PART FORTY-SEVEN

The Fyfield & Eastleach Martin Line

December 2008

This is the family line of Frances Francis (see Ref. 47P11)

The settlement that this line centres on is ‘Fifield’ near Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire very close to the county boundary with Oxfordshire.

Today it is spelt Fyfield, and is not the Fifield in Oxfordshire which

is situated only a few miles from Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire

Being a hamlet, Fyfield did not have a church of its own in those early

days and this was why baptisms, marriages and burials were conducted at the parish church of St Michael & St Martin in nearby Eastleach Martin

The research so far has not revealed any links to any of the other Gloucestershire line and the only common ground is the village of Cowley. In 1881 members of this branch of the family were living there with Colletts from The Chedworth Line

47K1	Unknown Collett parents
	47L1	George Collett	Born circa 1760
	47L2	Richard Collett	Born in 1763
47L1	George Collett was born around 1760 and is thought to be the brother of Richard Collett (below). He later married Mary and their two known sons were baptised in a joint christening at Eastleach Martin. It has not been determined if the boys were twins but it is more likely that they were not.
	47M1	George Collett	Baptised on 12.10.1796
	47M2	Charles Collett	Baptised on 12.10.1796
	47M3	Richard Collett	Born in 1803
47L2	Richard Collett was born at Fyfield in 1763 and his is the first Collett name recorded for that area of Gloucestershire. Around 1793 Richard married Mary who was ten years younger than Richard and all of their children were probably born at Fyfield, although baptised at Eastleach Martin.
	Mary died at Fyfield and was buried at Eastleach Martin on 24.07.1822 age the age of 49. Eleven years later Richard died and was buried with his wife on 17.04.1833. The parish entry described Mary as being ‘of Fifield’ while her husband was recorded as ‘Richard Collett of Eastleach Martin alias Burthorpe’.
	47M4	Thomas Collett	Baptised on 11.__.1794
	47M5	Henry Collett	Baptised on 18.03.1798
	47M6	Jane Collett	Baptised on 03.08.1800
	47M7	Eleanor Collett	Baptised on 16.10.1803
	47M8	Mary Collett	Baptised on 19.04.1807
	47M9	Richard Collett	Born in 1811
	47M10	Esther Collett	Born in 1812
	47M11	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1814
47M1	George Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 12.10.1796. Nothing further is known about George at this time except that there was no record of him in the 1841 or 1851 census records, nor in any later census.
47M2	Charles Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 12.10.1796. He later married Sophia in 1830 when she was twenty years of age, having been born at Alvescot around 1810.
	The marriage produced eleven children for Charles and Sophia and all of them were born at Fyfield. It is also confirmed that the baptism of the couple’s first two children was conducted at the parish church in Eastleach Martin.
	According to the first national census held on 6th June 1841 Charles was given the rounded age of 40 while his wife Sophia had a rounded age of 30. Charles was employed as an agricultural labourer and living with the couple at Fyfield were their first six children.
	These were Mary aged 11, Charles 10, Robert 8, Eleanor 6, Luanna 4, and Enos who was two years old. The family was extended by a further three children during the next decade, although the family suffered the lost of one of these with the death of seven years old Josiah in 1850.
	So by the time of the census of 1851 for Fyfield Charles and Sophia were listed as being aged 53 and 40. Charles’ occupation was that of an agricultural labourer and his place of birth was confirmed as Fyfield. Their children on that occasion were Mary 21, Charles 20, Robert 18, Eleanor 16, Susanna 14, Enos 12, John 10, Obadiah 5, and Emmanuel aged 3.
	During the next two decades the format of the family changed and by the time of the 1861 Census for Bibury & Northleach the family comprised Charles aged 63, Sophia 51, and their children Obadiah 16, Emmanuel 12, and Nehmiah aged 9. Also staying with the family was four years old grandson William Collett the base born son of Charles’ and Sophia’s daughter Luanna.
	According to the 1871 Census for Northleach & Bibury, Charles was 75, Sophia was 63 and living with them were two grandsons James Collett aged 19 and William Collett aged 14. It is possible that James was the son of Robert Collett, while it is known that William was the base born son of their daughter Luanna Collett.
	Charles died in 1879 so his wife was recorded as a widow in the census of 1881. Sophia Collett aged 69 and of Alvescot in Oxfordshire was listed as head of the household and formerly the wife of a labourer. Living with her in the Eastleach Martin census area was her unmarried son Emmanuel of Fyfield in Gloucestershire.
	Also staying with them was Sophia’s granddaughter Ellen Silman of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, the daughter of Charles’ and Sophia’s daughter Luanna, who was recorded as attending school.
	Ten years later in April 1891 Sophia gave her age as being 80 at a time when she was a visitor at the Black Bourton home of her daughter Luanna.
	Sophia died during the following year and was described as being 'of Fifield' in burial register for 1892.
	47N1	Mary Ann Collett	Baptised on 25.12.1829
	47N2	Charles Collett	Baptised on 06.02.1831
	47N3	Robert Collett	Born in 1832
	47N4	Eleanor Collett	Born in 1835
	47N5	Luanna Collett	Born in 1837
	47N6	Enos Collett	Born in 1839
	47N7	John Collett	Born in 1841
	47N8	Josiah Collett	Born in 1843
	47N9	Obadiah Collett	Born in 1845
	47N10	Emmanuel Collett	Born in 1849
	47N11	Nehemiah Collett	Born in 1851
47M3	Richard Collett was born in 1803 and possibly at Fyfield, although in the later census records of 1851 and 1861 he stated that his place of birth was ‘Fifield in Oxfordshire’.
	He married Mary and since he was at Bledington in 1861 it may be that he is not of Fyfield in Gloucester, as Bledington is nearby to the village of Fifield in Oxfordshire.
