PART FORTY-THREE

The Staffordshire Line

Updated August 2010

The purpose of the previous updated version was to merge with the main body of the file, the

information previously contained within an appendix at the end of the file, where it

related to the family line of Barry Collett (Ref. 43S1) of Iowa – see earlier notes below,

this line now being denoted by the names in italics

This is the family line of John Bennett who kindly assisted with the compilation of the

first generation of the file, and whose ancestors are denoted by the names in capital letters

It is also the line of Groff Collett (Ref. 43R12) of Wisconsin Rapids who kindly provided

a vast amount of information relating to his American branch of this family

It is also very likely the line of Barry Collett of Iowa who has been conducting a DNA Study

of the Colletts and who provided additional information for the December 2008 update

Details of Barry‘s actual line were included as Appendix Two and closely matched

the DNA of the “single strand” line from Benjamin Collett (Ref. 43L2) which is

identified by the underlined names, this being the family line of Bill Collett (Ref. 43R3)

It was Bill’s two sisters, Sue (Ref. 43R4) and Sandra Collett (Ref. 43R6) in the USA,

who kindly provided their family details for the August 2009 update

When first produced, this line started with Thomas Collett who was born in 1742. More recent information has since come to hand that confirms the details for two earlier generations.

For the earlier generations the focal point seems to be the area to the immediate south and east of Rugeley which includes the villages of Mavesyn Ridware, Armitage, Kings Bromley and Longdon, all of which lie within about three miles of each other.

Whilst this confirms the existence of Colletts in this part of Staffordshire in the seventeenth century, it may also be of interest to note that in the nineteenth century there were members of the Collett family at Colwich three miles north-west of Rugeley and adjacent to the villages of Little and Great Haywood.

It should be noted that some records spelt the surname with just one t, while others used an i in lieu of the e. However, in this file the more usual spelling is used throughout.

43H1

UNKNOWN COLLETT parents

43I1

William Collett

Born circa 1640

43I2

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1646

43I1

William Collett was possibly born around 1640 and he later married Joyce possibly around 1660 and their only known son was born at Burton-on-Trent.

43J1

William Collett

Born in 1665

43I2

THOMAS COLLETT was born at Mavesyn Ridware in 1646 and it was there that he married Maria in 1671. All of the couple’s known children were baptised at Mavesyn Ridware, although the parish register for the youngest child Marie did not specify her parents’ names, as it did for the others.

Interestingly the baptism of another William (Guilielmus) Collett on 03.12.1682 at Mavesyn Ridware also did not given the name of his parents, so William and Marie may have been siblings of this or another Collett family.

43J2

Anthony Collett

Baptised on 20.06.1672

43J3

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 30.12.1673

43J4

Anna Collett

Baptised on 22.04.1676

43J5

George Collett

Baptised on 04.12.1680

43J6

WILLIAM COLLETT

Baptised on 16.12.1682

43J7

John Collett

Baptised on 16.08.1685

43J8

Marie Collett

Baptised on 25.03.1690

43J1

WILLIAM COLLETT was baptised on 18.01.1666 at Burton-on-Trent and his parents were listed in the parish register as Guliem and Jocosae Collit (William and Joyce).

43J3

Thomas Collett was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 30.12.1673, the son of William and Maria. It is believed that he later married Mary Garbett at St Mary’s Church in Brewood in Staffordshire on 14.02.1696.

43J4

Anna Collett was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 22.04.1676 and it is possible that she married Thomas King at nearby Lichfield Cathedral on 14.02.1704.

43J5

George Collett was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 04.12.1680. When he was almost twenty-one he married Maria Goodwin at nearby Croxall just over the Staffordshire county boundary in Derbyshire. The wedding took place on 30.06.1701 and George was recorded as Georgius Collet.

43J6

WILLIAM COLLETT was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 16.12.1682 where he later married Maria Jolley on 01.03.1714.

They were named as the parents of sons William Collet and Thomas Collet who were baptised at Mavesyn Ridware and on both occasions the parish register referred to them as Gulielmi and Maria Collet.

43K1

William Collett

Baptised on 04.01.1715

43K2

THOMAS COLLETT

Baptised on 14.04.1717

43J7

John Collett was very likely born in 1684 but was baptised Johanis Collet at Mavesyn Ridware on 16.08.1685. He later married Elizabeth Stratton at Longdon in Staffordshire on 13.05.1703, and ten years later the couple’s two daughters were born and baptised at Mavesyn Ridware.

There is no evidence to suggest that there were any other children born during the first ten years of the marriage and it is possible that John was with the army supporting the John Churchill the First Duke of Marlborough in the many European battles that took place during this particular decade including his victory at Blenheim.

43K3

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 17.07.1714

43K4

Maria Collett

Baptised on 20.10.1716

43K1

William Collett was baptised Gulielmus Collet at Mavesyn Ridware on 04.01.1715, the son of Gulielmi and Maria Collet. And it was as William Collet that he married Mary Bold at Stowe by Chartley in Staffordshire on 02.03.1735 at the age of twenty years.

A Will for a William Collett, yeoman of Whittington, was written on 4^th February 1779 and a copy can be found in the William Salt Library & Archive in Stafford. Notes: Whittington lies midway between the towns of Lichfield and Tamworth, and William Salt was a London banker and keen genealogist.

A summary statement about the Will (below) includes a reference to property at Longdon which is just a mile from Mavesyn Ridware.

“He has surrendered copyhold property of the Manor of Longdon to the uses of his Will and freehold property one-third to his brother-in-law John Deakin of Whittington, wheelwright, and two-thirds to his sister Sarah Alsop for life and then half of this to Edward Ward of Birmingham, pattern maker, and the other half to Thomas Woolley of Shenstone, cordwainer. Erasmus Darwin junior was one of the witnesses”

If this was William Collett who was born around 1714 and the son of William and Maria Collett, then it would indicate that he had two sisters, one of which was Sarah Collett (no records so far found), and one who married John Deakin.

43K2

THOMAS COLLETT was probably born around 1715 and was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 14.04.1717. He later married Ellen Perkin at Rugeley in Staffordshire on 10.02.1735.

Thomas Collett made a statement in a boundary dispute for the Brereton and Longdon area of Staffordshire in 1796 in which he indicated that he came to live in Brereton at the age of ten years.

43L1

Richard Collett

Born in 1735

43L2

Benjamin Collett

Born circa 1740 or 1744

43L3

THOMAS COLLETT

Baptised on 13.06.1742

43K3

Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 17.07.1714. She later married either John Arnold at Tamworth on 10.06.1739 or more likely, Samuel Philips at Mavesyn Ridware on 13.06.1745.

43K4

Maria Collett was baptised at Mavesyn Ridware on 20.10.1716. It is possible that she was later married as Mary Collet at Lichfield Cathedral to William Bentley on 03.12.1736.

43L1

Richard Collett was born towards the end of 1735, his parents having been married at Rugeley in January that year. According to the IGI, it was at Colwich that he was baptised on 15.12.1735, the son of Thomas and Ellen Collett. It would appear from the baptism records for his two sons that he marriage Mary and settled in the village of Hints near Tamworth.

It seems highly likely, although not proved that Richard and his family left England for North America, and that there is a record of a Richard Collett who was listed as a royalist in the American Revolutionary War of 1870-1782.

Prior to the discovery of this new information, Richard’s son William was included in Appendix Two (now removed) where it was noted that his DNA matched closely with that of Benjamin Collett (below) and his subsequent descendents. However, the new information now places William’s father Richard as the brother of Benjamin, hence providing the opportunity to remove the appendix and place Richard and his sons William (and sibling Richard) within the main family line.

43M1

William Collett

Baptised on 21.08.1765

43M2

Richard Collett

Baptised on 14.08.1772

43L2

Benjamin Collett was possibly born at Colwich or Mavesyn Ridware sometime immediately before or shortly after 1742. This has been deduced simply by working back from the date that he was married.

He married Sarah Malpas at Kings Bromley in Staffordshire on 01.03.1764, Kings Bromley being just over two miles from where Benjamin’s brother Thomas (below) was baptised.

Sarah Malpas was baptised at Kings Bromley on 05.11.1744. It seems very likely that the marriage produced more than just the one known child listed below, who was born in Staffordshire.

In 1770 Benjamin Collett of Kings Bromley was working as an iron slitter when he was listed in the Staffordshire County Quarter Sessions relating to the conviction of Edward Godwin, husbandman of Abbots Bromley, for not having his name and place of abode clearly painted on his carts.

43M3

John Collett

Born on 10.11.1764

43L3

THOMAS COLLETT was very likely born around 1742. The IGI includes the baptism of a Thomas Collett at Armitage on 13.06.1742 who was the son of Thomas Collett. Thomas later married Mary Yeates on 27.02.1759 at Rugeley parish church, where all of their children were later baptised.

