46K1
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WILLIAM COLLETT was born around 1723.
He married Mary Freeman at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1746. It is established from the parish records
that the marriage produced at least four of the five children below for William
and Mary and all of them having been born at Fencott. The settlements of Fencott and neighbouring
Murcott had no church of their own so all baptisms, marriages and burials for
the area were conducted at the Parish Church of St Mary in
Charlton-on-Otmoor. William’s wife
Mary died at Fencott in 1795 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12th
December 1795 and the parish register recorded that she was the wife of
William Collett. William lived the
life of a widower for almost another ten years after Mary’s passing, before
he too died at Fencott in 1805 and was likewise buried at Charlton on 17th
February 1805.
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46L1
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William Collett
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Born in 1748
at Fencott
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46L2
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Richard
Collett
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Born in 1752
at Fencott
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46L3
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Mary Collett
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Born in 1755
at Fencott
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46L4
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Joseph
Collett
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Born in 1758
at Fencott
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46L5
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John
Collett
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Born in 1761
at Fencott
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46L1
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William Collett was born at Fencott in 1748 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20th February 1748. It would appear that he died at
Bletchington in 1779, following which he was buried at Charlton on 29th
December 1779. Bletchington later became Bletchingdon which it still is today. There is a record that a William
Collett married Avis Smallbroke at Bletchingdon on 24th May 1779
and it seems likely, although not proved, that he was William Collett of
Fencott. If so, then his marriage to
Avis only last for seven months and it is not known whether, during that
time, Avis became with child.
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46L2
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RICHARD COLLETT was born at Fencott in 1752 and, although
not yet proved, it seems very likely that he was the son of William Collett
and Mary Freeman. Recently discovered
records indicate that Richard was married twice, and on both occasions to a
Mary. Richard married (2) Mary Ivins in St Mary’s Church at
Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25th October 1790. It would appear that the couple settled
within the parish of Charlton, since it was at St Mary’s Church that all of
their children were baptised.
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However,
it is very likely that the family lived all their life at Fencott where all
of the children were born and where Richard and Mary were living when Richard
passed away. He died at Fencott during
September 1826 at the age of 74 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s
Church on 13th September 1826.
Fifteen years later, on the 20th August 1841, a Mary
Collett aged 74 was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor and she may well have been
Richard’s widow. The place of
residence for Mary at the time of her death was given as Oakley, just across
the county boundary into Buckinghamshire.
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46M1
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William Collett
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Born in 1792
at Fencott
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46M2
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Mary Collett
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Born in 1795
at Fencott
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46M3
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1797
at Fencott
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46M4
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Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1800
at Fencott
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46M5
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John Collett
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Born in 1803
at Fencott
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46M6
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Hannah Collett
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Born in 1805
at Fencott
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46L3
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Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1755 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 26th October 1755. Her life was cut short at the age of 24
when she died at Fencott in 1779 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary
in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4th April 1779. The church’s burial record stated that Mary
Collett was the daughter of William and Mary Collett, indicating that she had
never married.
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46L4
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Joseph
Collett was born
in 1758 at Fencott and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6th
August 1858. He married Maria with
whom he had nine children. All of
their children were born at Fencott and baptised at St Mary’s Church in
Charlton-on-Otmoor. Joseph’s wife
Maria died at Fencott in 1837 at the age of 75 and was buried at Charlton on 30th
March 1837.
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46M7
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Mary Collett
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Born in 1784
at Fencott
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46M8
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William Collett
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Born in 1786
at Fencott
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46M9
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Mary Collett
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Born in 1788
at Fencott
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46M10
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John
Collett
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Born in 1790
at Fencott
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46M11
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Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1792
at Fencott
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46M12
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Thomas Collett
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Born in 1794
at Fencott
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46M13
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Thomas
Collett
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Born in 1795
at Fencott
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46M14
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1798
at Fencott
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46M15
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George Collett
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Born in 1801
at Fencott
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46M16
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James Collett
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Born in 1803
at Fencott
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46L5
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John Collett was born at Fencott in 1761 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8th March 1761. Sadly, he only survived for just over two
years before he died at Fencott in 1763 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor
on 31st May 1763.
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46M1
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William Collett was born at Fencott in the latter half
of 1792 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24th February 1793. He married Prudence Pittam on 30th
March 1812 at Twyford, a village just over the county boundary into
Buckinghamshire, to the north-east of Bicester. The couple’s first three children were born
while they were living at Fencott and before the family moved the short
distance to Murcott, where the remaining children were born. All of their children were baptised at St
Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
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Sadly,
William Collett died at Murcott in early 1837 and was buried at
Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8th February 1837. His age at the time of his death was
incorrectly given as 42 instead of 45.
His widow Prudence was listed at Murcott in the first national census
on June 1841 as having a rounded age of 50 years. Living with her was her sons George 20 and John 15, and daughter Elizabeth aged 12.
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Ten
years later Prudence’s age was more accurately given as 59 and by 1861 she
was 69. On the latter occasion in 1861
Prudence Collett from Twyford in Buckinghamshire was a pauper living in the
next dwelling to her married son George.
Living with Prudence at that time was her married daughter Charlotte
Elizabeth Walker from Murcott, who was 29 and who was described as a field
woman. With her were her two daughters
Harriet Walker and Eliza Walker, but not her husband, although she was
confirmed as married rather than a widow.
Prudence was still living next door to her son George in Murcott in 1871
but passed away five years later at the age of 84 in 1876.
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46N1
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Martha Collett
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Born in 1813
at Fencott
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46N2
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1815
at Fencott
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46N3
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Thomas Collett
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Born in 1817
at Fencott
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46N4
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William Collett
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Born in 1819
at Murcott
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46N5
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George Collett
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Born in 1821
at Murcott
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46N6
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John
Collett
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Born in 1823
at Murcott
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46N7
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Benjamin Collett
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Born in 1825
at Murcott
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46N8
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Mary Collett
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Born in 1826
at Murcott
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46N9
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Charlotte Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1829
at Murcott
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46N10
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Benjamin Collett
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Born in 1831
at Murcott
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46M2
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Mary Collett was born at Fencott, either towards
the end of 1794 or during January 1795, and was baptised at
Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8th February 1795 when she was curiously
named as the daughter of Richard and Ann Collett, rather than Richard and
Mary. No other record for Mary has so
far been found.
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46M3
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Richard Collett
was born at Fencott
during the first half of 1797 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18th
June 1797. He married Martha Bottrell
at Wendlebury just two miles north of Fencott on 20th November 823. Martha was with child at the time of her
wedding and the child was born at Wendlebury six months later. Richard’s stated occupation at the child’s
baptism was labourer. Martha was the
daughter of John Bottrell and Ann
Buckle and had been born in 1798.
Sometime after the birth of the couple’s first child the family moved
five miles east just over the county boundary to Boarstall in Buckinghamshire
where it is known that the remainder of their children were born.
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At
the time of the census in June 1841 the family was still living in Boarstall at
Panshill Farm within the Aylesbury & Thame registration district. The family comprised Richard and Martha,
both with a rounded age of 40, and their children John age 15, Richard age
14, Ann age 12, Felicia who was nine, Elizabeth who was five and baby Martha
who was six months old. Completing the
household were John Preston and Eliza Simmons.
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By
the time of the next census in 1851 the family had moved back to Murcott in Oxfordshire
and was living within the Bicester & Bletchingdon registration area. The children missing from the family that
day were son Richard, who was married by then and also living in Murcott, and
daughters Helena – who was referred to as Felicia, and Martha – who was recorded
with her married brother John and his wife.
The full census listing was made up of Richard age 54, Martha age 52,
son John who was 26 and daughters Ann who was 20 and Elizabeth who was 15,
and Martha who was 10.
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Within
the next decade all bar one of Richard’s and Martha’s children left the
family home, so by April 1861 the couple was living in the Bicester census
district where Richard was 63, Martha was 62 and their daughter Martha
Collett from Boarstall was 20. Staying
with the family that day was Richard’s grandson Arthur Collett who was only
eight years of age, the son of Richard and Mary Collet. Completing the household were James
Hopcraft age 20, Mary Leach age 17 and Joseph Jackman who was 15. Just thirty months later Richard Collett died
during the third quarter of 1863 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s
Church at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Martha
survived for another seven years before she passed away in 1870.
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46N11
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John
Collett
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Born in 1824
at Wendlebury
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46N12
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1827
at Boarstall
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46N13
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Ann Collett
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Born in 1829
at Boarstall
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46N14
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Helena (Felicia) Collett
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Born in 1832
at Boarstall
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46N15
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Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1836
at Boarstall
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46N16
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Martha Collett
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Born in 1841
at Boarstall
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46M4
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Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott around late 1799
or early 1800 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 15th June 1800. It is possible that her two daughters were
base-born before she was married, since both girls were baptised at nearby
Blackthorn with the Collett surname.
Shortly after the birth of the second child she married Thomas Priest
but tragedy struck the family when, as Elizabeth Priest, she died at
Ambrosden near Bicester in April 1824, possibly during childbirth.
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46N17
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Susanna Collett
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Born in 1820
at Blackthorn
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46N18
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Sarah Collett
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Born in 1823
at Blackthorn
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46M5
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John Collett
was born at Fencott
in 1803 according to his stated age in later census records. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th
October 1805 in a joint ceremony with his sister Hannah (below). At the age of around 26 or 27 the names of
John Collett, a farmer at Fencott, and his friend or associate Robert Sturch,
a farmer at Murcott, were amongst the 22 men accused of being involved in the
Otmoor Riots. The full list of the
names was published in the Oxford Journal on Saturday 17th July
1830. However, one week later the pair
of them had been acquitted, as was reported in the journal of 24th
July. It was less than nine years later
that the daughter of Robert Grove Sturch married Richard Collett, the son of
John’s eldest brother William (above).
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It
was also at St Mary’s Church in Charlton that John married Sarah Hopcraft on
16th December 1833. Sarah
was the daughter of William and Charlotte Hopcraft of Charlton-on-Otmoor. It was originally understood from parish
records that John’s and Sarah’s first three children were born at Fencott,
with the remaining children being born after the family had moved to live at
the neighbouring hamlet of Murcott.
However, this conflicts with the details in the census of 1851 and
1861, when all of their children were stated as having been born at Murcott.
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By
June 1841 Sarah had presented John
with their first three children. That
year’s census recorded the family as living at Murcott within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor
with both John and Sarah having the rounded ages of 35 and their three
children being Elizabeth who was six, William who was four, and Charlotte who
was two years old. Within the next
seven years a further four children were added to the family while they were
living at Murcott. The census of 1851
for Murcott listed the family as John
Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah from Charlton, both aged 46, and with
them were six of their seven children. They were Elizabeth 16, William 13, Thomas
10, George who was eight, John who
was six, and Richard who was three years old.
At that time John was a farmer of 80 acres.
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The
main difference between the two census records of 1841 and 1851 are the daughters
Elizabeth and Charlotte, and it is this difference that may have caused
confusion in the past. It would appear
from the two sets of details that Charlotte Collett died after 1841 while she
was still very young, hence her absence from the census in 1851. On that occasion Elizabeth, age 16, was ten
years older than her age in 1841, as would be expected. However, it would appear that Elizabeth
then adopted the name of her late sister, and became Charlotte Collett, as
recorded in the next census – see below.
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Ten
years later in 1861 John and Sarah
were both 55, when they were living in the hamlet of Fencott with five of
their seven children. John Collett
from Fencott was a farmer of 60 acres and had working with him his eldest son
William who was 22 and from Fencott, who was described as a farmer’s
son. The other children at that time
were Thomas 18, George 16, John
14, and Richard 13, and all of them again confirmed as born at Murcott. Living in the property right next door to
John and his family was the family of farmer Richard Collett of Murcott (Ref.
46N2), the eldest son of John’s older brother William Collett (above).
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By
1871 all of John’s and Sarah’s
children, with the exception of their eldest son William and their youngest
son Richard, had left the family home.
John and Sarah were both then
66, while William Collett was 35 and Richard Collett was 22. Both sons were still unmarried at that
time. Ten years later, according to
the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, John
was 77 and was a farmer of 88 acres, employing one man. The census return confirmed he had been
born at Fencott and that his wife Sarah, who was also 77, had been born at
Charlton-on-Otmoor. Still living with
them were their two unmarried sons William who was then 44 and Richard who
was 32, both of whom were listed as having been born at Fencott, and both
were described as farmer’s son.
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The
couple’s absence from the 1891 Census very likely indicates that both John
and Sarah died during the 1880s, and it was also very likely after their
death that their eldest son William became a married man.
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46N19
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Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1834
at Murcott
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46N20
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William Collett
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Born in 1836
at Murcott
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46N21
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Charlotte Collett
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Born in 1838 at
Murcott
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46N22
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Thomas Collett
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Born in 1841
at Murcott
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46N23
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George Collett
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Born in 1843
at Murcott
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46N24
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John Collett
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Born in 1846
at Murcott
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46N25
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1848
at Murcott
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46M6
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Hannah Collett was born at Fencott in 1805 and was baptised
at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th October 1805 in a joint ceremony
with her brother John (above). No
other record for Hannah has so far been found.
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46M7
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Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1784 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12th December 1784, the daughter
of Joseph and Mariah Collett. And it
was there that she buried just over five months later on 25th May 1785.
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46M8
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William Collett was born at Fencott in 1786 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31st May 1786. No other record for William has so far been
found.
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46M9
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Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1788 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18th May 1788. It seems very likely that she gave birth to
a base-born daughter in 1809, the child incorrectly being registered as
‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’. Less than two years later on 19th
January 1811 Mary married Richard Westbury by licence at St Mary’s Church in
Charlton. Richard was of Grendon
Underwood to the east of Bicester and one of the witnesses to the marriage
ceremony was Mary’s father Joseph Collett.
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46N26
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Denise Collett
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Born in 1809
at Fencott
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46M10
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John Collett was born at Fencott in 1790 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 2nd May 1790. No other record for John
has so far been found.
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46M11
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Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott in 1792 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29th April 1792. No other record for Elizabeth has so far
been found.
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46M12
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Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1794 and was baptised
at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20th April 1974. Tragically he lived for just less than nine
months and was buried at Charlton on 3rd January 1795. The parish burial register confirmed he was
the son of Joseph and Maria Collett.
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46M13
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Thomas
Collett was born at Fencott in 1795 and was named in honour of
his brother who had died in January that year. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th
December 1795 but he died around the time of his twenty-seventh birthday and
was buried at Charlton on 30th December 1822. It is possible, although not yet proved,
that he married Hannah Eyres at Charlton on 14th June 1819, with
his older brother John Collett (above) acting as one of the witnesses, which
means that he died before his son was born at Fencott.
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46N27
|
William
Collett
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Born in 1823
at Fencott
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46M14
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Richard Collett was born at Fencott in 1798 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19th August 1798. He was married by licence to (1) Phyllis
Goome on 9th June 1825 at Charlton who was with child at the time.
Phyllis was the daughter of Thomas and
Elizabeth Goome and was baptised at Charlton on 11th September 1803. The couple’s first child was born at
Fencott less than four months after they were married and was followed by a
second child born at Fencott eighteen months later. Tragically Richard’s wife Phyllis died
exactly one year later, possibly during the birth of a further child, which
also did not survive.
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Phyllis
was just 24 years of age when she died in 1828 and was buried in the
churchyard of St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22nd June 1828. Six years later Richard had a son James although
that was at a time between his two known wives, which raises the question was
he married three times. Two years later
Richard was married by banns to (2) Ann Faulkner at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18th
July 1836. The parish register
confirmed that Richard was a widower of Charlton, while Ann was a spinster of
the parish. She was also many years
younger than Richard having been born between 1811 and 1816 according to the
later census records.
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That
marriage produced a further six children for Richard, the first two being
born while Richard and Ann were living at Charlton. There followed a move to Fencott where the next
three were born, and a later move to Murcott where the last one was born. All of them though, were baptised at
Charlton-on-Otmoor. At the time of the
baptism of all of his children, Richard was described as a labourer. There may be a possibility of some confusion
with their children since, living in the same area at the same time was
another married couple named Richard Collett (Ref. 46N2) and his wife Ann,
although she was born at Hungerford in Berkshire.
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It
is also confirmed in the parish register at Charlton-on-Otmoor, that four of
the couple’s children were privately baptised at home, presumably because
they were too ill to attend St Mary’s Church.
As a result, all four of those children did not survive beyond a few
months, and they were George, Eliza Ann, William, and George the younger.