	This Richard have therefore have been confused with Richard Collett of Fyfield who was baptised at Eastleach Martin in 1810 – see Ref. 47M9.
47M4	Thomas Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 11.--.1794 (the month is missing from the IGI listing). He was the son of Richard and Mary Collett of Fyfield and it is believed that he married Ann.
47M5	Henry Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 18.03.1798. He only survived for a short while and died during the following year.
47M6	Jane Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 03.08.1800. When she was twenty-seven years old she gave birth to a base born baby daughter and two years later she married John Stanton at Eastleach Martin on 19.09.1829.
	47N12	Mary Jane Collett	Born in 1827 at Fyfield
47M7	Eleanor Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 16.10.1803. Sadly Eleanor died in 1820 when she was only seventeen years of age.
47M8	Mary Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 19.04.1807.
47M9	Richard Collett was, according to the Family Bible compiled by his son George Collat, born on 17.06.1811 at Fyfield and was initially recorded as Richard Collat. These details conflict with the IGI listing which states Richard Collett was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 15.07.1810.
	However, as the Bible date has been confirmed by the Gloucestershire Records Office, it must therefore be assumed the IGI entry is in error and should read as 15.07.1811 for the date of his baptism.
	Richard later married (1) Priscilla Brown on 15.03.1840 at Cowley just south of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire but not before she had given birth to their first child one year earlier. Curiously Richard gave his place of birth as Eastington near Northleach rather than Eastleach.
	Priscilla was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Brown and at the time of their wedding Priscilla was expecting the birth of the couple’s second child.
	Less than three months after they were married Priscilla presented Richard with his first son and by the time of the June census of 1841 Richard, Priscilla and George were living right next door to Priscilla’s parents in Cowley. The absence of their daughter Emily was confirmation that she had died while still an infant,
	Exactly three years after the birth of the couple’s first son Priscilla presented Richard with a second son from which it would appear she never recovered.
	Tragically just over two months after this happy event Priscilla died on 16.09.1843, the cause of death stated as being ‘decline’, this presumably being the decline in her health since giving birth.
	Richard spent the rest of his life at Cowley where his two surviving sons from his first marriage were born. And it was also at Cowley nearly seven years later on 09.03.1850 that Richard married (2) Esther Broad who was born in 1813 and who was the daughter of Thomas Broad.
	His second married produced no children for Richard and a year after they were married Richard and Esther were living together in Cowley as recorded by the 1851 Census. Richard was aged 37, Esther was 35 and his two sons George and James were aged 10 and aged 7 respectively.
	Within the next ten years Richard and Esther seem to have parted company due to Esther’s mental state since in the Cowley census of 1861 Richard was 49 and only had living with him his two sons George aged 20 and James aged 17.
	At that same time in 1861 Esther was a patient at the County Lunatic Asylum in the North Hamlet area of Gloucester where she was listed as being aged 45 and born at Cowley, and the wife of a labourer.
	During the next ten years the couple were reunited and by 1871 they were both living together at Cowley. Richard was 61 and Esther was aged 55. Living with them and listed as a visitor was Richard’s widowed sister Elizabeth Lafford aged 59
	Another separation of Richard and his wife appears to have taken place over the next decade since the 1881 Census only listed Richard ‘of Fifield in Gloucestershire’ aged 70, an agricultural labourer living at Hill Cottages in Cowley. Still living with him was his sister Elizabeth Lafford.
	He was still recorded as being married, while his estranged wife Esther aged 66 and born at Cowley but who was living at the workhouse in nearby Cheltenham claimed she was a widow and a pauper. In exchange for her accommodation, Esther was employed at the workhouse as a general servant.
	Just seven years after the census date Richard died at Cowley in 1888, while it is understood that his wife Esther died in 1887.
	47N13	Emily Collett	Born on 24.03.1839
	47N14	George Richard Collett	Born on 03.07.1840
	47N15	James Collett	Born on 10.07.1843
47M10	Esther Collett was born at Fyfield in 1812 although no baptism record has so far been located for her.
47M11	Elizabeth Collett was born at Fyfield in 1814 and she later married George Lafford at Eastleach Martin on 27.10.1832. The marriage produced only one daughter for the couple shortly after they were married following which George then appears to have died just prior to the census of 1871.
	Elizabeth then lived with her brother Richard Collett (above) and his wife Esther at Cowley from that time until her death in 1896. In the 1871 Census she was listed as being 59 years old and her occupation was that of a nurse.
	By the time of the Cowley census of 1881 the widow Elizabeth Lafford was aged 68 and was continuing to live with her brother Richard Collett at Hill Cottages in Cowley. Her place of birth was confirmed as being ‘Fifield in Gloucestershire’.
	Also living at Hill Cottages in Cowley at that same time was baker Henry Collett (Ref. 3O32) aged 33 of Painswick together with his wife Sarah Ann Collett and his mother-in-law Sarah Long of Cowley. Henry was the son of John Collett of Chedworth.
	47N16	Mary Ann Lafford	Born in 1833 at Fyfield
47N1	Mary Ann Collett was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 25.12.1829. At the time of the first national census Mary was aged 11 and was living with her family in the Eastleach Martin registration district. In 1851 Mary was still living with her parents at Eastleach Martin where she gave birth to a base born daughter.
	It was also around that time that her daughter Ann Collett was baptised at Eastleach Martin on the same day as Mary Ann’s younger brother Nehmiah Collett (below).
	Sometime thereafter Mary Ann married Luke Carter who was born in 1828 just two miles away in the village of Filkins in Oxfordshire. By 1881 Luke was 52 and Mary was 51 and they were living at Gardiners Row in Filkins where both Luke and Mary were listed as being general labourers.
	Living with them on that occasion were the couple’s three youngest children, Robert Carter 14 and another general labourer, Elizabeth Carter 11 and James Carter aged 8, and all born at Filkins. Whatever happened to Mary’s daughter Ann Collett has not been determined at this time.
