PART TWELVE

 

The Oxfordshire Chipping Norton Line - 1560 to 2010

 

Updated June 2021

 

This is the family line of Iain Collett (Ref. 12R4) of Derbyshire,

who kindly provided the new information regarding his family line,

which is depicted by the names in capital letters

 

This is also the family line of Sheila Collett (Ref. 12Q3) of New South Wales, whose

daughter, Marion O’Shea, kindly provided much of the information relating to her family.

Their line, depicted by the underlined names, shares a common ancestor with the

line of Iain Collett (above), that being John Collett (Ref. 12L5) 1780 to 1848

 

 

The Colletts listed in this section were mostly born or lived within a triangle of rural Oxfordshire defined by Chipping Norton to the north (the apex), and Burford and Witney (the base line).  The actual starting point still requires more research, as there are some missing elements, possibly from outside that defined area.  For example, it must be assumed that Ursely Collett (Ref. 12F1) and Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 12F2) had a younger brother, let us say Ref. 12F3.  If he was born around 1570 and married around 1590, his son could be John (Ref. 12G1) below

 

Although not yet confirmed as being part of this family line, but only discovered recently, was John Collett who married Elizabeth Souch at Spelsbury on 9th October 1619, a village approximately one mile from Chadlington.  This is likely to mean that John was born in the late 1590s, thus being 10 to 15 years older than the John Collett below, who seems likely to be his cousin and perhaps the nephew of Elizabeth Collett.

 

It may be of interest that Part 64 – The Gloucestershire Upper Swell Line contains details of [a] Susanna Collett (Ref. 64M4) from Oddington in Gloucestershire who married Thomas Lardner at Bledington in 1816, that [b] John William Collett (Ref. 12n2) married an Anne Lardner at Charlbury around 1860, and that [c] the aforesaid Anne Lardner, born at Churchill in 1838, was the daughter of Thomas Lardner of Churchill who was born there around 1802.  In addition to them, William George Collett (Ref. 12m6) from Oddington was a servant to Henry Lardner of Little Compton near Oddington in 1851.

 

Those villages lie within ten miles of each other, across the county boundary between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.  Details of the Oddington Colletts of Gloucestershire, from 1723 to 1836, can now been found in Part 64 – The Gloucestershire Upper Swell Line, when previously some of the details were contain in the appendices at the end of Part 12 and at the end of Part 48 – The Dudley West Midlands Line.  The work of merging all those three separate sections will be completed with the re-issue of Part 64 in during the second half of 2021.

 

 

 

12F1

Ursely Collett may have been born around 1563 and may have been the older sister of Elizabeth Collett (below).  What is known is that she married Thomas Tidmarsh at Chipping Norton in 1583.

 

 

 

 

12F2

Elizabeth Collett, whose estimated birth date was around 1565, married John Stapleton or Stapleford on 7th November 1586 at Chadlington, a village just south of Chipping Norton.

 

 

 

 

12G1

John Collett, whose estimated birth date was around 1610, married Elizabeth Robbins on 17th March 1632 at Chadlington.  In the absence of any other information at this time, it has been assumed that John was the nephew to Elizabeth Collett (above)

 

 

 

 

12H1

There is a missing generation here, which is likely to be the children of John Collett (above), one or more of whom produced the three children listed below; William Collett (Ref. 12I1); Richard Collett (Ref. 12I2); and Robert Collett (Ref. 12I3).

 

 

 

 

12H2

Thomas Collett, who may have been born around 1660 or earlier, married Audrey Hancock at Chipping Norton on 1st October 1682.  They couple could therefore be the parents of the next three Collett men listed below, but further work needs to be undertaken to validate this.

 

 

 

 

12I1

William Collett, whose date of birth was possibly around 1685, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above) and even possibly the son of Thomas Collett and Audrey Hancock (above).  William married Ann Bridgman in 1706 at Shipton-under-Wychwood, and their son John Collett was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott-under-Wychwood, just a couple of miles south of Chadlington.  By the time of the birth of their second son, William and Ann were living at Enstone and it was there, at St Kenelm Church, that the child was baptised.  Also, a ‘William Collett of Ascott’ died at Enstone, where he was buried on 24th May 1743.  It seems very likely that he was this William, in addition to which, it is also very likely that it was his wife ‘Ann Collett, a widow’ who was buried at Ascott on 20th March 1747.

 

 

 

12J1

John Collett

Baptised on 14.11.1710 at Ascott

 

12J2

William Collett

Baptised on 20.01.1712 at Enstone

 

 

 

 

12I2

Richard Collett, whose date of birth was around 1685, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above).  He is likely to have married Mary at Ascott around 1710 as there is reference to the burial of ‘Mary Collett, the wife of Richard’ on 19th July 1753.  All of their children listed below were baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott.  The same parish register includes the burial of Richard Collett on 18th December 1756 although, it is possible that, this could refer to the couple’s eldest son Richard Collett.

 

 

 

12J3

Richard Collett

Baptised on 18.01.1712 at Ascott

 

12J4

Matthew Collett

Baptised on 05.10.1715 at Ascott

 

12J5

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 14.03.1717 at Ascott

 

12J6

Joseph Collett

Baptised on 15.05.1720 at Ascott

 

 

 

 

12I3

Robert Collett, whose date of birth was around 1700, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above).  It is known that he married Elizabeth and that they lived in the village of Fawler, five miles to the north of Witney.  The baptism of their daughter Nan Collett was recorded in the parish register of St Mary’s Church in the neighbouring village of Charlbury.  Elizabeth Collett died while living at Fawler and was buried at Charlbury on 18th September 1738, when the parish register confirmed that she was ‘the wife of Robert Collett’.  It looks very much like she may have died giving birth to her daughter Nan whose baptism was then delayed until she was a little older.  The parish register for St Mary’s Church in Charlbury also includes details of the burial of Robert Collett on 6th July 1753 and includes a reference to the fact that he was living at Fawler.

 

 

 

12J7

Nan Collett

Baptised on 31.03.1745 at Charlbury

 

 

 

 

12J3

Richard Collett was baptised at Ascott on 18th January 1712, the son of Richard and Mary Collett.  No other details have been discovered at this time, except the burial at Ascott of a Richard Collett on 18th December 1756, who may have been his father.

 

 

 

12K1

Thomas Collett

Born in 1743 at Ascott

 

12K2

John Collett

Born in 1745 at Ascott

 

 

 

 

12J5

Thomas Collett was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott on 14th March 1717, the son of Richard and Mary Collett.  He married Ann Gilks in 1751 at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury, where their children were also baptised.  It would be reasonable to assume that their son Thomas was their first-born child, which may indicate that Thomas married Ann when he was in his early thirties, while she may have been much younger.  Although not proved, it is possible that further children were born to Thomas and Ann and that one of them, born after 1753, may have been the father of John Collett (Ref. 12L8) who married Mary at Charlbury around 1797.  Thomas Collett died in 1770 and was buried at Charlbury on 11th March 1770, while Ann lived on as a widow until she died twenty-six years later and was buried with her husband at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury on 9th March 1796.

 

 

 

12K3

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 06.05.1753 at Charlbury

 

12K4

unknown Collett - not confirmed

Born circa 1754 at Charlbury

 

12K5

Ann Collett

Baptised on 04.07.1756 at Charlbury

 

 

 

 

12J6

Joseph Collett was baptised at Ascott on 15th May 1720, the son of Richard and Mary Collett.  It was also at Ascott where he married Ann around 1740-1743, and where all of their children were baptised.  Ann Collett was buried at Ascott on 16th September 1765, only a few months after the death of their son Matthew Collett, and just one month before the death of two months old daughter Sarah Collett.  The Ascott parish burial record stated that she was ‘Ann, the wife of Joseph Collett’ who was also buried there on 30th April 1779.

 

 

 

12K6

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 02.10.1743 at Ascott

 

12K7

Richard Collett

Baptised on 27.10.1745 at Ascott

 

12K8

Jane Collett

Baptised on 19.04.1747 at Ascott

 

12K9

Ann Collett

Baptised on 15.05.1749 at Ascott

 

12K10

Matthew Collett

Baptised on 25.12.1750 at Ascott

 

12K11

Mary Collett

Baptised on 15.10.1752 at Ascott

 

12K12

Joseph Collett

Baptised on 05.05.1755 at Ascott

 

12K13

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 09.04.1756 at Ascott

 

12K14

Joseph Collett

Baptised on 14.05.1758 at Ascott

 

12K15

William Collett

Baptised on 30.05.1762 at Ascott

 

12K16

Sarah Collett

Baptised on 28.07.1765 at Ascott

 

 

 

 

12K1

Thomas Collett was born at Ascott in 1743, the son of Richard Collett.  Sadly, he only survived for a few weeks, when he was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott on 5th April 1743.

 

 

 

 

12K2

John Collett was born at Ascott in 1745, the son of Richard Collett.  He later married Sarah Berry on 13th November 1767 at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington, where all of their children were baptised.  The witnesses at the wedding were John Berry, possibly Sarah’s father, and James Holloway.  Sarah was born in 1747 according to her burial record below.  Curiously the parish register recorded John Collett as being ‘buried by the parish’ at Chadlington on 29th October 1783, which might indicate he died as a pauper, while his wife Sarah Collett nee Berry was buried there on 19th March 1835 when she was 88.

 

 

 

12L1

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 14.05.1769 at Chadlington

 

12L2

Mary Collett

Baptised on 08.03.1772 at Chadlington

 

12L3

Sarah Collett

Baptised on 19.03.1775 at Chadlington

 

12L4

Hannah Collett

Baptised on 04.01.1778 at Chadlington

 

12L5

John Collett

Baptised on 02.07.1780 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12K3

Thomas Collett was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury on 6th May 1753, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Ann Gilks.  He was twenty-seven when he married (1) Hannah Ward at Charlbury on 9th April 1780.  It seems likely that Hannah presented him with a son during the following year (see note below from Thomas’ burial record), and that he may have been followed by further children, including daughter Sarah who was confirmed as having been born into the family at Charlbury.  Hannah Collett nee Ward died after just seven years of being married to Thomas and was buried at Charlbury on 3rd November 1787.  Two years later ‘Thomas Collett, a widower’ married (2) Hannah Chapman on 17th November 1789 at Charlbury.  Thomas Collett died towards the end of 1809 and was buried in the churchyard at St Mary’s in Charlbury on 22nd December 1809.  The service was conducted by the Vicar John Cobb as detailed in the parish register, which described the deceased as ‘Thomas Collett senior’.  Therefore, it would perhaps indicate that he had a son of the same name, although this still has to be confirmed.

 

 

 

12L6

Thomas Collettassumed son

Born circa 1782

 

12L7

Sarah Collett

Baptised on 05.08.1784

 

 

 

 

12K4

An unknown Collett may have been born at Charlbury around 1754 and have been the brother of Thomas Collett (above) and the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Ann Gilks, none of which has been confirmed to date.  Neither has it been confirmed that he married and had a son John who was very likely born at Charlbury around 1776.

 

 

 

12L8

John Collett –assumed son

Born circa 1776

 

 

 

 

12K9

Ann Collett was baptised at Ascott on 15th May 1749, the daughter of Joseph and Ann Collett.  She was around twenty-two years of age when she married Thomas Jackson at Ascott on 10th August 1771.  The witnesses at the wedding were John Harris and John Wayne.

 

 

 

 

12K10

Matthew Collett was baptised at Ascott on 25th December 1750, the son of Joseph and Ann Collett.  Although he lived longer than his brother Joseph and sister Elizabeth (below), Matthew died while he was still a teenager and was buried at Ascott on 14th July 1765.  The parish register confirmed that he was ‘the son of Joseph Collett’.

 

 

 

 

12K12

Joseph Collett was baptised at Ascott on 5th May 1755, the son of Joseph and Ann Collett.  He only lived for a few days and was buried there on 11th May 1755, the burial record referring to him as ‘the son of Joseph Collett’.

 

 

 

 

12K13

Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Ascott on 9th April 1756, the daughter of Joseph and Ann Collett.  Just like her brother Joseph (above), Elizabeth only lived for a short while.  She was buried at Ascott on 13th April 1756 and the parish register verified that she was ‘the daughter of Joseph Collett’.

 

 

 

 

12K14

Joseph Collett was baptised at Ascott on 14th May 1758 and was named in honour of his brother who had died three years before he was born.  He was the son of Joseph and Ann Collett and it was also at Ascott where he was buried on 8th October 1806.  It is unclear whether or not he was ever married, but it seems unlikely.

 

 

 

 

12K16

Sarah Collett was baptised at Ascott on 28th July 1765, the youngest child of Joseph and Ann Collett.  Sarah ‘the daughter of Joseph Collett’ was buried at Ascott on 4th October 1765, less than three months after her brother Matthew Collett (above) and less than a month after her mother Ann who may have never recovered after the birth.  Could there be a common cause for the three deaths, such as a serious illness or plague, and was that the same reason for the deaths of the two other infants Joseph and Elizabeth Collett (above) when they passed away ten and nine years earlier respectively.

 

 

 

 

12L1

Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 14th May 1769, the eldest child of John Collett and his wife Sarah Berry.  It was on 27th December 1792 at Chadlington that she married John Drinkwater who was also from Chadlington.  The witnesses at the wedding were James Burden and Mary Mears.

 

 

 

 

12L2

Mary Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 8th March 1772, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.  Mary later married Thomas Dring of Charlbury at Chadlington on 17th August 1793.  The witnesses at the wedding were Mary’s brother-in-law John Drinkwater (above) and her sister Sarah Collett (below).

 

 

 

 

12L3

Sarah Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 19th March 1775, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett.  She married James Keary (or Kearsy) on 18th September 1798 and the witnesses were Sarah’s brother-in-law Thomas Dring (above) and Martha Berry, a possible relative through her mother Sarah Berry.  The parish records relating to Sarah’s son Henry Collett appear to indicate that he was initially base-born, that is she was not married at the time of his birth.  The Chadlington baptism record of 6th December 1807 stated that he was christened Henry Keary, and that the name Collett was ‘erased’.

 

 

 

It may be worth noting here that William Collett (in Part 64) who was born during 1801, married Elizabeth Kearsy (or Keary) at Chadlington in 1835, so could this be a case of the same family name being misspelt in one of the parish records.  What is known is that Elizabeth, who was born in 1801 and who died in 1859, was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Kearsey, the five times great uncle and aunt of Don Cameron of Belmont in New South Wales whose family details can be found in Part 62 – The Trowbridge to New Zealand Line.  It is also interesting that Edwin Collett (in Part 64), the son of Elizabeth Kearsy and William Collett, attended the school at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1841 that was owned and managed by John and Frances Kearsey, as did his sister Mary Collett (in Part 64) ten years later.

 

 

 

12M1

Henry Collett (later Kearsy)

Born before September 1798

 

 

 

 

12L4

Hannah Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 4th January 1778, another child of John and Sarah Collett.  She lived to be just four years old before she was buried at Chadlington on 1st March 1782.  The parish burial register recorded that she was ‘the daughter of John and Sarah Collett’.

 

 

 

 

12L5

John Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 2nd July 1780, the son of John and Sarah Collett.  Twenty-three years later he married Mary Hucking, also of Chadlington, at Chadlington on 5th November 1803.  John’s occupation was recorded as being that of a cooper, both at the time of his own marriage and those of his daughter Mary Ann Collett in 1844, and his son William Collett in 1847, the year before he died, as well as in the census of 1841.  Mary Hucking was the daughter of William Hucking and Mary Gardner and was baptised at Chadlington on 26th September 1784.  The witnesses at his wedding were John Hucking, Mary’s brother perhaps, and Sarah Holloway.  See the marriage of John Collett (Ref. 12K2) and Sarah Berry in 1767, at which James Holloway was a witness. 

 

 

 

All of the couple’s children were baptised at Chadlington, and it was there that John’s wife Mary was buried on 16th April 1834, aged 50.  Just over seven years later, the first census of 1841 recorded widower John Collett as living at Mill End in Chadlington.  John, like the four children still living there with him, was recorded as being born within the county (of Oxfordshire) with a rounded age of 60, and the occupation of a cooper.  Living with him, and very likely performing the role of housekeeper, was his daughter Mary Ann Collett who had a rounded age of 20.  The three other children were his sons Charles Collett, aged 20, who was also a cooper, Mark Collett, aged 15, who was a carpenter, and Jabel Collett, who was also 15, but employed as a tailor.  John Collett died seven years later at the age of 65 (sic), and was buried at Chadlington on 21st November 1848.  However, his quoted age at the time of his passing does not correspond to that of his birth or baptism, so it may have been a genuine mistake by a member of his family, or a misinterpretation of his actual age of 68.

