PART FORTY-ONE

The Middlesex Harefield Line

This line commences with Henry Collett (Ref. 1M28)

of Kempsford in Gloucestershire

Updated September 2011

This is the family line of Jean Ferguson (see Ref. 41P10) of Cheshire depicted

in capitals and Cheryl Collett (Ref. 41S1) in the USA, whose great grandfather

was George Collett (Ref. 41P6) of Harefield & Washington depicted by underlining.

As a result of the August 2008 update it is also the family line of

Trevor Collette (Ref. 41S4) of Kingston in Ontario

The April 2010 update was thanks to Rebecca Humphreys of Farnham in Surrey

whose great great grandfather was Henry James Collett (Ref. 41P1)

A previous update included the family line of Brian Arthur Collett (41R23)

of Sutton in Surrey who kindly provided the new information regarding his family

41M1	HENRY COLLETT (Ref. 1M28) was the second son of Robert and Mary Collett and was born at Kempsford on 2^nd April 1772 where he was baptised on 27^th April 1772. He was born into a tragic family as his older brother John had died an infant death, his only younger sister Elizabeth also died in the same way when he was just approaching his fifth birthday, and shortly after that his father died.
	So the family, that would have otherwise been six in number, was reduced to just three, they being Henry, his widowed mother Mary, and his only surviving younger brother John. Mary then appears to have sought solace with local blacksmith by the name of Joseph Bunce, as a result of which, just over a year later, she brought into the family a base-born child. This was followed eighteen months later by a second base-born child, the father for whom was not known.
	It was initially believed that at some time in his life Henry left Gloucestershire and made his way to Cornwall, most likely for work reasons. It was also believed that it was there that he met Elizabeth Withiell who was born in Cornwall in 1770. Not long after they met it was understood that they were married at Philleigh on 16^th August 1792, when Henry Collett was recorded as being a farmer.
	It has long been acknowledged that there was a seven years gap between the date of their wedding and the birth of their first confirmed child, leading to speculation that there may have been others born during this period.
	Since then, new information has come to light which places a question-mark over Henry’s marriage to Elizabeth Withiell. The alternative option, which is now considered to be more realistic, was that Henry moved to London, rather than Cornwall, where he married Elizabeth Woods on 31^st December 1798 at St Mary’s Church on Marylebone Road in the City Borough of Marylebone. This date correlates better with the birth of their first child.
	Sometime after they were married the couple left the City of London and settled at Harefield in Middlesex, where all of their children were born. The baptisms for all of the children listed below were conducted out at St Mary’s Church in Harefield.
	Previously it was thought that more children than listed below had been born in the years between 1793 and 1800 and that one of these may well have been Thomas Collett born in 1793. This now seems unlikely but is still worth a mention, as Thomas Collett in 1841 was the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the Brentford, Staines & Uxbridge registration district which included Harefield. It was in that capacity that he recorded the birth in December 1840 of Richard Benjamin Collett, the grandson of Henry Collett, and the eldest son of Richard Collett (below) who was born in 1809.
	At the time of his son Richard’s marriage, in December 1837, Henry was reported to be working as a watchman. This too seems at odds with him being a farmer in Cornwall in 1792 and again might be a further clue that he was not the Henry Collett who married Elizabeth Withiell at Philleigh.
	Four years after the marriage of his son Richard, at the time of the first national census in 1841, Henry and his wife Elizabeth were both listed as being 70 years of age, while they were living at Copper Mill Lane in Harefield Living with them was their married son Richard and his family, including the aforementioned grandson Richard Benjamin Collett.
	It should be noted for this census only that the age of adults was crudely taken by the fifth and tenth years, i.e. 25, 30, 35, 40. Only the age of the younger children was given more accurately.
	Almost four years later Henry’s wife Elizabeth Collett died at Harefield, during the second quarter of 1845, leaving Henry as a widower, who was confirmed was being 79 at the time of the next census in 1851. The detail in the census return recorded that he was born at Kempsford and that he was a labourer with a pension. Still living with Henry at that time was his son Richard, together with his wife Sarah and their eight children.
	Henry Collett survived for almost another two years after the census day, and died at Harefield during the first quarter of 1853.
	41N1	John Collett		Born in 1800 at Harefield
	41N2	Robert Henry Collett		Born in 1802 at Harefield
	41N3	WILLIAM COLLETT		Born in 1804 at Harefield
	41N4	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1806 at Harefield
	41N5	James Collett		Born in 1807 at Harefield
	41N6	Richard Collett		Born in 1809 at Harefield
	41N7	Jonathan Collett		Born in 1811 at Harefield
	41N8	Ann Collett		Born in 1812 at Harefield
	41N9	Sarah Ann Collett		Born in 1816 at Harefield
41N2	Robert Henry Collett was born at Harefield in 1802, where he was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 9^th May 1802, the second child born to Henry and Elizabeth Collett. Robert later married Ann and the marriage produced three known children, who were all born at Harefield. Robert was in his early thirties at the time of their wedding, while Ann was about ten years younger than Robert.
	In 1841 he was listed in the census as having a rounded age of 35 and of Harefield, while his wife Ann was 25. Living with them at Harefield were the couple’s three children, Mary who was five, Henry who was three, and Ruth who was two years old. Ten years later it was the same situation, except that the Harefield census of 1851 provided more accurate details of Robert’s and Ann’s ages.
	Robert Collett was 48 and Ann was only 38. Their three children were again recorded as Mary Collett, who was 14, Henry Collett, who was 13, and Ruth Collett, who was 11 years of age. During the next decade the two oldest children left the family home in Harefield, leaving just the youngest child still living there with her parents in 1861. By that time Robert H Collett was 58, his wife was 47, and their daughter Ruth was 21.
	Where the couple’s unmarried daughter Mary was at that time has not been determined, but following the death of Ann Collett during the 1860s, Mary had returned home to look after her widowed father by the time of the next census in 1871. The Harefield census that year recorded Robert Henry Collett, age 69, still living there, but with just his two daughters, Mary A Collett, age 34, and Ruth Collett who was 31.
	According to the Harefield census of 1881, Robert H Collett was a widower of 80 years who had been born at Harefield, and who was living at Park Lane in the village, just one house along from his nephew James T B Collett, and two doors from another of his nephews Charles Collett.
	Living with Robert in the spring of 1881 were his two unmarried daughters Mary A Collett, who was 44, and Edith Collett who was 41, both of them born at Harefield. The name Edith was very likely an error in transcription for Ruth, who was recorded as being blind. With Robert’s advancing years, his absence from the census in 1891 may indicate that he died sometime during the 1880s.
	41O1	Mary Ann Collett		Born in 1836 at Harefield
	41O2	Henry Collett		Born in 1837 at Harefield
	41O3	Ruth Collett		Born in 1839 at Harefield
41N3	WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Harefield in 1804, where he was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 8^th December 1804. He married Elizabeth Sheerwood (see below) who was also born around 1803, but at nearby Ickenham near Ruislip in Middlesex. Once they were married the couple settled in Harefield, where all of their children were born.
	William’s occupation was that of a butcher and the 1841 Census confirmed that he was married to Elizabeth and that they were living in Harefield village with five of their children. Also living with them was Betty Sheerwood, age 65, who was very likely Elizabeth’s mother. William and Elizabeth were both recorded with a rounded age of 35, whereas the age of their children was more accurately stated. William was 15, Ellen was nine, Isaac was four, Jacob was two, while the youngest member of the family at that time was baby Emma, who was just six months old.
	No trace has been found of the three missing children, George, Abraham and Sarah, in any of the national census records, so it must be assumed that they had died as infants prior to 1841. Nor has any trace been found of William’s youngest son John, either in the census of 1851 or any later census records. In 1851 the family living at Harefield was recorded as William, age 47, like his wife Elizabeth, Ellen who was 20, Isaac 14, Jacob 12, Emma 10, David who was six, and Job who was five, and all of them with the exception of Elizabeth had been born at Harefield.
	By April 1861 William was described as a master butcher, while he and his wife Elizabeth, both aged 57, were living with their four unmarried sons at the High Street in Harefield. Once again their place of birth was confirmed as being Harefield and Ickenham respectively. Their unmarried sons were William, who was 34, Jacob, who was 21, David, who was 17, and Job who was 15.
	Also living with the family was George Collett Jones, who was eight years old and born at Harefield, who was listed as being the grandson of William and Elizabeth. George was the son of their daughter Ellen and was most likely base-born, hence the reason for him being with his grandparents.