It seems likely that he died on 26.08.1814 as there is a headstone to that effect in the ruined chancel of Rugeley’s old church, opposite the current parish church of St Augustines. The inscription reads “In Memory of Thomas Collett of Brereton and Mary his wife”. Thomas was aged 72 while Mary, who died on 19.07.1821, was aged 79.

The burial record taken from the Bishop’s Transcript for Rugeley stated “Thomas Collett of Brereton buried 30^th August 1814”.

43M4

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 15.06.1766

43M5

William Collyer Collett

Baptised on 11.09.1768

43M6

John Collett

Baptised on 24.02.1771

43M7

GEORGE COLLETT

Baptised on 06.12.1772

43M8

unnamed Collett

Baptised on 16.04.1775

43M9

Mary Collett

Baptised on 22.03.1778

43M10

Edward Collett

Baptised on 27.10.1779

43M11

Hannah Collett

Baptised on 27.01.1785

43M12

Joseph Collett

Baptised on 04.07.1787

43M13

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 27.09.1789

43M14

Henry Collett

Born in 1791

43M1

William Collett was baptised at the village of Hints near Tamworth on 21.08.1765, the son of Richard and Mary Collett. While he was still very young it is understood his parents sailed from England to America where they settled.

It was in America that he became a married man and it was in Kentucky that his son was born. At the time of his death around 1820 to 1821 William was living at Clay County in Kentucky.

43N1

Samuel Collett

Born circa 1800

43M2

Richard Collett was baptised at Hints on 14.08.1772, the son of Richard and Mary Collett, who family emigrated to America not long after he was born.

43M3

John Collett was born in Staffordshire on 10.11.1764 and was the son of Benjamin Collett and Sarah Malpas. It is established that John married Ann Winfield on 10.11.1794 in Staffordshire and that she presented him with eight known children who were all born at Colwich in Staffordshire.

It would also appear that John was either a farmer or a farm labourer, as his eldest son John was born at Snead Farm in Staffordshire, which may have been in Colwich. The only other known facts about John Collett senior is that he died in 1828 and that he was buried in the churchyard at St Michael’s and All Angels Church in Colwich at the age of sixty-four. John’s wife Ann Winfield was born in 1772 and she died on 13.02.1846 and was buried with her husband. The shared headstone at Colwich gave her age as seventy-four.

The same headstone also included the name of their daughter Sarah Collett who died at the age of twelve on 14.02.1826. It would appear that Sarah may have been the second child in the family with this name, since an earlier Sarah was born to John and Ann in 1798 who, it must be assumed, also died while still very young; both girls being named after John’s mother.

43N2

John Collett

Born on 25.10.1796

43N3

Sarah Collett

Born in 1798 at Colwich

43N4

Robert Collett twin

Baptised on 18.07.1801

43N5

Ann Collett twin

Baptised on 18.07.1801 at Colwich

43N6

Mary Collett

Born in 1807

43N7

Sarah Collett

Born in 1814

43N8

William Collett

Born in 1820

43N9

Benjamin Collett

Born in 1822 at Colwich

43M5

William Collyer Collett was born in the parish of Brereton and Rugeley in the diocese of Lichfield in Staffordshire. He was baptised as William Collett at Rugeley parish church on 11.09.1768, the son of Thomas and Mary Collett, whereas the IGI recorded the event under the name of William Collier Collitt.

At the time of the 1841 Census for Brereton in the Lichfield, Penkridge and Stafford registration district his ‘rounded age’ was recorded as 70 and his place of birth was stated as being Rugeley.

Again he was simply William Collett in the census and was living at Glovers Hill in Brereton where he was listed as being of ‘independent means’. Just over two years after the census, he died on 22.08.1843 aged 75 as detailed on his headstone of his grave on the south side of St Michael’s Church in Brereton, which also gave his name as William Collyer Collett.

43M7

GEORGE COLLETT was baptised on 06.12.1772 at Rugeley in the parish of Brereton and Rugeley which lies in the diocese of Lichfield in Staffordshire. He was reputedly a wealth man and was referred to as gent of Brereton.

In 1844 George sold his house to the Church Commissioners for the sum of £1,770 for them to use as a vicarage for what was then the recently created Parish of Brereton. The house was later demolished in 1963 to make way for the present vicarage.

He took up a relationship with the much younger Elizabeth Harris around 1813 for which there is no evidence that they ever married. This begs the question - did George already have a wife that prevented his marriage to Elizabeth Harris? Certainly Pallott’s Marriage Index and the IGI include the marriage of a Geo. Collett to an Arabella Lawman at St Marylebone in London in 1803.

Either way, by 1841 George and Elizabeth were living at Glovers Hill in Brereton. This indicated that Elizabeth had been born at Newmarket in Suffolk, and it was there that she was baptised on 17.07.1793. According to the 1841 Census, George’s ‘rounded age’ was written as 65 when it would have been 68 and Elizabeth’s ‘rounded age’ was 50 instead of 47.

The children listed as living with them in 1841 were, Georgiana aged 22, Augustus aged 17 and ‘Rubria aged 16’ which must refer to Rebecca. None of the children were listed as Harris Collett.

There is a possibility that Elizabeth’s son William, who was born in London, was born before they were married and that George may not have been the father. In George’s Will, William Harris Collett was referred to as “my reputed son”. There is a possibility as well, judging by the dates of birth of their other children, that George and Elizabeth did not marry until 1815 or even later.

George made two Wills, the first on 17^th January 1846 at Brereton and the second also at Brereton on 23^rd March that same year. This Will was proved on 12^th October 1846 in London following his death on 21.04.1846 at the age of 73. Three days later he was buried on the south side of St Michael’s Church in Brereton.

Within his Will, George referred to his wife as Elizabeth Harris Collett ‘my reputed wife’, whereas in her Will she was referred to as ‘Elizabeth Harris, the reputed widow of George Collett late of Brereton’.

Elizabeth appeared in all of the census records from 1841 to 1871. As a widow, she was still living at Glovers Hill in 1851 but sometime shortly after she moved to 3 Upper Brook Street West in Rugeley where she was living in both 1861 and 1871.

It was as Elizabeth Harris that died on 08.06.1875 and was buried at Brereton using that name but not with George Collett. In her Will dated 10^th August 1871 she left all her estate to Hannah Elizabeth Gilbert the daughter of her neighbour and sole executor. Hannah would have been aged twenty at this time. It is worthy of speculation why she choose not to leave anything to her children by George Collett or even their grandchildren.

All of the couple’s children, with the exception of Elizabeth’s first two children, were born within the parish of Brereton and Rugeley and were baptised at parish church in Rugeley. Eldest daughter Amelia was born at Newmarket.

43N10

William Harris Collett

Born circa 1813

43N11

Amelia Harris Collett

Born in 1816

43N12

Georgiana Harris Collett

Born circa 1818

43N13

Frederick Harris Collett

Born in 1821

43N14

Augustus Harris Collett

Born in 1823

43N15

REBECCA HARRIS COLLETT

Born in 1825

43M11

Hannah Collett was born at Rugeley where she was baptised on 27.01.1785. It would appear that she never married and in 1841 her ‘rounded age’ was 60.

Hannah died in July 1854 and was buried on the south side of St Michael’s Church in Brereton where she shared a headstone with her younger sister Elizabeth Collett (below).

43M12

Joseph Collett was born at Rugeley and was baptised there on 04.07.1787. He married Elizabeth Joice (Joyce) with whom he had a daughter who was born at Birmingham and who was aged 20 in 1841. At the time of the birth of his daughter Joseph was employed as a tailor and was living at Jamaica Row.

In 1861 Elizabeth Collett born at Rugeley was still living there and was aged 65, placing her date of birth around 1795 so an assumption perhaps can be made that she was Joseph’s wife and the mother of Elizabeth.

43N16

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 08.06.1818

43M13

Elizabeth Collett was born at Rugeley where she was baptised on 27.09.1789. She never married and died on 27.12.1857 aged 68 and was buried on 1^st January 1858 close to her older sister Hannah who had died three years earlier. The sisters shared a headstone on the south side of St Michael’s Church in Brereton.

43M14

Henry Collett was born at Rugeley around 1796 but so far no baptism record so therefore no proof has yet been found to confirm him as the son of Thomas and Mary Collett. What is known is that he married Mariah Higgott at Rugeley on 23.03.1818 and that, when they died, they were buried very near the graves of siblings William, George, Hannah and Elizabeth Collett (all above).