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With
the complications surrounding the census in 1841 no positive record of the
family has been found, but by 1851 Richard and his reduced family was living
in Murcott. Richard, age 52 and from
Fencott, was a pauper and an agricultural labourer. His wife Ann was 39 and from Fencott, and
the three children living with them were James, age 16 and an agricultural
labourer from Fencott, John who was six years old, and George who was eleven
months old, but who died in 1852.
According to the next census in 1861 Richard Collett gave his age as
60, rather than 62, while his wife Ann was 44. Living with them at Murcott was their son
John Collett who was 16. Richard Collett
died at Murcott just two years after the census day in 1863 and was buried at
Charlton on 3rd September 1863 at the age of 66.
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46N28
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Joseph Collett
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Born in 1825
at Fencott
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46N29
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Thomas Collett
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Born in 1827
at Fencott
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46N30
|
James Collett
|
Born in 1834
at Fencott
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The
children of Richard Collett by his second known wife Ann are listed below:
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46N31
|
George Collett
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Born in 1837
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46N32
|
Thomas Collett
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Born in 1839
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46N33
|
John
Richard Collett
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Born in 1844
at Fencott
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46N34
|
Eliza Ann Collett
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Born in 1846
at Fencott
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46N35
|
William Collett
|
Born in 1847
at Fencott
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46N36
|
George Collett
|
Born in 1850
at Murcott
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46M15
|
George Collett was born at Fencott in 1801 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1st November 1801. No other record for George has so far been
found.
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46M16
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James Collett was born at Fencott either late in
1802 or early in 1803. He was a
labourer and he and his wife Sarah were both listed as being aged 40 in the
1841 Census, although Sarah was much older than James. The census return had the following children
also listed with them at Fencott in 1841 and they were Caroline age 12, Ann
who was nine and Charlotte who was six.
The three daughters of James and Sarah were all baptised at the Church
of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor when their parents were named as labourer
James Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah.
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The
Fencott census of 1851 listed James Collett, age 51 and an agricultural
labourer of Fencott, living with just his wife Sarah, age 57 and from Ludgershall,
and their daughter Charlotte who was 16 and born at Fencott. Also lodging with the family was unmarried
26 years old agricultural labourer Mary Hine from Ludgershall. Two years after that James Collett of
Fencott died at the age of 51, following which he was buried at the Church of
St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18th December 1853. Sarah died almost exactly three years later
and was also buried at Charlton with her husband on 16th December
1856, at the age of 64.
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46N37
|
Caroline Collett
|
Born in 1828
at Fencott
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46N38
|
Ann Collett
|
Born in 1831
at Fencott
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46N39
|
Charlotte Collett
|
Born in 1834
at Fencott
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46N1
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Martha Collett was born at Fencott in 1813 and was
baptised on 17th July 1813 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the eldest
daughter of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. Eighteen years later on 11th
July 1831 Martha married Jonathan Orchard at Swanbourne near Winslow, north
of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
Jonathan was born at Swanbourne on 16th April 1809, the son
of Thomas Orchard and Rebecca Matthews.
The early years of their married life together was spent at Swanbourne
where their daughter Rebecca Orchard was born on 1st September
1834. At the time of the census in
1851 Martha and her family were still living at Swanbourne when she gave her place
of birth as Murcott.
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Jonathan
Orchard had relations living in Hampshire and it was there at South Stoneham on
25th July 1853 that his daughter Rebecca married (1) Henry Currell
who was born at Swanbourne on 19th October 1827. The marriage produced a son, Edward Currell,
whose second wife was Maud Turner who came from a long line of the Collett
family based at Over near St Ives in Cambridgeshire. Maud was born on 21st March 1886
and, previously, the details of her Collett family line could be found in
Appendix One at the end of this family line.
However, in October 2014 the Collett Family History website was
pleased to launch Part 69 – Other
Cambridgeshire Families which includes three separate branches of the
family living in villages between St Ives and the City of Cambridge. The first of those three branches provide
details of the Colletts from Ireland in 1432 through to Maud Turner in 1886,
resulting in the removal of the old Appendix One from this file.
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The
Orchard family eventually emigrated to Australia and settled at Black Springs
in Barraba, New South Wales. Shortly
after they arrived, Martha Orchard nee Collett died at Black Springs on 10th
December 1875 and was followed almost six years later by her husband Jonathan
who died there on 16th November 1881.
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Back
in England Rebecca’s husband Henry Currell died on 3rd February 1870,
following which she married (2) Thomas Johnson at Little Horwood in
Buckinghamshire. Once they were
married Rebecca and Thomas sailed out to Australia to be reunited with her
parents, just prior to her mother’s death.
Rebecca Johnson formerly Currell nee Orchard died at Black Springs on
15th June 1902, and just over four years later on 5th
October 1906 her second husband Thomas died while living at Barraba in NSW.
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The
aforementioned Edward Currell, who was born at Swanbourne in 1857, was first
married to Mary Esther McNeill but, following her death, he married Maud
Turner in New South Wales on 31st May 1927. That second marriage produced a son Clifford
Currell who was born at Barraba on 15th July 1931 and who was
nearly five years old when his father died at Barraba on 2nd May 1936. His mother Maud Currell nee Turner died at
Stockton in NSW on 27th January 1962.
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On
23rd July 1952 at Petersham in NSW, Clifford Currell married
Josephine Elys Everitt who was born at Murwillumbah in NSW on 22nd
December 1931. The daughter from that
marriage was Joanne (Jo) Patricia Currell who was born at Parramatta in NSW on
14th April 1969 who married Matthew James Power at Bankstown on 30th
August 1991, Matthew having been born at Sutherland in NSW on 9th
January 1968. Jo’s father Clifford
Currell passed away nearly fourteen years later when he died on 20th
January 2004 at Blacktown in New South Wales. Jo and Matthew Power currently live in the
Campsie area of Sydney with their three children Brett, Ben, and
Katelyn. And it is thanks to Jo that
the continuation of the life of Martha Collett and her descendants has been
included here.
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46N2
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Richard Collett was born at Fencott, and that may have
taken place a few years before he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4th
June 1815, the son of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. On leaving school Richard worked as a
labourer at Murcott and at the age of 23 he was married by licence to Ann
Grove Sturch who was also 23 and the daughter of Robert Grove Sturch, a
farmer at Murcott. The wedding took
place at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14th February
1839 where their daughter Elizabeth was baptised only nineteen weeks later. She may have been one half of a set of twins,
the male half perhaps being too poorly to attend. It was therefore two months later that
their son Thomas was baptised at Charlton on 22nd August
1839. Two years after they were married
Ann presented Richard with another son who was also born at Murcott but,
after a further two years, the couple’s eldest son – born before they were
married, died.
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By
June 1841 Richard’s rounded age was 30 and listed living with him at Murcott
was his one-year old daughter Elizabeth.
At that time, for whatever reason his wife Ann was with their son
Robert who was under one year old, when they were recorded in the St Clement
& Headington district of Oxford.
During the next ten years Ann presented Richard with a further six children
while the family was living at nearby Fencott. All of the children’s baptisms were
recorded at Charlton and in each case the child’s father was described as
Richard Collett labourer. From the
parish register it can be determined that some of the children were born
having poor health, and for that reason they were recorded as having been
‘privately baptised’, which meant they were baptised at home.
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As
a result of their poor health, two children died during the 1840s and a
further one passed away prior to 1851, with all of them being buried at
Charlton. Therefore, by the time of
the census in 1851 the family living at Murcott was made up of Richard
Collett of Murcott who was 39 and a farmer of 60 acres, his wife Ann from
Hungerford who was 36, together with six of their nine children. The six surviving children were listed as
Elizabeth, age 12 and of Murcott, Robert who was 10 and also from Murcott,
Albert who was eight, David who was six, Edwin who was three, and Philip who
was one year old, and all of them born at Fencott. The three deceased infants were Eliza Ann,
William and George. Supporting the
family was servant William Horwood, aged 18 and from Piddington of
Oxfordshire.
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The
Fencott census of 1861 listed Richard from Murcott and Ann from Hungerford as
both being aged 45. The only children
listed with them on that occasion were Edwin aged 13 from Fencott, Philip aged
11 from Murcott, both described as farmer’s sons, Spencer who was eight and
from Murcott and Auten who was three years old and from Fencott. The missing child on that occasion was their
eldest son George. By that time in his
life Richard’s landholding had reduced from 60 acres to just 11 acres. Living next door to the Collett family in Fencott
in 1861 was another Collett family, that of Richard’s uncle John Collett
(Ref. 46M5) of Fencott and his wife Sarah Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor.
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There
is a mystery surrounding the passing of Richard Collett since, when he died at the age of 52,
there was an inquest held into his death.
That may indicate he died under suspicious circumstances or that he
was killed in some way, rather than dying of natural causes. Either way, the death of Richard Collett was recorded at Bicester
(Ref. 3a 382) during the last three months of 1867, following which Richard
was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29th
October 1867. Having lost her husband, it appears that Ann
left Oxfordshire when she travelled south into Buckinghamshire and, on the
day of the next census in 1871, she was working as the housekeeper for John
Belgrove at his home in Swanbourne, midway between Winslow and Stewkley. Widowed Ann Collett from Hungerford was 55.
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It
was exactly the same situation ten years later when, once again, Ann Collett
was 65 and described as the general the housekeeper at Above Mead Farm in
Swanbourne, the home of bachelor farmer John Belgrove of Stewkley who was
farming 200 acres, employing 5 men and 2 boys. During the next decade Ann Collett moved further south, to Maidstone
in Kent, to live near her married son David Collett. That was confirmed in the census of 1891
when Ann Collett from Hungerford was a lodger at Boxley Road in Maidstone,
where she was described as a widow of 75 who was living on her own
means. Ten years later Ann Collett
from Hungerford was still living in Maidstone in 1901, but as a boarder at a lodging
house run by Edward and Jane Thatcher in Brewer Street, very near to Earl
Street where her son David had been living in 1891. On that occasion Ann was still living on
her own means at the age of 84. Four
year after that, the death of Ann Collett was recorded at Maidstone register
office (Ref. 2a 535) during the first three months of 1905, when her age was
said to be 90.
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46O1
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George Collett
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Born in 1837
at Murcott
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46O2
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Thomas Collett twin?
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Born in 1839
at Murcott
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46O3
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Elizabeth Collett twin?
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Born in 1839
at Murcott
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46O4
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Robert Sturch Collett
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Born in 1841
at Murcott
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46O5
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Albert Collett
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Born in 1843
at Fencott
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46O6
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David Collett
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Born in 1844
at Fencott
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46O7
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Eliza Anne Collett
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Born in 1845
at Fencott
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46O8
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Edwin Collett
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Born in 1846
at Fencott
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46O9
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William Collett
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Born in 1847
at Fencott
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46O10
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Philip Collett
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Born in 1848
at Fencott
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46O11
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George Collett
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Born in 1849 at
Murcott
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46O12
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John
James Collett
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Born in 1850
at Murcott
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46O13
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Spencer Collett
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Born in 1852
at Murcott
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46O14
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Auten Collett
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Born in 1857
at Fencott
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46N3
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Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1817 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6th April 1817. Not long after he was born the family left
Fencott and moved to nearby Murcott.
Although no listing has been found for Thomas in the census of 1841,
by 1851 he was 35 and was married to Mary, age 28, who was also of Fencott. Their marriage at that time had so far
produced two sons for the couple and they were Thomas who was three years of
age, and baby Henry who was not yet one year old. The family was living at Murcott at that
time. Sadly, their son Charles, who
was born three years later in 1854, died just one month after he was born.
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It
would appear that one further child was added to the family over the
following years, so by 1861 Thomas Collett, who was 44 and an agricultural
labourer from Murcott, and his wife Mary, who was 38 and from Fencott, had
listed as living with them their three sons Thomas who was 13 and a
plough-boy, Henry who was 10 and still at school, and Caleb who was four years
old and who had also been born at Murcott like his two brothers.
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By
1871 the couple’s two oldest surviving sons had left the family home, leaving
just Caleb, age 14, still living with his parents, Thomas who was 54, and
Mary who was 48. According to the
Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, Thomas Collett from Fencott was 64 years
old and was then a farmer of eight acres.
Mary, his wife and also of Fencott, was 58. Still living with them was their unmarried
son Caleb who was 24 and born at Murcott, who was employed as an agricultural
labourer.
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Thomas
must have died during the 1880s since Mary was a widow at the age of 68 by
1891. Still living with her was her
son Caleb who was then 34. As Mary was
not listed in the census of 1901 it must be assumed that she died during the
1890s. Following his death, the
farmland owned and worked by Thomas Collett at Murcott was shared between
three of his sons, they being Thomas, Henry and Caleb.
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46O15
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Thomas Collett
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Born in 1847
at Murcott
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46O16
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Henry Collett
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Born in 1851
at Murcott
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46O17
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Charles Collett
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Born in 1854
at Murcott
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46O18
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Caleb Collett
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Born in 1856
at Murcott
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46N4
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William Collett was born at Murcott in 1819 and was
baptised on 16th July 1819 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the son of
William Collett and his wife Prudence Pittam.
Thanks to Shirley Martin in 2012 it is now established that the
information previously written here about William Collett was incorrect,
although it was correct insofar as he did marry Mary Ann. However, she did not die after the birth of
their son John, nor did William re-marry Sarah, so there are some unresolved
details regarding that William and Sarah who, it is now known, were from
Fencott and Eynsham respectively.
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It was on 9th
January 1840 that William Collett from Murcott married Mary Ann Clark at the
parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor. Mary
Anne was the daughter of farmer John Clark and was baptised on 10th
September 1820 at the Church of St James in Boarstall, Buckinghamshire. At the time of their wedding Mary Ann was a
spinster of Murcott at the age of 19, while William was a bachelor and a
labourer of Murcott, whose father was confirmed as labourer William
Collett. The witnesses at the ceremony
were William’s older brother Thomas Collett (above) and Sarah Cox. Once they were married the couple settled
in Horton-cum-Studley, just a short distance from Murcott and Charlton.
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It
now appears that Mary Ann may have already given birth to a son prior to
their wedding day or was in an advanced state of pregnancy on that day. The
evidence in the later census of 1861 suggests that the child may have even
been born as early as 1838 or 1839.
However, it was just three months after they were married that Mary
Ann’s son was baptised as William Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor, as were the
couple’s following sons, there being no church at Murcott or
Horton-cum-Studley. What is very interesting
is that within the census of 1841 William’s and Mary Ann’s eldest son was
named John, while it was their third son who was eventually baptised with the
name John four years later. William
and Mary Ann were both 20 years of age in 1841, while their son ‘John’ was
one year old, when the family was living at Whitecross Green in
Horton-cum-Studley, where William was an agricultural labourer.
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The
next census in 1851 again raises questions about the couple’s eldest son, since
the family was still living at Horton-cum-Studley, but seemingly without their
son William Collett. Instead, the
child of around the same age who was living there with them was William Clark
who was 11 years of age and born at Headington who was described as
son-in-law, possibly indicating that he was the child of Mary Ann Clark. The rest of the family comprised William and
Mary Ann Collett, both 31, with their two youngest sons George Collett, who
was seven, and John Collett who was five.
The family was recorded under the surname Collet, when William from
Murcott was still working as an agricultural labourer. Mary Ann was confirmed as having been born
at Boarstall, and the two sons at Horton-cum-Studley. Staying with the family on that occasion was
Mary Ann’s brother William Clark, age 27, an agricultural labourer from
Studley, who was described as brother-in-law.
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It is highly likely that Mary Ann was
with-child on the day of the census, because later that same year she gave
birth to fourth son. Less than four
years after that William Collett died and was buried at Beckley Church on 5th
February 1855, when he was described as being aged 34 and from Whitecross
Green. It was thirty-two months later
that Mary Ann Collett married James Payne at Beckley on 15th
October 1857. James
was a bachelor and a labourer of 29 from Whitecross Green, the son of
labourer William Payne, while Mary Ann Collett, age 37, was a widow from
Whitecross Green, the daughter of farmer John Clark. The witnesses were James Blake and Emma
Payne.
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The
marriage of Mary Ann Collett nee Clark and James Payne produced a daughter
who was born around the time that the couple was married, as confirmed by the
Beckley census of 1861 when James Payne was 31, his wife Mary A Payne was 40,
and their daughter Thurza Payne was just three years of age. Also living in Beckley with the family at
that time were Mary Ann three sons William Collett, age 20, George Collett,
age 18, and Ellis Collett who was nine years old. All three sons had been born at Horton (in
Headington) and were described as son-in-law to head of the household James
Payne. It is interesting that Mary Ann’s
missing son, John Collett, had left school by that time and was working as a
shepherd on the Boarstall farm of William Blake. He was very likely related to the
aforementioned witness James Blake and is believed to be the half-brother
James Payne’s mother.