	William and Elizabeth both appeared in the 1871 Census and both were 67, and the only one of their children who was still living with them was Job, who was 26. By April 1881 William Collett, age 77 and a butcher from Harefield, was living with his married son Jacob and his family in the High Street in Harefield. At that same time William’s wife Elizabeth Collett, age 79 and from Ruislip, was staying with another of her married sons, David and his family, at the Grocer’s Shop in Harefield.
	It has been assumed that both William and Elizabeth passed away during the next decade, since no record of them has been found within the census of 1891.
	41O4	William Henry Collett	Born in 1826 at Harefield
	41O5	Mary Collett	Born in 1829 at Harefield
	41O6	Ellen Collett	Born in 1831 at Harefield
	41O7	George Collett	Born in 1832 at Harefield; infant death
	41O8	Abraham Collett	Born in 1833 at Harefield; infant death
	41O9	Sarah Collett	Born in 1835 at Harefield; infant death
	41O10	Isaac Collett	Born in 1836 at Harefield
	41O11	JACOB COLLETT	Born in 1839 at Harefield
	41O12	Emma Collett	Born in 1840 at Harefield
	41O13	David Collett	Born in 1843 at Harefield
	41O14	Job Collett	Born in 1845 at Harefield
	41O15	John Collett	Born in 1846 at Harefield; infant death
41N4	Elizabeth Collett was born at Harefield in 1806 and was baptised there in St Mary’s Church on 26^th March 1806.
41N5	James Collett was born at Harefield where he was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 15^th March 1807, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Collett. No mention of him has been found in any of the census records.
41N6	Richard Collett was born at Harefield in 1809 and it was there that he was baptised in St Mary’s Church on 26^th December 1809, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Collett. At the age of 28 he was a labourer working at a local mill on the occasion of his marriage to Sarah Bolton at Harefield on 25^th December 1837. Sarah was 26 and had been born at nearby Chalfont in Buckinghamshire in 1811, and she was the daughter of gardener Henry Bolton and his wife Elizabeth.
	Richard and Sarah were both residing in Harefield at the time of their wedding, and both of them made the mark of a cross on the marriage certificate, which was witnessed by Sarah’s mother. After they were married the couple continued to live with Richard’s parents at Copper Mill Lane in Harefield, where all of their children were born.
	The Registrar at Uxbridge, whose name appears on the birth certificate for the couple’s second child, was Thomas Collett. It is possible that he was related in some way to Richard, but this has not yet been determined. Richard’s occupation, as stated on the birth certificate at that time in 1840, was that of a groom.
	Six months later the 1841 Census confirmed that the family was still living with Richard’s parents Henry and Elizabeth Collett, at their home in Copper Mill Lane in Harefield. The family comprised Richard Collett who was 30, his wife Sarah who was 25, their daughter Elizabeth who was two years old, and their son Richard who was only six months old.
	Ten years later, according to the census of 1851, Richard Collett was 41, while Sarah was 39. During the previous ten years a further six children had been added to the family, and the couple and their eight children were still living at the Harefield home of Richard’s father Henry Collett from Gloucestershire.
	The eight children recorded on the census return in 1851 were Elizabeth Collett, age 12, Richard Benjamin Collett, age 11, Sarah Collett who was nine, Mary Ann Collett who was eight, Ann Collett who was six, James Collett who was three, and twins John and Harriet Collett who were both two months old. All of the children were confirmed as being born at Harefield.
	Two years later the family was completed with the birth of Richard’s and Sarah’s final child. However, it would also appear that one of the twins, John, died while still very young, just after the census in 1851. Ten years later in 1861 the Harefield census that year listed the family as Richard, age 52, who was working as a labourer, while his wife Sarah was 48. Only five of their nine children were living with them at that time, and they were Richard B Collett, age 20, Anne Collett, age 15, James Collett, age 12, Harriet Collett, age 10, and Thomas Collett who was seven years old.
	It was also at Harefield that Richard Collett died just over five years later on 11^th June 1866 at the age of 57. His death was recorded at Uxbridge, and the informant was his married daughter Elizabeth Green, nee Collett. The death certificate recorded that Richard was formerly a gas maker, and that the cause of death was bronchitis.
	His widow Sarah Collett continued to live at Harefield after his passing, and was recorded there in the census of 1871 when, as the widow Sarah Collett, she was 58. The only member of her family living with her on that occasion was her granddaughter Emily Mary Collett, who was three years old. Emily was the base-born child of Sarah’s unmarried daughter Mary Ann Collett.
	41O16	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1838 at Harefield
	41O17	Richard Benjamin Collett		Born in 1840 at Harefield
	41O18	Sarah Collett		Born in 1841 at Harefield
	41O19	Mary Ann Collett		Born in 1842 at Harefield
	41O20	Ann Collett		Born in 1845 at Harefield
	41O21	James Theophilus Bolton Collett		Born in 1848 at Harefield
	41O22	John Collett twin		Born in January 1851 at Harefield
	41O23	Harriet Collett twin		Born in January 1851 at Harefield
	41O24	Thomas Collett		Born in 1853 at Harefield
41N7	Jonathan Collett was born at Harefield in 1811 and it was there that he was baptised in St Mary’s Church on 17^th December 1811. He later married Margaret and both he and his wife were listed as having a rounded age of 25 in the Harefield census of 1841. By that time the marriage had produced two children for Jonathan and Margaret, and they were Charles, for was four, and Maria who was still under one year old.
	Maria did not survive and died during the next few years, although the couple’s loss was offset by the birth of a second daughter shortly after. One further child was added to the family during the next five years, so by the time of the census in 1851 the family living in Harefield was made up of Jonathan, who was 40, Margaret, who was 38, and their three children, Charles, age 13, Elizabeth Margaret who was seven, and George who was four years old. It should be noted that Elizabeth has been difficult to trace in the following census returns because she often used her second forename.
	It is highly likely that Jonathan and Margaret were preparing for the birth of another addition to the family on the census day in 1851, with another son born to the couple shortly thereafter. However, further tragedy seems to have struck the family after the census that year, when it would appear that their son George, passed away during the 1850s, but once again their loss was partly compensated by the birth of the couple’s final children.
	Only two of the three new children were reflected in the Harefield census of 1861, which listed Jonathan Collett as 49, Margaret Collett as 48, with their three surviving sons, Charles Collett, who was 23, Jonathan Collett, who was 11, and Frederick H Collett, who was eight years old. Sometime during the next decade both Jonathan and Margaret died, leaving just their youngest son still living with their eldest son at Harefield, with their other son Jonathan having left home for work reasons by then, although he and his sister Elizabeth did return to the family home in Harefield at a later date.
	41O25	Charles Collett	Born in 1837 at Harefield
	41O26	Maria Collett	Born in 1840 at Harefield; infant death
	41O27	Elizabeth Margaret Collett	Born in 1844 at Harefield
	41O28	George Collett	Born in 1846 at Harefield; infant death
	41O29	Jonathan Collett	Born in 1851 at Harefield
	41O30	Frederick Henry Collett	Born in 1853 at Harefield
41N8	Ann Collett was born at Harefield in 1812 and baptised there at St Mary’s Church on 26^th December 1812, the daughter of Henry Collett and Elizabeth Woods.
41O1	Mary Ann Collett was born at Harefield in 1836. She never married and at the age of 44 in 1881, she was living with her elderly widowed father Robert Collett at Park Lane in Harefield, with her unmarried sister Ruth, who was recorded in error as Edith Collett. The earlier census returns for Harefield in 1841 and 1851 included Mary as being five years old and 14 years of age, respectively.
	She was absent from the family home in 1861, because she and her brother Henry (below) were both living and working in the Watford area, where Mary Ann Collett from Harefield was 23 (sic). However, following the death of her mother during the 1860s, Mary Ann had returned to Harefield by the time of the census in 1871 to look after her widowed father, by which time she was 34.
	Whether by coincidence or not, unmarried Mary A Collett, age 53 and from Harefield, was living within the Watford registration in 1891, where her unmarried cousin Harriet Collett (Ref. 41O23), age 40 and from Harefield, was also living at that time. In addition to these two members of the family, also living in the same registration district was their niece Rosina Collett (Ref. 41P32), who was 16 and also from Harefield
	Mary’s time at Watford appears to have been short-lived, because by March 1901 she was living at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire with her brother Henry (below) and his wife Ann. The census that year recorded that Mary A Collett from Harefield was 64 years old, but with no listing for her in the next census of 1911, it must be assumed that she had died during the first decade of the new century.
