PART
FORTY-ONE
The
Middlesex Ickenham & Ruislip
(see also The Middlesex Harefield Line
- 1772 to 2011)
Updated August 2023
Prior
to August 2012, this branch of the Collett family was contained within an
appendix to Part 41 – The Middlesex Harefield Line but, since then, for easier
handling of the data, it has been given its own separate identity
It seems very logical that the following families may
well have a direct relationship with the Collett family from Kempsford in
Gloucestershire that settled in the village of Harefield in Middlesex. Not only might there be local links within
the Harefield, Ickenham and Ruislip area, but also through a known connection
earlier between John Collett, an illustrator, and J Goldar (or Golding), an
engraver, the agent for both being a member of the Weatherley family. In addition to which, William Weatherley who
married Mary Ann Collett (Ref. 41o7) spent some of his previous married life at
South Cerney in Gloucestershire, not far from Kempsford. This then is their story
Giles
Collett [41k1], the elder, married Margaret Paine at St Paul’s Church
in Shadwell, within the Tower Hamlets area of London, Middlesex, on 31st
October 1708, with their known son, of the same name, born there during the
following year
41l1 – Giles
Collett was born in 1709 at Shadwell, London
Giles
Collett [41l1], the younger, was born in the Shadwell area of London
during 1709, the confirmed son of Giles Collett and Margaret Paine. Giles later married Rebecca and so far, it is
confirmed that they had two sons Samuel and John, although the latter may have
suffered an infant death, to be replaced by a further son given the same
name. It was after the birth of his last
child that Giles Collett died and was buried on 12th April 1762 at
St Mary’s Church in Bromley St Leonard within the London Borough of Tower
Hamlets in Middlesex. An alternative
record gives the date of his death as 25th August 1760
41m1
– Samuel Collett was
born in 1754 at Battersea, London
41m2
– John Collett was born in 1757 at Bromley, Kent
41m3
– John Collett was born
in 1760 at Bromley, Kent
Samuel
Collett [41m1] was the son of
Giles and Rebecca Collett and was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Battersea,
within the London Borough of Wandsworth in Surrey, on 4th October
1754. Apart from the fact that he was
married to Mary, with whom he at least two children, the only other known fact
about him is that he was 74 years old when he died in 1828 and was buried at St
George’s Church in Ashtead, Surrey on 14th August 1828. Later on in his life their son Thomas gave
his place of birth as Brentford in Middlesex, although he and his younger
brother were baptised at Marylebone in Westminster, London
41n1
– Thomas Collett was
born in 1780 at Brentford, Middlesex
41n2
– Edmund Collett was
born in 1783 at Marylebone, London
John
Collett [41m3] was the third child of Giles and Rebecca Collett, and he
was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Bromley St Leonard within the London
Borough of Tower Hamlets in Middlesex.
It is likely, although not proved, that John married Elizabeth Calton at
Old Church in St Pancras on 22nd February 1789. However, new information received from Max
Hamilton in 2022 includes the baptism record for John Collett, the son of John
and Elizabeth Collett which took place at the Church of St John the Baptist in
Pinner, but on 14th October 1787, fifteen months before their
wedding day. It is also interesting,
that the name of John (the father) had been crossed out and replaced with the
name of William Collett
Around the same time that their son was baptised, so to
was Thomas Collett on 11th July at St John the Baptist in
Pinner, who was the son of William Collett and Elizabeth Collett. So far though, the identity of this family of
three has not been discovered
41n3
– John Collett was born
in 1787 at Pinner, Middlesex
Thomas
Collett [41n1] was born on 7th March 1780, and later gave
his place of birth as Brentford in Middlesex.
However, both he and his younger brother were separately baptised at St
Marylebone Church, Marylebone Road, in Westminster, Thomas on 19th
March 1780, the eldest son of Samuel Collett and his wife Mary. It seems highly likely that Thomas and John
(below) were cousins, making their respective fathers, Samuel and John,
brothers. It is confirmed that Thomas
married Sarah Weedon at Ickenham on 16th August 1824, Sarah being
the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Weedon.
Sarah was ten years younger than Thomas, having been born at Ickenham in
1790, where she was baptised on 20th February 1791. As far as can be determined, only three
children were born into the family at Ickenham, with a seven-year gap between
the first and the second, the couple’s first-born not living with the family in
1841 and a younger sister being given the same name albeit in reverse
It is interesting that on 29th November 1832,
a case of house-breaking nine days earlier, was heard at the Old Bailey against
George Willden of Ickenham, who stole a gold watch valued at £2. As housebreaking was a capital offence, young
George aged 17 was sentenced to death.
However, the prosecutor John Lawrence recommended mercy as it was his
first offence, and that he had revealed where the watch was hidden, and that he
came for a good industrious family. He
further added that the prisoner had submitted a mitigation petition that had
been supported and signed by Thomas Collett (registrar), Elizabeth Weedon, and
magistrates Thomas Truesdale Clarke and Sir William Saltonstall Wiseman. As a result, the sentence was commuted to
life transportation, with George sent to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) on 6th
May 1833
It is possible that Elizabeth Weedon was related to
Thomas’s wife Sarah Weedon in some way.
Coincidentally, the name John Lawrence also crops up as the victim of a
crime committed by the wife of James Collett, the son of registrar Thomas
Collett, the details for which can be found under Ref. 41o2. She was the former Angelina Rayfield whose
father, John Rayfield, had John Lawrence lodging with him before he passed
away. Therefore, it is highly likely
that Angelina knew John Lawrence
On the occasion the Ickenham census was conducted in
1841, Thomas Collett was 60 and his wife Sarah was 50. By that time, the two children living with
them were son James Collett who was eight and daughter Elizabeth Collett who
was five. An unverified source suggests
that Thomas was a farmer. Although no
occupations were included within the brief details of that initial census,
listed with the family at the same address were two fifteen-year-olds and a
five-year-old child. They were Mary
Norman and William Clarke, who may have been domestic servants, while Harriet
Coupe may have been a niece of Thomas Collett or Sarah Weedon
No record of the death of the couple’s first child has
been found, nor any other record of her.
Likewise, their youngest daughter Elizabeth was not living with the
family in 1851, by which time the family home was at Long Lane in Ickenham,
where she would have been 15. On that
day, Thomas Collett from Brentford, Middlesex, was 70 years of age when his
occupation was confirmed as being that of a Registrar of Birth & Deaths. His wife Sarah from Ickenham was 60, and
their son James was 18, and also born at Ickenham, who was working as a
clerk. On that day, the family had just
one domestic servant, and she was Harriet Humphreys aged 18 from Hillingdon
It was nine years after that census day that Thomas
Collett died and was buried at Ickenham on 7th August 1860 at the
age of 81, with his death recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 15). Eight months after being widowed, according
to the next census in 1861, Sarah Collett from Ickenham was 71 and a laundress
who was living at the Ickenham home of her married son James, his wife, and
their young daughter. After a further
six and a half years, the death of Sarah Collett was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref.
3a 13) during the last three months of 1867 who was the laid to rest with her
later husband at Ickenham on 12th October 1867 at the age of 78
It may, or may not, be significant that the death of
another Thomas Collett was recorded at the Parish Church of St Marylebone in
1786 who, upon being buried there on 21st June 1786, was named as
the son of Samuel and Mary Collett
41o1
– Sarah Elizabeth Collett
was born in 1825 at Ickenham, Middlesex
41o2
– James Weedon Catherock Collett
was born in 1832 at Ickenham, Middlesex
41o3
– Elizabeth Sarah Collett
was born in 1837 at Ickenham, Middlesex
Edmund
Collett [41n2] was born in Westminster, London on 2nd July
1783 and was baptised on 7th September 1783 at the Parish Church of
St Marylebone, Marylebone Road, the younger of the two known son of Samuel
Collett and his wife Mary. It was also
at Marylebone that Edmund died in 1800, having just celebrated his seventeenth
birthday, following which he was buried in the grounds of the parish church on
6th July 1800
John
Collett [41n3] was born within the Pinner district of Ruislip in
Middlesex and was baptised at St John the Baptist Church in Pinner on 14th
October 1787. He was the only son of
John Collett and Elizabeth Calton, although the register had been amended to
include the father’s name to be William.
That church service took place just over a year before his parents were
married. Previously written here, and
possibly in error, was the baptism of John Collett at St Marylebone Church in Westminster
on 12th August 1791, also the son of John and Elizabeth Collett. John Collett later married Charlotte Montague
of Ickenham following the reading of banns at St Mary’s Church in Hanwell,
Middlesex on 16th June 1817.
The bride signed the register in her own hand, with John making the mark
of a cross, while the two witnesses were William Griffiths and Maria
Montague. Charlotte was the daughter of
George Montague and Anna Scaffold and was born at Ruislip on 20th
March 1794, where she was baptised on 13th April 1794
All of the children of John and Charlotte Collett were
born and baptised at Ickenham.
Twenty-four years after their wedding day, their eldest daughter
Elizabeth had left home to be married and the couple’s second-born daughter
Mary had died within a year of being born.
After the birth of their last child the family had moved to Sharps Lane
in Ruislip, just south of Ickenham, meaning that they were living closer to
Pinner, where John had been born. For
the first National Census in June 1841, the family as made up of John Collett
who was 50 and a farmer, Charlotte Collett who was 44, and their children who
were George Collett aged 23 and another farmer, Charlotte Collett aged 17, Mary
Collett aged 15, John Collett who was 12, William Collett who was 10, and
Thomas Collett who was eight years old
The family, albeit reduced in size, was still living in
Ruislip in 1851, at a dwelling which was referred to as being in Sharps
Village, which may have been Sharps Lane.
Only the two youngest children were still living there with their
parents by that time. John Collett from
Pinner was 60 and a hay dealer, his wife Charlotte was 57 (instead of 54) and
from Ruislip, while their two sons was recorded as both having been born at Ickenham,
and both were employed as agricultural labourers. They were William Collett who was 19, and
Thomas Collett who was 17
It was seven years later that the death of John Collett
was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 17) during the second quarter of 1858. It may have been that sad event which
resulted in Charlotte having to move out of the family home in Ruislip. It was also at that time when Charlotte had
to seek employment and became a children’s nurse. By 1861 she was the only Collett living in
the Hendon & Harrow registration area, where she was recorded as Charlotte
Collett aged 68 (instead of 64) and from Ruislip, who was employed as a servant
at the home of Charles and Charlotte Hart, where she was very likely the
nursemaid of their young son Arthur
However, it was during the following ten years that she
returned to Ruislip, where she was living in 1871 with her unmarried daughter
Charlotte and her two granddaughters Mary Ann and Emily, the two base-born
children of her other daughter Mary Ann Collett. At that time in her life, Charlotte was a
widow of 78 (instead of 74) from Ruislip who was described as a former nurse,
when she was living next door to the Swan Inn.
The reason Charlotte Collett nee Montague was not recorded in the next
census, conducted on 3rd April 1881, was because she had died just a
few days earlier and was buried at Ruislip on 2nd April 1881. The Ruislip parish record confirmed that she
was 87 years old and was residing at Eastcote Lodge Cottages in nearby Eastcote
The death certificate
for Charlotte Collett, which was produced at the sub-district register office
of Hayes, Uxbridge in Middlesex (Ref. 3a 22) during the second quarter of 1881,
included the following details. She died
on 28th March 1881 at home in the Eastcote area of Ruislip, and was
described as the widow of John Collett a hay binder. The cause of death was dropsy, while the
informant of her passing was Charlollte’s married daughter Mary Ann Weatherley
who was present at the death at Ruislip Park in Ruislip
41o4
– George Collett was
born in 1818 at Ickenham
41o5
– Elizabeth Collett was
born in 1820 at Ickenham
41o6
– Mary Collett was born
in 1822 at Ickenham
41o7
– Charlotte Collett was
born in 1824 at Ickenham
41o8
– Mary Ann Collett was
born in 1826 at Ickenham
41o9
– John Collett was born
in 1829 at Ickenham
41o10
– William Collett was
born in 1831 at Ickenham
41o11
– Thomas Collett was
born in 1833 at Ickenham
Sarah Elizabeth Collett [41o1] was born at
Ickenham on 16th May 1825, where she was baptised five months later
on 9th October 1825, the first child born to Thomas Collett and
Sarah Weedon. It was nine months to the
day after her parents were married there that Sarah was born. Curiously, there was a lapse of seven years
before Sarah’s brother was born.
However, by the time Sarah’ sister was born in 1837 Sarah was no longer
alive, when her sister was named in her honour, but with the two forenames
reversed
James
Weedon Catherock Collett [41o2] was born at Ickenham in 1832, there he was baptised 6th
January 1933, the only known son of Thomas Collett and his wife Sarah
Weedon. He was eight years old in June
1841 when he was living at Ickenham with his parents and his younger sister. Ten years later he was still living at Long
Lane in Ickenham, the home of his parents, by which time he was 18 and was
working as a clerk, possibly with his father who was a registrar of births,
deaths and marriages
During the next decade both of his elderly parents
passed away and James became a married man when he married Angelina Rafield
(Rayfield). The wedding took place on 8th
February 1857 at Old Church in St Pancras where James, a railway porter of
Hawley Crescent in Camden, was recorded under his full name, as he was at the
time of his baptism. Angelina, or
Angela, also of Hawley Crescent, was the daughter of John Rayfield (deceased)
and his wife Christian Nelson Whitehead and was born at Stockbury near Sittingbourne
in Kent. It was around six months later
that same year that their daughter was born and baptised at Ickenham
It was also at Ickenham that the family of three was
living in 1861. The census return that
year confirmed the family as James Collett aged 28 who was a gardener, his wife
Angelina who was 29 and a laundress, and their daughter Elizabeth S Collett who
was three years old. Living with them on
that occasion was James’ widowed mother Sarah Collett, aged 71, who probably
continued to live with the family until she passed away in 1867. After a further ten years, no additional
children had been added to the family, which was still residing in Ickenham in
1871 and which comprised James Collett of Ickenham who was 39, a farmer and a
parish officer, Angelina Collett who was 38 and from Stockbury, a farmer’s
wife, and their daughter Elizabeth Sarah Collett who was 14 years of age and
still at school. Assisting James on the
farm was Gaius Arnott from Little Kimble in Buckinghamshire who was single, 25,
and a farm labourer and servant
An incident in 1874 appears to have caused the break-up
of the family, after which James’ wife never returned to the family home. An announcement placed by James Collett in
the Buckinghamshire Advertiser and the Middlesex Journal on 28th
March that year read as follows. “Notice
to all shopkeepers in Uxbridge and its vicinity: The wife of James Collett of
Ickenham, having absconded from home, the said James Collett will not be
responsible for any debts contracted by her after this date”. According to researcher Susan Toms, one of the
crimes of Angelina Collett, nee Rayfield, was against John Lawrence who was a
lodger at the Ickenham home of Angelina’s father John Rayfield around the time
she married James Collett
Coincidentally, the name John Lawrence cropped up in an
Old Bailey court case in 1832 when, as the prosecutor, he recommended
submission of a petition pleading for mitigation of the sentence of death given
to a young offender for stealing a gold watch.