 

 

 

12M2

Mary Collett

Born in 1804 at Chadlington

 

12M3

Caroline Collett

Born in 1805 at Chadlington

 

12M4

John Collett

Born in 1806 at Chadlington

 

12M5

William Collett

Born in 1808 at Chadlington

 

12M6

John Collett

Born in 1810 at Chadlington

 

12M7

Frederick Collett

Born circa 1811-1812 at Chadlington

 

12M8

Mary Ann Collett

Born circa 1815-1816 at Chadlington

 

12M9

Charles Collett

Born in 1817 at Chadlington

 

12M10

James Collett

Born in 1820 at Chadlington

 

12M11

Mark Collett

Born in 1823 at Chadlington

 

12M12

Jabel Collett

Born in 1825 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12L6

Thomas Collett was possibly born at Charlbury around 1782, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Hannah Ward.  No actual date of birth or baptism record has so far been found and his existence is based purely on the fact that his father was referred to as ‘Thomas Collett senior’ at the time of his death at Charlbury in 1809.

 

 

 

 

12L7

Sarah Collett was baptised at Charlbury on 5th August 1784 and was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Collett.  Tragedy hit the family when Sarah was only three years old, when her mother died, possibly in childbirth.  Although her father married for a second time just over two years after the death of his wife, there may have been an adverse effect on little Sarah, which caused problems for her in subsequent years.  What is known is, that she later gave birth to a base-born daughter Hannah Collett, named in honour of her late mother, who was buried at Charlbury on 31st August 1809.  The parish burial record confirmed that Hannah was ‘the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Collett of Charlbury’.  However, neither the age of the child at the time of her death, or the date of her birth are known, but it seems likely that it would have been between 1804 and 1809.  Furthermore, it has not been established whether Sarah was ever married or what happened to her after 1809, when it must be assumed that she was still a spinster living in Charlbury at that time in her life.

 

 

 

12M13

Hannah Collett

Born 1804-1809 at Charlbury

 

 

 

 

12L8

John Collett, who may have been born at Charlbury around 1776, married Mary at Charlbury around 1796 and he may have been the cousin of Sarah Collett (above).  This is only an assumption and is not based on any factual information, but is needed to provide the parents for the following two children, both of whom were baptised at Charlbury.

 

 

 

12M14

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 21.05.1797 at Charlbury

 

12M15

Stephen Collett

Baptised on 23.12.1798 at Charlbury

 

 

 

 

12M1

Henry Collett was base-born at Chadlington in the years prior to the marriage of his mother Sarah Collett to James Keary (or Kearsy) on 18th September 1798.  It is not known if James was his father or not, but Henry was later baptised Henry Keary (or Kearsy) on 6th December 1807 at Chadlington, and may have been adopted by James Keary (or Kearsy).

 

 

 

 

12M2

Mary Collett may have been born at Chadlington in 1804, but no birth or baptism record has been found for her to date.  However, her burial record of 17th December 1806 at Chadlington confirmed that her parents were John and Mary Collett, and that she was buried less than two weeks before her brother John (below).

 

 

 

 

12M3

Caroline Collett was born at Chadlington and was baptised there at St Nicholas Church on 12th May 1805, the daughter of John and Mary Collett.

 

 

 

 

12M4

John Collett may have been born at Chadlington in 1806, but again no birth or baptism record has been found to date.  However, his burial record on 30th December 1806 at Chadlington confirmed his parents as John and Mary Collett and that he was buried less than two weeks after his sister Mary (above).

 

 

 

 

12M5

William Collett was born in 1804 according to his burial record below, but was not baptised until 5th June 1808.  That event took place at Chadlington where he married Harriet Smith on 20th January 1847.  At that time William’s occupation was that of a carpenter, as it was seven years later at the birth of his second son, and later still at the time of the marriage of his first-born son James in 1878.  The witnesses at wedding of William and Harriet were, Jabel Collett (below) - William’s youngest brother, and Ann Smith - who was possibly Harriet’s mother.  William’s father was listed as John Collett, a cooper, while Harriet’s father was Francis Smith, a farmer.

 

 

 

The couple’s second son Francis William Collett was baptised at Chadlington, although no record has so far been found of the birth or baptism of their first son James Collett, even though he was listed with the family in the census records.  The 1861 census recorded the family at Bull Hill in Chadlington as William Collett, aged 54 and a carpenter of Chadlington, his wife Harriet Collett also born at Chadlington who was 44, and their two Chadlington born sons James Collett who was eight, and Francis William Collett who was seven.

 

 

 

Ten years later the family was still together and was still living at Chadlington where William was 66 and a master carpenter, Harriet was 56, James was 19, and Francis was 16.  William Collett died five years later and was buried at Chadlington on 18th August 1876, aged 72.  The note in the parish register stated that William had died as the result of a fall from the top of the house that he was building at that time.  Four years after that, according to the 1881 Census for Chadlington, Harriet Collett was a 66 years old widow, an annuitant, when she was living very near and perhaps adjacent to her married son James and his family.  Just three years later, in May 1884, Harriet passed away at the age of 70 and was buried with her husband on 10th May 1884 in the graveyard of St Nicholas Church at Chadlington.

 

 

 

12N1

James Collett

Born in 1852 at Chadlington

 

12N2

Francis William Collett

Born in 1854 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12M6

John Collett was born around 1808 and was the son of John Collett and Mary Hucking.  He was baptised at Chadlington on 27th May 1810 and he later became a farmer and, around 1830, he married Mary Aynsley.  By the time of the birth of their son Joseph it is very likely that they were living in the village of Glympton, which was where Joseph said he was born in the various documents that have been discovered.  Furthermore, his farmstead in Australia was named Glympton Park.  Whether John and Mary had any other children has not been determined at this time, but it is known that they left England for Australia after their son, who emigrated there at the end of 1855.  His entry papers that year, stated that his parents John and Mary were living at Norwood in Surrey. 

 

 

 

Once their son and his wife were settled in Australia, John and Mary followed not long after.  And it was in Australia that John Collett died in 1858, his death recorded that year at Windsor, just outside Sydney.  It is also believed within the present-day family that John, Mary and son Joseph were some of the first Colletts to settle in New South Wales.  John’s brother Frederick (below) also had a connection with Glympton, in addition to which the Appendix at the end of this line refers to Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line, which contains another member of the Collett family connected with Glympton.  There is therefore a strong possibility that they may be a link between Part 12 and Part 39, but that link is still waiting to be unearthed.

 

 

 

12N3

Joseph Collett

Born in 1833 at Glympton

 

 

 

 

12M7

Frederick Collett was born at Chadlington around 1811, the son of John Collett and Mary Hucking.  He is known to have married Ann Price of Glympton around Christmas time in 1835 and, according to the 1838 baptism record for his daughter Caroline Collett, Frederick’s early occupation was that of a tailor of Chadlington.  The couple’s wedding banns were recorded in the register at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington on the three occasions of 29th November, and the 6th and 13th December 1835.  It is very likely that the marriage ceremony was conducted at Glympton.

 

 

 

The Chipping Norton, Witney & Woodstock registration district census in 1841 included Frederick Collett with a rounded age of 25, his wife Ann was 31, and their only child at that time was Caroline who was three years old.  By the time of the marriage of the couple’s only known daughter in 1859, Frederick was recorded as an inn keeper and, a few years later for the marriage of his son William in 1867, his occupation was stated as being that of a publican.  In between those two events the family was recorded in 1861 as living on Bull Hill in Chadlington, at which time it comprised Frederick, aged 49, Ann who was 51 and from Wilsford in Wiltshire, and their two sons Frederick who was 18, and William who was 15.  It was during the next decade that Frederick‘s wife may have died and during those same ten years, his two sons left the family home.

 

 

 

So, for the next census of Chadlington conducted in 1871, Frederick Collett was 60 years old and the only occupant of a dwelling on Bull Hill in the village, from where he was still working as a tailor.  Curiously his status was still that of a married man, as it was ten years later, while his place of birth was confirmed as Chadlington.  It was a similar situation ten years later when the census return for 1881 described Frederick Collett from Chadlington as being married, aged 70 years, and living alone in a dwelling immediately next door to the Sandy Arms Inn at Chadlington.  Once again, his occupation was that of a tailor although, it is understood that during some of the intervening years he had also been the landlord of the Sandy Arms Inn.  However, his single status was reaffirmed by the census in 1891 when Frederick Collett from Chadlington was 80 years of age and a widower, who was a tailor living alone at Mill End in Chadlington.  Just over six years later the parish records for Chadlington confirmed that Frederick Collett died during 1897, aged 86, and that he was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church on 9th October 1897.  His death was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 525) during the last quarter of 1897.

 

 

 

12N4

Caroline Collett

Born in 1837 at Chadlington

 

12N5

Frederick Henry Collett

Born in 1843 at Chadlington

 

12N6

William Price Collett

Born in 1845 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12M8

Mary Ann Collett was born at Chadlington around 1816 and was the seventh child of John Collett and Mary Huckings.  She had a rounded age of 20 in the June census of 1841, by which time her mother had already passed away in 1834, when she was recorded living with her widowed father at Mill End in Chadlington.  With no stated occupation, it seems more than likely she was acting as the housekeeper for her father and her three younger brothers.  Three years later Mary Ann was married, and four and a half years after that her father died.  Mary Ann Collett married Thomas Hill at Chadlington on 10th March 1844, when she was recorded as the daughter of John Collett.  Thomas Hill was a carpenter, while his father’s occupation was that of a wheelwright.  The witnesses at the wedding were William Collett (above) - Mary Ann’s older brother, and Mary Hill, who was possibly Thomas’ mother.  The next census in 1851 recorded the family as Thomas Hill 36 and a carpenter, Mary Ann Hill 37, Mary Hill who was six, Fanny Hill who was four, and David Hill who was one year old.  All members of the household had been born in Chadlington.

 

 

 

Son, David may not have survived since in 1861, just four members of the family were still living at Chadlington, and they were Thomas and Mary Ann, both 46, and daughters Mary and Fanny, 16 and 14 years respectively.  According to the census in 1871, Thomas and Mary Ann were both 55 and had been born at Chadlington, where they were still living with their unmarried daughter Mary who was 26.  Living with the family, was Mary Ann’s youngest brother Jabel Collett (below), a confirmed bachelor of 45 years.  Jabel was still living with the couple at Chadlington in 1881, when builder Thomas Hill was 65, as was his wife, Mary Ann Hill.  It was exactly the same situation in 1891, when the three of them were again residing in Chadlington, at Green End, at the ages of 77 and 66.  Mary Ann Hill, nee Collett, was 84 when she died at Chadlington, her death recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 23) during the first quarter of 1899.

 

 

 

 

12M9

Charles Collett was born around 1816 and was baptised at Chadlington on 29th June 1817.  In the census of 1841 Charles had a rounded age of 20 while still living at the family home in Mill End in Chadlington.  By that time in his life his mother had passed away seven years earlier, and his occupation was that of a cooper, like his widowed father, with whom he was living with his sister Mary Ann (above), and his brothers Mark and Jabel (below).  Just over five years later Charles Collett, then described as a farmer, married Judy Fletcher of Chadlington at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington on 14th November 1846.  The witnesses at the wedding were his brother Jabel Collett, and Ann Hill, who was possibly the sister of Thomas Hill who married Charles’ sister Mary Ann Collett.  Charles’ father was recorded as being ‘John Collett a farmer’, while Judy’s father was listed as Samuel Fletcher, who was also a farmer.  Later records confirm that Judy Fletcher was in fact Judith Hope Fletcher.

 

 

 

The census of 1851 confirmed that Charles was 32 and a married farmer of 21 acres, who was born at Chadlington, where he was still living with his wife and their first two children.  They were Elizabeth Collett who was three, and James Collett who was one year, although their mother was absent from the family home that day.  Like his father John Collett, Charles Collett was initially a cooper by trade but, from 1852 onwards he was recorded as a farmer, or a labourer, on the baptism records for his children.  All of the children were born at Chadlington and baptised at St Nicholas Church in the village.  By 1861 the family living at Chadlington comprised Charles Collett who was 45 and a farmer of 74 acres employing one man and one boy, his wife Judith Hope Collett aged 36 and born at Ramsden - midway between Witney and Charlbury, and their seven children.  They were Elizabeth Ann Collett who was 13, James Collett who was 11, Arthur Collett who was nine, George Collett who was seven, John Samuel Collett who was five, Amelia Mary Collett who was three and Caroline Winifred Collett who was one year old.  Staying with the family at that time were two of Judith’s aunts; Mary Fletcher who was 78 and Fanny Fletcher who was 60, both of them born at Ramsden.

 

 

 

Also, just like the reference in the 1861 Census, from 1862 onwards Charles’ wife was listed in their children’s baptism records as being Judith Hope Collett.  It has not been determined whether Judith Hope Collett was the same Judy Fletcher that Charles had married in 1846.  The alternative solution could be that Charles may have been married twice, although no records of the death of Judy, nor his marriage to Judith, have been found.  So, the greater likelihood is that they were one and the same person.  What is interesting is the second Christian name of their daughter Fanny, which was Judy’s maiden name.  Was it a tribute to a death in Judy/Judith’s family? or was it as a result of the passing of Judy.  Either way the baptism record confirmed the children’s father was Charles Collett.

 

 

 

More children were born into the family during the next decade so, by 1871, the family residing at Chadlington was made up of farmer Charles Collett from Chadlington who was 56, his wife Judith H Collett from Ramsden who was 44, and eleven of their thirteen children.  Only the couple’s eldest sons James and Arthur had already left the family home by then, more likely to ease the overcrowding in their home.  The children listed with Charles and Judy were Elizabeth A Collett 22, George Collett 16, John S Collett 14, Amelia M Collett 13, Caroline W Collett 11, Charles Collett who was nine, Lewis E Collett (Louis) who was seven, Fanny F Collett and Susan K Collett who were both aged four years, Frances Collett who was two, and one-year-old Frederick Collett who sadly died at the end of the following year.

 

 

 

There is further evidence of the family in the census of 1881.  On that occasion Charles Collett was recorded as being married and was 63 years of age, who had been born at Chadlington.  His occupation was that of a farmer of 76 acres employing one boy, while still living at Chadlington.  However, Charles’ wife Judy was missing from the census record.  Living with Charles was his son Arthur Collett, aged 29 and a farmer’s son and an assistant on the farm, his son Lewis E Collett, aged 17 and a scholar, the twins Fanny and Susan, both 14, and Frank Collett who was 12 who had been baptised as Francis.  All of the children were confirmed as having been born at Chadlington.

 

 

 

A search for the wife of Charles Collett in 1881 has been conducted, but without success.  However, ten years, she was again recorded at West End in Chadlington with the family in the census of 1891.  Charles Collett was 75 and still working as a farmer, his wife Jude Collett was 62, and just two sons and two daughters were still living with them.  Arthur Collett was 36 and a farmer’s son, as was Charles Collett who was 29, while the twins Fanny and Susie Collett were 23, both described as farmer’s daughters, with all four children and their father confirmed as having been born at Chadlington.  Living close by at Mill End in Chadlington was Charles’ older brother Frederick Collett, who was 80 years of age.

 

 

 

It is very odd, that the death of Judith Hope Collett has not been identified in any form, anywhere in England during the 1890s.  Having lost his wife, widowed Charles Collett aged 85, had retired from farming and was residing at Park Street in nearby Charlbury, where he was living on his own means at Charlbury.  Living there with him was his eldest daughter Elizabeth A O’Grady who was a widow of 53, who had also been born at Chadlington.  However, he only survived for another twelve months, when he died during April 1902 aged 87, following which he was buried at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington.

 

 

 

12N7

Elizabeth Ann Collett

Born in 1847 at Chadlington

 

12N8

James Collett

Born in 1849 at Chadlington

 

12N9

Arthur Collett

Born in 1851 at Chadlington

 

12N10

George Collett

Born in 1854 at Chadlington

 

12N11

John Samuel Collett

Born in 1856 at Chadlington

 

12N12

Amelia Mary Collett

Born in 1858 at Chadlington

 

12N13

Caroline Winifred Collett

Born in 1859 at Chadlington

 

12N14

Charles Collett

Born in 1861 at Chadlington

 

12N15

Lewis Edward Collett

Born in 1864 at Chadlington

 

12N16

Fanny Fletcher Collett               twin

Born in 1866 at Chadlington

 

12N17

Susan Kate Collett                     twin

Born in 1867 at Chadlington

 

12N18

Francis Collett

Born in 1868 at Chadlington

 

12N19

Frederick Collett

Born in 1870 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12M10

James Collett was born on 7th August 1820 at Chadlington, where he was baptised on 20th August 1820 at St Nicholas Church.  The church’s baptism record confirmed his parents were John and Mary Collett.  However, following the death of his mother in 1834, James was not living with his widowed father at Mill End in Chadlington in June 1841, nor has any later record of him been found.  So, he too may have died while he was still a child.