His wife Mariah was born at Rugeley between 1785 and 1789 and at the time of her marriage she was living at Market Street (or Place) in Rugeley where she was working as a linen and woollen draper and tailor

During the year following their wedding Mariah presented Henry with a daughter. By the time of the 1841 Census ‘Enery’ said he was 49, while Maria was 51 and they were still living at Rugeley with their daughter.

Mariah died on 06.01.1848 aged 63 leaving Henry as a widower for the next three years. According to the 1851 he was living at Brook End in Longdon in the Lichfield & Yoxall registration district and was aged 63.

Six months later Henry died on 11.10.1851 aged 64 and was buried with his wife in the churchyard of St Michael’s in Brereton and adjacent to the graves of his likely siblings William, George, Hannah and Elizabeth.

A large flat marble tombstone placed over the shared grave has the following inscription “In affectionate memory of Henry Collett formerly of Longdon who died 11^th October 1851 aged 64 and Mariah his wife who died 6^th January 1848 aged 63”.

This is followed by a further inscription that reads “Also of William Eagles husband of their only child Harriett of Stourton Villa, Leamington. Born 1^st August 1819. Died 6^th January 1885 and Harriett his wife who died 19^th August 1892 aged 73 years”.

43N17

Harriett Collett

Born in 1819

43N1

Samuel Collett was born in Kentucky around 1800. His son was born while he was living at Harlan County in Kentucky and it was at Bell County in Kentucky that Samuel died between 1874 and 1880.

43O1

Henry Collett

Born in 1824

43N2

John Collett was born on 25.10.1796 while his parents John Collett and Ann Winfield were living at Snead Farm in Staffordshire. It was later that same year that he was baptised at nearby Colwich when again his parents were confirmed as John and Ann Collett.

He was married by licence in Wolverhampton to Mary Elizabeth Barrow on 25.06.1828 who was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Barrow. Mary was born on 02.06.1804 and was later baptised on 09.03.1806 at St Peters Church in Wolverhampton. All of John’s and Mary’s children were born at Great Haywood, just one mile north of Colwich.

It would appear that John spent his whole life in Great Haywood where he was reputed to be a gentleman farmer and a brewer. It is understood that he drank to excess and that he was thrown from his horse-drawn gig and dislocated his neck. As a result of his injury he died six weeks later on 10.10.1840 aged 44.

The cause of death was noted as a fracture of the spine, and a report in the Staffordshire Advertiser read as follows: “October 10^th much respected and deeply lamented by his family and friends Mr. John Collett, Great Haywood. His death was caused by a spinal fracture in consequence of being thrown out of his gig on the 7th September. He has left a wife and six children to mourn their bereavement.”

His wife Mary died nearly forty years later from a heart attack, when she passed away on 30.09.1879 at the age of 75 and was buried with her husband in the churchyard of St Michael’s and All Angels Church in Colwich.

During the years in between, the widow Mary Collett was living within the Wombourne area of Wolverhampton with some of her children. In April 1861 she was 56 years old and living with her at that time was Mary A Collett 32, Elizabeth Collett 23, and James Collett who was 21.

Mary’s two sons Robert and John were absence from the family home in the census return for 1861 simply because both of them were married with families of their own by that time.

43O2

Mary Ann Collett

Born on 31.03.1829

43O3

Robert Collett

Born on 1831

43O4

John Collett

Born on 09.12.1832

43O5

William Collett

Born in 1836

43O6

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 31.01.1838

43O7

James Collett

Born on 30.03.1839

43N4

Robert Collett, who was one half of a set of twins born in 1801 to John Collett and Ann Winfield, was baptised at Colwich church on 18.07.1801 is a joint ceremony with his twin sister Ann. He was twenty-two years old when he died in 1823.

43N6

Mary Collett was born at Colwich in 1807 and she, like her brother Robert (above) died in 1823, perhaps even from the same cause or illness. She was 16 years of age at the time of her death.

43N10

William Collett was born at Colwich in 1820 and he was sixteen years old when he died in 1836.

43N10

William Harris Collett was born in London around 1813 but was baptised William George Harris at Newmarket on 08.08.1814. He may or may not have been the child of George Collett of Rugeley and Elizabeth Harris of Newmarket, but he was certainly the latter’s base born son. There is also a strong possibility that George married Elizabeth sometime after the child was born.

As William Harris Collett he married Mary Whittingham at St Mary’s Church in Stafford on 28.12.1837. Mary was born at Market Drayton in Shropshire in 1811 and rather oddly the marriage certificate referred to Mary as a minor and a spinster, while her father was Joseph Whittingham a gardener.

The couple were still living in Stafford nearly a year later when their first child was born but over the next couple of years moved back to Rugeley.

Twenty-nine months later on 6^th June 1841 the first national census revealed that William’s ‘rounded age’ was 25 and that he was a carpenter living at Sheep Fair in Rugeley and ‘not born in the county of Staffordshire’.

Living with him was his wife Mary also aged 25 (rounded age) and the couple’s first born child Georgiana. Within the next ten years William progressed from being a carpenter to a cabinet maker.

The 1851 Census listed William as aged 38 and born in London and living at Sheep Fair in Rugeley with his family, where he was working as a journeyman cabinet maker. His wife Mary of Market Drayton was aged 40 and living with the couple were their children Georgiana aged 12, Alfred aged 9, Fanny aged 4 and Harriet aged one year.

Sometime over the following years the family moved again, this time to Cannock and at the time of the census of 1861 they were lodging at the home of the Richards family. William was aged 46, a cabinet maker born in London, while his wife Mary was aged 50. Only their son Alfred aged 18 and born at Rugeley was with them at the time, probably because he was working with his father.

The younger of the couple’s two surviving daughters Fanny was listed in the census as still living in Rugeley aged 13, while their eldest daughter Georgiana aged 22 had moved north and was living in the Greengate area of Salford in Manchester with her very young baby and base born son Alfred.

It would appear that William, with or without his wife, later returned to Rugeley where he died while living at Brook Street in Rugeley on 09.09.1869 aged 55. The cause of death was phthisis, a form of tuberculosis, and the person registering his death was Ann Hollins of the same address.

Whether William and Mary separated at the time he returned to Rugeley is not known. However, eighteen months after his death and at the time of the 1871 Census, Mary aged 60 was living at 12 Corporation Square in Salford with daughter Fanny aged 23. Also with them was Fanny’s base born son Alfred aged 3.

Sadly, fourteen months later, Mary died at Salford aged 61.

43O8

Georgiana Collett

Born on 03.11.1838

43O9

Alfred Collett

Baptised on 01.09.1841

43O10

Fanny Collett

Born in 1846

43O11

Harriet Collett

Baptised on 12.05.1850; infant death

43N11

Amelia Harris Collett was born on 24.11.1816 at Newmarket in Suffolk as simply Amelia Harris. In the IGI her mother’s name was Elizabeth but her father’s name was omitted. However, a similar IGI entry listed Amelia Collett born on the same day and place to parents George Collett and Elizabeth.

She was baptised nearly three years later on 30.09.1819 at St Philip’s in Birmingham and the Bishop’s Transcript included the note that she was born in 1816 the daughter of George Collett gentleman of Pimlico in London and Elizabeth.

Tragically Amelia failed to reach her fifteenth birthday when she died on 21.05.1831. Her name appears on a horizontal headstone in the churchyard of St Augustine’s in Rugeley together with that of her brother Frederick (below) who had died almost exactly one year earlier.

43N12

Georgiana Harris Collett was born at Rugeley around 1818 and was baptised there on 02.08.1820. She was still living at Rugeley with her family on 6^th June 1841 when she was aged 22.

Almost exactly two years after that census day Georgiana married George Tunnicliffe at Rugeley by licence on 20.06.1843. The witnesses were Rebecca Collett, Georgiana’s sister, and Robert Tunnicliffe who in all likelihood was George’s father or possibly his brother.

The marriage was a short one, lasting for around two and a half years before the untimely death of Georgiana at the end of 1845. However, during those thirty months Georgiana had presented her husband with two daughters and it was very likely that it was during the birth of the second child that she lost her life.

Her death was mentioned in the 1846 Will of George Collett her father, as were her two daughters who were named as beneficiaries. Sadly though, at the time of his passing, his youngest grand daughter had already died just three or four months after her mother had died.

The infant Louisa died in March 1846 and was buried at Rugeley on 23.03.1846.

From what is known, it would appear that Georgiana’s husband never remarried and in 1881 he was living at 45 Victoria Street in Wolstanton near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. George was 60 and born at Birmingham and he was working as a potter’s fireman at that time.

43O12

Alice Tunnicliffe

Baptised on 18.09.1844

43O13

Louisa Tunnicliffe

Baptised on 04.01.1846; infant death

43N13

Frederick Harris Collett was baptised on 28.03.1821. Sadly he died on 07.05.1830 just as he was approaching his ninth birthday.