James’ father Thomas Collett was one of four petitioners
By the time of the census in 1881, it was just father
and daughter who were was still living at Ivy Cottage on Long Lane in
Ickenham. That census day James Collett
aged 48 and from Ickenham, was a collector of rates and taxes, although his
marital status was still that of a married man.
His unmarried daughter Elizabeth, also of Ickenham was 24, and visiting
the family home was William Wilshire, a widower from Denham in Buckinghamshire
who was 80 years old
Sometime after 1881, James and his daughter left
Ickenham, when they moved nearer to the centre of London, to settle in Acton,
and it was there that they remained, James having already retired from his
public duties with the tax office. In
1891 the two of them were residing at Strafford Road in Acton where James
Collett from Ickenham was 58 and a widower, who was working as a gardener, and
Elizabeth Collett was 34. It was exactly
the same situation in 1901, when the census that year again recorded the pair
of them living at Strafford Road in Acton, with widower James Collett still
working as a gardener at the age of 68 and, still performing the role of his
housekeeper, was his daughter Elizabeth who, on that occasion, was recorded as
Bessie Collett aged 42 (sic) who was also making a living as a laundress
James Weedon Cathrock Collett died in the Acton area
just under two years after that census day, with his death simply recorded as
James Collett aged 70 at the Middlesex Brentford register office (Ref. 3a 100)
during the first three months of 1903
41p1
– Elizabeth Sarah Collett
was born in 1857 at Ickenham
Elizabeth Sarah Collett [41o3] was born at
Ickenham in 1837 and was baptised there on 14th May 1837, the last
child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Weedon.
As simply Elizabeth Collett she was given a rounded age of five years in
the Ickenham census of 1841, but was not living with her parents by 1851. A later record of the death of Elizabeth
Sarah Collett aged 40 has been found at Holborn in London (Ref. 1b 492 during
the fourth quarter of 1877
George
Collett [41o4] was born at Ickenham in 1818 and was baptised at St
Margaret’s Church in Uxbridge on 28th June 1818. He was the eldest child of labourer John and
Charlotte Collett, with whom he living at Sharps Lane in Ruislip in 1841. George Collett was 23 years old and a farmer,
as was his father, with whom he was presumably working. No other record of George Collett has been
found after that time
Elizabeth
Collett [41o5] was born at Ickenham during in 1820, where she was
baptised on 25th December 1820, the daughter of John Collett and his
wife Charlotte Montague. During the
first quarter of 1840, she married (1) Joseph Wood of Kensal Green at
Kensington in London, the son of William Wood and his wife Ann Hood from
Gloucestershire. By the time of the June
census in 1841, Elizabeth had given birth to their first child. The young family was living at Willesden
within the Hendon registration district of Middlesex, where Joseph Wood was 20,
as was his wife Elizabeth, together with their daughter Mary Ann Wood
who was eleven months old
Three more children were added to the family during that
decade but sadly, in either late 1850 or during the first couple of months of
1851, Elizabeth Wood was made a widow by the loss of her husband. That fact was confirmed in the census of
1851, when Elizabeth Wood, a widow from Ruislip was 30 and head of the
household at Willesden. Her four
children were listed with her as Mary A Wood aged ten years, William H Wood
who was eight, George Wood who was six, and Sarah Elizabeth Wood
who was two years old. All of the
children were confirmed as having been born at Willesden
It was seven years later, on 31st May 1858,
that Elizabeth Wood married (2) Henry Martyn, a bricklayer, at St James Church
in Paddington, when her father was confirmed as John Collett, with William
Martyn named as the father of the groom.
The married produced at least two sons, one of whom was living with the
couple within the Westminster St John registration district in 1861. The census that year recorded the family as
Henry Martin aged 43, Elizabeth Martin aged 42, and Henry Martin junior
who was not yet one year old. The
couple’s second son was born during the following year. In 1881, the family was residing at 26
Heathfield Road in Clapham, by which time their eldest son had already left
home. Henry Martin was 63 and a
bricklayer from Torrington in Devon, his wife Elizabeth Martin from Ruislip was
60, and their son Walter Martin was 18 and a carpenter who had been born
in Westminster
Mary
Collett [41o6] was born at Ickenham in 1822 and was baptised there on
15th March 1823, the third child of John and Charlotte Collett. Tragically, she died at Ickenham five months
later on 20th August 1823
Charlotte
Collett [41o7] was born at Ickenham in 1824, where she was baptised on
22nd August 1824, the daughter of John and Charlotte Collett. By 1841 Charlotte and her family were living
at Sharps Lane in Ruislip, where she was recorded as being 17 years of age in
the census that year. No record of her
has been found in the census of 1851.
However, according to the Ruislip census of 1861, unmarried Charlotte
Collett, aged 36, was blind and a former domestic servant who was still living
there in Ruislip. Staying with her that
day, was her niece Sarah Collett who was eight years old and born at Ruislip,
the eldest daughter of Charlotte’s brother John Collett (below) and his wife
Mary. While Sarah was confirmed as
attending school, it is likely that she was also tending to the needs of her
blind auntie Charlotte at other times in the day
Lodging with Charlotte and Sarah were two unmarried
brothers, and they were Thomas Mann aged 23 who was a blacksmith, and George
Mann who was 19 and a gardener. By that
time in her life, Charlotte’s father had already died and her mother was living
in the nearby Harrow area but, by the time of the next census in 1871,
Charlotte and her mother Charlotte had been reunited and were living together
in Ruislip Village
The census return that year had head of the household as
the widow Charlotte Collett aged 78, while her unmarried daughter Charlotte,
aged 47 and from Ickenham, was an annuitant who was blind and paralysed. Her disabilities may have been the result of
an accident while working as a domestic servant, rather than being a condition
from birth, otherwise why was she not being cared for by her parents in 1851,
when her two younger brothers William and Thomas were the only siblings still
living at home on that occasion
Also living with the two Charlottes in 1871, were two
grandchildren who, it now transpires, were the two base-born children of
Charlotte’s sister Mary Ann Collett (below).
They were Mary Ann Collett aged 17 and from Ruislip, and Emily Collett
who was 15 and born at Kensal Green.
Within the next six months, Charlotte Collett died at Ruislip at the age
of 47, when her death was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 25) during the third quarter
of 1871. Her mother Charlotte passed
away in 1881
Mary
Ann Collett [41o8] was born at Ickenham during the latter months of 1826
and was baptised at Ickenham on 20th May 1827, the daughter of John
and Charlotte Collett. During the second
half of the 1830s, Mary’s parents took the family to live in Ruislip, where
they were recorded at Sharps Lane in 1841, when Mary has a rounded age of
15. Mary Collett was 24 at the time of
the census in 1851 when she was living and working within the Uxbridge &
Hillingdon registration district, the only Collett recorded there. At that time in her life Mary Ann Collett was
a domestic servant at the home of Charles and Frances MacNamara. Two years later, Mary Ann may have been
employed at the home of widower James Robert Bristow as a children’s nurse,
following the recent death of his wife, and it seems highly likely that James
was the father of Mary Ann’s first illegitimate daughter
In the next census of 1861, Mary Ann Collett aged 31
(sic) and from Ickenham, was a visitor at the Hillingdon home of the East
family headed by Thomas East and his wife Ellen. Living there with her, were her two base-born
children, Mary Ann Collett who was seven, and Emily Collett who was four. Three years later it is established that Mary
Ann Collett became the second wife of William Weatherley, when they were
married at Hillingdon on 10th April 1864. The parish record at the Church of St John
the Baptist in Hillingdon named the couple as William Weatherley and Mary Ann
Collett, while the two witnesses were the aforementioned Thomas East, and
Esther Stone
The marriage record for Mary Ann and William gave the
name of Mary Ann’s father as John, while William was listed as having been born
at Harefield in Middlesex. Only Mary Ann
signed the register in her name, while William made the mark of a cross. There is a chance that William Weatherley was
the son of John Weatherley and Charlotte Woodley, although it should be noted
that a William Weatherley was baptised at Ickenham on 16th October
1831, the son of Edward Fern Weatherley and his wife Mary Ford. In addition to which, in the census of 1861
[see below] William Weatherley said he was born at Ruislip, which is very close
to Ickenham. It should also be noted
that eighteen months after they were married Mary Ann presented William with a
son, George Weatherley, the first of the three children born to the
couple during the 1860s
The second of those three children, John Weatherley,
was born at the family home on Sharps Lane in Ruislip, which was very likely
within the Kings End area of Ruislip, where the family was living when the
subsequent censuses were conducted. It
is also interesting that in the census of 1901, the same John Weatherley and
his family were residing in Home Cottages on Sharps Lane in Ruislip
William and his first wife Eliza Sherman had spent much
of their married life together in the village of South Cerney near Cirencester
in Gloucestershire. The marriage had
produced two children for William and Eliza, but it was shortly after the
census in 1861 that Eliza Weatherley nee Sherman died. The census that year placed Eliza Weatherley
aged 34, with her two children, living at the home of her parents within the
Cirencester registration district, which included South Cerney. The two children were William Weatherley who
was three, and Eliza Weatherley who was one year old. Her absent husband on that occasion was
living at Kings End in Ruislip, where the census return described him as
William Weatherly, aged 32 and from Ruislip, who was a married man, working as
a farm labourer. Living there with him
was another farm labourer Thomas Ball who was 29
Page 16 of that same Ruislip census return in 1861 was
very interesting because of two deleted entries from the household of William
Weatherley and Thomas Ball. The two
names crossed through, with a note alongside saying that they had been
re-entered on Page 19, related to widower James Weatherley aged 74, and his son
Edward Weatherley aged 35, who were both farm labourers, who had been caught
“sleeping in the barn”, presumably attached to the premises occupied by William
Weatherley
When Mary Ann Collett married William Weatherley, she
did not enter the partnership with her two illegitimate children. Instead, they were placed in the care of
their grandmother, the widow Charlotte Collett in Ruislip, which is where they
were recorded in 1871. At that same
time, the new Weatherley/Collett family was also living nearby in Ruislip. By that time, William Weatherley had living
with him his two children from his first marriage, plus his new wife and their
three children. The full household was
listed as William Weatherley aged 43, his wife Mary Ann Weatherly aged 45,
William Weatherley who was 12, Eliza Weatherley who was 11, George Weatherley
who was six, John Weatherley who was three, and Ellen C Weatherly who
was two years old. On the day of the
census, Mary Ann may have already been pregnant with the couple’s fourth child,
who was born later that same year
According to the next census in 1881, the family was
living at Kings End in Ruislip, where William had been living in 1861, and
where the family may have been living in 1871, although no address was given in
the census return that year. In 1881,
Mary Ann’s two stepchildren, William and Eliza, had left the Weatherley home,
so the family comprised just William Weatherley who was 52 and an agricultural
labourer from Harefield, his wife Mary Ann Weatherley who was 53 and from
Ickenham, and their four children, all born at Ruislip. They were George Weatherley aged 16, John
Weatherley aged 14, Eliza (Ellen) Weatherley who was 11, and Alice Weatherley
who was nine years old. The two sons
were also working as agricultural labourers, and very likely with their father
The Weatherley dwelling was next door to Kings End Farm
where William and his two sons may have been working at that time. Also living at Kings End on that same
occasion, was the family of John Weatherley, aged 62 and a former hay binder,
and Mary Ann’s brother John Collett (below) with his family, whose dwelling was
adjacent to Primrose Hill Farm, the farm of Walter Weedon who employed two
labourers and a boy. The Weedon name is
interesting, since Thomas Collett [the registrar] had married Sarah Weedon in
1824
After a further ten years, William and Mary Ann’s two
eldest children had left the family home in Ruislip, so the census of 1891 only
listed the family as William Weatherley aged 62, Mary Ann Weatherley aged 63,
Ellen C Weatherley who was 22, while the couple’s youngest daughter Alice
Weatherley aged 18, was incorrectly named as Alia Weatherley. William Weatherley died at Ruislip during the
1890s and, in the March census of 1901, his widow was still living in Ruislip
where she was recorded as Mary Am Weatherley who was 73 and from Ickenham. Mary Ann Weatherley, aged 84, was still
living alone in Ruislip in April 1911, when again she was confirmed as having
been born at Ickenham
Mary Ann Weatherley nee Collett died at Ruislip ten
years later when she was living at Church Houses in the village. Her death, at the age of 93, was recorded
during the first quarter of 1921. Mary
Ann must have been a good influence on her husband during their thirty odd
years together, because, as stated earlier, he signed their wedding register
with a cross but many years later, when he came to sign the wedding register
for his eldest son from his first marriage, he managed to sign his name in full
The following two children were the offspring of Mary Ann Collett by an
unknown father or fathers:
41p2
– Mary Ann Bristow Collett
was born in 1853 at Ruislip, Middlesex
41p3
– Emily Collett was
born in 1856 at Kensal Green, London
The following children are the result of Mary Ann’s marriage to William
Weatherley:
41p4 – George Weatherley was born in 1864
at Ruislip
41p5 – John Weatherley was born in 1866 at Ruislip
41p6 – Ellen C Weatherley was born in 1869
at Ruislip
41p7 – Alice Maria Weatherley was born in 1871
at Ruislip
John
Collett[ 41o9] was born at Ickenham in early 1829 and it was there also
that he was baptised on 23rd August 1829, the son of John and
Charlotte Collett. He was 12 years by
the time of the census in 1841, and by that time he and his family were living
at Sharps Lane in Ruislip. While two of
his younger siblings were still living at the family home on Sharps Lane in
1851, John was a married man and had already started his own family. It was during the previous year, on 17th
February 1850, that the marriage of John Collett, the son of John Collett, and
Mary Dalton, the daughter of Thomas Dalton, took place at Hammersmith in
Middlesex. According to the Ruislip
census in 1851, John Collett from Ickenham was 21 and a hay dealer, his wife
Mary Collett from Hodsden in Hertfordshire was 22, and their first child George
Collett had been born ten months after the couple’s wedding, near the end
1850. Over the next decade, five more
children were added to their family, although one of them suffered an infant
death so, by 1861, the family recorded at Kings End in Ruislip comprised John
Collett who was 32 and a hay-binder, Mary Collett who was 33, and four of the
five surviving children. They were
George Collett who was 10, William Collett who was six, Susannah Collett who
was two, and Ellen Collett who was under one year old. A later addition to the family was also given
the name Charlotte, but she too, suffered an infant death. Living nearby was John’s older unmarried and
disabled sister Charlotte Collett (above), who had living with her, John and
Mary’s eldest daughter Sarah Collett who was eight years of age
Two more child were added to the family during the
following years, with only one of them listed with the family in 1871. However, by then, the couple’s eldest son
George had left the family home and was living close by. The family residing at Ruislip comprised John
Collett aged 42, Mary Collett aged 44, William Collett who was 16, Susannah
Collett who was 12, Ellen Collett who was ten, and Rosa Collett who was eight
years of age. All of their children had
left home by 1881, so it was just John Collett, aged 52 and from Ickenham, who
was a hay binder, and his wife Mary, aged 51 and from Hoddesden in
Hertfordshire, who were the only members of the family still living at Kings
End in Ruislip. The couple’s youngest surviving
child, Rose Collett aged 18, was a general domestic servant at the Bury Street
home in Ruislip of farmer William Mason and his wife Elizabeth
No record of John has been found after 1881, which may
indicate that he died during the 1880s.
