period of leave he visited Bath and felt some attraction to the city and decided to settle there.  It was not for many years thereafter that he learned that the city was the place from whence his ancestors had emigrated to the southern hemisphere.

 

 

 

He married (1) Edith Catharine from Bath, but unfortunately she feel ill so Alick took her to Australia, hoping that the warmer weather might cure her ills.  It seems more than likely that she died in Australia since by the mid-1930s Alick had returned to England and was a widower working in Bath.

 

 

 

He then married (2) a girl by the name of Stockwell and the marriage produced one daughter Ruth Collett who married Alexander Moseley who was born in 1938 and with whom she had two sons, Oliver and Seth. 

 

 

 

Alick’s second wife died during an air on Bath during World War Two following which his daughter Ruth was cared for by his sister-in-law Vi (Violet) Stockwell.  Alick died at Bath in 1979.

 

 

 

 

22P17

Alice Collett was born in 1898 and she married Walter Knights with whom she had a daughter Lindsay.  Alice and her husband joined forces with her parents Robert and Mary-Ann Collett in establishing a large dairy farm between Birchip and Warragul.   On the death of her parents, the property was inherited by the Knights family which was still being operated by them at the start of the 21st Century.

 

 

 

 

22P18

Gerald Arthur Collett was born at Marrickville in New South Wales on 05.06.1889.  He married Emily E Collett of Balcarres in the Royalist Road at Mosman in New South Wales probably just before entering the First World War. 

 

 

 

He was Corporal 2363 in the Imperial Camel Corps and was tragically killed in action on 05.06.1917 in Palestine.  His name is listed amongst those on Panel 59 of the Jerusalem Memorial.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Sydney (rather than Marrickville); he enlisted at Sydney; his service number was 2363; and his wife and next-of-kin was Emily Esther Collett.

 

 

 

 

22P20

Bernard Clifford Collett was born at Marrickville in 1892.  Like his brother he joined up for service in the First World War but it looks as though he may not have seen active service being ‘depot’ based, according to the record below.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Marrickville; he enlisted at Newcastle in New South Wales; he was assigned to the ‘depot’; and his mother and next-of-kin was Helen Maud Collett.

 

 

 

It would appear that he married just after the war and sons George and James were born at Rose Park in South Australia

 

 

 

22Q9

George Edward Collett

Born circa 1918

 

22Q10

James Vincent Collett

Born on 29.01.1926

 

 

 

 

22Q1

Emily Isabel Collett was born at Warnambool on 31.01.1911.  She married Alfred Robert Gardner.  Alfred was very likely the nephew of either or both Mary-Ann Gardner who married Emily’s uncle Frederick Collett and Margaret Emily Gardner who was her mother.  The married produced one daughter Elsie Gardner who married a Mr Smith.  Emily died on 29.11.1996 at Drouin in Victoria.

 

 

 

 

22Q2

Hazel Marjorie Collett was born at Warnambool on 09.08.1910.  She married (1) Augustus (Gus) Ricci in 1926 at Richmond in Victoria.  Gus had arrived in Australia in 1921 and the couple met when they were both studying to be hairdressers.  The marriage produced two sons, Alexander Ritchie referred to as Alec, and Francis Edwin Ritchie referred to as Eddie.

 

 

 

During the war years Hazel ran a hair salon.  She later married (2) Carmello Mustica with whom she had a further son, Neville Mustica.  Carmello and Hazel met when they both worked shops in Footscray.  Hazel Marjorie Mustica nee Collett died in 1967. 

 

 

 

 

22Q3

LEONARD ALEXANDER COLLETT was born at Cobden in Victoria on 31.12.1911 and he married Ruth Binns.  He worked on the railway for over 49 years, the majority of the time as station master at Wonthaggi and Korumburra.

 

 

 

22R1

BARRY COLLETT

Date of birth unknown

 

22R2

Graeme Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

22R3

Barbara Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

22Q4

Dorothy Margaret Collett, referred to as Dorrie, was born at Kyneton in Victoria on 12.03.1914.  She married (1) Bernard Jordan with whom she had two children who were born at Essendon.  These were: Beverley Jordan who was born on 02.06.1936 and who married Alan Pope; and Donald Jordan who was born on 11.11.1937. 

 

 

 

Dorothy ran a successful mattress manufacturing business until a fire destroyed it and she discovered she was not covered by insurance as her husband had not paid the premium.  As a result of this she accepted the loss, retired from business, and separated from her husband.

 

 

 

She later married (2) Frank Anstey.

