PART TWENTY SEVEN

The Harewood Yorkshire Line – 1660 to 2008

Update September 2010

This is the family line of John Robert Collett (Ref. 27S7)

of New South Wales in Australia, whose family line is depicted in capitals,

and Christina Hammond nee Collitt (Ref. 27R11) of Hitchin in Hertfordshire

whose family line is identified by the names underlined

This family line has its origins in Part 36 – The Barwick-in-Elmet (Leeds line

and it was there that Richard Collett was born the eldest of three known

children of Richard Collett (Ref. 36J5)

It is also worth noting that some of the early records give the

spelling of the name as Collitt (or Collit) and one branch of the family has

retained this to the present day, as used by the ancestors of Christina Collitt

36K11	RICHARD COLLETT was born at Barwick-in-Elmet in 1667 where he was baptised at All Saints Church on 06.02.1668, the eldest of three known children of Richard Collett.
	In the early 1690s Richard married Hannah with whom he had eight children. During his life he was known as Richard Collitt of Weeton, which was a hamlet midway between Harrogate to the north and Leeds to the south, lying within the parish of Harewood. He was also known as Richard Collett of Harewood.
	It was also at All Saints Church in Harewood (pictured on the right) that all of his children were baptised, although it is highly likely that they were born while the family was living at Weeton. This is because St Barnabas Church in Weeton was not built until 1851, when its construction was financed by the Earl of Harewood.
	Hannah Collett died at Weeton, five miles east of Otley, in October 1710, and was followed fourteen years later by her husband Richard Collett, who died at Weeton during the first two weeks of April in 1724 and was buried in the grounds of All Saints Church in Harewood on 12.04.1724.
	27L1	Ann Collett			Born in 1695
	27L2	Ralph Collett			Born in 1696
	27L3	Hannah Collett			Born in 1698
	27L4	Richard Collett			Born in 1700
	27L5	THOMAS COLLETT			Born in 1701
	27L6	Margaret Collett			Born in 1703
	27L7	John Collett			Born in 1705
	27L8	Charles Collett			Born in 1707
27L1	Ann Collett was born at Weeton in 1695, the eldest of eight children of Richard and Hannah Collett. She was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 20.09.1695, when her name was recorded as Ann Collett. Sadly she was only a few days old when she died.
27L2	Ralph Collett was born at Weeton in 1696 and was the eldest son of Richard and Hannah Collett. He was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 26.09.1695 when his name was recorded as Ralph Collett.
	The only detail of Ralph’s life known at this time is that he died at Weeton on 06.06.1710, when he was around 15 years old. His youngest brother Charles (below) died fifteen months later.
27L3	Hannah Collett was born at Weeton in 1698 and was baptised at All saints Church in Harewood on 24.06.1698 as Hannah Collett, the daughter of Richard Collett. It is understood that she married John Vicars at St Peter’s Church in Leeds on 11.09.1718, and died at Dunkeswick near Harewood in February 1769.
27L4	Richard Collett was born at Weeton in 1700 and was baptised at All Saints in Harewood as Richard Collit on 19.01.1701, the son of Richard Collit. Richard was another infant fatality, when he died at Weeton, either in January that same year, or the following year.
27L5	THOMAS COLLETT was born at Weeton in 1701 and was baptised at All Saints in Harewood as Thomas Collit on 12.03.1701, the son of Richard Collit. He later married Priscilla Waite at All Saints Church in Kirkby Overflow on 27.05.1724, where Priscilla was born during 1703.
	Unfortunately the baptism records for most of the children simply record the parents’ names as Thomas Collett and Mrs Thomas Collett.
	Thomas Collett died at Weeton during the month of March in 1787, and was buried at All Saints Church in Harewood on 30.03.1787. At the time of his death he was referred to as a farmer. His wife Priscilla had died over twenty-four years earlier, when she passed away at Weeton in February 1763.
	27M1	Richard Collett			Born in 1725
	27M2	Joseph Collett			Born circa 1726
	27M3	John Collett			Born circa 1727
	27M4	Mary Collett			Born circa 1728
	27M5	Hannah Collett			Born circa 1729
	27M6	Anne Collett			Born in 1730
	27M7	Margaret Collett			Born circa 1732
	27M8	Thomas Collett			Born in 1734
	27M9	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1738
	27M10	Hugh Collett twin			Born in 1740
	27M11	Joshua Collett twin			Born in 1740
	27M12	JOHN COLLETT			Born circa 1742
27L6	Margaret Collett was born at Weeton in 1703, but was baptised as Margaret Collett at All Saints Church in Harewood on 30.03.1704, the daughter of Richard Collett. She was around seven years of age when she died at Weeton on 07.03.1711.
27L7	John Collett was born at Weeton in 1705, the second youngest son and seventh child of Richard and Hannah Collitt. It was as John Collett that he was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 07.02.1705, the son of Richard Collett.
	It was also at All Saints Church that, as John Collett, he married Susan Mallory (Susannah Mallorie) on 30.08.1726. The couple had eight children while they were living at Dunkeswick, and all of them were baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood. See also Ref. 27M11 for another Collett/Mallory marriage.
	John Collett was a farmer living at Dunkeswick near Harewood at the end of 1778 when he died, following which he was buried at All Saints Church in Harewood on 03.01.1779. It was just a few weeks later that his wife Susan died at Dunkeswick during February 1779.
	27M13	John Collett			Born in 1727
	27M14	Ralph Collett			Born in 1729
	27M15	Susannah Collett			Born in 1730
	27M16	Ralph Collett			Born in 1731
	27M17	Ellen Collett			Born in 1732
	27M18	William Collett			Born in 1734
	27M19	Thomas Collett			Born in 1737
	27M20	Susannah Collett			Born in 1742
27L8	Charles Collett was born at Weeton in 1707, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood as Charles Collett on 23.03.1707, the youngest of the eight children of Richard and Hannah Collitt. Charles was only four years old when he died on 03.11.1711.
27M1	Richard Collett was born at Weeton on 11.03.1725 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 25.03.1725, the eldest son of Thomas Collett.
27M2	Joseph Collett was born at Weeton and baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 11.03.1726, the son of Thomas Collett. Joseph was around twenty-four years of age when he died at Weeton on 21.06.1750.
27M3	John Collett was born at Weeton, but was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 06.05.1727, the son of Thomas Collett. Sadly he only survived for eleven months, when he died at Weeton and was buried at All Saints Church on 30.03.1728.
27M4	Mary Collett was born at Weeton and possibly born during the first quarter of 1728, following which she was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 30.03.1728, the daughter of Thomas Collett.
27M5	Hannah Collett was born at Weeton at the end of 1728 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 06.02.1729 as Ann Collett, the daughter of Thomas Collett. Hannah had lived a relatively long life, when she died at Wescoe Hill in Weeton during November 1794.
	Ann Collett, the daughter of Thomas Collett, later married John Knapton at Harewood on 01.11.1750. John may have been related to Elizabeth Knapton who married Benjamin Collett (Ref. 36M6) at Barwick-in-Elmet in 1768.
27M6	Ann Collett was born at Weeton on 06.04.1730, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 31.12.1731, the daughter of Thomas Collett. Tragically she only survived for a few months, when she died at Weeton in March 1732. It may have been following that sad event that her sister Hannah (above) took up the name Ann.
27M7	Margaret Collett was born at Weeton, very likely during the first two months of 1732 or earlier, and was baptised on 09.03.1732 at All Saints Church in Harewood, the daughter of Thomas Collett.