	47O1	Ann Collett	Born in 1850 at Fyfield
47N2	Charles Collett was born at Fyfield and baptised at Eastleach Martin on 06.02.1831, and was the son of Charles and Sophia Collett. By June 1841 he was recorded as being aged 10 and was living with his family in Fyfield.
	By 1851 he was twenty years of age and was still living at the family home in Fyfield, from where he was working as an agricultural labourer. His place of birth was confirmed as being Fyfield.
	Four and a half years after the census day and at the age of 24 Charles married Elizabeth Newman on 29.10.1855 at the parish church in Kempsford, where their children were subsequently baptised. Elizabeth was the daughter of Whelford agricultural labourer William Newman and his wife Elizabeth.
	Just over five years later the marriage had produced three children for Charles and Elizabeth, all of which had been born at Kempsford. The 1861 Census for Kempsford confirmed that agricultural labourer Charles aged 28 ‘of Southrop’ (next to Fyfield) was married to Eliza aged 23 ‘of Whelford’ and that their three children were Sophia aged 4, Sarah aged 3 and William who was only nine months old.
	One further child seems to have been added to the family four years later, so by 1871 the family was still living within at Kempsford and comprised Charles aged 41 ‘of Fyfield’ who was working as an agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth aged 32 of Whelford, and three of their four known children.
	These were daughters Sophia 12 and Kate 5, and son William who was ten years of age. All of them on this occasion were recorded as having been born at Whelford. With the passing of another decade the family was reduced in size by the departure of the two eldest daughters who left home to be married.
	So by April 1881 the family was made up of Charles aged 49 who was an agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth aged 39, and their son William aged 20 who was also working as an agricultural labourer. No trace has so far been found of the couple’s youngest daughter Kate.
	Charles’ place of birth was confirmed as ‘Fifield in Gloucestershire’, while his wife and son had both been born at Kempsford where they were living at that time.
	It would appear that Charles and Elizabeth spent the rest of their lives living at Kempsford where they were recorded as being in 1901. Charles of Fyfield in Gloucestershire was still employed as an agricultural labourer at the age of 69, while his wife Elizabeth of Kempsford was then 59 (?).
	Also still living with the couple in Kempsford was their son William who was also still working as an agricultural labourer with his father.
	47O2	Sophia Collett	Born in 1856
	47O3	Sarah Ann Collett	Born in 1858
	47O4	William Collett	Born in 1860
	47O5	Kate Collett	Born in 1865
47N3	Robert Collett was born at Fyfield in 1832 and was listed as being 8 years old in June 1841 when living there with his family. He was still living with his parents at Fyfield in 1851 when he was aged 18 and was employed as an agricultural labourer like his father and older brother Charles.
	His place of birth was confirmed in the 1851 Census as having been Fyfield and it is believed that Robert was the father of a son James Collett who was born around 1852 and who was living with his grandparents in 1871. However, nothing has so far been found to verify this.
	47O6	James Collett (not verified)	Born in 1852
47N4	Eleanor Collett was born at Fyfield in 1835 and was aged 6 by the time of the census of 1841.
47N5	Luanna Collett was born at Fyfield in 1837 and appeared in the 1841 as Luanna aged 4 years and as Susanna aged 14 in 1851. She was also addressed as Luanna in the later census of 1881 although it is thought that her name may have actually been Louisianna or Louisa.
	Before Luanna reached her twentieth birthday she gave birth to a base born son following which the child was brought up by his grandparents. The census record of 1861 for the family Charles and Sophia Collett included their grandson William aged 4. However, no such record has so far been found for his mother.
	Shortly after April 1861 it would appear that Luanna married Mister Silman of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire with whom she had three known children all of whom had been born at Black Bourton. They were Charles born in 1865, Sarah born in 1867, and Ellen who was born in 1875.
	By 1881 Luanna Silman was a widow and was listed as the only occupant of a house in Black Bourton from where she was employed as an agricultural labourer. Luanna was 45 years old and her place of birth was confirmed as Fyfield in Gloucestershire. Her son Charles was aged 16 and was a lodger at the Black Bourton home of shepherd George Giles.
	Luanna’s youngest child Ellen was living with Luanna’s widowed mother Sophia Collett in Eastleach Martin where she was confirmed as being six years old and had been born at Black Bourton. No trace has been found of daughter Sarah in 1881 although she was back living with her mother by 1891.
	Luanna remained living at Black Bourton for the rest of her life and in 1891 was aged 54 and was listed in that year’s census as Hannah Silman. Listed with her were her daughters Sarah aged 24 and Ellen aged 15. Also living with them was Luanna’s grandson five years old James Silman and her eighty years old mother Sophia Collett.
	Just after the turn of the century Luanna, now referred to as Louisa Silman of Fyfield in Gloucestershire, was 63 years old and was living at Black Bourton with just her young grandson James Silman for company. He was 15 and was working as a horse man on a local farm.
	47O7	William Edward Collett	Born in 1856
47N6	Enos Collett was born at Fyfield in 1839 and was recorded as being just two years of age in the 1841 Census for the registration district of Eastleach Martin. No later records for Enos have ever been found.
47N7	John Collett was born at Fyfield in 1841 would appear to be a man of mystery as he has not been traced in any census up to 1881. By that time he was living at Kempsford where he was 38 years old and was working as a shepherd.
	His place of birth was confirmed as Fyfield in Gloucestershire and living with him was his two years old son John Collett Batts of Lechlade who was the base born child of John’s housekeeper Jane Batts of Lechlade.
	Sometime later, after 1891, John married Jane and the family of three left Kempsford and returned to Lechlade where they were living in 1901. John of Fyfield was 58 and his occupation was still that of a shepherd, Jane Collett of Lechlade was also 58, and their son John Collett aged 22 and of Lechlade was employed as a machine man at a local dairy.