The flat headstone in the graveyard of St Augustine’s Church in Rugeley which shares with his sister Amelia (above) reads “For Frederic son of George and Elizabeth Collett died May 7^th 1830 aged 9 years. Also of Amelia their daughter died May 21^st 1831 aged 16 years”.

43N14

Augustus Harris Collett was born at Brereton but baptised at Rugeley on 12.09.1823. She never married and died in 1851 aged 28 and was buried at St Michael’s Church in Brereton on 19^th June 1851.

43N15

REBECCA COLLETT was born at Brereton and baptised on 16.09.1825. She is believed to have run away from home with the family’s gardener after her father attempted to stop the couple getting married. The gardener was in fact threatened with a gun by Rebecca’s brothers.

This course of action on the part of Rebecca resulted in her being disowned by her family. However less than two months after the death of her father, Rebecca married James Clare by licence on 08.06.1846 at Rugeley parish church and not the family’s local church in Brereton.

No member of Rebecca’s immediate family was present to witness the wedding ceremony. James gave his profession as labourer in censuses but for the marriage register he stated he was a miller. The entry for Rebecca simply stated that she was ‘of full age’ even though she had not yet reached her twenty-first birthday.

The marriage produced eight children for the couple, one of which was Alice Clare who later married Benjamin Price of Hednesford in Staffordshire. And it was their son Benjamin Price that supplied the story of the disownment of his grandmother Rebecca.

He recalled how he had visited his grandparents in Brereton in order to hear the story first-hand. Although Rebecca’ father George was fairly wealthy and did in fact leave her one of his houses for her to live in, she and her husband James lived a fairly simply life.

At the time of the 1881 Census, Rebecca was aged 55 while James was 58 and was employed as a coal pit banks man. They and their family were living at Redbrook Lane in Rugeley and the census record confirmed that Rebecca was born at Brereton and James at Lichfield.

Just three of their eight children were living with them and these were James aged 23 and born at Brereton who was working as a boiler minder, Albert aged 21 born at Alrewas who was a fireman, and the aforementioned Alice who was aged 18 and born at Burton-on-Trent.

Five years later Alice Clare, who was baptised at Burton on 02.09.1863, married Benjamin Price at the Congregational Church in Rugeley on 10.05.1886. She later died at Hednesford in 1922.

Rebecca Clare nee Collett died at Burton upon Trent in 1912 aged 87 and several of her children spent their working lives in brewery related jobs.

Rebecca was the great great grandmother of John Bennett who kindly provided the basic family details that has enabled this family line to be constructed.

43N16

Elizabeth Collett was born on 08.06.1818. The baptism was recorded at Birmingham as Elizabeth daughter of Joseph Collett tailor of Jamaica Row and his wife Elizabeth.

43N17

Harriett Collett was born at Rugeley in 1819 and was aged 20 in the 1841 Census. She was an only child and during the next ten years both of her parents passed away.

She married William Eagles who was born at Walsall on 01.08.1819 and the couple moved from Staffordshire to live in Warwickshire. According to the 1881 Census they were living at 46 Stourton Villa in Leamington Priors where William aged 61 was a retired brush manufacturer. Harriett’s age was 62 and her place of birth was stated as having been Rugeley.

The couple were supported by two servants, indicating a degree of affluence. These were Annie Sanders aged 23 of Rugeley who was the cook, and Alice Cope aged 25 of Longdon who was their housemaid.

Less than four years later William Eagles died on 06.01.1885. Harriett lived the next seven years as a widow and during this time she funded a memorial window in her home town church of St Michael’s for he late husband who was also buried there with her parents.

Harriett was confirmed as being aged 72 in the 1891 Census of Leamington but, just over fifteen months later, she died on 19.08.1892. She too was buried at St Michael’s Church in Brereton and the marble tombstone over the plot shared with her husband and her parents carried a fitting epitaph. See Henry and Mariah Collett (Ref. 43M14).

43O1

Henry Collett was born in Harlan County in Kentucky in 1824. His son was born at Clay County in Kentucky and Henry died in 1881 at Keokuk County in Iowa.

43P1

John Henry Collett

Born in 1849

43O2

Mary Ann Collett was born at Great Haywood on 31.03.1829. Some records give the place of birth as being Essington (and Essington Snead) which is near Wolverhampton where her mother was born. This was further complicated by Mary herself, who gave her place of birth as being Bloxwich near Essington in all of the later census records.

It is established from the subsequent census returns that Mary Ann never married, although her whereabouts in three of the first four census records has not been discovered so far.

Following the death of her father, Mary’s mother moved to Wombourne to the west of Wolverhampton accompanied by some of her children. In 1861 Mary A Collett was 32 and was recorded in the census that year with her mother and her sister Elizabeth and youngest brother James (both below).

By April 1881 Mary A Collett was the unmarried head of the house aged 52, at which time in her life she was living on the ‘income from Railway Dividends under Trustees’. Curiously her place of birth on this occasion was stated as being Bloxwich in Staffordshire which is not far from Wombourne or Essington where other members of this family line were born.

At this time in 1881 Mary was residing at a house in Moreton Road in Colwich and living with her was her younger widowed sister Elizabeth Hopkins nee Collett (below) of Great Haywood and her daughter Mary E Hopkins.

The house was supported by domestic servant Sarah Willetts aged 16 who came from Armitage in Staffordshire. Mary Ann Collett of Colwich was listed as being 62 in April 1891, and was 72 by the time of the census of 1901. Again in this she gave her place of birth as Bloxwich, while still living at Colwich where she was ‘living on her own means’. On both occasion Mary Elizabeth Hopkins was living with Mary after her mother died in 1896.

Ten years later in April 1911 Mary Ann Collett was 82 and by then was living at Bishton, Wolseley Bridge in Staffordshire and still living with her was her niece Mary Hopkins. Mary Ann Collett passed away later that same year on 09.12.1911 and was buried in the churchyard at Colwich.

43O3

Robert Collett was born in 1831 at Great Haywood in Staffordshire, and was the son of John Collett and Mary Elizabeth Barrow. Robert’s father sadly died in Staffordshire when he was only nine years old and only a year after the birth of his and Mary’s youngest child. During his life Robert was a soldier, a farmer, and a railroad man. On 06.10.1860 Robert married Elizabeth Martha Simons who was born in 1835 at Essington midway between Cannock and Wolverhampton, where the couple’s first two children were born. For some reason, as yet unknown, the wedding of Robert and Elizabeth took place at Marston Trussell in Northamptonshire.

Some records indicate that their children were born at Essington Snead, this being a reference to Essington Woods and Snead Common. Curiously no record has been found of Robert and Elizabeth being together at the time of the census in 1861. Instead, Robert Collett aged thirty was staying with his married brother William Collett (below) and his family at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Where Elizabeth was at this time is unresolved.

However, it is well-known that later in that decade and during April in 1867, Robert and Elizabeth left England when they emigrated to America. The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean took place on board the ship ‘City of Baltimore’ which sailed out of Liverpool and arrived in New York on 24^th April 1867.

The ship’s passenger list included the names of Robert Collett aged thirty-eight, his wife Mrs E Collett who was thirty-five, and their two children, these being Arthur aged seven, and Mary who was one year old. The listing of Robert’s wife provides an indication that she was Elizabeth Collett.

In addition to Robert Collett and his family, also travelling on the same crossing was Robert’s sister-in-law Mary E Collett aged 36, the wife of Robert’s brother John Collett (below). She was Mary Elizabeth Heuston and she was accompanied by just two of her children, William 8, and Eliza 6.

It is therefore possible that John Collett had taken an earlier sailing across the Atlantic, taking with him his two oldest children Dorothy and Elizabeth, since all three of them are known to have been living in America later in their lives

Once there, the two families completed a one thousand mile overland trek to Missouri where they initially settled in Moberley. It was also in Missouri where the couple’s last known three children were born, the last of which was known to have been born after the family had moved to Millard in Missouri.

This photograph of Elizabeth and Robert was taken around 1872 and would appear to be perhaps a celebration picture for the birth of their son John Robert Thomas Collett. The older child sitting on her father’s lap is his oldest daughter Mary who would have been around six years old. Why the couple’s other two children, Arthur and Katherine, are not included in the picture remains a mystery.

It was while the family was living at Millard that Robert died on 07.05.1880 at the age of forty-nine. Following his death it would appear that Elizabeth took her family to live three miles away at Pettis in Adair County in Missouri where they were recorded as living in the 1880 Census.

The census return confirmed that Elizabeth was a widow aged 36 from England. Listed with her were her six children, Arthur 16, Minnie 14, Katie 11, Robert 8, Nellie 5, and Willie 2.

