PART FORTY-SIX

The Charlton-on-Otmoor (Oxon) Area Line

Updated October 2011

This is the family line of Stephen Collett (Ref.46Q44) who kindly provided

much of the early information and whose family line is depicted by the names in capitals

It is also the line of Stephen John Busby (Ref. 46P66) who kindly provided the initial information,

whose family line is depicted by the names that are underlined

It is hoped that, in time, this line will be connected to the other Oxfordshire lines

Fencott, Murcott and Oddington all lie within one mile of Charlton-on-Otmoor

It is acknowledged that some of the data has not been verified by secondary sources,

particularly where it relates to Richard and Ann Collett (Ref. 46M14), since there were

two such couples around the same time and same place that were bearing children

The major update of the file in December 2010 was thanks to

Janet Wood (Ref. 46Q30) and her aunt Edith Ballard nee Collett (Ref. 46Q33)

46K1	WILLIAM COLLETT was born around 1723. He married Mary Freeman at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1746. It is established from the parish records that the marriage produced at least four of the five children below for William and Mary and all of them having been born at Fencott.
	The settlements of Fencott and neighbouring Murcott had no church of their own so all baptisms, marriages and burials for the area were conducted at the Parish Church of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	William’s wife Mary died at Fencott in 1795 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12.12.1795 and the parish register recorded that she was the wife of William Collett. William lived the life of a widower for almost another ten years after Mary’s passing, before he too died at Fencott in 1805 and was likewise buried at Charlton on 17.02.1805.
	46L1	William Collett	Born in 1748 at Fencott
	46L2	Richard Collett	Born in 1752 at Fencott
	46L3	Mary Collett	Born in 1755 at Fencott
	46L4	Joseph Collett	Born in 1758 at Fencott
	46L5	John Collett	Born in 1761 at Fencott
46L1	William Collett was born at Fencott in 1748 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20.02.1748. It would appear that he died at Bletchington in 1779, following which he was buried at Charlton on 29.12.1779. Bletchington later became Bletchingdon which it still is today.
	There is a record that a William Collett married Avis Smallbroke at Bletchingdon on 24.05.1779 and it seems likely, although not proved, that this was William Collett of Fencott. If so, then his marriage to Avis only last for seven months and it is not known whether during this time that Avis became with child.
46L2	RICHARD COLLETT was born at Fencott in 1752 and, although not yet proved, it seems very likely that he was the son of William Collett and Mary Freeman.
	Recently discovered records indicate that Richard was married twice, and on both occasions to a Mary.
	Richard married (2) Mary Ivins in St Mary’s Church at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25.10.1790. It would appear that the couple settled within the parish of Charlton, since it was at St Mary’s Church that all of their children were baptised.
	However, it is very likely that the family lived all their life at Fencott where all of the children were born and where Richard and Mary were living when Richard passed away.
	And so it was that Richard died at Fencott in September 1826 at the age of 74 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church on 13^th September 1826.
	On the 20.08.1841 a Mary Collett aged 74 was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor and this may well have been Richard’s widow. The place of residence for Mary at the time of her death was given as Oakley just across the county boundary into Buckinghamshire.
	46M1	William Collett	Born in 1792 at Fencott
	46M2	Mary Collett	Born in 1795 at Fencott
	46M3	Richard Collett	Born in 1797 at Fencott
	46M4	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1800 at Fencott
	46M5	John Collett	Born in 1803 at Fencott
	46M6	Hannah Collett	Born in 1805 at Fencott
46L3	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1755 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 26.10.1755. Her life was cut short at the age of 24 when she died at Fencott in 1779 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 04.04.1779.
	The church’s burial record stated that Mary Collett was the daughter of William and Mary Collett, indicating that she had never married.
46L4	Joseph Collett was born in 1758 at Fencott and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 06.08.1858. He married Maria with whom he had nine children. All of their children were born at Fencott and baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Joseph’s wife Maria died at Fencott in 1837 at the age of 75 and was buried at Charlton on 30.03.1837.
	46M7	Mary Collett	Born in 1784 at Fencott
	46M8	William Collett	Born in 1786 at Fencott
	46M9	Mary Collett	Born in 1788 at Fencott
	46M10	John Collett	Born in 1790 at Fencott
	46M11	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1792 at Fencott
	46M12	Thomas Collett	Born in 1794 at Fencott
	46M13	Thomas Collett	Born in 1795 at Fencott
	46M14	Richard Collett	Born in 1798 at Fencott
	46M15	George Collett	Born in 1801 at Fencott
	46M16	James Collett	Born in 1803 at Fencott
46L5	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1761 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 08.03.1761. Sadly he only survived for just over two years before he died at Fencott in 1763 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31.05.1763.
46M1	William Collett was born at Fencott in the latter half of 1792 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24.02.1793. He married Prudence Pittam on 30.03.1812 at Twyford, a village just over the county boundary into Buckinghamshire, to the north-east of Bicester.
	The couple’s first three children were born while they were living at Fencott and before the family moved the short distance to Murcott, where the remaining children were born. All of their children were baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Sadly William died at Murcott in early 1837 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 08.02.1837. His age at the time of his death was incorrectly given as 42 instead of 45.
	His widow Prudence was listed at Murcott in the first national census on June 1841 as having a rounded age of 50 years. Living with her was her sons George 20 and John 15, and daughter Elizabeth aged 12.
	Ten years later Prudence’s age was more accurately given as 59 and by 1861 she was 69. On the latter occasion in 1861 Prudence Collett from Twyford in Buckinghamshire was a pauper living in the next dwelling to her married son George.
	Living with Prudence at that time was her married daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Walker from Murcott, who was 29 and who was described as a field woman. With her were her two daughters Harriet Walker and Eliza Walker, but not her husband, although she was confirmed as married rather than a widow.
	Prudence was still living next door to her son George in Murcott in 1871, but passed away five years later at the age of 84.
	46N1	Martha Collett	Born in 1813 at Fencott
	46N2	Richard Collett	Born in 1815 at Fencott
	46N3	Thomas Collett	Born in 1817 at Fencott
	46N4	William Collett	Born in 1819 at Murcott
	46N5	George Collett	Born in 1821 at Murcott
	46N6	John Collett	Born in 1823 at Murcott
	46N7	Benjamin Collett	Born in 1825 at Murcott
	46N8	Mary Collett	Born in 1826 at Murcott
	46N9	Charlotte Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1829 at Murcott
	46N10	Benjamin Collett	Born in 1831 at Murcott
46M2	Mary Collett was born at Fencott, either towards the end of 1794 or during January 1795, and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 08.02.1795. No other record for Mary has so far been found.
46M3	Richard Collett was born at Fencott during the first half of 1797 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18.06.1797. He married Martha Bottrell at Wendlebury just two miles north of Fencott on 20.11.1823. Martha was with child at the time of her wedding and the child was born at Wendlebury six months later. Richard’s stated occupation at the child’s baptism was labourer.
	Martha was the daughter of John Bottrell and Ann Buckle and had been born in 1798. Sometime after the birth of the couple’s first child the family moved five miles east just over the county boundary to Boarstall in Buckinghamshire where it is known that the remainder of their children were born.