27M8	Thomas Collett was born at Weeton in 1734 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 23.03.1735, the son of Thomas Collett. Thomas Collett was 33 when he died at Weeton during November 1768.
27M9	Elizabeth Collett was born at Weeton in 1738 but was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 19.01.1739, the daughter of Thomas Collett. However, she died during the following year.
27M10	Hugh Collett was born at Weeton in 1740, the son of Thomas Collett. He was baptised in a joint ceremony at All Saints Church in Harewood with his twin brother Joshua (below) on 22.05.1741. What is known is that Hugh Collett died at Weeton during March 1765, when he would have been around 25 years of age, and was buried at All Saints Church in Harewood on 31.03.1765.
27M11	Joshua Collett was born at Weeton in 1740 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 22.05.1741, the son of Thomas Collett, in a joint ceremony with his twin brother Hugh Collett (above).
	Joshua was around thirty-five years of age when he married Elizabeth Mallory (Mallorie) at Harewood on 12.09.1775, which raises the questions; (a) did he marry late in his life, (b) was this his second marriage, and (c) was Elizabeth related to Susan Mallory who married Joshua’s uncle John Collett (Ref. 27L7) in 1726.
	Elizabeth Mallory (Mallorie) was born around 1754 and so was about fourteen years younger than Joshua. It is possible that Joshua and Elizabeth settled in Weeton near Harewood where his father Thomas is known to have lived. The first five children were born at Healthwaite Hill near Weeton, while the last two children were born at South Stainley, five miles north of Harrogate.
	Details for six of the couple’s seven children are known, as they were born at Healthwaite Hill near Weeton, and baptised at Harewood. However, nothing is known about the unnamed daughter, although the continuation of this family line is through their son John. The only other detail so far known about Joshua Collett is that he died on 26.01.1826, and was buried at St Robert’s Church in Pannal, near Harrogate.
	27N1	Sally Collett	Born in 1776
	27N2	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1777
	27N3	a Collett daughter	Born circa 1779 at Healthwaite Hill
	27N4	Priscilla Collett	Born in 1781
	27N5	John Collett	Born in 1782
	27N6	Sarah Collett	Born in 1786
	27N7	Hannah Collett	Born in 1790
27M12	JOHN COLLETT was born at Weeton after the end of May in 1741 and up to January 1742. He was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 28.01.1742 and was the youngest child of Thomas Collett. From the date of his marriage, it would be logical to assume that he was born during 1741 and not 1742, as he would have been only sixteen years old when he became a married man.
	John Collett married Sarah Birks (or Bicks) of Leeds at St Peter’s Church in Leeds on 13.02.1758. Since it is known that the first and the last child of the family were both born at Harewood, it seems very likely that all of the couple’s other children were also born there.
	John Collett died at Weeton in November 1811 when he was around 60 years of age, and he was followed nine years later by his wife Sarah who was nearing her eightieth birthday when she died in 1820.
	During his life John was known as a farmer of Middlefield at Harewood and, what is interesting, is that according to the census of 1881, the farm at Middlefield was still being managed by a member of the Collett family – see Ref. 27O13. It would therefore appear that John Collett passed the property onto one of his sons who, in turn, passed it on to a grandson.
	27N8	William Collett			Born on 16.08.1761
	27N9	John Collett			Born on 18.07.1763
	27N10	Sally Collett			Born on 28.09.1764
	27N11	Susannah Collett			Born on 03.07.1766
	27N12	Mary Collett			Born on 15.12.1767
	27N13	Edward Collett			Born on 25.10.1769
	27N14	Ann Collett			Born on 15.01.1771
	27N15	THOMAS COLLETT			Born on 12.10.1772
	27N16	Robert Collett twin			Born on 24.07.1774
	27N17	Hannah Collett twin			Born on 24.07.1774
27M13	John Collett was born at Dunkeswick in 1727, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 07.06.1727, the eldest child of John Collett and Susan Mallory. It was sixty years later that farmer John Collett died at Middlefield in Harewood in February 1787.
27M14	Ralph Collett was born at Dunkeswick around 1729 and was baptised at Harewood on 01.05.1730, but sadly he died there the following day.
27M15	Susannah Collett was born at Dunkeswick in 1730, but was baptised as Susannah Collett at All Saints Church in Harewood on 20.03.1731, the eldest daughter of John Collett and Susan Mallory. Susan only survived for less than nine months after that, when she died at Dunkeswick on 02.09.1731.
27M16	Ralph Collett was born at Dunkeswick 1731 and baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 01.05.1731, the son of John Collett and Susan Mallory. Ralph was nearly thirty years of age he married Mary Nicholson at Harewood on 02.02.1761.
	It would appear that Ralph and Mary settled in Harewood where their five known children were born.
	27N18	Beatrix Collett			Born on 30.09.1761
	27N19	Thomas Collett			Born on 09.09.1764
	27N20	William Collett			Born on 16.11.1766
	27N21	Mary Collett			Born on 20.02.1770
	27N22	John Collett			Born on 03.11.1781
27M17	Ellen Collett, who was Ellinge Collett, was born at Dunkeswick in 1732 at Harewood, the daughter of John Collett and Susan Mallory. It was as Ellen Collett that she was baptised at All Saints Church on 25.08.1732. Ellen would appear to have lived all her life at Dunkeswick, where she died in September 1797.
27M18	William Collett was born at Dunkeswick around 1734 and it was at Harewood, in All Saints Church, that he was baptised on 09.07.1736, the son of John Collett and Susan Mallory. It was also at Dunkeswick where William died in May 1779.
27M19	Thomas Collett was born at Dunkeswick around 1737, the youngest son of John Collett and Susan Mallory. Like all of his siblings, Thomas was also baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood, and that took place on 09.02.1739.
27M20	Susannah Collett was born at Dunkeswick in 1742, the youngest and last child of John Collett and Susan Mallory. She was baptised as Susannah Collett at All Saints Church in Harewood on 09.04.1742. Susan Collett was around twenty-two years old when she married Elijah (?) Kershaw on 10.10.1764.
	However, it was less than five years later, during April 1769, that Susan Kershaw died at Dunkeswick, possibly during childbirth.
27N1	Sally Collett was born at Healthwaite Hill on 25.09.1776, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 11.10.1776, the eldest child of Joshua and Elizabeth Collett. Sally was in her very late forties when she married William Ware on 17.07.1825.
27N2	Elizabeth Collett was born at Healthwaite Hill on 07.10.1777, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 02.11.1777, the daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth Collett. Elizabeth married William Wright on 14.01.1805 at the Church of St Robert in Pannal, near Harrogate.
27N4	Priscilla Collett was born at Healthwaite Hill on 08.04.1781, and was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 02.05.1781, the daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth Collett. Priscilla was twenty-eight years old when she died on 03.05.1809.
27N5	John Collett was born around 1782, the only son of Joshua Collett and his wife Elizabeth Mallory. Unlike his three known sisters, no baptism record has so far been found for him at All Saints Church in Harewood.
	It was also at Harewood that John married Hannah Atkinson on 05.12.1807, at a time when Hannah was already pregnant with John’s child, which was born less than five months after they were married.
	John and Hannah had a total of eleven children over the years following their wedding. The early ones, up to 1813 were baptised at Harewood, while the later ones were born after the family moved to Ainderby Steeple near Northallerton. It was also at Ainderby Steeple that John Collett died on 26.03.1842 and where he was buried.
	Nine years later widow Hannah Collitt was 65 and was living in Northallerton with three of her children. They were Ralph Collitt 27, Sarah Collitt 25, and Isabella Collitt who was 22. Living nearby in Northallerton was Hannah’s son William who was 29.