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Further
tragedy must have struck Mary Ann sometime during the 1860s when her husband
was killed or died as the result of an accident, he being so much younger
than her. Her loss may have resulted
in her losing the house at Beckley, since in 1871 she was lodging at the home
of farmer William Cox within the Whitecross Green area of Horton-cum-Studley. With her on that occasion was her unmarried
son George. During the next decade
Mary Ann settled in Charlton-on-Otmoor, where she was living in 1881, again
with her son George and her daughter Theresa Payne, who was 23 and a domestic
servant. Widow Mary A Payne from
Boarstall in Buckinghamshire was a laundress at the age of 60.
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46O19
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William Clark Collett
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Born in 1839
at Horton-cum-Studley
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46O20
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George Collett
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Born in 1843
at Horton-cum-Studley
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46O21
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John Collett
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Born in 1845
at Horton-cum-Studley
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46O22
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Ellis Collett
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Born in 1851
at Horton-cum-Studley
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46N5
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George Collett was born at Murcott in 1821 and was
baptised on 25th June 1821 at Charlton-on-Otmoor. He had a rounded age of 20 in June
1841. Around 1850 George married Eliza
Harris of Islip with whom he had at least five children and all of them born
at Murcott. Over the following ten
years the marriage produced the couple’s first four children, so by 1861 the
family was made up of George, age 38 from Murcott, who was a labourer, his
wife Eliza age 32 and from nearby Islip, and their sons Lewis who was seven,
William who was three, and George who was two, together with their daughter Elizabeth
Ann who was four years old.
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Living
in the dwellings on either side of the property occupied by George and his
family was his brother Thomas Collett (above) with his family and, on the
other side, George’s widowed mother Prudence, who had living with her
George’s youngest sister Charlotte Elizabeth Walker nee Collett (below) with
her two daughters. Shortly after the
1861 Census date Eliza presented George with their last child which indicated
that she was with child on the day on the census. Ten years later the 1871 Census recorded
the family as George 47, Eliza 42, Lewis 17, William 14, George 11, and
latest edition Alfred who was nine.
Missing from the family home was daughter Elizabeth who was 15 and who
by then was living and working fifteen miles away at Winslow in
Buckinghamshire. However, still living
next door to the family was George’s elderly mother Prudence.
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During
the next decade the family moved a couple of miles south to Beckley where they
were recorded as living in 1881.
George was 60 and from Murcott, while his occupation was then that of
a farmer of thirty acres. His wife was
55 on that occasion. The only member
of the family still living with them at that time was their unmarried son
George who was 21, from Murcott, who was working as an agricultural
labourer. The couple’s youngest son
Alfred was living with Eliza’s sister Esther Harris and her husband Thomas
Honour in Hampshire.
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46O23
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Lewis Collett
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Born in 1853
at Murcott
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46O24
|
Elizabeth Ann Collett
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Born in 1855
at Murcott
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46O25
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William Collett
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Born in 1857
at Murcott
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46O26
|
George Collett
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Born in 1859
at Murcott
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46O27
|
Alfred Collett
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Born in 1862
at Murcott
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46N6
|
John Collett was born at Murcott in 1823 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25th February 1823, the son of
William Collett and Prudence Pittam. He was later recorded as being 15 years old
in 1841. The marriage of John Collett and Matilda Attwood was
recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 67) during the last quarter of 1848. Matilda, who came from nearby Horton-cum-Studley,
presented John with their first child in the following year and another, a
year later. In 1851 the family living
at Murcott comprised agricultural labourer John Collett, aged 26, who was
born at Murcott, his wife Matilda, age 23 and from Horton, and their two daughters
Louisa Collett who was two years old and Selina Collett who was only six months
old, both girls born at Murcott.
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By
the time of the 1861 Census the family had grown with the birth of four more
children. The census record for
Murcott in the Bicester & Bletchington registration district revealed that
John was 37, Matilda was 35 and their children were Caleb, who was ten, Clara
who was seven, Emily who was five, Rosanna who was three, and baby Eli who
had only just been born. On that
occasion the couple’s eldest daughter Louisa, at the age of 12, had already
started work as a house servant at the Murcott home of William, a farmer and
publican, whose surname in the census is unreadable. However, the absence of daughter Selina may
indicate she had already suffered an infant death.
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During
the next ten years three more children were added to the family but the
absences from the census of 1871 might indicate that two of the older
children had left home. The two
missing children were Caleb who would have been 20, and Emily who would have
been 15. Their son Eli Collett had sadly
died during 1865. The family therefore
comprised John 48, Matilda 46,
daughters Clara 18 and Rowena 12, together with new arrivals Herbert who was
eight, Walter who was five, and baby Jane who was only one year old.
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According
to the 1881 Census, only sons Herbert and Walter were still living with their
parents at that time. It is therefore
possible that John’s and Matilda’s youngest daughter Jane, who would have
been ten, had also not survived beyond childhood. The census return in 1881 recorded that the
family was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor where John was 58 and his birth place
was confirmed as being Murcott, as it was for his sons Herbert aged 17 and
Walter aged 15. All three men were
working as agricultural labourers.
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John’s wife Matilda was 56 and her place
of birth was confirmed as Horton. With
no details having been found for Matilda in the later census records, it may
be safe to assume that she had passed away during the 1880s. By the time of the next census in 1891 for
the Bletchington & Bicester area, John Collett was 68 and still living
with him were his two unmarried sons Herbert and Walter whose ages were given
as 26 and 24 respectively. It would appear
that John died during the 1890s,
as he has not been identified in the census of 1901.
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46O28
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Louisa Collett
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Born in 1849 at Murcott
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46O29
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Selina Collett
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Born in 1850
at Murcott
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46O30
|
Caleb Collett
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Born in 1851
at Murcott
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46O31
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Benjamin Collett
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Born in 1852
at Murcott
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46O32
|
Clara Collett
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Born in 1853
at Murcott
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46O33
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Emily Collett
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Born in 1855
at Murcott
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46O34
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Rowena Collett
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Born in 1857
at Murcott
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46O35
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Eli Collett
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Born in 1860
at Murcott
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46O36
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Herbert Collett
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Born in 1862
at Murcott
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46O37
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Walter Collett
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Born in 1865
at Murcott
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46O38
|
Jane Collett
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Born in 1870
at Murcott
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46N7
|
Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1825 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22nd January 1825. It would appear that he was subject to an infant
death as the family’s next male child was also named Benjamin (below).
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46N8
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Mary Collett was born at Murcott in 1826 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1st May 1826, the daughter of
William and Prudence Collett. No other
record for Mary has so far been found.
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46N9
|
Charlotte Elizabeth
Collett was born at Murcott
in 1829 and was baptised as Elizabeth Collett on 4th October 1829
at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the youngest daughter of William and Prudence Collett.
In 1841 Elizabeth was 12 years old
when she was still living with her family at Murcott. It was as Elizabeth that she married William
Walker on 11th December 1849 in Swanbourne north of Aylesbury in
Buckinghamshire, where her older married sister Martha (above) was living
with her family at that time. In the Swanbourne
census of 1851 Elizabeth Walker from Murcott was 23 when she was living there
with her husband William, who was also 23, and their daughter Harriet Walker
who was not yet one year old. She
presented William with a second daughter two years later but, by 1861 Elizabeth
Walker was a widow who had returned to Murcott with her two daughters to live
there with her widowed mother Prudence Collett from Twyford in
Buckinghamshire.
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The
census that year recorded her under her full name of Charlotte Elizabeth
Walker. On that occasion she curiously
stated that she was 29 years of age, although she did say that she had been
born at Murcott. Charlotte was working
as a field woman at that time, while her two daughters were listed with her as
Harriet Walker who was 10, and Eliza Walker who was seven, both of them born
at Swanbourne in Buckinghamshire.
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46N10
|
Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1831 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th November 1831, the last child
of William Collett and Prudence Pittam.
Sadly, he only survived for less than two years and was buried at St
Mary’s Church in Charlton on 30th August 1833.
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46N11
|
John Collett
was born at
Wendlebury near Bicester on 30th May 1824 where his parents had
been married during November in the previous year. It would also appear from the records that
he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 30th May 1824. During the years after he was born John and
his parents left Oxfordshire and moved the short distance across the county
boundary to settle in the village of Boarstall in Buckinghamshire. And it was at Panshill Farm in Boarstall
where the family was living in June 1841 when John was 15, but by 1851 he was
26 and a farmer and a visitor at the home of widow Martha Foster and her
unmarried brother William Foster at Caversfield near Bicester. It was Martha’s daughter that John may have
been seeing at that time because, just over three years later, at thirty
years of age, he married Lucy Foster at Caversfield on 9th November
1854. Lucy was born at Bucknell just
north of Bicester on 4th June 1830 where she was baptised on 13th
June 1830. She was the daughter of the
late Richard Foster and Martha King, although other records gave the mother’s
name as Martha Coleman.
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Within
the next seven years the marriage produced the first four children for John
and Lucy, so by the time of the census of 1861 the family comprised John
Collett from Wendlebury who was 36 and a farmer of 116 acres, employing 22
men. His wife Lucy from Bucknell was
30 and their four children were Richard who was five, Martha who was four, John
who was two and William who was five months old. All four children had been born at Arncott,
with the family living at Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott on that occasion. Completing the household were servants
James Sampley, Sarah Massey and James Hubbucks. The couple’s next two children were born
after John and Lucy had move to Charlton-on-Otmoor and sometime over the
following years John returned to Boarstall with his family. And it was at Boarstall that his last five
children are known to have been born.
The family move to Boarstall may have been prompted by the death of John’s father Richard in 1863 and the need to be
back in the village of his childhood to be near his widowed mother Martha.
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At
the time of the 1871 Census for Boarstall farmer John Collett from Wendlebury
was 46, Lucy Collett was 40 and their children then were Richard Collett 15,
John Edwin Collett 12, William Foster Collett 10, James Bottrell Collett who
was seven, Walter George Collett who was five, Esther Collett who was three
and Edith Bessie who was not yet one year old. Their eldest daughter Martha was missing
from the family list following her death in 1863 but staying with the family,
that year, was John’s nephew Arthur Collett aged 18 and from Murcott who was
a farm servant and the son of John’s younger brother Richard (below). One other person was recorded with the
family and she was Jane Jennings from nearby Oakley who was 15.
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By
April 1881 John was farming 190
acres of land at Pansole Farm in Boarstall where he also employed three men,
two of whom may have been his sons John
and James who were still living with John
and Lucy at that time. The full census
record confirmed that John was 56 and born at Wendlebury, and that his wife
was Lucy who was 50 and born at Bucknell.
Listed with them were sons John Edwin Collett, age 20 of Arncott,
James Bottrell Collett, age 17 of Charlton-on-Otmoor, and Herbert Spencer Collett
who was six, and their daughters Esther, age 13, Edith Bessie, age 11, and
Beatrice Mary who was nine. The census
confirmed that the four youngest children had all been born at Boarstall.
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John
Collett died at Boarstall on 29th December 1881 where he was also
buried. Sometime after the death of
her husband Lucy left Boarstall with some of her children and moved back to
the Bicester area where they were recorded as living in 1891. Widow Lucy was 60 and still living with her
were just four of her children James 26, Edith 20, Beatrice 19 and Herbert
16. Over the following years Lucy
returned to Boarstall where she presumably lived until her death in 1914 at
the age of 83.
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The
1901 Census confirmed that she was back living at Boarstall with her son John Edwin Collett and his wife and family. She was 70 and her place of birth was again
confirmed as Bucknell near Bicester.
According to the next census in April 1911 Lucy Collett had left
Boarstall and at the age of eighty was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor with two of
her youngest unmarried daughters. They
were Esther who was 43, and Beatrice who was 39. Also living with the three ladies was
Martha Alice Collett who was 24 and the granddaughter of Lucy Collett, being
the daughter of her eldest son Richard.
It was three years after that when Lucy Collett nee Foster died during
1914.
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46O39
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Richard Collett
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Born in 1855
at Arncott
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46O40
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Martha Ann Collett
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Born in 1857
at Arncott
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46O41
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John Edwin Collett
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Born in 1859
at Arncott
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46O42
|
William Foster Collett
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Born in 1861
at Arncott
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46O43
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Lucy Louisa Collett
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Born in 1862
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46O44
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James Bottrell Collett
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Born in 1864
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46O45
|
Walter George
Collett
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Born in 1865
at Boarstall
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46O46
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Esther Collett
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Born in 1867
at Boarstall
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46O47
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Edith Bessie Collett
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Born in 1870
at Boarstall
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46O48
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Beatrice Mary Collett
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Born in 1871
at Boarstall
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46O49
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Herbert Spencer Collett
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Born in 1874
at Boarstall
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46N12
|
Richard Collett was born Boarstall in Buckinghamshire in
1827 and was the second child of Richard Collett and Martha Bottrell. By the time of the census in 1841 Richard
was 14 years old and still living at Panshill Farm in Boarstall with his
family. Shortly before the next census
day Richard married Mary who was born at Oakley to the south of
Boarstall. That was confirmed by the
census in 1851 when Richard Collett from Boarstall was 23 and a farmer of
nine acres and Mary Collett from Oakley was 21. At that time the couple was residing in the
village of Murcott, not far from Richard’s family, and staying with the
childless couple was Richard’s youngest sister Martha Collett who was 10
years old and also born at Boarstall.
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It
is possible that Richard’s wife may not have lived through the ordeal of
giving birth to the couple’s only known child, who was born at Murcott, since
Richard was a lodger at the Birmingham home of Thomas and Mary Allan at Brewery
Street in 1861. Richard Collett from
Boarstall was 33 and working as a labourer.
His marital status on the census return was blank. At that time in his young life his son
Arthur was being looked after by Richard’s elderly parents at Bicester.
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46O50
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Arthur Collett
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Born in 1852
at Murcott
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46N13
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Ann Collett was born at Boarstall in 1829 and by 1841
she was 12 years of age when living in Boarstall with her family on Panshill
Farm. Over the following decade the
family crossed the county boundary into Oxfordshire and in 1851 she was 20
years old when she was still living with her family at Murcott within the Bicester
& Bletchingdon area. It seems
likely that Ann was married not long after that since no record of Ann
Collett from Boarstall has so far been found.
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46N14
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Felicia Collett was born at Boarstall in 1832 and according
to the 1841 Census Felicia Collett was nine years old when she was living
with her family at Panshill Farm in Boarstall. No further record of her as either Felicia
or Helena has been found in any later census records, perhaps because she was
married prior to the census day in 1851.
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46N15
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Elizabeth Collett was born at Boarstall in 1836 and was
aged five years in the Boarstall census conducted in June 1841 when she and
her family were living at Panshill Farm.
Ten years later she was 15 years of age in the Murcott, Oxfordshire, census
of 1851. Between April and June in
1856 Elizabeth married Mark Honour, the marriage being registered in
Bicester. Mark was born at Murcott in
1832 and was the younger brother of Thomas Honour who employed his nephew
Alfred Collett (Ref. 46O27) in 1881 on his farm in Hampshire. Shortly after Elizabeth and Mark were married,
she presented her husband with their first child which was born at Murcott,
as were all of their five children.
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However,
sometime after the birth of the last child the family left Murcott and moved
south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire. And it was there that the family was living
in 1881. Mark was 48 and was farming
500 acres of land known as Lower Farm in Swyncombe where he employed four men
and a boy. His place of birth was
confirmed as Murcott, while Elizabeth his wife, who was 41, was confirmed has
having been born at Fencott and not Boarstall which seems rather
curious. Their children were Sarah,
age 24, Albert, age 22, Walter, age 18, Bessie, age 16, and William who was
nine. Also supporting the family were
two domestic farm servants William Morton and Benjamin Groves both aged
18. Tragically it was later that same
year when Elizabeth died at
Swyncombe.
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46N16
|
Martha Collett was born at Panshill Farm in Boarstall
during the first month of 1841 and was five months old in the June census of
1841. She may have been only a few
years old when her father took the family to live at Murcott in
Oxfordshire. However, the census
return for Murcott in 1851 placed Martha Collett aged 10 years living with
her recently married brother Richard Collett and his wife Mary, with Martha’s
parents living close by. Over the
following years Martha returned to live with her parents, as confirmed in the
next census of 1861 when Martha Collett from Boarstall was 20 years old.
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46N17
|
Susanna Collett was born in 1820 and may have been
base-born since she was baptised at Blackthorn on 14th May 1820
using her mother’s maiden name. No
other record for Susanna or Susannah has so far been found.