	At the time of the census in June 1841 the family was still living at Boarstall within the Aylesbury & Thame registration district. The family comprised Richard and Martha, both with a rounded age of 40 years, and their children John aged 15, Richard 14, Ann 12, Helena 9, Elizabeth 5, and baby Martha who was not yet one year old.
	By the time of the next census in 1851 the family had moved back into Oxfordshire and was living within the Bicester & Bletchingdon registration area. The only child missing from the family was Felicia referred to as Helena in 1841.
	The full census listing was made up of Richard aged 54, Martha aged 52, sons John 26 and Richard 23, and daughters Ann 20, Elizabeth 15, and Martha aged 10.
	Within the next decade all of Richard’s and Martha’s children left the family home, so by April 1861 the couple were living in the Bicester census district where Richard was 63 and Martha was 62.
	Just thirty months later Richard died during the third quarter of 1863 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Martha survived for another seven years before she passed away in 1870.
	46N11	John Collett	Born in 1824 at Wendlebury
	46N12	Richard Collett	Born in 1827 at Boarstall
	46N13	Ann Collett	Born in 1829 at Boarstall
	46N14	Felicia (Helena) Collett	Born in 1832 at Boarstall
	46N15	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1836 at Boarstall
	46N16	Martha Collett	Born in 1841 at Boarstall
46M4	Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott around late 1799 or early 1800 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 15.06.1800. It is possible that her two daughters were base-born, before she was married, since both girls were baptised at nearby Blackthorn with the Collett surname.
	Shortly after the birth of the second child she married Thomas Priest but tragedy struck the family when, as Elizabeth Priest, she died at Ambrosden near Bicester in April 1824, possibly during childbirth.
	46N17	Susanna Collett	Born in 1820 at Blackthorn
	46N18	Sarah Collett	Born in 1823 at Blackthorn
46M5	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1803 according to his stated age in later census records. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27.10.1805 in a joint ceremony with his sister Hannah (below).
	It was also at St Mary’s Church in Charlton that John married Sarah Hopcraft on 16.12.1833. Sarah was the daughter of William and Charlotte Hopcraft of Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	It was originally understood from parish records that John’s and Sarah’s first three children were born at Fencott, with the remaining children being born after the family had moved to live at the neighbouring hamlet of Murcott. However, this conflicts with the details in the census of 1851 and 1861, when all of their children were stated as having been born at Murcott.
	By June 1841 Sarah had presented John with their first three children. That year’s census recorded the family as living at Murcott within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor with both John and Sarah having the rounded ages of 35 and their three children being Elizabeth who was six, William who was four, and Charlotte who was two years old.
	Within the next seven years a further four children were added to the family while they were living at Murcott. The census of 1851 for Murcott listed the family as John Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah from Charlton, both aged 46, and with them were six of their seven children. They were Elizabeth 16, William 13, Thomas 10, George who was eight, John who was six, and Richard who was three years old. At that time John was a farmer of 80 acres.
	The main difference between the two census records of 1841 and 1851 are the daughters Elizabeth and Charlotte, and it is this difference that may have caused confusion in the past. It would appear from the two sets of details that Charlotte Collett died after 1841 while she was still very young, hence her absence from the census in 1851.
	On that occasion Elizabeth, age 16, was ten years older than her age in 1841, as would be expected. However, it would appear that Elizabeth then adopted the name of her late sister, and became Charlotte Collett, as recorded in the next census – see below.
	Ten years later in 1861 John and Sarah were both 55, when they were living in the hamlet of Fencott with five of their seven children. John Collett from Fencott was a farmer of 60 acres and had working with him his eldest son William who was 22 and from Fencott, who was described as a farmer’s son. The other children at that time were Thomas 18, George 16, John 14, and Richard 13, and all of them again confirmed as born at Murcott.
	Also living nearby was John’s and Sarah’s eldest daughter Charlotte (formerly Elizabeth) who was 26 and, who had living with her, her two base-born sons Walter Wentworth Collett who was three, and Thomas Collett who was two years old.
	Living in the property right next door to John and his family was the family of farmer Richard Collett of Murcott (Ref. 46N2), the eldest son of John’s older brother William Collett (above).
	By 1871 all of John’s and Sarah’s children, with the exception of their eldest son William and their youngest son Richard, had left the family home. John and Sarah were both then 66, while William Collett was 35 and Richard Collett was 22. Both sons were still unmarried at that time.
	Ten years later, according to the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, John was 77 and was a farmer of 88 acres, employing one man. The census return confirmed he had been born at Fencott and that his wife Sarah, who was also 77, had been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Still living with them were their two unmarried sons William who was then 44 and Richard who was 32, both of whom were listed as having been born at Fencott, and both were described as farmer’s son.
	46N19	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1834 at Murcott
	46N20	William Collett	Born in 1836 at Murcott
	46N21	Charlotte Collett	Born in 1838 at Murcott
	46N22	Thomas Collett	Born in 1841 at Murcott
	46N23	George Collett	Born in 1843 at Murcott
	46N24	John Collett	Born in 1846 at Murcott
	46N25	Richard Collett	Born in 1848 at Murcott
46M6	Hannah Collett was born at Fencott in 1805 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27.10.1805 in a joint ceremony with her brother John (above). No other record for Hannah has so far been found.
46M7	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1784 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12.12.1784. And it was there that she buried just over five months later on 25.05.1785.
46M8	William Collett was born at Fencott in 1786 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31.05.1786. No other record for William has so far been found.
46M9	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1788 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18.05.1788. It seems very likely that she gave birth to a base-born daughter in 1809, the child incorrectly being registered as ‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’
	Less than two years later on 19.01.1811 Mary married Richard Westbury by licence at St Mary’s Church in Charlton. Richard was of Grendon Underwood to the east of Bicester and one of the witnesses to the marriage ceremony was Mary’s father Joseph Collett.
	46N26	Denise Collett	Born in 1809 at Fencott
46M10	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1790 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 02.05.1790. No other record for John has so far been found.
46M11	Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott in 1792 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29.04.1792. No other record for Elizabeth has so far been found.
46M12	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1794 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20.04.1974. Tragically he lived for just less than nine months and was buried at Charlton on 03.01.1795. The parish burial register confirmed he was the son of Joseph and Maria Collett.
46M13	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1795 and was named in honour of his brother who had died in January that year. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27.12.1795 but he died around the time of his twenty-seventh birthday and was buried at Charlton on 30.12.1822.
	It is possible, although not yet proved, that he may have married Hannah Eyres at Charlton on 14.06.1819, with his older brother John Collett (above) acting as one of the witnesses.
46M14	Richard Collett was born at Fencott in 1798 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19.08.1798. He was married by licence to (1) Phyllis Goome on 09.06.1825 at Charlton who was with child at the time. Phyllis was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Goome, and was baptised at Charlton on 11.09.1803.
	The couple’s first child was born at Fencott less than four months after they were married and was followed by a second child born at Fencott eighteen months later. Tragically Richard’s wife Phyllis died exactly one year later, possibly during the birth of a further child, which also did not survive.