His wife Mary was a widow in Ruislip census of 1891 when, at the age of
63, she was living at Kings End with her married son William with his wife and
their family. It seems likely that Mary
passed away during the following decade, since no trace of her has been found
in the census of 1901
41p8 – George
Hubert Collett was born in 1850 at Ruislip
41p9 – Sarah
Collett was born in 1852 at Ruislip
41p10 – William
Collett was born in 1855 at Ruislip
41p11 – Charlotte
Ann Collett was born in 1857 at Ruislip
41p12 – Susannah
Collett was born in 1859 at Ruislip
41p13 – Ellen
Collett was born in 1861 at Ruislip
41p14 – Rosa
Collett was born in 1863 at Ruislip
41p15 – Charlotte
Collett was born in 1865 at Ruislip
William
Collett [41o10] was born at Ickenham during the first six months of
1831, and was baptised there on 28th August 1831, the son of John
and Charlotte Collett. Before the end of
the decade the Collett family moved the short distance to Ruislip where they
were living in 1841, at Sharps Lane, when William was ten years old. He was one of just two children still living
with his parents at Sharps Lane, Ruislip in 1851, when he was 19 and employed
as an agricultural labourer possibly working alongside his brother Thomas
(below)
It was during 1854 at Tewkesbury, that William Collett
of Ickenham married Hannah Edmonds of Ruislip, who was born there on 6th
April 1829 and baptised there on 5th July 1829, the daughter of
labourer John Edmonds and Elizabeth Biggs who were residing at Eastcote in Ruislip. Hannah entered into the marriage having
already given birth to a son, Stephen John Edmonds, who was born and baptised
at Ruislip towards the end of 1849, father not known. It was on 2nd May 1875 at Uxbridge
that he married Elizabeth Stanborough (born in 1854). Once married, Hannah presented William with
two children during the remainder of that decade and by 1861 the family was
confirmed as still living at Ruislip, where all of their children were
eventually born. In the census of 1861,
William Collett was 29, Hannah Collett was 31, son William Collett was three,
and daughter Mary Ellen Collett was one year old
The census ten years later in 1871, recorded the family
at Bury Street in Ruislip as agricultural labourer William Collett who was 39
and from Ickenham, his wife Hannah Collett of Ruislip who was 41, and their
seven Ruislip born children. They were William
who was 13 and already working with his father as an agricultural labourer,
Mary who was 11, James who was nine, Sarah who was seven, Charlotte who was
five, all of them attending school, Alice who was two, and Louisa who was under
one year old. The cottage in which the family was living was
immediately adjacent to a row of alms houses, one of which, three doors away,
was occupied by Hannah’s Edmond family.
John Edmonds from Pinner was 68 and another agricultural labourer,
Elizabeth Edmonds was 67 and born at Ruislip, as was the couple’s youngest
child Harriet Edmonds, the mother of five-year-old grandson Thomas Edmonds, who
was also born at Ruislip
Just one more child was born into the family at Bury
Street, as confirmed in the 1881 census, when William and his family were still
living in Ruislip at 11 Bury Street.
William from Ickenham was an agricultural labourer at the age of 50, his
wife Hannah of Ruislip was 51, and just four of their Ruislip-born children
were still living there with them. They
were James who was 20, Alice who was 13, Louisa who was 11 and Rose who was
nine. Helping Hannah with the running of
the house was general domestic servant Eliza Allcock from Tring in
Hertfordshire who was 25, who eventually married into the Collett family when
she wed William’s eldest son
Ten years after that, all bar one of their children had
left the Collett’s family home at 11 Bury Street in Ruislip, as recorded in the
census of 1891 when general labourer William Collett was 59, his wife Hannah
was 61, and their son Arthur James Collett was 29, a labourer for a
brick-layer. After a further ten years
it was just William and Hannah living there, although by then the couple’s
eldest son William was living very nearby in Bury Street with his family. By that time in his life William senior was
69, when he was employed as a labourer on a local sewage farm, while his wife
Hannah was 71
Before the end of that decade, the death of Hannah Collett,
nee Edmonds, of Bury Street in Ruislip-Northwood, aged 80, took place on 6th
April 1910, the informant of her passing at Uxbridge register office was her
son James Collett of The Common in Ruislip-Northwood. She had been in a coma for four days, after
suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, and was buried at Ruislip on 12th
April 1910, two months before her youngest son was buried there. Her road labourer husband survived her by
over three years and, in April 1911, widower William Collett of Ickenham, a
farm labourer and a hedger and ditcher was still living at Bury Street in
Ruislip at the age of 79, where he died on 4th November 1913. He was 82 years of age and had suffered with
bronchitis for fourteen days, coupled with cardiac failure. The informant of his death at Uxbridge
register office (Ref. 3a 40) was his daughter Charlotte E Watts of Reservoir
Lane, The Common in Ruislip-Northwood.
Six days later he was buried at Ruislip on 10th November 1913
41p16
– William George Collett
was born in 1857 at Ruislip
41p17
– Mary Ellen Collett
was born in 1859 at Ruislip
41p18
– Arthur James Collett
was born in 1861 at Ruislip
41p19
– Sarah Collett was
born in 1863 at Ruislip
41p20
– Charlotte Elizabeth Collett
was born in 1865 at Ruislip
41p21
– Harriet Alice Collett
was born in 1867 at Ruislip
41p22
– Louisa Emma Collett
was born in 1870 at Ruislip
41p23
– Rosa Ann Collett was
born in 1872 at Ruislip
Thomas
Collett [41o11] was born at Ickenham in 1833, the youngest child of John
Collett and his wife Charlotte Montague, as confirmed by his baptism record at
Ickenham on 10th November 1833.
Not long after he was born his parents took the family to live in nearby
Ruislip and Sharps Lane, which is where they were living in 1841 when Thomas
was eight years old, and again in 1851 when he was 17. On that occasion the family, comprising his
parents and his brother William (above), were again residing at Sharps Lane in
Ruislip from where Thomas was working as an agricultural labourer with his
brother
Thomas was a man of mystery after that, since no record
of him has been found in any of the census returns from 1861 through to 1901,
which has raised the question, was he abroad either through choice or because
of transportation to one of the colonies following a misdemeanour. Whatever the reason he was back living in
Ruislip in April 1911. It would appear
from the census that year that he returned to the village where he was
described as Thomas Collett aged 70 and from Ruislip, who was living with his nephew
William Collett (Ref. 41p10) and his wife Harriet Blackford. He was the third child of Thomas’ brother
John Collett (above), and it may have been William Collett who completed the
census return on behalf of Thomas, for which he was unaware he had been born at
Ickenham and that he was actually nearer 77 years of age
Elizabeth
Sarah Collett [41p1] was born at Ickenham in 1857, only six months after her
parents were married, her birth registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 21) during the
third quarter of the year. It was also
at Ickenham that she was baptised on 23rd August 1857, the daughter
of James and Angelina Collett, although the IGI recorded her mother’s name in
error as Selina. It was as Elizabeth S
Collett aged three years that she was noted in the census of 1861 when she was
living in Long Lane in Ickenham with her parents, and later as Elizabeth Sarah
Collett aged 14 in 1871. Not long after
that, her mother passed away, leaving Elizabeth to look after her father, and
that may have been the reason why she never married. In 1881, she and her father were still living
at Ivy Cottage, Long Lane in Ickenham, where unmarried Elizabeth Collett aged
24 and from Ickenham was working as a municipal laundress, perhaps even at the
local council offices where her father was employed in the rates and taxes
department
Between 1881 and 1891, Elizabeth and her father left
Ickenham when they moved east to Acton, where they were living in 1891 and
1901. In the Acton census of 1891,
Elizabeth Collett was 33, and in 1901 she was recorded as Bessie Collett from
Ickenham aged 42 who was still working as a laundress, when living with her
father James as Strafford Road in Acton.
Less than two years later, her father died at the end of 1902 or early in
1903. So, within the next Acton census
for 1911, unmarried Elizabeth Collett from Ickenham was still living there at
the age of 50 when she was boarding at the home of picture frame maker Ernest
Hart and his young family. Once again her occupation was that of a laundress
Mary
Ann Bristow Collett [41p2] was born at Ruislip in December 1853, her birth as
simply Mary Ann Collett was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 30) during the last
three months of the year. She was
baptised at Islington on 29th October 1854, the base-born daughter
of Mary Ann Collett. However, the
baptism record stated that her father was James Robert Collett who was a
cooper. In fact, her mother Mary Ann
Collett was a children’s nurse for widower James Robert Bristow whose
occupation was that of a cooper.
Therefore, it is believed that those two gentlemen were indeed the same
man. In 1861 Mary Ann, together with her
mother and her sister Emily (below), were visiting the East family at their
home in Hillingdon when, as Mary Ann Collett, she was seven years old. Three years later her mother was married to
William Weatherley, at which time Mary Ann and her sister Emily were given into
the care of their grandmother Charlotte Collett in Ruislip. And it was there, immediately next door to
The Swan Inn at Ruislip Village, that Mary Ann Collett of Ruislip was living in
1871 when she was 17 years old and working as a general servant
It was nearly five years later that Mary Ann Collett
married Frank Lacey at Ruislip on 15th December 1875. Frank was ten years older than Mary having
been born at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire in 1843. On their marriage register there was no
reference to Mary Ann’s father, while the two witnesses were James Bryant, the
likely Best-Man, and Patience Collett, who was the wife of Mary’s cousin George
Hubert Collett (below). According to the
next census in 1881, Frank Lacey was 30 (sic) and a journeyman bricklayer. Mary A B Lacey from Ruislip was 26 and by
then she had presented Frank with three children: Frank B Lacey who was
four; Mabel M Lacey who was two; and Albert G Lacey who had only
just been born at their home on Eastcote Road in Ruislip. Fifteen years later, Mary Ann very likely
gave birth to the couple’s last child, when Alice Grace Lacey was born
in 1896 at Eastcote within the parish of Ruislip who, at the time of the census
in 1911, was recorded as Grace Lacey aged 14 who was living with Mary Ann’s
married sister Emily Warner nee Collett (below)
Emily
Collett [41p3] was born at Kensal Green in 1856, the second base-born
daughter of Mary Ann Collett of Ruislip.
However, her birth was recorded at Hendon (Ref. 3a 83) during the third
quarter of that year. She was four years
old at the time of the census in 1861, when she and her mother and her older
sister Mary Ann (above) were visitors at the Hillingdon home of Thomas East and
his wife and family. In 1864 Emily’s
mother married William Weatherley and it was either then or before that, when
Emily and her sister Mary Ann were taken in by their grandmother Charlotte
Collett in Ruislip. That move was
confirmed by the census in 1871 when Emily Collett from Kensal Green was 15 and
working as a general servant like her sister
Ten years later, according to the census in 1881,
unmarried Emily Collett aged 26 and from Paddington, was a housemaid, one of
many servants at the home of Sir Edward William Berkeley Portman at Knighton
House in Blandford, Dorset. Edward was ultimately a descendant of the Tudor
landowner Sir William Portman. He was the son of William Henry Berkeley Portman, the Second
Viscount Portman
and Mary Selina Charlotte Fitzwilliam.
Eleven years later he married the Honourable Constance
Mary Lawley
in 1892 and he died in 1911. He was
educated Christ Church College in Oxford, was a Major with the Dorset Yeomanry,
held the office of the High Sheriff of Somerset, and was Justice of the Peace
It was during the final quarter of 1882 that Emily
Collett married the much older Benjamin Michael Warner, the event recorded at
the Dorset Shaftesbury register office (Ref. 5a 491), when Emily gave her
father’s name as William – a servant, which may have been a reference to her
stepfather William Weatherley. It was at
Seabera House in Chine Crescent, West Bournemouth that the couple was living in
1911. Emily Warner was described as
being 55 years of age and from Kensal Green, who had been married to Benjamin
aged 63 for 27 years. Staying with them
in 1911 was Grace Lacey who was 14 and the youngest daughter of Emily’s sister
Mary Ann Bristow Lacey nee Collett (above)
George
Weatherley [41p4] was originally thought to have been born at Ruislip on
30th October 1865, the first children born to William Weatherley by
his second wife Mary Ann Collett.
However, it may have been one year earlier that he had been born,
because the baptism of George Weatherley, the son of William and Mary Ann
Weatherley, is now known to have taken place at Ruislip on 7th May
1865. It was also written here. in the
earlier version of this file. that George Weatherley had been baptised at St
Andrews Church in Enfield on 7th October 1866, the son of William
and Mary Weatherley, which now appears to be incorrect having received the new
baptism details from Gemma Dales in January 2014
By 1871, and at the age of six years, George was living
with his family in Ruislip and was still there ten years later when he was 16
and he and his family were recorded in the Kings End area of the village. On that occasion George was already working
as an agricultural labourer with his father and younger brother John (below). George was still unmarried in 1891 when he
was 26 and living and working in the Uxbridge area
Possibly around six years later he married Ellen Buckingham from
Devon and they had a son George Henry Weatherley who was born at Uxbridge in
1898. The census in 1901 placed the
family still living in Uxbridge, where George Weatherley aged 37 and from
Ruislip, was a sub-contractor at the Edith Works, his wife Ellen from Devon was
43, and their son George was two years old.