	47O8	John Collett	Born in 1878
47N8	Josiah Collett was born at Fyfield in 1843 but died in 1850 aged just seven years.
47N9	Obadiah Collett was born at Fyfield in 1845 and was listed as being aged 16 in the census of 1861 when he still living at the family home in Fyfield. Ten years later Obadiah Collett of Fyfield was working as a farm servant aged 20 (?) at the Elkstone home of John Cripps a farmer of 250 acres.
	No other record of Obadiah has so far been found.
47N10	Emmanuel Collett was born at Fyfield in 1849 and was aged 12 in the census of 1861 while living with his parents at Fyfield. Twenty years later Emmanuel was still a bachelor at the age of 32 and was living with his widowed mother Sophia at Fyfield where he was working as a farm labourer.
47N11	Nehemiah Collett was born at Fyfield in 1851 and was nine years of age at the time of the census of 1861. He was baptised at Eastleach Martin on the same day as his niece Ann Collett, the base born daughter of Nehemiah’s oldest sister Mary Ann Collett (above).
	By the time of the 1861 ‘Nehmiah’ was aged nine years and was still living with his parents in Fyfield, although no record for him has so far been found ten years later. Around the middle of the 1870s he married the widow Mrs Elizabeth Ackley who was born at nearby Southrop in 1855 and with whom he had a son who was also born at Fyfield.
	The census of 1881 revealed that the family was living at Fyfield in the Eastleach Martin registration district and that ‘Neamiah’ of Fyfield was 29 and was working as an agricultural labourer. His wife Elizabeth A Collett of Southrop was 25 and their son Charles of Fyfield was 2 years old.
	Also living with the Collett family was five years old Edith Ackley, Elizabeth’s daughter from her first marriage who was also born at Fyfield in Gloucestershire.
	It would appear that Elizabeth presented her husband with a further five children over the next decade with the first of these born at Fyfield and the remainder at Cirencester. So by 1891 the family living with the Fairford & Cirencester area comprised ‘Nehemiah’ aged 40, his wife Elizabeth aged 37, and their seven surviving children; one had suffered an infant death in 1880.
	They were Charles 16 – he must have been older than two years in 1881, Mary 12, Sarah 8, Henry 5, William 4, John 2, and George who was under one year old.
	It is possible, although not yet proved, that Nehemiah was employed on Langford Downs Farm near Cirencester and that it was at ‘Langford Downs’ that the couple’s Cirencester children were born.
	A search of the 1901 Census has so far not revealed the whereabouts of Nehemiah and Elizabeth, or their son William.
	47O9	Charles Edward Collett	Born in 1875
	47O10	Mary A Collett	Born in 1878
	47O11	William Collett	Born in 1880
	47O12	Sarah A Collett	Born in 1882
	47O13	Henry Collett	Born in 1884
	47O14	William Collett	Born in 1886
	47O15	John Collett	Born in 1888
	47O16	George Collett	Born in 1890
47N13	Emily Collett was born on 24.03.1839 and this may have taken place at Cowley where her parents were married in March 1840 and where her two brothers were also born. Sadly Emily died in 1840.
47N14	George Richard Collett was born at Cowley on 03.07.1840 where he was living with his father and his brother James (below) in 1851 and 1861 and was aged 10 and 20 respectively. With them in 1851 only was the boys’ stepmother Esther Collett, their father’s second wife.
	On 07.02.1866 at the Elkstone parish church George married Emily Newcombe. Emily, from the neighbouring hamlet of Winstone, was the daughter of William and Mary Ann Newcombe. And it was at Winstone where George and Emily settled and where their first five children were born.
	By the time of the census of 1871 the marriage had produced two children for the couple, in addition to which Emily was expecting their third child. The Winstone census of 1871 confirmed that George, an agricultural labourer of Cowley, was 30 and his wife Emily listed as ‘Emma of Winstone’ was 28.
	Living with them was their son James aged 3 and their daughter Jane aged one year. Also living with the family was lodger James Mitchall aged 19, an agricultural labourer of Cowley. Their son Richard was born exactly three months after the census day but did not survive.
	Over the next ten years Emily presented George with a further four children. The first two of these was born while the family was still living at Winstone but shortly after the birth of the second, around 1874, the family moved back to George’s home parish of Cowley where his last three children were born.
	According to the 1881 Census the family were living between The School and The Lodge in Cowley and it may have been around this time that George began to compile the Family Bible which later provided valuable clues to his family’s background.
	The census recorded that George, aged 40 and of Cowley, was an agricultural labourer who was probably employed at Cowley Manor. His wife Emily of Winstone was also aged 40, and their children at that time were Jim 13, Jane 11, Janet 9, Charles 7, Richard 5, and 3 years old Emily.
	In the same way that Emily was pregnant on the day of the 1871 Census, she was also with-child again on 3^rd April 1881 and gave birth to the couple’s last child five months later.
	Over the following ten years two of the couple’s four daughters left the family home so by 1891 George and Emily both aged 51 were living at Cowley with James 22, Charles 17, Richard 15, Emily 13, and Annie who was nine years of age.
	Before the end of the century two of George’s sons, plus one of their cousins, left Gloucestershire and followed their two sisters south to Cobham in Surrey where they had both settled.
	So by the census of 1901 only daughter Annie aged 19 was still living with her parents at the family home in Cowley. George was then working as a cattleman on a farm at the age of 60, while his wife Emily was 61.
	George and Emily’s oldest son James was also living in Cowley in 1901, as were three other people with the Collett name. These were baker Henry Collett (Ref. 3O32) aged 53 and from Stonehouse (Painswick) and his wife Mary aged 52 of Elkstone.
	And it was at Cowley that George died just over ten years later on 25.11.1911. At the time of his death his occupation was that of a cowman working at Cowley Manor where his eldest son James was also employed as a gardener.