 

 

 

 

12M11

Mark Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 4th June 1823, a son of John Collett and Mary Hucking, and was recorded with a rounded age of 15 years in the census of 1841, when he was living with his widowed father and four siblings at Mill End in Chadlington.  His actual age would have been 18 and, by that time in his life was he working as a carpenter.  Four years later, the marriage of Mark Collett and Rosina Coleman was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 55) during the third quarter of 1845.  Rosina was born at Salford near Chipping Norton in 1827, but was recorded in later records and census returns under a variety of names.  The couple’s only two confirmed children were both baptised at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington and for the first of them she was named as Rosannah, and for the second, as Rose Anna.  It was at Chadlington, the newly married couple was living in 1851, by which time Rosina had presented Mark with their first child.  Mark Collett was 28 and a sawyer, Roseanne Collett was 24, and Angelina Collett was one year old, all three of them born at Chadlington.  Mark’s occupation was simply described as labourer at the time of the baptism of the two girls, but was recorded as a carpenter in the subsequent census returns, and in the parish register for the later wedding of his second daughter Mary Ann in 1870.

 

 

 

The Chadlington census of 1861 listed the family as Mark Collett who was 38 and a carpenter, Rose Anna Collett was 34 and from Salford near Chipping Norton, and their two daughters Angelina Collett who was 11, and Mary Ann Collett who was nine years old.  They had been born at Chadlington, like their father.  By 1871, carpenter Mark Collett was 47 and Rosa A Collett from Salford was 44 and, with daughter Mary married by then, it was just the couple’s oldest daughter who was still living with them.  Angelina Collett was 21, while boarding with the family was 75-year-old Jonah Hucking from Chadlington, who was very likely a member of his mother’s family.  After a further ten years, it was just Mark Collett, aged 58, a carpenter, born at Chadlington, and his wife Rosina Collett from Salford aged 54, who were living at Chadlington in 1881.  The couple was still living at Chadlington in 1891, at Brook End, when carpenter Mark was 67 and Rosanna was 63.  However, less than three years later, Rosanna passed away at the start of 1894 and was buried at Chadlington on 20th January 1894 at the age of 67. 

 

 

 

Following the death of his wife, Mark had left Chadlington and moved to Chipping Norton by 1901, where he was a farm labourer aged 78, who was described as an inmate.  It was just over two years later that Mark Collett, a carpenter of Chipping Norton, died on 18th September 1903.  It took five years to settle his estate which was resolved at Oxford on 18th November 1908, when administration of his personal effects worth £5 was granted to his eldest daughter Angelina Susan Derby, a widow.  Tragically, after working all his life, it was at the Chipping Norton Union Workhouse that he was living when he passed away at the age of 80.

 

 

 

12N20

Angelina Susan Collett

Born during 1849 at Chadlington

 

12N21

Mary Ann Collett

Born during 1852 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12M12

Jabel Collett was born at Chadlington in 1824 and was baptised there on 16th February 1825.  He was also listed with a rounded age of 15 in the census of 1841, when he was living at Mill End in Chadlington with just his father and three older siblings.  The census also confirmed that he was already employed as a tailor by then.  Five years later he was one of the witnesses at the marriage of his older brother Charles Collett (above) and Judy Fletcher in 1846.  It is rather curious that in the Chadlington census of 1851, not long after his father had died, that Jabel Collett from Chadlington was 26 and described as a tailor’s son, when his father John Collett had been a cooper.  However, in the Chadlington census of 1861, he was 35 and an unmarried tailor and draper who had been born at Chadlington.  After another ten years, unmarried Jabel was 45 and still working as a tailor, when he was living with his older married sister Mary Ann Hill in Chadlington.  

 

 

 

It can now safely be said that he never married and, again in 1881, when he was still working as a tailor aged 56, Jabel Collett was again living at the Chadlington home of his sister Mary Ann Hill (above) and her carpenter husband Thomas Hill, with whom he was again living with them at Green End in 1891.  At that time in his life, at the age of 66, he was continuing his work as a tailor.  With the demise of his sister and brother-in-law during the last decade of the century, by 1901 Jabel Collett was head of the household at Mill End in Chadlington when he was 76 years of age and once again recorded as having the occupation of a tailor.  Jabel Collett lived his whole life in Chadlington, where he died and was buried on 17th December 1907, at the age of 84.

 

 

 

 

12M13

Hannah Collett was the base-born daughter of Sarah Collett and was named after Sarah’s mother who had died when she was only three years old.  Her date of birth is not known but it very likely took place at Charlbury after 1804, where sadly she died during August 1809.  Hannah was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church at Charlbury on 31st August 1809, where the parish register described her as ‘Hannah the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Collett of Charlbury’.

 

 

 

 

12N1

James Collett was born in 1852 at Enstone in Oxfordshire and was very likely baptised at St Kenelm’s Church in Enstone.  In the census records for 1861 and 1871 he was living with his family at Bull Hill in Chadlington when he was aged eight years and 19 years respectively.  Neither James or his younger brother Francis (below) were credited with having a job of work in 1871, when they were very likely working alongside their father, learning the trade of carpenters.  Certainly, James was 27 years old and a carpenter when he married Isabella Smith on 26th December 1878 at Chadlington, where they lived and where all of their children were baptised.  Isabella was 26 years of age at the time of the marriage and was born at Chadlington in 1852.  According to other details in the record of their marriage, James’ father was William Collett, who was also a carpenter and a witness at the wedding, while Daniel Smith, a labourer, was Isabella’s father.  The second witness was Sarah Ann Collett who still remains a mystery, since she cannot have been the wife of James’ brother Francis, as previously thought, because they were not married until near the end of 1880. 

 

 

 

James’ father William Collett had married Harriet Smith, so it seems very likely that Isabella was the niece of her mother-in-law.  By the time of the 1881 Census, James Collett, born at Enstone, was 29 and a carpenter employing two men, while his wife Isabella, born at Chadlington, was 28 and was pregnant with the couple’s second child.  Living with them at Chadlington, very close to where James’ widow mother was also living, was his and Isabella’s daughter Elizabeth Alice Collett who was one-year-old, and Richard Southam of Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire, a 19-year-old boarder and carpenter’s apprentice working alongside James.  Ten years later, the family was still living in Chadlington, but at Auburn Lane, where James Collett was 39 and a builder, his wife Isabella was 38, when living there with them were the couple’s four surviving children.  Sadly, two of their three eldest daughters had both died just over two years earlier, leaving Elizabeth Alice Collett who was eleven, Olive Louisa Collett who was five, James William C Collett who was two, and Francis Campbell Collett who was under one year old, the only surviving children.

 

 

 

By March 1901 James, aged 50 and from Enstone, was a carpenter and builder living in Chadlington with Isabella who was 49.  With them on that occasion were their two daughters Elizabeth A Collett who was 21 and an assistant school mistress, and Olive L Collett who was 15, together with their two sons James W C Collett who was 12, and Francis C Collett who was ten years old.  Eight years later, at the time of the wedding of their daughter Olive Louise Collett in 1909, her father James Collett was recorded as being a builder.  Two years after that, James and Isabella were still living in Chadlington at the time of the census in 1911, when builder James Collett from Enstone was 60, and his wife Isabella from Chadlington was 58.  James and Isabella lived long lives and it was over twenty-five years later, in December 1936 that James Collett passed away and was buried at Chadlington on 10th December 1936, aged 85.

 

 

 

Isabella lived for almost another three years before she died on 13th September 1939, following which she was buried with her husband at St Nicholas Church on 18th September 1939, aged 86.  At the time of her passing, Isabella was residing at Grove Cottage in Chadlington.  Her Will was proved in Oxford on 1st November that same year, during which her eldest son James William Claude Collett was referred to as a retired bank official and her youngest son Francis Campbell Collett was described as a bank manager, when her estate was valued at £882 10 Shillings 5 Pence.

 

 

 

12O1

Elizabeth Alice Collett

Born in 1879 at Chadlington

 

12O2

Eva Annie Collett

Born in 1881 at Chadlington

 

12O3

Lillian Edith Collett

Born in 1883 at Chadlington

 

12O4

Olive Louise Collett

Born in 1885 at Chadlington

 

12O5

James William Claude Collett

Born in 1888 at Chadlington

 

12O6

Francis Campbell Collett

Born in 1891 at Chadlington

 

 

 

 

12N2

Francis William Collett was born at Chadlington where he was baptised when around about three months old, on 10th September 1854, the son of William and Harriet Collett.  He was seven in 1861 and was 16 in 1871 when he was living with his family at Bull Hill in Chadlington on both occasions, but with no stated occupation for the latter.  While his brother James (above), followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a carpenter, Francis travelled to London to seek his fortune.  It may have been in London where he met his future wife, while it was at St Olave Southwark where the marriage of Francis William Collett from Oxfordshire and (1) Sarah Trelease from Devon was recorded (Ref. 1d 100) during the last three months of 1880.  Sarah was born at Combe Martin near Ilfracombe, her birth recorded at nearby Barnstable (Ref. 5b 3) during the last quarter of 1852, a daughter of William and Sarah Trelease.  By 1871, Sarah was 18 and a dressmaker, who was one of only two children still living at Combe Martin with her widowed mother.

 

 

 

Once married, Francis and Sarah made their home at 25 New Cross Road in the St Paul area of Deptford, within the Greenwich registration district of south London, where they lived for many years.  New Cross Road today forms part of the A2 trunk road.  On the day of the census in 1881, Francis W Collett from Chadlington was 27 and working as a clerk, while Sarah from Combe Martin was 28.  The couple’s good financial status was perhaps indicated by the fact that they employed a general domestic servant, unmarried Emma Bencon from Shottisham in Suffolk who was 43.  Staying with the Francis and Sarah that day, was Sarah’s older unmarried sister Jane Trelease of Combe Martin, aged 30, who was described as a draper and sister-in-law to head of the house Francis.  Also, on that census day in 1881, Sarah was two months into the pregnancy for her first child, who was born at Deptford just after the start of October that year.  In total, Sarah gave birth to two children although, only the second one survived.

 

 

 

After suffering the loss of their first child, in the same year he was born, Sarah presented Francis with another son in 1884, when they were still living at 25 New Cross Road.  That situation was confirmed in the next Deptford census of 1891, when the family of three was again living at New Cross Road, where Francis W Collett was 36 and a banker’s clerk, his wife Sarah Collett was 37, and their son William T Collett was seven years old.  Yet again, the family was paying for the services of domestic servant, 23-year-old Ada Ashdown from Bromley in Kent.  Less than nine years later, the premature death of Sarah Collett aged 47 was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 214) during the first three months of 1900.  The following year, widower Francis W Collett from Chadlington was 47 and a commercial clerk, who was still residing at New Cross Road in St Paul Deptford.  With him that day, was his son William T Collett who was 17 and with no stated occupation, whose place of birth was confirmed as New Cross, a reference to New Cross Road in Deptford.  Staying with father and son that day, were two sisters-in-law from Combe Martin, they being Elizabeth Trelease, aged 52, and Jane Trelease who was 49.

 

 

 

It seems highly likely that it was through his late wife’s Trelease family, that Francis was introduced to Rose Melina Cock who was born at Appledore in Devon during 1870, the second daughter and fourth child of Robert and Phillipa Cock.  That assumption was reinforced in the census for Exeter in 1891, when mother and daughter, Phillipa and Rose Cock, were visitors at the home of William and Margaret Trelease.  The eventual marriage of Francis W Collett and (2) Rose M Cock was recorded at Bideford register office (Ref. 5b 28) during the third quarter of 1910.  That second marriage for Francis, may have been the reason why, for the next census in 1911, the very recently married couple was living in the Fulham area of London, rather than Deptford.  On that day, bank clerk Francis William Collett aged 56 and from Chadlington in Oxfordshire, and his new wife Rose Melina Collett from Appledore, who was 40 years of age, were recorded at Fulham.  Visiting the couple that day was unmarried 43-year-old Helena Bligh from Altrincham in Cheshire. At that same time, Francis’ son William was still a bachelor who, interestingly, was still living at New Cross in St Paul Deptford, at the age of 27.

 

 

 

A few years later, Francis and Rose left London for the safety of north Devon, as they were recorded living at Ford Cottages on New Road in Bideford during the Great War.  Possibly after the Second World War, the elderly couple returned to London, where they were living when they both passed away.  Francis William Collett died on 11th November 1949 at the age of 94, with his Will proved in London on 12th January 1950.  Being that much younger that her husband, his widow Rose Melina Collett died six years later at 105 Broadhurst Gardens in Hampstead, London on 10th November 1955, when her Will was proved in London on 23rd December 1955.  The executor of the Will was named as civil servant John William Lawrence Shillidy, the value of her personal estate being £6,422 11 Shillings 10 Pence.

 

 

 

12O7

Francis William Collett

Born in 1881 at Deptford

 

12O8

William Trelease Collett

Born in 1884 at Deptford

 

 

 

 

12N3

Joseph Collett was born at Glympton in 1833.  No trace of him or his parents has been found in the census of 1841, although by 1851 Joseph, at the age of 17, was working as a carpenter and living at the home of elderly Elizabeth Smith at the High Street in Witney.  During the next few years, Joseph moved nearer to London and, during the third quarter of 1855, the marriage of Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe was recorded at Staines (Ref. 3a 34).  Eliza was the daughter of John and Susan Sharpe.  On the day of the Staines census in 1851, Eliza Sharpe was 17 and was no longer living with her parents.

 

 

 

Shortly after they were married Joseph and Eliza boarded the ship ‘Morayshire’ bound for Australia, where they arrived on 19th January 1856.  The record of their entry into the country completed by the Immigration Board provided the following information.  Their journey had been one of assisted passage costing £5 and both of them could read and write and were of good health.  The parents of carpenter Joseph were confirmed as John and Mary Collett who were then living at Norwood (Hill) in Surrey.  Eliza’s parents were named as Jonathan and Anne Sharpe of Thorpe (near Staines) in Surrey.  The same document also stated that Joseph had an uncle, Lawes Ainslie (his mother’s brother), living at Kissing Point, while Eliza already had three sisters and a brother living at Ballaratt in Victoria.

 

 

 

Following the couple’s safe arrival in New South Wales, Joseph’s parents made the same sea journey to be reunited with their son and his wife.  Sadly, it was around the time that Eliza presented Joseph with the first of their nine children, while they were residing within the Ryde district of Sydney that Joseph’s father died.  Not long after that the family moved to Ulmarra, known as Colletts Island, near Grafton in the Clarence River region of Northern Rivers in New South Wales, which was known as the cedar capital at that time, where their remaining children were born.  Once settled in their new life Joseph and Eliza became established as dairy farmers, a trade continued by subsequent generations of their family right up to the present day.

 

 

 

Joseph Collett died at his farm at Glympton Park, Coldstream in Ulmarra on 20th January 1894 at the age of 61.  His death certificate confirmed that his place of birth was Glympton Park in Oxfordshire, England, and that he was a farmer.  It also stated that he had been ill for six months, and that his father was John Collett, a farmer, and that his mother was Mary Aynsley.  The informant of the death was named as Joseph’s son Fred Collett of Upper Coldstream in Ulmarra.

 

 

 

The same certificate revealed that the death was registered on 22nd January 1894, that Joseph was buried at South Grafton on 21st January by undertaker H H Sanders, that the Church of England minister who conducted the service was the Rev. W Tait, that Joseph had been a resident of NSW for 39 years, and had married Eliza Ann Sharpe at Staines in England when he was 23.  And finally, the certificate confirmed that all nine of his children were still alive at the time of his death.  They were listed on the document as, Mary Ann 36, Joseph William 33, James 31, Henry 29, Frederick 26, George Clarence 24, Louisa Caroline Eliza 22, Elizabeth Sarah Victoria 20, and Rose Violet May who was 12.

 

 

 

What is rather curious is the fact that his Will was proved in London, but not until 13th September 1910, over sixteen years after his death.  The probate record confirmed that Joseph Collett of Glympton Park, Coldstream, Ulmarra in New South Wales, died on 20th January 1894 and that administration of his (limited) Will was granted to George Frederick Mace, an auctioneer, the attorney of his two sons Henry Collett and Frederick Collett.  The personal effects of Joseph Collett were estimated to be worth £160 14 Shillings 5 Pence.

 

 

 

12O9

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1858 at Ryde, Sydney

 

12O10

Joseph William Collett

Born in 1860 at Ulmarra, Grafton

 

12O11

James Collett

Born in 1863 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O12

Henry Collett

Born in 1865 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O13

Frederick Collett

Born in 1867 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O14

George Clarence Collett

Born in 1869 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O15

Louisa Caroline Eliza Collett

Born in 1871 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O16

Elizabeth Sarah Victoria Collett

Born in 1874 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

12O17

Rose Violet May Collett

Born in 1881 at Coldstream, Ulmarra

 

 

 

 

12N4

Caroline Collett was born during 1837 at Chadlington where she was baptised on 14th January 1838, her parents being confirmed as Frederick and Ann Collett.  And it was also at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington that she later married farmer John Hiatt on 30th June 1859.  Caroline’s father was recorded at that time as Frederick Collett, an inn keeper, who was also a witness to the marriage.  John’s father was listed as Thomas Hiatt, a farmer, and the second witness was his wife Eliza Hiatt who was born in 1806 and who was living at Pembroke Street in Chipping Norton in 1881.  Fifty-eight years earlier Thomas Collett (Ref. 12l11) had married Sarah Ann Hyatt at Oddington in Gloucestershire in 1801

 

 

 

By the time of the 1881 Census, Caroline Hiatt was a widow, aged 42, living at 45 Sandy Lane at Aston in Birmingham, when her place of birth was confirmed as Chadlington.  Living with her was her family comprising her three Enstone born sons, John Hiatt, aged 20 and house painter, Thomas Hiatt, aged 19, who was a chandelier filer, and Frederick Hiatt, aged 17, a brass caster.  With them was her daughter Mary Hiatt, aged 13 and born at Chadlington, and son William Hiatt, aged 11 from Chipping Norton.  Caroline Hiatt nee Collett was 52 when she died at 13 Pope Hope Road in Birmingham on 13th November 1890 when her death was recorded at the Aston register office (Ref. 6d 174) during the last three months of that year.  It took nearly a year to settle her estate which only amounted to £168 8 Shillings.  Probate was granted at Birmingham on 15th October 1891 to her son John Hiatt, a painter, whose address was also 13 Pope Hope Road.