41O2	Henry Collett was born at Harefield in 1837 and was three years old in the census of 1841, when he was living at Harefield with his parents, Robert Henry and Ann Collett. Ten years later in 1851 Henry was 13 and was still living with his parents. On leaving school he took up the occupation of a baker, and both he and his sister Mary Ann (above) were living and working in the Watford registration district of Hertfordshire in 1861, when he was recorded as Henry Collett, age 23, from Harefield. Shortly after that Henry married Ann Sears who was born at Rickmansworth in 1835.
	It would appear that the marriage did not produce any children for Henry and Ann, since in the census of 1871 the childless couple were living in Reading St Mary, where Henry Collett from Harefield was 33, while his wife Ann from Hertfordshire was 35. By the time of the census in 1881, Henry, age 43, was a baker living at Newbury Street in Wantage in Berkshire (part of Oxfordshire from April 1974). With him was his wife Ann, age 45, together with her nephew George T Sears, who was 15 and from Paddington in London.
	Sometime during the following years the couple returned to live in Reading, where they were incorrectly recorded at the time of the census in 1891. Henry Callett (sic) from Harefield was 53, and his wife Ann was 55. Another move took place during the 1890s, since by March 1901, Henry Collett, age 63 and from Harefield, and his wife Ann Collett, age 65 and from Rickmansworth, were then living in Cheltenham, where Henry was described as a journeyman baker. Living there with them was Henry’s older sister Mary A Collett (above).
41O3	Ruth Collett was born at Harefield in 1839, the youngest of the three known children of Robert Henry Collett and his wife Ann. According to the census records she lived all her early years at Harefield, where in 1841 she was two, in 1851 she was 11, in 1861 she was 21, and in 1871 she was 31.
	It would appear that she never married and in the census of 1881 she was registered as blind at the age of 41, although she was incorrectly recorded in the census as Edith Collett. On that occasion she was living with her elderly widowed father Robert Collett and her unmarried sister Mary A Collett (above) at Park Lane in Harefield. With her elderly father passing away during the next few years, it has not been determined exactly what had happened to Ruth by 1891.
41O4	William Henry Collett was born at Harefield in either later 1825 or early 1826 and was baptised there on 15^th January 1826. The baptism record confirmed that his mother was Elizabeth, and that his father was William, a master butcher. William Henry was listed as being aged 15 in the census of 1841, although his given age in the subsequent census returns deviated from this.
	For example in 1861 he was 34. At that time he was still a bachelor and was still living with his parents at their home in the High Street in Harefield. His occupation was that of Master Butcher, like his father, with whom he was presumably working.
	Seven weeks after the day of the census William married Ann Calcutt of Northamptonshire on 27^th May 1861 at Limehouse in Stepney. The witnesses at the ceremony were David Collett, William’s younger brother, and Eliza Climpson. The marriage register recorded that both William and Ann were living at West India Road, which was in Poplar close by Limehouse.
	Ann was born on 1^st February 1838 at Steane Park, just north-west of Brackley, the daughter of James Calcutt and Hannah Matthews who were married at Lower Heyford in Oxfordshire on 3^rd November 1834. What may be of interest is that James Calcutt was a shepherd born at Stonesfield in Oxfordshire, which also had a contingent of Colletts living there. See Part 38 - The Oxfordshire Stonemasons.
	Living near to William and Ann in Poplar at that time was William’s younger sister Emma who had just married George Goodman. Ann, being much younger than William, formed a close relationship with her sister-in-law Emma, who was a similar age, and this closeness was continued by each of their eldest children, they being Henry, the son of William, and Harriet, the daughter of Emma, who were married nearly twenty years later.
	During the ten years following their wedding day, the marriage produced five children for William and Ann, and all of them were born at Mile End Old Town in Stepney. The birth certificate for their third child Laura, revealed that the family was living at 7 William Street in Mile End Old Town. Within the next two years the family left William Street and by April 1871 they were living at 18 Roberts Place in Mile End Old Town in the St Philips West Tower Hamlets district of London, from where William was continuing to work as a butcher.
	According to the 1871 Census the respective ages given for William and Ann were incorrect, being 40 and 39, whereas they should have been nearer 44 and 32, with their age difference being twelve years. The reason for this may have been the embarrassment caused by the great difference in their ages. In that same census William’s and Ann’s children were listed as Henry, who was eight, Eliza, who was six, and Louisa (sic) who was two years old. It seems highly likely that Ann was with-child on the day of the census in 1871, since the couple’s fourth child was born later that same year.
	A few years later Ann presented her husband with their fifth child, but this happy event was followed shortly after by a major tragedy for the family, when William died at the age of 50. It was in 1875 that William Henry Collett died and was buried at St Saviours Church in Bow Common. His age at the time of his death was given as 55, which again was in conflict with his actual age. So by the time of the census of 1881 Ann Collett was recorded as being a widow. However, although she has been located within the census records for that year, she did not have her children with her.
	The 1881 Census confirmed that Ann Collett, from Steane Park near Brackley, was a widow and was a general servant working at the Kings Arms public house at 18 Moor Street in Soho. Ann gave her age as being 40, when in fact she was 42. Moor Street is still there today, just off Cambridge Circus on Shaftesbury Avenue. The proprietor and licenced victualler of the inn was Mr W Wheatley, 46 of Colmworth in Bedfordshire, with his younger wife Emily who was 29 and from Kingland in Middlesex. The couple’s daughter was two years old Beatrice who was born at Soho.
	Three of Ann’s children were also living in the Soho area at this time, and they were Henry Collett who was head of the household, who said he was 21, when he was nearer 18, his sister Amy, who was eleven, and his brother Arthur, who was six years old.
	Ten years later in 1891 Ann was listed as living at 29 Hilldrop Crescent with her unmarried daughter Laura. Ann Collett was 49 and was employed as a cook, while Laura, who was 20, was a domestic housemaid. Hilldrop Crescent is still there today, just off the A503 Camden Road. As no record of daughter Eliza has ever been found, except in the 1871 Census, it might be assumed that she may have died around 1875, when her father passed away, and when she was approximately 10 years old.
	With no record for Ann found in the 1901 Census, coupled with no mention of her in 1894 at the time her daughter Laura was married, it must be assumed that she had died sometime between April 1891 and October 1894.
	Previously the original information on William H Collett suggested that he died at Uxbridge in 1913, but this was obviously not correct, and could not have been this particular William Collett. So it may have been the William Collett from Ruislip in Middlesex, who was married to Harriet from Brightwalton in Berkshire. In 1881 this couple was living at Ruislip village with their two children. Agricultural labourer William was 30, Harriet was 31, Ellen Collett was four, and John Collett was two, both children having been born at Ruislip. Certain William Collett, age 57, was still living at Ruislip in 1911. And still living there with him was his wife Harriet, age 59, and his son John, age 31, with his two children Emmie Collett, age 9, and Harold Collett who was four, but no wife.
	41P1	Henry James Collett		Born in 1862 at Stepney
	41P2	Eliza Collett		Born in 1865 at Stepney
	41P3	Laura Collett		Born in 1869 at Stepney
	41P4	Amy Collett		Born in 1871 at Stepney
	41P5	Arthur Collett		Born in 1874 at Stepney
41O5	Mary Collett was born at Harefield in 1829, the eldest daughter of William Collett and his wife Elizabeth Sheerwood.
41O6	Ellen Collett was born at Harefield in 1831. As Ellen she was listed as being nine years old in the census of 1841. Around the age of 21 she fell pregnant and in 1853 she gave birth at Harefield to a base-born son who was given the name George Collett Jones. It would appear that her illegitimate son was taken into the care of his grandparents in Harefield, and that at some later time Ellen appears to have married the boy’s father, or possibly his brother or some other member of the Jones family.
	The whereabouts of Ellen and her husband has not been determined from the 1861 Census, but her son was then as being eight years of age and was confirmed as still living with his grandparents at their home in the High Street in Harefield. It would appear that when he was old enough, Ellen’s son dropped Jones from his name. It may also have been a result of the shame associated with having an illegitimate child that Ellen left Harefield and moved into London, where she referred to herself as Helen.
	By 1881 Ellen, then confirmed as Helen Jones, was a widow at 50 who had been born at Harefield. She was working as a letter carrier, while living in the third house along the High Street in Harefield. Also living in the High Street at that time was her brother Jacob Collett and his family (see below).
	Living there with her were her on that occasion were her three children. They were her sons Frederick Jones, age 18, and David Jones, age 16, both of them working as brick-maker’s labourers, and her daughter Caroline Jones who was 11. All three children were confirmed as having been born at Harefield.