	Emily survived as his widow for a further seven years after George’s passing and eventually was reunited with her husband on 27.01.1919.
	The aforementioned Family Bible produced by George Collett was passed onto his eldest son James at the time of his death. The Bible remained in his possession until his death when it was passed onto his youngest sister Ann. Today the Bible, together with a book in which the words ‘James Collett’ and ‘Cobberley School’ appear inside, are held by one of Ann’s granddaughters.
	It is known that Ann attended Cobberley School so perhaps James did as well, which would probably indicate that all of the children in between may have also been educated there.
	47O17	James Collett	Born on 22.06.1868
	47O18	Jane Collett	Born on 11.06.1869
	47O19	Richard Collett	Born on 03.07.1871
	47O20	Janet Collett	Born on 03.07.1872
	47O21	Charles Collett	Born on 22.08.1873
	47O22	Richard Collett	Born on 23.12.1875
	47O23	Emily Collett	Born on 01.02.1877
	47O24	Ann Collett	Born on 13.09.1881
47N15	James Collett was born at Cowley on 10.07.1843 and was aged 7 and 17 respectively in the censuses of 1851 and 1861. On both occasions he was living with his father Richard and his brother George (above). The boys’ stepmother Esther was only present in 1851.
	At the age of 27 James was living in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester but within the next few years he married Martha Stallard who was born at Coberley in 1846. Cowley and Coberley lie adjacent to each other being only about half a mile apart.
	Once married the couple initially set up home in the village of Elkstone just south of Cowley and it was there that their first two children were born. Around 1877 the family of four moved the two and a half miles to Colesbourne where their next two children were born and where the family was still living in April 1881.
	The census that year confirmed that James of Cowley was aged 36 and was employed as a slatter and plasterer while living with his family in a cottage in Colesbourne. His wife Martha was 34 and their four children at that time were Percy 7, Joseph 5, John 3, and one year old Tom.
	The cottage accommodation occupied by the family of six must have been of a reasonable size since they also had three lodgers living there with them. These were farm labourers and bachelors John Smith aged 40 of Colesbourne, John Hill aged 21 of Withington, and George Smith aged 17 of Woodmancote.
	Martha may have been with-child on the day of the census in 1881 since later that year she presented James with the fifth of his seven children. Two more children were added to the family before the end of the decade and all of them born while the family was living at Colesbourne.
	Just after the turn of the century the family was still living at Colesbourne where James aged 56 and from Cowley was continuing his occupation as a slatter and plasterer. In addition to his wife Martha aged 53 and of Coberley, the only members of their family still living with them were sons John 23 and William 11, and daughter Edith aged 19.
	47O25	Percy E Collett	Born in 1873
	47O26	Joseph Collett	Born in 1875
	47O27	John Collett	Born in 1877
	47O28	Thomas Henry Collett	Born in 1879
	47O29	Edith May Collett	Born in 1881
	47O30	Anne Louise Collett	Born in 1884
	47O31	William Archibald Collett	Born in 1889
47O2	Sophia Collett was born at Kempsford in 1856 and was baptised there on 29.06.1856. She was aged 4 in 1861, but was recorded as being aged 12 in 1871 and born at Whelford. Around seven or eight years later she married Thomas Fincher and by April 1881 their marriage had produced two offspring for the couple.
	The census that year recorded the family living at Kempsford where Thomas aged 29 and from Alveston in Warwickshire was working as a coachman. His wife Sophia of Kempsford was aged 23, and their two children were Tom Fincher aged 2, and George Fincher aged eight months.
	Further children were born into the family over the following years and by March 1901 they were still living at Kempsford. Thomas was then 49 and working as a labourer on a farm, Sophia was 43, and with them were their two youngest sons William aged 17, who was an under carter on the farm where his father worked, and John G Fincher who was nine years old.
	Sophia’s son George Fincher of Kempsford was a groom aged 23 living and working at Cricklade in 1901 while no trace has been found of her eldest son Thomas.
47O3	Sarah Ann Collett was born at Kempsford in 1858 and it was there that she was baptised on 23.05.1858. Sarah was aged 3 in the Kempsford census of 1861 but this stated she was born at Whelford. She was not living with her family ten years later. However, by 1881 Sarah was 23 and was married to 31 years old James Gosling, an agricultural labourer of Kempsford.
	It would appear that they had not long been married as living with them was their first born child Harry Gosling who was just one month old.
	From 1891 onwards it would appear that Sarah was either a widow or that her husband was elsewhere. That year’s census recorded just Sarah aged 32 and her son Harry aged 11 as living in the Cirencester registration district.
	Ten years later Sarah A Gosling of Kempsford was aged 42 and was working as a ward attendant in Gloucester, and possibly at the city hospital. He son Harry was aged 21 and was of Whelford and his occupation was that of an assistant civil engineer in Cirencester.
47O4	William Collett was born at Kempsford in 1860 and was baptised there on 05.08.1860.
	The earliest census records for Kempsford of 1861, 1871 and 1881 confirmed that it was there that he had been born and that his age of those occasions was respectively nine months, ten years and twenty years.
	He was still living with his parents at Kempsford just after the end of the century. At the age of 39 William was an agricultural labourer who had remained a bachelor for the first forty years of his life. It has not been determined whether or not he was ever married after 1901, but it seems unlikely.
47O5	Kate Collett was born at Kempsford in 1865 and was living there with her parents in 1871 aged 5 years. However, no record of Kate or Katherine has been found in any subsequent census which might indicate that she had died sometime during the 1870s with her absence from the 1881 Census.
47O6	James Collett, who may have been the son of Robert Collett of Fyfield, was born in 1852. The only record so far found for him is the 1871 Census for Fyfield when he was listed as being aged 19 and the grandson of Charles and Sophia Collett with whom he was living at that time.
	No other information has been revealed about James in either the earlier or later census records.