 

 

 

 

12N5

Frederick Henry Collett was born at Chadlington in 1843 and was eight years old in the Chadlington census of 1851, where he was still living with his family in 1861, by which time he was 18 and working as a baker.  Sometime over the following years he left Oxfordshire and moved to Birmingham, where he was living in 1871 at the age of 26 (sic).  Six years later it was at St Bartholomew’s Church in Edgbaston that he married Sarah Ann Sargeant on 13th September 1877, when his father was confirmed as Frederick Collett and Sarah’s father was named as Henry William Sargeant.  According to the next census in 1881, Frederick and Sarah were living at 18 Whitmore Street in Birmingham.  Frederick H Collett was 38 and a brewer from Chadlington, while his wife Sarah A Collett, aged 41, was a shopkeeper and a grocer.  Listed with them was their daughter Ann E Collett from was one year old and born in Birmingham.

 

 

 

Ten years later the family of three was recorded living in the Duddeston & Aston district of Birmingham where Frederick was 47, Sarah was 51, and their daughter Ann was 11.  By March 1901 Frederick Henry Collett of Chadlington was a baker at 58, when he was still living in Birmingham with his wife Sarah Ann who was 61, and his daughter Ann aged 21.  Sometime during the next decade, Frederick gave up being a baker and by the time of the census in 1911 his occupation was that of a carpenter.  Frederick Henry Collett, aged 68 and from Oxfordshire, was residing at 34 Railway Terrace in Duddeston-cum-Nechells.  His wife Sarah Ann Collett was 71 and the census return confirmed that she had given birth to one child who was still living.  Frederick Henry Collett was still recorded as living at 34 Railway Terrace within the Edgbaston Ward of Birmingham in the Electoral Roll of 1927, when he would have been around 84.  Whether he was widower by then is not known, but with Sarah being slightly older, it is very likely she had passed away by then.

 

 

 

12O18

Ann Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1880 at Birmingham

 

 

 

 

12N6

William Price Collett was born in 1845 at Chadlington but not baptised there until 24th February 1861, by which time the family home was at Bull Hill in Chadlington, where William Collett was 15 years of age and still attending school on the census day that year.  On leaving school he took up the occupation as a carpenter, and six years later he married 21-year-old Elizabeth Mary Gee on 12th December 1867 at Chadlington, when he was 22 years of age.  The witnesses at the wedding were William Bond and Sarah Gee, the bride’s sister, while Elizabeth’s father was recorded as labourer James Gee.  William Price Collett died of ‘consumption and dropsy’ shortly after the birth of their second son and was buried at Chadlington on 27th August 1870, aged 24 years.  Just eight months earlier, at the time of the baptism of his son Frederick, William was confirmed in the Chadlington church records as being a carpenter.

 

 

 

So, by the time of the Chadlington census of 1871, seven months after the death of her husband, Elizabeth was a widow at the tender age of 24, caring for her two young sons, William who was two, and one-year-old Frederick, at the Chadlington home of her parents James and Mary Gee.  After just over two years as a widow Mrs Elizabeth Collett married Thomas Souls on 26th October 1872 at Chadlington.  She was 26 and Thomas was 27 and a labourer.  As at her first wedding, Sarah Gee was once again one of the witnesses who was very likely Elizabeth’s sister, while on that occasion the second witness was Elizabeth’s father James Gee.  According to the next census in 1881, Elizabeth Souls was 34 and the wife of Thomas Souls, aged 36 and a carter who was born at Sherborne in Gloucestershire.  Elizabeth was listed as being born at Chadlington, as were the two eldest children who had retained their Collett surname.  The family’s third child was Thomas Souls who was born at Spelsbury.  The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham in Oxfordshire, a village a few miles to the south-west of Chipping Norton.

 

 

 

12O19

William Ernest Collett

Born in 1868 at Chadlington

 

12O20

Frederick James Collett

Born in 1869 at Chadlington

 

12O21

Thomas Souls

Born during 1873 at Spelsbury

 

 

 

 

12N7

Elizabeth Ann Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 29th November 1847, the first-born child of Charles and Judy Collett.  She was three years old and 13 years of age in the Chadlington census returns for 1851 and 1861.  She was still living with her family in 1871, when she was 22, but left the family home to be married just over five years later.  It was in Birmingham that Elizabeth Ann Collett married Patrick O’Grady, the event being recorded at the Aston register office (Ref. 6d 514) during the fourth quarter of 1876.  The witnesses at their wedding were Mary Ann Feak and John Munton.  Once married, the couple settled in Aston where they were recorded in the census of 1881.  Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 33 when she was living at 1 Grafton Road in Aston with her husband Patrick who was 39 and a carpenter from Ireland.  The childless couple was still living at Aston in 1891, when Patrick was 50 and Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 43.

 

 

 

Five years later, at the age of 55, Patrick O’Grady died, his death recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 55) during the third quarter of 1896.  After a further five years, his widow Elizabeth was living with, and looking after, her elderly father Charles Collett at Park Street in Charlbury, near Chadlington, on the occasion of the census in 1901.  Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 53 with no stated occupation.  Her father passed away exactly one year later, while nine years after that Elizabeth O’Grady, aged 64 and of independent means, was a boarder at the Charlbury home of John and Ellen Stayte on Park Street.  Sometime later, it would seem, Elizabeth went to live with her youngest brother Charles at Milton-under-Wychwood, and it was there where Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett died on 18th November 1925.  Her Will was proved at Oxford on 21st January 1926 when Charles Collett, a farm labourer, and Charles Guy Collett, a commercial clerk, were named as the joint executors of her estate of £844 12 Shillings.  Charles Guy Collett was Elizabeth’s nephew, being the eldest son of her brother Charles.

 

 

 

 

12N8

James Collett was born at Chadlington in 1849, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 38) during the third quarter of that year.  It was at Chadlington that he was baptised on 5th August 1849 and was one years old in the Chadlington census of 1851.  By the time he was 11 years old in 1861, James was one of three children still living with their parents at Chadlington, when he was still attending school.  No record of him has been found in the census of 1871, but shortly thereafter the marriage of James Collett and (1) Fanny Lidbetter was conducted at St Peter’s Church, Dale End in Birmingham.  Both the bride and the groom were 22 years of age, Charles Collett being the father of the groom and David Lidbetter, the father of the bride.  The couple settled in Birmingham where their four children were born.  However, by the time of the census of 1881 James and his family had left Birmingham and were living at Kemble Road in Croydon, Surrey.  James Collett was described as being 31 and a carpenter from at Chadlington, while his wife Fanny was the same age, but had been born at Horsham in Sussex.  The couple’s four children were all born at Birmingham and were George F C Collett who was seven, James P Collett who was five, Frances E M Collett who was three, and John Collett who was two years old.  Visiting the family at that time was James’ sister Minnie Collett (below).

 

 

 

Fanny Collett nee Lidbetter was born in 1849, and was baptised at Horsham on 17th June 1849, the daughter of David and Frances Lidbetter.  Her premature death was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 176) during the final quarter of 1889, when she was only 40 years old.  Just over one year after losing his wife, widower James Collett was 41 and a builder’s foreman living at White Horse Lane in Croydon with his four children.  In some cases, their names were not consistent with the census of 1881, when George Collett was 18, Percy J Collett was 16, Margaret E M Collett was 14, and John N Collett was 13.

 

 

 

Shortly after that census day, the marriage of James Collett and (2) Sarah Maria Moore from Fundenhall in Norfolk was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 174) during the second quarter of 1891.  By the time of the next census in 1901, the marriage had produced three children for James and Sarah, although by then, all of James’s other children had left the family home at White Horse Lane in Croydon, to make their own way in the world.  James Collett from Chadlington was 51 and his occupation was that of a carpenter, while living with him, was his new wife Sarah Collett who was 43, and their three children; William Collett was eight years old, Gladys Collett was six, and Gladstone Collett was three, all three children having been born at South Norwood in the Borough of Croydon.

 

 

 

Most of the family was still together and living in the Croydon area ten years later although, by then, daughter Gladys was working away from home at Norbury, to the north of Croydon.  The census in April 1911, listed the remainder of the family as James Collett from Chadlington who was 60 and a carpenter and a joiner, his wife Sarah Collett from the Norfolk village of Fundenhall who was 53, and their two sons William Collett who was 18, and Louis Collett who was 13.  Upon his son Louis’ discharge from the army in 1918, James Collett was residing at 226 White Horse Road in West Croydon.  Twelve later, the death of James Collett was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 114) during the third quarter of 1931, when he was said to be 83.

 

 

 

12O22

George Frederick Charles Collett

Born in 1872 at Birmingham

 

12O23

James Percival Collett

Born in 1874 at Birmingham

 

12O24

Frances Elizabeth Margaret Collett

Born in 1876 at Birmingham

 

12O25

John Nelson Collett

Born in 1878 at Birmingham

 

The following are the three known children of James Collett by his second wife Sarah Maria Moore:

 

12O26

William Albert Ernest Collett

Born in 1892 at South Norwood

 

12O27

Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett

Born in 1894 at South Norwood

 

12O28

Louis Stanley Gladstone Leopold Collett

Born in 1897 at South Norwood

 

 

 

 

12N9

Arthur Collett was born at Chadlington towards the end of 1851, where he was baptised on 25th January 1852, the son of Charles and Judy Collett, who was nine years old in 1861.  By the time he was 19, he was living at the Chadlington home of saddle maker Richard E Minchin and his family, when Arthur Collett from Chadlington was a saddler’s apprentice, as confirmed in the census of 1871.  It may be assumed that he never married since, in both 1881 and 1891, he was a bachelor still living with his family at Chadlington.  In the first of the census returns Arthur of Chadlington was 29 when he was assisting his father on his 76-acre farm at Chadlington.  It was a similar situation ten years later, when Arthur Collett aged 36 (sic) and from Chadlington was a farmer’s son living with his parents and three younger siblings at Chadlington.  

 

 

 

Following the death of his mother during the 1890s, Arthur left the family home and by March 1901, he was working as farm labourer at Nether Langwith (Holbeck) in Nottinghamshire where he was just one of five servants working for the Ghest family from Lincolnshire.  It was therefore likely that the census enumerator obtained the information about Arthur Collett from 58-year-old William Ghest, as he was correctly described as having been born at Chadlington in Oxfordshire, but who was only 41 years of age, rather than 49.  In the next Nottinghamshire census in 1911, once again his age was incorrectly recorded.  Arthur Collett from Chadlington was again described as a farm servant, but at the home of Sam Booth and his wife Ann Eliza in Chilwell, south-west of Nottingham.  He was the eldest of the three farm servants and was recorded as being 52, instead of 59.  It was seven years later that the death of Arthur Collett was recorded at Worksop register office (Ref. 7b 3) during the first three months of 1918, when he was said to be 65 years old.  Workshop lies just north of Holbeck, where he was in 1901.

 

 

 

 

12N10

George Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 25th June 1854.  At the time of the census in 1871, George Collett was 16 years old, when he was working alongside his father, both of them described as farmers.  Just over one year after that day, George Collett suffered a premature death, when died from gastric fever and was buried at Chadlington on 2nd May 1872, when he was only 18.

 

 

 

 

12N11

John Samuel Collett was born at Chadlington in 1856, the birth recorded at Chipping Norton during the second quarter of that year.  It was also at Chadlington on 23rd November 1856 that he was baptised.  He was 14 at the time of the 1871 Census while he was still living with his parents.  It was on 25th September 1872 that John was employed by the Great Western Railway at Chipping Norton Station as a passenger clerk on a salary of £25 which has risen to an annual salary of £50 by 1875.  During August 1875 he left Chipping Norton when he was offered the job of passenger clerk at Droitwich Station in Worcestershire where he was earning £60 per annum in March 1876.  Five years later he was living and working at Bromyard in Herefordshire.  According to the census that year John S Collett of Eastend in Oxfordshire was 23, Eastend being the very next village to Chadlington.  His occupation was that of a stationmaster at the recently opened Bromyard Railway Station and on that occasion bachelor John was lodging at the Church Street home of Joseph Turbill, a builder employing five men and a boy.

 

 

 

At the end of the next decade John was no longer a stationmaster.  Instead, the census in 1891 described him as John S Collett, aged 32, single and a railway clerk, a boarder at Somerset Cottages, Howell Road in Leigh, Malvern Link, Worcestershire, the home of railway clerk Charles J Widdows.  It was six years later when John married Elizabeth Chadbon from Steeple Barton which is midway between Chipping Norton and Bicester.  The event was recorded at Woodstock during the second quarter of 1897.  Once married the couple settled at Bridgnorth in Shropshire where their son Frank was born and where John continued to work as a stationmaster as confirmed by the census for Bridgnorth in 1901.  John S Collett from Chadlington was 43, Elizabeth Collett was 32, and their son was just one year old when the family was living at 3 Dale Millicent Terrace, 1 Victoria Road in Bridgnorth St Leonard.  Elizabeth was possibly expecting the couple’s second child on the day of the census as their daughter was born later that same year, and she was followed by the birth of two further children. 

 

 

 

Whether John lived long enough to see his last child is not known since it was that same year on Wednesday 30th August 1905 that John Samuel Collett died at the age of 47.  That was the end of nine years as the stationmaster at Bridgnorth, where he was buried on 2nd September, when his address was given as 3 Victoria Road.  Administration of his personal estate of £704 3 Shillings 8 Pence was granted to Elizabeth Collett, widow, at Shrewsbury on 6th December 1905.  The following notice was published in the Bridgnorth Journal on Saturday 2nd September 1905.  “The painfully sudden death of Mr John Samuel Collett, G.W.R. Station Master, which took place at his residence in Victoria Road on Wednesday last, was a great shock to all those who knew him, and expressions of sympathy for the widow and her three young children were expressed on every hand.  Mr Collett had been unwell and had had medical advice, but the end came quite suddenly.  During the nine years Mr Collett has held the post of Station Master here, he has made many friends, his courtesy and consideration for the travelling public, and the trader, being prominent features in his conduct, whilst his duties were ever discharged in a business-like manner.”

 

 

 

By April 1911 Elizabeth Collett, aged 42, was still living at Bridgnorth with her three youngest children, Sybil Collett who was nine, Muriel Collett who was seven and May Collett who was five and possibly born after the death of father.  At that same time in April 1911 Elizabeth’s son Frank Collett, from Bridgnorth, who was eleven years old, was recorded at an orphanage in Wolverhampton. 

Historical Note:  The railway station at Bromyard only opened on 22nd October 1877, following the laying of the track from Worcester, as part of the Worcester to Leominster Line built by the Great Western Railway.  Sadly, the line closed in 1964, a victim of the notorious Beeching cuts.

 

 

 

12O29

Frank Chadbon Collett

Born in 1899 at Bridgnorth, Salop

 

12O30

Sybil Collett

Born in 1901 at Bridgnorth, Salop

 

12O31

Muriel Collett

Born in 1903 at Bridgnorth, Salop

 

12O32

May Collett

Born in 1905 at Bridgnorth, Salop

 

 

 

 

12N12

Amelia Mary Collett, who was referred to as Minnie, was born at Chadlington in 1858 and was 13 by April 1871.  She was still unmarried in 1881 at the age of 23.  On the occasion of the census that year Minnie was a visitor at the home of her older brother James Collett (above) in Kemble Road, Croydon.  The census record confirmed that Minnie had been born at Chadlington but listed no occupation for her at that time.  Minnie never married and appears to have worked in domestic service for most of her life.  In April 1911 unmarried Minnie Collett from Chadlington in Oxfordshire was 50 (sic) when she was employed as a cook at the home of widow Marian Ridley.  The census that month placed Amelia as one of the three live-in servants of the Ridley family at their dwelling with the name Abingerm, situated on the Burcott Road in Purley, within the Surrey parish of Coulsdon in the Croydon registration district.  The fact that Minnie said she was younger than her 53 years was reflected thirty years later when, upon her death in 1941, she was described as being only 79 whereas she would have been nearer 82 or 83.  The death of Amelia M Collett was recorded at the South-Eastern register office in Surrey (Ref. 2a 1554) during the first three months of that year.