	It seems likely, although not confirmed, that in 1871 Helen Jones, her husband and their three children were living in the Southwark St Saviour area of London and that she only returned to live at Harefield upon the event of the death of her husband sometime between 1872 and 1880.
	Within the Collett Family Bible there is a reference to the death of Helen Ellen Morgan nee Collett who died on 7^th June 1927. Since Ellen Collett of Harefield, born in 1831, was still recorded in the census of 1881 as Helen Jones, it is possible that she was married for a second time sometime after then, to become Ellen Morgan. Unfortunately there is no mention of Helen Ellen Morgan’s age at the time of her death, but if she was Ellen Collett she would have been ninety-four.
	41P6	George James Collett (Jones)		Born on 15.06.1853 at Harefield
41O10	Isaac Collett was born at Harefield in 1836. He was confirmed as being four years old in the 1841 Census and was 14 in 1851, when he was living with his parents at Harefield, but there is no record of him living in the UK thereafter.
41O11	JACOB COLLETT was born at Harefield in 1839. He was listed as being two years old in the Harefield census of 1841, and was 12 at the time of the census there in 1851. On leaving school he took up employment as an agricultural labourer and in 1861, when he was 21, he was unmarried and was still living with his parents at the High Street in Harefield.
	Four years later Jacob Collett married Margaret Lacey at nearby Uxbridge in early 1865, following which the couple settled in Harefield, where all of their children were born. Margaret was born at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire in 1845, and was the daughter of Alice Lacey.
	At the time of the 1871 Census for Harefield, Jacob gave his age as 32, while Margaret stated she was 26. By that time in their lives the couple had only two of their four children living with them, following the premature deaths of the other two. Isaac Collett was four years old, and Ellen Collett was not yet one year old.
	Ten years later, according to the census in 1881, Jacob Collett from Harefield was working as a brick-maker at Harefield, when he gave his age in error as 39. This was the year he was born, rather than the 41 years of age that it should have been. Margaret stated she was 35 and born at High Wycombe.
	The couple’s children living with them at that time were Isaac Collett 14, Ellen Collett 11, Emma Collett who was nine, Flora Collett who was five, and Alfred Collett who was two years old, and all of them confirmed as having been born at Harefield. Jacob’s son Isaac had already followed in his father’s footsteps and in 1881 he was working with his father as a brick-maker’s labourer.
	Also living with the family was Jacob’s father William Collett the butcher who was 77, and a lodger in 14 years old Robert Bugbee of Harefield who was an agricultural labourer, and he was very likely related to Richard Bugbee, who later married Emily Mary Collett (Ref. 41P27). At that time in 1881, the Collett family was living in a dwelling on the High Street in Harefield, only a few doors away from Jacob’s sister Helen Jones nee Collett (above). Also on the day of the census Jacob and Margaret may have been expecting the birth of their next child, who was born later that same year, and was followed by two more children born into the family over the next four years.
	The three new arrivals were confirmed in the next census in 1891 when Jacob was 50, and his wife was 45. However, by that day three of the couple’s four eldest children had already left the family’s home in Harefield, so still living with them was Emma Collett, age 17, Alfred Collett, age 13, Mabel Collett who was nine, George Collett who was seven, and Ellen Collett who was five years old.
	According to the March census in 1901, Jacob Collett and his family were still residing at an address on the High Street in Harefield, where Jacob, age 62, was employed as a bricklayer’s labourer. Still living there with him was his wife Margaret who was 55, while the only children still living with the couple were Thomas A Collett, who was 22 and a labourer at the nearby cement works, Louis G Collett who was 18 and a bricklayer’s apprentice, and their daughter Ethel Collett who was 15 and a cotton spinner.
	Ten years later the Harefield census in 1911 confirmed that only the two youngest sons were still living with Jacob, who was 73, and Margaret, who was 65. They were Alfred Thomas Collett, who was 28, and Lewis George Collett who was 25. All three men were confirmed as having been born at Harefield, while Margaret’s place of birth was simply stated as Buckinghamshire. It should be noted that the surname was incorrectly recorded with just one T, and also that the age of the two sons conflicted with their ages in all of the previous census returns, since Alfred was nearer 32, while Lewis was 28.
	41P7	Jonas Collett		Born in 1865; infant death
	41P8	Isaac Collett		Born in 1866 at Harefield
	41P9	David Collett		Born in 1868; infant death
	41P10	ELLEN ELIZABETH COLLETT		Born in 1870 at Harefield
	41P11	Emma Collett		Born in 1872 at Harefield
	41P12	Flora Collett		Born in 1875 at Harefield
	41P13	Alfred Thomas Collett		Born in 1878 at Harefield
	41P14	Mabel Collett		Born in 1881 at Harefield
	41P15	Lewis George Collett		Born in 1883 at Harefield
	41P16	Ethel Collett		Born in 1885 at Harefield
41O12	Emma Collett was born at Harefield in December 1840 and was six months old at the time of the census in 1841 which took place on 6^th June that year. By 1851 Emma was 10 and was living with her family at Harefield in the Uxbridge & Hillingdon registration district. It would appear that on leaving school Emma sought work in the Watford area and in the 1861 Census she was incorrectly listed as being 22. It was probably while she was at Watford that she met miller George Goodman and, less than a year after the census day, they were married at Holy Trinity Church in Kentish Town on 20^th January 1862.
	George was a similar age to Emma, having been born at Rickmansworth in 1839. The couple’s first child, Harriet Goodman, was born in July the same year that they were married. Not long after that the family settled in Poplar, living near to where Emma’s older brother William Henry Collett (above) was living at that time. There then followed the birth of a further thirteen children born to the couple over the next two decades.
	In 1871 the family of seven was living in the ‘Leather Market’ district of St Olave Southwark on the south side of the River Thames in London. The census return listed the family as living in a house on William Street in Bermondsey, where George was 31 and still working as a miller, his wife Emma was 30, and their five children at that time were Janet Goodman, who was eight, Alice Goodman, who was seven, Eliza Goodman, who was five, David Goodman, who was three, and George Goodman who was two years old.
	Rather curiously the couple’s eldest child Harriet Goodman was not living with the family on that occasion. Instead, it looks as though she was living with her father’s brother Robert Goodman and his wife Emma Goodman, formerly Washbrook, at Watford, when she was described as being 11 and a silk winder. However, ten years after that Harriet Goodman was visiting her cousin Henry James Collett (Ref. 41P1) at 16 Church street in Soho, whom she married shortly after the census in 1881.
	During the next ten years three children were added to the family which, by the time of the census in 1881, was living at 4 Abbey Street South in Bermondsey. Abbey Street today is the B202 link road between Tower Bridge Road (A100) and Jamaica Road (A200). George was no longer a miller, his occupation then being that of a carman, while living with him was his wife Emma and six of their children. They were Eliza Goodman, who was 15 and working as a domestic servant, David Goodman, who was 14 and still at school, George Goodman, who was 13 and an errand boy, Edmond Goodman, who was nine, Ellen Goodman, who was two, and Ernest Goodman who was just seven months old, having been born on 12^th August 1880.
	Two more children were born into the family shortly after the census year and so by 1891 the Bermondsey family comprised George Goodman 54, Emma Goodman 52, George Goodman 22, Edmond Goodman 18, Ellen Goodman 12, Ernest Goodman 10, Alfred Goodman who was eight, and John Goodman who was seven years old.
	Just after the turn of the century George was still working as a carman in London at the age of 62. Emma was then 61 and the only one of their children still living with them was John Goodman who was 17 and employed as a wharf clerk. The couple’s first child, and their eldest daughter Harriet Goodman, married her cousin Henry James Collett in 1881. See Henry James Collett (Ref. 41P1) for further details of their family.
	Emma’s and George’s son Ernest Obid Goodman, who was born on 12^th August 1880, married Charlotte Payn on 17^th July 1907. Charlotte was the daughter of fishmonger Harvey Payn of Westminster and his wife Elizabeth Payn of Bradford. In 1901 Charlotte was a shop assistant living with her parents in the Newington area of London.
	Ernest and Charlotte had many children but only one daughter, Irene Lillian who was born on 4^th August 1924 who later married Ronald Heard Valsler. And it was their daughter-in-law Janey Bullock, the wife of their son Colin Valsler, who kindly provided the details to open this branch of the family.
41O13	David Collett was born at Harefield in 1843, the son of butcher William Collett and his wife Elizabeth Sheerwood. At the time of the census in 1851 David Collett was six years old, while ten years later, when he was 17, he was still living at home with his parents at the High Street in Harefield. At that time in his life he was employed as an agricultural labourer. Just over one month after that David Collett was one of the witnesses at the Stepney Limehouse wedding of his older brother William Henry Collett (above) on 27^th May 1861, at which he made his mark, rather than sign his name.