	Phyllis was just 24 years of age when she died in 1828 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22.06.1828. Six years later Richard had a son James although that was at a time between his two known wives, which raises the question was he married three times.
	Two years later Richard was married by banns to (2) Ann Faulkner at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18.07.1836. The parish register confirmed that Richard was a widower of Charlton, while Ann was a spinster of the parish. She was also many years younger than Richard having been born between 1811 and 1816 according to the later census records.
	This marriage produced a further six children for Richard, the first two being born while Richard and Ann were living at Charlton. There followed a move to Fencott where the next three were born, and a later move to Murcott where the last one was born. All of them though, were baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	At the time of the baptism of all of his children, Richard was described as a labourer. There may be a possibility of some confusion with their children since, living in the same area at the same time was another married couple named Richard Collett (Ref. 46N2) and his wife Ann, although she was born at Hungerford in Berkshire.
	It is also confirmed in the parish register at Charlton-on-Otmoor, that four of the couple’s children were privately baptised at home, presumably because they were too ill to attend St Mary’s Church. As a result, all four of those children did not survive beyond a few months, and they were George, Eliza Ann, William, and George the younger.
	With the complications surrounding the census in 1841 no positive record of the family has been found, but by 1851 Richard and his reduced family was living in Murcott. Richard, age 52 and from Fencott, was a pauper and an agricultural labourer. His wife Ann was 39 and from Fencott, and the three children living with them were James, age 16 and an agricultural labourer from Fencott, John who was six years old, and George who was eleven months old, but who died in 1852.
	According to the next census in 1861 Richard Collett gave his age as 60, rather than 62, while his wife Ann was 44. Living with them at Murcott was their son John Collett who was 16.
	Richard died at Murcott just two years after the census day in 1863 and was buried at Charlton on 03.09.1863 at the age of 66.
	46N27	Joseph Collett	Born in 1825 at Fencott
	46N28	Thomas Collett	Born in 1827 at Fencott
	46N29	James Collett	Born in 1834 at Fencott
	The children of Richard Collett by his second known wife Ann are listed below:
	46N30	George Collett	Born in 1837 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46N31	Thomas Collett	Born in 1839 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46N32	John Richard Collett	Born in 1844 at Fencott
	46N33	Eliza Ann Collett	Born in 1846 at Fencott
	46N34	William Collett	Born in 1847 at Fencott
	46N35	George Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott
46M15	George Collett was born at Fencott in 1801 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 01.11.1801. No other record for George has so far been found.
46M16	James Collett was born at Fencott either late in 1802 or early in 1803. He was a labourer and he and his wife Sarah were both listed as being aged 40 in the 1841 Census, although Sarah was much older than James. The census return had the following children also listed with them at Fencott, Richard 20, Caroline 12, Ann 9 and Charlotte 6.
	There was also an Elizabeth Collett who was six years old who may or may not have been their child. The baptism records at the Church of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor confirmed Caroline, Ann and Charlotte as the daughters of labourer James Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah.
	The Fencott census of 1851 listed James Collett, age 51 and an agricultural labourer of Fencott, living with just his wife Sarah, age 57 and from Ludgershall, and their daughter Charlotte who was 16 and born at Fencott. Also lodging with the family was unmarried 26 years old agricultural labourer Mary Hine from Ludgershall.
	Two years after that James Collett of Fencott died at the age of 51 (sic), following which he was buried at the Church of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18.12.1853. Sarah died almost exactly three years later and was also buried at Charlton with her husband on 16.12.1856, at the age of 64.
	46N36	Richard Collett	Born in 1820 at Fencott
	46N37	Caroline Collett	Born in 1828 at Fencott
	46N38	Ann Collett	Born in 1830 at Fencott
	46N39	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1833 at Fencott
	46N40	Charlotte Collett	Born in 1835 at Fencott
46N1	Martha Collett was born at Fencott in 1813 and was baptised on 17.07.1813 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the eldest daughter of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. When she was around seven years of age her family moved from Fencott to nearby Murcott. Eleven years later on 11.07.1831 Martha married Jonathan Orchard at Swanbourne near Winslow, north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
	Jonathan Orchard was born at Swanbourne on 16.04.1809, the son of Thomas Orchard and Rebecca Matthews. The early years of their married life together was spent at Swanbourne where their daughter Rebecca Orchard was born on 01.09.1934.
	Jonathan Orchard had relations living in Hampshire and it was there at South Stoneham on 25.07.1853 that his daughter Rebecca married (1) Henry Currell who was born at Swanbourne on 19.10.1827. This marriage produced a son Edward Currell whose second wife was Maud Turner who came from a long line of the Collett family of Cambridgeshire. Maud was born on 21.03.1886 and details of her Collett family line can be found in Appendix 1 at the end of this file.
	The Orchard family eventually emigrated to Australia and settled at Black Springs in Barraba, New South Wales. Shortly after they arrived, Martha Orchard nee Collett died at Black Springs on 10.12.1875, and was followed almost six years later by her husband Jonathan who died there on 16.11.1881.
	Back in England Rebecca’s husband Henry Currell died on 03.02.1870, following which she married (2) Thomas Johnson at Little Horwood in Buckinghamshire. Once they were married Rebecca and Thomas sailed out to Australia to be reunited with her parents, just prior to her mother’s death.
	Rebecca Johnson formerly Currell nee Orchard died at Black Springs on 15.06.1902, and just over four years later on 05.10.1906 her second husband Thomas died while living at Barraba in NSW.
	The aforementioned Edward Currell, who was born at Swanbourne in 1857, was first married to Mary Esther McNeill but following her death, he married Maud Turner in New South Wales on 31.05.1927. This produced a son Clifford Currell who was born at Barraba on 15.07.1931 and who was nearly five years old when his father died at Barraba on 02.05.1936. His mother Maud Currell nee Turner died at Stockton in NSW on 27.01.1962.
	On 23.07.1952 at Petersham in NSW, Clifford Currell married Josephine Elys Everitt who was born at Murwillumbah in NSW on 22.12.1931. The daughter from this marriage was Joanne (Jo) Patricia Currell who was born at Parramatta in NSW on 14.04.1969 who married Matthew James Power at Bankstown on 30.08.1991, Matthew having been born at Sutherland in NSW on 09.01.1968.
	Jo’s father Clifford Currell passed away nearly fourteen years later when he died on 20.01.2004 at Blacktown in New South Wales.
	Jo and Matthew Power currently live in the Campsie area of Sydney with their three children Brett, Ben, and Katelyn. And it is thanks to Jo that the continuation of the life of Martha Collett and her descendants has been included here.
46N2	Richard Collett was born at Fencott, and this may have been a few years before he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 04.06.1815, the son of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. On leaving school Richard worked as a labourer at Murcott and at the age of 23 (?) he was married by licence to Ann Grove who was also 23, and the daughter of a farmer at Murcott.
	The wedding took place at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14.02.1839 where their first child was baptised only six weeks later. Two years after they were married Ann presented Richard with his first son who was also born at Murcott.
	By June 1841 Richard’s rounded age was 30 and listed living with him at Murcott was his one year old daughter Elizabeth. At that time, for whatever reason his wife Ann was with their son Robert who was under one year old, when they were recorded in the St Clement & Headington district of Oxford. During the next ten years Ann presented Richard with a further six children while the family was living at nearby Fencott.