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46N18
|
Sarah Collett was born in 1823 and may have been
base-born since, like her sister Susanna (above) she was baptised at
Blackthorn on 4th July 1823 using her mother’s maiden name. No other record for Sarah has so far been found.
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46N19
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Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1834 but was
baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25th
December 1834, the eldest child of farmer John and Sarah Collett. She was six years old in the June census of
1841 and was 16 in 1851 when, on both occasions, she was living with her parents
at Murcott. By the time she was 26 she
was very likely married, as there is no record of Elizabeth Collett of
Murcott around that age listed within the census of 1861.
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46N20
|
William Collett was born at Murcott in 1836 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14th May 1837, the eldest son of
farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft.
His age quoted in each of the subsequent census returns varied a great
deal, starting with him being four years in Murcott/Fencott census of 1841. Ten years later he was 13 in the
Murcott/Fencott census of 1851 when he was described as a farmer’s son. By 1861 he was 22 but was more correctly recorded
in the census of 1871 when he was 35 years old. According to the next census in 1881 he was
still living with his parents on their farm at Fencott, within the Charlton-on-Otmoor
registration district, when he was 44.
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Following
the death of his parents over the next few years, it would appear that William
took over the farm at Fencott and eventually became a married man when he was
approaching his fiftieth birthday. By
the time of the census in 1891 William Collett, age 52, was a farmer living
in a farmhouse in Fencott, where he also stated that he had been born. His wife Susannah Collett from Shillingford in
Oxfordshire was only 39 and by then she had presented William with a son. Charles W J Collett had been born at
Fencott and was just one year old. The
census return stated that William was an employer and placed the farmhouse in
which his family was living as being immediately adjacent to the public house
known as The Bull Inn.
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It
was at that same dwelling next door to the re-named Black Bull Inn that the
family of three was still living ten years later. The Fencott census of 1901 recorded the
family as William Collett, who was 63 and a farmer who had been born at
Fencott, his wife Susannah Collett, age 49 and from Shillingford, while their
son Charles W J Collett from Fencott was 11.
With his advancing years William passed away during the first decade
of the new century, so by April 1911 it was just his widow Susannah, who was
59, and his son Charles W J Collett, age 21, who were still living in
Fencott.
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46O51
|
Charles William
John Collett
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Born in 1889
at Fencott
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46N21
|
Charlotte Collett was born at Murcott in 1838 and was
baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21st April 1839,
the daughter of John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. By June 1841 Charlotte was two years old
but it would appear that she died shortly thereafter, since she was not
listed with her family at Murcott in 1851, nor has any record of her been
found after the 1841 census.
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46N22
|
Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1841 following
his family’s move there from nearby Fencott.
Thomas was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th June 1841,
the son of farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of the Murcott census of 1851
Thomas was 10 years old and was living with his family, when his place of birth
was given as Murcott. He later married
Anne Cox of Horton-cum-Studley during October to December in 1867 and their
first child was born at Whitecross Green in Horton shortly after they were
married.
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It
may be of interest to note that an Ellen Martha Cox was born in 1866 at Whitecross
Green in Horton-cum-Studley. She was
the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Cox and she later marry James Bottrell
Collett in 1895. It is likely that
Thomas Cox was the brother of Anne Cox.
Thomas and Margaret Cox were also the parents of Maud Cox of
Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley who married Albert John Collett (Ref.
46O59) around 1893, Albert being the nephew of Thomas Collett, with Maud
being the niece of Anne Cox.
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The
Collett connection between Thomas of Murcott and James Bottrell of Charlton
was through Thomas’ father John Collett, who was the brother of Richard
Collett who was James’ grandfather. In
total Thomas Collett and Anne Cox are known to have had six children, the
second and third child having been born while the family was living at
Arncott and their last three children after the family had moved to Fencott.
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The
census of 1881 recorded the family as living within the Charlton census area
which would have included Fencott where Thomas and Anne are known to have
been living in 1878. That year’s census
revealed that Thomas was a farmer of 230 acres employing three men and two
boys. His place of birth was given as
Murcott and he was 40 years old. His
wife Anne had been born at Horton-cum-Studley and was 34. Their six children at that time were Aubery
(recorded as Albury), age 13 and described as a farmer’s son, Herbert, age
10, Mildred who was nine, Beatrice who was five, Percival who was four, and
Arthur who was two years old.
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Ten
years later the complete family was still together and comprised Thomas, age
49, Annie, age 47, and their children Aubery who was 23, Herbert who was 20,
Mildred who was 19, Beatrice who was 15, Percival who was 13, and Arthur who
was 11. Just after the turn of the
century Thomas and Anne were still living at Charlton but with just two of
their children. Farmer Thomas was 59
of Murcott, Annie of Horton was 53, and daughter Beatrice was 25 and son
Percy was 23, both of Fencott.
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The
later census of 1911 placed the couple living at Fencott where farmer Thomas Collett
was 69 and his wife Annie was 64.
Annie stated that Horton was where she had been born, whereas Thomas
said he was from Fencott. The census
confirmed that Thomas and Annie had been married for forty-four years. The couple’s son Herbert, whose wife had
died during the previous decade, had returned to live with them, together
with the youngest of his three daughters.
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46O52
|
Aubrey Thomas Collett
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Born in 1868
at Horton-cum-Studley
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46O53
|
Herbert James Collett
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Born in 1870
at Arncott
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46O54
|
Mildred Collett
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Born in 1872
at Arncott
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46O55
|
Beatrice Collett
|
Born in 1875
at Fencott
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46O56
|
Percival Cox Collett
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Born in 1877
at Fencott
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46O57
|
Arthur Collett
|
Born in 1879
at Fencott
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46N23
|
George
Collett was born at Murcott in 1843 but was baptised at
Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4th June 1843, the son of farmer John and
Sarah Collett. George was eight years
old in the Murcott census of 1851, when it was noted that he had been born at
Murcott. It was when he was in his mid-twenties
that he married Emma who was eight years his senior, Emma having been born at
Worminghall in Buckinghamshire in 1835.
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The
marriage produced twin daughters who were born while George and Emma were still
living at Fencott. However, soon after
the girls were born George, age 26 and Emma, age 35, were living in the
village of Beckley within the Headington St Clement registration district of
Oxford with their twin daughters who were not yet one year old. During the 1870s the family of four left Oxford
and moved south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire where George’s
cousin Elizabeth Honour nee Collett (above) and her family had also moved
around the same time.
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The
census of 1881 for Swyncombe recorded the family in error using the Collott
spelling of the surname. George
Collott, aged 37 and from Fencott, was the farmer of 70 acres at Darkwood
Farm, while his wife Emma Collott from Worminghall was 45. Their two daughters Sarah A Collott and
Mary E Collott were both 11 years of age and, supporting the family was a
domestic farm servant by the name of Frederick Chalduran, aged 18, also from
Worminghall.
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Ten
years later the family was once again living within the Bicester &
Bletchington registration district, where George Collett was 46, Emma Collett
was 52, Sarah Ann Collett was 21, and Elizabeth Mary Collett was also 21, both
daughters confirmed as having been born at Fencott. In March 1901 George Collett, age 56, a
farmer from Murcott was living at Writchwick Farm in the Market End district
of Bicester with his daughter Elizabeth Collett, age 30 and from Fencott, and
his wife who was recorded in error as Eva Collett, age 57 and from
Worminghall, instead of Emma Collett age 63 from Worminghall. Also living in that same registration
district was Ellen [Rebecca] Collett (Ref. 46P46), the granddaughter of
George’s cousin William Collett (Ref. 46N4).
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However,
by April 1911 both of their daughters were most likely married, since George,
age 66 and from Fencott, was still living at Market End in Bicester with just
his wife Emma, age 74 and from Worminghall, for company.
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46O58
|
Sarah Ann Collett twin
|
Born in 1870
at Fencott
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46O59
|
Mary Elizabeth Collett twin
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Born in 1870
at Fencott
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46N24
|
John
Collett was born at Murcott in 1845, the son of John and Sarah
Collett. He was recorded as being six
years old in the Murcott census of 1851, but by 1861 he and his family were
living at Fencott when John Collett age 15 was confirmed again as having been
born at Murcott. On 20th September
1870 John married Edith who was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor around 1848. Once married the couple settled initially
in Fencott, where they were living in April 1871 when John was 26 and Edith
was 23, and they were awaiting the arrival of their first child. Their second child was also born at Fencott,
before the family moved to Charlton where their third child was born.
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By
1881 the family was living in a cottage in nearby Oddington, where John was a farmer of 140 acres employing four men
and two boys. The census confirmed he
was aged 35 and born at Fencott and that his wife Edith E Collett was 32 and
of Charlton. Their three children at
that time were Albert J Collett, who was nine, Thomas H Collett, who was eight,
and Sarah J Collett who was seven.
However, it is established that the couple did have another son John
who was born at Oddington around four years later and he was living with the
family at Oddington in 1891.
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|
The
Oddington census that year recorded the family as John Collett from Murcott
who was a farmer and an employer at the age of 45, his wife Edith E Collett
who was 43, together with their three sons Albert J Collett who was 19,
Thomas Collett who was 18, and latest arrival John Collett who was five years
old. By that time their daughter Sarah
C Collett was 17 and was recorded nearby.
According to the next census in 1901 Edith E Collett of
Charlton-on-Otmoor was 54, while he husband farmer John
Collett was 55 and his place of birth on that occasion was listed as Murcott. Living with them was their youngest son
John Collett who was 15 and born at Oddington.
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By
April 1911 John Collett of Murcott was 65, his wife Edith E Collett of
Charlton was 63, and by that time in their lives the couple was living in the
hamlet of Noke-next-Oddington with their son John who was 25. On 20th September 1920 John and
Edith celebrated fifty years of married life together and the occasion was
marked by the presentation to the couple of an illuminated scroll. Today the scroll hangs on the wall inside
the house of John’s great grandson Stephen Collett.
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|
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46O60
|
Albert John
Collett
|
Born in 1871
at Fencott
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|
46O61
|
Thomas H Collett
|
Born in 1872
at Fencott
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|
46O62
|
Sarah Cecilia Collett
|
Born in 1873
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
|
|
46O63
|
John Collett
|
Born in 1885
at Oddington
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46N25
|
Richard Collett was born at Murcott in 1848 and was
the youngest child of farmer John Collett and his wife Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of the Murcott/Fencott census of
1851 Richard was three years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Murcott. Thirty years later, according to the 1881
Census, Richard Collett was 32 and a bachelor who was listed as a farmer’s
son. At that time, he was still living
with his elderly parents on their 88-acre farm in Fencott, within the parish
of Charlton-on-Otmoor.
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|
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|
Richard’s
parents died during the 1880s and by 1891 he was living alone in Fencott,
within the Bicester & Bletchington registration when he was 44. The next census in March 1901 listed
Richard Collett as being 54 years old and born at Fencott, where he was
living at that time and where he was working as a thatcher. He was still unmarried and living alone ten
years later when, rather curiously, he was recorded as being 59 years old.
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46N26
|
Denise Collett was born at Fencott in 1809 and was
the daughter of Mary Collett of Fencott who was not married until 1811. She was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on
12th March 1809 and the entry in the parish records referred to her
as ‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’. Therefore, the assumption has been made
that the name today would be Denise.
It is not known whether she retained the Collett name or adopted the
Westbury name, following the marriage of her mother to Richard Westbury on 19th
January 1811. No other record for
Denise or any similar named female has so far been found.
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|
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46N27
|
William
Collett was born at Fencott in early 1823, the son of Thomas
Collett and Hannah Eyres. Sadly, his
father had died in December 1822 and by the time of the first national census
in 1841 William, who would have been 17, had left the family home at Fencott,
although no record of him at that time has so far been found.
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|
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|
Within the Bicester
registration area in 1841, which included Fencott, there was a William Collett
who had a rounded age of 15 who was living at Cottisford to the north-east of
Bicester. However, he had been born at
Cottisford and was the son of Joseph and Jane Collett. After a further ten years William Collett from Cottisford was
25 and an agricultural labourer living at a dwelling named Juniper in
Cottisford. Living there with him was
his wife Hannah, aged 26 and from Shutford in Oxfordshire, and their son Arthur Collett of Cottisford who was
one year old. Who they were and where
they link into the Collett family has still to be determined.
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|
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|
It
was during the fourth quarter of 1846 at Witney parish church (Ref. 16 305)
that William Collett of Fencott married Harriet Hunt from Brize Norton near
Witney, the daughter of Thomas Hunt, their wedding taking place on 6th
December 1846. Once they were married
the couple settled in the hamlet of Hailey near Witney where, over the next
three years, Harriet presented William with two children, both of them born
at Hailey. According to the census in
1851 William Collett from Fencott was curiously recorded as being 32 when he
was working as a carter, while living at Crawley Road in the hamlet of Hailey
near Witney. His wife Harriet from
Witney was 28 and their two children were Elizabeth Collett who was three and
George T Collett who was only ten months old.
Ten years earlier, Harriet Hunt was 19 and living at Brize Norton with
her widowed father Thomas.
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|
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|
Missing
from the family home in the parish of Witney in 1861 was the couple’s
daughter Elizabeth Collett who would have been 13. Instead, the census return simply recorded
the family as just William Collett who was 39 years of age and from Foxcott
(Fencott), his wife Harriet who was 38 and their son George who was 10. Six years later that Harriet Collett nee
Hunt died at Witney during 1867.
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|
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|
Following
the death of his wife William married (2) Sarah Kench at Witney (Ref. 3a 761)
during the first three months of 1868. Sarah was the widow of John Kench who died
in 1867 and had been born as Sarah Martin, the daughter of Thomas and
Elizabeth Martin. Three years later, in
April 1871, William and Sarah were living at Cape Terrace, off Gloucester
Place in Witney, just along from the High Street. William Collett from Fencott was 48 and a
brewer’s drayman, his wife Sarah was 49 and from Eynsham, and staying with
them was their granddaughter Louisa Annie Dore who was one year old and born
at nearby Hailey, but
entered on the census form as Louisa Ann Collett. She was their married daughter’s first child. Two other people were recorded at the same
address and they were Annie Collett Lucas who was seven years old and
attending school, who was described as a boarder from Woodstock, while
lodging with the family was Joseph Seeley aged 21 and from Hailey who was a domestic
servant.
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|
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|
The
census of 1881 confirmed that William Collett of Fencott was 56 and that he
was still married to Sarah who was 58 and from Eynsham. At that time the couple were living at
Witney where William was a labourer employed at the local brewery. Four other people were lodging at their
house and they were former brewery worker Shayler Clarke and his adopted son
Frederick Drinkwater, a tin plate worker by the name of Edwin Jones, and
ostler Frederick Timms.
|
|
|
|
Sarah
Collett, formerly Kench nee Martin passed away during the 1880s since, by the
time of the next census in 1891, William Collett from Fencott was a widower
at the age of 65. On the day of the
census he had lodging with him at Witney, four other individuals. They were Lea Long and her son George Long,
and Thomas Rickett and John Desmond.
Just less than three years later the death of William Collett was
recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 581) during the first three months of 1894, when
it was also recorded that he was 71 years of age.
|
|
|
|
It
is now known from Les Brown that the marriage certificate of William Collett confirmed
his father as Thomas Collett and that William was twice married (as detailed
above), and that it was his first wife Harriet Hunt of Brize Norton who was
Les’ great grandmother.
|
|
|
|
46O64
|
Elizabeth Collett
|
Born in 1848
at Hailey, nr Witney
|
|
46O65
|
George
Thomas Collett
|
Born in 1850
at Hailey, nr Witney
|
|
|
|
|
46N28
|
Joseph Collett was born at Fencott during 1825 and
was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor later that same year on 13th October
1825, the first of two sons born to Richard and Phyllis Collett. It is not clear what happened to Joseph
after his mother died and his father re-married, but by 1881 he was living at
47 Cavendish Road in Walton-on-the-Hill in Lancashire. From the census record it is apparent that
he married Mary from Shropshire during the 1850s with whom he had at least
one child. By that time in his life
Joseph Collett, age 58 and from Fencott, was a general labourer living with
his wife Mary, age 48 and a farm servant, and their son William Collett who
was 20 and a general labourer who had been born at Ashton-under-Lyne. Three other people were boarding with the
Collett family and they were George and Jane Radford, with their one-year old
daughter Alice.
|
|
|
|
46O66
|
William
Collett
|
Born in 1860
at Ashton-under-Lyne
|
|
|
|
|
46N29
|
Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1827 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24th June 1827, the second of
two sons born to Richard and Phyllis Collett.