	He later married Charlotte Ward at Uxbridge during the April-June quarter of 1866, Charlotte having been born at Reading in 1839. Once they were married the couple moved to Harefield where they lived for the rest of life. Five years later in 1871 they were confirmed as living in Harefield, where David was 28 and Charlotte 32. By that time their family comprised two daughters Lottie, who was four years old, and Elizabeth, who was under one year old, and a son William David Collett who was three years old, all three of them having been born at Harefield.
	Ten years later the Harefield census of 1881 confirmed that David Collett was 37 and that he was working as a builder. Living with him was his wife Charlotte, age 41, whose occupation was stated as being that of a grocer. This was perhaps an indication that she was the proprietor of the grocer’s shop in Harefield.
	Living with David and Charlotte in April 1881 were their seven children. They were Lottie, age 14, who had left school and was assisting her mother in her grocer’s shop, William, who was 12, Elizabeth, who was 10, Joseph who was eight, Alfred who was six, Alice who was five, and Grace who was two years old. Also living with the family at that time was David’s mother Elizabeth Collett, age 79 and of Ickenham, together with David’s younger brother Job Collett (below).
	In the 1891 Census for Harefield, David Collett was 48 and his wife Charlotte Collett was 51. The children still living with them on that occasion were Lottie, who was recorded as Lettia Collett, age 24, William Collett, age 22, Elizabeth Collett, age 20, Joseph Collett, age 18, Alfred Collett, 16, Alice Collett 15, and Grace Collett who was 11.
	Just after the start of the new century David was still working as a builder and was then 57 in March 1901. He was still living at Harefield with his wife Charlotte who was 61 who, it appears by then, had retired from running the Harefield grocer’s shop, since she was listed as having no occupation.
	According to the next Harefield census in 1911, David Collett of Harefield was 67 and was still living there with his wife Charlotte who was 71 and also from Harefield. Still living with the elderly couple was their unmarried son Alfred Collett who was 36, and David’s brother Job Collett (below) who was 65.
	In addition to these, David’s and Charlotte’s married daughter Alice had returned to the family home, together with her baby son, but minus her husband. The census listed the two on them as Alice Creighton, age 35 and from Harefield, and her son Francis Collett Creighton who was just one month old.
	Just over five years later, on 23^rd June 1916, Charlotte Collett died while she and her husband were still living in Harefield, and she was followed two years later by David Collett, who died there on 21^st April 1918. A headstone in the churchyard of St Mary’s marks their joint graves.
	41P17	Lottie Collett		Born in 1866 at Harefield
	41P18	William David Collett		Born in 1868 at Harefield
	41P19	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1870 at Harefield
	41P20	Joseph Collett		Born in 1872 at Harefield
	41P21	Alfred Collett		Born in 1874 at Harefield
	41P22	Alice Collett		Born in 1875 at Harefield
	41P23	Grace Collett		Born in 1878 at Harefield
41O14	Job Collett was born at Harefield on 27^th June 1845, and was the youngest surviving child of William Collett and his wife Elizabeth Sheerwood. On leaving school he became a bricklayer, like many other members of the Collett family, and in 1861 he was 15 when he was living at the family home in the High Street in Harefield. By the time of the Harefield census in 1871 he was still unmarried at the age of 26.
	A further ten years later and Job was still a bachelor at 34, when he was still working as a bricklayer. According to the 1881 Census, Job Collett of Harefield was living with his brother David Collett in the property known as the grocer’s shop in Harefield.
	Job was 45 by the time of the next census in 1891, but so far no record of him ten years after that in 1901. It is known that he was a bachelor all his life and that he was a very eccentric character and was very careful, virtually Scrooge-like, with his money. At one time later in his life he was employed as a bird scarer, presumably at nearby London Airport.
	On the occasion of the 1911 census for Harefield, Job Collett was living there with his brother David Collett (above) and his wife Charlotte, and their son Alfred, when he was once again confirmed as being a bachelor at the age of 65.
	Job Collett died at Harefield on 10^th June 1934, at the age of 89, and left a considerable sum of money in his Will. His life is marked by a marble vault in St Mary’s Church at Harefield on which there is the following inscription ‘Job Collett son of William and Elizabeth of Harefield born 27^th June 1845 died 10^th June 1934’. The newspaper article reproduced in Appendix Two of this family line refers to Job visiting the church and planning the expensive tomb sixteen years before he died.
	His first Will was made on 5^th December 1923, over ten years before he died. This dictated that his estate would be held in trust for twenty years after his death and then divided into three, split equally between nephews Harry Collett and his son Bert, Arthur Collett, and Isaac Collett and his son Isaac.
	The aforementioned Harry Collett and Arthur Collett were Henry James Collett (Ref. 41P1) and his brother Arthur Collett (Ref. 41P5), while Harry’s son Bert was a reference to Herbert Collett (Ref. 41Q1) the eldest son of Henry (Harry) James Collett. Isaac was the cousin of Harry and Arthur.
	In fact it was only as a result of a visit from Henry (Harry) James Collett and his son Herbert (Bert), after the making of his first Will, that Job re-wrote the document excluding the two of them because they did not adhere to Job’s strict abstinence policy.
	A Codicil to the Will was therefore made on 3^rd November 1925 which removed Harry and Bert Collett, who were replaced by Thomas Collett and his son Thomas. Also Isaac’s grandson was added, this being in addition to the inclusion of his son Isaac. However, all of these terms and conditions were later superseded when Job made his last Will and Testament.
	Under his final Will the eventual main beneficiaries to his estate were his nephews, although it would appear that the Will was not proved until 1937, perhaps because of family disputes over its contents. In October that year the Sunday Pictorial included a headline article about the ‘miser’ Job Collett. This is reproduced in Appendix Two at the end of this family line.
	Upon his death, the cottage in which he had lived most of his later life passed to his eldest nephew Isaac Collett, with the stipulation that it must be renovated before he received his inheritance. In the newspaper article, Isaac makes reference to the eight years following the death of Job that it would take before any of the beneficiaries would receive their inheritances.
41O16	Elizabeth Collett was born at Harefield in 1838 and was twelve years old in 1851. She later married the younger James Green who was born at Rickmansworth in 1845. That event took place after September 1861 when, as Elizabeth Collett, she was a witness at the wedding of her brother Richard (below). For some reason no record of Elizabeth has been found six months earlier at the time of the census in 1861, nor ten year after in 1871, as either Elizabeth Collett or Elizabeth Green.
	However, it was in the census of 1881 that Elizabeth and her husband James were living at 7 Cumming Street in Clerkenwell. Elizabeth Green from Harefield was 41, while James Green, age 35, was an attendant at the public baths in Clerkenwell. Living with the couple at that time was their daughter Julia Green, age 17 and of Rickmansworth, and Elizabeth’s niece Emily Collett, age 13 and born at Harefield. Emily was the base-born child of Elizabeth’s younger sister Mary Ann Collett (below), with whom she was actually living in 1891.
41O17	Richard Benjamin Collett was born at Harefield on 10^th December 1840 and was 11 in 1851 and 20 in April 1861. Five months later on 14^th September 1861 at Hillingdon, he married Caroline Hughes who was born at Harefield in 1842. Richard’s occupation at that time was that of a zinc worker. Caroline’s father, who was a witness at the wedding, was William Henry Hughes, also of Hillingdon, who was a copper worker. The second witness to sign the marriage certificate was Richard’s sister Elizabeth Collett (above).
	Shortly after they were married Richard and Caroline were living at Abbey Road in Merton, Surrey, where their first child was born. The child’s birth certificate stated that Richard Benjamin Collett was a copper forger. A year or so later the family had made the one mile move from Merton to Wimbledon, where they were living at the time of the birth of the couple’s second and third child. The 1871 Census for Kingston & Wimbledon listed Richard as 30, Caroline as 29, and their two children as Arthur, who was five, and Clara who was two years old.
	The birth certificate for the couple’s third child six years later placed the family as living at 2 Vine Cottages on Hubert Road in Wimbledon and made reference to Richard being employed as a foreman at the Garratt Copper Mills. Four years later the census of 1881 recorded the family of five still living at 2 Vine Cottages, but by then Richard was working as a commercial clerk at the copper works.
	The family at that time comprised Richard B Collett, age 40, and Caroline Collett, age 39, both of them from Harefield, with their three children Arthur F Collett, age 15 who was a draper’s porter, Clara C Collett, age 12, and Bernard B Collett who was only three years old.