	Hannah was still alive in 1861 at the age of 75, when she had living with her at Northallerton her granddaughter Sarah Jane Collitt who was 14. She was the daughter of Hannah’s son John Collitt. And still living with her and her granddaughter was her unmarried youngest son William Collitt.
	It is understood that Hannah Collitt died during the 1860s, following which she was buried in the churchyard at Ainderby Steeple.
	27O1	Joshua Collett			Born on 24.04.1808
	27O2	Thomas Collett			Born on 22.08.1810
	27O3	Priscilla Collett			Born on 02.10.1812
	27O4	John Collett			Born in 1814
	27O5	Mary Collett			Born in 1816
	27O6	Hannah Collett			Born in 1818
	27O7	Richard Collett			Born in 1820
	27O8	William Collett			Born on 10.08.1822
	27O9	Ralph Collett			Born in 1824
	27O10	Sarah Collett			Born in 1825
	27O11	Isabella Collett			Born in 1828
27N6	Sarah Collett was born at South Stainley, midway between Ripon and Harrogate in 1786, and it was there that she was baptised on 11.01.1787, the daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth Collett.
27N7	Hannah Collett was born at South Stainley in 1790, and it was there that she was baptised on 04.04.1790, where she sister Sarah had been baptised less than three years earlier. What is curious about the baptism record though, and different from Sarah’s, was that the parents were named as Joshua and Hannah Collitt, rather than Joshua and Elizabeth Collett, which may simply be a genuine error.
	There may have been illness within the family around seventeen years later, since both Sarah and Hannah died in 1807 within five months of each other. Hannah Collett died on 25.10.1807.
27N8	William Collett was born at Harewood on 16.08.1761 and was baptised there six days later 22.08.1761, the son of John and Sarah Collett. William was thirty years old when he died in 1792.
27N9	John Collett was born at Harewood on 18.07.1763, where he was baptised on 19.08.1763, the son of John and Sarah Collett.
27N10	Sally Collett was born at Harewood on 28.09.1764, and was baptised there on 02.11.1764 the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.
27N11	Susannah Collett was born at Harewood on 03.07.1766. Just over one month later she was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 13.08.1766, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.
27N12	Mary Collett was born at Harewood on 15.12.1767 where she was baptised on 20.01.1768, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.
27N13	Edward Collett was born at Harewood on 25.10.1769, and it was there that he was baptised on 06.12.1769, the son of John and Sarah Collett.
27N14	Ann Collett was born at Harewood on 15.01.1771 and was baptised there on 20.02.1771, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.
27N15	THOMAS COLLETT was born at Harewood on 12.10.1772, the son of John and Sarah Collett. He married Alice Bickerdike at Harewood on 16.12.1802 and it is very likely that all of their children were born at Harewood. Alice was baptised at Otley on 09.09.1778, the daughter of Robert Bickerdike.
	By June 1841 Thomas and Alice were living in Harewood with six of their children. Thomas Collett had a rounded age of sixty-five and his wife’s rounded age was sixty. Their children on that occasion were Robert and Thomas who both had rounded ages of thirty, John 25, William 20, and Catherine who was eighteen. Living nearby was their daughter Mary whose age had been rounded up to 25.
	Ten months later, Thomas’ wife Alice Collett of Middlefield died on 21.04.1842 at the age of 64 and was buried in the grounds of All Saints Church in Harewood.
	In 1851 William was a widower at the age of seventy-eight and this age also coincided with the year he was born. The census return confirmed that he was living at Middlefield in Harewood with his unmarried sons Robert and William, and his unmarried daughter Catherine.
	Thomas was described as a farmer of 157 acres, employing four labourers. Living with the family was seventeen years old William Mason from Newton in Yorkshire who was a servant and an agricultural labourer.
	Thomas Collett of Middlefield died there during 1852 at the age of 80, and was buried with his wife Sarah in the churchyard of All Saints Church. The single headstone that marks the plot is rather weathered and is difficult to read, although some parts of the inscription are clear enough to identify it as the grave of Thomas and Sarah Collett of Middlefield.
	27O12	Hannah Collett			Born on 26.11.1803
	27O13	Robert Collett			Born on 06.01.1806
	27O14	Ann Collett			Born on 22.09.1807
	27O15	Elizabeth Collett			Born on 13.05.1809
	27O16	Thomas Collett			Born on 10.03.1811
	27O17	JOHN SCARR COLLETT			Born in 1815
	27O18	William Collett			Born in 1817
	27O19	Mary Collett			Born in 1819
	27O20	Catherine Collett			Born in 1821
27N16	Robert Collett was born at Harewood on 24.07.1774 and was one half of a set of twins born to farmer John Collett and his wife Sarah. He was baptised at All Saints Church in Harewood on 05.10.1774 in a joint ceremony with his twin sister Hannah (below).
	The only other fact known about Robert is that he died at Otley on 17.12.1838 at the age of sixty-three, following which he was buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church in Harewood. The headstone that marks the grave contains only a reference to Robert, perhaps indicating that he never married.
27N17	Hannah Collett was born on 24.07.1774 at Harewood and was a twin sister to her brother Robert (above). The twins were baptised together in a joint ceremony on 05.10.1774, when their parents were confirmed as John and Sarah Collett.
27N18	Beatrix Collett was born at Harewood on 30.09.1761, and was baptised there on 08.10.1761, the eldest daughter of Ralph and Mary Collett. Beatrix (Beatrice) later married Martin Moore at Harewood on 29.10.1787.
27N19	Thomas Collett was born at Harewood on 09.09.1764, where he was baptised on 21.10.1764, the son of Ralph and Mary Collett.
27N20	William Collett was born at Harewood on 16.11.1766 and was baptised there a month later on 19.12.1766, the son of Ralph and Mary Collett.
27N21	Mary Collett was born at Harewood on 20.02.1770, daughter of Ralph and Mary Collett. She later married Oswald Hanson.
27N22	John Collett was born at Harewood on 03.11.1781, where he was baptised on 30.11.1781, the youngest son of Ralph Collett and Mary Nicholson. Although not proved, it seems likely that John married Sarah, since a very weathered gravestone in the churchyard of All Saints Church in Harewood bears the inscription ‘Sarah Collett wife of John Collett died ...... aged 65 years.
27O1	Joshua Collett was born at Harewood on 24.04.1808 where he was baptised on 22.05.1808, the eldest child of John Collett and Hannah Atkinson. Joshua was around five or six years old when his family moved to Northallerton, where they settled in the village of Ainderby Steeple.
	Joshua Collett died on 14.09.1844.
27O2	Thomas Collett was born at Weeton, or Morton-on-Swale, on 22.08.1810 and was baptised at All Saint Church in Harewood on 30.09.1810, the son of John Collett and Hannah Atkinson. By the time he was four years old he and his family were living at Ainderby Steeple, just outside Northallerton.
	Thomas later married Mary Flower around 1850 and they had four children, all born at Ainderby Steeple. Not long after they were married the childless couple were recorded in the 1851 Census, as Thomas Collitt age 40, and Mary Collitt age 34, when they were living in Ainderby Steeple, Northallerton.
	Mary was with-child on the day of the census, and the couple’s first son was born almost exactly three months later. During the next ten years Mary presented Thomas with their four known children. However, by 1861, the family living at Northallerton comprised Thomas Collitt age 50, his wife Mary 44, and sons John Collitt 9, Thomas Collitt 8, and Joshua Collitt who was two years old.
	The missing child, their daughter Mary Hannah who would have been six years old, had died just five days before the census that year, on her actual sixth birthday.