Ten years after that the family was still living in Uxbridge when George
was 46, Ellen was 54, and George Henry was 12.
It seems highly likely that Ellen Buckingham may well have been related
in some way to Edwin Ernest Buckingham who married George’s sister Alice Maria
Weatherley (below) at Ruislip in 1899
John
Weatherley [41p5] was born at Sharps Lane in Ruislip on 21st
June 1866, his birth being registered at Ruislip on 30th June 1866
by his mother Mary Ann Weatherley formerly Collett. In the Ruislip census of 1871, he was three
years old, and by 1881 he and his family were living at Kings End in Ruislip,
by which time he was 14 and already working as an agricultural labourer with
his older brother George (above) and their father
By the time of the next census in 1891 John Weatherley
from Ruislip was 24 when he was listed as being at an institution in Gillingham
in Kent. In fact, he was a soldier
billeted at Brompton Barracks, where he was a sapper with the Royal
Engineers. It therefore seems highly
likely that he was undergoing his military training in Kent at that time. Also, his absence from the 1901 Census in England
was the result of him being involved in the Boer War in South Africa
The correct John Weatherley from Ruislip, of this family
line, met Grace from Whitstable in Kent when he was based in that county in the
early years of the 1890s. They were
married around the 1895 and had three children before the end of the century,
the first two children being born at Whitstable, according to the census in
1901, although that was not their place of birth by 1911. When he knew he was to be sent to fight the Zulus
in South Africa, he moved his young family from Whitstable to be near to his
own family in Ruislip. For the time he
spent in South Africa, Sapper J Weatherley 25316 of the 26th Field
Company of the Royal Engineers received the South Africa Medal and clasps for
his involvement at Johannesburg, Cape Colony, and Orange Free State
The young Weatherley family was living at Home Cottages
in Sharps Lane in Ruislip by March 1901 when, in the absence of her husband
John, Grace Weatherley aged 26 and from Whitstable in Kent, had no stated
occupation, but had with her the couple’s three children. They were Mabel A Weatherley, who was five,
Victor A Weatherley (Victor Adolphus),
who was three, and Alice M Weatherley (Alice
Mona) who was one year old and born at Ruislip, whereas her two older
sister’s place of birth was Whitstable.
On that occasion the Weatherley family was living right next door to the
Collett family of William Collett and his wife Harriet Blackford (below)
On his later return from South Africa, and on being
discharged from the Royal Engineers on 11th July 1902, John
Weatherley continued with his former occupation, being that of a bricklayer,
and over the following years he bought and repaired houses, and then let them
out for rent. It was at The Old Police
Station near St Martin’s Church in Ruislip that he and his enlarged family were
living in April 1911, although the children’s names and age were very mixed
up. John Weatherley from Ruislip was 46
and a bricklayer and an employer, Grace Weatherley from Whitstable was 36,
while only seven of their known eight children were living there with
them. And they were Mabel, who was 16;
Mona (Alice Mona), who was 14; Grace,
who was 11; Victor (Victor Adolphus),
who was eight; Percy, who was five; Jackie, who was two; and baby Ruth who was
under one year old
Sometime
after 1911 John and Grace moved away from London and to return to Grace’s home
county of Kent, and it was there at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey, that
John Weatherley died during 1947, when his age was recorded as 83 which, if
correct, means he may have been born around 1864. His son Victor
Weatherley died on the Isle of Sheppey in 1950.
This is the family line of the great granddaughter of Mary Ann
Collett and her Weatherley family, to whom we are grateful for all of the
Weatherley details that she has so generously provided
Ellen
C Weatherley [41p6] was born at Ruislip in 1869, the eldest daughter of
William and Mary Ann Weatherley. She was
described as Ellen C Weatherly, aged two years, in the Ruislip census of 1871,
the initial C perhaps being for Charlotte, the name of her Collett
grandmother. Ten years later it was as
Eliza C Weatherley aged 11, that she was still living at Kings End in Ruislip
with her family
Alice
Maria Weatherley [41p7] was born at Ruislip towards the end of 1871 and
certainly after the census that year.
She was the youngest of the four children of William Weatherley and his
second wife Mary Ann Collett and was nine years old at the time of the Ruislip
census in 1881 when she was living with her family at Kings End. It was as Alia Weatherley of Ruislip that she
was still living with her parents and sister Ellen at Ruislip in 1891, when
Alice was 18
It was eight years later, as Alice Weatherley aged 26
and the daughter of William Weatherley, that she married Edwin Ernest
Buckingham, aged 30 and the son of Henry Buckingham, at Ruislip on 30th
April 1899. Three years earlier Alice’s
brother George Weatherley had married Ellen Buckingham who may have been
Edwin’s sister
George
Hubert Collett [41p8] was born at Ruislip on 18th December 1850,
the first-born child of John Collett and Mary Dalton, whose birth was
registered at Uxbridge (Ref. iii 439) during the last three months of that
year. It was also at Ruislip that he was
baptised on 5th January 1851, when he was confirmed as the son of
hay dealer John Collett and his wife Mary.
He was three months old in 1851, and was 10 years of age in the Ruislip
census of 1861, when George H Collett was living within the Kings End area of
Ruislip with his family. George was 20
in the census of 1871, by which time he was still living and working in
Ruislip, and not far from his parents and the rest of his family. He married Patience during the following
year, and by 1881 the marriage had produced three children for the pair of
them. At the time of the birth of their
first child, George and Patience were living at Iver in Buckinghamshire, but
returned to Ruislip shortly after, where the next two children were born
However, by 1881 the family was settled in
Kingston-upon-Thames and were recorded at 3 Avenue Terrace in the town. George was 30 and hay-binder like his father
John, and his place of birth was confirmed as Ruislip. His wife Patience was 31 and from Oxford, and
their three children were George Collett from Ivor who was seven, William
Collett from Ruislip who was five, and Albert Collett also from Ruislip who was
two years old. There was one other
person staying with the family at that time, and he was Arthur Lavender, a
lodger aged 22 from Ruislip
Two or three years later the family left Kingston and
moved to nearby New Malden, where their daughter was born. Life then became a little complicated, with
names and ages randomly recorded as far as the census returns were concerned,
because in 1891, the family at New Malden was curiously recorded as George
Collett aged 40, Patience Collett aged 42, Herbert Collett aged 14, Henry
Collett aged 11, and latest addition to the family being May Collett who was
six years of age
Only the couple’s youngest child, their only daughter,
was still living with George and Patience by March 1901. The New Malden census that month listed the
three of them as George H Collett, who was 50 and a hay-binder from Ruislip,
Patience M Collett, aged 52 from Headington in Oxford, and their daughter Ellen
M Collett who was 16 and a dressmaker who had been born at New Malden in Surrey
Daughter Ellen May left the family home in New Malden to
be married in 1906, with her place in the home filled by the return of her
older brother Albert Henry, who may have been a soldier involved in the Boer
War ten years earlier. The census that
year recorded George Hubert Collett from Ruislip as 60 and a hay dealer, his
wife Patience Mary Collett was 62 and from Barton in Oxfordshire, and their son
Albert Henry Collett was 31 and a hay dealer who had recently been
widowed. Completing the household was 38-year-old
Albert Brooks from Hove in Sussex, who was employed by George Hubert as his
assistant and a hay tier
From Surrey, George eventually moved to Rochford in
Essex, where he was living at the start of the Second World War. By that time, he was a widower at the age of
ninety, when his date of birth was confirmed as 18th December 1849
in the 1939 Register. He was further
described as an incapacitated hay cutter who was residing at the Public
Assistance Institution on Union Lane in Rochford, just north of
Southend-on-Sea. Nine months later, and
as a result of the German bombing, George Hubert Collett was evacuated from
Rochford House, when he was taken to Gressenhall in East Dereham, Norfolk, on
12th June 1940. That move had
taken place following George’s refusal to accept the offer made by his daughter
May, presumably to go and live with her and her husband. He was still at Gressenhall when he died on
11th May 1942 within the Norfolk borough of Breckland. His body was then taken to
Kingston-upon-Thames, where he was laid to rest in the Kingston Cemetery and
Crematorium. The burial record stated
that former wife was Patience Mary Collett, and father of Albert Henry Collett
41q1 – George
Herbert Collett was born in 1873 at Iver, Buckinghamshire
41q2 – William
Walter Collett was born in 1875 at Ruislip
41q3 – Albert
Henry Collett was born in 1879 at Ruislip
41q4 – Ellen May
Collett was born in 1884 at New Malden, Surrey
Sarah
Collett [41p9] was born at Ruislip either near the end of 1852 or
during the first six weeks of 1853, with her birth registered at Uxbridge (Ref.
3a 25) in 1853. Shortly thereafter, she
was baptised at Ruislip on 6th February 1853, the eldest daughter of
John and Mary Collett. As the eldest
daughter in the family, when she was eight years of age, Sarah was living in
Ruislip not far from her parents, but at the home of her blind and disabled
aunt Charlotte Collett, her father’s older sister. Fifteen years later Sarah Collett aged 23 and
of Ruislip was married by banns to George Brill, also of Ruislip, who was 34, a
labourer, and the son of William Brill.
Their wedding was conducted at the parish church in Ruislip on 22nd
April 1876, where they both signed the register
According to the census in 1881, the family was residing
at Bury Street in Ruislip, where George Brill was 38 and an agricultural
labourer, and Sarah Brill was 28. Their
three children by then were Elizabeth Brill who was four, George
Brill who was two, and Edith Brill who was a recent addition to the
family. All five members of the
household had been born at Ruislip. Nine
years later, their son William
Brill was baptised at
Ruislip on 7th September 1890, and was confirmed as the son of
George and Sarah Brill of Bury Street in Ruislip. The
slightly enlarged family was still living at Bury Street in 1891, but without
the couple’s eldest daughter Elizabeth who would have been fourteen years of
age. That day, the family was listed as
George Brill a 48-year-old woodman Sarah who was 38, George junior who was 12,
Edith who was 10, Sarah Brill who was two, and William Brill who was
under one year old
One more child was added to the family which, by 1901,
was residing at Withey Lane on Ruislip Common, from where George was a wood
bailiff aged 58, 48-year-old Sarah was a dressmaker, when the four children
still living with the couple were George Brill aged 22 and a foreman at the
sewage farm, Sarah Brill was 12, William Brill was 10, and Louisa Brill
was eight years old. At the start of the
next decade the family group was made up of the two parents, two unmarried
sons, and a granddaughter. George was 68
and an estate woodman warder, Sarah was 58, George junior was 32 and a general
labourer, William was 20 and working at a nearby motor works, and the
granddaughter was six-year-old Violet Mary Brill who had been born at Brighton. She must therefore have been the base-born
daughter of one of George and Sarah’s surviving daughters
William
Collett [41p10] was born at Ruislip possibly towards the end of 1854 or
just after the start of 1855, with his birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 29)
during the first three months of the latter.
He was the second son and third child of John and Mary Collett, was
baptised at Ruislip on 4th March 1855, and was six years old in
1861, when he and his family were living at Kings End in Ruislip. He was 16 years of age in 1871 when, on both
occasions, he was living with his family in Ruislip. Just over four years later, William Collett
was married by banns to Harriet Blackford, from Brightwalton in Berkshire, at
the parish church in Ruislip on 6th June 1875. The record of their marriage stated that
Harriet was 23 and that William was 22, who was really only twenty years of
age. On most occasions after that he
inflated his age, presumably out of embarrassment at being three years younger
than Harriet
Other details on their marriage register, were that they
were both residing in Ruislip, William being a labourer and the son of labourer
John Collett, while Harriet was the daughter of David Blackford, a labourer,
and signed the register in her own hand, with William making the mark of a
cross. The two witnesses were Isaac King
and Margaret Blackford. In the first
census after they were married, William Collett, an agricultural labourer from
Ruislip said he was 30 instead of 27, compared to his wife Harriet who was
31. At that time, they were living in
Ruislip Village with their first two children.
They were Ellen Collett who was four, and John Collett who was two years
old. Living with the family was
William’s cousin, William Collett aged 22 and from Ruislip, who was also an
agricultural labourer. He was William
George Collett (below)
Four other agricultural labourers were listed at the
dwelling on that occasion and three of them were described as the
brother-in-law to head of the household William Collett. They were also born at Brightwalton and they
were Simeon Blackford aged 22, Isaac Blackford aged 20, and Richard Blackford
aged 18. The fourth member of the team
was John Bowden who was 24 and from nearby Hillingdon
Over the next decade, two more children were added to
the family and, following the death of his father at Ruislip during the 1880s,
William’s mother was living with him and his family at Ruislip in 1891. The census that year recorded the family as
William aged 38, Harriet aged 40, John who was 12, Richard who nine, and Emily
who was two years of age. Missing daughter Ellen, who was 14, had already left
school and home by then, and was working nearby at 5 Field End Villas in
Ruislip, the home of her uncle James Blackford, the brother of Ellen’s
mother. Also by then, the couple’s
missing son George, had sadly already died at Ruislip early in 1888, aged three
years. It is important to note here,
that eight-month-old Roland Albert Collett (Ref. 2Q110), whose birth was
recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 42) during the third quarter of
1890, was not the youngest child of William and Harriet. He was the son of fireman Frank Charles
Collett from Gloucestershire and his wife Florence Ada from Warwickshire, who
were residing at Grove Terrace in Norwood, with their son in 1891. See Part Two – The Second Gloucestershire
Line
By the time of the next census in 1901, only the two
youngest surviving children were still living at 2 Home Cottages in Sharps
Lane, Ruislip with William and Harriet.
On that occasion the family’s surname was misspelt with just one t, so
William Collet aged 45 and from Ruislip was a farmer labourer, and had working
with him his son Richard Collet who was 20.
Harriet Collet was 48, and their daughter Emily Collet was 12. Living with the family was unmarried Thomas
Brill aged 58 and a woodcutter of Ruislip.
Living in the dwelling next door was the family of John Weatherley
(above), although John himself was away fighting in the Boer War in South
Africa at that time. John was the son of
William Weatherley and his wife Mary Ann Collett, the sister of William’s
father John Collett
Curiously, ten years later, in April 1911, the two
youngest children had left home in Ruislip by then, but had been replaced by
their older brother John, who had possibly returned to his family having been
serving abroad with the army in 1901.