	After the census in 1881 the family appear to have moved and, although their location in 1891 has not been determined, Richard’s son was living and working in the Putney area of London where he was recorded incorrectly as Arthur Collette, while Richard’s daughter Clara was recorded at Eton. The remainder of the family has not been positively identified in 1891, so it is not clear where Richard and Caroline, and their son Bernard were at that time.
	Ten years on from then, Richard Collett, age 60, and Caroline Collett, age 59, were living in the village of Nutfield near Redhill in Surrey, where Richard was working as a foreman at the Fullers Earth Works. Living with the couple at Nutfield was son Bernard who was 23 and also employed at the Fullers Earth Works, but as an engine driver.
	At the time of the marriage of his son Arthur during the second half of the first decade of the new century, Richard Collett, as father of the groom, was recorded on the marriage certificate as a Works Foreman.
	Sometime during the next few years Richard and Caroline left Nutfield and moved to Horley, south of Reigate in Surrey, although it would appear from Richard’s death certificate that he continued to work at the Fullers Earth Works in Nutfield, and very likely with his son Bernard.
	And it was at Reigate that Richard and Caroline were confirmed as living at the time of the census in 1911. Richard Benjamin Collett was 70, while Caroline was 69. Also living nearby in Reigate at that time was their youngest son Bernard, who was married by then, with a family of his own.
	Sadly, it was later that same year that Richard Collett died on 9^th October 1911 and, according to the certificate drawn up at Horley on the following day, this happened at Cockley Pits in Nutfield, where Richard was a foreman at the Fullers Earth Works. The certificate also confirmed his age as being 70, and that the cause of death was acute bronchitis. The informant of the death to the registrar at Horley was his son Bernard, who was present at Cockley Pits when his father passed away.
	Following the death of her husband, Caroline Collett moved to Newbury to live with her son Arthur at Shaw-cum-Donnington, where she died almost exactly eight years later on 11^th October 1919.
	41P24	Arthur Frederick Collett		Born in 1865 at Merton
	41P25	Clara C Collett		Born in 1868 at Wimbledon
	41P26	Bernard Bolton Collett		Born in 1877 at Wimbledon
41O18	Sarah Collett was born at Harefield in 1841 and was nine years old in the Harefield census of 1851. She may have been the Sarah who married Charles Holloway, a brick-maker from Denham in Buckinghamshire. In 1881 Sarah, from Harefield, and Charles were living at Railway View in Horton Road in Hillingdon with their seven children. Charles was 41, Sarah was 40, and their children were John, who was 17, Ann, who was 12, Charles, who was eight, Edith who was seven, Richard who was six, May who was four, and Frederick Holloway who was three years old. All of the children had been born at Yiewsley in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
41O19	Mary Ann Collett was born at Harefield in 1842 and was eight years old at the time of the 1851 Census when she was living with her parents Richard Collett and Sarah Collett nee Bolton at the home of her grandfather Henry Collett of Gloucestershire. No trace of her has so far been found in the 1861 Census.
	Around 1867 unmarried Mary Ann Collett gave birth to a base-born daughter Emily. However, the child was taken from Mary Ann and had been placed in the care of her widowed mother by the time of the census in 1871, when Emily Mary Collett was recorded as the grandchild of Sarah Collett at the age of three years. Her mother Mary Ann has not been found in the census of 1871.
	However three years later, in 1874, Mary Ann Collett married Thomas Crook who was born at Hill End in Harefield in 1846. The marriage certificate confirmed that Mary Ann was the daughter of Richard Collett, a labourer of Harefield. It is possible that Thomas Crook had been previously married, since he brought into his marriage to Mary Ann Collett a son who had been born at Harefield around two years before he married Mary Ann.
	By the time of the census in 1881, Mary Ann Crook, age 38 and from Harefield, was living at Hill End in Harefield with her husband and their two children. Thomas Crook, age 34, was a labourer and their two children were Henry Crook aged nine years, and Ernest Crook who was one year old, who had also been born at Harefield. At that same time Mary’s daughter Emily was staying with Mary’s older sister Elizabeth Green nee Collett (above).
	Ten years later according to the census in 1891, the Crook family was still living at Hill End, where Mary Ann Crook was 49, Thomas Crook was 43, and their son Ernest Crook was 11. Eldest son Henry Crook, who would have been 19, was not living at the family home by that time, but instead, there were two members of the Collett family living there with them on that occasion.
	They were Emily M Collett, age 23 and from Harefield, who was the base-born daughter of Mary Ann Collett, and Herbert E Collett who was 19, who was actually Herbert Henry Collett (Ref. 41P31). Both of them were described as being the stepchildren of the head of the house Thomas Crook. Whilst this was true in the case of Emily, the reference to Herbert as a stepchild was an error, since he and Emily were cousins.
	Just after the turn of the century Mary was listed in the 1901 Census as being aged 57, while her husband Thomas was 53. Both were still living at Harefield where Thomas was employed as a general labourer and where Mary Ann died two years later.
	The death of Mary Ann Crook nee Collett was recorded in the Harefield Parish Register, which stated that she was buried there during June 1903.
	41P27	Emily Mary Collett		Born in 1867 at Harefield
41O20	Ann Collett was born at Harefield in 1845 and was six years old in 1851, and 15 years of age in 1861. Ann later married house painter Frederick Ridrup who was born in 1843 and by 1901 both of them were still living in Harefield. However, it is likely that she married Frederick after 1891 as there is no listing of her as Ann Ridrup in any of the earlier census records.
	There is also a chance that Ann was first married to William Windfield and, although his wife was Ann Elizabeth, she was also born at Harefield around 1845.
41O21	James Theophilus Bolton Collett was born at Harefield in 1848, and was two years old and 13 years of age in the Harefield census returns in 1851 and 1861. It was around five years later that he married Ann and, apart for a brief period shortly after he married Ann, James appears to have lived most of his life at Harefield. It was the age of the couple’s first child in the census of 1871 which seems to indicate the couple were married around the time that James and Ann were both 18 years of age. Their first child was born at Marston Moretaine, south-west of Bedford, where Ann had been born in 1848, perhaps even while she was still living there with her parents.
	Not long after the birth, the family of three moved to Harefield, where all of their remaining children were born, and by the time of the census in early April 1871 Ann had presented James with two children. James Collett was 24, Ann Collett was 23, and their two children were Margaret Collett who was three, and Harriet Collett who was just one year old.
	By 1881 James, age 33, was working as a gardener and labourer, while his wife Ann was 32. Living with them at Park Lane in Harefield were their daughters Margaret, age 13, Harriet, age 11, Sarah who was nine, Rose who was five, and their sons Walter, who was three, and James who was one year old. And right next door to their dwelling in Park Lane was the home of four of James’ cousins (see Charles Collett below).
	Ten years later the census in 1891 recorded the family as James Collett, age 43, Ann Collett, age 42, Walter Collett, age 15, James Collett, age 10, Reginald Collett who was four years old but recorded as Bignal Collett, and Daisy Collett who was two.
	In March 1901, at the age of 52, James was still working as a gardener and was still living in Harefield with his wife Ann who was 51. Living with them at that time was their unmarried eldest daughter Margaret whose age was given incorrectly as 30, rather than 33, and she and her mother were both confirmed as having been born at Marston Moretaine. Also living with them were the couple’s two youngest children Reginald, who was 14, and Daisy who was 12, both of them confirmed as having been born at Harefield.
	By April 1911 only their son Reginald was still living with James and Ann. James Collett of Harefield was 62, his wife was 61, and their unmarried son was strangely recorded as 28, although this seems likely to have been an error in translation, his age really being 23.
	It is not clear whether, at sometime after the children had grown up, that James and Ann moved away from Harefield to live at Uxbridge, since Harefield lies within the Uxbridge district. What it known is that the death of James Collett was registered five years later at Uxbridge, during 1916.
	41P28	Margaret Collett		Born in 1867 at Marston Moretaine
	41P29	Harriet Collett		Born in 1869 at Harefield
	41P30	Sarah Ann Collett		Born in 1871 at Harefield
	41P31	Herbert Henry Collett		Born in 1872 at Harefield
	41P32	Rose Collett		Born in 1875 at Harefield
	41P33	Walter Herbert Collett		Born in 1877 at Harefield
	41P34	James Thomas Collett		Born in 1879 at Harefield
	41P35	Reginald Richard Collett		Born in 1887 at Harefield
	41P36	Daisy Beatrice Collett		Born in 1889 at Harefield
41O23	Harriet Collett was a twin with her brother John and was born at Harefield during January 1851 and was two months old in the census that year. John appears not to have survived beyond his early childhood but Harriet was recorded as being 10 years old in the census of 1861, which confirmed she was born at Harefield, where she was living at that time with her family.