	All of the children’s baptisms were recorded at Charlton and in each case the child’s father was described as Richard Collett labourer. From the parish register it can be determined that some of the children were born having poor health, and for that reason they were recorded as having been ‘privately baptised’, which meant they were baptised at home.
	As a result of their poor health, two children died during the 1840s and a further one passed away prior to 1851, with all of them being buried at Charlton. Therefore by the time of the census in 1851 the family living at Murcott was made up of Richard Collett of Murcott (?) who was 39 and a farmer of 60 acres, his wife Ann from Hungerford who was 36, together with six of their nine children.
	The six surviving children were listed as Elizabeth, age 12 and of Murcott, Robert who was 10 and also from Murcott, Albert who was eight, David who was six, Edwin who was three, and Philip who was one year old, and all of them born at Fencott. The three deceased infants were Eliza Ann, William and George. Supporting the family was servant William Horwood, age 18, from Piddington of Oxfordshire.
	The Fencott census of 1861 listed Richard and Ann as both being aged 45 and the only children listed with them on that occasion were Edward, age 13 from Fencott, Philip, age 11 from Murcott, both described as farmer’s sons, Spencer who was eight and from Murcott, and Auten (Hantin) who was three years old and from Fencott. The missing child on that occasion was son George.
	By that time in his life Richard’s landholding had reduced from 60 acres to just 11 acres, when once again he gave his place of birth as Murcott. Living next door to the Collett family in Fencott in 1861 was another Collett family, that of Richard’s uncle John Collett (Ref. 46M5) of Fencott and his wife Sarah Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	There is a mystery surrounding the passing of Richard Collett, since in 1867, when he died at the age of 53, there was an inquest held into his death. This may indicate that he died under suspicious circumstances or that he was killed in some way, rather than dying of natural causes.
	Either way, Richard was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29.10.1867. Just under four years later, no trace of his widow has been located in the census of 1871.
	However, by 1881 the widow Ann Collett, age 65 and from Hungerford, was the housekeeper at Above Mead Farm in Swanbourne in the Winslow registration district of Buckinghamshire, the home of bachelor farmer John Belgrove of Stewkley who had 200 acres and employed 5 men and 2 boys.
	During the next decade Ann Collett moved south to Maidstone to live with her son David. This was confirmed in the census of 1891 when Ann Collett, age 75 and from Hungerford, was a guest at the Maidstone home of David and his wife Eliza, and their daughter Mary Elizabeth.
	Ann Collett from Hungerford in Berkshire was still alive in March 1901, when she was still living at Maidstone, where at the age of 85, she was living on her own means.
	46O1	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1838 at Murcott
	46O2	Robert Sturch Collett	Born in 1840 at Murcott
	46O3	Albert Collett	Born in 1842 at Fencott
	46O4	David Collett	Born in 1844 at Fencott
	46O5	Edwin Collett	Born in 1847 at Fencott
	46O6	Philip Collett	Born in 1849 at Fencott
	46O7	John James Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott
	46O8	Spencer Collett	Born in 1852 at Murcott
	46O9	Auten Collett	Born in 1857 at Fencott
46N3	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1817 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 06.04.1817. Not long after he was born the family left Fencott and moved to nearby Murcott. Although no listing has been found for Thomas in the census of 1841, by 1851 he was 35 and was married to Mary, age 28, who was also of Fencott.
	Their marriage at that time had so far produced two sons for the couple and these were Thomas who was three years of age, and baby Henry who was not yet one year old. The family was living at Murcott at that time. Sadly their son Charles, who was born three years later in 1854, died just one month after he was born.
	It would appear that one further child was added to the family over the following years, so by 1861 Thomas Collett, who was 44 and an agricultural labourer from Murcott, and his wife Mary, who was 38 and from Fencott, had listed as living with them their three sons Thomas who was 13 and a plough-boy, Henry who was 10 and still at school, and Caleb who was four years old and who had also been born at Murcott like his two brothers.
	By 1871 the couple’s two oldest surviving sons had left the family home, leaving just fourteen years old Caleb still living with his parents, Thomas who was 54, and Mary who was 48.
	According to the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, Thomas Collett from Fencott was 64 years old and was then a farmer of eight acres. Mary, his wife and also of Fencott, was 58. Still living with them was their unmarried son Caleb who was 24 and born at Murcott, who was employed as an agricultural labourer.
	Thomas must have died during the 1880s since by 1891 Mary was a widow at the age of 68. Still living with her was her son Caleb who was then 34. As Mary was not listed in the census of 1901 it must be assumed that she died during the 1890s.
	Following his death, the farmland owned and worked by Thomas Collett at Murcott was shared between three of his sons, they being Thomas, Henry and Caleb.
	46O10	Thomas Collett	Born in 1847 at Murcott
	46O11	Henry Collett	Born in 1851 at Murcott
	46O12	Charles Collett	Born in 1854 at Murcott
	46O13	Caleb Collett	Born in 1856 at Murcott
46N4	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1819 and was baptised on 16.07.1819 at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Whether in error or ignorance, but William’s age seemed to be inaccurately specified in the census records that have so far been found for him.
	Although it is a well known fact that adult ages were rounded in the 1841 Census, William’s age was entered as being 15 rather than 20. It is very likely, although not proved, that he married (1) Mary Ann, and that they lived at Murcott where their three sons were born before Mary died. Apart from their parish baptism records at Charlton, nothing more is known about what happened to William’s sons following the death of their mother.
	By 1851 William was married to 29 years old Sarah and the couple were living within the Bicester & Bletchington registration district. So it would seem reasonable that he might be slightly older than Sarah and this would correlate with the year of his birth. However, on that occasion his age was recorded as being 25 which must be an error in transcription.
	To date no record of the couple has been found in the 1861 Census but by 1871 they were living at Witney where it would appear they lived for the remainder of their life. William was 48 and Sarah 49.
	The census of 1881 confirmed that William Collett of Fencott, rather than Murcott, was 56 and that he was married to Sarah, age 58 and from Eynsham. At that time the couple were living at Witney, where William was a labourer employed at the local brewery.
	Four other people were lodging at their house and these were former brewery worker Shayler Clarke and his adopted son Frederick Drinkwater, tin plate worker Edwin Jones, and ostler Frederick Timms.
	It would appear that William and Sarah both passed away during the 1880s, since no record of them has been located after 1881.
	46O14	William Collett	Born in 1840 at Murcott; bp 12.04.1840
	46O15	George Collett	Born in 1843 at Murcott; bp 05.03.1843
	46O16	John Collett	Born in 1845 at Murcott; bp 22.06.1845
46N5	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1821 and was baptised on 25.06.1821 at Charlton-on-Otmoor. He had a rounded age of 20 in June 1841. Around 1850 George married Eliza Harris of Islip with whom he had at least five children and all of them born at Murcott.
	Over the following ten years the marriage produced the couple’s first four children, so by 1861 the family was made up of George, age 38 from Murcott, who was a labourer, his wife Eliza age 32 and from nearby Islip, and their sons Lewis who was seven, William who was three, and George who was two, together with their daughter Elizabeth Ann who was four years old.