Of her children Arthur and Minnie were born in England, while Katie, Robert, Nellie, and Willie were born after the family had settled in Missouri.

Later that same year Elizabeth, together with children Katie 12 and Robert 8, was boarding at the home of her brother-in-law John Collett (below) at Atchison in Kansas, and again both children were confirmed as having been born in Missouri. Where her other children were at this time has not been determined.

A memorial card or death notice produced eight years after Robert’s death for his wife read included the words “In Loving Memory of E Collett died June 13 1888 aged 48 years”.

It would appear that in 1894 Robert’s in-laws back at Leicester in England, set up a trust that would benefit the couple’s six children later in their lives. With the children eventually going there own separate ways, it became difficult to trace their whereabouts, and it was not until 1925 that the inheritance was realised.

The newspaper article that announced the inheritance was published in 1925 (see Appendix One), and indicated that Robert’s wife Mrs Elizabeth M Collett had died ‘several years ago at Moberly in Missouri’.

43P2

Arthur Collett

Born in 1864 ) born in Staffordshire

43P3

Mary Elizabeth (Minnie)Collett

Born in 1866 ) ditto

43P4

Katherine Louise (Katie) Collett

Born in 1868 } born in Missouri, USA

43P5

John Robert Thomas Collett

Born in 1871 } ditto

43P6

Helen Maude (Nellie) Collett

Born in 1874 } ditto

43P7

William Francis (Willie) Collett

Born in 1877 } ditto

43O4

John Collett was born at Great Haywood in Staffordshire on 09.12.1832. He was later baptised on 11.05.1834 at nearby Colwich and his parents confirmed as John and Mary. At some time in his young life he lived and worked in Liverpool where he was employed as a merchant, a broker, and commercial traveller. It was around 1857 that John married Mary Elizabeth Heuston who was born on 19.11.1837. Mary was the daughter of Robert Heuston of Tipperary and his wife Elizabeth Tydd of England. It is established that the marriage of John and Mary produced four children for the couple and all of them were born within a few miles of the River Mersey in the Liverpool area of England, prior to the family emigrating to America.

It would appear that John first sailed to America before or around 1865, taking with him his first two children, since all three of them were missing from the ship’s passenger list when his wife and the two youngest children crossed the Atlantic.

This second crossing of the ocean took place on board the ship ‘City of Baltimore’ which sailed from Liverpool to New York, where it arrived on 24^th April 1867. The passenger list included the names of Mary E Collett aged 36, and her two children William 8, and Eliza 6.

The family did not travel alone, but was accompanied on the journey by an Irish nursemaid and by John Collett’s older brother Robert (above) and his family.

Once in America the two families embarked on a difficult one thousand miles journey across six states to Missouri where Robert Collett and his family settled, with John Collett and his family establishing themselves at Kirkwood in Missouri. While living there John became a station agent and Mary managed the station hotel. Later in his life John worked as a commercial traveller in meat and dairy products.

John had encountered Mary while visiting Tipperary and it was Mary’s father Robert Heuston who ran a dairy farm from which meal and dairy products were exported to America for John to sell.

By the time of the US Census of 1880 the family had moved across the state boundary into Kansas and was living at 915 North 5^th Street in Atchison, about one hundred and fifty miles west of Millard in Missouri where John’s brother Robert had died around that same time.

The census return recorded the family as John Collett 47 of England who was a travelling salesman, his wife Mary 42 from Ireland who was keeping house, and their three children Dorothy 22, Elizabeth 21, and William 20, all of whom had been born in England.

Their daughter Eliza, who would have been 18 was absent, and may not have survived the arduous journey from England to Kansas in 1867.

Living with the family on that occasion, and listed as boarders, was John’s sister-in-law Elizabeth Collett from England, and her two children Katie 12, and Robert who was 8. It is likely her other children were at Millard with their father Robert Collett immediately prior to his passing.

In 1886 John sold the house at 915 North 5^th Street (in Atchison) to his son William Barrow Collett.

John Collett died at Richland Township in Vernon County in Missouri on 17.11.1911 and was buried at White Cemetery near Richards, Missouri on 18.11.1911. The cause of death was a clot in his coronary artery. He was followed sixteen years later by his wife Mary who died at Kansas City on 15.12.1927.

Just prior to his passing in the summer of 1906 it is know that John was living at Bide-a-Wee Cottage in Woodbine, Kansas where he was working as a property speculator and broker. During this time, his wife Mary was living at Edgewood Farm near Richards, Missouri, where their daughter Elizabeth was also living.

However, a few years later John was reunited with Mary and by 1910 the couple were both living with their daughter Elizabeth at her home in Richland Township in Missouri.

43P8

Dorothy Louise Collett

Born on 03.06.1858

43P9

Elizabeth Copeland Collett

Born on 15.06.1859

43P10

Robert William Barrow Collett

Born in 1860

43P11

Eliza Collett

Born in 1862

43O5

William Collett was born at Great Haywood near Colwich in Staffordshire in 1835. He was baptised on at St Michael’s and All Angels Church in Colwich on 15.03.1835 when his parents were confirmed as John and Mary Collett. He married Ellen Miller on 17.04.1860 with whom he had 13 children who were all born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. Ellen was born 1838 at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.

Almost one year after they were married, William and Ellen were living in Ashby-de-la-Zouch with their first child, according to the census in April 1861. William Collett was twenty-six, his wife Ellen was twenty-three, and their daughter Mary E Collett was still under one year old.

At sometime after he was married, William took over running of The Castle Inn at Ashby-de-la-Zouch which he operated until around 1885 when the family moved to Burton-on-Trent. The photograph on the right shows The Castle Inn during the early 1880s and prior to the family moving to Burton-on-Trent. William and Ellen are believed to be the couple standing in the archway. The building was still there in 2002, although it was no longer an inn, but was being used by the Coop for their Travel Agency. The census of 1871 for Ashby-de-la-Zouch confirmed that William was 35 and his wife Ellen was 32, and that they were living at The Castle Inn with their younger family. By that time the couple had had eight children, although only five of them were listed as being with their parents on that occasion

The five children were Mary Ellen Collett who was 10, Annie 9, Agnes 3, William H Collett 2, and Frederick who was under one year old. However, daughters Charlotte and Alice were missing and there may have been an infant death in the family, since Lottie was also missing from this census and all census records.

Ten years later, according to the census of 1881, William was still the inn keeper at The Castle Inn at 70 Market Street in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He was 43 and from Great Haywood, while his wife Ellen was 41 and from Uttoxeter.

Their eldest daughter Mary was 20 and was a draper’s assistant, Annie was 19, Charlotte 17, Alice 15, and Agnes was 13. Next came sons were William 11, Frederick 10, and Robert 9, followed by Kate 6, John 4, Robert 2, and last was baby Walter who was not yet one year old. Once again daughter Lottie was absent and it must be assumed she had died as a child.

The family’s move from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Burton-on-Trent happened in the mid 1880s when William took over management of the Albion Hotel and that was where they were living at the time of the census of 1891.

The census returns listed William as 56 and Ellen as 53. The children still living with them were Annie 28, Charlotte 26, William H Collett 21, Frederick C Collett 20, Robert 17, John B Collett 14, Richard E Collett 12, and Walter who was aged ten years.

William was still the proprietor of the Albion Hotel at Burton on Trent in March 1901 when he was 65. Still living with him was his wife Ellen who was 63 and born at Uttoxeter and five of their children.

By April 1911 William’s occupation was still that of a hotel proprietor when he was living at Burton-on-Trent, and on that occasion he confirmed his place of birth was Great Haywood. Still living with him was his wife Ellen 74, and their unmarried daughters Charlotte 47, Agnes 43, and Kate Elizabeth aged 36, and their son Richard Edward Collett who was 33.

Two grandchildren were also living with the family at the Albion Hotel in April 1911, and these were Ivy Ellinor Collett who was 9, and John Edwin Collett aged 6, both of whom had been born in Burton-on-Trent. To date, it has not been determined as to which of William’s and Ellen’s children these two belonged.

It was almost exactly four years later that William died at the age of 80 in March 1915. During his life William and his family are reputed to have been brewers and produced a brew called Burton Beer.

43P12

Mary Ellen Collett

Born in 1860

43P13

Annie Collett

Born in 1862

43P14

Charlotte Collett

Born in 1864

43P15

Alice Collett

Born in 1865

43P16

Lottie Collett

Born in 1866

43P17

Agnes Collett

Born in 1867

43P18

William Henry Collett

Born in 1869

43P19

Frederick Charles Collett

Born in 1870

43P20

Robert Collett

Born in 1871

43P21

Kate Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1874

43P22

John B Collett

Born in 1876

43P23

Richard Edward Collett

Born in 1878

43P24

Walter Collett

Born in 1880

43O6

Elizabeth Collett was born at Great Haywood in Staffordshire on 31.01.1838. She was just two years old when her father died. Sometime following this tragic loss to the young family, Elizabeth’s mother moved to living in the Wombourne district of Wolverhampton.