	By the time of the census in 1871, Joshua was the only child of Thomas and Mary still living with them. The census return for Northallerton in 1871 listed the family as Thomas Collitt age 60, Mary Collitt 55, and son Joshua age 12.
	Their son Thomas Collitt was 18 and was living nearby in Northallerton, but by then the couple’s eldest son John Collitt, who was 19, had left Northallerton and was recorded as living in the Richmond area of Yorkshire. It was later that John made the big leap, when he moved to London where he was married.
	With no record found for Mary Collitt in 1881, it must be assumed that she had died during the 1870s. However, Thomas Collitt age 70 years, was listed as married and an inmate at the Northallerton Union Workhouse in the census in 1881. Although not listed with any current occupation, the census return stated that he was formerly a farmer from Morton-on-Swale, the next village to Ainderby Steeple.
	And it was while he was still at the Northallerton Union Workhouse that Thomas Collitt died on 02.03.1883 at the age of 72.
	27P1	John Collitt			Born on 26.06.1851
	27P2	Thomas Collitt			Born in 1852
	27P3	Mary Hannah Collitt			Born on 02.04.1855
	27P4	Joshua Collitt			Born in 1858
27O3	Priscilla Collett was born at Harewood on 02.10.1812, the daughter of John Collett and Hannah Atkinson. It was also at Harewood that Priscilla was baptised on 01.12.1812, but by the time she was two years old her family was living at Ainderby Steeple.
27O4	John Collett was born at Harewood on 03.03.1814, but was baptised at Ainderby Steeple, to the immediate west of Northallerton, on 03.07.1814, the son of John and Hannah Collett. It would appear to be later on, that his family adopted the spelling of the surname with an i.
	John Collett married Isabella Fox in the early 1840s, with their first child born around 1844. It was at the baptism of their children that the surname was recorded as Collitt. The first two children were born and baptised at Ainderby Steeple, with the later children baptised at Northallerton. A later record for their daughter Isabella suggests that she was born at Kirby Wiske, which lies five miles south of Northallerton.
	According to the census in 1851, John and his family were living within the Thirsk registration area, which would have included Kirby Wiske. John Collitt was 36, as was his wife Isabel, and their three children at that time were Mary Collitt 6, Sarah Collitt 4, and Isabel Collitt who was just one year old.
	Three more children were added to the family during the 1850s, and it may have been a problem of over-crowding that resulted in John’s daughter Sarah Jane Collitt going to live with her widowed grandmother Hannah Collitt, nearby in Northallerton. So by 1861 the family living at Northallerton included John and Isabella who were both 46, together with their five children Mary H Collitt 16, Isabella Collitt 11, John W Collitt 9, Joshua Collitt 7, and Priscilla Collitt who was four.
	John Collitt died on 29.06.1865, so his widow Isabella Collitt, age 56, was living alone at Northallerton in 1871, with just her youngest child for company, that being 14 years old Priscilla A Collitt. Living not far away was her son Joshua Collitt who was 18. It would also appear that Isabella died shortly after that, because no record of her has been found in the census of 1881.
	27P5	Mary Hannah Atkinson Collitt			Born in 1844
	27P6	Sarah Jane Collitt			Born in 1846
	27P7	Isabella Collitt			Born in 1849
	27P8	John William Collitt			Born in 1851
	27P9	Joshua Collitt			Born in 1853
	27P10	Priscilla A Collitt			Born in 1856
27O5	Mary Collett was born in 1816 and was baptised at Ainderby Steeple on 03.03.1816, the daughter of John and Hannah Collett. Mary later married J Metcalfe.
27O6	Hannah Collett was born in 1818, and it was at Ainderby Steeple that she was baptised on 03.06.1818, the daughter of John and Hannah Collett. It was around the time that Hannah was aged 21 that she died on 13.04.1839.
27O7	Richard Collett was born in 1820 and was baptised at Ainderby Steeple on 15.05.1820, the son of John and Hannah Collett. Richard married Sarah, but at the age of 43, he died in 1863. Two years earlier the childless couple were living in the Richmond area of Yorkshire was Richard was 41, and his wife Sarah was 40.
27O8	William Collett was born at Ainderby Steeple on 10.08.1822, the son of John Collett and Hannah Atkinson. His father died in 1842, and in 1851 he had left the family home, but was still living in the Northallerton area at the age of 29.
	During the next ten years, William returned to live with his elderly mother in the Northallerton area, where he was 38 in the census of 1861.
	He remained a bachelor until he married Luciana Silvester during January 1875. William was fifty-three on that occasion, he being twenty-seven years older than his bride, who was born in 1849 at Barnby Dun, just north of Doncaster.
	The marriage produced five daughters and one son for William and Luciana, and all of them born at Northallerton. By the time of the census in 1881 the family was living at the High Street in Northallerton, where William was a grocer employing two apprentices.
	On that occasion he was 59 and he gave his place of birth as Morton-on-Swale, which is near Bedale and ten miles south-west of Northallerton. The rest of his family at that time comprised his wife Luciana 31, and their five children, the fifth child having just been born and had not been named on the day of the census on the third of April.
	The other four children were Amy H Collitt who was 5, Luciana H Collitt 4, William S Collitt 3, and Mary G Collitt who was two. The unnamed baby was two weeks old, and she was eventually given the names Florence Hannah.
	The two apprentices that William employed also lodged with the family, and they were William Dawson who was 18 from Kirby Knowle, and Walker Rudd who was 15 and from Kirby Sigston. In the addition to these the family also employed a general servant, Annie Dodds who was 15, and a monthly nurse, Mary Robson who was 45.
	According to the Northallerton census in 1891 William Collitt was 69, his wife Luciana was 42, and living with the couple was their five children. Ann H Collitt was 15, Luciana S Collett was 14, Mary G Collitt was 12, Florence H Collitt was 10, and Selina R E Collitt was just three years old.
	William Collett died on 18.04.1892 and was buried at Northallerton Cemetery. Just after the start of the new century the widow Luciana Collitt from Barnby Dun was 52 and was still living in Northallerton with all of her daughters.
	Luciana was described as living on her own means, while her five unmarried daughters were Amy H Collitt 25, Luciana S Collitt 24, Mary G Collitt 22, Florence H Collitt 20, and Selina R V Collitt who was 13. All of the girls were confirmed as born at Northallerton, but it was only Luciana and Florence who were in employment. Luciana was a private school governess, while Florence was a draper’s cashier.
	By the time of the Northallerton census in April 1911 Luciana still had three of her daughters living with her. She was 62, while Luciana Sarah Collitt was 34, Florence Hannah Collitt was 29, and Selina Rose Victoria Collitt was 23 years old. By then her other two daughters were married.
	27P11	Amy Helena Collitt			Born on 28.08.1875
	27P12	Luciana Sarah Collitt			Born on 08.08.1876
	27P13	William Silvester Collitt			Born on 10.08.1877
	27P14	Mary Gertrude Collitt			Born in 1878
	27P15	Florence Hannah Collitt			Born on 24.03.1881
	27P16	Selina Rose Victoria Collitt			Born on 14.04.1887
27O9	Ralph Collett was born at Ainderby Steeple in 1824, where he was baptised on 15.11.1824, the son of John and Hannah Collitt. In 1851 Ralph was 27 and was still living with his widowed mother, following the death of his father in 1842.
	It would seem that Ralph never married and in 1861, when he was 37, he was still living in the Northallerton area. At the time of the next census in 1871, Ralph Collett was 47 when he was living in the area of Yarm, to the south of Stockton. It was six years later that Ralph died on 02.06.1877.