	Living in the dwellings on either side of the property occupied by George and his family was his brother Thomas Collett (above) with his family and, on the other side, George’s widowed mother Prudence, who had living with her George’s youngest sister Charlotte Elizabeth Walker nee Collett (below) with her two daughters.
	Shortly after the 1861 Census date Eliza presented George with their last child which indicated that she was with child on the day on the census. Ten years later the 1871 Census recorded the family as George 47, Eliza 42, Lewis 17, William 14, George 11, and latest edition Alfred who was nine.
	Missing from the family home was daughter Elizabeth who was 15 and who by then was living and working fifteen miles away at Winslow in Buckinghamshire. However, still living next door to the family was George’s elderly mother Prudence.
	During the next decade the family moved a couple of miles south to Beckley where they were recorded as living in 1881. George was 60 and from Murcott, while his occupation was then that of a farmer of thirty acres. His wife was 55 on that occasion.
	The only member of the family still living with them at that time was their unmarried son George who was 21, from Murcott, who was working as an agricultural labourer. The couple’s youngest son Alfred was living with Eliza’s sister Esther Harris and her husband Thomas Honour in Hampshire.
	46O17	Lewis Collett	Born in 1853 at Murcott
	46O18	Elizabeth Ann Collett	Born in 1855 at Murcott
	46O19	William Collett	Born in 1857 at Murcott
	46O20	George Collett	Born in 1859 at Murcott
	46O21	Alfred Collett	Born in 1862 at Murcott
46N6	John Collett was born at Murcott in 1823 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25.02.1823, the son of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. He was later recorded as being 15 years old in 1841. It would appear that around six years later he married Matilda who came from nearby Horton-cum-Studley, and during the following year the marriage produced their first child.
	A further child followed two years after, so in 1851 the family living at Murcott comprised agricultural labourer John Collett, age 26, who was born at Murcott, his wife Matilda, age 23 from Horton, and their two daughters Louisa who was two years old, and Selina who was only six months old, both girls born at Murcott.
	By the time of the 1861 Census the family had grown with the birth of four more children. The census record for Murcott in the Bicester & Bletchington registration district revealed that John was 37, Matilda was 35 and their children were Caleb 10, Clara 7, Emily 5, Rosanna 3, and baby Eli who had only just been born. On that occasion the couple’s eldest daughter Louisa had already started work at the age of 12 as a house servant at the Murcott home of William ?, a farmer and publican, whose surname in the census is unreadable. However, the absence of daughter Selina may indicate she had already suffered an infant death.
	During the next ten years three more children were added to the family but the absences from the census of 1871 might indicate that two of the older children had left home. The two missing children were Caleb who would have been 20, and Emily who would have been 15. Their son Eli Collett had sadly died during 1865.
	The family therefore comprised John 48, Matilda 46, daughters Clara 18 and Rowena 12, together with new arrivals Herbert who was eight, Walter who was five, and baby Jane who was only one year old.
	According to the 1881 Census, only sons Herbert and Walter were still living with their parents at that time. It is therefore possible that John’s and Matilda’s youngest daughter Jane, who would have been ten, had also not survived beyond childhood.
	The census details for 1881 recorded that the family was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor where John was 58 and his birth place was confirmed as being Murcott, as it was for his sons Herbert aged 17 and Walter aged 15. All three men were working as agricultural labourers.
	John’s wife Matilda was 56 and her place of birth was confirmed as Horton. With no details having been found for Matilda in the later census records, it may be safe to assume that she had passed away during the 1880s.
	By the time of the next census in 1891 for the Bletchington & Bicester area, John Collett was 68 and still living with him were his two unmarried sons Herbert and Walter whose ages were given as 26 and 24 respectively. It would appear that John died during the 1890s, as he has not been identified in the census of 1901.
	46O22	Louisa Collett	Born in 1848 at Murcott
	46O23	Selina Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott
	46O24	Caleb Collett	Born in 1851 at Murcott
	46O25	Clara Collett	Born in 1853 at Murcott
	46O26	Emily Collett	Born in 1855 at Murcott
	46O27	Rowena Collett	Born in 1857 at Murcott
	46O28	Eli Collett	Born in 1860 at Murcott
	46O29	Herbert Collett	Born in 1862 at Murcott
	46O30	Walter Collett	Born in 1865 at Murcott
	46O31	Jane Collett	Born in 1870 at Murcott
46N7	Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1825 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22.01.1825. It would appear that he was subject to an infant death as the family’s next male child was also named Benjamin (below).
46N8	Mary Collett was born at Murcott in 1826 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 01.05.1826, the daughter of William and Prudence Collett. No other record for Mary has so far been found.
46N9	Charlotte Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1829 and was baptised at Elizabeth Collett on 14.10.1829 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the youngest daughter of William and Prudence Collett. In 1841 Elizabeth was 12 years old when she was still living with her family at Murcott, but by the time she was 20 she had married Mr Walker.
	It was in 1861 that she was recorded Charlotte Elizabeth Walker from Murcott who was married with two daughters. Curiously she gave her age as being 29. On that occasion her husband was absent, and that may have been the reason was she was living in Murcott with her elderly widowed mother Prudence Collett from Twyford in Buckinghamshire.
	Charlotte was working as a field woman at that time, while her two daughters were listed as Harriet Walker who was 10, and Eliza Walker who was seven, both of them born at Swanbourne in Buckinghamshire, where her eldest sister Martha Collett (above) had been married in 1831.
46N10	Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1831 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27.11.1831, the last child of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. Sadly he only survived for less than two years and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 30.08.1833.
46N11	John Collett was born at Wendlebury near Bicester in the spring of 1824 where his parents had been married during November in the previous year. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 30.05.1824. During the years after he was born John and his parents left Oxfordshire and moved the short distance across the county boundary to settle in the village of Boarstall.
	And it was at Boarstall where the family was living in June 1841 when John was aged 15. At just over thirty years of age he married Lucy Foster at Caversfield near Bicester on 09.11.1854. Lucy was born at Bucknell just north of Bicester on 04.06.1830 where she was baptised on 13.06.1830. She was the daughter of Richard Foster and Martha King, although other records gave the mother’s name as Martha Coleman.
	Within the next seven years the marriage produced the first four children for John and Lucy, so by the time of the census of 1861 the family comprised John 36, Lucy 30 and their sons Richard 5, John 2, and William who was not yet one year old, together with their daughter Martha who was four years of age.
	The family was living at Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott within the Bicester registration area at that time and it was most likely there that all of the four children had been born.
	The couple’s next two children were born after John and Lucy had move to Charlton-on-Otmoor and sometime over the following years John returned to Boarstall with his family. And it was at Boarstall that his last five children are known to have been born.
	The family move to Boarstall may have been prompted by the death of John’s father Richard in 1863 and the need to be back in the village of his childhood to be near his widowed mother Martha.
	At the time of the 1871 Census John was 46, Lucy was 40 and their children then were Richard 15, John 12, William 10, James 7, Walter 5, Esther 3, and Edith who was not yet one year old. Their eldest daughter Martha was missing from the family list following her death in 1863.