Even more curious was the arrival of William’s uncle, his father’s
brother Thomas Collett who had not been listed in any previous census after
1851. So, the complete household at
Ruislip comprised William Collett aged 57 from Ruislip who was a general
labourer, his wife Harriet who was 59 and from Brightwalton, their son John
Collett from Ruislip who was 31 and a general labourer, and uncle Thomas
Collett who was a boarder and another general labourer, who was incorrectly
described as being 70 years of age and from Ruislip, instead of being 77 and
from Ickenham
The recent release of the 1921 Census for England and
Wales revealed the following details of the family. The two members of the family still living at
Sharps Lane in Ruislip were head of the household William Collett who was 67,
born at Ruislip, and working as a river-man with Middlesex County Council, and
his daughter Emily Catherine Collett who was 32 years and 4 months and also
born at Ruislip, who was carrying at home duties for her father. A third person was boarder Albert Edward
Shelley from London who was a storeman with the Royal Air Force Stores Depot,
who married Emily just days later
41q5
– Ellen Collett was
born in 1877 at Ruislip
41q6
– John Collett was born
in 1879 at Ruislip
41q7
– Richard Collett was
born in 1882 at Ruislip
41q8
– George Collett was
born in 1884 at Ruislip
41q9
– Emily Catherine Collett
was born in 1888 at Ruislip
Charlotte
Ann Collett [41p11] was born at Ruislip in 1857, with her birth registered
at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 27) during the second quarter of the year. She was then baptised at Ruislip on 3rd
May 1857, another child of labourer John Collett and his wife Mary. It was around nine months later that the
death of Charlotte Ann Collett was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 24) during the
first three months of 1858
Susannah Collett [41p12] was born at Kings
End in Ruislip, either at the end of 1858 or early in 1859, when her birth was
recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 27) during the first quarter of 1859. She was another child of labourer John
Collett and his wife Mary, who was also at the parish church in Ruislip that
she was baptised on 6th February 1859. It was also in the Kings End area of Ruislip
that two-year-old Susannah was living with her family in 1861
Ellen
Collett [41p13] was born at Kings End in Ruislip early in 1861, with her
birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 34) during the first three months of the
year. She was baptised there on 7th
April 1861, the daughter of hay-binder John Collett and his wife Mary. She was one year old at the time of the
Ruislip census of 1861 and was 10 years old by 1871. After a further nine years, the marriage of
Ellen Collett from Ruislip and George Tobutt, also from Ruislip, was recorded
at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 55) during the last three months of 1880. Just a few months later, the childless couple
was living on Bury Street in Ruislip, where George was 23 and an agricultural
labourer, and his wife Ellen was 20.
During their first ten years together, Ellen presented George with five
children, the first off them born at Ruislip, the remainder after the family
settled in Denham, Buckinghamshire, with the family residing at New Denham in
1891. There is an additional interest in
their relationship, because Tobutt was one of the married surname options for
Ellen’s cousin Charlotte Collett (below)
George Tobutt was born at Ruislip in 1856 and was the
son of Daniel and Jane Tobutt, his birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 31)
during the first three months of the year.
The New Denham census of 1891 listed the family as George Tobutt aged 35
and a general labourer, Ellen Tobutt aged 30, Rosa Tobutt who was nine, Edith
May Tobutt who was six, Leonard Tobutt who was four, George
Tobutt who was one, and son Jesse Tobutt who was under one year
old. Edith May Tobutt from New Denham
was born on March 10th 1885 and baptised at Ruislip on 5th
July 1885, the same that George Collett of Bury Street, Ruislip was baptised,
the son of William George (and Eliza Collett), Ellen’s cousin (below). Three more children were added to the family
during the following six years, and again all of them were born at Denham,
where the family was still living in 1901.
George Tobutt was a general labourer aged 45, Ellen was 40, and their
eldest daughter Rosa had already left the overcrowded family home by then. The remaining children were Edith who was 16,
Leonard who was 14, George who was 12, Jesse who was 10, Arthur Tobutt
who was eight, Harry Tobutt who was six, and Emily Tobutt who was
three years old
George Tobutt was born at Ruislip in 1856 and was the
son of Daniel and Jane Tobutt, his birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 31)
during the first three months of the year.
The New Denham census of 1891 listed the family as George Tobutt aged 35
and a general labourer, Ellen Tobutt aged 30, Rosa Tobutt who was nine, Edith
May Tobutt who was six, Leonard Tobutt who was four, George
Tobutt who was one, and son Jesse Tobutt who was under one year
old. Edith May Tobutt from New Denham
was born on March 10th 1885 and baptised at Ruislip on 5th
July 1885, the same that George Collett of Bury Street, Ruislip was baptised,
the son of William George (and Eliza Collett), Ellen’s cousin (below). Three more children were added to the family
during the following six years, and again all of them were born at Denham,
where the family was still living in 1901.
George Tobutt was a general labourer aged 45, Ellen was 40, and their
eldest daughter Rosa had already left the overcrowded family home by then. The remaining children were Edith who was 16,
Leonard who was 14, George who was 12, Jesse who was 10, Arthur Tobutt
who was eight, Harry Tobutt who was six, and Emily Tobutt who was
three years old
After a further ten years it was just the four youngest
children who were living at New Denham with their parents. George Tobutt was 55 and a general labourer
at a timber-yard, who had been born at Ruislip.
He was a married man of thirty years, during which time he and his
absent wife had given birth to six children, with only four of them still
living at the family home. Where his
wife was that day has not yet been discovered, however, their four children
were Jessie Tobutt who was 20 and a general labourer at a private house, Arthur
Tobutt who was 18 and also a general labourer at a timber-yard, Harry Tobutt
who was 16 and a general labourer with a barge builder, and Emily Tobutt who
was 13. Ellen Tobutt, nee Collett, was
still living in Buckinghamshire when she died, her death recorded at
Buckinghamshire register office (Ref. 3a 1856) in 1941, when she was said to be
78. She may have spent the last
twenty-five years of her life as a widow, following the death of George Tobutt,
born in 1856, which was recorded at St George’s Hanover Square in London (Ref.
1a 630) during the first quarter of 1916
Rosa Collett [41p14] was born at Ruislip in 1863, the
seventh child of John Collett and Mary Dalton, the latter’s maiden-name used as
a forename for one of her own children later on. Like all of her siblings, her birth was also
registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 35) during the first three months of that
year. Rosa was eight years of age in the
Ruislip census of 1871, when she was living there with her family. On leaving school, as with many young ladies,
Rosa entered into domestic service and in 1881, Rosa Collett from Ruislip, aged
18, was employed by farmer William Mason and his wife Elizabeth, as a general
domestic servant at their home on Bury Street in Ruislip. She was 22 years old, when the marriage of
Rosa Collett and Richard Martin, son of Richard and Anne, was recorded at
Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 53) during the second quarter of 1885. Six years after their wedding day, the couple
and their two children were residing at Little Kings End in Ruislip, where
Richard Martin was 29 and an agricultural labourer, Rosa Martin was 28, Alice
F Martin was three and had been born at nearby Harefield, and Sydney
Dalton Martin was one year old and born at Ruislip like his mother
Richard’s work caused the family to move a few times
after 1891, with two further children born in Buckinghamshire and
Leicestershire. Possibly during, or
after, the birth of another child in Leicestershire, the premature death of
Rosa Martin, nee Collett, aged 35, was recorded at Leicester register office
(Ref. 7a 172) during the third quarter of 1898.
As a result of the loss of his wife, Richard Martin, a widowed aged 39
and born at Harefield, had returned to live with his elderly parents in Ruislip
by 1901. At that time in his life, he
was working as a groundsman on a golf course, and with him were his two sons
and a younger daughter. Ruislip-born son
Sydney D Martin was 11 years of age, Ernest Martin from Chalfont St
Giles in Buckinghamshire was six, and Annie Martin from Glen Parva in
Leicestershire was four years of age
After completing her education, Richard’s eldest
daughter took up work as a general domestic servant at the Rickmansworth Road,
Ruislip home of elderly couple Thomas and Ann Wilson, both born at Hillmorten
in Middlesex, Thomas being a retired railway contractor. Alice F Martin from Ruislip (sic) was 13
years old and one of three servants employed by Thomas and Ann Wilson, who also
had their middle-aged unmarried daughter Elizabeth A Wilson living with them. Alice F Martin never married, with her death
recorded at Middlesex register office (Ref. 5f 312) in 1961 at the age of 72
Charlotte Collett [41p15] was born at
Ruislip in 1865 and was the last child of John Collett and Mary Dalton, who was
named after her deceased sister Charlotte Ann Collett. Her birth, and a few months later her death,
were both recorded at Uxbridge, the first event during the second quarter of
1865 (Ref. 3a 39), with the second tragic event during the last three months of
the same year (Ref. 3a 26)
William
George Collett [41p16] was born at Ruislip in 1857, where he was baptised on 4th
October that year, the eldest son of William and Hannah Collett. His birth was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a
27) during the third quarter of 1857 simply as a male Collett. It would appear that he lived all his life at
Ruislip, where he was living with his family in 1861 when he was three years
old, and again in 1871 when he was 13.
By the time of the next census in 1881, William Collett was an
agricultural labourer aged 22, when he was living at the Ruislip home of his
older married cousin William Collett (above), with whom he was presumably also
working at that time
It is very interesting that living nearby at Bury Street
in Ruislip was William’s own family, where they employed a domestic servant by
the name of Eliza Allcock, who was from Tring in Hertfordshire. Eliza was 25 and, despite being slightly
older than William, they were eventually married within three weeks of that
census day. That was obviously the
reason why William was not living under the same roof as his future bride
However, no census return for any member of the family
has been located in the census of 1891 when William would have been 33, Eliza
would have been 35, and by which time it is established that they had given
birth four children; Catherine Collett who would have been seven, George
Collett who would have been five, Rose Collett who would have been three, and
Annie who would have been one year old.
Two of those children, Catherine and Annie may not have survived. However, two years later, on the day their son
Thomas Collett was baptised at the parish church in Ruislip during the summer
of 1893, labourer William Collett and his wife Eliza were living at Ireland
Cottages in the Kings End area of Ruislip.
That was also
confirmed in the Ruislip & Hayes Electoral Roll for 1891, on the same page
as William Collett (Ref. 41o10) at Bury Street – the father of William George,
and William Collett (Ref. 41p10 at 2 Home Cottages, who was the cousin of
William George Collett
By March 1901, the family had increased in size with the
addition of three more children and was living in Bury Street, just a few doors
from where William’s parents were still living.
At that time in his life William was working with his son George and his
elderly father at the local sewage works, where they were employed as
labourers. Once again
the family’s surname was spelt with only one t.
William Collet was 44, his wife Eliza Collet from Tring was 45, and
their five children were George Collet aged 15, Rose Collet aged 13, Thomas
Collet who was seven, May Collet who was four, and Sidney Collet who was two
years old. No record of daughter Annie
has been found, except those for her baptism and birth at Uxbridge register
office
On that census day it is likely that Eliza was expecting
the birth of the couple’s last child, since she presented William with another
daughter later that same year. Five
years later William and Eliza were made grandparents by the birth of their
first grandchild Harold Collett, who was the son of the couple’s unmarried
daughter Rose Alice Collett. From then
onwards, Harold was raised by his grandparents at their home on Bury Street in
Ruislip, where they were living in 1911.
On the census day that year William George Collett, a labourer of
Ruislip was 54, and his wife of thirty years was Eliza Collett from Tring who
was 55. The three children still living
with them were Thomas Collett who was 17 and a carter, Sidney Collett who was
12, and Emmie (Annie) Collett who was nine years of age. Both of the younger children were still
attending the local school. The grandson
of William and Eliza was named as Harold Collett of Ruislip who was four years
old. The couple’s missing children,
George Collett, Rose Alice Collett, and May Collett, were living nearby within
the Uxbridge registration district, but not in Ruislip, where it was confirmed
that they were all born. By that time
their son George was married although his wife was only 21
Although, recorded in error in 1911 as Emmie Collett,
the couple’s youngest child Annie, was born at Bury Street in Ruislip around
the end of 1901 or start of 1902, and was very likely named in the memory of
her older sister Annie about whom nothing is known after she was baptised. As the last-born child, she was still living
with her parents when Eliza died at the age of 65, her death recorded at
Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 36) as Elizabeth Collett, wife of William
George Collett, during the third quarter of 1920. Less than one year later, the Ruislip census
of 1921 recorded William George Collett as 63 years and 4 months old living at
2 Barters Cottages on Bury Street in Ruislip, when he was a general labourer
employed by Norwood Urban District Council at Harris Martins Lane in
Ruislip. His daughter Annie Collett,
aged 19½, was carrying out the role of housekeeper for her widowed father. William had survived his wife by fifteen
years when the death of William George Collett was recorded at Middlesex
register office (Ref. 3a 49) in 1934 at the age of 76
41q10 – William James Collett was born in 1881 at Ruislip
41q11 – Catherine Collett was born in 1884 at Ruislip
41q12 – George Collett was born in 1885 at Ruislip
41q13 – Rose Alice Collett was born in 1888 at Ruislip
41q14 – Annie Collett was born in 1890 at Hillingdon
41q15 – Thomas Collett was born in 1893 at Ruislip
41q16 – May Collett was born in 1896 at Ruislip
41q17 – Sidney Collett was born in 1898 at Ruislip
41q18 – Annie Collett was born in 1902 at Ruislip
Mary Ellen Collett [41p17] was born at
Ruislip in the summer of 1859 and was baptised there in the parish church of St
Martin on 2nd October 1859, the daughter of labourer William Collett
and his wife Hannah Edmonds. Her birth
was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 32) during the third quarter of 1859. She was again named as Mary Ellen Collett,
aged one year, at the time of the Ruislip census of 1861 when she was living
there with her family. Ten years later
she was listed simply as Mary Collett aged 11 years in the Ruislip census of
1871, when she was again still living there with her family. Curiously, so far, no record of her has been
found within the census of 1881 when she would have been around twenty-one
years of age
Arthur
James Collett [41p18] was born at Ruislip just after the census day in 1861,
the third child of labourer William and Hannah Collett, who was baptised there
on 7th July 1861. His birth
was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 30) during the second quarter of 1861. It would appear that he was more well known
as James Collett, as he was in 1871 when living with his family at Bury Street
in Ruislip, where he may have been born.