Tragically he only survived for around eighteen months before he died
and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 22nd January 1829.
|
|
|
|
|
46N30
|
James Collett was born at Fencott in 1834, the son
of Richard Collett of Fencott. He was
born at a time in Richard’s life which was six years after the death of his
first wife, and two years before he married for a second time. It is therefore possible that James was the
son of Richard Collett and a second, so far unknown second of three wives. It was in 1851 that James Collett of Fencott
was 16 when he was working as an agricultural labourer, while living with his
father and his stepmother Ann, and two younger half-brothers at Murcott.
|
|
|
|
|
46N31
|
George Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in
1837. Being of poor health he was subject
to a private baptism at his home in Charlton on 3rd February 1838
but died shortly after and was buried at Charlton on 17th February
1838.
|
|
|
|
|
46N32
|
Thomas Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1839
and was baptised there on 22nd August 1839. Thomas was the son of Richard and Ann
Collett and he survived for only thirty-one months and, following his death
on 9th February 1842, he was buried at Charlton.
|
|
|
|
|
46N33
|
John Richard Collett was born at Fencott in 1844 and was
baptised on 18th August 1844 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, one of the
very few children of Richard and Ann Collett to survive beyond infancy. By 1851 he was living at Murcott with his
parents at the age of six years when his place of birth was given as Murcott,
and it was the same situation ten years later in 1861, when John from Murcott
was 16 and still living there with his family. Where he was after that time is not clear.
|
|
|
|
|
46N34
|
Eliza Anne Collett was born at Murcott in 1846, the
daughter of Richard and Anne Collett.
She was not in the best of health, as indicated by the fact that she
was the subject of a private baptism at the family home on 11th
April 1846. Sadly, Eliza never
recovered from her illness and died just of twelve months later and was buried
at Charlton on 20th April 1847.
|
|
|
|
|
46N35
|
William Collett was born at Murcott in 1847 and
probably suffered with the same ailments as his older sister Eliza Anne
(above) who died seven months before he was born. William was also baptised at home in a
private baptism on 14th November 1847, but he died six months
later and was buried at Charlton on 18th May 1848.
|
|
|
|
|
46N36
|
George
Collett was born at Murcott during April 1850 and was the fourth
child of the family to die while still an infant. Like his three siblings immediately before
him, he was privately baptised on 9th May 1850 and survived for
almost two years thereafter. At the
time of the census in 1851 he was eleven months old and was living at Murcott
with his parents Richard and Ann Collett.
Following his passing one year later, he was buried at St Mary’s
Church in Charlton on 1st April 1852.
|
|
|
|
|
46N37
|
Caroline Collett was born at Fencott in 1828 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19th October 1828, the eldest daughter
of James and Sarah Collett. She was 12
years old in the Fencott census of 1841 when she was living there with her
family, but by 1851 she was living and working in Woodstock, where she was
recorded as Caroline Collet, age 22, from Fencott. It is highly likely that she was married during
the 1850s, since no record of Caroline Collett of Fencott has been found in
1861.
|
|
|
|
|
46N38
|
Ann Collett was born at Fencott in 1831 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1st January 1832, the daughter
of James and Sarah Collett. In the
census of 1841 Ann was nine years old when she was living with her family at
Fencott. Ten years later Ann was 19
when she was living and working in the Headington district of Oxford, and on
that occasion her place of birth was confirmed as Fencott. Her absence from the next census in 1861
probably indicates that she was married by then.
|
|
|
|
|
46N39
|
Charlotte Collett was born at Fencott in 1834 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8th March 1835, the youngest of
the children of James and Sarah Collett.
It was with her parents at Fencott that Charlotte was living in 1841,
when she was six, and again in 1851 when she was listed as Charlote (sic)
Collett, age 16.
|
|
|
|
During
the latter half of the next decade Charlotte gave birth to two base-born sons
while she was still unmarried. Both
boys were born at Fencott where the three of them were living in the ‘last
dwelling in the hamlet of Fencott’ as confirmed by the census in 1861. Charlott (sic) Collett from Fencott was 26,
Walter Collett was three, and Thomas Collett who was two years old. It is interesting to note that only three
dwellings away from the Collett’s home, was the home of the Cooper family,
where unmarried labourer Thomas Cooper was living with his parents Richard and
Elizabeth Cooper, Thomas being credited as the father of all of Charlotte’s
children.
|
|
|
|
In
1871 Charlotte was 35 and living in Fencott with her five of her six
children, only the eldest son Walter Wentworth Collett was absent from the
census that year and that was because he had died during 1870 at the age of
13. The other children were Tom Collett,
age eleven, Georgina Collett, who was eight, Barry (Berea) Collett, who was
six, Abigail Collett, who was three, and Jonah (Jana) Collett who was one year
old. All of the children were
confirmed as having been born at Fencott, where two further children were
added to the family over the following few years.
|
|
|
|
By
the time of the census in 1881 Charlotte Collett was still listed as a
‘single woman’, even though by then she had seven children. At that time, she was living at the Fencott
home of the aforementioned bachelor Thomas Cooper who was 50 and an
agricultural labourer from Murcott.
Charlotte was confirmed as being 47 and born at Fencott, and her occupation
was given as a needlewoman. However,
all of her children were listed as Cooper Collett, with all of them having
been born at Fencott, and they were Tom 22, Georgina 19, Barry (Beeri) 15,
Abigail 13, Jonah 11, Richard, age nine, and Anne who was four.
|
|
|
|
According
to the next census in 1891 Charlotte Collett, from Fencott was 55, and was still
living in Fencott, with her family, but strangely on that occasion they all
had the surname of Copper. The
children’s family was Thomas Cooper, age 59, while the children living with them
were Tom Cooper, age 30, Barry (Beerie) Cooper, age 25, Jonah Cooper, age 21,
Richard Cooper, age 18, and Annie Cooper who was 14. In March 1901 Charlotte Collett was 66 and
the census return that year confirmed she had been born at Fencott, where she
was still living at that time with the father of her children Thomas Cooper
who was 70, together with their son Tom Collett who was 40 and a hay binder.
|
|
|
|
Thomas
Cooper died during the first decade of the new century, following which
Charlotte became Charlotte Cooper for the first time in her life. And it was as the widow Charlotte Cooper
that she was recorded in the April census of 1911. On that occasion she was described as being
76 and from Fencott, where she was still living with her unmarried son Tom,
who had also taken the name Cooper, to be listed at Tom Cooper, age 51 and from
Fencott.
|
|
|
|
46O67
|
Walter Wentworth Collett
|
Born in 1857
at Fencott
|
|
46O68
|
Thomas Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1859
at Fencott
|
|
46O69
|
Georgina Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1862
at Fencott
|
|
46O70
|
Barry Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1865
at Fencott
|
|
46O71
|
Abigail Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1867
at Fencott
|
|
46O72
|
Jonah Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1869
at Fencott
|
|
46O73
|
Richard Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1871
at Fencott
|
|
46O74
|
Anne Cooper Collett
|
Born in 1876
at Fencott
|
|
|
|
|
46O1
|
George Collett was born at Murcott in 1837 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 3rd February 1838, the first
child born to Richard and Ann Collett.
His absence from the family in the subsequent census returns perhaps
indicates that he suffered an infant death.
|
|
|
|
|
46O2
|
Thomas Collett, who was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor
on 22nd August 1839, may well have been a twin brother to his sister
Elizabeth (below). The parish record
certainly confirmed his parents were Richard and Ann Collett, but he was no
with his family on the day of the census in 1841, and he died on 9th
February 1842.
|
|
|
|
|
46O3
|
Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1839 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31st June 1839, the eldest child
of Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove of Hungerford. Elizabeth was one year old in the 1841
Census for Murcott when she was living there with her father. Within two or three years Elizabeth’s
family moved to Fencott where they lived for seven years before returning to
Murcott. It was at Murcott that she
was living with her family at the time of the census in 1851 when she was 12
years old. By the time of the next
census she was very likely married.
|
|
|
|
|
46O4
|
Robert Sturch Collett was born at Murcott in 1841 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29th March 1841, the son of
Richard Collett and Ann Grove Sturch.
Curiously in the census that year, when he was less than three months
old, he was with his mother Ann in the St Clement & Headington area of
Oxford, while his father Richard was at their home in Murcott. Ten years later Robert was 10 years old
when he was living with his family on their 60-acre farm at Murcott, where he
was confirmed as having been born. By
the time he was 20 he had left Murcott and was living and working at
Swalcliffe, near Banbury.
|
|
|
|
It
was while in the Banbury area that he met Mary Ann whom he married a few
years later. Mary Ann was born at
Hanwell near Banbury and was the same age as Robert. There is a chance that she was Mary Ann
Baker – see 1881 Census note below.
Where they were married has not been discovered, but either at that
time or a little while after the couple moved to London and the birth of
their only known child was registered while Robert and Mary Ann were living
at Waterloo Road in Lambeth. It is
however likely that the couple were living at Brill in Buckinghamshire at the
time of their son’s birth, according to later census records.
|
|
|
|
And
it was there that the family of three was still living in 1871. Robert was aged 30, as was Mary Ann, while
their son William was four years old.
Sometime during the next decade the family moved west and north of the
River Thames and settled in Norwood Green in Middlesex.
|
|
|
|
According
to the census of 1881 the family was living at Featherstone Larches in
Norwood where the occupation of Robert B Collett (sic) was a beer
retailer. Both he and his wife Mary
were 40 years of age and Robert gave his place of birth as Fencott, while
Mary confirmed she was of Hanwell in Oxfordshire. It was at Fencott that Robert had lived
with his family from 1842 to 1850, although before and after those dates he
and his family had been living at Murcott where he was born.
|
|
|
|
Robert’s
son William was then 14 and was still attending school. Staying with the family at that time was
Kate Baker aged 41 of Wootton in Oxfordshire, the wife of an agricultural
labourer who was described as ‘sister-in-law’, together with her daughter
Margaret who was three and from Hounslow. It would appear that Robert continued to
live at Norwood for the rest of his life, although no record of him at all
has been found in 1901. However, in
both 1891 and 1911 he was listed as living there.
|
|
|
|
By
1891 Robert ‘Stauch’ Collett and Mary Ann Collett were both 50 and were
living alone at Norwood. When Mary Ann
died has not been determined and that may be linked with their absence in
1901. The census of 1911 confirmed
that Robert Sturch Collett was still living at Norwood at the age of 70, by
which time he was a widower.
|
|
|
|
46P1
|
William Collett
|
Born in 1866
at Brill
|
|
|
|
|
46O5
|
Albert Collett was born at Fencott in 1843 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21st May 1843, the son of
Richard and Ann Collett. Apart from
the Murcott census of 1851, when he was eight years old and living with her
family, and again ten years later when he was 17. However, not long after the census in 1861
it would appear that he moved to Daventry in Northamptonshire where he met
and married Elizabeth Tooby who was born there in 1841. The marriage took place at Daventry where
it was recorded during the last three months of 1863 (Ref. 3b 231) when the
witnesses were Thomas Appelbee, Jane Wall and Elizabeth Tooby who was most
likely the bride’s mother.
|
|
|
|
By
the time of the Daventry census of 1871 Albert, age 27, and Elizabeth, age
29, had four children and they were Emily who was seven, Mary A Collett who
was five, Elizabeth who was two, and Edith who was not yet one year old. During the next decade Elizabeth presented
Albert with four more children, although the absence from the census in 1881
of one of their earlier children, Elizabeth Ann, may suggest that they had
not survived much further into the 1870s.
Their daughters Mary and Edith were also missing in 1881 but had
returned to Daventry by 1891.
|
|
|
|
The
census return for 1881, placed the family living at 24 Sheaf Street in
Daventry, from where Albert Collett, age 38 from Fencott, was working as a
domestic groom. His wife Elizabeth was
39, and their five children on that occasion were Emily who was 17, Spencer
who was eight, Clara who was six, Edwin who was four, and Arthur who was two
years old. All of the children had
been born at Daventry. Ten years later
in 1891 the family was still residing in Daventry when Albert was 48,
Elizabeth was 49, with their children Edith Collett was 29, Spencer Collett
18, Clara Collett 16, Ed Collett 14, Arch A G Collett 11, and William Collett
who was eight years old. Living in the
Wandsworth & Putney area of London at that time was Albert’s daughter
Mary A Collett who was 25 and from Daventry.
|
|
|
|
Sometime
after that Albert became a publican, as confirmed by the Daventry census of
1901. The census listed him as being 57
and from Fencott, having his own account while being the landlord of the
Plume of Feathers Inn on Chapel Lane.
Living there with him was his wife Elizabeth, 58 and from Daventry,
who was supported by their daughter Clara who was 26 with no occupation. Also, still unmarried and living at the
family home were sons Arthur and William.
In addition to the immediate family, Albert and Elizabeth also had
living with them their two grandchildren Harvey and Dorothy Sharpe and Arthur
Sharp, the children of their daughter Elizabeth Ann Sharp, who died around that
same time, as did Dorothy during the following year.
|
|
|
|
Married
by that time in March 1901, but still living nearby in Daventry, was their
daughter Edith with her family, and their son Edwin with his wife. By the time of the next census in April 1911
Albert and Elizabeth were living alone in Daventry, although the town was still
home to many members of their family.
Albert was 67 and Elizabeth was 68, and by that time their two grandsons
Harvey and Arthur Sharp were either in a home for orphaned children or had
already been sent to North America by then.
|
|
|
|
It
was during the next few months that same year when Albert Collett passed away
at the age of 68, his death recorded at Daventry register office (Ref. 3b 53)
during the second quarter of 1911. His
wife Elizabeth Collett nee Tooby had survived him by just over nine years
when she passed away in 1920 aged 78, the event being recorded at Daventry register
office (Ref. 3b 97) during the third quarter of that year.
|
|
|
|
46P2
|
Emily Collett
|
Born in 1864
at Daventry
|
|
46P3
|
Mary Ann Collett
|
Born in 1865
at Daventry
|
|
46P4
|
Elizabeth Ann Collett
|
Born in 1868
at Daventry
|
|
46P5
|
Edith Collett
|
Born in 1870
at Daventry
|
|
46P6
|
Spencer Collett
|
Born in 1872
at Daventry
|
|
46P7
|
Clara Collett
|
Born in 1874
at Daventry
|
|
46P8
|
Edwin Collett
|
Born in 1876
at Daventry
|
|
46P9
|
Arthur Albert George Collett
|
Born in 1878
at Daventry
|
|
46P10
|
William Collett
|
Born in 1882
at Daventry
|
|
|
|
|
46O6
|
David Collett was born at Fencott in 1844 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27th April 1845, the son of
Richard and Ann Collett. By 1851 David
was six years old when he was living at Murcott with his parents, who stated
that he had been born at Fencott. Upon
leaving school, David also moved out of the family home which was then in
Fencott, and by 1861 he was employed as a baker’s servant in Fencott. He was 16 years old, but curiously gave his
place of birth as Murcott. It was just over six years
later when David Collett married the much older Eliza Stennett who was born at
Sleaford in Lincolnshire, where she was baptised on 31st January 1831,
the daughter of Nicholas and Mary Stennett.
The wedding was recorded at Camberwell in London (Ref. 1a 924) during
the third quarter of 1867.
|
|
|
|
Once married the couple initially
settled in Peckham in Surrey where their two daughters were born and where
the family of four was still living in 1871.
By then David Collett from Fencott Hill in Oxfordshire was 25 and
working as a railway porter. His wife
Eliza Collett from Sleaford was said to be 32, rather than 40, and their two children
were Mary E Collett who was two and Margaret G Collett who was one year old.
However, by the time of the census in 1881 the family of four was
living at 55 Peel Street in Maidstone, Kent.