	By April 1881 John was farming 190 acres of land at Pansole Farm in Boarstall where he also employed three men, two of whom may have been his sons John and James who were still living with John and Lucy at that time.
	The full census record confirmed John as aged 56 and born at Wendlebury and that his wife was Lucy who was 50 and born at Bucknell. Listed with them were sons John Edwin Collett 20 of Arncott, James Bottrell Collett 17 of Charlton-on-Otmoor and Herbert Spencer Collett aged 6, and daughters Esther 13, Edith Bessie 11 and Beatrice Mary aged 9. The census confirmed that the four youngest children had all been born at Boarstall.
	John died at Boarstall on 29.12.1881 where he was also buried. Sometime after the death of her husband Lucy left Boarstall with some of her children and moved back to the Bicester area where they were recorded as living in 1891.
	Widow Lucy was 60 and still living with her were just four of her children James 26, Edith 20, Beatrice 19 and Herbert 16. Over the following years Lucy returned to Boarstall where she presumably lived until her death in 1914 at the age of 83.
	The 1901 Census confirmed that she was back living at Boarstall with her son John Edwin Collett and his wife and family. She was aged 70 and her place of birth was again confirmed as Bucknell near Bicester.
	According to the census in April 1911 Lucy Collett had left Boarstall and at the age of eighty was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor with two of her youngest unmarried daughters. These were Esther who was forty-three, and Beatrice who was thirty-nine.
	Also living with the three ladies was Martha Alice Collett who was twenty-four and the granddaughter of Lucy Collett, being the daughter of her eldest son Richard.
	46O32	Richard Collett	Born in 1855 at Arncott
	46O33	Martha Ann Collett	Born in 1857 at Arncott
	46O34	John Edwin Collett	Born in 1859 at Arncott
	46O35	William Foster Collett	Born in 1861 at Arncott
	46O36	Lucy Louisa Collett	Born in 1862 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O37	James Bottrell Collett	Born in 1864 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O38	Walter George Collett	Born in 1865 at Boarstall
	46O39	Esther Collett	Born in 1867 at Boarstall
	46O40	Edith Bessie Collett	Born in 1870 at Boarstall
	46O41	Beatrice Mary Collett	Born in 1871 at Boarstall
	46O42	Herbert Spencer Collett	Born in 1874 at Boarstall
46N12	Richard Collett was born Boarstall in Buckinghamshire in 1827 and by 1841 he was 14 years old. No other record for Richard has so far been found.
46N13	Ann Collett was born at Boarstall in 1829 and by 1841 was 12 years of age. No other record for Ann has so far been found.
46N14	Felicia Collett was born at Boarstall in 1832. According to the 1841 Census she was referred to as Helena aged 9 and was living with her family at Boarstall. No further record of her as either Felicia or Helena has been found in any later census records.
46N15	Elizabeth Collett was born at Boarstall in 1836 and was aged five years in June 1841. Between April and June in 1856 Elizabeth married Mark Honour, the marriage being registered in Bicester. Mark was born at Murcott in 1832 and was the younger brother of Thomas Honour who employed his nephew Alfred Collett (Ref. 46O21) in 1881 on his farm in Hampshire.
	Shortly after Elizabeth and Mark were married she presented her husband with their first child which was born at Murcott, as were all of their five children.
	However sometime after the birth of the last child the family left Murcott and moved south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire. And it was there that the family was living in 1881.
	Mark was aged 48 and was farming 500 acres of land known as Lower Farm in Swyncombe where he employed four men and a boy. His place of birth was confirmed as Murcott, while Elizabeth his wife, who was aged 41, was confirmed has having been born at Fencott and not Boarstall which seems rather curious.
	Their children were Sarah 24, Albert 22, Walter 18, Bessie 16, and William aged 9. Also supporting the family were two domestic farm servants William Morton and Benjamin Groves both aged 18.
	Tragically within the same year as the 1881 Census, Elizabeth died at Swyncombe.
46N16	Martha Collett was born at Boarstall in the second half of 1841 since she was not listed with her family on the census date of the sixth June that year. No other record for Martha has so far been found.
46N17	Susanna Collett was born in 1820 and may have been base-born since she was baptised at Blackthorn on 14.05.1820 using her mother’s maiden name. No other record for Susanna or Susannah has so far been found.
46N18	Sarah Collett was born in 1823 and may have been base-born since, like her sister Susanna (above) she was baptised at Blackthorn on 04.07.1823 using her mother’s maiden name. No other record for Sarah has so far been found.
46N19	Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1834 but was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 28.12.1834, the eldest child of farmer John and Sarah Collett. She was six years old in the June census of 1841 and 16 in 1851 when, on both occasions she was living with her parents at Murcott.
	During the latter after of the next decade Elizabeth gave birth to two base-born sons while she was still unmarried, and it may have been around that time in her life that she adopted the name of her late sister Charlotte. Both boys were born at Fencott where the family of three was living at the time of the census in 1861. Unmarried Charlotte Collett, age 26 and from Fencott, was not listed as having any occupation, and with her were her two sons, Walter Wentworth Collett who was three, and Thomas Collett who was two years old. This may indicate the father of her eldest boy was Mr Wentworth.
	It is of interest to note that the dwelling in which Charlotte was living with her child at that time, was recorded in the census as the ‘last dwelling in the hamlet of Fencott’. It is also interesting that only three dwelling away from the Collett’s home, was the home of the Cooper family, where unmarried labourer Thomas Cooper was living with his parents Richard and Elizabeth Cooper.
	The exact circumstances surrounding her life over the next twenty years has not been fully determined, but the Fencott census of 1871 indicated she was still living in the same area, when she was 35 and had living there with her five of her six children, her eldest son Walter having already died at Fencott in 1870 at the age of 13.
	The five children were Tom who was 11, Georgina who was eight, Berea who was six, Dorcas who was three, and Jonah who was one year old, and all of them confirmed as having been born at Fencott. Two further children were added to the family over the following years.
	By the time of the census in 1881 Charlotte Collett was still listed as unmarried even though by then she had seven children. On that occasion she was living at the Fencott home of the aforementioned bachelor Thomas Cooper who was 50 and an agricultural labourer from Murcott.
	Charlotte was confirmed as being 47 and born at Fencott, and her occupation was given as a needlewoman. Her relationship to Thomas as head of the household was simply ‘woman’. However, all of her children were listed as Cooper Collett, with all of them having been born at Fencott.
	In March 1901 Charlotte Collett was 66 and the census return that year confirmed she had been born at Fencott, where she was still living at that time with the father of her children Thomas Cooper who was 70, together with their son Tom Collett who was 40.
	Thomas Cooper died during the first decade of the new century, following which Charlotte became Charlotte Cooper for the first time in her life. And it was as the widow Charlotte Cooper that she was recorded in the April census of 1911.
	On that occasion she was described as being 76 and from Fencott, where she was still living with her unmarried son Tom, who had also taken the name Cooper, to be listed at Tom Cooper, age 51 from Fencott.