On that day James was nine years old, and was 20 years of age in the
Ruislip census of 1881, when he and his family were living at 11 Bury Street,
from where James was an agricultural labourer, probably working alongside his
father. Ten years later he was the only
member of his family still living at 11 Bury Street in Ruislip with his parents
and on that occasion, he was recorded as Arthur James Collett aged 29 who was
working as a brick-layer’s labourer.
Also living on Bury Street during the same time as the Collett family,
was Arthur’s future wife
It is possible that the James Collett aged 38 and born
at Ruislip was the farm labourer who was a boarder at the Denzil Road home in
Willesden of the Meech family, just ten miles south-east of Ruislip, on the day
of the census in 1901. Within the next
few weeks, Arthur James Collett returned to Bury Street in Ruislip from where
he married 45-year-old spinster Charlotte Woodman, their wedding day recorded
at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 75) during the second quarter of
1901. They were married for just nine
years, when the death of Arthur James Collett was recorded at Uxbridge
registered office (Ref. 3a 19) during the second quarter of 1910. He was 49 years old and residing at Ruislip
Common when he died, after which he was buried in the grounds of the Ruislip
parish church on 9th June 1910, just two months after his mother was
buried there
The story of his wife, previously thought in error to
have been James’ eldest sister, is as follows.
The birth of Charlotte Woodman was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 26)
during the third quarter of 1855. She
was possibly born at Bury Street in Ruislip, where she was living with her
family in 1861, the daughter of Henry Woodman, a dealer in wood from Uxbridge,
and his wife Margaret from Harefield.
Despite Margaret being only 29 she had already given birth to seven
children - Mary who was ten, twins Henry and William who were seven, then
Charlotte five, Ann four, Elizabeth three, and Jason who was one year old
Five more children were added to the family during the
1860s, which was still living at Bury in Ruislip in 1871 when Charlotte was
15. Two of her younger siblings were
Margaret Maria Woodman born in 1864/5 and Joseph Edward Woodman born in
1866/67, with both of them were later named as beneficiaries under the terms of
the Will of their older sister Charlotte Woodman Collett. The Woodman family was still residing at Bury
Street, Ruislip, in 1881, by which time 25-year-old Charlotte was not married
but working alongside her father as a wood cutter, when her father was
described as a master wood dealer. It
was exactly the same situation in 1891 when unmarried Charlotte from Ruislip
was 35
Following the death of her mother, Charlotte Woodman
from Ruislip was 45 in 1901, when she was the housekeeper for her widowed, and
retired elderly father, only one of her younger brothers still living at their
home on Bury Street in Ruislip. After
the death of both her father and her husband, Charlotte Collett aged 55 was a
widow and head of the household at the High Street in Ruislip when she was
described as a working woman in the charring and kindling work maker. She was 81 when she died at Ruislip in 1936,
her death recorded at Middlesex register office (Ref. 3a 59) during the third
quarter of that year. Her Will was
proved in Middlesex on 9th December 1937, sixteen months after she
had died on 15th August 1936, when the three beneficiaries were
named as Joseph Edward Woodman, Margaret Maria Woodman, and Elizabeth
Riddle. It was on 19th August
1936 that Charlotte Collett was buried at Ruislip
Sarah
Collett [41p19] was born at Ruislip in 1863, the daughter of William and
Hannah Collett, and the only record of her living with her parents at Bury
Street in Ruislip was in 1871 when she was seven years old. It is possible that the Sarah Collett, aged
16, who was a servant at the home of 50-year-old widow Sarah M Groome from
Fulham at 12 Apsley Villas in Hampton Road in Twickenham, was Sarah Collett
from Ruislip, even though the census return gave her place of birth as which
may have been a misinterpretation of Ickenham.
However, it is understood, although not confirmed, that she married
George Jones and that by 1911 George Jones was 48 and his wife Sarah Jones from
Ruislip was 47, when they were living in Acton
Charlotte
Elizabeth Collett [41p20] was born at Ruislip perhaps at the end of 1865 or soon
after the start of 1866, the daughter of William and Hannah Collett. Her birth was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a
39) during the first three months of 1866.
Like her sister Sarah (above), she was another child who was only
recorded living with her parents in Ruislip in 1871, when she was five years
old. Thereafter it is unclear where she
was located. However, upon the death of
her father in November 1913, it was Charlotte E Watts, daughter, residing at
Reservoir Lane, The Common in Ruislip, who was the informant of his death. It was twenty-five years prior to that sad
event, when the marriage of Charlotte Elizabeth Collett and Henry Watts was
recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 49) during the second quarter of 1888
Less than three years later the Watts family home was at
Ruislip Common, where Henry Watts aged 30 was described as Henry Watts junior,
who was a general labourer who had been born in Middlesex. His wife, also born in the same county, was
Charlotte E Watts who was 25 and already expecting the birth of the couple’s
first child. Nine years after the birth
of their son, Charlotte gave birth to the first of her three daughters immediately
prior to the next census day in 1901.
All four members of the family had been born at Ruislip, where they were
recorded as Henry who was 40 and a farm labourer, Charlotte who was 36, son
Arthur J Watts who was nine, and their baby daughter who had not yet been given
a name
Over the next six years Henry and Charlotte had a
further two daughters while the family was still living in Ruislip, where the
completed family was again residing in 1911.
By that time Henry Watts was 50 and was employed at a nearby golf club
as a labourer, Charlotte Watts was 45, Arthur Watts was 19 and a labourer with
a tree felling company, Lilian Watts was nine, Kate Watts was six, and Grace
Watts was four years of age. The later
death of Henry Watts was recorded at Middlesex register (Ref. 3a 48) in 1929,
at the age of 69. After a further
twenty-four years, it was as Charlotte Watts that the death of his widow was
recorded at Middlesex register office (Ref. 5f 455) during 1954, when she was
88
The births of all four children were recorded at
Uxbridge register office. Arthur
James Watts (Ref. 3a 42) during the last three months of 1891, who served
with the Royal Artillery during the Great War, who married Ada L Wright in
1925, who was still living in Middlesex when he died there in 1961, aged
71. Lilian Watts (Ref. 3a 40)
born in March 1901; Kate Elizabeth Watts (Ref. 3a 41) during the second
quarter of 1905, who married Ernest R T Spencer in 1930; and Grace Louisa
Watts (Ref. 3a 44) during the summer of 1906, who married George Soal in
1943
Harriet Alice Collett [41p21] was born in 1867
at Ruislip, another daughter of William and Hannah Collett. It was simply as Harriet Collett that her
birth was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 37) during the third quarter of the
year. In the following two census
returns, she was listed with her family at Bury Street in Ruislip, as Alice
Collett who was two years old in 1871 and 13 years of age in 1881, when she was
still at school. On completing her
education, she entered into domestic service and, at the age of 22, Alice H
Collett from Ruislip was a domestic servant at a property on Harrow Road in
Harrow, within the Hendon registration district in 1891. Just seven years later, the premature death
of Harriet Alice Collett, aged thirty years, was recorded at Hendon register
office (Ref. 3a 121) during the third quarter of 1898
The fact that she appears to have been known as Alice
Collett, could mean that she was the mother of a base-born son George
Collett (Ref. 41q19), who was born in Middlesex on 30th April
1889. He was baptised two days later on
2nd May, with the baptism record stating he was the son of Alice
Collett, no father named. At least ten
children without a named father were baptised during the same service within
Queen Charlotte’s (Maternity) Hospital in Hammersmith, where they were all born
between 27th April and 1st May. None of the mothers were credited with having
an occupation
No record of George has been found within the census of
1891 and with his mother dying before he reached ten years of age, it is more
than likely he was raised by someone outside the immediate family, perhaps even
under a different surname. The only
later record that can be attributed to him is the situation at the end of his
life, as follows
It was 2nd March 1954 that George Collett
aged 66 died at St Helen’s Hospital in Hastings, Sussex. The building originally opened in 1837 as the
Hasting Union Workhouse and only became St Helen’s Hospital in 1943. The death of George Collett was subsequently
recorded at Hasting register office (Ref. 5h 407). However, the vital information that connects
him with this Collett family, is that he
was buried at St Martin’s Church in Ruislip on 6th March 1954, where
lavish red marble headstone and surround marks the grave
Louisa
Emma Collett [41p22] was born at Ruislip in 1870, the daughter of William and
Hannah Collett, whose birth was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 40) during the
last three months of that year. Perhaps
due to poor health, she was initially baptised privately at home on 7th
January 1871 but, having recovered from her malaise, Louisa Emma attended the
parish church in Ruislip to be formally baptised with three other children on 5th
February 1871. The church record
confirmed that she was the daughter of labourer William Collett and his wife
Anna, with two of the other children baptised that day being members of the
Edmonds and Brill families, who had links to the Collet family. She was therefore around three or four months
old in the Ruislip census of 1871. Ten
years later, when she was recorded as Louisa Collett, she was 11 years of age
in 1881 when she was living with her family at Bury Street in Ruislip. It was during 1890 that she married William
Anderson from St Albans, and shortly afterwards Louisa presented William with
their first child. Their daughter was
born at Paddington, as were all their subsequent children, with the family
living there in 1891, 1901, and again in 1911
At the time of the first of those three census days,
William Anderson was 26, his wife Louisa was 22, and their daughter Mabel was
not yet one year old. Ten years later,
the couple had three children, so that family comprised William Anderson aged
36, whose occupation was that of a baker, Louisa Anderson from Ruislip who was
32, Mabel Anderson aged ten, Percy Anderson who was six, and Reginald
Anderson who was four. A further two
children were added to their family during the next five years, so by 1911, the
family still living in the Paddington area of London was made up of William
aged 47, Louisa aged 41, Mabel who was 20, Percy who was 17, Reginald who was
14, Stanley Anderson who was eight, and Ernest Anderson who was
five
Upon leaving school, Rose left the family home in
Ruislip and entered the world of domestic service. The census in 1891 recorded Rose A Collett
from Middlesex as 19 years old and employed as a housemaid at a property in
Arundel Square in Islington. Initially
thereafter, nothing further was known about her. However, thanks to Max Hamilton, the great
grandson of Rose Ann Collett, it is now established that Rose Ann Collett
married John Joseph Kenny (1865-1948) at St Margaret’s Church in Westminster on
2nd October 1903. Rose was 31
and a spinster residing at 36 Catherine Street, the daughter of William
Collett. John was a butler and a
bachelor at the age of 36, who was living at 8 The Sanctuary, the son of Thomas
Kenny. Over the following years, Rose
and John had six children and they were Edward Kenny, Alice Kenny
who was born in 1904, Thomas Kenny who was born on 8th May
1905 and baptised at
Ruislip on 21st June 1905 – who died in 1989, William
Kenny who was born on 9th May 1909 – who died in 1998, Agnes
Kenny who was born on 23rd March 1912 – who died in 1987 at
Princess Alice Hospice in Esher, and Bessie Kenny who was born on 22nd
August 1914 at Hammersmith, where she died on 6th November 1953
At the time of the birth of their son
Thomas Kenny, the family was living at Churchfield Cottage in Ruislip, from
where John Kenny was employed as a butler, these details were provided in the
baptism register, which also confirmed Thomas’ date of birth.
Some of the other above details were
confirmed in the census of 1911 by which time the family was recorded as residing
at 37A Guinness Trust Building in Hammersmith within the Fulham registration
district of London, where William Agnes and Bessie were born. John J Kenny from County Galway in Ireland
was 41 and an office cleaner, and his wife Rose Kenny from Ruislip was 39,
while curiously, it was only their three sons who were living there with the
couple. They were listed as Edward Kenny
who was 10 [was he really born before
they were married?], Thomas Kenny who was five, and William Kenny was two
years old. That raises the question,
what had already happened to missing daughter Alice who would have been six
Seven members of the family were still living together
at 37 Guinness Buildings, Fulham Palace Road in Hammersmith on the day the
national census was conducted in 1921.
Head of the household was John Joseph Kenny who was 53 and a staff
foreman employed at J Layone Co Ltd, Cadly Hall, West London. His wife Rose Ann Kenny was 48, Alice Louise
Kenny was 17 and working in ladies tailoring at Harrods on Brompton Road,
Thomas Kenny was 16 and a shop assistant at Mr Birdle’s Shop on Fulham Palace
Road, William Kenny was 13, Agnes Rose Kenny was nine, and Bessie Kenny was six
years old
Twenty-four years after that day, it was on 9th
June 1945 when 73-year-old Rose Ann Kenny, nee Collett, died at home at 17a
Guinness Buildings, Fulham Palace Road from a cerebral haemorrhage, and was
buried at Mortlake Cemetery. By that
time, her husband John Joseph Kenny was a retired foreman cleaner, having
worked for a wholesale caterer. The
informant of her death at Hammersmith register office was her son J Kenny of 28
Marlborough Street in Harrow. Five years
after losing his wife, the death of John Joseph Kenny was recorded on 29th
September 1948, following which he was buried with his late wife. Probate of his Will was proved in London on
18th July 1949, when the main beneficiary was Kathleen Kenny and
when the died that John died was recorded as 31st October 1948. It may therefore be that 29th
September 1948, was the date he signed his Will
The youngest of their seven children, Bessie Kenny,
married Henry Sanders (1910-1987) at St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church on
Fulham Palace Road in Hammersmith on 20th January 1940. It was their daughter Janette Sanders
(08.11.1942-13.07.2001) who, with her husband Matthew Sydney Hamilton
(11.04.1941-), were the parents of the aforementioned Maximilian Hamilton who
was born at Hammersmith on 23rd August 1962 who, initially supplied
his family details for inclusion in the August 2015 update of this family
line. Since then, in early 2022, Max has
generously given his time and resources to bring us more up-to-date with this
family line, including the first inclusion of details from the new UK 1921
Census. Bessie Kenny, the wife of Henry
Sanders a motor coach driver, was only 39 when she died at 54 Tabor Road in
Hammersmith on 6th November 1953, thirty-four years before her
husband passed away. The body of Bessie
Kenny was laid to rest at Hammersmith Cemetery on 12th November
1953.
George
Herbert Collett [41q1] was born at Iver in Buckinghamshire close to the end of
1873 or soon after the start of 1874, the eldest of the four children of George
Hubert Collett and his wife Patience.