47O7	William Edward Collett was born at Fyfield in 1856 and was simply listed as William Collett aged 4 years in the 1861 Census while living with his grandparents Charles and Sophia Collett.
	William continued to be brought up by his grandparents at Fyfield, he having been the base born son of their unmarried daughter Luanna Collett, so by 1871 he was listed as being aged 14.
	Ten years later he was unmarried and was recorded as being the head of the household, a servant and an agricultural labourer while living at Downs Farm House in Little Barrington. The 1881 Census referred to him as living in ‘part of the house’.
	Whether because of the confusion over his early years or for some other reason, William gave his place of birth as Northleach, having been recorded as living within the Northleach & Bibury registration district with his grandparents in both 1861 and 1871
	There were two other people listed with William in April 1881 and these were Amos Radburn aged 18, a servant and agricultural labourer, and Caroline Tovey aged 7 and of Little Barrington who was recorded as ‘daughter’ to the head of house and described as ‘farmer’s daughter’.
	If she was the daughter of William Collett, he would have been seventeen or eighteen years of age at the time of her birth and presumably her mother, who may have passed away, would have been Miss Tovey. However, no further trace has been found of William after this time.
47O8	John Collett was born at Lechlade in 1878. He was originally the base born child of John Collett of Fyfield and Jane Batts of Lechlade and at the time of the census of 1881 he was listed as John Collett Batts aged 2 years. On that occasion he was living at the Kempsford home of his father John Collett whose housekeeper was Jane Batts, both adults being listed as unmarried.
	The couple were eventually married and by 1901 John Collett Batts was referred to as simply John Collett aged 22 who was a machine man working at a local dairy in Lechlade, while still living there with his parents John and Jane.
47O9	Charles Edward Collett was born at Fyfield around 1875. However, the exact year is difficult to pinpoint due to the differing ages given for him in all the census records. In 1881 he was aged 2 years while living with his parents at Fyfield although this is known to be an error.
	By 1891 he and his family had left Fyfield and moved into Cirencester where his age was given as being sixteen. Sometime during the next ten years Charles left Cirencester and moved ten miles north and was living at Elkstone by 1901 where he was working as a labourer on a farm.
	On that occasion his age was given as being 24 and he was still a bachelor.
47O10	Mary A Collett was born at Fyfield in 1878 but strangely was missing from her family in Fyfield for the 1881 Census. She would have been two years old, but instead her older brother Charles (above) was recorded in error as being aged 2.
	By 1891 Mary was aged 12 and was living with her parents in Cirencester. Although no trace of her parents Nehmiah and Elizabeth Collett has been found in 1901 Mary A Collett of Fyfield and her sister Sarah A Collett of Fyfield were living and working in service together in Great Malvern.
	Mary was then aged 21 and was employed as a domestic housemaid.
47O11	William Collett was born at Fyfield in January 1880 but suffered an infant death and was buried at Eastleach Martin on 17.01.1880. The parish burial record confirmed that he was ‘of Fyfield’.
47O12	Sarah A Collett was born at Fyfield in 1882 and shortly after she was born her parents moved from Fyfield to Cirencester where she was living in 1891 aged 8 years. It would appear that upon living school she joined her older sister Mary who was working in domestic service at a house in Great Malvern in Worcestershire.
	So by the census of 1901 she was listed as Sarah A Collett aged 17 of Fyfield who was employed as a domestic servant and kitchen maid.
47O13	Henry Collett was born at ‘Langford Downs’ near Cirencester in 1884 and was living there with his family in 1891 aged 5. Ten years later he was still living in Cirencester but was referred to as Harry aged 16 whose occupation was that of a domestic groom. His place of birth was confirmed as Cirencester.
47O14	William Collett was born at ‘Langford Downs’ near Cirencester in 1886 and was aged 4 in the 1891 Census for Cirencester. So far though, no further record of him has been found after this time. His absence from the census of 1901 might indicate that he was with his parents who have also not been located in that census.
47O15	John Collett was born at ‘Langford Downs’ near Cirencester in 1888 and was two years old by April 1891 and 12 years of age by the end of March 1901. On both occasions John was living in Cirencester although not with his parents in 1901. His place of birth was confirmed as Cirencester.
47O16	George Collett was born at ‘Meysey Hampton’ near Cirencester in 1890 and was under one year old at the time of the census of 1891. He was still living at Cirencester in 1901 aged 11 with his older brother John (above) but not with the boy’s parents. His place of birth was confirmed as Cirencester.
47O17	James Collett, who was referred to as Jim, was born at Winstone on 22.06.1868 and was aged 3 for the 1871 Census of Winstone. In 1874 his parents left Winstone and moved the three miles north to Cowley.
	By 1881 he and his family were living at Cowley where Jim was working as an agricultural labourer with his father at the age of 13. This was probably at Cowley Manor where it is known he was working later in his life.
	Ten years later James was aged 22 still living there with his family. He was not married by the time of the census of 1901 but was still a bachelor then aged 32 and living at Cowley from where he was employed as a domestic gardener at Cowley Manor.
	Cowley Manor was built by the architect George Somers Clarke in 1860 and today is a grand 30 bed room luxury hotel with restaurant, bar and spa.
	James was aged 54 when he married Mary Jane Winter on 23.02.1922. Sixteen years later Mary died on 23.07.1938 and was followed by James ten years later on 21.08.1948, just two months after his eightieth birthday.
47O18	Jane Collett was born at Winstone on 11.06.1869 and was one year old in 1871 while still living at Winstone. In 1874 her parents moved to Cowley where in 1881 she was aged 11.
	Towards the end of the 1880s Jane had left the family home and moved to Dorking in Surrey where she was working as a domestic servant in early April 1891. Just six weeks after the census day Jane married William Sims on 18.05.1891 at Effingham parish church in Surrey.