At that time in his life David Collett, aged 38, was again working as
a railway porter, when his place of birth was simply stated as Oxford. His wife Eliza from Lincolnshire was 48 and
their two daughters were Mary Collett who was 12 and Margaret Collett who was
11.
|
|
|
|
Some
years after the death of his father, David’s mother Ann Collett also moved to
Maidstone to be close to David and his family, as confirmed by the next census
in 1891. On that occasion the family
of four was residing at Earl Street, close to the town centre, where David
was 46 and a club steward, Eliza was 58, and their unmarried daughter Mary
Elizabeth Collett was 23. Living
nearby in Boxley Road was David’s mother from Hungerford who was 75. One year prior to the next census in 1901, the death of David Collett
was recorded at Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 492) during the second
quarter of 1900. On the day of the
census Eliza Collett from Sleaford was living at Newton Road in Tunbridge
Well, Kent, where she was living on her own means at the age of 69. That was
the home of her married daughter Mary Elizabeth Lane.
|
|
|
|
Upon her death, just over six years
later, Eliza was very likely buried with her late husband at Maidstone, since
it was a Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 411) that her death was recorded during
the third quarter of 1907, when she was 75 years of age.
|
|
|
|
46P11
|
Mary
Elizabeth Collett
|
Born in 1868 at Peckham, Surrey
|
|
46P12
|
Margaret
Grace Collett
|
Born in 1870 at Peckham, Surrey
|
|
|
|
|
46O7
|
Eliza Anne Collett was born at Fencott in 1845 but was baptised
at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 11th April 1846, the daughter of Richard
and Ann Collett. It was just over one
year later that she died on 20th April 1847.
|
|
|
|
|
46O8
|
Edwin Collett was born at Fencott in 1846 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 30th May 1847, the son of farmer
Richard Collett of Murcott and his wife Ann Grove from Hungerford. He was living with his parents at Murcott
in 1851, when he was three years old, but by the time of the next census in
1861, the family had returned to Fencott where Edwin Collett, age 13 and of
Fencott, was described as a farmer’s son.
|
|
|
|
No
record for Edwin has so far been found in 1871, at some time during the 1870s
he had left Oxfordshire and settled in the city of Warwick. At the time of the census in 1881 Edwin
Collett from Fencott was an unmarried man from Fencott, and at the age of 35
he was a publican living at 18A Cape (Street) in Warwick St Mary. His housekeeper on that occasion was 30
years old widow Mary Ann Carter from Great Ashstead in Suffolk.
|
|
|
|
It
was just after 1881 that Edwin married Sarah Ann who was born at Milton in
Oxfordshire, and during the following year the couple’s only child was born
while they were still living in Warwick.
The family of three was still living in Warwick in 1891 and ten years
later in 1901. In 1891 Edwin Collett
was 43, his wife Sarah A Collett was 41 and their son Ernest E Collett was
eight years old.
|
|
|
|
By
1901 Edwin Collett, age 52 and from Fencott, was a general dealer, while his
wife was Sarah was 50 and from Milton in Oxfordshire, and his son was Ernest
Edwin Collett of Warwick who was 18 and a basket maker’s apprentice. Edwin Collett died during the first decade
of the new century, so by April 1911, the Warwick census that year simply
recorded Sarah Ann Collett, aged 61, living there with her son Ernest Edwin
Collett who was 28.
|
|
|
|
One year later, the 1912 edition of
Kelly’s Directory for Warwick included an entry for Ernest Edwin Collett of
Linen Street who was a basketware maker. That was also his trade when he died on 22nd
April 1940, having been admitted to the Warwick Institution five days earlier,
his death recorded at Warwick register office (Ref. 6d 1375).
|
|
|
|
46P13
|
Ernest Edwin
Collett
|
Born in 1882
at Warwick
|
|
|
|
|
46O9
|
William Collett was born in 1847 at Fencott, and it
was at Charlton-on-Otmoor where he was baptised on 14th November
1847, the son of Richard and Ann Collett.
He only survived for another six months, when he died on 18th
May 1848.
|
|
|
|
|
46O10
|
Philip Collett was born at Murcott in 1849 but was baptised
at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 17th March 1850. And it was at Murcott that he was still
living with his parents at the age of 11 in 1861. He married Louisa Little at Clapham in London
on 26th October 1872. Louisa
had been born at Clapham in 1848, the daughter of Slater Little, the forename
she gave to her first son. The
marriage register also confirmed that Philip was the son of Richard Collett. Once they were married the couple headed
for Dorset, where they settled at Leigh Road in Wimborne Minster, just north
of Poole, where their children were born and where the family was living in 1881.
|
|
|
|
The
census that year confirmed Philip had been born at Murcott, that he was 30,
and that he was working as a railway agent and bus proprietor carrier. His wife was Louisa, age 32 and from
Clapham in Surrey, and their four children on that occasion were Sidney who
was six, Reginald who was four, Edgar who was three, and Edith who was only nine
months old. Fifteen months after the
census day that year the couple’s fifth and last child was born in July 1882,
but with tragic consequences. Whilst the
child survived the ordeal, Louisa did not and, with the passing of his wife,
Philip named the child in honour of his late wife.
|
|
|
|
By
1891 the family was listed at Wimborne as Philip aged 41, Reginald who was 14,
Edgar who was 13, Edith who was 10 and Louisa who was eight years of age. Philip’s eldest son Sidney, at the age of 16,
was living and working at Christchurch near Bournemouth on that occasion. Ten years later according to the census of
1901 the family was still living at Wimborne and comprised widower Philip
aged 51 of Murcott, who was a delivery agent, and three of his remaining four
children. On that occasion it was
Philip’s second son Reginald who was not living at the family home. Instead he had left Dorset and was living
in Derbyshire.
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The
members of the family still living with Philip were his sons Sidney who was 26
and Edgar who was 23, who were both working as motorcar drivers for their father
in the family business, and his daughter Louisa who was 18. It is unclear at this time where Philip’s
eldest daughter Edith was in 1901, since it is established that she was still
not married when her father died eight years later.
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Philip
Collett died at Clyde Villa on Avenue Road in Wimborne on 5th March
1909. His Will was proved at Blandford
on 13th May 1909 when he was described as a gentleman of Wimborne
Minster. The executors of his estate
of £3,742 16 Shillings 7d were named as his widow Emma Collett, his daughter
Edith Louisa Collett, spinster, and his brother Spencer Collett, a hotel
keeper. Also included in the list of
names was baker Henry William Mitchell Cowdrey, who has yet to be identified.
Philip was buried at Wimborne where a
headstone in the cemetery there marks his grave. The headstone inscription (see below) also
includes epitaphs for his wife and his son Reginald. It therefore seems very likely that
surviving sons Sidney and Edgar arranged for the installation of the headstone
to mark the grave of their parents and their brother.
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In Loving Memory of
Philip
Collett
who fell asleep in Jesus
March 5 1909
aged 59 years
Labour ended, Jordon passed
Also
Louisa
Collett
wife of the above
died July 30 1882
And
Reginald
Philip Collett
second son of the above
died Sept 9 1901
aged 25 years
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Also
following the death of their father, Philip’s two sons Sidney and Edgar took
over the running of the family business and by April 1911 they had left
Wimborne and had moved to Salisbury in Wiltshire where they continued to
managed the business.
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46P14
|
Sidney Slater Collett
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Born in 1874
at Wimborne Minister
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46P15
|
Reginald Philip Collett
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Born in 1876
at Wimborne Minister
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46P16
|
Edgar William Collett
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Born in 1877
at Wimborne Minister
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46P17
|
Edith Louisa Collett
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Born in 1880
at Wimborne Minister
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46P18
|
Louisa Collett
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Born in 1882
at Wimborne Minister
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46O11
|
George Collett was born at Murcott in 1849 and was
named in honour of his later brother who had died prior to 1841. The second son of Richard and Ann Collett
to be given that name was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 9th May
1850. However, with no record of him
in the census of 1851, it would appear that he also suffered an infant death.
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46O12
|
John James Collett was born at Murcott in 1850 and was
baptised on 4th August 1850 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the son of
Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove of Hungerford. By the time of the census at the end of
March in 1851 John James Collett was not recorded as living at Murcott with
his family, which may suggest that he had died while still under one year
old. However, fifty years later a John
Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor was 50 and an agricultural labourer living at
Market End in Bicester, although nothing so far has been found to indicate
that this was John James Collett.
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46O13
|
Spencer Collett was born at Fencott, perhaps at the end of 1852 or
early in 1853, since his birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 549) during
the first quarter of 1853.
Furthermore, he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6th February
1853, the son of Richard and Ann Collett.
He was eight years old at the time of the Fencott census of 1861, when his place of birth was said
to be Murcott. Where he was in 1871
has not been discovered, while it was on 15th August 1875 at St
Peter’s Church in Southampton that he married (1) Alice Gubbins, who was 19
and the daughter of Thomas Gubbins, while the father of Spencer Collett was
confirmed as Richard Collett. Alice
was born at Moulsford, to the south of Wallingford, a village on the Great
Western railway mainline between Oxford and London and, since Spencer was a railway
porter, it seems likely that they may have met as a result of his work.
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Once married, the couple initially settled
in South Stonham, where the birth of their first child was recorded, before
moving into Southampton, where their remaining seven children were born.
By 1881 the family living at 5 Osborn Road Hill in Millbrook within
the parish of Southampton through which the south-coast mainline railway ran,
where Spencer was continuing to work as a railway porter. His place of birth was confirmed as Fencott
and his age was 28. His wife Alice was
24 and from Moulsford and their three sons were Albert S Collett who was
four, Auten William who was three and Ernest W Collett who was one year
old. The place of birth for all three
boys was said to be Southampton Hill, while the births of the two younger sons had been
recorded at Freemantle in Southampton.
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Shortly
after the census day, the family moved from Millbrook to Blechynden Terrace in central
Southampton, the births of their subsequent recorded at nearby Shirley.
By the time of the census in 1891 the
family living at
Blechynden Terrace had increased in size and was made up of Spencer
Collett who was 38 and a railway porter, Alice Collett who was 34, Albert S
Collett who was 14, Auten W Collett who was 13, Ernest W Collett who was 11,
George R Collett who was nine, Arthur S G Collett who was seven, Alice E
Collett who was five and Harold P Collett who was just one year old. Less than six years later, Alice presented Spencer with their last
child, but after a further eighteen months the death of Alice Collett was
recorded at South Stoneham (Ref. 2c 58) during the third quarter of 1898,
when she was only 41 years old.
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Having
lost his wife, widower Spencer, from Murcott, took his family to live in
Shirley, where he was 48 years of age and a licenced victualler in the census
of 1901. Still living there with him
were five of his children and they were Auten W Collett, aged 23, George R
Collett, aged 19, Arthur S Collett, aged 17, Elsie A Collett who was 15,
Harold P Collett who was 11 and Hilda W Collett who was four years old. It may be interesting to note that the
brothers Spencer and Auten (below) both gave up their previous occupations as
a railway porter and a greengrocer respectively, around the end of the century,
to become licenced victuallers.
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Just weeks after the census day in
1901, the marriage of Spencer Collett and (2) Amy Thomas was recorded at
Southampton register office (Ref. 2c 9) during the second quarter of 1901. Widower Spencer was 48, while spinster Amy
was only 26 and managed to give her husband two more children over the next
six years. The family was still living in the Southampton
parish of All Saints in 1911, where Spencer was 58 and a licenced victualler who gave his
place of birth as Murcott, while
his wife Amy Collett was 36 and from the Southampton parish of St Denys. Still living with them was Spencer’s youngest
child from his first marriage, Hilda Winifred Collett who was 14, and his two
children by Amy, Reginald Frank Collett aged seven years and Amy Isabel
Collett who was four.
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Two
years earlier, in 1909, Spencer Collett was named as one of the executors of
the Will of his brother Philip Collett (above), when he was described as a
hotel keeper. Nineteen years later, the death of Spencer Collett
was recorded at Southampton register office (Ref. 2c 79) during the fourth
quarter of 1928, when he was 75 years of age.
Probate of his Will was proved at Southampton on 28th
November 1928 in favour of his joint beneficiaries, his wife Amy Collett and his
son George Robert Collett.
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46P19
|
Albert
Spencer Collett
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Born in 1876 at South Stoneham
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46P20
|
Auten William Collett
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Born in 1877
at Southampton, Millbrook
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46P21
|
Ernest Wilfred Collett
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Born in 1879
at Shirley
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46P22
|
George Robert Collett
|
Born in 1881
at Shirley
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46P23
|
Arthur Sydney Gubbins Collett
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Born in 1883
at Shirley
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46P24
|
Alice
Elsie Collett
|
Born in 1885 at Shirley
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46P25
|
Harold Philip Collett
|
Born in 1889
at Shirley
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46P26
|
Hilda Winifred Collett
|
Born
in 1897 at Southampton, Milford
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The
following are the two children from the second marriage of Spencer Collett and
Amy Thomas:
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46P27
|
Reginald Frank Collett
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Born
in 1903 at Southampton, Mill Brook
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46P28
|
Amy Isabel Collett
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Born
in 1906 at Southampton
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46O14
|
Auten Collett was born at Fencott in 1857, the
youngest child of Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove of Hungerford. He was listed as Hantin, aged three years
and of Fencott, in the census of 1861 when he was still living there with his
family. No record of him has been identified in 1871 but, six
years later, the marriage of Auten Collett and Elizabeth Maria Allsop was
recorded at Lambeth in London (Ref. 1d 529) during the second quarter of 1877. Elizabeth was born at Berrow Green, near Worcester,
and by 1881 the pairs of them, and their first child, were living at 14
Hinton Road (Herne Hill), Brixton within the London Borough of Lambeth, where
Auten Collett was 23 and a greengrocer.
His wife Elizabeth M Collett was 25, and their son Albert Edward Collett
was three years of age and had been born at Lambeth (Brixton). Supporting Auten was Charlie Cotton who was
20 and a greengrocer’s assistant, while helping Elizabeth was domestic servant
Rose Cross who was 15.
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Over
the next decade a further three children were added to the family which, was still living at 14 Hinton
Road in Brixton in 1891. Head
of the household was recorded as Austin Collett who was 33 and working as a fruiterer and a greengrocer.
Elizabeth M Collett was 36 and their
four children on that day were Albert E Collett who was 13, Arthur E Collett who
was seven, Mary M Collett who was five and Winifred Collett who was one year
old. Once again Auten was employing two servants, George H
Baker who was 23 and Ellen Burr who was 16.
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By
the end of the century Elizabeth had presented her husband with two more children,
the first born while the family was still living at Brixton, with the couple’s
last child was born at Reading, where they lived for a short while. From there the family later moved to Tunbridge
Wells in Kent, which was where the family was residing by the turn of the
century.
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In
the census of 1901 Austin Collett from Fencott was 43 and by then was working
as a licenced victualler having passed his greengrocery business over to his
eldest son. In March that year the family was living at Upper
Grosvenor Road in Tunbridge Wells where Elizabeth M Collett from Berrow
was 45 and her four Brixton born children were Arthur E Collet who was 17, Maud
M Collett who was 16, Winifred Collett who was 11 and Harry A Collett who was
six years of age. Completing the family
was their daughter Florence B Collett who was four years old and born at Reading. On that day the family only had one servant
and that was Edith A Smith from Tunbridge Wells who was 17.
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By
1911 the family had moved again, that time to Wood Green in Middlesex, midway between Muswell Hill
and Tottenham, where Austin Collett from Fencott was 53 and an
off-licence holder, his wife Elizabeth Maria Collett being 55. Still living with the couple was their youngest child, Florence
Beatrice Collett from Reading who was 15. Seven years later Auten and Elizabeth Collett
were living at 41 High Road in Wood Green, where they received the news that
their son Arthur Ernest had been killed in action during the First World War,
when he was thirty-five.
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The shock of losing her son, may have
taken its toll on Elizabeth, because the marriage of Austin Collett and Emily
Smith was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 768) during the first quarter of 1917. What is interesting is that, upon his death
on 18th September 1925, the two named beneficiaries were named as
George Frederick Smith and Wallace William Harding.
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46P29
|
Albert Edward Collett
|
Born in 1878 at Lambeth
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46P30
|
Arthur Ernest Collett
|
Born in 1883
at Brixton
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46P31
|
Maude
Mary Collett
|
Born in 1885 at Brixton
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46P32
|
Winifred
Mary Collett
|
Born in 1889 at Brixton
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46P33
|
Harry
Austin Collett
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Born in 1894 at Brixton
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46P34
|
Florence
Beatrice Collett
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Born in 1896 at Reading
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46O15
|
Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1847, the eldest
son of farmer Thomas Collett and his wife Mary. It would appear that he later left the
family home in Oxfordshire and moved south to London where, in 1871 as a
bachelor, he was 24 and was living in Kingston-upon-Thames where he was
working as a policeman. It would also
appear that he married Frances Isabella Muckle shortly after the 1871 census
day, as the first of their children was born at Hampton during the following
year. Frances was four years younger than
Thomas, having been born at Albury near Bishop’s Stortford in 1851. Her father was a Queen’s Messenger and, on
passing, his widow had a position as cook and housekeeper at Hampton Court,
living there in a ‘grace and favour’ apartment.
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Frances
Isabella Collett, who was known as Granny Collett in her later years, told the
tale to her grandchildren that, as a little girl, she remembered being driven
in an open carriage in one of Queen Victoria’s processions. Over the next decade after they were married,
Frances presented Thomas with a further five children all of whom were born
at Hampton or Hampton Hill. By the
time of the 1881 Census the family was living at 9 Wolsey Road in Teddington
in the Hampton census district. Wolsey Road is still there today and lies
between the High Street (A311) and Uxbridge Road (A312). Thomas’ occupation was confirmed as
being a police constable and he gave his place of birth as simply Charlton. He was 33, while his wife Frances Isabella
was 29.