His birth was registered at Eton (Ref. 3a 469) during the first three
months of 1874. After he was born, his
parents settled in Kingston-upon-Thames for a couple of years, and it was
there, as George Collett aged seven years, that he was living with his family
at 3 Avenue Terrace in 1881. Another
move following within the next two years, which saw the family finally settle
in nearby New Malden
It was there during the next census in 1891 that he was
still living with his family when he was described as Herbert Collett aged 14,
rather than 17, his real age. The
marriage of George Herbert Collett and Mary Ellen Ireland, from Sunderland, was
recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 739) during the
second quarter of 1898. By 1901 their
first child had been born, when George and his new family were still living in
New Malden but at Wakefield Terrace on Burlington Street, not far from his parents. George Herbert Collett was 27 and a
hay-binder from Iver, the same occupation as his father, so they may have been
working together on a local farm, as they had been before George was
married. The census return confirmed
that his wife was Mary Ellen Collett from Sunderland who was 26, and their
first-born child was Herbert O Collett who was two years old and had been born
at New Malden
Six more children were added to their family during the
first ten years of the new century and by April 1911 all seven children were
still living in New Malden where they had been born. However, only six of them were living with
George and Ellen on the day of the census, since their daughter, Gladys Beryl
Collett aged two years, was staying with George’s married sister Ellen May
Aldridge, nee Collett (below), who had just suffered the loss of her first
child
The eight members of the New Malden family who were
residing there at the same address were George Herbert Collett from Iver was 37
and a hay-tier, his wife Mary Ellen Collett from Sunderland who was 36,
together with six of their seven children.
They were Herbert Oswald Collett who was 12, Harry Reginald Collett who
was eight, Ivy Collett who was six, Violet Collett who was four, George Victor
Collett who was two, and Harold Jack Collett who was only six months old. During the First World War, George Herbert
Collett, living in Surrey and born at Iver in Buckinghamshire, was a member of
the 2nd London Divisional Veterinary Hospital with the Army
Veterinary Corps service number SE/6960.
Many years later the death of George Herbert Collett died when he was
82, his death recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 5g
565) during the second quarter of 1956
41r1 – Herbert Oswald Collett was born in 1898 at New Malden
41r2 – Harry Reginald Collett was born in 1902 at New Malden
41r3 – Ivy Collett was born in 1904 at New Malden
41r4 – Violet Collett was born in 1906 at New Malden
41r5 – George Victor Collett was born in 1908 at New Malden
41r6 – Gladys Beryl Collett was born in 1909 at New Malden
41r7 – Harold Jack Collett was born in 1910 at New Malden
William
Walter Collett [41q2] was born at Ruislip on 2nd October 1875, the
second son of George and Patience Collett.
His birth was registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 33) during the last
quarter of the year. He was around four
years old when his parents took the family to living in Kingston-upon-Thames
and, after only a few years spent there, the family moved again to New Malden
not far from Kingston. It may have been
the short time he spent at each of these places that was the reason why he
seemed confused in later census returns when he was required to give his place
of birth
In 1881 he and his family were living at 3 Avenue
Terrace in Kingston-upon-Thames, when William Collett was five years old and
his place of birth was confirmed by his parents as Ruislip. It was around 1883 that the family moved to
New Malden and upon leaving school William also left the family home to obtain
work with horses. According to the next
census in 1891, William Collett aged 15, was the only one of the Collett name
residing in the Kingston & Esher census registration district. On that occasion it would have been his
employer who entered his place of birth, which curiously was not Ruislip,
Kingston or New Malden
His work as a groom eventually took him to
Cambridgeshire and the village of Sutton, five miles west of Ely. It was while he was working there that he met
and married Florence Louise from Pimlico in London. It was very likely around the turn of the
century that they were married, and by the time of the next in March 1901
Florence was expecting the arrival of their first child. The census that year confirmed that couple
living at Sutton as William Walter Collett from Malden, who was 25 and a
non-domestic groom, and his wife Florence Louise Collett who was 21 and from
Pimlico
After the birth of their first child later that same
year, the family remained in Sutton until around 1907 when William’s work
eventually took him to London where the family was residing in April 1911. However, it is unclear at the moment where
their third child was born. According to
the census in 1911, the family was residing within the Lambeth-Stockwell area
of London where 35-year-old William Walter Collett from Ruislip was a porter
and lift attendance in a hotel, Florence Louise Collett from Pimlico was
31. The first two of the three children
living with the couple were Sutton-born Francis Jack William Collett who was
nine, and Esme Florence Collett, who was five.
It is highly likely that the third child was in fact the daughter of
William’s widowed brother Albert Henry (below), whose wife died during or
shortly after Marjorie Ida Collett was born at Teddington. Her birth was recorded at
Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 516) during the third quarter of
1908, who was two years of age in 1911.
William Walter was 94 when he died, his death recorded at London
register office in 1970
The birth of William and Florence’s eldest child Francis
was recorded at Ely register office (Ref. 3b 520) during the third quarter of
1902. But tragically, he was only 17
years old when he died, the death of Francis Jack William Collett recorded at
Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 363) during the first quarter of 1920, maybe a
casualty of the flu pandemic. The
couple’s daughter Esme’s birth was also recorded at Ely (Ref. 3b 506) during
the third quarter of 1905
41r8 – Francis Jack William Collett was
born in 1902 at Sutton, near Ely in Cambridgeshire
41r9 – Esme Florence Collett was born in
1905 at Sutton, near Ely in Cambridgeshire
41r10 – Marjorie Ida Collett was born in
1908 at Teddington, Middlesex
Albert
Henry Collett [41q3] was born at Ruislip in 1879 and was the son of George
and Patience Collett. His birth was
registered at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 43) during the second quarter of that year and
before his family left Ruislip to settle in Kingston-upon-Thames, where they
were living in 1881. On that occasion
Albert aged two years, and his family, were residing at 3 Avenue Terrace in
Kingston. Another family move took place
two or three years later, when they travelled the short distance to nearby New
Malden, where they were living from 1884 onwards
In the New Malden census of 1891 Albert was listed with
his family as Henry Collett, who was 12.
Ten years later Albert, or Henry, was no longer living with his family
in New Malden, instead it is anticipated that he may have joined the army with
his cousin John Collett (below). Both of
them have not been located in Great Britain in 1901, so it is possible that
they were in South Africa involved in some way in the Boer War. However, sometime during the first decade of
the new century, Albert became a married man but, by the time of the New Malden
census of 1911, when he had returned to live with his parents, he was described
Albert Henry Collett from Ruislip who was 31, a widower, and a hay salesman
Three years later, at the outbreak of war in Europe,
Albert Henry Collett aged 35 and born at Ruislip, enlisted with the Royal Army
Service Corps. It is also established
that his marriage was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a
848) during the second quarter of 1908, when he was 29 years old. His bride may have been Maria Louisa Worger
who was born in Sussex during 1876, the former wife of Harry Worger. It was most probably during the birth of
their daughter Marjorie Ida Collett, later that same year, that resulted in the
death of his wife, the child then taken into the family of Albert’s older
brother William Walter Collett (above)
Ellen
May Collett [41q4] was born at New Malden in 1884, just after her parents
had moved there from Kingston-upon-Thames.
It was at Kingston where her birth was registered (Ref. 2a 343) during
the last three months of that year. She
was the last child born to George Hubert Collett by his wife Patience and in
the census of 1891 the child was recorded at New Malden with her family as May
Collett aged six years. She was still
there ten years after that, when she was described as Ellen M Collett, aged 16
and from New Malden, who was employed as a dressmaker
The marriage of Ellen May Collett and John Aldridge,
from Kingston Vale, midway between Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common, was
recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames (Ref. 2a 857) towards the end of 1906. John was the son of George and Ann
Aldridge. During the following years
Ellen presented John with a child who tragically died not long afterwards. By the time of the census in April 1911 they
were recorded residing at 29 South Lane, a five roomed dwelling in New Malden,
where John Aldridge was 27 and his wife Ellen May Aldridge from New Malden was
26. The census return confirmed that
John was a carpenter, and that he had been married to Ellen for four years,
during which time they had one child, no longer living. Staying with the couple on that occasion was
Ellen’s niece Gladys Beryl Collett who was two years old and also born at New
Malden, the daughter of Ellen’s older brother George Herbert Collett (above). Ellen and John eventually had a daughter of
their own, when Gladys S Aldridge was born during 1915
Ellen
Collett [41q5] was born at Ruislip possibly at the end of 1876 or early
in the next year, with her birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 42) during the
first three months of 1877, the first child of William Collett and his wife
Harriet Blackford. She was four years
old in the Ruislip census of 1881, when she was living there with her
family. After leaving school, Ellen
entered into domestic service, which resulted her leaving the family home in
Ruislip, where she was living and working in 1891. Ellen Collett of Ruislip was 14 years old and
a general domestic servant at the Eastcote Road, Ruislip home of sculptor
Walter Kemp and his wife Mary Ellen. It
would have been around six years later that she married William Collins of
Ruislip, and by 1901 they had two children.
The Ruislip census that year listed the four of them as William Collins
aged 27 and a carter on a farm, his wife Ellen who said she was 27, instead of
24, their son William Frederick Collins who was three, and their
daughter Florence E Collins who was two
Whether William Collins was away from his family for
years after that, or whether there were other children who did not survive, is
not known. But by 1911 only one more
child had been added to their family and she was born during 1910. The full family was recorded as William
Collins aged 36, Ellen Collins aged 35, Frederick Collins who was 13, Florrie
Collins who was 12, and baby Olive Collins who was eleven months
old. Every member of the household had
been born at Ruislip, where they were still living
John
Collett [41q6] was born at Ruislip in 1879, the second child and eldest
son of William and Harriet Collett, with his birth recorded at Uxbridge (Ref.
3a 45) during the first quarter of the year.
Not long after he was born, he was baptised at the parish church in
Ruislip on 31st March 1879.
In both 1881 and 1891 he was living with his family in Ruislip when he
was two years old and 12 years of age respectively. It is very likely that on leaving school that
he joined the army and was perhaps even involved in the Boer War in South
Africa, because he was absent from the family home in Ruislip in 1901
However, he was once again living with his parents in
Ruislip in April 1911, when he was confirmed as John Collett aged 31 and from
Ruislip, who was still a bachelor. It
was exactly the same scenario for his cousin Albert Henry Collett (above), who
was also absent from his home in 1901, but who had returned by 1911. He too was 31 in 1911 so there is a remote
chance that both of them were in the army together. During the summer of the following year, the
marriage of John Collett and Miriam B Bentley was recorded at Uxbridge register
office (Ref. 3a 72) during the third quarter of 1912. No record of any children has been found
The childless couple was residing at 8 Windmill Way in
Ruislip on 19th June 1921, when the census that day revealed that
John Collett from Ruislip was 42 years and 3 months old, and a labourer
employed at the Pinner Gas Works, under three miles west of Ruislip. His much younger wife Miriam Beatrice Collett
was 33 and born at Walworth in Surrey, who was undertaking home duties
Richard
Collett [41q7] was born at Ruislip in 1882, his birth recorded at
Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 39) during the first three months of that year. He was the son of labourer William and
Harriet Collett. Richard was baptised at
the parish church in Ruislip on 5th February 1882 and, in the
Ruislip census of 1891, he was nine years old while living there with his
family. By 1901, he was working as a
farm labourer with his father, at the age of 20. It was sometime after that when he left the
family home in Ruislip and, by the time of the next census in 1911, he was a
married man. Shortly before the census
day that year Richard had married Mary, as confirmed by the census which
recorded the childless couple residing within the Uxbridge registration
district
Richard Collett from Ruislip was 29 and was employed as
a public works labourer with the local council, and his wife was Mary Collett
from Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire who was 21. Ten years later the couple still had no
children, according to the census of 1921, when they were living at 6 Barters
Cottages on Bury Street in Ruislip.
Richard Collett from Ruislip was 39 years and 6 months old, and a
general labourer working for Ruislip-Northwood Urban District Council. His wife Mary Elizabeth Collett from Cleobury
Mortimer was 28 years and 9 months old, and undertaking home duties. Living with them was their nephew Robert
James Rippard who was 12 years of age and born at Cleobury Mortimer. Living a 2 Barters Cottages was William
George Collett (Ref. 41p6) and his daughter Annie Collett (Ref. 41q18)
George
Collett [41q8] was born at Ruislip in 1884, with his birth registered
at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 44) during the second quarter of the year. He was the youngest son of labourer William
Collett and his wife Harriet, and was baptised at Ruislip on 1st
June 1884. Tragically, George was three
years of age when he died at Ruislip, the death of George Collett recorded at
Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 29) during the first three months of 1888
Emily
Catherine Collett [41q9] was born at Ruislip either near the end of 1888 or early
in 1889, the last child born to William Collett and Harriet Blackford, whose
birth was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 41) during the first three months of
1889. Emily was two years old and 12
years of age in the following two census returns for Ruislip, but by 1911 she
was recorded as Kate Collett from Ruislip who 22 and working as a parlour-maid
in the Cowley area of Uxbridge at the Cowley Lodge home of retired widower living
on his own means, one of two servants employed by him. Ten years later, and following the recent
release of the 1921 Census for England and Wales, the details therein revealed
that two members of the family were still living at Sharps Lane in
Ruislip. They were head of the household
William Collett who was 67 years and 5 months old, born at Ruislip, and working
as a river-man with Middlesex County Council, and his unmarried daughter Emily
Catherine Collett who was 32 years and 4 months and also born at Ruislip, who
was carrying at home duties for her father.
A third person was boarder Albert Edward Shelley from London who was 32
years and 5 months, a storeman with the Royal Air Force Stores Depot, who was
engaged to be married to Emily. Just
days after the census day, the marriage of Emily Catherine Collett and Albert
Edward Shelley was recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 75) during the
same second quarter of 1921
William
James Collett [41q10] was born at Back Lane in Ruislip only a few months
after his parents were married there near the end of April in 1881. It was at the parish church in Ruislip was he
was baptised on 25th September 1881, the first of the nine children
of William George Collett, a labourer, and Eliza Allcock
Catherine
Collett [41q11] was born at Bury Street in Ruislip during the early
months of 1884 and was the first daughter of William George and Eliza
Collett. Like the majority of her eight
siblings, Catherine was baptised at the parish church in Ruislip on 4th
May 1884, when the record of the baptism confirmed the family was living at
Bury Street and that her father was working as a labourer. For some reason, no record of Catherine, or
any member of her family, has been found within the census returns for 1891. Furthermore, no further record of Catherine
has been unearthed
George
Collett [41q12] was born at Ruislip on 12th May 1885, the
eldest son of the eight children of William George Collett and his wife Eliza
Allcock. His birth was registered at
Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 43) during the second quarter of 1885. He too was baptised at Ruislip, but in a
joint ceremony on 5th July 1885 with Edith May Tobutt, the daughter
of his father’s cousin Ellen Tobutt, nee Collett. His younger siblings were mostly born at
Ruislip over the following sixteen years, so it is rather odd that no record of
any member of the family has been found in the census of 1891. It was a Bury Street in Ruislip that George
and his family were living in 1901, when George Collett from Ruislip was 15 and
working as a labourer at the local sewage works with his father and his
grandfather
Towards the end of the next decade George married Maud
Annie and by April 1911 the childless couple was living within the Uxbridge
registration district but not in Ruislip.