	William was born at Effingham around 1868 and once they were married the couple settled in Cobham in Surrey where they lived for the first twenty five years of their life together. Before the end of the century they adopted their daughter who was born at Cobham in 1893.
	According to the 1901 Census for Cobham, Jane was 31 and from Winstone in Gloucestershire, her daughter Dorothy W Sims was 7, and her husband William aged 32 was a general labourer. Lodging with the family were Jane’s’ two brothers Charles Collett and Richard Collett and their cousin Joseph Collett (all below).
	It must have been Jane’s move to Surrey that encouraged the other members of her family to join her there, which also included her sister Janet who lived nearby in Cobham.
	Around the time of the outbreak of war Jane, William and Dorothy left Surrey and moved to Barnet in Hertfordshire. Later in their life they moved again, this time to Wivenhoe in Essex. Their daughter Dorothy married Wilfred Stevens but the marriage produced no children for the couple.
47O19	Richard Collett was born at Winstone in 1870 but died shortly after and did not appear in the census of 1871.
47O20	Janet Collett was born at Winstone on 03.07.1872 and by the time of the 1881 Census she was aged 9 and was living with her family at Cowley.
	Just like her sister Jane (above), Janet also left Gloucestershire during the late 1880s and had moved to Surrey where she was living in Dorking and working as a domestic servant in 1891.
	Just over five years later Janet married Walter John Stanbridge at Dorking on 02.08.1896. Walter was born in 1866 at East Grinstead in Sussex and was the eldest son of Walter and Emma Stanbridge. At the time of the birth of Janet’s and Walter’s first child the couple were living at Emsworth near Portsmouth which might indicate that Walter was a sailor in the navy.
	Certainly Walter was absent from the family home in Cobham in Surrey two years later and Janet aged 29 and from Winstone in Gloucestershire was listed as ‘receiving war pay’ in the 1901 Census. Living with her at that time was her son Ernest who was two years old and of Emsworth in Hampshire.
	Walter returned to the family home shortly after 1901 resulting in a further six children being born into the family over the next ten years. Tragically though, three of the children, including a set of twins, died as babies in 1905, which followed the earlier death of another baby in 1902.
	It may have been just after this sad event that Janet and Walter left Cobham and moved the four miles to Claygate where the family was living at Vale Road in 1911.
	The marriage between Janet and Walter suffered a breakdown after this time when Walter left Janet who continued to live in Vale Road until her death in 1945 when the house was taken over by her son Norman. Janet’s estranged husband Walter died twenty-three years earlier in 1922.
	Around the time that Janet’s husband left the family home in Claygate her brother Richard (below) moved into the house in Vale Road, as this was the address given in his wartime service record.
	47P1	Ernest Charles Stanbridge	Born on 09.01.1899
	47P2	Walter Stanbridge	Born in 1902
	47P3	John Stanbridge twin	Born in 1905
	47P4	Janet Stanbridge twin	Born in 1905
	47P5	Walter Charles Stanbridge	Born in 1905
	47P6	Ruby Florence Stanbridge	Born in 1907
	47P7	Norman Walter Stanbridge	Born on 06.10.1910
47O21	Charles Collett was born at Winstone on 22.08.1873 and was aged 7 in the 1881 Census while living with his family at Cowley. He was still there ten years later but shortly after he and his brother Richard (below) and their cousin Joseph (below) followed his two sisters to Surrey.
	Both brothers were employed as non-domestic gardeners by the time of the 1901 Census for Cobham where they were living with their sister Jane Sims nee Collett (above). Charles was confirmed as being aged 27 and born at Winstone in Gloucestershire.
	Charles never married and joined the army during the last year of the First World War when he would have been forty-five years old. From his wartime service record he is known to have worn spectacles. It is also believed that he returned to Cowley upon his retirement around 1948.
47O22	Richard Collett was born at Cowley on 23.12.1875 following his family’s recent move from Winstone. The census of 1881 placed the family as living at Cowley where Richard was aged 5.
	Ten years later he was still living there with his family at the age of 15, but sometime after he and his brother Charles (above) and their cousin Joseph Collett (below) left Gloucestershire to start a new life in Surrey.
	By 1901 Richard aged 25 and from Cowley in Gloucestershire was living at the Cobham home of his married sister Jane Sims nee Collett. Also living with them was his brother Charles and cousin Joseph Collett. Both of the brothers were employed as non-domestic gardeners.
	And also just like his brother Charles, Richard never married. Sometime later, probably after 1914, Richard went to live at Vale Road in Claygate with his married sister Janet Stanbridge nee Collett (above) who was separated from her husband.
	Richard played an active part with the army in the Great War and was still living at Claygate with his sister Janet when he died from heart failure on 29.12.1925.
47O23	Emily Collett was born at Cowley on 01.02.1877 and she was aged 3 and 13 respectively in the Cowley censuses of 1881 and 1891. By the end of March 1901 Emily had left Gloucestershire and was working in service as a domestic servant at a house in Kidlington near Oxford. She was aged 23 and her place of birth was confirmed as Cowley, Cheltenham.
	Emily was still living in Kidlington ten years later when she married Joseph Thomas Tuffrey there on 17.10.1911. Not long after they were married the couple moved to Rushden in Northamptonshire where their two daughters were born.
	Northamptonshire was the main centre for the manufacture of footwear at that time and it was at Rushden that Joseph Tuffrey was a bespoke boot and shoe maker.
	The six year gap between his two children possibly indicates that Joseph took an active role in the First World War and was absent from the family home for some years.
	Twenty years after the birth of her first child Emily died at nearby Wellingborough on 19.08.1933 at the age of fifty-six.
	47P8	Lily Tuffrey	Born on 20.12.1913
	47P9	a second Tuffrey daughter	Born in 1920
47O24	Ann Collett, who was known as Annie, was born at Cowley on 13.09.1881 and by 1891 she was listed as Annie Collett aged 9 while living with her family at Cowley. It is understood that she was educated at nearby Cobberley School.