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Their
children were Eleanor Mary, who was eight, Elizabeth Frances, who was six, William
Thos, who was five, Frances Jane, who was four, Isabella Muckle Collett, who
was three, and Andrew Ralph who was seven months old. It is possible that 9 Wolsey Road was a
police house, and that all of the children had been born there. Also living at the house with the family
was Frances’ older brother Augustus Frederick Muckle, age 32 of Albury, who
was an unemployed blacksmith. During
the next decade the family left Hampton and moved to Hanworth where their
last child was born.
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By
the time of the Hanworth census in 1891 the family living was living in a
dwelling on Hounslow Road, right next door to the Jolly Sailor Inn. The details for the family were as follows,
Thos Collett, age 43 and from Charlton-on-Otmoor, was a constable with the
metropolitan police, his wife was Frances I Collett, age 39 and from Aldbury
(sic), and the five children living there with them were Wm T Collett 15,
Frances J Collett 14, Isabella M Collett 13, Andrew R Collett 10, all born at
Hampton, and Arthur M Collett who was just five months old and born at
Hanworth.
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At
that same time in 1891 Thomas’ and Frances’ eldest daughter Eleanor, was
living with Granny Muckle in her ‘grace and favour’ apartment in Hampton Court,
where they were both working. Thomas
Collett died sometime during the 1890s, and it seems highly likely that his
youngest son Arthur did not live very long after the census of 1891, since no
further record of him has been found.
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It
is also known that, following the death of her husband, Frances lived at
Fuchsia Cottage in Hanworth where she had living with her for a while, the
widow of her brother Alexander Muckle.
From Fuchsia Cottage, she moved to the East Dulwich area of London to
look after her grandchildren, the children of her son Andrew Ralph Collett,
following the death of his wife in 1919.
When
her son Andrew married for a second time in 1921, Frances spent alternate six-month
periods living with her daughter Nell in East Dulwich, and her daughter Bess at
Farncombe, near Godalming in Surrey. That arrangement continued until the time of
her passing, although it did include a break from that routine in 1923, which
is described below.
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In
1923 Frances worked for a while at The Rectory in Hanworth, helping out when
they had two visiting missionaries.
During that year she had staying with her for four months, her
granddaughter Edith Collett who was four years old and the daughter of her
son Andrew Ralph Collett. It seems likely
that Edith was with her, while her stepmother mother was giving birth to
another child for her father.
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Edith
Collett has many recollections of her younger days, and in particular, the
four months spent with her Granny Collett at The Rectory in 1923. Edith recalls that her grandmother had a
fascination with the aeroplanes at the nearby Hanworth Aerodrome and would
spend her free afternoons watching the planes coming and going. At that time it cost five shillings for a flight,
which she would have loved to have done, had she had the money. On some occasions Granny Collett lost track
of the time, resulting in the need for someone from The Rectory to go there
and bring her back.
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After
her period working at Hanworth Rectory, Frances reverted back to her previous
living arrangements, alternatively living with her two daughters in East
Dulwich and Francombe. And it was
during one of those periods, while she was living with daughter Bess at
Farncombe, that Frances Isabella Collett nee Muckle eventually died in April
1937 at the age of 86. Following her
passing, Frances’ body was taken to Hanworth, where she was buried with her
husband.
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It
is understood within the family that Thomas Collett inherited one third of
the farmland previously owned and worked by his father in the Murcott area of
Oxfordshire. Upon his death, the
property was passed to his widow Frances but, sadly when she died, the land
was sold when it was under flood conditions, and therefore its full value was
not realised. The money that was
raised from the sale was shared amongst her children.
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46P35
|
Eleanor Mary Collett
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Born in 1872
at Hampton
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46P36
|
Elizabeth Frances Collett
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Born in 1874
at Hampton
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46P37
|
William Thomas Collett
|
Born in 1875
at Hampton
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46P38
|
Frances Jane Collett
|
Born in 1876
at Hampton
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46P39
|
Isabella Muckle Collett
|
Born in 1877
at Hampton
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46P40
|
Andrew Ralph Collett
|
Born in 1880
at Hampton
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46P41
|
Arthur M Collett
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Born in 1890
at Hanworth
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46O16
|
Henry Collett was born at Murcott in 1851. Just like his older brother Thomas (above)
Henry also became a police constable and may have even initially moved to
London with him. On the day of the
census in 1871 Henry Collett from Murcott was recorded as being 23 (sic) when
he was working as a police constable while living at Garsington in
Oxfordshire. Eighteen months later
Henry Collett married (1) Charlotte Osborne
at Bilton near Rugby in Warwickshire on 7th or 11th September
1872, the daughter of Hezekiah Drain, most likely suggesting that
Henry was her second husband.
Charlotte was born at Southminster near Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex in
1841 and was nine years older than Henry.
Her place of birth in the marriage register was incorrectly recorded
at Southampton. Once they were married
the couple initially settled in Newbold-on-Avon, just north of Rugby, where
their first child was born, before moving to Hillmorton to the east of Rugby,
where their second child was born. Not
long after that there was another move for the family, that time to Harbury
to the south-west of Southam, all in Warwickshire.
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According
to the 1881 Census the family was living at Church Terrace in the
Warwickshire village of Harbury where thirty years old Henry was a police
constable. His place of birth was
given as Charlton Murcott. His wife
Charlotte was 39 and their two children were Henry Herbert Collett who was
seven, and Anne Marie M Collett who was four years old. Within a few years of the 1881 Census,
Charlotte died at Harbury, perhaps during the birth of a third child for the
couple who also did not survive.
However, following the death of his wife Henry married (2) Eliza Howkins from Harbury, where they were
married on 23rd October 1884.
That marriage resulted in the birth of another daughter for
Henry, who was also born at Harbury, and whose baptism record confirmed that
her father was Henry Collett a police constable.
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Many
years earlier, in the census of 1861, Eliza was seven years old when she was living
with her widowed mother Mary Howkins at Chapel Street in Harbury and four of
her siblings. By the time of the census
in 1891 the Collett family living at Harbury comprised policeman Henry who
was 40, his wife Eliza who was 36, Henry’s daughter Maud 14, the younger of
the two children from Henry’s first marriage, and the couple’s own daughter
Eliza who was two years old. Just after
the start of the new century Henry was described as a police pensioner at the
age of 46 (real age 50) and was still living at Harbury with Eliza 46. Still living with them was Ann Maud Mary
Collett who was 24 and a domestic servant, and twelve years old Eliza Anne
Collett, both daughters confirmed as having been born at Harbury.
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No
record of Henry has been found in the census of 1911 so it must be assumed
that he had died during the first decade of the new century. According to the April census on 1911 his
widow Eliza Collett was 55 and was living alone in the village of Knightcote
within parish of Burton Dassett and within the Southam registration district
of Warwickshire, where her place of birth was confirmed as Harbury. Also, by that time, her unmarried daughter
Eliza was living at Atherstone.
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46P42
|
Henry Herbert Collett
|
Born in 1873
at Newbold-on-Avon
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46P43
|
Anne Maud Mary Collett
|
Born in 1876
at Hillmorton
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46P44
|
Eliza Anne Collett
|
Born in 1888 at
Harbury
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46O17
|
Charles Collett was born at Murcott in September 1854
but died one month later and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 11th
October 1854.
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46O18
|
Caleb Collett was born at Murcott in 1856 and was
four years old in 1861 and was 14 by the time of the census in 1871. According to the next census in 1881, Caleb
Collett, at the age of 24, was still living with his parents at
Charlton-on-Otmoor, from where he was working as an agricultural labourer. Following the death of his father during
the 1880s, Caleb inherited one-third of his father’s farm holding, the other
two-thirds going to his brothers Thomas and Henry. Also, after his father died, Caleb remained
living with his elderly widowed mother Mary in the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor,
as confirmed by the census of 1891.
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Sometime
during the next few years, it would appear that his mother died, following
which he became a married man. By 1901
he was living within the Fencott & Murcott area and, at the age of 44, he
was living with his wife Emma, who was 42, and who had been born at Thame in
Oxfordshire, when his occupation was confirmed as being that of a farmer.
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Ten
years later in April 1911, the couple was still living in the Murcott area,
where Caleb Collett of Murcott was 54, and his wife Emma Collett was 52. The only other facts known about Caleb
Collett are that he eventually purchased, or inherited, land within the Thame
area, which may have been something to do with his wife, since she was born
there. It is also known that he died
in 1952 when he was 96 and still living at Thame. This information was kindly provided by
Janet Wood – see Ref. 46Q41.
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During
the Second World War Caleb and Emma were living at 93 High Street in Thame,
although Emma was a patient at the nearby Cottage Hospital in Thame when she
died on 12th April 1942.
Her Will was proved at Oxford on 22nd May that same year
for which her husband Caleb Collett, of no occupation, was one of the three
executors. The other two executors of
her estate valued at £1,247 7 Shillings 2d were Fred West, a cycle agent, and
James Benjamin West, a garage proprietor.
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46O19
|
William Clark Collett was a man of mystery, since it would
appear that he was born at Horton-cum-Studley in 1838 or 1839 as William Clark,
the son of unmarried Mary Ann Clark. He
was however baptised as William Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor (there being no
church at Horton) on 12th April 1840 when his parents were named
as William Collett and his wife Mary Ann, who were only married three months
earlier in January that same year. He
was also curiously listed as John Collett in the census of 1841 when he was
one year old and living with his parents at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley.
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Even
more strange was his possible placement in the Horton-cum-Studley census of
1851, when William and Mary Ann Collet (sic) had living with them their sons
George and John (below, plus William Clark who was 11 and described as
son-in-law. It therefore seems more
than likely that he was in fact the former William Collett, although his place
of birth was given as Headington, which was the registration district for Horton-cum-Studley. Previously within Part Three of the Appendix
at the end of this family line, there were details of William Collett of
Headington, who we now know to be this William, thanks to the information
provided by Shirley Martin in 2012, together with the details contained
within the census of 1861.
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Shortly
after the census day in 1851 the last of William’s three known brothers was born
at Horton, and four years after that his father died in 1855, following which
his mother Mary Ann Collett nee Clark married James Payne. By the time of the census in 1861 William Collett
of Headington was 20 and was working as an agricultural labourer when he was
living at Beckley with his mother, her husband, their daughter and William’s
half sister Thurza Payne, and two of his three brothers, George Collett and
Ellis Collett (below). It was just over
six years later that he married Emma Parker at Piddington parish church on 21st
October 1867.
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Their
marriage details were recorded as follows.
William Collett, of full age, bachelor, and labourer of
Horton (in the parish of Beckley) married to Emma Parker, 19, spinster and daughter
of William Parker, labourer. The witnesses
were Rebecca Parker and William Parker, who were most likely Emma’s parents. It was also at Piddington that Emma had been in
1848.
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By
the time of the birth of the couple’s first child William and Emma were
living in Horton-cum-Studley, although the child was baptised at
Piddington. His name probably is enough
proof that William Collett was formerly William Clark, since the child was
named Frederick William Clark Collett.
However, within the census of 1871 the child’s place of birth was
stated as being Fencott. The census
that year recorded the family as William Collett, age 29, Emma Collett, age
22, and their son Fredrick Collett who was two years old.
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Over
the next decade another four children were added to the family while they
were still living in Fencott. By 1881
the family residing at Fencott was made up of William, age 41, who was a
carpenter from Headington, his wife Emma, age 32 from Piddington, and their
five children, all of whom had been born at Fencott. They were Fredrick Collett, age 12, Elen R
Collett, who was eight, Anne E Collett, who was five, Edwin C Collett who was
three, and Willie Collett who was only seven months old.
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During
the next ten years three further children were born into the family, the first
of them at Fencott, with the latter two born at the family had moved to
Charlton-on-Otmoor, where they were living in 1891. By that time William was 52, Emma was 42, and
the children still living there with them were Frederick, who was 22, Edward,
who was 13, William, who was 10, Louisa, who was eight, Arthur, who was five,
and Beatrice who was two years old. Of
the couple’s two missing daughters Ellen Rebecca Collett was 19 and was living
and working not far away in Bicester, while Annie F Collett was 15 and was
recorded in the Headington area of Oxford. Sometime during the last decade of the
century the family left Fencott and moved into Charlton-on-Otmoor, as confirmed
by the census in 1901.
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On
that occasion William Collett from Headington was still working at home as a
carpenter with his own account at the age of 63. The property in which the family was living
was one dwelling away from School House.
Living there him was his wife Emma, age 52 and from Piddington, and
three of their sons and just one of their daughters. Edwin Collett, who was 24 and a yardman working
with cattle on a farm, William who was 21 and an under carter working with a
horse perhaps on the same farm, while Arthur who was 13 (sic) was another
yardman working with cattle on a farm, again very likely with his two older
brothers. All three of them were confirmed
as having been born at Fencott. Their
daughter Beatrice was 12 and had been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor. At that same time in 1901 William’s and Emma’s
daughter Ellen was living and working within the Headington registration
district of Oxford. Their other
daughter Annie was married by then with a family of her own, and one of her
children was staying with William and Emma, that being Ellen Marriott who was
three years old and born at Market End in Bicester.
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By
the time of the next census in April 1911 William from Headington was 73 and
Emma was 63 and, living with the couple at Charlton, was their younger son
Arthur who was 26, and their grandson Jack Collett who was nine and had been
born at Charlton. He was the base-born
son of William’s and Emma’s unmarried daughter Ellen Rebecca Collett. During the First World War the couple had
to endure a double death in the family, when their sons Arthur and William were
both killed in action during the summer of 1916.
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It
was almost exactly two years after receiving that sad news when William Clark
Collett died during September 1918, following which he was buried at the
parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21st September. His death was recorded at Bicester [Ref. 3a
1021] as follows: Death in Sep 1918 of
William C Collett of Charlton, age 80.
It has been assumed that the middle initial C was for Clark. Also laid to rest with her husband in the
grounds of the parish church at Charlton was his widow Emma Collett of Charlton,
who was buried there on 20th March 1937 at the age of 88,
following her death at Woodstock earlier that month. At the time of her passing she may have
been living with her eldest son Frederick.
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46P45
|
Frederick William Clark Collett
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Born in 1868
at Fencott
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46P46
|
Ellen Rebecca Collett
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Born in 1872
at Fencott
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46P47
|
Anne Elizabeth Collett
|
Born in 1875 at
Fencott
|
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46P48
|
Edwin Charles Collett
|
Born in 1877
at Fencott
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46P49
|
William Collett
|
Born in 1880
at Fencott
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46P50
|
Louisa Collett
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Born in 1883
at Fencott
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46P51
|
Arthur John Collett
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Born in 1885
at Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46P52
|
Beatrice Collett
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Born in 1888 at
Charlton-on-Otmoor
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46O20
|
George Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley but
with no church at Horton he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 5th
March 1843, the son of William Collett and Mary Ann Clark from Boarstall. Two years before he was born, his parents
were living at Whitecross Green in Horton in 1841, so it seems likely that it
was there where he was born. It was
also in Horton that he and his family were still living in 1851 when George
Collet (sic) was seven years old. Not
long after the census day the family moved to nearby Beckley where his father
died in 1855 and where his mother remarried in the autumn of 1857.
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In
1861, and at the age of 18, George and his older brother William (above) and
his younger brother Ellis (below), were living at the Beckley home of their
mother Mary Ann Payne, formerly Collett, and her second husband James Payne,
when the brothers were described as the sons-in-law to head of the household
James Payne. It is possible that his
stepfather died during the 1860s, since by 1871 George was
still living with his mother, who at that time had left Beckley and was
staying at the Whitecross Green home of farmer William Cox. George Collett from Whitecross Green was unmarried
at 28, and was working as an agricultural labourer, perhaps even employed by
farmer Cox. Ten years later George,
age 38, was still living with his widowed mother, but at Charlton-on-Otmoor, where
he was once again employed as an agricultural labourer. What happened to him upon the death of his
mother is not known, as no record of him has been found in any census after 1881.
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It
is possible, although not proved that George Collett later went to live at
Boarstall where his mother had been born and where his brother John was living
at one time. That assumption arising
from a record that states George Collett, a farmer of Panshill in Boarstall,
died on 11th April 1918 and that his personal effects of £384 16
Shillings 2d was handled by farmer Ernest William Cox.
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46O21
|
John Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley in 1845
but was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22nd June 1845 the third
son of William Collett and Mary Ann Clark.