	46O43	Walter Wentworth Collett	Born in 1857 at Fencott
	46O44	Thomas Cooper Collett	Born in 1859 at Fencott
	46O45	Georgina Cooper Collett	Born in 1862 at Fencott
	46O46	Barry Cooper Collett	Born in 1865 at Fencott
	46O47	Abigal Cooper Collett	Born in 1867 at Fencott
	46O48	Jonah Cooper Collett	Born in 1869 at Fencott
	46O49	Richard Cooper Collett	Born in 1871 at Fencott
	46O50	Anne Cooper Collett	Born in 1876 at Fencott
46N20	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1836 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14.05.1837, the eldest son of farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of each of the two subsequent Murcott censuses his age varied from being four years in 1841, to being 13 in 1851 when he was described as a farmer’s son. By 1861 he was 22, but was more correctly 35 in 1871.
	It would appear that he never married and according to the 1881 Census he was still living with his parents on their farm at Charlton-on-Otmoor at the age of 44.
	Ten years later in the census of 1901, farmer William Collett gave his age as 62, when he also gave his place of birth as Fencott. At that time he was still living within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor and had presumably taken over the management of the family’s farm following the death of his parents.
	No record of him has been found in the census of 1911, so it can perhaps be assumed that he had passed away by then.
46N21	Charlotte Collett was born at Murcott in 1838 and was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21.04.1839, the daughter of John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. By June 1841 Charlotte was two year old, but it would appear that she died shortly thereafter, since she was not listed with her family at Murcott in 1851, nor has any record of her been found after the 1841 census.
	What is significant, and has caused some confusion during the construction of this family line in its original form, is that fact that her older sister Elizabeth (above) appears to have taken the name Charlotte around the time that she became with-child when she was still an unmarried woman.
46N22	Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1841 following his family’s move there from nearby Fencott. Thomas was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27.06.1841, the son of farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft.
	At the time of the Murcott census of 1851 Thomas was 10 years old and was living with his family, when his place of birth was given as Murcott. He later married Anne Cox of Horton-cum-Studley during October to December in 1867 and their first child was born at Whitecross Green in Horton shortly after they were married.
	It may be of interest to note that an Ellen Martha Cox was born in 1866 at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley. She was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Cox and she later marry James Bottrell Collett in 1895. It is likely that Thomas Cox was the brother of Anne Cox.
	Thomas and Margaret Cox were also the parents of Maud Cox of Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley who married Albert Collett (Ref. 46056) around 1893, Albert being the nephew of Thomas Collett, with Maud being the niece of Anne Cox.
	The Collett connection between Thomas of Murcott and James Bottrell of Charlton was through Thomas’ father John Collett, who was the brother of Richard Collett who was James’ grandfather.
	In total Thomas Collett and Anne Cox are known to have had six children, the second and third child having been born while the family was living at Arncott and their last three children after the family had moved to Fencott.
	The census of 1881 recorded the family as living within the Charlton census area which would have included Fencott where Thomas and Anne are known to have been living in 1878.
	That year’s census revealed that Thomas was a farmer of 230 acres employing three men and two boys. His place of birth was given as Murcott and he was 40 years old. His wife Anne had been born at Horton-cum-Studley and was 34.
	Their six children at that time were Aubery (recorded as Albury) aged 13 and described as a farmer’s son, Herbert 10, Mildred 9, Beatrice 5, Percival 4, and two years old Arthur.
	Ten years later the complete family was still together and comprised Thomas 49, Annie 47, Aubery 23, Herbert 20, Mildred 19, Beatrice 15, Percival 13, and Arthur aged 11.
	Just after the turn of the century Thomas and Anne were still living at Charlton but with just two of their children. Farmer Thomas was 59 of Murcott, Annie of Horton was 53, and daughter Beatrice was 25 and son Percy was 23, both of Fencott.
	The later census of 1911 placed the couple living at Fencott where farmer Thomas was 69 and Annie was 64. Annie stated that Horton was where she had been born, whereas Thomas said he was from Fencott. The census confirmed that Thomas and Annie had been married for forty-four years.
	The couple’s son Herbert, whose wife had died during the previous decade, had returned to live with them, together with the youngest of his three daughters.
	46O51	Aubrey Thomas Collett	Born in 1868 at Horton-cum-Studley
	46O52	Herbert James Collett	Born in 1870 at Arncott
	46O53	Mildred Collett	Born in 1872 at Arncott
	46O54	Beatrice Collett	Born in 1875 at Fencott
	46O55	Percival Con Collett	Born in 1877 at Fencott
	46O56	Arthur Collett	Born in 1879 at Fencott
46N23	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1843 but was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 04.06.1843, the son of farmer John and Sarah Collett. George was eight years old in the Murcott census of 1851, when it was noted that he had been born at Murcott. It was when he was in his mid-twenties that he married Emma who was eight years his senior, Emma having been born at Worminghall in Buckinghamshire in 1835.
	The marriage produced twin daughters who were born while George and Emma were still living at Fencott. However, soon after the girls were born George aged 26 and Emma aged 35 were living in the village of Beckley within the Headington St Clement region of Oxford with their twin daughters who were not yet one year old.
	During the 1870s the family of four left Oxford and moved south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire where George’s cousin Elizabeth Honour nee Collett (above) and her family had also moved around the same time.
	The census of 1881 for Swyncombe stated that George aged 37 and of Fencott (?) was the farmer of 70 acres at Darkwood Farm, while his wife Emma of Worminghall was 45. Their two daughters were both 11 years of age and in service to the family as a domestic farm servant was 18 years old Frederick Chalduran of Worminghall.
	46O57	Sarah A Collett twin	Born in 1870 at Fencott
	46O58	Mary E Collett twin	Born in 1870 at Fencott
46N24	John Collett was born at Murcott in 1845 and was recorded as being six years old in the Murcott census of 1851, and 14 years of age ten years later in 1861. On 20.09.1870 John married Edith who was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor around 1848.
	Once married the couple settled initially in Fencott where their first two children were born, before moving to Charlton where their third child was born. By 1881 the family was living in a cottage in nearby Oddington, where John was a farmer of 140 acres employing four men and two boys.
	The census confirmed he was aged 35 and born at Fencott and that his wife Edith E Collett was 32 and of Charlton. Their three children at that time were Albert 9, Thomas 8 and Sarah 7. However it is established that the couple did have another son John who may have been born around 1875 but who was not listed with the family in 1881.
	No record of any member of the family has so far been discovered in the census of 1891 although it is likely that they were still living at Oddington, as that was where John and Edith were living in 1901.
	According to the census that year Edith E Collett of Charlton-on-Otmoor was 54, while he husband farmer John was aged 55 and his place of birth on this occasion was listed as Murcott. Living with them was their youngest son John who was aged 25 and confirmed as having been born at Oddington.
	By April 1911 John Collett of Murcott was sixty-five, his wife Edith E Collett of Charlton was sixty-three, and by that time in their lives the couple were still living at Oddington with their son John who was thirty-five.
	On 20^th September 1920 John and Edith celebrated fifty years of married life together and the occasion was marked by the presentation tom the couple of an illuminated scroll. Today this scroll hangs on the wall inside the house of John’s great grandson Stephen Collett.