 

 

 

 

12N13

Caroline Winifred Collett was born at Chadlington in 1859 and was baptised there on 12th February 1860.  She was 11 years of age in 1871.  By the time Caroline was 22 she had moved to London, where she was working in service at the home of Malcolm Cook who worked at the London Stock Exchange.  Caroline was simply described as of Oxford and was employed as one of just two domestic servants in the house at 9 Land Terrace on the Lower Teddington Road in Hampton Wick.  Lower Teddington Road runs parallel with the River Thames and is still there today.

 

 

 

 

12N14

Charles Collett was born at Chadlington early in 1861, where he was baptised on 30th March 1862, with his birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 137) during the first three month of 1861.  In the census of 1871, Charles was living with his parents when he was nine years of age, one of eleven children living with at Chadlington with their parents, Charles and Judith Collett.  Ten years later in 1881, he was recorded as a visitor at the home of Robert Watts in Chipping Norton.  At that time Charles was 19 and was not credited with an occupation.  Robert Watts of Icomb in Gloucestershire was a butcher, and he and his wife and family were living at premises referred to as ‘Lower Side’ in the High Street at Chipping Norton, which may have been the name of the butcher’s shop.

 

 

 

Charles Collett, aged 29 and a farmer’s son, was still a bachelor living in the family home at West End in Chadlington in 1891, by which time he may have been emotionally attached to his future wife, who was nearby and a live-in domestic servant at a property in Cross Lane, Chadlington.  Their wedding banns were recorded in the marriage register for St Nicholas Church in Chadlington, which listed 10th, 17th and 24th of September as the three Sundays that the banns were posted at Chadlington.  Rachel was noted as a spinster from St Ebbes in Oxford and, it seems very likely, that was where the couple was married.  Certainly, the marriage of Charles Collett and Rachel Hadland was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 53) during the last three months of 1893.  

 

 

 

Curiously, in the census returns for 1901 and 1911, the wife of Charles Collett from Chadlington was named as Lily Collett who, in 1901, said she was born at Witney, whereas in 1911 her place of birth was given as Chadlington.  During the first eight years they were married, Charles and Lily had five children, with a further three born after 1901.  All of the children were born while Charles and Lily were living at Milton-under-Wychwood, and it was also there that the family was residing in both 1901 and 1911.  In the first of them, Charles Collett from Chadlington was 39 and a farmer, Lily Collett from Witney was 34, and their children were Charles Guy Collett who was six, Percy Collett who was five, May Collett who was three, Daisy who was one year old, and Dorothy who was only a few months old.

 

 

 

Ten years later, the full family was recorded as Charles Collett, aged 49 and a farm labourer, Lily Collett aged 42, Guy Collett who was 16 and a plough boy working on the farm, as was his brother Percy Collett aged 14, May Collett was 13, Daisy Collett was 11, Dorothy Collett was 10, Ivy Collett was eight, Desmond Collett was seven, and Marion Collett was four years old.  Charles Collett did in 1930 and was buried at Chadlington on 23rd April 1930, aged 68.  Over five years earlier Charles’ eldest sister Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett (above) passed away and during the proving of her Will at Oxford in January 1926, Charles Collett, a farm labourer, was named as one of the two executors, the other being his eldest son Charles Guy Collett.

 

 

 

The death of Charles’ wife resolves the issue of the change of name from Rachel to Lily, in that her death was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 6b 69) during the first three months of 1947, when she was 81 years old, her name confirmed as Lilian Rachel Collett, nee Hadland.  Furthermore, the census in 1891, reveals that Lily Rachel Hadland was 25 years of age and an unmarried mother’s helper, employed by the large Edginton family at Cross Lane in Chadlington.  On that occasion, her place of birth was simply recorded as Gloucestershire.

 

 

 

12O33

Charles Guy Collett

Born in 1894 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O34

Percy Ralph Collett

Born in 1896 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O35

Caroline May Collett

Born in 1897 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O36

Lilian Daisy Collett

Born in 1899 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O37

Dorothy Cicely Collett

Born in 1901 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O38

Emily Ivy E Collett

Born in 1902 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O39

Desmond Harold Collett

Born in 1903 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

12O40

Marion Collett

Born in 1906 at Milton-under-Wychwood

 

 

 

 

12N15

Lewis Edward Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 24th April 1864 and was seven and 17 in the census returns in 1871 and 1881 respectively.  It was on 14th April 1890 when he was a 26-year-old butcher living at Church Street in Charlbury that he married Amelia Annie Kench in Charlbury.  The witnesses at the wedding were Amelia’s brother and sister Henry Stephen Kench and Ada Louisa Kench.  However, it seems rather strange that when the marriage was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1333) during the second quarter of 1890 the witnesses were named as John Edwards and Leah Sarah Sandalls.  Amelia Annie Kench was born at Charlbury in 1871 and her father, Percival Kench, was the Hotel Keeper of the White Hart Hotel in Dyers Hill at Charlbury and was later the proprietor of a hotel in Market Street in Charlbury. 

 

 

 

It may be of interest that there were two earlier records of Collett and Kench marriages, and both of them in the same county of Oxfordshire.  The first just prior to 1866 when widower William Collett (Ref. 39N16) of Clanfield married Sarah Kench the daughter of Mary Ann Kench who had been born at Faringdon in 1833.  The second at Witney where in 1868 widower William Collett (Ref. 46N27) married Sarah Kench, the widow of John Kench, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Martin who had been born at Eynsham in 1822.  Whilst not a common name, there are many Kench/Kinch living in Oxfordshire in the latter half of the 1800s, some as far north as Banbury.

 

 

 

Once married the couple settled in Charlbury, where their two known children were born.  Ten years later the 1901 Census confirmed that the family was still living at Church Street in Charlbury where Lewis, aged 36, was a butcher, his wife Amelia was 30, and their two children were Daisy who was 10, and Lewis who was six years old.  Sometime after March 1901, the family left Charlbury when Lewis became an inn keeper in the Berkshire market town of Wantage.  Tragically, it was at Wantage just four years later, that Lewis Edward Collett died on 11th October 1905.  Although not of a significant value, it would seem that there may have been an issue following his death, which caused a major delay in the probate process.  It was over three years after his passing, that his Will was proved in Oxford on 28th December 1908, when his wife Amelia Annie Collett was named as the executor of his estate of £125 10 Shillings.  With her youngest child still only fourteen years old, it was perhaps inevitable that Amelia was remarried during the following year, when she wed Samuel Herbert Cruely in 1909.

 

 

 

The next census in 1911 recorded the new family living at the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour, although the surname was incorrectly stated as Coneley, rather than Cruely.  Samuel Herbert was 38, as was his wife Amelia Annie from Charlbury, who was assisting her husband in his business of managing the hotel.  Living with the couple were Amelia’s two children who were recorded as Daisy Amelia Collett from Charlbury who was 20, and Lewis Percival Collett who was 16 and also from Charlbury.  One other person was included on the census form with the family, and he was Frank Austin who was 28.  Amelia Annie Cruely, formerly Collett nee Kench, died at Woodstock Road in Witney during 1946, following which probate of her Will was granted to her son Percy Collett who was a hotel proprietor, like her second husband.

 

 

 

12O41

Daisy Amelia Collett

Born in 1891 at Charlbury

 

12O42

Lewis Percival Collett

Born in 1894 at Charlbury

 

 

 

 

12N16

Fanny Fletcher Collett was one half of a set of twins born at Chadlington and baptised there on 8th March 1867.  Fanny was four years of age in 1871 and was 14 in 1881 when she was living with her family at Charlbury.  It was as Fanny Collett, aged 23, that she was still living at Charlbury with her family in 1891.  She was not married by the end of the century and, in the census of 1901, when she was 33, she was then living at Chadlington, where her father was buried in 1902.  Fanny never married and died in Oxford during the first week of April 1911 immediately prior to the census day that year, her death recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 59).

 

 

 

 

12N17

Susan Kate Collett was the other half of a set of twins born in 1867 and was baptised in a joint ceremony with her twin sister Fanny (above) on 8th March 1867 at Chadlington.  She was aged four years in 1871 and 14 in 1881 when she was living at Charlbury with her family.  Ten years later she was still living with her parents and her twin sister fanny (above) when she was recorded in the Charlbury census on 1891 as Susie Collett, aged 23.  Within the next few months, Susan Collett married Frederick George Thomas Dent, the marriage recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1352) during the third quarter of 1891.  Susan Dent lived a very long life and died at Hungerford on 16th August 1968 at the age of 101.  Her Will was proved at Oxford on 17th November 1966 when the joint executors of her estate of £2,810 were named as Harold Collett Dent, a retired university teacher, and Norman Horrocks Dent, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in Her Majesty’s army.

 

 

 

Further research in 2021, revealed that Harold Collett Dent was born at Scunthorpe on 14th November 1894, the couple’s first-born child of a great many.  Harold never married and died in Devon during the month of January 1995.  The birth of Norman Horrocks Dent was recorded at Auckland register office in County Durham (Ref. 10a 67) during the third quarter of 1900, although it was on 11th May that he was born.  He was then baptised at Spennymoor on 8th July 1900, the son of Frederick G T Dent and Susan Dent.  He married Olive M Hargrave at Blandford in Dorset during 1931.  The later death of Norman Horrocks Dent was recorded at Lewisham in London at the start of 1972.  In fact, Frederick and Susan had seven children living with them at Saffron Waldon in Essex in 1911, when their son Harold was already living in Bury St Edmunds.  The census that year described Susan’s husband as Frederick George Thomas Dent from Ashbourne in Derbyshire who was 51 and a Wesleyan Methodist Minister.  Susan Dent was 47, but her place of birth was confusingly recorded at Beenham in Berkshire, while their seven children were born at various locations around England.

 

 

 

 

12N18

Francis Collett was born at Chadlington in 1868 and was baptised there on 29th November 1868.  He was two years old in Chadlington census of 1871 when he was recorded with his family as Frances Collett.  Ten years later he was 12 years old and was living at Charlbury with his family in 1881 when he was referred to as Frank.  On leaving school Francis secured work at nearby Burford where he was lodging with Charles and Annie Bishop in 1891 when he was working as a butcher’s assistant at the age of 21 under the name of Francis Collett.  Following that occasion Francis appears to have provided subsequent census enumerators with an inaccurate age.  For example in March 1901 Frank Collett, who was born at Chadlington, was living at Wallingford where he was working as a journeyman butcher, but when his age was recorded as being 25, perhaps an enumerator error.  However, after a further ten years butcher Francis Collett from Oxfordshire was working in Leamington, when he was staying at the Blenham Lawrence Hotel on Clements Street in the town.  He was still a bachelor although, once again, his age was incorrectly recorded as 32, when in fact he would have been 42.

 

 

 

 

12N19

Frederick Collett was born at Chadlington in 1870 and was baptised there on 27th February 1870, the youngest son of Charles and Judith Collett.  Tragically Frederick Collett was just two years old when he died, following which he was buried at Chadlington on 23rd December 1872.

 

 

 

 

12N20

Angelina Susan Collett was born at Chadlington during the first three months of 1850, the birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 30), following which she was baptised at Chadlington on 2nd June 1850, where she later married Thomas Derby on 12th November 1883.  At that time, she was listed as a domestic servant, aged 33, while he was a shopkeeper aged 34, who was living at 114 Holloway Road in London.  Angelina’s father was confirmed as Mark Collett, a carpenter, with Thomas’ father named as William Derby, who was a publican.  The witnesses at the wedding were James and Maria Coleman.  The earlier census of 1881 recorded the age of Annie Collett as 27 instead of 30 or 31.  However, the census return did confirm that she was born at Chadlington.  It also stated that she was a cook in domestic service at the St Marylebone School at Hayes in Middlesex.  Interestingly, her future husband Thomas Derby, aged 31, was a porter at the same establishment.  By the time of the census in 1891, the childless couple was residing in the Islington & Highbury area of London, where Thomas Derby was 41, as was his wife Angelina Derby from Chadlington.  Following the death of her father in 1903, it was Angelina Susan Derby who was granted administration of her father personal effects valued at just £5 in 1908.  By that time in her life Angelina was already a widow, following the death of Thomas Derby who passing was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 113) during the second quarter of 1908, at the age of 58.  Just two years later, the death of Angelina Susan Derby was recorded at Islington on 11th April 1910, when she was 61.  Her Will was proved in London on 26th April 1910, the main beneficiary being her sister Mary Ann Wells (below).

 

 

 

 

12N21

Mary Ann Collett was born at Chadlington near the end of 1851, with her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 29).  It was three years later, at Chadlington, that she was baptised there on 25th December 1854, the second daughter of Mark Collett and Rosina Coleman.  She married 28-year-old Beriah Wells, a builder, at Chadlington on 5th December 1870 when she was 19.  He was the son of builder Benjamin Wells and his address was listed as 99 Great George Street in Bermondsey, London.  The witnesses at the wedding were Angelina S Collett and carpenter Mark Collett, they being her older sister (above) and her father.  It seems rather odd, that no record of Beriah and Mary Ann Wells has been found in any census return from 1871, through to the death of Beriah Wells in 1901, which happened on 9th December 1901.  The couple’s home address at that time, was 19 Eckett Street, Dockhead in Bermondsey.  Ten years prior to that, they were recorded as residing at 25 Spa Mansions, Spa Road in Bermondsey.  The Will of Beriah Wells was subsequently proved in Surrey on 30th December 1904, which named his widow Mary Ann Wells as the sole beneficiary.  Nine years later, and following the death of her sister Angelina Susan Derby in 1910, it was Mary Ann Wells who was the main beneficiary under the terms of her Will.

 

 

 

 

12O1

Elizabeth Alice Collett was born at Chadlington, where she was baptised at St Nicholas Church on 3rd August 1879, the first child of James Collett by his wife Isabella Smith.  She was one year old in the Chadlington census of 1881 and was 11 years oof age at the time of the Chadlington census in 1891.  Ten years after that she was an assistant school mistress in Chadlington at the age of 21 and, it was over three and a half years later, at the age of 25, when she married Gerald Hastings Watts on 28th December 1904 at Chadlington.  Her father, who was a witness at the wedding, was confirmed as James Collett, a builder.  Gerald H Watts, who was 28 and a bailiff from Hookburgh in Lancashire, was the son of John Watts, an agent.  The second witness was Alfred Grimwood, who was probably Gerald’s best man. 

 

 

 

In April 1911, Elizabeth Alice Watts from Chadlington was 31, and her husband Gerald Hastings Watts was 35 from Cromhall in Gloucestershire, when they were living in Lyneham, to the west of Chadlington.  Gerald was described as a farm bailiff employed on a garden estate.  By that time in the marriage life the couple already had two children, John Francis James Watts who was three years old, and Gerald Wallace Watts who was seven months old.  Staying with the family that census day, were two members of Gerald’s family, and they were his widowed mother Martha Watts aged 74, and his unmarried sister Agnes Mary Watts aged 39 and also from Cromhall.

 

 

 

 

12O2

Eva Annie Collett was born at Chadlington where she was baptised on 18th October 1881.  She was four months short of her sixth birthday when she died in June 1887.  That tragic event for the family, happened just one month after the death of her younger sister Lillian (below) with whom she was buried at Chadlington on 18th June 1887.

 

 

 

 

12O3

Lillian Edith Collett was born at Chadlington and was baptised there on 27th May 1883.  Just prior to her fourth birthday she was suffering with diphtheria from which she later died.  She was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church in Chadlington on 15th May 1887 and was joined there by her sister Eva (above) one month later.

 

 

 

 

12O4

Olive Louise Collett was born at Chadlington and was baptised there on 28th June 1885.  By 1891 Olive Louise Collett was five years old in the Chadlington census, and ten years later was 15, when she was still living there with her family.  And it was at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington that she later married Arthur Alfred Edgington, a 23 years old farmer of Chadlington, on 5th August 1909.  He was the son of farmer Henry Bryan.  Olive was 24 years old and the daughter of builder James Collett who was a witness at the wedding.  The only other witness was Elizabeth Funnell.

 

 

 

 

12O5

James William Claude Collett was born at Chadlington where he was baptised on 5th August 1888.  By the time of the Chadlington census of 1891 he was two years old when he was recorded with his family at Chadlington as James William C Collett.  He was still attending school in Chadlington by the time of the census in 1901 when, as James W C Collett he was 12 and still living with his parents in Chadlington.  Upon leaving school James left Oxfordshire and moved south to Berkshire, where, in April 1911, he was living and working in Reading, where he was described as unmarried James W Claude Collett, aged 22 and from Chadlington.  Like his brother Francis (below), James worked in a bank and was described as a retired bank official in the probate papers following the death of his mother Isabella on 13th September 1939.  Also mentioned therein at Oxford on 1st November 1939 was his brother Francis.