This was confirmed by the census of 1861 when Elizabeth was 23 and living there with her mother, her older sister Mary Ann (above), and her younger brother James (below).

Towards the end of the next decade Elizabeth married Mr Hopkins with whom she certainly had at least one child. The wedding ceremony took place at Penn in Wolverhampton on 06.01.1870 and their daughter was born later that same year.

By the time of the census of 1881 Elizabeth Hopkins of Great Haywood was 43 and although she was recorded as being married, it is likely that he husband had died, perhaps while working on the railways – see note below.

The census return recorded that she was surviving on an ‘income from Railway Dividends under Trustees’ which was very likely a pension from her late husband, and she and her ten years old daughter Mary E Hopkins were living with Elizabeth’s older sister Mary Ann Collett (above) at her home in Moreton Road in Colwich..

Ten years later Elizabeth and her daughter were still living in Colwich at the home of Mary Ann Collett. Elizabeth was 52 and daughter Mary E Hopkins was 20.

Elizabeth Hopkins nee Collett died at Colwich in 1896 and five years later her daughter was still living with her aunt Mary Ann Collett at the age of 30. Her place of birth was confirmed again as Newport in Monmouthshire and following the death of her mother she was living on her own means.

The census taken in April 1911 again confirmed that Mary Elizabeth Hopkins of Newport was living with Mary Ann Collett at Wolseley Bridge in Bishton, Staffordshire at the age of 39. With the death of Mary Ann Collett later that same year, it is not known what became of Mary Hopkins except that it is known that she never married.

43P25

Mary Elizabeth Hopkins

Born in 1870 at Newport in Wales

43O7

James Collett was born at Great Haywood in Staffordshire on 30.03.1839 and during the following year his father died. Twenty years later he was still living with his mother who had moved to the Wombourne area of Wolverhampton where James was recorded as being 21.

Many years after, when he was nearly thirty, he married Sarah Georgia Hopkins from Newport in Wales who was born there in 1848, making Sarah only twenty years of age when they were wed. Over the next ten years the couple were blessed with six children, the first born at Wolverhampton and the remainder in Birmingham.

It was Sarah Hopkins’ brother Frank Hopkins who married James’ sister Elizabeth Collett (above).

According to the census of 1881 the family was living at Canterbury Villa, in the Warwick Road in Solihull from where James was working as a commercial traveller. His place of birth was listed as being Heywood in Staffordshire.

The family listed with him was made up of his wife Sarah G Collett 32 of Newport in Monmouthshire, and their five children. These were James 11, Frederick 9, Mary 8, Rosa 6, and three years old Nelly. Where baby Hilda was at that time has not yet been discovered.

James must have been a man of some status since he employed a domestic servant Annie J Andrews who was 18 and from Warmington in Shropshire.

Ten years later the family was still living at Solihull where James was 51, Sarah was 42, sons James and Frederick were 21 and 19 respectively, and the three daughters were Mary G 18, Rosa P 15, and Nellie M who was 13. Sadly before the end of the century Sarah died in 1899 leaving James a widower.

Following the death of his wife, James took his three youngest and unmarried daughters with him to Newport where he was living in both 1901 and 1911.

According to the census return for 1901 James was 61 and a traveller in hardware. He gave his place of birth as being Little Haywood in Staffordshire. Living with him was Rosie Polly 25, Nellie Mabel 23, and Hilda Ann who was 21.

By April 1911 James Collett was 71 and was living alone at Newport, his daughters all presumably married by that time. And it was six years later at the age of 77 that he died on 10.10.1917.

It is believed from other records found that, during his life and in addition to working as a commercial traveller, James was also a salesman, a brass founder, and that he and his brother William (above) had a cheese and a candle factory. It is know that he suffered with paralysis from around the age of 60.

43P26

James Henry Collett

Born on 06.11.1868

43P27

Frederick John Collett

Born on 19.07.1870

43P28

Mary Georgia Collett

Born on 14.03.1872

43P29

Rosa Polly Collett

Born on 27.04.1874

43P30

Nellie Mabel Collett

Born on 04.08.1877

43P31

Hilda Ann Collett

Born on 11.09.1880

43O8

Georgiana Collett was born in the town of Stafford on 03.11.1838 and was baptised there at St Mary’s Church on 05.12.1838. The IGI lists the latter event as taking place on 22.11.1838. By June 1841 she had moved with her parents to Rugeley and ten years later aged 12 they had moved again, this time five miles east, to the village of Yoxall.

Upon leaving school, and when given permission by her parents, Georgiana made the big move north to Manchester and by 1861 was aged 22 and living in the Greengate district of Salford. The census also confirmed that her place of birth was Stafford and that with her was her base born son Alfred who was under one year old on census date of 7^th April 1861.

The child may or may not have been the illegitimate son of John Shawcross whom Georgiana married around 1861 and 1862 judging by the name of her second child. There is certainly a mystery surrounding this lady and the origins of the four children listed below only two of whom were recorded as living with her in 1881 Census (see below).

However before then, at the time of the birth of her youngest daughter, Georgiana was working as a seamstress and living at 1 Newton Street in Manchester. It seems very odd that no census record for 1871 has so far been found for Georgiana (or Georgina), nor any of the three surviving children listed below. It is known was that her son Alfred had died at Salford in 1865.

By the time of the 1881 Census Georgina was a widow aged 45 (as opposed to 42) and was living at 9 West Charles Street in Salford. Her place of birth was stated as being Stafford and her occupation was that of a sewing machinist.

Living with her was her son Peter Shawcross aged 18 and her daughter Mary Shawcross aged 12, both having been born at Manchester. Peter was a machine grinder with the E & M.

What is of particular interest is that 9 West Charles Street was a house that was shared by two families. The ‘other’ family was that of Georgiana’s sister Fanny Collett who was married to Thomas Lowe - see Ref. 43O4 below for more details.

Sometime during the next decade Georgiana’s son Peter adopted the Collett name, since there was no Peter Shawcross listed in 1891, but there was a Peter Collett aged 29 and born in Manchester who was living in the Ancoats district of the city – see below.

Mary Shawcross was recorded that same year as living at Regent Road in Salford aged 21. And interestingly enough it was at Regent Road in 1871 that a John Shawcross aged 35 was living. So perhaps he had separated from Georgiana around the time of the birth of her daughter Georgina Collett because the child was not his, and hence it was not given the Shawcross name.

Also by the time of the 1891 Census Georgiana’s youngest child Georgina had left the family home and was married to William Holt. After an extensive search Georgiana herself has been located in the 1891 Census.

She was listed in error as ‘Georgina’ and was aged 50 and confirmed as having been born at Stafford. In 1891 she was living in the Ancoats district of Manchester with her son Peter Collett and his young family.

Ten years on and Georgiana was still living in Manchester where she was working as a shirt maker aged 62 and born at Stafford. And it was in Manchester four years later in March 1905 that she died.

43P32

Alfred Shawcross Collett

Born in 1861

43P33

Peter Shawcross

Born in 1862

43P34

Mary Shawcross

Born in 1868

43P35

Georgina Collett

Born on 05.06.1869

43O9

Alfred Collett was born at Rugeley and was baptised there on 01.09.1841. In 1851 he was aged 9 and was living with his family at Yoxall, and a further ten years after that he was aged 18 and still living with his family who had then settled in Cannock. On both occasions his place of birth was stated as being Rugeley.

At the age of 28 according to the census of 1871, Alfred was working in London and was living in lodgings at Goswell Street in Holborn.

By April 1881 Alfred was a married man, but had moved to the north of England presumably to be near to his older sister Georgiana (above). According to the census record, Alfred was 38 and a boarder at the home of cotton weaver and widow Mary A Marsden at 20 King Street in Salford.

His occupation at that time was that of a grinder, although the record also referred to him as an artisan, thus making him a ‘skilled’ grinder. The record also confirmed he was born at Rugeley but, to date, no record has been found of his wife.

During the following years it must be assumed that his wife died because, in June 1885, at the age of 44 he married Jane Cunningham at Salford. Like Alfred, Jane had also been married before and was two years younger that Alfred. In 1881 she was living at 3 Riley Street in Manchester with her first husband and their family.

In 1891 the couple were living in the Chorlton-upon-Medlock district of Manchester, where Alfred of Rugeley was aged 48 and his wife was 46.

Whatever happened to Alfred and Jane over the next ten years is not known but neither of them has been identified in the 1901 Census.