	46O59	Albert John Collett	Born in 1871 at Fencott
	46O60	Thomas H Collett	Born in 1872 at Fencott
	46O61	Sarah J Collett	Born in 1873 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O62	John Collett	Born in 1875 at Oddington
46N25	Richard Collett was born at Murcott in 1848, and was the youngest child of farmer John Collett and his wife Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of the Murcott census of 1851 Richard was three years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Murcott.
	Thirty years later, according to the 1881 Census, Richard Collett was 32 and a bachelor who was listed as a farmer’s son. At that time he was still living with his elderly parents on their 88 acres farm in the hamlet of Murcott within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	The census in March 1901 listed Richard Collett of Fencott as being 54 years old and was living at Charlton where he was working as a thatcher. This may or may not have been Richard the son of John and Sarah.
46N26	Denise Collett was born at Fencott in 1809 and was the daughter of Mary Collett of Fencott who was not married until 1811. She was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12.03.1809 and the entry in the parish records referred to her as ‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’. Therefore the assumption has been made that the name today would be Denise.
	It is not known whether she retained the Collett name or adopted the Westbury name, following the marriage of her mother to Richard Westbury on 19.01.1811. No other record for Denise or any similar named female has so far been found.
46N27	Joseph Collett was born at Fencott during 1825 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor later that same year on 13.10.1825, the first of two sons born to Richard and Phyllis Collett.
	It is not clear what happened to Joseph after his mother died and his father re-married, but by 1881 he was living at 47 Cavendish Road in Walton-on-the-Hill in Lancashire. From the census record it is apparent that he married Mary from Shropshire during the 1850s, with whom he had at least one child.
	By that time in his life Joseph Collett, age 58 and from Fencott, was a general labourer living with his wife Mary, age 48 and a farm servant, and their son William Collett who was 20 and a general labourer who had been born at Ashton-under-Lyne.
	Three other people were boarding with the Collett family, and they were George and Jane Radford, with their one year old daughter Alice.
46N28	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1827 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24.06.1827, the second of two sons born to Richard and Phyllis Collett. Tragically he only survived for around eighteen months before he died and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 22.01.1829.
46N29	James Collett was born at Fencott in 1834, the son of Richard Collett of Fencott. He was born at a time in Richard’s life which was six years after the death of his first wife, and two years before he married for a second time. It is therefore possible that James was the son of Richard Collett and a second, so far unknown second of three wives.
	It was in 1851 that James Collett of Fencott was 16 when he was working as an agricultural labourer, while living with his father and his stepmother Ann, and two younger half-brothers at Murcott.
46N30	George Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1837. Being of poor health he was subject to a private baptism at his home in Charlton on 03.02.1838 but died shortly after and was buried at Charlton on 17.02.1838.
46N31	Thomas Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1839 and was baptised there on 22.08.1839. Thomas was the son of Richard and Ann Collett and he survived for only thirty-one months and, following his death on 09.02.1842, he was buried at Charlton.
46N32	John Richard Collett was born at Fencott in 1844 and was baptised on 18.08.1844 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, one of the very few children of Richard and Ann Collett to survive beyond infancy. By 1851 he was living at Murcott with his parents at the age of six years when his place of birth was given as Murcott.
46N33	Eliza Anne Collett was born at Murcott in 1846, the daughter of Richard and Anne Collett. She was not in the best of health, as indicated by the fact that she was the subject of a private baptism at the family home on 11.04.1846. Sadly Eliza never recovered from her illness and died just of twelve months later and was buried at Charlton on 20.04.1847.
46N34	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1847 and probably suffered with the same ailments as his older sister Eliza Anne (above) who died seven months before he was born. William was also baptised at home in a private baptism on 14.11.1847, but he died six months later and was buried at Charlton on 18.05.1848.
46N35	George Collett was born at Murcott during April 1850 and was the fourth child of the family to die while still an infant. Like his three sibling immediately before him, he was privately baptised on 09.05.1850 and survived for almost two years thereafter. At the time of the census in 1851 he was eleven months old and was living at Murcott with his parents Richard and Ann Collett. Following his passing one year later, he was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 01.04.1852.
46N37	Caroline Collett was born at Fencott in 1828, and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19.10.1828, the eldest child of James and Sarah Collett.
46N38	Ann Collett was born at Fencott in 1830, and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 01.01.1832, the daughter of James and Sarah Collett.
46N40	Charlotte Collett was born at Fencott in 1835, and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 08.03.1835, the youngest of the children of James and Sarah Collett.
46O1	Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1839 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31.06.1839, the eldest child of Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove of Hungerford. Elizabeth was one year old in the 1841 Census for Murcott when she was living there with her father.
	Within two or three years Elizabeth’s family moved to Fencott where they lived for seven years before returning to Murcott. It was at Murcott that she was living with her family at the time of the census in 1851 when she was 12 years old. By the time of the next census she was very likely married.
46O2	Robert Sturch Collett was born at Murcott in 1841 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29.03.1841. Curiously in the census that year, when he was less than three months old, he was with his mother Ann in the St Clement & Headington area of Oxford, while his father Richard was at their home in Murcott.
	Ten years later Robert was 10 years old when he was living with his family on their 60 acre farm at Murcott, where he was confirmed as having been born. By the time he was 20 he had left Murcott and was living and working at Swalcliffe, near Banbury.
	It was while in the Banbury area that he met Mary Ann whom he married a few years later. Mary Ann was born at Hanwell near Banbury and was the same age as Robert. There is a chance that she was Mary Ann Baker – see 1881 Census note below.
	Where they were married has not been discovered, but either at that time or a little while after the couple moved to London and the birth of their only known child was registered while Robert and Mary Ann were living at Waterloo Road in Lambeth. It is however likely that the couple were living at Brill in Buckinghamshire at the time of their son’s birth, according to later census records.
	And it was there that the family of three was still living in 1871. Robert was aged 30, as was Mary Ann, while their son William was four years old. Sometime during the next decade the family moved west and north of the River Thames and settled in Norwood Green in Middlesex.
	According to the census of 1881 the family was living at Featherstone Larches in Norwood where the occupation of Robert B Collett (sic) was a beer retailer. Both he and his wife Mary were 40 years of age and Robert gave his place of birth as Fencott, while Mary confirmed she was of Hanwell in Oxfordshire. It was at Fencott that Robert had lived with his family from 1842 to 1850, although before and after these dates he and his family had been living at Murcott where he was born.
	Robert’s son William was then 14 and was still attending school. Staying with the family at that time was Kate Baker aged 41 of Wootton in Oxfordshire the wife of an agricultural labourer who was described as ‘sister-in-law’, together with her daughter Margaret aged 3 of Hounslow.
	It would appear that Robert continued to live at Norwood for the rest of his life, although no record of him at all has been found in 1901. However, in both 1891 and 1911 he was listed as living there.
	By 1891 Robert ‘Stauch’ Collett and Mary Ann Collett were both 50 and were living alone at Norwood. When Mary Ann died has not been determined and this may be linked with their absence in 1901.
	The census of 1911 confirmed that Robert Sturch Collett was still living at Norwood at the age of 70, by which time he was a widower.
	46P1	William Collett	Born in 1866 at Brill
46O3	Albert Collett