	For some reason she did not appear in either of the census returns for 1871 and 1881, but she was living in the Watford area in 1891, at the age of 40. Also living within the same area was Harriet’s cousin Mary A Collett (Ref. 41O1) who was 53 and from Harefield, as was Rosina Collett (Ref. 41P32) who was also from Harefield and was 16 years old. All that is known about Harriet after this is that she died during 1916 while living in the Uxbridge.
41O24	Thomas Collett was born at Harefield in 1853, where he was living with his family in 1861 when he was seven years of age. He was the youngest child of Richard Collett and his wife Sarah Bolton, but tragically he died around the time he was 18, when his death was registered at Uxbridge prior to the April census in 1871.
41O25	Charles Collett was born at Harefield in 1837, the eldest surviving child of Jonathan and Margaret Collett. In 1841 he was four years old, and was 13 in 1851, and 23 in 1861. With the death of his parents during the 1860s, Charles looked after his younger brothers, and in 1871 when he was 32, he had living with him at Harefield his youngest brother Frederick.
	Charles Collett was a general labourer and it would appear that he lived all of his life at Harefield, where he remained a bachelor all his life. According to the census in 1881 he was 42 when he was living at Park Lane in Harefield with his unmarried siblings Elizabeth, age 35, Jonathan, age 31, and Frederick who was 27. All four of them were listed as having been born at Harefield, and as Elizabeth had no stated occupation, it seems reasonable to assume that she performed the role of house keeper for her brothers.
	It is interesting to note that the house in Park Lane in which they were living on the occasion was situated right next door to the family of their cousin James T B Collett (above).
	In 1891 the same four siblings were living at White Heath Farm in the Hill End area of Harefield, which was adjacent to The Plough Inn. Charles Collett, age 50 rather than 53, was a labourer of Harefield, and recorded there with him was his sister Margaret (below) and his two brothers Jonathan and Frederick.
	Ten years after that Charles gave his age as being 61 in the census of 1901, when he was still living at Harefield. By that time in his life he was employed as a gardener and labourer, while still living there with him was Elizabeth, Jonathan, and Frederick. With no trace of him found in the census of 1911, it is likely that Charles Collett died during the first decade of the new century.
41O27	Elizabeth Margaret Collett was born at Harefield in 1844 and was recorded as Elizabeth Margaret Collett, age seven years, within the Harefield census of 1851, when she was living there with her parents Jonathan and Margaret Collett. No record of her has been positively identified in 1861, but in the census of 1871 Margaret Collett, age 24, was living in Harefield.
	By the time of the census in 1881, and following the deaths of both of her parents, Elizabeth Collett, age 35 and from Harefield, was acting as housekeeper for her three unmarried brothers at the house of her older brother Charles (above) on Park Lane in Harefield.
	She was still living there with her three brothers ten years later, but on that occasion she referred to herself as Margaret Collett, age 42 (sic) from Harefield. Her brother Charles was once again the head of the household at White Heath Farm at Hill End in Harefield, next door to The Plough Inn. The same group of four siblings was still living together in Harefield in March 1901, when once again she was recorded as Elizabeth Collett, by which time she was 53 (sic).
	No record of Elizabeth or Margaret has been found in the census of 1911, when she would have been in her mid sixties.
41O29	Jonathan Collett was born at Harefield in 1849. In 1851 he was one year old, and was 11 years of age in 1861. In 1871 Jonathan Collett, age 22 and from Harefield, was living and working in the Watford area, but by 1881, and following the deaths of his parents, unmarried Jonathan returned to Park Lane in Harefield to live with his surviving siblings Charles, Elizabeth, and Frederick. At that time he was 31 and was working as a general labourer. Living next door to the quartet was their cousin James T B Collett (above) and his family, and next door to him another cousin Charles Collett.
	According to the next census in 1891, Jonathan Collett from Harefield was 39 (sic) and a labourer, living at White Heath Farm at Hill End in Harefield. Also living there with him was his brother Charles and sister Margaret (above), and brother Frederick (below).
	A similar problem occurred ten years later when, in the 1901 Harefield Census, Jonathan again gave an incorrect age saying he was 48 rather than 51. At that time he was employed as a bricklayer’s labourer, who was very likely working with his bricklayer brother Frederick (below). Still living with the two brothers was their sister Margaret (above) and older brother Charles.
	Sadly by the time of the next census in April 1911, Jonathan Collett and his brother Frederick were living in an institution in Harefield, which may have been the local workhouse. Jonathan Collett was 62 and he confirmed that he had been born at Harefield.
41O30	Frederick Henry Collett was born at Harefield in 1853 and was the youngest child of Jonathan and Margaret Collett. In the Harefield census of 1861 Frederick was eight years old, but not long after that both of his parents died, after which he was looked after by his eldest brother Charles Collett (above). In 1871 when he was 18, Frederick was confirmed as living with his brother Charles, with whom he was also living at Park Lane in Harefield in 1881. Also returned to the family by then was Frederick’s sister Elizabeth and brother Jonathan (above). All of the four siblings were unmarried, with Frederick being employed as a bricklayer at the age of 27.
	It was at White Heath Farm, Hill End in Harefield that the four of them were still living together in 1891, when Frederick Collett was 36 and was continuing to work as a bricklayer. Curiously ten years after that in March 1901, Frederick said he was 43 which may simply be a misinterpretation of 48. At that time he was still working as a bricklayer, possibly with his brother Jonathan who was a bricklayer’s labourer, with whom he was also still living, together with his other brother Charles and sister Margaret.
	The two younger brothers were still together ten years later, but according to the census in 1911 they were living in an institution in Harefield, where Frederick Collett, age 58 and from Harefield, was recorded.
41P1	Henry James Collett was born at Mile End Old Town in Stepney on 31^st December 1862. He was eight years old at the time of the census in 1871, when he and his family were living at 18 Roberts Place in Mile End Old Town, from where his father William Henry Collett was working as a butcher. Sadly Henry’s father died four years later, following which his widowed mother Ann was forced to enter into domestic service, when she took up the position of general servant at the Kings Arms public house in Soho. It was not previously known what had actually happened to Henry and his four siblings at that time in their lives, since none of them were living with their mother by the time of the census in 1881.
	However, thanks to new information received from his great great granddaughter Rebecca Humphreys in 2010, the full story of his life can now be told. The photograph of Henry (above) was also supplied by Rebecca and is an extract from a larger family group picture taken during the First World War.
	In April 1881, Henry Collett was living at 16 Church Street in Soho with his younger brother Arthur who was six, and his sister Amy who was eleven. He gave his age as being 21, although he was actually nearer eighteen years of age, and on that occasion he was working as a porter for a printer.
	The three siblings had probably moved to Soho to be near to their widowed mother Ann, who had found work at the Kings Arms in Moor Street. Also living with them at 16 Church Street was eighteen years old Harriett Goodman who was recorded as a visitor.
	In fact Harriet Goodman (show on the right around 1916) was the first cousin of Henry James Collett, the daughter of George Goodman and his wife Emma Collett (Ref. 41O12), the sister of Henry’s father William Henry Collett. It is possible, although not proved, that Henry and Harriet may have already been in a relationship with each other by that time in April 1881, since the two of them were married towards the end of that same year. The marriage took place at the church of St James in Piccadilly in the final quarter of 1881, when Harriet was nineteenth years old, she having been born on 26^th July 1862.
	At the time of their wedding Henry and Harriet were living at Golden Square in Soho, between Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue. Henry’s occupation was recorded as being that of a porter for a bricklayer, that is, a hod-carrier. The couple’s first child, Herbert, was born while the couple was still living at Soho during the following year. The marriage produced a further three children for Henry and Harriet before they left Soho for a new home in South London, they being Louisa, Harry and Dorothy.
	By 1891 the family of six was living in the Lambeth district of Newington at 6 Monkton Street, which is still there today and is just off the Kennington Road (A23). According to the census that year, Henry was 29 and was employed as a hotel porter. Harriet was also 29, and their four children were listed as Herbert, who was 10, Louisa, who was seven, Harry, who was six, and Dorothy who was three years old. Over the next ten years a further five children were added to the family, including a set of twin boys.