	She was still living at Cowley with her parents in 1901 aged 19. The census did not give her as having an occupation but as the only child still living with her parents she was very likely looking after them in their advancing years.
	Just as two of her sisters and two of her brother had ten years earlier, Annie also moved to Surrey in the early years of the new century. And it was there at Cobham that she married Thomas Clements on 05.06.1911, just five months before her father died.
	Thomas Clements was a gardener as were Annie’s two brother Charles and Richard (above). So it seems likely that she was introduced to her husband through her brothers knowing him by working with him in Cobham where they also living and worked.
	Annie lived the rest of her life at Cobham where her two children were born and where in 1936 her gardener husband Thomas died. After his death Annie worked in the kitchens of the White Lion Hotel in Cobham and survived for thirty years after her husband, before she died on 05.06.1966.
	Upon the death of her oldest brother James Collett (above), Annie inherited the Family Bible produced by her father George Richard Collett, which in turn was passed to one of her granddaughters. Also with the Bible was a Cobberley School book belonging to James Collett.
	47P10	Marjorie Nellie Clements	Born on 13.09.1911
	47P11	James Hector Clements	Born on 30.07.1913
47O25	Percy E Collett was born at Elkstone in 1873. Apart from being aged 7 and living with his family at Colesbourne in 1881, no further details have so far been discovered as to what happened to Percy later in his life.
47O26	Joseph Collett was born at Elkstone in 1875 although his family moved to Colesbourne just after he was born. In the 1881 Census for Colesbourne he was aged 5 while living with his parents.
	It would appear that during the 1890s he joined his four cousins (above) in a move that took them from Gloucestershire to Surrey. By 1901 Joseph was aged 25 and he was living with his cousin Jane Sims nee Collett at her Cobham home, where his occupation was that of a bricklayer.
47O27	John Collett was born in 1877 at Colesbourne just after his parents had moved there from Elkstone. John was aged 3 at the time of the census in 1881 and was living at Colesbourne with his family.
	John was still living with his parents at Colesbourne twenty years later when he was aged 23 and was employed as a farm labourer.
47O28	Thomas Collett was born at Colesbourne in 1879 and was listed as Tom aged one year in the Colesbourne census of 1881. So far no further record of Thomas or Tom has been found.
47O29	Edith May Collett was born at Colesbourne in 1881 but after 3^rd April that year. Edith was still living at Colesbourne with her parents at the time of the 1901 Census. She was listed as being nineteen years of age and was working as a domestic servant.
47O30	Anne Louise Collett, who was referred to as Annie, was born at Colesbourne in 1884. However, no trace of Annie has so far been found in the census records for 1891 and 1901.
47O31	William Archibald Collett was born at Colesbourne in 1889. Just after the turn of the century he was aged eleven and was still living with his family at Colesbourne.
47P1	Ernest Charles Stanbridge was born at Emsworth near Portsmouth on 09.01.1899. By the end of March 1901 he was aged 2 and was living at Cobham in Surrey with his mother Janet. His father Walter was absent from the family home at that time for which his mother was in receipt of war pay.
	Ernest was married later in his life and the marriage produced five children for the couple.
47P2	Walter Stanbridge was born at Cobham in 1902 and died within three months of being born.
47P3	John Stanbridge was one half of a set of twins born at Cobham in earlier 1905. Tragically both he and his twin sister Janet (below) died during the same March quarter of 1905.
47P4	Janet Stanbridge was one half of a set of twins born at Cobham in earlier 1905. Tragically both she and her twin brother John (above) died during the same March quarter of 1905.
47P5	Walter Charles Stanbridge was born at Cobham in late 1905 and tragically did not survive beyond the end of that year. Walter’s death was the fourth infant death that the family had suffered in just three years.
47P6	Ruby Florence Stanbridge was born in 1907 and this may have been at Cobham or after her parents moved to nearby Claygate. Sadly she died from rheumatic fever when she was just fifteen years of age and died on 21.08.1922.
47P7	Norman Walter Stanbridge was born at Vale Road in Claygate on 06.10.1910. He later married Alice Preece in 1936 and the marriage produced two daughters for Norman and Alice. Following the death of his mother Janet Stanbridge nee Collett in 1945, Norman and his family took over the house in Vale Road.
47P8	Lily Tuffrey was born at Rushden in Northamptonshire on 20.12.1913. She never married and died in Oxfordshire on 12.01.1982.
47P9	The youngest Tuffrey daughter of Emily Collett and Joseph Tuffrey was born in Rushden in 1920. She is still alive and living in Oxfordshire in 2008 and is married with three daughters.
47P10	Marjorie Nellie Clements was born at Cobham on 13.09.1911. She later married Robert Craven Wakeman who was born in 1913 with whom she had two daughters. The eldest daughter emigrated to Australia and has four children and seven grandchildren.
	Marjorie and Robert were divorced in 1947, with Robert remarrying in 1948. Marjorie had a long term partner with whom she had another daughter. Marjorie and her new daughter eventually emigrated to Australia in 1960 to be reunited with their eldest daughter and it was at Adelaide in 1978 that Marjorie died. Robert died in England two years later in 1980.
	Marjorie’s and Robert’s youngest daughter Frances was a scientific and technical information officer before retraining as a secondary school teacher. Frances is now retired and still lives in the United Kingdom and has two children and five grandchildren, with the sixth expected in 2009.
	And it is Frances Francis who kindly provided the basic details that has enabled this family line to be developed.
47P11	James Hector Clements was born at Cobham on 30.07.1913. He later married Joan Margaret Francis Taylor who was born in 1922 and with whom he had a daughter. Joan died in 1977 and was followed by James who died at Effingham in Surrey in 1989.
	During his life James was a commercial artist with the Milk Marketing Board.