Rather interestingly though in 1891, and also living in Manchester but in the Chorlton & Hulme registration district, was one Lunn Collett aged six years who was born at Barwick-in-Elmet in 1884. She is believed to have been Lina Collett the daughter of William Richard Collett of Barwick and Mary Hannah Todd of nearby Thorner, both on the outskirts of Leeds.

No other Collett was listed in the Chorlton & Hulme area of Manchester on that occasion so there is a mystery surrounding what a six years old child would be doing there without other members of her family. Ten years later as Lina Collett she was aged 16 and was working as a servant in Leeds.

Further details of Lina Collett and her family can be found in Part 36 - The Leeds Line under Ref. 36R2.

43O10

Fanny Collett was born at Rugeley in 1846 and was 4 years old in 1851 and living with her family at Yoxall. Ten years later the family had returned to live at Rugeley where Fanny was now aged 13.

Disgrace fell upon the family for a second time in six years when, in 1867, Fanny was found to be with child and left Rugeley to travel north to Salford where the child was born. At Salford she stayed with her older sister who was also the mother of a base born child who had left Rugeley for Salford in 1861.

By the time of the 1871 Census Fanny aged 23 and of Rugeley was living with her mother widowed Mary Collett aged 60 at 12 Corporation Square in Salford with her three years old son.

In 1878 when Fanny was aged 32 she married Thomas Lowe who was born at Bolton and was aged 31. Following the marriage Thomas adopted Fanny’s illegitimate son who, from that time, was known as Alfred Thomas Lowe.

Three years later, according to the national census, Fanny and Thomas Lowe were living at 9 West Charles Street in Salford, which was also the home of Fanny’s sister Georgiana Shawcross.

Thomas gave his aged as 34 and his occupation as that of a cotton spinner. However, his wife stated she was 32 and born at Rugeley, when in fact she was slightly older than her husband. Living with them were sons Alfred Thomas Lowe aged 13 and born at Salford and William Lowe aged 10 months and born at Rugeley.

All that is known of the family after this time is that Thomas Lowe died prior to the end of the century.

43P36

Alfred Thomas Collett

Born in 1868

43P37

William Lowe

Born in May 1880

43O11

Harriet Collett was born at Rugeley where she was baptised on 12.05.1850. She appears not to have survived for more than eleven months as she was not listed in the 1851 Census, nor is she recorded in any census return thereafter.

43P1

John Henry Collett was born at Clay County in Kentucky in 1849 and he was living in Keokuk County in Iowa at the time his father died in 1881. Six years later his son was also born there. John Henry Collett died at Wapello County in Iowa in 1912.

43Q1

Oliver Otto Collett

Born in 1887

43P2

Arthur Collett was born on 10.08.1864 and this is likely to have taken place at Essington in Staffordshire. By the time he was three years old he was no longer living in Staffordshire due to his parents emigrating to North America. In 1867 his parents sailed out of Liverpool on the ship ‘City of Baltimore’ which docked in New York harbour on 24^th April 1867. The ship’s passenger list included Arthur’s name, together with that of his father, his mother, and his brother James (below), but indicated that he was seven years old rather than him being three, which may have been a simply error in transcription.

By 1880 and following the death of his father, Arthur was 16 and was working as a ticket agent with the Wahask Railway. On the day of the census that year he was living with his widowed mother at Pettis in Adair County in Missouri and his place of birth was confirmed as England.

Arthur married Emma Fulton and the married produced two sons for the couple, the first boy being named after Arthur’s father who died around 1880.

In 1923 he became a naturalised American citizen, and during completion of the records he stated he was born in Wolverhampton on 10th August 1864. Essington, where it is believed that Arthur was born, lies on the northern edge of Wolverhampton.

Two years later in 1925, Arthur learned that he and his brother and sisters were to receive an inheritance amounting to $200,000 from their grandparents at Leicester in England. Apparently the money had been left in trust in 1894 but it had taken many years to track the family eventually to Arthur’s brother William in San Antonio.

A formal announcement was made in the San Antonio Express on 4^th February 1925, a transcript of which can be found in Appendix One at the end of this family line. The article refers to Arthur Collett being a resident of Seattle at that time.

Arthur Collett later died whilst he was living at 11032 Sand Point Way in Seattle in the state of Washington.

43Q2

Robert Collett

Date of birth unknown

43Q3

Arthur Collett

Date of birth unknown

43P3

Mary Elizabeth Collett, who was referred to as Minnie, was born at Essington on 09.07.1866 the daughter of Robert Collett and Elizabeth Martha Simons. Rather curiously she was not listed with her parents when they sailed from Liverpool to New York in 1867. However, she was living with her widowed mother Elizabeth Collett at the time of the US Census of 1880 when she was fourteen years old and was confirmed as having been born in England. The census was conducted just after her father had died at Millard in Missouri and this placed Minnie and the remainder of her family as living three miles from Millard at Pettis in Adair County in Missouri.

In 1925 Miss Minnie Collett, who was then fifty-nine and living in Moberly, discovered that she and her four surviving sibling were beneficiaries under the terms of a trust set up in 1894 at Leicester in England by the parents of her mother. The estate was believed to be $200,000 and this was announced in the San Antonio Express on 4^th February. See Appendix One for the newspaper article about the inheritance.

In the end, after months of trying to resolve settlement of the trust, the actual amount of money that passed to Mary and her siblings was greatly reduced from the originally speculated sum – see Appendix One for details.

Mary Elizabeth Collett never married during her life and died while she was still living in Missouri.

43P4

Katherine Louise Collett, who was referred to as Katie, was born at Hannibal, Marion County in Missouri on 20.10.1868 after her parents had emigrated to America. Although born at Hannibal, her family eventually settled Millard in Missouri, some fifty miles north-west of Hannibal, where it is known that her father died when she was eleven years old.

One month after the death of her father the Missouri census of 1880 took place in June that year and this confirmed that Katie was aged 11 and that she was living with her widowed mother Elizabeth Collett at Pettis in Adair County, just three miles from Millard. Also at a later time that same year Katie was 12 years of age and was boarding with her mother and younger brother Robert (below) at the Atchison home of her uncle John Collett, the brother of her late father, and she was described as being the niece of John Collett who was born in England. It was at Moberly, Randolph County in Missouri that Katie married Boon Barker on 06.06.1894 with whom she had five children, the first four being born at San Gabriel in Mexico, and the fifth at Nogales in Arizona. She and Boon (picture here around the time of the couple’s wedding) later lived at Tucson in Arizona.

Boon Barker was born at Williamstown, Clark County in Missouri on 04.02.1859 and at the time of his marriage to Katherine Louise Collett he was thirty-five years old, compared to Katie who was only twenty-five. Tragically the couple’s first two children died at San Gabriel in Mexico within one week of each other, when first their daughter Helen died on 19^th May at two years of age, followed by son Robert who died on 25^th May when he was four years old.

On 4^th February 1925 the San Antonio Express printed an article that announced the heirs to a $200,000 fortune had at long last been found. Katherine Barker of Crystal City in Texas was named as one of five Collett children to benefit. See Appendix One for a copy of the front page announcement.

Katherine Louise Barker nee Collett died at Phoenix in Arizona on 18.09.1941, and was buried four days later at Tucson on 22.09.1841. Her husband had died less than two years earlier, when Boon Barker died at Tucson, Pima County in Arizona on 24.06.1939.

The book ‘Beyond the Mexican Sierras’ by Dillon Wallace and published in 1910 refers to Boon Barker on the acknowledgment page. This stated that Boon Barker was the station agent at Tepehuanes in Mexico. Also mentioned are Mrs. Barker and her three surviving children, and all three appear in photographs on pages 252 and 253. In addition to this, the two older children are mentioned by name on page 262 as Howard and Florence, although the latter is clearly a reference to Frances.

All of this new information was kindly supplied by Jim Thomas in Seattle whose wife is directly related to the family of Katie Collett and Boon Barker through their son Howard. For more details on the Barker family go to http://home.comcast.net/~jimt075/barker

43Q4

Robert Francis Barker

Born on 18.03.1895; died on 25.05.1899

43Q5

Helen Barker

Born on 20.04.1897; died on 19.05.1899

43Q6

Howard Collett Barker

Born on 28.04.1900; died on 11.08.1986

43Q7

Dorothy Frances Barker

Born on 25.12.1902; died on 27.02.1975

43Q8

William Boone Barker

Born on 23.04.1906; died on 18.04.1997

43P5

John Robert Thomas Collett, who was known as Robert, was born in Missouri on 11.12.1871 and this probably happened at Millard where his father Robert Collett died in May 1880 when John was just eight years old. Also at the time of the US Census in June 1880, Robert was recorded as being eight years old, when he was living with his widowed mother Elizabeth and the rest of his family at Pettis in Adair County in Missouri. A little while later, during that same year, Robert was recorded as boarding with his mother and sister Katie (above) at the Atchison home of his uncle John Collett. According to the census return, eight years old Robert had been born in Missouri and was attending the school in Atchison. He was described as nephew to head of the household John Collett.