	The census return at the end of March in 1901 placed the Collett family living at 6 Victoria Dwellings (D Block) in the Battersea district of London. Henry was 38 when he was working there as a resident mechanic, while his wife Harriet was also 38, and was described as a housekeeper. Henry’s and Harriet’s children, still living at the family home on that occasion were, Herbert, age 19, Dorothy, age 12, the twins Edmund and George, who were both five years old, Irene who was four, Violet who was two, and baby Laura who was just twelve days old.
	By that time in 1901 the couple’s eldest daughter had left the family home to marry William Joyce. The only other missing child was their second son Harry, who may have died while still a child, since no further record of him has been found after 1891, nor has any member of the family any memory of him.
	The family’s accommodation in 1901 was built by The Metropolitan Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Association and, although Henry’s occupation was recorded as the resident mechanic, he was in fact the caretaker for Victoria Dwellings, with his wife being the housekeeper there. The Association had bought some of the land around Battersea Park from the Crown for the project at £1,600 per acre.
	Other bodies were also involved in developing the area, such as the Artizans' and General Labourers' Dwellings Company, who built Shaftesbury Estate. Charles Barry Junior was the architect to the MA&LD Association, which also had dwellings in King's Cross and later became known as the Victoria Dwellings Association.
	The buildings comprising Victoria Dwellings consisted of three blocks; one for artisans and made up of 98 tenements of 3 or 4 rooms, and two for labourers, each having 90 tenements of 1 or 2 rooms. They were of four storeys and were built in yellow stock brick. The Victoria Dwellings at Battersea Park Road were demolished in 1983.
	It seems rather odd that, to date, no record of any member of the family has been identified within the census returns completed in April 1911, except the eldest daughter Louisa who was married by then.
	Henry James Collett was extremely patriotic and joined up at the outbreak of the First World War. However, due to the fact that he was fifty-one he could not be put on front line duty and so was part of the volunteer non-combatant force. It is believed that he was awarded the military medal for his service to King and Country.
	In 1920 Henry and Harriet were living at 31 Landseer Street in Battersea, where they received the tragic news that their son George had died as a victim of the flu pandemic. George had not been well as a result of his capture by the Germans during the Great War, and his enforced labour in a salt mine.
	At that time in his life, Henry was employed as a maintenance man at the Royal Mail Sorting Office on Lavender Hill. Henry and Harriet were at the centre of a very lively and closely knit family. Their youngest daughter Laura lived on the top floor of 31 Landseer Street with her family. Her husband was a strong communist and had lively debates with his father-in-law. Henry’s eldest daughter Louisa lived at 62 Landseer Street, whilst his other daughter Irene, lived next door to her at number 60.
	Henry’s and Harriet’s house hosted all manner of family gatherings and get-togethers, and their grandchildren would often be found there. Harriet did everything she could to support her children during great difficulties, especially her daughters.
	Sometime around 1924, Henry went to visit his rich uncle Job Collett in Harefield. Unfortunately Job was a strong believer in abstinence and did not approve of Henry’s social habits and, as a result of this, Job removed Henry (referred to as Harry) and his eldest son Bert from the second writing of his Will in 1925.
	In Appendix Two, at the end of this family line, there is a newspaper article which was published in 1937 after the Will of Job Collett was proved and settlement of his estate finally resolved, the main beneficiary being Henry’s cousin Isaac Collett (below).
	Henry James Collett died just before the start of the Second World War. He was a real character and could often be seen walking home swinging his walking stick and wearing his light, near white, planter’s suit. Landseer Street was bombed at the time of the blitz on London during WWII, hence the reason it does not exist today.
	41Q1	Herbert Collett		Born in 1882 at Soho
	41Q2	Louisa Ellen Collett		Born in 1884 at Soho
	41Q3	Harry Collett		Born in 1885 at Soho
	41Q4	Dorothy Collett		Born in 1888 at Westminster
	41Q5	Edmund John Collett twin		Born in 1895 at Battersea
	41Q6	George A Collett twin		Born in 1895 at Battersea
	41Q7	Irene Harriet Rose Collett		Born in 1896 at Battersea
	41Q8	Violet Collett		Born in 1899 at Battersea
	41Q9	Laura Julia Collett		Born in 1901 at Battersea
41P2	Eliza Collett was born at Mile End Old Town in Stepney on 5^th June 1865. The only other information so far found relating to Eliza is within the 1871 Census in which she was six years of age and was living with her family at 18 Roberts Place in Mile End Old Town.
	Four years after that her father died in 1875 and by April 1881 Eliza’s widowed mother was working as a general servant at the Kings Arms in Soho. No trace of Eliza or her sister Laura (below) has been found at that time, while her other siblings were living at 16 Church Street in Soho.
	Two of Eliza’s siblings reappeared in the next census in 1891, but nothing after 1871 has ever been found for Eliza, so it was assumed that she had passed away as a child. However, an entry in the Collett family bible includes the information that William Hayes and his wife Eliza both died in May 1933. It is therefore possible that Eliza Hayes may have been the former Eliza Collett and if so, she would have been sixty-eight at the time of her death.
	Other entries in the bible record the deaths of Eliza’s brother Arthur Collett (below) on 3^rd August 1933 and Helen Ellen Morgan nee Collett on 7^th June 1927. The position of the latter of these two individuals within the family has not been positively identified, although it is possible that she was the former Ellen Jones nee Collett (Ref. 41O6).
41P3	Laura Collett was born at Mile End Old Town in Stepney on 7^th June 1869 and at that time her family was living at 7 William Street. Her birth certificate confirmed her parents as William and Ann Collett. Laura was listed in the 1871 Census as living with her family at 18 Roberts Place in Mile End Old Town, but was recorded in error as Louise Collett aged two years. So far no record of Laura or her sister Eliza (above) has been found ten years later in the census of 1881, following the death of their father in 1875.
	By 1891 Laura was twenty years old and was a domestic housemaid living once again with her widowed mother Ann Collett at 29 Hilldrop Crescent in Islington St Lukes, midway between Kentish Town and Lower Holloway.
	Three and a half years later on 01.10.1894 Laura married George Pitts by banns at All Saints Church in Great Barford just to the east of Bedford. George was a railway porter from Great Barford and was living at Caledonian Road in Islington at the time of their wedding. The church record indicated that it was Laura’s brother Henry Collett who gave away the bride, with no reference made at all to her deceased father, or her mother, who may have also passed away by then.
	Just over six years after Laura and George were married they were living in Islington with their first child and, according to the census return for 1901, the family of three was listed as Laura Pitts, age 30 from Stepney, George Pitts, age 31 of Great Barford, who was working as a builder’s general labourer, and their son George Pitts, who was one year old and born at Kings Cross.
	During the next decade two further children were added to the family which, by April 1911 was living in the Greenwich registration district of London. The family on that occasion comprised George Pitts of Great Barford who was 42, Laura Pitts of Stepney who was 40, and their son George who was eleven, and with them their two daughters Dorothy, who was nine, and Ena who was four. All three children were listed as having been born at Islington prior to the family’s move to Greenwich.
	They later had another daughter Emma Pitts who appears to have been born at Great Barford. Emma was the grandmother of Phil of Harrow who kindly provided the information relating to his family line. Phil was born and lived in Ipswich and after attending university he moved to Harrow, coincidentally close to his ancestral roots at Harefield.
	Later in their lives, Laura and George Pitts lived at 47 Friendly Street in Lewisham that is, until George passed away, at which time Laura moved to Finchley Road in Ipswich to be near to her daughter Emma and her family. Laura Pitts nee Collett was described as a small, happy lady, who was always whistling, and who loved her canaries.
41P4	Amy Collett was born after the second of April 1871, and the event probably took place at 7 William Street in Mile End Old Town in the Stepney area of London where her family was living on the day of the census that year. Four years later in 1875, Amy’s father William Collett died and that tragic event appears to have resulted in the family being separated. According to the census in 1881, Amy was eleven and was living at 16 Church Street in Soho under the care of her older brother Henry (above), who was head of the household at the age of twenty-one. Also living there with them was their brother Arthur (below).
	No Amy Collett has been found in the census of 1891, so it is probably safe to assume that Amy was married by that time.
41P5	Arthur Collett was born at Stepney in 1874, the youngest child of William Collett and Ann Calcutt. Sadly his father died when he was only one year old, and it would appear that this caused the break-up of the family. By 1881 Arthur was six years old and was being looked after by his eldest brother Henry James Collett (above) and his older sister Amy at 16 Church Street in Soho. Also living and working in the Soho area of London was their mother who was employed as a domestic general servant at the Kings Arms Inn at Moor Street.
	For whatever reason, no record of Arthur has so far been found in any of the census returns after 1881. However,