27O10	Sarah Collett was born at Ainderby Steeple in 1825 and was baptised there on 04.12.1825, the daughter of John and Hannah Collitt. Sarah was 25 and unmarried in 1851, when she was still living with her mother at Ainderby Steeple. Just over seven years later Sarah Collett died on 04.12.1858.
27O11	Isabella Collett was born at Ainderby Steeple on 06.01.1829 and it was there also that she was baptised on 02.02.1829, the youngest of eleven children of John and Hannah Collitt. Isabella was still living with her mother at Ainderby Steeple in 1861 when she was 22 years old.
	Isabella Collett was around 83 years of age when she died on 26.11.1912, although she has not been traced in any of the census returns after 1861.
27O12	Hannah Collett was born at Harewood on 26.11.1803 and was baptised there at All Saints Church on 22.01.1804, the eldest child of Thomas and Alice Collett.
27O13	Robert Collett was born at Harewood on 06.01.1806 and was baptised there on 16.02.1806, the eldest son of Thomas Collett and Alice Bickerdike. Robert’s grandfather John Collett was a farmer at Middlefield in Harewood, and the property was inherited by Robert’s father at the time of the death of his grandfather.
	The census of 1841 listed Robert living there with his parents and the rest of his family, when Robert had a rounded age of thirty, instead of his actual age of thirty-five. During the next decade Robert’s mother died, so by 1851 he was still living at Middlefield in Harewood with his widowed elderly father.
	The census that year listed Robert as an unmarried man at the age of forty-five, and still living at Middlefield was his brother William (below) and his sister Catherine (below). Robert and William were described as farmer’s sons, and were very likely two of the four men employed by their father on the 157 acres farm.
	With the death of his father happening during the 1850s, Robert eventually took over ownership of the farm at Middlefield. It would also appear that he married Sarah during this time, since they were listed together in the census of 1861 when Robert Collett from Harewood was fifty-five and his wife Sarah was forty-eight.
	By 1871 the childless couple were still living at Middlefield in Harewood which, by this time, was recorded within the Wetherby & Boston Spa registration district, when Robert Collett of Harewood was sixty-five and Sarah Collett from Bradford was fifty-eight.
	The farm at Middlefield was described in the census return as being 197 acres and, for which Robert, with no sons of his own, needed to employ three men and two boys to help him manage it.
	Living with the couple at this time were three farm servants, these being Joseph Brunton of Knaresborough aged 25, James Child aged 16 and John Lawson aged 15, both of them from East Keswick, and Margaret Bullock from East Keswick who was a general domestic servant.
	Listed immediately after Robert and Sarah Collett in the 1871 census return were two further Collett families, these being the families of Robert’s younger brother John Scarr Collett at Burns Farm, and William Collett at Biggin Farm (below).
	Ten years later, according to the census in 1881, Robert Collett was listed as being seventy-five and a farmer of 180 acres employing four labourers. The census return confirmed that he was born at Harewood and that he was married to Sarah who was sixty-nine and from Little Horton, a district of Bradford.
	The couple were still living at Middlefield Farm in Harewood in 1881 which had been previously owned by Robert’s grandfather John Collett. In view of the age of Sarah when she married Robert it is highly unlikely that the marriage ever produced any children for the couple. The only people listed with them in April 1881 were as follows.
	Mary Hirst, an unmarried visitor and independent lady aged 55 and born at Seacroft to the east of Leeds; Harriet Smith, an 18 years old domestic servant from East Keswick and her younger sister Florie aged 13 of nearby East Rigton; and two ‘indoors’ farm labourers Christopher Kemp 23 of Grimston in York, and Thomas Newland 15 of Harewood.
	In the churchyard of All Saints Church in Harewood is the grave of Robert Collett and his wife Sarah. The headstone provides the details that Robert died during 1884, while Sarah died on 25.03.1888 at the age of 75.
27O14	Ann Collett was born at Harewood on 22.09.1807 and was baptised there at All Saints Church on 08.11.1807, the daughter of Thomas and Alice Collett. It would appear that she never married, since it was as Ann Collett that she died at Middlefield, four years after her mother and six years before her father. The headstone that marks her grave in Harewood’s All Saints Church, states she was the daughter of Thomas and Alice Collett of Middlefield, and that she died on 11.11.1846 at the age of 39.
27O15	Elizabeth Collett was born at Harewood on 13.05.1809 where she was baptised on exactly three months later on 13.08.1809, the daughter of Thomas and Alice Collett.
27O16	Thomas Collett was born at Harewood on 10.03.1811, the son of Thomas Collett and Alice Bickerdike. And it was at Harewood that he was baptised on 19.05.1811. It would appear, although not yet proved, that he married around 1830 by which time he had left Yorkshire and was living in Lancashire.
	It would also appear that in 1831 Thomas was presented with a daughter Alice who was born at Thornham (midway between Middleton and Rochdale) which, at that time, was part of the town of Middleton just north of Manchester. By 1900 the township of Thornham had been dissolved and the name had disappeared from use altogether.
	It is very likely that there were also other children born to the couple.
	27P17	Alice Collett			Born in 1831
27O17	JOHN SCARR COLLETT was born at Harewood in 1815 where he was baptised on 03.09.1815, the son of Thomas and Alice Collett. In the first census of 1841 John Collett was still living with his family in Harewood at the age of twenty-five.
	He married Alice Hardcastle at Thorner, north of Barwick in Elmet, in 1845 and by the time of the census in 1851 their marriage had been blessed with three children. The couple’s eldest daughter Alice was also given her grandmother’s maiden name.
	The Harewood census that year listed that family as John 35, his wife Alice 29, and their daughter Alice who was four, their son William who was two years old, and Ann who was not yet one year old.
	Ten years later the family had been completed by the addition of a further five children, all of them born at Harewood. In 1861 John S Collett was 45, his wife was 39, and their seven children were Alice 14, William 12, Annie 10, Catherine 8, Mary 5, Jane E Collett who was two years old, and Betsy who was under one year old.
	It would appear that tragedy struck the family during the years after 1861 with the death of John’s wife Alice, and by the time of the census in 1871 it was just John and his five youngest daughters who continued to live at Harewood, within the Wetherby & Boston Spa registration district.
	The Harewood census return for 1871 listed the family of John Scarr Collett as living in the property known as Burns, which was situated in the census return between the farm properties of Middlefield, owned by John’s older brother Robert, and Biggin owned by his younger brother William.
	The census in 1871 described Burns as being a farm of 104 acres for which widower John Scarr Collett, aged fifty-five, employed one man and one boy. Living there with him were his five daughters, Ann P Collett who was 20, Catherine Collett who was 18, Mary Collett who was 15, Jane E Collett who was 12, and Betsy Collett who was ten years old.
	A possible error on the census form indicated that the whole family had been born at East Keswick, the family being part of a list of seven names dittoed from the name of James Child of East Keswick, a farm servant employed by William’s brother Robert Collett at Middlefield Farm.
	Supporting William Collett and his family at Burns Farm was live-in farm servant, fifteen years old Francis Wells from Knaresborough.
	John Scarr Collett was only fifty-seven when, eighteen months later, he died at Harewood on 29.07.1872, his death being recorded at Wetherby during September that year. He was buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church, where a headstone marks the grave. What became of his youngest daughters is not known, although there is every possibility that they were continued to be cared for by their older sisters.
	What is known is that John’s eldest daughter Alice married James Young Teale around 1870 and, possibly under the terms of his Will, Alice and her husband took over ownership and management of the bulk of Burns Farm in Harewood, as confirmed by the census in 1881.