Robert married May Edna Hoolan in the early 1920s with whom he had a daughter. The date of birth for their daughter may suggest that May was much younger than Robert, since he would have been 55 when the child was born. The alternative may be that the date of 1927 is incorrect.

Two years earlier Robert was living at St Louis when he heard the news that he and his brothers and sisters were to share in a considerable amount of money left to them by their grandparents back in England.

The full details were printed in the San Antonio Express on 4^th February 1925 and are re-produced in Appendix One at the end of this family line.

Joan, as their daughter was better known, was a librarian and was very keen on genealogy and is believed to have spent some time researching her family roots. Robert Collett died in St Louis in Missouri.

43Q9

Mary Joan Collett – known as Joan

Born in 1927

43P6

Helen Maude Collett, who was sometime referred to as Ellen Maude but more commonly as Nellie, was born in Missouri on 04.05.1874. This may have taken place at Millard where her father died, or at Pettis where Helen was living with her family in 1880. The 1880 Census for Pettis in Adair County listed Nellie as being five years of age.

Later that year Nellie’s mother was living with Nellie’s uncle John Collett at Atchison in Kansas with her older siblings Katie and Robert (above). This meant that Nellie and her sister Minnie, and brothers Arthur and William must have been looked after by another family, possibly in Missouri.

In 1916 Helen was living at 608 West Craig Place in San Antonio. Family legend tells the story that Nellie attempted to take her own life using a pair of scissors. Apparently she was a patient at the State Mental Hospital in Kerrville, near San Antonio in Texas where she died in 1919.

The real tragedy of this story is that six years after she had died she would have been one of the beneficiaries to the estate of her English grandparents, the parents of her mother Martha Elizabeth Simons, which had been placed in trust at Leicester in England since 1894.

43P7

William Francis Collett was born in Missouri on 19.08.1877. He was the son of Robert Collett of Colwich and Martha Elizabeth Simmons of Essington and was born eleven years after his family had emigrated to America from England. It seems likely that he was born at Millard in Missouri where it is known his family was living at the time of the death of his father Robert, when William was only one or two years old. The US Census of 1880 for Pettis in Adair County, Missouri simply recorded that ‘Willie Collett’ was two years old and born in Missouri. On that occasion he was living with his widowed mother Elizabeth and five of his older siblings, these being Arthur, Minnie, Katie, Robert, and Nellie.

It is not clear exactly what happened to his family following the death of his father, except that later that same year his mother, together with his sister Katie and brother Robert were living as boarders with his father’s brother John Collett and his family at Atchison. Where William and his other ‘missing’ siblings were on that occasion has still not been resolved, or what happened to them over the following years.

Sometime later and possibly before the end of the century, William left Missouri and moved south into Texas where he met Maje L Townsend whom he eventually marriage in 1906. The couple’s marriage certificate confirmed that the wedding took place on St Valentine’s Day in 1906 in Maverick County, Texas. The document was drawn up in the registrar’s office in the town of Eagle Pass. Maje L Townsend was born in Texas around 1885 and this photograph of her may have been taken around the time of her marriage.

Over the next four years William and Maje lived over the border in Mexico where their first child was born, before returning to settle in Texas where their remaining children were born.

It is established that it was at Crystal City in Texas that his son William was born, and it may have been there also that his second daughter was born. By 1^st January 1920 (the US Census Day) the family of five was living at Alpine in Brewster County in Texas and was recorded as follows:

William F Collett of Missouri was 42, his wife Maje was 35, and their three children were Margaret of Mexico 13, William 7, and Martha 4 years and 11 months, both of Texas. Shortly after the census the family left Alpine and move to San Antonio, where the couple’s last child was born.

In 1925 William and his family were living at 104 Haynes Avenue in San Antonio from where he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was on 4^th February 1925 that the San Antonio Express (newspaper) published an article about William and his four surviving siblings inheriting a shared fortune of $200,000.

The full transcript of the article is re-produced in Appendix One at the end of this family line.

By the time William died at Houston in Texas in 1943 he was 65 and had been separated from Maje for several years due to his busy work schedule and had been staying in a boarding house. Maje survived her husband by twenty-two years when she died at San Antonio in Texas during 1965.

43Q10

Margaret Frances Collett

Born in 1908

43Q11

William Bruns Collett

Born on 09.11.1912

43Q12

Martha Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1915

43Q13

Mary Belle Collett

Born in 1921

43P8

Dorothy Louise Collett, who was known as Lulu, was born at Aughton Park in Ormskirk, Lancashire on 03.06.1858. Around the time she was ten years old her family emigrated to America and by 1880 they were living in Atchison.

The census that year listed Dorothy as being 22 and working at home supporting her mother Mary. Seven years later she married James Waters McKelvey, who was known as Jim, on 13.04.1887 at Merriam Park in St Paul in Minnesota.

Jim was a ‘scotch tinner’ and their marriage produced four children for Lulu and James, and these were all born at Atchison in Kansas.

Dorothy died whilst at Kansas City on 23.01.1925 and was buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Atchison in Kansas on 25.01.1925. Her husband James (although referred to as John in Lulu’s obituary) died eighteen months later on 19.06.1926 at Kansas City and was buried with his wife in Atchison.

An obituary in the Atchison Globe newspaper read: “Mrs. Dorothy Louise McKelvey, wife of John W. McKelvey, Kansas City, formerly of Atchison, dies Friday in Kansas City after a long and painful illness. Mrs. McKelvey was a sister of William Barrow Collett. She spent most of her girlhood and many years of her married life in Atchison. She was stricken with the illness which caused her death several years ago, since when she has been almost entirely helpless. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Collett who lived in Atchison for years. Her father died a number of years ago, but her mother survives and lives in Richards with another daughter, Mrs Uberrein formerly of Atchison. Besides her husband, mother and brother and sister, Mrs McKelvey is survived by four children: John McKelvey, who is editor of a paper in a town in Kansas, James McKelvey of St. Louis, Mrs. Bessie Mair of Sioux City, and Mrs. Florence Ellis of Kansas City. Mrs. McKelvey was a staunch Episcopalian and was instrumental in the building of St. Andrew's Chapel in West Atchison and it was hoped the funeral might take place from the chapel. But the main entrance to the chapel is too small for the casket to be taken through, so the funeral will take place at 2 o'clock this afternoon from the Hawin & Douglas Chapel”

43Q14

John (Jack) Francis McKelvey

Born on 21.07.1888; died on 24.02.1967

43Q15

James Brook McKelvey

Born on 1890

43Q16

Florence McKelvey

Born on 1900; died on 03.02.1925

43Q17

Elizabeth (Bessie) McKelvey

Born on 1902

43P9

Elizabeth Copeland Collett was born at Eastham, across the River Mersey from Liverpool, on 15.06.1859. By 1870 Elizabeth and her family had emigrated to America, and by 1880 they were living at Atchison where Elizabeth was twenty-one years of age.

It was much later in her life that she married banker Karl Ueberrhein on 19.12.1901 in Atchison, and he was many years younger than Elizabeth. She was an accomplished water-colour artist and she died on 14.01.1927 and was buried in Whites Cemetery near Richards Township. The cause of death was pneumonia with influenza.

Following the death of his wife, Karl is understood to have married Della and the couple lived at 528 West Lee, Nevada in Missouri. He was the Secretary and Treasurer of the Vernon County National Farm Loan Association of Nevada, Missouri and after Elizabeth died he continued to manage Edgewood Farm at Richards which was still owned by the Collett family.

43P10

Robert William Barrow Collett was born at Liverpool on 31.07.1860. He sailed to America with his mother and younger sister Eliza (below) when he was just eight years old, his father and two older sisters having gone on ahead a couple of years earlier. The crossing from Liverpool was on board the sailing ship ‘City of Baltimore’ which arrived in New York on 24^th April 1867.

Once in America, the family made their home at Atchison, Kansas. And it was there that they were living at the time of the US Census of 1880. This recorded that William aged 20 and from England, was still living at the family home from where he was working as a clerk.

He later married Annie Heermance the daughter of Henry Philip Heermance and Elizabeth Fonda. Annie was five years older than William, having been born at Glenco, New York on 26.02.1855 and baptised there five months later on 31.07.1855.

William and Annie remained at Atchison after they were married, and it was there that their three children were born.

It was on becoming a naturalised American citizen at the age of 55 on 11^th January 1916, that William Barrow Collett (the first) chose to drop his initial name of Robert.