 

 

 

 

22Q5

Cecil Eric Collett was born at Elmhurst in Victoria on 07.09.1915 and he married Thelma Pearce.  The couple set up home on a small farm at Cobram on the Murray living next door to Cecil’s father Frederick Alexander Collett, from where they ran a successful milk processing and distribution business that eventually covered a large part of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

 

 

 

22R4

Marion Collett

Born in 1941

 

 

 

 

22Q6

Eunice Isobel Collett was born at Whittlesea on 19.01.1923 and suffered with a disability from birth.  She never married and died at Wodonga in Victoria in 1996.

 

 

 

 

22Q7

Joyce Coral Collett was born at Warragul in Victoria on 3103.1930.  She attended school at Drouin and Toora in Gippsland before moving to Melbourne in the early post war years where she was employed at the head office of the Myer Emporium. 

 

 

 

She married Henry James Bain on 05.08.1950 at Moonee Ponds in Victoria.  Henry was born at Rochester Victoria on 08.08.1918.  At the time of the birth of their first son the couple were living at Coburg in Victoria and two and a half years later the family was living at Ivanhoe in Victoria.

 

 

 

Henry died at Ivanhoe on 30 Nov 1975 followed by Joyce on 13 Feb 1993 but at Heidelberg in Victoria.

 

 

 

22R5

Phillip Russell Bain

Born on 03.03.1954

 

22R6

Rodney James Bain

Born on 25.09.1956

 

 

 

 

22Q8

Robert Hope Bruce Collett was born at Geelong on 23.07.1920.  He enlisted to take part in the Second World War but died at Alice Springs on 27.12.1941 as a result of injuries sustained during active service.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Geelong; he enlisted at Geelong; his service number was V/76789; and his father and next-of-kin was Charles Collett.

 

 

 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also recorded the event with the following details.  Robert Hope Collett aged 21 died on 27th December 1917 and was buried in the Alice Springs Cemetery, grave 9, row B, Plot M.  He was a driver with the Australian Army Service Corp and was the son of Charles and Myrtle Collett of Newtown in Victoria.

 

 

 

 

22Q9

George Edward Collett was born at Rose Park in South Australia around 1918.  He married Helen Maud Huxtable possibly at Chatswood in New South Wales around 1936 and it was there that both their sons were born. 

 

 

 

Their youngest son was named after George’s father who was also Bernard Clifford Collett (Ref. 22P20), while their oldest son was named after Bernard’s brother (Ref. 22P19).

 

 

 

22R7

Edgar George Collett

Born in 1937

 

22R8

Bernard Clifford Collett

Born in 1958

 

 

 

 

22Q10

James Vincent Collett was born at Rose Park in South Australia on 29.01.1926 and he entered the Second World War as soon as he became of age.

 

 

 

His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Rose Park; he enlisted at Melbourne; his service number was 31396; and his father and next-of-kin was Bernard Collett.

 

 

 

 

22R1

BARRY COLLETT married Pauline Simpson and they had five children.  Barry was raised and educated in Australia and later became a student at Oriel College in Oxford.  He returned to Australia and worked at the Department of History at Melbourne University.  More recently Barry returned to England and now teaches history at Oxford and lives in Reading.

 

 

 

 

22R2

Graeme Collett married Margo and they had two children.

 

 

 

 

22R3

Barbara Collett married Lloyd Hemphill and they had two children.

 

 

 

 

22R4

Marion Collett was born in 1941 and she married Keith Ardley.  She died at Beerholm in Queensland in May 2000.

 

 

 

 

22R5

Phillip Russell Bain was born at Coburg on 03.03.1954 and he (1) married Robyn Elizabeth Sinclair on 29.01.1981 in Melbourne.  Robyn was born at Essendon in Victoria on 02.09.1954.  The marriage produced a daughter born later that same year in Melbourne.

 

 

 

Phillip later married (2) Viet-Lee Pedersen who was born on 05.02.1967 at Fremantle in Western Australia.  Both of the children of this marriage were born at Bendigo in Victoria.

 

 

 

22S1

Granniah Elise Bain

Born on 31.12.1981

 

22S2

Henry Mervyn James Bain

Born on 26.01.1996

 

22S3

Eliza Ruby Ellen Bain

Born on 13.05.1998

 

 

 

 

22R6

Rodney James Bain was born at Ivanhoe on 25.09.1956.  He married (1) Christine Walkeden in September 1977 at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Ivanhoe.  Rodney and Christine had one daughter born while they were living at Echuca in Victoria.  Sometime later Rodney married (2) Meryl with whom he had a son when living at Shepparton in Victoria.

 

 

 

22S4

Kelly Louise Bain

Born in January 1992

 

22S5

Matthew James Bain

Born in January 2006