 

 

 

 

12O6

Francis Campbell Collett was born at Chadlington in 1890 and it was there he was baptised on 11th January 1891 the youngest child of James Collett and Isabella Smith.  He was just a few months old in the Chadlington census of 1891, and ten years later in 1901 he was still living there with his family when he was 10 years old and attending the village school.  During the first decade of the new century, James appears to have sought work in London, since by the time of the census in 1911 James Collett from Oxfordshire was 20 years old and was living and working in the Fulham area of the city.  At the time of his wedding, he was listed as being a Private with the Honourable Artillery Company and his father was named as James Collett, a builder.  Francis married widow Eveline Vinnie nee Roberts on 11th February 1918 at Chadlington, her first husband perhaps having been killed during the war.  Both of them were 27 years of age and Eveline’s father was listed as James Roberts, a schoolmaster.  The witnesses were John Henry Harvey, and Gerald Hastings Watts the couple’s brother-in-law through his marriage to Francis’ sister Elizabeth Alice Watts nee Collett (above).

 

 

 

After the Great War, Francis followed in his older brother’s footsteps and entered the world of banking.  He and Eveline resided at Rounds Hill in Kenilworth from where he was employed as the manager at one of the banks in the town.  While working at the bank, Francis became a good friend of Harold James Collett (Ref. 15N36).  At the time of the death of his mother in September 1939, Francis was described as a bank manager when he and his brother James (above) were named as the joint executors of her Will, which was proved at Oxford on 1st November that year.  Eveline Collett nee Roberts died at Kenilworth during 1963 when she was around 72 years of age, following which she was buried in Kenilworth Cemetery.  Francis Campbell Collett was a widower for the next nineteen years and was still living at Rounds Hill in Kenilworth when he died in 1992 at the age of 102, after which he was also buried at Kenilworth Cemetery where he was reunited with his wife.

 

 

 

 

12O7

Francis William Collett was born on 3rd October 1881 at 25 New Cross Road in Deptford, within the south-east London district of Greenwich, the first of the two sons of Francis William Collett and Sarah Trelease.  He was almost four weeks old when he was baptised at All Saints Church in Deptford on 30th October 1881.  Not long after that day, Francis William Collett passed away, his death recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d), perhaps when in hospital there.

 

 

 

 

12O8

William Trelease Collett may also have been born at 25 New Cross Road in Deptford, where his parents were living in 1881.  He was born on 2nd November 1883 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Deptford on 11th December 1883, the second child of Francis William Collett and Sarah Trelease, the first of his two wives.  It was simply as William T Collett, aged seven years, and 17 years, that he was recorded at New Cross Road in Deptford with his parents in 1891, and with his widowed father in 1901.  By the time of the next census in 1911 his father, together with his second wife, was living in Fulham, when William Trelease Collett was still a bachelor at 27, was a railway clerk living at New Cross in Deptford, the head of the household being Elizabeth Trelease, aged 63, his late mother’s unmarried sister, who had been living with him and his father in 1901.

 

 

 

He enlisted with the army during 1916 and, at the age of 32, joined the Hertfordshire Regiment.  His military record confirmed that William Trelease Collett was living at 143 Waller Road in New Cross, south-east London and that his next-of-kin was his father Francis William Collett who, by then was living at Ford Cottages in New Road, Bideford in Devon.  Another record eight years later, placed William Trelease Collett on board the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company vessel Malwa sailing out from the Port of London on 23rd May 1924 to Marseilles in France, when he was 40 years of age.

 

 

 

Four years earlier, when he was still residing at 143 Waller Road, he wrote a letter on 26th April 1920 to the Officer of Infantry Records at the Royal Observer Corps, which opens “Sir, I beg to enclose my Certificate of Transfer to Receive (Z) on demobilisation....”  which sadly thereafter is written so poorly it is virtually impossible to read, except that at the end, where it finishes by saying “probably a clerical error and I mentioned this in case the alteration is necessary.  Thanking you in anticipation, I beg to remain Sir, your obedient servant W T Collett”.  Why William travelled to France in 1924 and what happened to him during the rest of his life is not yet known, except that he was living in Devon when he passed away in March 1971.  The death of William Trelease Collett was recorded at Barnstable register office (Ref. 7a 811) when he was reputedly 86 years of age.  On that occasion his date of birth was incorrectly recorded as being 1st November 1884, eleven months after he was baptised.

 

 

 

 

12O10

Joseph William Collett was born at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales on 11th July 1860, the son of Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe.  It was around 1890 that he married Lucinda Dixon who was born on 26th October 1869 at Araluen in New South Wales, the daughter of John Alcock Dixon and Catherine Buckley.  All of their six children were born at Ulmarra (Colletts Island) and it would appear that the couple’s eldest son was original christened as Joseph William Collett after his father.  However, it was in his military records from the Great War that he had the name Joseph Wilton Collett, which was later used on the family headstone (see below), but without the Joseph.

 

 

 

The photo on the right was sent in by Marion O’Shea (Ref. 12R2).

 

This clearly shows the New South Wales headstone for Joseph and his wife Lucinda, together with a memorial to their son Joseph Wilton Collett who perished in the First World War and was buried in France.

 

The inscriptions read:

“In Loving Memory of Joseph William Collett who died 23rd May 1931 aged 71 years, a loving husband and kind father”

“Also a tribute to the memory of Pte Wilton Collett, AIF, who died in the Great War aged 20 years”

“Also Lucinda Collett died 22nd Jan. 1957 aged 87 years, peace perfect peace”.

 

 

 

12P1

Victoria A Collett

Born in 1895 at Ulmarra

 

12P2

Joseph Wilton Collett

Born in 1897 at Ulmarra

 

12P3

Henry Collett

Born on 14.04.1899 at Ulmarra

 

12P4

Edna Collett

Born on 25.01.1902 at Ulmarra

 

12P5

William John Collett

Born on 25.10.1904 at Ulmarra

 

12P6

Netta Catherine Collett

Born in 1907 at Ulmarra

 

 

 

 

12O11

James Collett was born at Coldstream, Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales in 1863.  Bachelor James Collett, aged 23 and a farmer from Grafton, later married Mary Robertson of Shoalhaven in Newcastle, New South Wales, who was the daughter of farmer Angus Robertson and his wife Georgina McPherson.  The couple were married at the Presbyterian Church in Upper Coldstream, New South Wales on 2nd March 1886.  The witnesses at the wedding were Joseph William Collett, and Louisa Caroline Eliza Collett, they being James’ older brother Joseph (above), and his sister Louisa (below).

 

 

 

The marriage of James and Mary is known to have produced seven children for the couple, and all of them were born at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales.  Collett family traditions at that time dictated that the children were addressed and referred to by their second Christian name.  James Collett suffered a heart attack and was rushed to Runnymede Hospital in Grafton, where he died on 15th January 1913 at the age of 50.  His death certificate confirmed that he was a grazier, and the son of grazier Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe, and that the informant of his death was his eldest son William George Collett of Coldstream.

 

 

 

The death of James Collett was registered at Grafton on 17th January 1913, his body having been buried the previous day at the Church of England Cemetery at South Grafton by Henry H Sanders who also buried James’ father there nine years earlier.  At the time of his passing James still had six children who were still living, although the death certificate also included reference to a deceased female.  The named children were Eliza M Collett 25, William G Collett 24, Elsie Collett 22, Georgina M Collett 21, Raymond Collett 19, and Olive E Collett who was 14.  It therefore identified the deceased child as Mary Collett, who obviously suffered a childhood death.

 

 

 

12P7

Eliza Mary Collett

Born in 1887 at Ulmarra

 

12P8

William George Collett

Born in 1889 at Ulmarra

 

12P9

Elsie Collett

Born in 1890 at Ulmarra

 

12P10

Georgina May Collett

Born in 1892 at Ulmarra

 

12P11

James Raymond Collett

Born in 1894 at Ulmarra

 

12P12

Mary Collett

Born in 1897 at Ulmarra; died b/f 1913

 

12P13

Olive Edith Collett

Born in 1898 at Ulmarra

 

 

 

 

12O12

Henry Collett was born at Grafton in New South Wales in 1865.  It would seem he lived most of his life at Grafton and that he was married fairly later in his life to Edith since he was forty years old when his known son was born.

 

 

 

12P14

Joseph Clarence Collett

Born in 1905 at Grafton

 

 

 

 

12O18

Ann Elizabeth Collett was born in Birmingham in 1880 and was one year old in April 1881 when living with her parents at 18 Whitmore Street in Birmingham.  Ten years later Ann then aged 11 and her parents were listed as living in the Duddeston & Aston area of the city.  Her father was a baker and her mother was a grocer and shopkeeper.  Upon leaving school it would appear that Ann took up employment as a bottler of mineral waters as confirmed by the 1901 Census in which she was still living with her parents in Birmingham at the age of 21.

 

 

 

 

12O19

William Ernest Collett was born in 1868 at Chadlington, where he was baptised on 30th August 1868.  The baptism record at St Nicholas Church in Chadlington confirmed his parents as William Price Collett and Elizabeth Mary Collett.  The birth of William Ernest Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 288) during the second quarter of 1868.  When he was two years old, he and his brother Frederick J Collett (below), together with their young mother, were staying with their maternal grandparent James and Mary Gee at Chadlington.  Ten years later, at the age of 12 in 1881, William was already working as a ploughboy with his brother Frederick, when they were living with their widowed mother Elizabeth and her second husband Thomas Soles and their first child Thomas Soles who was eight years old and from Spelsbury.  The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham near Chipping Norton.

 

 

 

No record of William in 1891 has been found, but ten years later, according to the census in March 1901, William E Collett was 32 when he was a lodger at the Northfield Street home of the Enderwood family in Worcester, from where he was working as a railway goods guard.  It was also at Worcester over four years later that William Ernest Collett from Chadlington married the much younger Alice May Matthews from Worcester.  The event was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 515) during the last three months of 1905.  Over the next five years Alice gave birth to three children while the family was still living in Worcester, although only two of them were still alive at the time of the next census in 1911.

 

 

 

It was also in Worcester where the family was still living in April that year, when William Ernest Collett from Chadlington was 42 and again a railway goods guard employed by the Great Western Railway.  His wife Alice May Collett was 31, and their two sons were William Ernest Collett who was four, and Frederick Albert Collett who was three years old.  The place of birth for Alice and the two boys was confirmed as Worcester.  Having already suffered the loss of their daughter nine months earlier, Alice May was seven months into her fourth pregnancy on the day of the census and gave birth to her third son just two months later, with a fourth and final son born there three years after.

 

 

 

The birth of their son William Ernest Collett junior was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 303) during the third quarter of 1906.  Apart from his appearance in the 1911 census, the only other record found is that of his death at Evesham register office (Vol. 29) in April 1985, at the age of 78.  The birth of Frederick Albert Collett was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 11) during the first three months of 1908.  Tragically, he was only eight years of age, when the death of Frederick A Collett was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 95) during the second quarter of 1916.  The birth of Elizabeth Alice Collett was also recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 7) during the third quarter of 1909, while she was only one year old when her death was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 23) during the third quarter of 1910.

 

 

 

12P15

William Ernest Collett

Born on 6th July 1906 at Worcester

 

12P16

Frederick Albert Collett

Born in 1908 at Worcester; died in 1916

 

12P17

Elizabeth Alice Collett

Born in 1909 at Worcester; died in 1910

 

12P18

Thomas Charles Collett

Born in 1911 at Worcester

 

12P19

John Stanley Collett

Born in 1914 at Worcester

 

 

 

 

12O20

Frederick James Collett was born at Chadlington on 18th October 1869 and was baptised there at St Nicholas Church on 26th December 1869.  Just eight months later his father William Price Collett died and was buried at Chadlington, leaving Frederick and his older brother William (above) to be looked after by their widowed mother, at the Chadlington home of her parents, as confirmed in the census of 1871.  In 1881, just like his brother William (above), he was a ploughboy and was 11 years old, while living with his widowed mother Elizabeth and her second husband Thomas Soles and their first child Thomas Soles.  The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham.

 

 

 

Frederick married 27-year-old Agnes Emma Burden on 17th April 1900 at Chadlington.  At that time, he was 30 years old and a coalman living at Derby, when he was confirmed as the son of William Price Collett deceased.  Agnes’ father was Daniel Burden, a labourer and a witness at the wedding, as was her mother Ada Mary Burden, Polly Souls, who was probably Frederick’s younger his half-sister and possibly a bridesmaid at the wedding, plus two other witnesses H Burden and A Kilby.  Shortly after they were married Frederick and Agnes were residing in Derby when their daughter, and first child, was born.  In the census a few weeks later the family was listed as Frederick J Collett, aged 31 from Chadlington, who was a general labourer, his wife Agnes E Collett, 28 and also of Chadlington, and their daughter Ada Collett who was just six weeks old.

 

 

 

According to the census in 1911, Frederick James Collett from Chadlington was 41 and was still living in the Derby area with his wife Agnes Emma Collett, who was 38 and also born at Chadlington, and their two children, Ada Elizabeth Collett who was 10, and William Lewis Collett who was four years old.  The census also confirmed that the two children were after the couple moved to Derby.  All that is known about Frederick James Collett after that time is that he died during January 1953.

 

 

 

12P20

Ada Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1901 at Derby

 

12P21

William Lewis Collett

Born in 1906 at Derby

 

 

 

 

12O22

George Frederick Charles Collett was born at Birmingham on 16th December 1872, the eldest son of James Collett and Fanny Lidbetter, who was baptised at St George’s Church in Birmingham on 19th January 1873.  Sometime after 1878 the family left Birmingham when they moved to Kemble Road in Croydon, Surrey, where they were living at the time of the census in 1881.  At that time George F C Collett was eight years old and had three younger siblings.  However, the children’s mother died during the following years.  By 1891 the four children were still living in Croydon at White Horse Lane, but with just their widowed father, when George Collett was 18 and an accountant’s clerk.  Not long after that George’s father remarried, following which he and his three siblings all left the family home upon the arrival of two half-siblings.  Ten years later, the census in 1901, revealed that George F Collett from Birmingham was 28 and working as a tram conductor, when he was a boarder at the home of the Goodall family at Collier’s Water Lane in Croydon.  During the next decade George returned to his roots when, by 1911 and at the age of 38, he was once again living in the Birmingham area of the country.  However, the death of George F C Collett was recorded at Staines register office (Ref. 3a 3) during the third quarter of 1923, when he was 50 years of age.

 

 

 

 

12O23

James Percival Collett was born in 1874 at Birmingham, the second son of James Collett and Fanny Lidbetter.  During his life he was referred to as Percy or James however, his birth was recorded at Aston as James Percival Collett (Ref. 6d 180) during the last three months of that year.  It was also under his full name, that his marriage to Mabel Florence Crofts OR Bertha Lavinia Crouch was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 139) during the third quarter of 1905.  In between those years, he had continued to live with his family, which moved to White Horse Land in Croydon from Birmingham near the end of the 1880s.  It is still not known, which of the two ladies, Mabel or Bertha, was his wife, while no record of any children has been found.  One clue may be the proving of the Will of Percival James Collett at Oxford on 28th August 1947, following his passing on 12th April 1947, when the sole beneficiary was named as Mabel Collett.

 

 

 

 

12O24

Frances Elizabeth Margaret Collett was born at Birmingham in 1876, her birth recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 47) during the second quarter of the year, the only daughter of James and Fanny Collett.  By the time of the census in 1881 Frances’ family had settled in Croydon, where she was three years old when living at Kemble Road.  Rather oddly she was recorded as Margaret E M Collett, aged 14, in the Croydon census of 1891, by which time her mother had died and she was living there with her widowed father and her three brothers.  It would appear that it was Frances who was the first of her family to make the return journey to Birmingham, since it was there that she was living in March 1901, where she was recorded as Frances Collett, aged 23 from Birmingham, who was living in the Aston area of the city.

 

 

 

 

12O25

John Nelson Collett was born at Birmingham in 1878, the last of the four children of James Collett of Chadlington and his wife Fanny.  His birth, like those of his older siblings, was recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 77) during the second quarter of the year.  John Collett was two years old in the census of 1881 when he and his family had left Birmingham and were living at Kemble Road in Croydon.  Tragically, his mother died while he was still very young and so, in 1891, when he was recorded as John N Collett aged 13, he was living at White Horse Lane in Croydon with his widowed father and his three siblings.  Just a few months after the census day, John’s father remarried and two new children were added to the family.  Upon leaving school, John travelled to the south coast and was a visitor at the Surrey Street, Portsmouth, home of elderly couple Alfred and Mary Hedgecock in 1901.  That day John N Collett from Birmingham was 23 and working as a barman.  No record of John Collett or John Nelson Collett has been found in the census of 1911.

 

 

 

 

12O26

William Albert Ernest Collett was born at South Norwood in Croydon, Surry on 11th November 1892, where he was baptised on 27th December 1892, the eldest of the three children of James Collett and Sarah Maria Moore.  The birth of William Albert Ernest Collett was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 309) during the last months of 1892.  All three children were still alive by the time of the Croydon census in 1901 when William Collett was eight years old, his sister Gladys Collett was six and his brother Gladstone (below) was three.  On completing his secondary education, when William was nearly fifteen years old, he was taken on as an employee of the London-Brighton South Coast Railway Company on 14th September 1907 and was based at Forest Hill Station.  Two and a half years later William Collett was 18 when he and his family were still residents of Croydon.  The railway employment record for William Albert Ernest Collett, born on 11th November 1892, also includes a note that on 29th April 1915, he moved to a new address in Wimbledon.