	27P18	Alice Bickerdike Collett			Born in 1846
	27P19	WILLIAM COLLETT			Born in 1848
	27P20	Anne P Collett			Born in 1850
	27P21	Catherine Collett			Born in 1852
	27P22	Mary Collett			Born in 1855
	27P23	Jane E Collett			Born in 1858
	27P24	Betsy Collett			Born in 1860
27O18	William Collett was born at Harewood in 1817 and was baptised there on 15.06.1817, the son of Thomas and Alice Collett. At the time of the June census in 1841, William had a rounded age of twenty when living with his family at Harewood.
	Ten years later in 1851 William was thirty-three years old and was still a bachelor living with his widowed father Thomas at Middlefield in Harewood, together with his brother Robert (above), and his sister Catherine (below). The occupations of both William and Robert were that of a farmer’s son, presumably working on their father’s 157 acres farm.
	So far no record of William has been found in the census return for 1861, although it must have been shortly after this that he married Betsy Smith of Harewood who was listed with him at Harewood in 1871, together with their only child. William was fifty-three, Betsy was forty-three, and their daughter Alice Eliza was just six years old and had been born at nearby East Keswick.
	It seems highly likely that William and Betsy had inherited Biggin Farm in Harewood, the property previously having been owned by Betsy’s late father. Biggin Farm comprised 173.5 acres and William needed to employ two men and one boy to help with the running of it. Living with the family of three at Biggin was William’s widowed mother-in-law, sixty-five years old Eliza Smith, a former farmer’s wife.
	According to the Harewood census of 1881, William Collett was sixty-three, while his wife Betsy, also of Harewood, was fifty-three. The census recorded the couple as living at Biggin Farm in Harewood where William was a farmer of the same 173 acres, but at this time employing one labourer and two boys.
	Living with them was their unmarried daughter Alice Eliza Collett who was sixteen, who had been born at East Keswick, the next village to the east of Harewood, and Betsy’s mother Eliza Smith aged seventy-five of Seacroft, who was listed as an annuitant.
	The family was support by sixteen years old Alice Dalby who was a domestic servant, and the two boys employed by William to work on the farm were John Wharvill aged eighteen from Leeds and Frederick Hodgson who was fourteen and from Shadwell.
	27P25	Alice Eliza Collett			Born in 1865
27O19	Mary Collett was born at Harewood in 1819, the daughter of Thomas and Alice Collett. On the occasion of the first national census in June 1841 Mary was still living in Harewood but not with her family who were living nearby. Mary was unmarried at the rounded age of twenty-five, although she would have only actually been twenty-one or twenty-two.
27O20	Catherine Collett was born at Harewood in 1821, the youngest child of Thomas Collett and his wife Alice Bickerdike. She was eighteen in the census of 1841, but at the age of twenty-nine in 1851, Catherine was unmarried and was living with her widowed father at Middlefield in Harewood and her two brothers Robert and William (above).
	Following the death of her father, the farm at Middlefield was inherited by her brother Robert who also became a married man around the same time. It was these changes that may have prompted Catherine to leave Harewood, because by the time of the census in 1861 she was still unmarried and was living in the Wetherby area. The census confirmed she was from Harewood and that she was thirty-seven.
27P1	John Collitt was born on 26.06.1851 at Ainderby Steeple, near Northallerton, the son of Thomas Collitt and Mary Flower. In the Northallerton census of 1861 John Collitt was nine years old, when living there with his family. However, on leaving school, John left the family home and in 1871 he was 19 and living and working at Richmond in Yorkshire.
	Sometime after that he made the long journey down to London, where John Collitt married Jane Elizabeth Fine (Fyne) towards the end of that decade. Their marriage produced five children for the couple, the first born at Leyton and the remainder after the family had settled in Walthamstow. The first of these was born just prior to the next census in 1881.
	By that time John and his young family was living at Hoe Street in Leyton, in the West Ham district of London. The house where they were staying was the home of Jane’s sixty-one years old widowed mother Mary Fine, who still had her daughter Margaret Fine, at 17 years old milliner still living with her.
	The Collitt family was listed as John Collitt age 29 and a commercial traveller from Steeple in Yorkshire, a reference to Ainderby Steeple near Northallerton, his wife Jane Collitt age 23 from Middlesex, and their daughter Mary Collitt who was born at Hoe Street in Leyton and who was only nine months old.
	Living not far away, in the same West Ham area, was John’s younger brother Thomas who had also travelled down to London from Northallerton.
	Over the next ten years a further three children were added to John’s and Jane’s family, and by 1891 they were living in Walthamstow. John Collitt was 39, Jane Elizabeth Collitt was 33, and their four children on that occasion were listed as May Eliza Collitt 10, John F Collitt 7, Stanley T Collitt 3, and Ernest H Collitt who was one year old.
	On the day of the census in April 1891 Jane Collitt would have been expecting the couple’s fifth and final child, who was born later that same year. However, just seven years after the birth, John Collitt died in London in 1899.
	In March 1901 widow Jane was recorded in the census return as Jane E Collett age 43 from Wapping, and the only two of her children living with her at that time were her eldest son John T Collett who was 17 and a junior commercial clerk, and her youngest son Percy F Collett age nine years.
	Of the other members of her family, only son Ernest has been positively identified and he, at 11 years of age, was attending a boarding school somewhere in Surrey.
	27Q1	May Eliza Collitt			Born in 1880
	27Q2	John F Collitt			Born in 1883
	27Q3	Stanley Thomas Collitt			Born in 1887
	27Q4	Ernest Harold Collitt			Born on 18.10.1889
	27Q5	Percy Frank Collitt			Born in 1891
27P2	Thomas Collitt was born at either Ainderby Steeple or Morton-on-Swale near Northallerton on 24.10.1852, the second son of Thomas Collett and Mary Flower. In the Northallerton census of 1861 Thomas Collitt was 8 years old and living there with his family. He had left the family home by 1871, but was living nearby his parents in Northallerton when he was 18.
	By 1881 he was still a bachelor at the age of 27, by which time he had moved south to Oxfordshire, where he was living and working in the picturesque Cotswold town of Burford. At that time in his life Thomas Collett was a draper and an outfitter living on the main High Street through the centre of the town. On that occasion his gave his place of birth as Morton-on-Swale.
	No record of Thomas Collitt or Collett from Northallerton has been found in any of the census returns for 1891, 1901 and 1911, so unless he died a young man, he is likely to have moved abroad.
27P3	Mary Hannah Collitt was born at Ainderby Steeple or Morton-on-Swale on 02.04.1855, the only daughter of Thomas Collett and Mary Flower. By the time of the census in 1861, which was conducted on the seventh April, Mary Hannah Collitt had been dead for five days, she having died on 02.04.1861.
27P4	Joshua Collitt was born at Ainderby Steeple, near Northallerton on 24.07.1858, the youngest child of Thomas Collett and Mary Flower. In the Northallerton census of 1861 he was two years old, and by 1871 he was 12 years of age and still living with his family in Northallerton.
	By 1881 Joshua had made his way south to London, following in the footsteps of his older brother John (above). According to the census in 1881 he was working as a draper’s assistant at the age of 23, when he was living at the home of his employer, draper William Cheyne from Scotland, at Bay Lodge on The Green in West Ham. His place of birth was simply given as Yorkshire.
	Joshua’s time in London seems to have been short lived, since by 1891 he was back living in the Northallerton area of Yorkshire, where he was married, and where his two children were born.