George Collett from Ruislip was 25 and his wife Maud Annie Collett was
only 21, perhaps indicating that they had only very recently become a married
couple. This, and the fact that Maud
Annie would have probably been too young to have already given birth to a
four-year-old son, virtually confirms that the grandson Harold Collett who was
living with George’s parents in 1911, was the base-born son of his sister Rose
(below)
Rose
Alice Collett [41q13] was born at the family home on Hundred-Acre Farm in
Kings End, Ruislip on 7th May 1888.
It was also at Ruislip where she was baptised on 3rd June
1888, the eldest daughter of farm labourer William Collett and his wife
Eliza. She was 13 years old in the
Ruislip census of 1901, while no record of her or any member of her family has
been located in 1891 when she would have been three years old. It would appear that five years later, when
Rose was around 19 years of age, she gave birth to a base-born son Harold who
was born at Ruislip. Following the
birth, it would also appear that the child was raised by Rose’s parents at Bury
Street in Ruislip, with whom he was living at the time of the census in 1911,
when he was four years old. At that same
time, Rose Alice Collett was 23 and a domestic servant employed at the
Willesden, Middlesex, home of commercial traveller Arthur Gordon Brown and his
family. Her place of birth was recorded
as Kings End in Ruislip. Just two years
later, the marriage of Rose A Collett and Frank A Chapman was recorded at
Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 76) during the second quarter of 1913
It was also at Willesden register office that the
births of the couple’s four children were recorded, when their mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
They were Frank W Chapman during the last three months of 1913
(Ref. 3a 542), Thomas G Chapman during the first three months of 1915
(Ref. 3a 512), Rose E Chapman during the second quarter of 1917 (Ref. 3a
397), and Gordon D Chapman during the third quarter of 1924 (Ref. 3a
425)
41r11 – Harold
Collett was born in 1906 at Ruislip
Annie
Collett [41q14] was born on 7th September 1890 at the family
home, The Cottage at Gray’s Farm in Hillingdon, where Annie’s father was
employed as a labourer. Her birth, as
Annie Collett, was recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 22) during the
last three months of 1890. She was
baptised at the parish church in Ruislip on 5th October 1890, the
daughter of William George Collett and his wife Eliza. No record of any member of the family has
been discovered within the census of 1891, and for Annie no other record has
been found at all. Coupled this with,
the fact that another Annie was added to the family around 1902, it should
perhaps be safely assumed that this Annie suffered an infant death
Thomas
Collett [41q15] was born at Ireland Cottages, Kings End, Ruislip in
1893, the second son of labourer William and Eliza Collett, who was baptised
there on 5th August 1893.
Before the end of the century, Thomas’ family moved to Bury Street in
Ruislip, where he was seven years old in the Ruislip census of 1901. He was still living at the family home in
Bury Street ten years later, by which time he was 16 and had already left
school and was working as a carter. The
later marriage of a Thomas Collett and Florence Nunn was recorded at Hendon
register office (Ref. 3a 441) during the first three months of 1914, and
produced a daughter Florence May Collett, whose birth was recorded at Uxbridge
register office (Ref. 3a 71) during the third quarter of 1915. The wedding of Thomas and Florence, after the
reading of banns, was conducted at St John’s the parish church in Pinner on 14th
February 1914, when the groom was 20 and a labourer residing at Bury Street in
Ruislip, the son of labourer William George Collett. The bride was described as the daughter of
Joseph Nunn, a labourer, who was 18 years of age and living at Tythe Cottage,
Common’s Lane in Pinner, with the two witnesses being Joseph and Alice Nunn
By the time Florence Jane Collett, nee Nunn, died on 3rd
November 1955 at 53 Linden Avenue in Ruislip, she had been a widow for three
years. Her Will was proved at London on
1st December 1955, the sole beneficiary of her estate of £2,557 15
Shillings and 8 Pence being her daughter Florence May Collett, a spinster. The earlier death of Thomas Collett, aged 59,
was recorded at Middlesex register office (Ref. 5f 488) during 1952
41r12 – Florence
May Collett was born in 1915 at Uxbridge
May
Collett [41q16] was born at Ruislip in 1896, the fourth of six children
of William and Eliza Collett. Her birth
was recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 45) during the second quarter
of the year. She was four years old in
1901, when she was living with her family at Bury Street in Ruislip, but ten
years after that, having left school, she was already working at the Ruislip
home of tortoiseshell worker Thomas David Upcraft and his wife Alice Charlotte
Upstart, where she was recorded as May Collett aged 14 and from Ruislip. Nine years later, the marriage of May Collett
and Hubert G Bull was recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 99) during
the third quarter of 1920. Their two daughters
were Irene May Bull (born in 1921) and Marjorie Bull (born in
1923), their births recorded at Uxbridge register office, where their mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Collett
Sidney Collett [41q17] was born at Church Hill Cottage in
Ruislip during 1898, the penultimate child of labourer William Collett and
Eliza Allcock. He was baptised at the
parish church in Ruislip on 4th September 1898, and was two years of
age in 1901, and was 12 years old in 1911.
On both occasions, Sidney and his family were living on Bury Street in
Ruislip. It would appear that Sidney was
married later in his life, when the marriage of Sidney Collett and Margaret
Clark was recorded at Uxbridge register office (Ref. 3a 405) during the second
quarter of 1939. Margaret may have been
some years younger than her husband, since she gave birth to three sons of the
following years, including twins. In
each case the births were recorded at Uxbridge, when the mother’s maiden-name
was confirmed as Clark. The twins born
towards the end of 1942 had the same record (Ref. 3a 220), with the last
child’s birth was recorded during the last three months of 1945 (Ref. 3a 182)
41r13 – Sidney
Collett was born in 1942 at Uxbridge
41r14 – Michael
Collett was born in 1942 at Uxbridge
41r15 – Anthony
Collett was born in 1945 at Uxbridge
Annie Collett [41q18] was born at Bury Street in Ruislip
either and the end of 1901 or early in 1902, the youngest child of William
George Collett and his wife Eliza Allcock, and their second child of that
name. In the Ruislip census of 1911,
Emmie Collett? was nine years of age.
Ten years later, according to the census of 1921, which was conducted on
19th June that year, Annie Collett from Ruislip was 19 years and 6
months old when she was carrying out domestic (home) duties for her recently
widowed father William George Collett who was 63 and still working as a general
labourer for the local council. The
family home was at 2 Barters Cottages, Bury Street in Ruislip, where Annie’s
mother had died less than a year earlier, at the age of 65. Living at 6 Barters Cottages were Richard and
Mary Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 41q7)
Herbert Oswald Collett [41r1] was born at New
Malden on 3rd December 1898, his birth recorded at
Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 360) during the first quarter of
1899. He was the first child born to
George Herbert Collett and Mary Ellen Ireland.
He was two years old in the census of 1901, when he and his parents were
living at Wakefield Terrace on Burlington Street in New Malden. Ten years later the enlarged family was again
living in New Malden, when Herbert was 12 years of age. Nine years after that day, he gave his age as
being 25 when the marriage of Herbert Oswald Collett and Violet Dorice Stanway
Brown took place at St Matthew’s Church in Redhill, Surrey, on 1st
April 1920. Violet was also recorded as
25 years of age, so maybe the younger Herbert inflated his age by three
years. His father was confirmed as
George Herbert Collett, a soldier, while Violet was the daughter of Frederic
Brown, a motor dealer. On that day
Herbert was living at 56 Smith Lane in New Malden, with Violet residing at
Chalet Mar, Lynwood Road in Redhill. No
record if any children has been found
The electoral rolls from the mid-1920s through to the
mid-1930s confirmed that Herbert Oswald Collett was residing at 35 Woodlands
Road, Redhill within the Reigate district of Surrey. However, within a few years Herbert and
Violet had moved to Gloucestershire, where they were recorded when the 1939
Register was compiled just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. At that time in his life, Herbert O Collett
was 45 years old and the hotel keeper for the Mill Inn at Withington within the
Northleach registration district, where his wife Violet D Collett was also 45
The couple was still managing the Mill Inn at Withington
in 1952, when Violet Dorice Stangate Collett died on 29th
December. Administration of her personal
effects valued at £2,151 6 Shillings was granted at Oxford on 12th
March 1953, to her husband Herbert Oswald Collett, a major in Her Majesty’s
army. The death of Violet Dorice Stanway
Collett was recorded at Gloucestershire register office (Ref. 7b 507) during
the first quarter of 1953, when she was 59.
The later death of Herbert Oswald Collett was recorded at
Gloucestershire register office (Ref. 7b 632) in 1969, when he was 70 years old
Harry
Reginald Collett [41r2] was born at New Malden on 14th July 1902,
most likely at Wakefield Terrace on Burlington Street, where his parents were
living in 1901. The birth of Harry
Reginald Collett was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a
407) during the third quarter of the year.
He was the second child of George Herbert and Mary Ellen Collett, who
were still living in New Malden in 1911, when Harry was eight years of
age. He may have been married twice in
his life, since the marriage of Harry R Collett and Winifred M Thomas was
recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 1376) during the
third quarter of 1927, when Harry Reginald Collett would have been approaching
his twenty-fifth birthday. The birth of
their daughter Jean M Collett was also recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames (Ref.
2a 690) during the last quarter of 1928, when the mother’s maiden-name was
confirmed as Thomas
Later on in his life, he was a Chief Petty Officer with
the Royal Navy and was married to Lillian May.
By the 1950s he was receiving a Royal Navy pension, when Lillian May
Collett died on 30th May 1955.
At that time in their life Harry and Lillian were residing at 147
Hayling Avenue within the Copnor district of Portsmouth. Administration of her personal effects was
dealt with by her husband at Winchester on 29th June 1955, the value
of her estate being £698 7 Shillings and 6 Pence. Twenty-one years later, the death of Harry
Reginald Collett was recorded at Somerset register office (Vol. 23 1853) in
1976, when he was 74 years old
41s1 – Jean Collett was born in 1928 at
Kingston-upon- Thames, Surrey
Ivy Collett [41r3] was born at New Malden in 1904 and
her birth was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 425)
during the third quarter of the year.
She was the eldest daughter of George and Mary Collett and was six years
old in the New Malden census of 1911.
Ivy was 22 years old when her marriage to William T Dawes was recorded
at Kingston-upon-Thames (Ref. 2a 1121) during the second quarter of 1927
Violet Collett [41r4] was born at New Malden in 1906, with
her birth recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 404) during
the last quarter of the year. She was
four years of age in the New Malden census of 1911, another daughter of George
and Mary Collett. The later marriage of
Violet Collett and Arthur J Walker was also recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames
register office (Ref. 2a 1623) during the third quarter of 1930
George Victor Collett[41r5] was the fifth of
the seven children of George and Mary Collett.
He was born at New Malden in 1908 and his birth was recorded at
Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 399) during the last three months
of the year, and was two years old in the New Malden census of 1911. Twenty years later, George Victor Collett
married Ethel L Hinton, their wedding recorded at Croydon register office (Ref.
2a 1119) during the third quarter of 1931.
Over the following years, Ethel gave birth to two children whose births were
recorded at the Hendon register office in Middlesex (Ref. 3a 661) during the
third quarter of 1935, and at the Surrey North-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a
72) during the last three months of
1937. On both occasions, the mother’s
maiden-name was confirmed as Hinton
41s2 – James Victor Collett was born in
1935 at Hendon, Middlesex
41s3 – Margery A Collett was born in
1937 in Surrey
Gladys Beryl Collett [41r6] was born at New
Malden in 1909, when her birth was recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register
office (Ref. 2a 462) during the second quarter of the year. She was the youngest daughter of George and
Mary Collett and was not living with her family at New Maldon in 1911. Instead, two-year-old Gladys Beryl Collett
was staying with her father’s married sister Ellen May Aldridge, nee Collett
(below) who, tragically, had just suffered the loss of her first-born
child. Gladys was described as the niece
of John Aldridge and his wife Ellen, at their home in New Malden, when her
place of birth was confirmed as New Malden.
By the terrible hand of fate, Gladys was only five years old when she
died, her death recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 487)
during the second quarter of 1914
Harold Jack Collett [41r7] was born at New
Malden on 29th September 1910 and was six months old in the New
Malden census of 1911. He was the last
child born to George Herbert Collett by his wife Mary Ellen Ireland, his birth
recorded at Kingston-upon-Thames register office (Ref. 2a 417). He was 26 years of age when he was married to
Phyllis G Hall, the event recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office
(Ref. 2a 232) during the second quarter of 1937. It is possible that Michael was their only
child, with his birth also recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office
(Ref. 2a 53) during the last three months of 1937. Many years later, Harold Jack Collett died in
1992 at the age of 81, with his death recorded at Hampshire register office
(Vol. 20 1873). Five years later,
Phyllis G Collett died at Weybridge in Surrey on 1st July 1997
41s4 – Michael J Collett was born in 1937 in Surrey
Harold Collett [41r11] was born at Ruislip in 1906, and was
the base-born son of unmarried Rose Alice Collett. His birth was recorded at Uxbridge register
office (Ref. 3a 34) during the third quarter of that year. From birth, he was raised by his grandparents
William Collett and his wife Eliza Allcock at their home on Bury Street in
Ruislip, where he was four years old in 1911
Michael J Collett [41s4], whose full name
may have been Michael Jack Collett, after his father Harold Jack Collett, was
born in Surrey in 1937, with his birth recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern
register office (Ref. 2a 53) during the last three months of that year, when
his mother was confirmed as Phyllis G Hall.
It was at the Surrey Richmond register office that the marriage of
Michael J Collett and Yvonne D B Parker was recorded there (Ref. 5d 2176)
during the summer of 1967. Although not
yet proved, it may be the case that they had a son David whose birth was
recorded at Eton register office (Ref. 6a 2120) during the summer of 1970, when
the mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Parker. If so, then he went on to marry Ruth
Bowchier, their wedding recorded at the North Surrey register office during the
summer of 2001
41t1 – David
Michael R Collett was born in 1970 at Eton, Berkshire