 

 

 

Just over four years after that move to Wimbledon, it was back at Croydon where the marriage of William Albert Ernest Collett and Edith Ellen Giles was recorded (Ref. 2a 147) during the third quarter of 1919.  Edith had been born at Croydon in 1896, the daughter of Henry and Louisa Giles of Gloucester Road in Croydon.  As far as can be determined William and Edith only had one child, with the birth of their son recorded at Croydon register office in 1921, his mother’s maiden name confirmed as Giles.  Finally, it has been established that William Albert Ernest Collett he was living in Brighton when he died at the age of 77, his death recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 5h 1130) during the last three months of 1969.

 

 

 

12P22

Reginald William James G Collett

Born in 1921 at Croydon

 

 

 

 

12O27

Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett was born at South Norwood on 24th August 1894, the only daughter of James and Sarah Collett.  It was as Gladys Collett aged six years that she was living with her family in Croydon in March 1901.  Upon leaving school Gladys became of children’s nurse and, according to the next census in April 1911, Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett from South Norwood was 17 and employed as a children’s nurse at ‘Ventor’ 10 Roche Road, just off London Road [A23] in Norbury, south-west London.  Twenty years later, spinster Gladys became a married woman when the marriage of Gladys B G A Collett and Thomas W Reeves was recorded at the Sussex East Preston register office (Ref. 2b 81) during the final quarter of 1931.  The death of Gladys Beatrice G A Reeves was recorded at Worthing register office (Ref. 18 57) in Sussex during the summer of 1982.

 

 

 

 

12O28

Louis Stanley Leopold Gladstone Collett was born at South Norwood on 29th December 1897, the youngest of the three children of James and Sarah Collett.  When his birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 358) during the early months of 1898, he was named as Louis Stanley L G Collett. The census returns for both 1901 and 1911 placed him and his family residing in Croydon when on the first occasion he was recorded as Gladstone Collett aged three years and subsequently as Louis Collett who was 13.  On leaving school he became a jockey, but with the arrival of Great War he was a member of the King’s army and as Private Collett 48290 he served with the 3rd Wiltshire Regiment, having been posted to Trowbridge on 19th January 1918.  However, he was discharged from duty on 13th November 1918, having spent from 22nd August to 20th September as a patient in Glover’s Hospital in Sittingbourne.  The reason for his discharge was for the fact he was poorly developed and fragile; chest barely 32 inches when expanded and, after a few days training, he broke down and had subsequently only be given light duties.  His weight was a very slight 89 lbs, only 6 stones 5 lbs, a good weight for a jockey but not a soldier.  The military record also gave his father as his next-of-kin, whose address was stated as being 226 White Horse Road in West Croydon.

 

 

 

Ten years after he was discharged from the military, the marriage of Louis Stanley L G Collett and Marie E Powell was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 2c 91) during the first three months of 1928.  No record of any issue has been found.  The only other known fact about him is that he was 83 when he died in Gloucestershire, where the death of Louis Stanley L G Collett was recorded at Gloucester register office (Vol. 22 76) during December 1980.

 

 

 

 

12O29

Frank Chadbon Collett was born at the family home at Millicent Terrace in Bridgnorth, Shropshire on 2nd August 1899, the eldest child of John Samuel Collett and Elizabeth Chadbon.  It was there also at 3 Victoria Road (formerly Millicent Terrace) in Bridgnorth St Leonard that he was still living with his parents in 1901 when he was one year old.  Just over four years later Frank’s father died at 3 Victoria Road in Bridgnorth, so within the census of 1911 Frank was no longer living with his widowed mother and his three sisters, instead Frank Chadbon Collett from Bridgnorth was 11 years of age and when he was recorded as an inmate and a schoolboy at The Royal Orphanage on Penn Road in Wolverhampton.

 

 

 

Frank worked as a bank clerk and was thirty-two when he was married by certificate to Cecilia Mary Wilding at Staines register office in Middlesex on 29th August 1932.  Cecilia was the daughter of William Snelling and Eliza Emerson.  The death of Frank Chadbon Collett was recorded at Southend register office in Essex (Ref. 4a 836) on 19th April 1965.  His Will was proved at Ipswich on 27th May 1965 when it was confirmed that he and his wife had been living at 33 Boston Avenue in Southend-on-Sea, where he passed away, and that his widow Cecilia Mary Collett was given administration of his personal effects valued at £302.

 

 

 

 

12O33

Charles Guy Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 26th August 1894, the eldest child of Charles Collett and his wife Rachel Hadlands.  His birth was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 233) during the last three months of 1894, sometime after he was born.  It was as Charles Guy Collett that he was six years old in the Milton census of 1901, at The Green, and was described as Guy Collett aged 16 and a plough boy, when he was still living at the family home in Milton-under-Wychwood in 1911.  During the First World War Charles Guy Collett served as a private, service number 42656, with the Warwickshire Infantry Division of the Worcester Regiment, from which he was eventually discharged.  However, upon the 1925 death of his aunt Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett, his father’s eldest sister, Charles Guy Collett, a commercial clerk, was named as one of the executors of her Will.  The other executor was his father, Charles Collett senior.  What happened to Charles Guy after that time is not currently known, except that he may have been living within the Reading and Wokingham area of Berkshire at the end of his life, where his death was recorded (Ref. 19 0268) during March 1982, at the age of 87.

 

 

 

 

12O34

Percy Ralph Collett was born in 1896 at Milton-under-Wychwood, with his birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 20) during the second quarter of the year.  By 1901 he was already attending school, when Percy Collett was five years of age and living with his family at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood.  Ten years later he had finished his education and, at the age of 14, he was working as a plough boy on a local farm, most likely alongside his father and older brother.  It was towards the end of 1921, presumably after he had seen active service during the First World War, when the marriage of Percy Collett and Florence M Pullinger was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 115).  The birth of the first of their three children was recorded at the register office in Abingdon-on-Thames, where Percy’s sister was married four years later and where two of her children were born.  So, maybe Percy and his family were actually living in Abingdon at that time in their lives.  The births of the two later children of Percy and Florence were recorded at Chipping Norton, after the family had travelled back north to that part of the country.  The death of Percival Ralph Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 87) during the second quarter of 1944, when he was 48.

 

 

 

12P23

John Ralph Collett

Born in 1922 at Abingdon-on-Thames

 

12P24

Doris L Collett

Born in 1924 at Chipping Norton

 

12P25

Bessie Gertrude Collett

Born in 1928 at Chipping Norton

 

 

 

 

12O35

Caroline May Collett was born on 31st December 1897 at Milton-under-Wychwood, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 343), the eldest daughter of Charles and Rachel Collett.  The family was living at The Green in Milton in 1901, where May Collett was three years old and again as May Collett, she was 13 in 1911.  Both she and her older brother Percy (above) appear to have been residing in Abingdon-on-Thames around 1922 to 1932, where Percy’s son was born in 1922, where Caroline May Collett married Frank G Bateman during the second quarter of 1926 (Ref. 2c 52), and where the births of their three children were recorded.  Frank J Bateman was born early in 1927 (Ref. 2c 122), Mary M Bateman was born near the end of 1928 (Ref. 2c 60), and Violet E Bateman was born during the second quarter of 1932 (Ref. 2c 61).  In all three cases, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.  Abingdon is only eight miles from the city of Oxford, where the death of Caroline May Bateman was recorded (Ref. 6b 65) during the summer of 1972, at the age of 74.

 

 

 

 

12O36

Lilian Daisy Collett was born at The Green in at Milton-under-Wychwood in 1899, where she was living with her family in 1901 as one-year-old Daisy Collett.  Her birth was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 324) during the third quarter of 1899, and it was at Milton that she and her family were still living in 1911, when again as Daisy Collett she was 11 years of age.

 

 

 

 

12O37

Dorothy Cicely Collett was born at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood in 1901, just prior to the day of the census that year, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 324) during the first three months of the year.  She was another daughter of Charles and Rachel Collett and in the census of 1901 and 1911 she was recorded were her family as Dorothy Collett, who was 10 years old in the latter.  Just over twenty years after that census day, the marriage of Dorothy Cicely Collett and Horace Edward S French was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 70) during the last three months of 1931.  Horace was younger than Dorothy, having been born at Oxford St Ebbes on 17th November 1907, the first-born child of Edward and Clara French, who was living in Abingdon when he died in 1981.  Dorothy presented Horace with four children, all born within the county of Oxfordshire, but at a number of locations, when their mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.  They were Dorothy M C French in 1932 at Headington, Edward M L French in 1938 at Oxford, James C French in 1943 at Witney, and Andrew C French in 1945 also at Witney.

 

 

 

 

12O38

Emily Ivy E Collett was born on 16th July 1902 at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood, where she was Ivy Collett aged eight years in 1911.  It was the recording of her birth at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 363) which revealed her full name as Emily Ivy Elizabeth Collett.  Like her sister Dorothy (above), Emily was also in her thirties when she was married, the wedding of Emily I E Collett and John E Slade was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 2c 97) during the third quarter of 1939.  No issue has been found, likely because of her advanced years, while the death of Emily Ivy Elizbeth Slade was recorded at Cheltenham register office (Vol. 22) in January 1992, aged 89.

 

 

 

 

12O39

Desmond Harold Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 3rd December 1903, the seventh of the eight children of Charles and Rachel Collett, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 222).  He was seven years old in the Milton-under-Wychwood census of 1911.  He was almost thirty-four years old when Desmond H Collett married Mary V Collins at Brighton where the marriage was recorded (Ref. 2b 508) during the last three months of 1937.  Mary Violet Collins was born at Brighton on 18th January 1911 when her birth was recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 2b 173).  The births of their three children were all recorded at Oxford register office.  It was in the second quarter of 1977 that Desmond Harold Collett died at the age of 73, his death being recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 20 2421).  Mary survived her husband by thirteen years and was still living within Oxfordshire when she died at the age of 79, her passing recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 20 2668) during the final three months of 1990.

 

 

 

12P26

Mollie J Collett

Born in 1938 at Oxford

 

12P27

Roger D Collett

Born in 1940 at Oxford

 

12P28

Janet M Collett

Born in 1942 at Oxford

 

 

 

 

12O40

Marion Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 6th November 1906, the last child of Charles Collett and Rachel Hadlands.  As with all of her older siblings, the birth of Marion Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 210) and she was living with her family at Milton-under-Wychwood in 1911 at the age of four years.  All that is known about Marion is that she never married and may well have lived all her life in the county of Oxfordshire, since it was at the Oxford register office (Ref. 20 52) that the death of Marion Collett was recorded during the spring of 1977, when she was 70 years old.

 

 

 

 

12O41

Daisy Amelia Collett was born at Charlbury early in 1891, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 354).  It was also at Charlbury where she was baptised on 22nd March 1891, the eldest of the two children of Lewis Edward Collett and Amelia Annie Kench.  She was 10 years old in the Charlbury census of 1901, when living at Church Street, from where her father was a butcher.  Daisy was only 14 when her father passed away and, four year later her mother married Samuel Herbert Cruely.  By 1911, Daisy Amelia Collett from Charlbury was living at the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour, where her mother and stepfather were managing the establishment.  It was also in 1911, that the marriage of Daisy Amelia Collett and Thomas E Clarke took place at Witney, where it was recorded (Ref. 3a 69) during the last three months of the year.  Just over two years later, Thomas and Daisy sailed to America, arriving at Ellis Island, New York, in 1914.  Curiously in 1920, a Daisy Clark from England, of English parents, was recorded in the New York City centre that year, as being 25 years old and a single lady in lodgings, who was working as a pathologist at a hospital. 

 

 

 

 

12O42

Lewis Percival Collett was born at Charlbury in 1894 where he was baptised on 6th January 1895, the only son of Lewis Edward Collett and Amelia Annie Kench.  He was six years old in 1901 when he was still living at Charlbury with his family.  However, just over four years after that his father died and after a further four years his mother remarried.  Sometime prior to the next census in 1911, Lewis’ stepfather, Samuel Herbert Cruely, took on the role of manager of the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour where the family was residing in April 1911.  Although still recorded as Lewis Percival Collett, aged 16 and from Charlbury, it was later in his life that he was known as Percy Collett.  It was eighteen years after that day, when Lewis Percival Collett married Clara Annie Hewer, the wedding recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 145) during the first quarter of 1929 and three years later their only known child was born.  At the time of the death of his mother at Witney in 1946, Percy was a hotel proprietor and was named as the sole executor of her Will.  What is known is that Lewis Percival (Percy) Collett died at Witney in 1978.

 

 

 

12P29

Nina Collett

Born in 1932 at Witney

 

 

 

 

12P2

Joseph Wilton Collett was born during 1897 at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales and may originally have been christened Joseph William Collett after his father, his mother being Lucinda Dixon.  Joseph was a farmer and grazier before he enlisted with the Australian Infantry (AIF) at Brisbane on 31st August 1915, following the outbreak of the First World War in Europe.  It was as Private 4161 Joseph Wilton Collett of the 9th Battalion AIF, from Ulmarra in New South Wales, that he left Brisbane with thirteen reinforcements on HMAT Kyarra on 3rd January 1916 bound for France. 

 

 

 

Like many of his comrades, he was exposed to the gas attacks by the enemy forces at Le Barque near Martinpuich in France between the 14th and 20th of February in 1917.  Such was the effect that Joseph was taken to the 5th General Hospital at Rouen, where he died from pneumonia on 6th March 1917, at the age of 20.  Following his death, he was buried at the St Sever Cemetery at Rouen.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission recorded that the parents of Joseph Wilton Collett were Joseph William and Lucinda Collett of Ulmarra, Clarence River in New South Wales.  The above picture was kindly supplied by Marion O’Shea.  Upon the death of his father in 1931, a headstone was erected on the grave which also included a memorial to Pte Wilton Collett, the son of Joseph William Collett, who died during the Great War.  The name of his mother was added to the same gravestone twenty-six years later, when she died in 1957.

 

 

 

 

12P6

Netta Catherine Collett was born at Ulmarra on 17th December 1907, the youngest of the six children of Joseph William Collett and Lucinda Dixon.  She was twenty-two when she married Alfred Charles John Joss at Grafton during 1930, the son of Charles Arthur Joss and Olive Sarah Anne Barnett.  He was born at Southwark in London on 7th July 1900 and died in 1970.  Their marriage produced four children for the couple, while Netta Catherine Joss nee Collett passed away on 1st October 1991.  Their first-born child was Gladys Catherine Joss, born 1st February 1931, who married Claud Darcy Max Cochrane (1926-1961).  Next were twins, the first of them was Donald Anthony James Joss, born 25th June 1933, who married Phyllis Patricia Hadlington on 5th May 1962, and it was Phyllis Patricia Joss, who was born at Waverley NSW on 7th September 1935, who kindly provided the details of her Collett/Dixon family.  Netta and Alfred’s other twin was Yvonne Ursula Norma Joss (1933-2009), while the last child was Margaret Dolores Hinemoa Joss, born on 7th November 1940, who married Glen McCarthy.

 

 

 

 

12P10

Georgina May Collett, who was known as May Collett, was born at Coldstream, Ulmarra on 5th December 1892, the daughter of James Collett and Mary Robertson. 

In 1909, at the age of 17, she fell in love with Clarence Herbert Shannon, aged 30, who was employed by May’s father, on his farm.  James Collett was not happy with the arrangement and consequently sent May away to relatives in New Zealand, where she lived for the next five years.

 

 

 

It was not known by the relatives that handed down the story, whether her father’s objection to the relationship was the age gap between the couple, or the fact that Clarence was the grandson of a convict.  Clarence Herbert Shannon was born at Brushwood in Grafton, New South Wales in 1879 and was the son of Martha Prentice and Thomas Shannon.  The passenger records show that a Miss M Collett (Georgina May) was accompanied by a Miss E Collett on her many trips to and from New Zealand and she may have been either her younger sister Olive Edith or, more likely, her older sister Elsie.

 

 

 

During her period of absence, Clarence Shannon was married to another woman during April of 1912, with whom he had a son around a year later.  However, by the time of the birth of the child, Clarence had already left his wife in December 1912, following which she served him with divorce papers on the grounds of desertion.  On 26th January 1915, May Collett arrived at Sydney from Wellington at the age of twenty-two, having served her five-year isolation period.

 

 

 

Possibly on hearing the news of May’s return, the couple was reunited and Clarence hoped to secure the divorce that his wife had petitioned for, but there ensued a long and protracted battle over property, which was not resolved until 1926, when the final divorce settlement was granted.  Sometime after her return to Australia in early 1915, May and Clarence rekindle their romance and during 1916 it was confirmed when May was living at the home of Clarence Shannon, together with her brother Raymond Collett.  That was at Casino in New South Wales.