	From the census in 1891 it would appear that Joshua Collitt had returned from London a single man, but that it was in Northallerton that he married Mary Ann who was born there. The census return listed the Northallerton family as Joshua Collitt 31, Mary Ann Collitt 32, and their two children Sydney Thomas Collitt age 2 years, and Mary R Collitt who was one year old.
	The couple still had just the two children ten years later, when they were still living in Northallerton. The March 1901 census recorded the family was Joshua Collitt age 42, who occupation was a draper, his wife Mary Ann Collitt age 42, a milliner, and their children Sydney T Collitt 12, and Mary R Collitt who was 10. All four of them were confirmed as having been born at Northallerton.
	The complete family was still together ten years later in 1911, but by which time they had moved to Chorlton in Lancashire, that is Chorlton-cum-Hardy south-west of Manchester. Joshua Collitt was 53, Mary Ann Collitt was 50, Sydney Thomas Collitt was 22, and Mary Rebecca Collitt was 20.
	27Q6	Sydney Thomas Collitt			Born in 1888 at Northallerton
	27Q7	Mary Rebecca Collitt			Born in 1890 at Northallerton
27P5	Mary Hannah Atkinson Collitt was born at Ainderby Steeple near Northallerton during the first half of 1844 and was baptised there on 11.06.1844, the eldest child of John and Isabella Collitt.
27P6	Sarah Jane Collitt was born at Ainderby Steeple in 1846 where she was baptised on 27.07.1846, the daughter of John and Isabella Collett. Sarah was four years old in the Thirsk census of 1851, and with three further children added to her family during the next tens years, it was Sarah who made room by living with her grandmother Hannah Collitt, nearby in Northallerton.
	Sarah Jane Collitt was 14 by the time of the census in 1861, when it was confirmed she was living with seventy-five years old Hannah Collitt and her son William at Northallerton.
27P7	Isabella Collitt was possibly born at Kirby Wiske, five miles south of Northallerton, since that was given as her place of birth at the time of her marriage. However, no birth or baptism record has been located for her, so it is the census information which has determined when she was born, that being 1849.
	She was the daughter of John and Isabella Collitt, and was one year old in the Thirsk census of 1851. Ten years later she was living with her family in Northallerton when she was 11. By the time of the census in 1871 her father had died and Isabel Collitt was 21 and living and working in nearby Ripon.
	It was four years later during 1875, that Isabella Collitt married Chilton Fawcett at Stockton-on-Tees. Chilton was born at Thirsk in 1852, where he was baptised on 13.06.1852, the son of William and Elizabeth Fawcett. By 1881, joiner and inn keeper Chilton Fawcett was living with his family at The Masons Arms in Northallerton. Isabel was 31 and her place of birth was then given as Thirsk, the same as her husband.
	At that time Isabel had two young children, Chilton Fawcett who was one years old, and Harold Fawcett who was only one month old. Supporting the family was nurse Mary Middleton 67, and Lily Fowler who was a servant age 15 and from Northallerton , as was the nurse.
	Also living with the family, was Polly Fawcett age 24 and a dressmaker, who was Chilton’s cousin from Morton-on-Swale. Chilton Fawcett died just over ten years later on 02.06.1892 and was buried at Northallerton Cemetery. Isabel Fawcett died much later on 22.11.1932 and was buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church in Northallerton, as pictured here.
27P8	John William Collitt was born at Northallerton in 1851, where he was baptised on 09.11.1851, the son of John and Isabel Collitt. In 1861 John was 9 years old when living with his family at Northallerton, but it is not known where he was in 1871, when he would have been 19. Perhaps he was in military service with the army or the navy.
	When he was 30 years old, John W Collitt was a bachelor and a boarder at the home of labourer Robert Hare at 5 Golden (Colden) Street in Stockton-on-Tees. His place of birth was confirmed as Northallerton and his occupation was that of a grocer’s assistant.
	Also living in Stockton-on-Tees at that time was John’s married younger brother Joshua Collitt (below). However, sadly after this time no positive record of John William Collitt or Collett has been found within the census returns for 1891, 1901 and 1911. So it is possible that he moved abroad.
27P9	Joshua Collitt was born at Northallerton in 1853 and was baptised there on 14.08.1853 the youngest son of John and Isabella Collitt. Joshua was seven years old in the Northallerton census of 1861, when he was living there with his family. Joshua was still in Northallerton in 1871, when he was 18 and living near to where his widowed mother Isabella and youngest sister Priscilla were living.
	During the middle of the 1870s, Joshua became a married man in Stockton-on-Tees. According to the census in 1881, he was recorded as Joshua Collett, head of the house and married, while living at 3 Mill Lane in Stockton-on-Tees, by which time he was a general shop manager at the age of 27.
	Joshua’s wife was Eleanor Collett age 30 and from Stockton, and by that time the marriage had produced three children for the couple. They were Eleanor A Collett who was four, Joshua R Collett who was three, and Miriam Collett who was one year old, all three having been born at Stockton.
	The Collett family was supported by two servants, and they were Ellen Mitchell 18, and Margaret A Mellanby 17 who was a cook. It was later revealed that the R is their sons name was for Rose, which may have been Eleanor’s maiden name.
	Something happened during the 1880s which resulted in the couple’s three oldest children being absent from the Stockton family in 1891. So it is possible that they had been sent away to boarding school. Instead, in their place in the census of 1891 were four new younger children making up the Collett family.
	The full family listing that year comprised Joshua 37, Eleanor 40, with Florence H Collett 9, Lilian Collett 5, James Ed. Collett 3, and William Hy Collett who was one year old. No record of son Joshua has been found, but daughters Eleanor and Miriam were recorded together in the Aysgarth & Hawes area of North Yorkshire. However, all three children missing from their home in Stockton in 1891, were back there in the census in 1901, when they are once again all living with their parents.
	By that time in March 1901, the family was living at East Hartburn within the Stockton-on-Tees area. Joshua Collett was 47 and from Northallerton and was a general merchant in fancy goods, his wife Eleanor was 50, and their six children were Eleanor A Collett 24, an artist and musician, Joshua R collett 23 an assistant general merchant working with his father, Miriam Collett 21 a dressmaker, Florence Collett 18 a clerk working for her father, Lillian 14, and James 12, both still at school.
	From this it would appear that the couple’s youngest son William Henry Collett had suffered an infant death, since he would have been ten years old in 1901.
	Ten years later in April 1911, the family still living in the Stockton area was made up of Joshua 57, Eleanor 60, plus three of their children, they being Florence Isabella Collett 28, Lillian Collett 24, and James Edwin Collett 23.
	Also living with Joshua and Eleanor, was their grandson Stanley Rose Collet who was five years old and born at Stockton-on-Tees. Since their son Joshua was married by then, with a family of his own, it is possible the child was the base-born son of their daughter Lillian. Also by that time their daughter Miriam was married, while it is likely that Eleanor was as well.
	27Q8	Eleanor A Collett			Born in 1876
	27Q9	Joshua Rose Collett			Born in 1877
	27Q10	Miriam Collett			Born in 1879
	27Q11	Florence Isabella Collett			Born in 1881
	27Q12	Lillian Collett			Born in 1885
	27Q13	James Edwin Collett			Born in 1887 at Stockton
	27Q14	William Henry Collett			Born in 1890 at Stockton; infant death
27P10	Priscilla A Collitt was born at Northallerton in 1856, the youngest child of John and Isabella Collitt, although no birth or baptism record for her has been found. She was four years old in 1861 when she was living with her parents at Northallerton and, following the death of her father, she was 14 in 1871 when she was Priscilla A Collitt, the only child still living with her widowed mother.