 

 

 

Over the next nine years May presented Clarence with four base-born children, during a period in his life when he was still legally married to his first wife.  Each child was born at a different location, perhaps indicating a nomadic life-style for the couple.  In addition to the named children listed below, there is a high expectation within the family that Georgina May Collett may have given birth to another child while she was in New Zealand, but to date no record of such a birth has been found.

 

 

 

It was only on 22nd June 1926, and following the dissolution of his marriage, that May, then aged 34, and Clarence, aged 47, were eventually married at The Manse (Presbyterian Church) in Glen Innes, New South Wales.  The marriage certificate confirmed that Clarence was a grazier, and that May was involved in domestic duties.  The document also stated that Clarence was a divorced petitioner, and that May was a spinster.  The couple’s parents were named as Thomas Shannon and Martha Prentice (deceased), and James Collett (deceased) and Mary Robertson, while the witnesses were John A Davidson and John A Robinson.

 

 

 

In addition to Clarence’s and May’s four base-born children, the couple were blessed with a further two children, and they were born within the first three years of their married life together.  All of May’s four base-born children were initially given the Collett surname.  Her eldest son Henry, who was born prematurely, died when he was only seven days old, and her next son was subject to formal adoption a few years after he was born.  Both of the remaining two children were taken into the care of other families who raised them, and from which time they dropped the Collett name in favour of the Shannon surname.

 

 

 

Although the children were eventually reunited in 1848, that happened after both May and Clarence had passed away.  Clarence Herbert Shannon died during 1934, and was followed three years later by Georgina May Shannon, nee Collett, when she died at Casino in New South Wales on 20th September 1937 at the age of 45.  However, some elements of the family were still in contact with each other in 2008 and, Sarah, the granddaughter of son Tom, was attending James Cook University in Townsville, while lodging with Marion O’Shea (her cousin one-step removed), the daughter of Tom’s sister Sheila Shannon, formerly Collett.

 

 

 

Georgina May Shannon’s death certificate revealed the following information.  Firstly, that she was a patient at The Friendly Society Private Hospital in Casino when she passed, and that her death was the result of an embolism caused during an hysterectomy operation, which had been conducted eighteen hours prior to her demise.  She was buried at the Church of England Cemetery in South Grafton on 21st September 1937, where the witnesses at the burial service were her brother-in-law C R Shannon, who was also the informant of her death, and P C Sanders.

 

 

 

The death certificate also listed the names of only three of her five surviving children, and they were Clarence H Shannon 12, Martin R Shannon 10, and Heather M Shannon who was eight years old.  However, by that time, her son Henry had been dead for eighteen years, her son James had been adopted, and her missing daughter Sheila had been fostered by another family, thus resulting in their absence from the list.

 

 

 

12Q1

Henry Collett

Born in 1919 at Moree, NSW

 

12Q2

James Thomas Collett

Born in 1921 at Toowoomba in Qld

 

12Q3

Sheila Collett

Born in 1923 at Inverell, NSW

 

12Q4

Clarence Henry Collett

Born in 1925 at Drake, NSW

 

12Q5

Martin Rowland Shannon

Born in 1927

 

12Q6

Heather May Shannon

Born in 1928

 

 

 

 

12P18

Thomas Charles Collett was born at Worcester on 9th June 1911, the third son of William Ernest Collett and his wife Alice May Matthews, whose birth was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 464) during the third quarter of that year.  The only other known fact relating to Thomas Charles Collett of Worcester, is that his death was recorded there (Ref. 5271b) during February 1998, when he was 86.

 

 

 

 

12P19

John Stanley Collett was born at Worcester on 10th September 1914, the last child of William and Alice Collett.  Like his older brother Thomas (above) it seems that John lived out his life in Worcester, since it was there in March 1978 that his death was recorded (Ref. 29 142), at the age of 63.

 

 

 

 

12P20

Ada Elizabeth Collett was born at Derby on 9th February 1901 and it was there that she lived for the whole of her life.  It was in the census of 1911 that she was recorded as Ada Elizabeth Collett aged 10 years.  She married John Pratley at Derby in 1937 and also died there in February 1971.

 

 

 

 

12P21

William Lewis Collett was born at Derby on 28th April 1906 and was four years old in the Derby census of 1911 when he was living there with his parents and sister Ada (above).  Like his sister Ada, William also lived all his life in Derby where, in 1937, he married Evelyn Trowbridge, with whom he had two children.  William’s occupation was that of a turner and lathe worker at the Rolls Royce factory in Derby and he died in November 1978.

 

 

 

12Q7

Christine Collett

Born in 1941 at Derby

 

12Q8

Jeffrey Collett

Born in 1945 at Derby

 

 

 

 

12P22

Reginald William James G Collett was born on 13th May 1921 at Croydon, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2a 66) during the second quarter of 1921, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Giles.  He was the only child of William Albert Ernest Collett and Edith Ellen Giles.  It was during the third quarter of 1950, when the marriage of Reginald W J G Collett and Kathleen Wilson was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 102).  However, it was earlier that same year when the birth of their son was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office.  It looks like Reginald retired from whatever occupation he had and settled in Somerset towards the end of his life, and it was there, at the Mendip register office, that his death was recorded during February 1998, when he was 76.

 

 

 

12Q9

John R Collett

Born in 1950 in Surrey

 

 

 

 

12P23

John Ralph Collett was born at Abingdon-on-Thames on 1st May 1922, the eldest of the three children of Percy Ralph Collett and Florence M Pullinger, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2c 6), with his mother’s maiden name confirmed as Pullinger.  Just like his youngest sister Bessie (below), John was also around twenty-eight years of age when the marriage of John Ralph Collett and Cynthia Holloway was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 6b 100) during the second quarter of 1950.  Their only known child, Charles W Collett, was born in 1953 and tragically died a little while after, his birth and death both recorded during the second quarter of the year at Middlesbrough register office (Refs. 1b 117 & 1b 92), when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Holloway.   John Ralph Collett was 78 years old and living at Thanet-with-Dover where his death was recorded (Ref. 5751a) during the month of March in 2001.

 

 

 

12Q10

Charles W Collett

Born in 1953 at Chipping Norton

 

 

 

 

12P24

Doris L Collett was born in 1924, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 3) during the third quarter of 1924, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Pullinger. 

 

 

 

 

12P25

Bessie Gertrude Collett was born in 1928 with her birth also recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 129) during the first quarter of that year, her mother also confirmed as having the maiden name of Pullinger.  It was during the first three months of 1956, when she was around twenty-eight years old, that the marriage of Betty G Collett and Thomas C Pratley was recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 6b 56).  The birth of their only child, Wendy A Pratley, was also recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 6b 140) during the second quarter of 1957.  The later death of Betty Gertrude Pratley was recorded at Oxford in April 1992 (Vol. 20), when she was 64.

 

 

 

 

12P26

Mollie J Collett was born on 31st January 1938, her birth recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 151), months of the year, the eldest of the three children of Desmond Harold Collett and Mary Violet Collins.  Mollie was almost 21 years of age when her marriage to David W John was also recorded at Oxford (Ref. 6b 74), during the second quarter of 1959.  Mollie gave birth to two children during the following ten years, first was Sarah J John in 1962, and then Rachel Mary John in 1969, the births of both girls recorded at Oxford, with their mother’s maiden name confirmed as Collett.

 

 

 

 

12P27

Roger D Collett was born in 1940, the only son and one of the three children of Desmond and Mary Collett.  His birth was recorded at Oxford (Ref. 3a 9) during the second quarter of the year when his mother’s maiden name was Collins.  At the age of 23, the marriage of Roger D Collett and Jean M Morgan was also recorded at Oxford (Ref. 6b 173) during the third quarter of 1963.  The first of the couple’s three daughters was born in Oxford, while it was at Bicester, to the north of Oxford, that the other two girls were born.  In each case, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Morgan.

 

 

 

12Q11

Lorna F Collett

Born in 1965 at Oxford

 

12Q12

Joanne Carol Collett

Born in 1967 at Bicester/Ploughley

 

12Q13

Heather Mary Collett

Born in 1969 at Bicester/Ploughley

 

 

 

 

12P28

Janet M Collett was born in 1942 and her birth, like those of her two older sisters, was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 148) during the second quarter of that year.  She was the last child of Desmond and Mary Collett.  Janet was twenty-one when she married the much older Richard Donald Berry at Oxford during the second quarter of 1963 (Ref. 6b 117).  Richard was born at Camberwell in London on 12th May 1925 and he died at Witney on 17th January 2009.  Their marriage produced two daughters, the births of Lisa Jane Berry and Susanne Louise Berry both recorded at Oxford in 1966 and 1968, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.  Janet M Berry was at Aylesbury when she died on 1st October 2000, when she was only 58.

 

 

 

 

12P29

Nina Collett was born at Witney in 1932, the only child of Lewis Percival Collett and Clara Annie Hewer.      Her birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 106) during the second quarter of 1932.  Towards the end of 1956, the marriage of Nina Collett and Cornelius A McKenzie was recorded at Harrow in Middlesex (Ref. 5f 57) during the last three months of that year.

 

 

 

 

12Q1

Henry Collett was born at Moree in New South Wales on 10th October 1919 and survived for just a week when he died 17th October 1919.  His death certificate conformed that he died at Nurse O’Hara’s Private Hospital in Moree, and that he had been prematurely born.  It would also appear that his seven days were all spent in the hospital under Doctor Matthew Harris.  The certificate also stated that his mother was Georgina May Collett and that the informant of the death was Olive O’Hara, no relation.  Baby Henry Collett was buried at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Moree, on the same day that he died.

 

 

 

 

12Q2

James Thomas Collett, who was referred to as Tom, was born at Toowoomba in Queensland in 1921.  He was the oldest surviving base-born son of Georgina May Collett and Clarence Herbert Shannon and, whilst he lived with them for a few years, he was formally adopted by the Siebenhausen family of Toowoomba, to become James Thomas Siebenhausen.  He was married in the late 1940s and the marriage produced two sons for Tom.  Michael Siebenhausen was born at Oakey in Queensland on 29th April 1949, and Stephen Charles Siebenhausen was born on 30th November 1954 at Clifton in Queensland.  James Thomas Siebenhausen, formerly Collett, died at Pittsworth in Queensland on 7th August 1989.  It is Stephen’s daughter Sarah who attended James Cook University in Townsville where she studied veterinary science.

 

 

 

 

12Q3

Sheila Collett was born at Inverell in New South Wales on 11th January 1923 and was the base-born daughter of Georgina May Collett.  Following the marriage of her mother May to her father Clarence Herbert Shannon in 1926, when she was three years old, Sheila adopted her father’s surname to replace her mother’s maiden, as did her older brother Tom and younger brother Clarence Henry.  However, as Sheila Shannon she was taken into the care of another family and was only reunited with her siblings at a later date.  Her foster parents had tried in previous years to persuade her to meet with her parents but with little success and Sheila last saw them in 1931.  And it was as Sheila Shannon that she later married Herbert Francis O’Shea at Cairns in Queensland in 1942 with whom she had two children.

 

 

 

She was eventually reunited with her siblings in 1948 although they had no knowledge of her existence as they were all too young to remember.  The reunion was not a happy event and no further meetings took place.  Sheila died in 1997 and in the week prior to her passing she expressed a wish that it would be nice to once again meet up with her brothers and sisters, but sadly that never happened.  Since her death Sheila’s two children have been in contact with their surviving aunt and uncle and their cousin, the son of the late Clarence Henry Shannon.

 

 

 

12R1

Herbert Patrick O’Shea

Born in 1942 at Ayr, Queensland

 

12R2

Heather Marion O’Shea

Born in 1944 at Townsville, Queensland

 

 

 

 

12Q4

Clarence Henry Collett was born at Drake in New South Wales in 1925 and was the base-born son of Georgina May Collett.  It was during the year following his birth that his mother married his father, following which Henry took up his father’s surname and became Henry Shannon.  Later in his life Clarence was married and his wife presented him with a son Rory.

 

 

 

12R3

Rory Shannon

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

12Q7

Christine Collett was born at Derby on 25th January 1941, her birth recorded there (Ref. 7b 11), when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Trowbridge.  Twenty-two years later she married Edward G Mould in 1963, the event recorded at Shardlow register office (Ref. 3a 155) during the third quarter of that year.  The couple eventually moved to Bristol, where Christine was a school teacher.  Christine Mould nee Collett died at Bristol on 1st May 1999, at the age of 58, her passing recorded at the South Gloucestershire register office (Vol. 3041b).

 

 

 

 

12Q8

Jeffrey Collett was born at Derby on 15th June 1945, his birth recorded at Derby register office (Ref. 7b 81), when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Trowbridge.  As a young man Jeffrey served with the Royal Air Force for several years and was posted to many places around the world, including Africa and Middle East.  Following his military service, he settled in Derbyshire where he still lives to this day, and where he worked as a quantity surveyor prior to retirement.  It was on 3rd October 1970 that Jeffrey married (1) Diana Morris, their marriage recorded at Repton register office (Ref. 3a 120).  Over the following decade, Diana presented Jeffrey with two children who were both born while the family was living at Burton-on-Trent.  Twenty-five years later, Jeffrey and Diana were divorced on 1st May 1995 and, four years later, Jeffrey married (2) Janet Till nee Thomas on 6th March 1999, their wedding recorded at South Derbyshire register office (Vol. 397).

 

 

 

12R4

Iain Collett

Born in 1975 at Burton-on-Trent

 

12R5

Robert Collett

Born in 1979 at Burton-on-Trent

 

 

 

 

12Q9

John R Collett was born in 1950, a few months before his parents were married in Surrey, his birth recorded at the Surrey North-Western register (Ref. 5g 112) during the second quarter of 1950, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed Wilson.  It was around his twenty-fourth birthday that the marriage of John R Collett and Eleanor M Chatterley was recorded at Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 17 5) during the second quarter of 1974.  The births of their three children were all recorded at the Reading & Wokingham register office, with the mother’s maiden name confirmed as Chatterley.  The marriage of the couple’s youngest child was recorded at Winchester (Vol. 502) during the summer of 2002, when eighteen-year-old Jessica Rachel Collett married Robert C Waddington.

 

 

 

12R6

Lisa Jayne Collett

Born in 1978 at Reading & Wokingham

 

12R7

Iain Robert Collett

Born in 1982 at Reading & Wokingham

 

12R8

Jessica Rachel Collett

Born in 1984 at Reading & Wokingham

 

 

 

 

12Q12

Joanne Carol Collett was born at Bicester in 1967, with her birth recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 6b 153) during the first quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Morgan.  The marriage of Joanne Carol Collett and William M Oliver was recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20) during May 1989.  Joanne gave birth to two children, the births of both of them recorded at Oxford register office, when their mother’s maiden name was Collett.  Kate Elizabeth Oliver was born in November 1991, and Samuel William Oliver in June 1995.

 

 

 

 

12R2

Heather Marion O’Shea, who is referred to as Marion, was born at Townsville in Queensland in 1944.

 

 

Grateful thanks go to Marion, as it was she, who kindly provided the details of her family line.

 

 

 

 

12R4

Iain Collett was born at Burton-on-Trent on 10th September 1975, with his birth recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Ref. 30 23), when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Morris.  Iain qualified as a chartered accountant and, on 23rd September 2000, he married Catherine Sarah Bould, their wedding day recorded at the Leicestershire register office (Vol. 605).  Nine years later, the couple was residing in Derbyshire during 2009.  It is interesting to note that prior to their wedding day, Catherine Bould’s brother, Andrew J Bould, married Helen L Collett of Burton-on-Trent, the event also recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Vol. 30) during May in 1993.  It is now known that the birth of Helen Louise Collett at Burton-on-Trent was recorded there (Ref. 9b 2) during the first quarter of 1969, when her mother’s maiden name was recorded as Scotney and her father was John V Collett (Ref. 1R10).  Grateful thanks go to Iain for providing the new details relating to his family line, the majority of which were originally gathered by his father Jeffrey from the parish records at Chadlington.

 

 

 

12S1

DYLAN ALFRED Collett

Born on 25.01.2012

 

 

 

 

12R5

Robert Collett was born at Burton-on-Trent on 13th July 1979, hand as with his brother Iain (above), his birth was also recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Ref. 30 81), his mother’s maiden name confirmed as Morris.  In 2009, bachelor Robert was working as a town planner in Gosport, Hampshire, where he lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX – GLYMPTON

 

 

 

It may be interesting to note that in the Oxfordshire Census of 6th June 1841, there appears to be just one Collett family with a Glympton connection. 

 

That was Rachel Collett (Ref. 39M5) aged 67, the wife of William Collett of Clanfield.  Living there with her, were her three unmarried sons, Thomas Collett (Ref. 39N4) aged 28, George Collett (Ref. 39N7) aged 25, and James Collett (Ref. 39N8) aged 21.

 

 

 

Further information on all of them can be found in

Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line