27P11	Amy Helena Collitt was born at Northallerton on 28.08.1875, following the marriage of her parents William Collitt and Luciana Silvester at the start of that same year. In 1881 Amy was 5 years old when living at the High Street in Northallerton with her grocer father and the rest of her family. Ten years later she was recorded in error as Ann H Collitt 15, and the following year her father died in 1892.
	Nine years after that, in March 1901, she was still unmarried at 25 and was still living with, and supporting her widowed mother with her four sisters. However, during the following year she married James Rust Sturdy with whom she had had two children by the time of the census in 1911.
	The family at that time was still living in Northallerton and was made up of James Rust Sturdy 35, Amy Helene Sturdy 35, Marjorie Silvester Sturdy 7, and Amy Eileen Sturdy who was five.
	It was on 10.08.1969 at the age of 84, that Amy Helena Sturdy nee Collitt passed away.
27P12	Luciana Sarah Collitt was born at Northallerton on 08.08.1876, the second child of William and Luciana. It was as Luciana H Collitt, age 4, that she was recorded in the census of 1881, but was correctly shown as Luciana S Collitt age 14 and 24 respectively, in the Northallerton census returns for 1891, and 1901.
	She was still unmarried in April 1911, when she was one of three sisters still living with her widowed mother at Northallerton. On that occasion she was recorded as Luciana Sarah Collitt at the age of 34. Luciana was only 53 when she died on 24.11.1929.
27P13	William Silvester Collitt was born at Northallerton on 10.08.1877, the only son of William Collitt and Luciana Silvester. When he was three years old, and as William S Collitt, he was living with his family at the High Street in Northallerton where his father ran a grocer’s shop.
	Ten years later his family was still living in Northallerton, while 13 years old William S Collitt was a chorister attending Ripon Cathedral School, fourteen miles to the south of Northallerton. During the following year his father died at Northallerton in 1892.
	Around the end of the century William travelled to London from Yorkshire when he initially settled in the Chelsea area, where he worked as a chemist’s assistant. He later left London and finally settled in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.
	But it was in London that he married Elsie Agate Harris during March 1906, and with whom he had three children before the census in 1911. By that time the family had made the move to Clacton. The census return listed the family of five as William Silvester Collitt from Northallerton was 33, his wife Elsie Agate Collitt from London was 27, sons Stanley Silvester and Kenneth William were 4 and 3 respectively, and their daughter Phyllis Mary Collitt was just one month old.
	William Collitt died on 10.01.1955.
	27Q15	Stanley Silvester Collitt			Born on 09.07.1906
	27Q16	Kenneth William Collitt			Born on 29.09.1907
	27Q17	Phyllis Mary Collitt			Born on 06.03.1911
27P14	Mary Gertrude Collitt was born at Northallerton in 1878 and was two years old in the census of 1881, when she was living with her parents in the High Street in Northallerton. At the age of 13, in 1892, her grocer father William Collitt died, so in 1901 Mary G Collitt age 22, was one of four daughters of the widow Luciana Collitt still living with her mother.
	Tragically on 19.10.1908, at the age of 29, Mary Gertrude Collitt died at Northallerton.
27P15	Florence Hannah Collitt was born at Northallerton on 24.03.1881. On the third of April in 1881, the day of the national census, the daughter of William and Luciana Collitt had not been named, and was simply recorded in the census return as unnamed daughter of two weeks, when she was actually only ten days old.
	Florence H Collitt was ten years old in 1891, and sadly the following year her father died. As a result of this Florence was recorded as living with her widowed mother in 1901, at the age of 20, and again in 1911, when she was 29.
	It was after that time, and possibly following the death of her mother, that Florence married Wilf (Wilfred) Burton to become Florence Hannah Burton.
27P16	Selina Rose Victoria Collitt was born at Northallerton on 14.04.1887, the youngest child of William Collitt and Lucian Silvester. Selina was just four years old when her father died at Northallerton in 1892.
	Over the following two decades Selina remained living with her mother at Northallerton. In 1901 she was 13, and in 1911 she was 23. Although not confirmed, it is likely that she never married, since on Selina Rose Victoria Collitt died on 18.08.1944 at the age of 57.
27P17	Alice Collett was born in 1831 in the civil parish of Thornham. Alice married George Firth of Pilsworth which, like the township of Thornham, was dissolved in 1894 and became part of Bury.
	According to the 1881 Census Alice Firth aged 49 and George Firth aged 56 were living at Stakehill in Thornham. Living with them was niece (sic) Alice Collett nee Wild aged 29 who was actually the wife of Alice’s cousin William (below), and with her were her two sons Robert aged 5 and John aged 4, both born at Thornham.
27P18	Alice Bickerdike Collett was born at Harewood in 1846, the first child of farmer John Scarr Collett and Alice Hardcastle. Alice was living at Harewood with her parents in 1851 at the age of four years, and again ten years later when she was fourteen.
	Alice married James Young Teale of Harewood around 1870 with whom she had five children before April 1881. Also by that time her father had been dead for nearly eight years, following which Alice and James Teale had inherited part of the farm holding previously owned by him up until his death in 1872.
	The census return for Harewood in 1881 confirmed that Alice Bickerdike Collett was thirty-four and from Harewood and that her husband James Young Teale was forty-one and also from Harewood. It also confirmed that James was a farmer of 75 acres at Burns Farm, employing one labourer.
	Burns Farm had previously been recorded as 104 acres when under the ownership of John Scarr Collett, so it is likely that the residual acreage may have been passed to another member of his family at the time of his death.
	All of the children of Alice and James Teale, apart from the eldest child, had been born at Harewood, and these were James Teale who had been born at Leeds who was nine, Alice Teale who was seven, Mary Teale who was six, Jane Teale who was four, and baby Young Teale who was just four months.
	Living in the adjacent property at Biggin Farm was Alice’s uncle William Collett, the younger brother of her father, and close by also was Middlefield Farm which was still owned and managed by her uncle Robert Collett, William’s older brother.
27P19	WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Harewood in 1848, the only son of John Scarr Collett and Alice Hardcastle. It was at Harewood that he was living with his family in 1851 and again in 1861, when he was two years and twelve years old respectively.
	Sometime during the following few years his mother died and by the time of the census of 1871 he had left the family home at Middlefield in Harewood, where his widowed father and his younger sisters were still living.
	Although no trace of William has been found in the census of 1871, it was shortly after this that he married Alice Wild at Middleton near Manchester, possibly around 1873. Alice Wild was born at Thornham in 1851 and baptised at Shaw on 27.04.1851, the daughter of Joseph Wild and Sarah Greenwood. It was also at Thornham that the two sons of William and Alice were both born.
	Whatever happened to William in either 1871 or 1881 or thereafter is not known, but by the time of the census in 1881 his wife was described as being married, rather than a widow. His absence in each case may indicate that he was a soldier and was serving with the army overseas.
	The census of 1881 listed Alice Collett and her two sons as living at the family home of farm labourer George Firth and his wife Alice, at Stakehill in Thornham. Alice Firth was formerly Alice Collett who was born at Thornham in 1831, the daughter of Thomas Collett of Harewood (Ref. 27N8), and the cousin of William Collett.
	Married Alice Collett was twenty-nine and her sons Robert and John were five years and four years old respectively, all three confirmed as having been born at Thornham. Alice was working as a preparer at the local bleach works, and rather curiously she was referred to as being the niece of the head of the household, while her two sons were described as nephews.
	This may have been a simple way of explaining that Alice Collett was the wife of George Firth’s cousin-in-law William Collett. <