In 1851 he was living with his family at Horton-cum-Studley when he
was five years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Studley. Tragically four years later his father died,
following which his mother married James Payne in 1857 and the family moved to
the next hamlet of Beckley. However, by
the time of the next census in 1861 John Collett, age 15 and born at Whitecross
Green, was living at the home of farmer William Blake and his wife Rebecca at
Boarstall. At that time in his life
John was working as a shepherd, while William Blake was the half-brother of
John’s grandmother. Ten years later in
1871 John Collett, age 26 from Charlton-on-Otmoor was living and working
within the St Clements Headington area of Oxford.
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What
happened to him after that time is currently not known, although in 1901
there was living in the Kensington area of London a John Collette (sic) age
56 who was born ‘near Stow Wood in Oxfordshire’, Stow Wood being within the
parish of Beckley and adjacent to Horton-cum-Studley. He was married to Marian Collett, age 53,
who was born at Marylebone in London, and their daughter Frances Collett was
29 and had been born at Lambeth.
Curiously no record of the family has been located in 1881 and 1891,
nor again in 1911.
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46P53
|
Frances
Collett
|
Born in 1871
at Lambeth
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46O22
|
Ellis Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley after
the census day in 1851 and was the youngest of the four sons of William Collett
and Mary Ann Clark. When he was baptised
at Beckley parish church on 28th September 1851 he was recorded as
Eliseus Collett the son of labourer William Collett and his wife Mary Ann. Over the following years his parents took
the family to live in the village of Beckley, two miles south-west of Horton,
and it was there that his father died in early 1855. Two years after that loss, Ellis’ mother
married James Paynes, and the new family was recorded living in Beckley in
1861. Son-in-law Ellis Collett was
nine years old and a farmer’s boy, when living there with his mother, his stepfather,
his half-sister, plus two of Ellis’ older brothers.
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Where
Ellis Collett was over the next few decades has not been discovered, although
by 1871, when he would have been 19, he may have joined the army and not been
living in England. The situation was
the same in 1881 when he would have been 29, with no trace of him having been
found anywhere in Great Britain at that time.
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However,
he returned from his travels during the 1880s and was recorded as unmarried
Ellis Collett, age 37, and an agricultural labourer from Horton who was boarding
with Richard Maycock and his mother Anne Maycock at Wendlebury to the south
of Bicester. He was still living with
the Maycocks ten years later, when the census in 1901 confirmed that he was
Ellis Collett from Horton who was 48, who was employed as an ordinary agricultural
labourer. It was at Wendlebury that he
was once again residing with Richard Maycock and his mother in 1911 when bachelor
Ellis Collett from Horton was 59 and a labourer on a farm. Ellis Collett never married and it was in
January 1926 that he passed away at the age of 74, following which he was buried
in the churchyard of the parish church at Wendlebury on 23rd January
1926.
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46O23
|
Lewis Collett was born at Murcott in 1853 and was
seven and 17 in the census records for 1861 and 1871. Within a couple of years of the latter
census, Lewis married Mary who was born at Horsepath near Wheatley in 1853
and their first child was born at Murcott.
Not long after the birth the family moved to Farthinghoe in Northamptonshire
where their next four children were born.
For a short while the family next lived at Croughton, south-west of
Brackley, where another child was born, before finally settling at Edgcote
where all of Lewis’ and Mary’s remaining four children were born.
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Today there is no settlement
at Edgcote but the site is well known for its famous battle of 1469 as one of
the major battles in the Wars of the Roses.
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The
family’s time at Farthinghoe was confirmed by the census of 1881 in which Lewis
aged 28 of Murcott was a carter and agricultural labourer married to Mary A S
Collett aged 27. Living with them at
their home in South Street, were Albert, who was six and of Murcott, and
Edith, who was four, and Lewis who was two years old, who were both born at
Farthinghoe.
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The
next census in 1891 revealed that the family was living at Edgcote in Northamptonshire,
just north of Banbury, and was made up of Lewis 38, his wife Mary 37, and
their children Albert 16, Edith 14, Lewis 12, Auten, who was nine, Mary, who
was six, George, who was three, and Frances who was under twelve months. Just after the turn of the century Lewis, who
was then 49, was employed as a stockman on a farm in Edgcote, but on that
occasion he gave his place of birth as Fencott. His wife was listed as Selina, aged 48 of
Horsepath, presumably the same Mary A Selina Collett.
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By
1901 the two oldest children had left the family home, leaving five of the children
listed in 1891, plus the three new arrivals.
The full list of children was Spencer, who was 21 and a groom, Kate,
who 15 and a domestic housemaid, George, age 13, Fanny, age 10, Arthur, who was
eight, William, who was five, and Minnie who was two years old. It was not long after the 1901 Census that
the Collett family left Edgcote and moved east into Buckinghamshire where
they settled in the village of Lillingstone Lovell just north of Buckingham. According to the census of 1911 Lewis was
57 and his wife Selina was 56.
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The
children still living with them were the five youngest, they being George 23,
Frances Eliza 20, Arthur 18, William 15, and Minnie who was twelve. Sadly, for the family, the youngest son
William died as a result of injuries sustained in serving his King and Country
in 1918, at which time Lewis and Selina were still living at Lillingstone
Lovell, where their son was buried.
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46P54
|
Albert Collett
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Born in 1874
at Murcott
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46P55
|
Edith Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1876
at Farthinghoe
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|
46P56
|
Lewis Spencer Collett
|
Born in 1879
at Farthinghoe
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46P57
|
Auten Collett
|
Born in 1881
at Farthinghoe
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46P58
|
Mary Katherine Collett
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Born in 1884
at Farthinghoe
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46P59
|
George H Collett
|
Born in 1887
at Croughton
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46P60
|
Frances Eliza Collett
|
Born in 1890
at Edgcote
|
|
46P61
|
Arthur Collett
|
Born in 1892
at Edgcote
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46P62
|
William H Collett
|
Born in 1895
at Edgcote
|
|
46P63
|
Minnie Collett
|
Born in 1898
at Edgcote
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46O24
|
Elizabeth Ann Collett was born at Murcott in 1855, the
second child of George Collett and Eliza Harris. By 1861 she was four years old and was
still with her family at Murcott but ten years later, when she was 14, she
was working at Winslow in Buckingham, and was possibly in service at Winslow
Hall. In the 1891 Census a Lizzie Collett
was recorded as living in the Bicester area aged 35, and she may have been
Elizabeth Ann. It was later, on 13th December 1890, at
the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor, that Elizabeth Ann Collett, aged 35 a
spinster from Murcott and the daughter of George Collett, a labourer, married
widower Thomas Buse who was 36 and a coachman from Michaelstow in Cornwall,
the son of John Buse, a gardener. The
bride’s brother William Collett (below) was one of the witnesses.
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Thomas already had a son, William
Buse born in 1878, who was 22 and a carpenter living with Thomas and
Elizabeth at Port Isaac in Endellion, Cornwall in 1901. By that time Elizabeth had given birth to Beatrice
who was nine, Lewis who was seven and Spencer who was four, all of them born
at Michaelstow. Elizabeth Buse from Oxford
was 46. Ten years later Thomas and
Elizabeth were managing a boarding house in St Miniver, where Elizabeth Buse
was 55 and born in Oxford. Still
living with the couple was their daughter Beatrice Buse, together with Edith
Buse, a daughter of Thomas’ first marriage.
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46O25
|
William Collett was born at Murcott in 1857 where he
was living with his parents in 1861 at the age of three years, and in 1871 he
was 14. Sometime just before the end
of the decade William married (1) Emily who was two years older than William
and who had been born in the hamlet of Wytham near Wolvercote in Oxford. Shortly after they were married William and
Emily made the two miles journey to live at Horton-cum-Studley. And it was there that they were living in 1881. Their residence was in Middle Green Road
from where William, age 24, was working as a carpenter. His wife was 26 years old Emily L Collett
of Wytham in Berkshire (as it was then).
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By
the time of the census of 1891 it would appear that Emily had already passed
away in the mid to late 1880s.
Following her death, William married (2) Charlotte and the couple was
living at Horton-cum-Studley where William was 34. Charlotte was 33 and living with them was
William’s son who was two years old and born at Horton-cum-Studley. William senior’s place of birth was
confirmed as Murcott, but so far it has not been determined whether his son William
was the child of Emily or Charlotte.
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Ten
years later the family of three was still living at Horton-cum-Studley where
William, then 44 and from Murcott was working as a wheelwright and a carpenter.
His wife Charlotte, age 43, was from
London and the son William, born at Horton, was 12 and was listed as still attending
the local school. In April 1911 the
family was still living in Horton when William, age 54, was recorded as
having been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor, while and his wife Charlotte was 53
and from Middlesex. Still living with
them was their William who was 23, together with his wife Elizabeth who was 20
and born in Oxford.
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46P64
|
William Collett
|
Born in 1888
at Horton-cum-Studley
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|
46O26
|
George Collett was born at Murcott in 1859 and the
census for Murcott in 1861 recorded him as being two years old, while he was
11 ten years later in 1871. During the
next decade, with his siblings leaving the family home, George and his parents
moved from Murcott to Beckley just north of Oxford where they were recorded
as living in 1881. At that time George
was a bachelor of 21 whose occupation was that of an agricultural
worker. The census record confirmed
his place of birth as Murcott.
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By
the time of the census in 1901 George was married and was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor,
where he was working as a general labourer at the age of 42, and when his
birthplace was confirmed as Murcott.
His much older wife Caroline Collett was 54 and a dressmaker who had
been born at Stanton St John. According
to the census in 1911 George Collett had returned to the village of his
birth. The census return for Murcott
confirmed that he had been born there and that he was 51 years old. Living with him was his wife Caroline
Collett who was 65 and born at Stanton-St-John.
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The
Appendix at the end of the file, lists apparently unrelated members of the Collett
family, including those with a connection to the village of Beckley.
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46O27
|
Alfred Collett was born at Murcott in 1862 and was
aged nine years in 1871. Upon leaving
school it would appear that he left Oxfordshire and moved to Hampshire where he
was working in 1881. According to the census
that year Alfred was 18 and from Murcott, when he was working as an
agricultural labourer. He was one of three
men employed by farmer Thomas Honour on his 247-acre farm. Thomas was 51 and was formerly of Murcott.
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In
addition to working for Thomas Honour, Alfred was also living with him and
his wife at Church Farm in Eversley in Hampshire where Alfred was described as
nephew. Thomas’ wife was Esther Honour
nee Harris of Islip who was Alfred’s aunt, she being the younger sister of
Alfred’s mother. Another connection
between the Collett and Honour families was through the married of Thomas’
younger brother Mark Honour and Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 46N15).
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|
It
is unclear where Alfred was in 1891, but it would appear that he married
Alice Hayward of Charlton-on-Otmoor around, or just after, his thirtieth birthday. In 1881 at the age of 18, Alice was in service
as a kitchen maid at Kirtlington Mansion, the home of Henry W Dashwood,
Baronet, Justice of the Peace, and farmer of an extensive estate employing 76
men, 14 boys, and 6 women.
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|
Before
the end of the 1890s Alice had presented Alfred with two children, both
having been born at Murcott, but after the birth of the second child the family
moved to Charlton. By the end of March
1901, Alfred and Alice were both 38 and their children were Alfred junior who
was six, and daughter Kate who was five.
Alfred’s occupation at Charlton that year was a non-domestic gardener. Ten years later Alfred and Alice were both listed
as being 47 in the 1911 Census for Murcott.
By that time neither of their children was still living with them. No trace has been found of their son Alfred
who would have been 16, while their daughter Kate was 15 and was living at
either Woodstock or Headington.
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|
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46P65
|
Alfred
Collett
|
Born in 1894
at Murcott
|
|
46P66
|
Kate Collett
|
Born in 1895 at
Murcott
|
|
|
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|
46O28
|
Louisa Collett was born at Fencott in 1849, the eldest
child of John Collett of Murcott and his wife Matilda Attwood from Horton-cum-Studley. At the time of the census in 1851 Louisa
was two years old and living with her parents and younger sister Selina (below)
at Murcott. Ten years later she had
left school and was already working as a house servant at the age of 12 in
the hamlet of Murcott close to her parents.
Her employer was William (?) a farmer and a publican of Murcott. With no further record of her as Louisa Collett,
it may be correct to assume that she was married by 1871.
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|
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46O29
|
Selina Collett was born at Murcott on 15th October
1850, the second child of John and Matilda Collett, who was six months
old in the Murcott census of 1851 and living there with her family as Selina
Collett. On the recording of her birth, at Bicester (Ref. 16 39)
during the fourth quarter of 1850, she was named as Sylenia Collett, although
that was the only occasion when the name was used. It was again as Selina Collett that she was
still living with her family in Murcott in 1861. The marriage of Selina Collett and Joseph Shepherd was recorded at
Bicester (Ref. 3a 1039) during the last three months of 1870, with their
wedding actually taking place at Oddington Church on 3rd November. The witnesses at the wedding were William
Busby and Eliza Walker, the latter being the daughter of Charlotte Elizabeth
Walker, nee Collett, (Ref. 46N9).
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|
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|
The childless couple was residing at
Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1871, within six months of their wedding, where Joseph
Shepherd from Oddington was 19 and an agricultural labourer and Selina Shepherd
from Murcott was 21. Around three
years later and after the birth of their first child at Charlton, the family
moved to Joseph’s home village of Oddington, one-mile south-west of Charlton,
where their subsequent children were born.
Joseph was still working as an ag lab at the age of 30, Selina was 31,
and their four children were Emily B Shepherd who was eight, Walter J
Shepherd who was six, Oliver Shepherd who was two and Clara Shepherd who was
under three months old.
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|
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|
No record of her husband has been
found after 1881, with Selina also missing from the census returns in both
1891 and 1901. By 1911, Selina Shepherd
from Murcott was 61 and in domestic employment in Woodstock. The death of Selina Shepherd nee Collett
was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1416) during the second
quarter of 1938, when she was 87.
Although only four children for Selina and Joseph are named above,
they actually had eight, one of which was Ethel Shepherd the grandmother of
Brenda Purves’ husband, it being Brenda who kindly provided the family details
for Selina Collett.
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46O30
|
Caleb Collett was born at Murcott in 1851 but after
30th March as he was not listed with his family living at Murcott
on the day of the census. He was the
eldest son of John and Matilda Collett, with whom he was living at Murcott in
1861 at the age of ten years. However,
no further records of him have been found in any subsequent census returns.
|
|
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46O31
|
Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1852 and was
baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 15th May 1852, the son of John
and Matilda Collett. Tragically he died
eighteen months later on 15th November 1853.
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|
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46O32
|
Clara Collett was born at Murcott in 1853 and was
seven years old in the Murcott census of 1861. Ten years later Clara was still living with
her parents at Murcott when she was listed 18. A few years after 1871 something happened
to Clara that took her from rural Oxfordshire to the industrial north, and
the West Riding of Yorkshire. Around
the middle of the 1870s she married William Widdop who was born at
Crigglestone, just south of Wakefield in 1854, and it was at Crigglestone
where the couple’s four known children were born.
|
|
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|
It
was also at Calder Grove in Crigglestone that the family was living in 1881. Clara’s husband William was 26 and was
employed at a local paper-mill as a labourer, while Clara stated she was 24
(sic) and from Oxfordshire. Their
children were Robert, age four, Rowena, age three, John William, who was one,
and baby George who was one month old.
Two other men were living with the family on that occasion, and they
were paper-mill labourer George Widdop, age 29 – William’s older brother, and
Aaron George, who was 61 and a millwright.
|
|
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|
By
the turn of the century the couple was still at Crigglestone and all of their
children were still living with William aged 46 and Clara 47. In the census of 1901 William was no longer
working at the paper-mill but was employed as a brewer’s labourer and gave
his place of birth as Calder Grove.
Clara gave her place of birth as Murcott. Of their children, Robert was 24 and John
was 21 and they were both coalminers, George was 20 and an engine tester, Arthur
was 16 and an apprentice joiner, Matilda 15 was a stinner at a worsted mill,
and Percy age 12 was an above ground colliery worker.
|
|
|
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46O33
|
Emily Collett was born at Murcott in 1855 and only
appeared in the 1861 Census at the age of five years, so it might be assumed
that she suffered a childhood death.
|
|
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46O34
|
Rowena Collett was born at Murcott in 1857. In the 1861 Census she was referred to as Rosanna
aged three, but that was corrected in 1871 when she was Rowena who was
12. On both occasions she was living
at Murcott with her parents. No trace
of her has been found in the 1881 Census so she may have been married by
then.
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46O35
|
Eli Collett was born at Murcott just before 7th
April in 1861 the day of that year’s census.
However, he only survived for a few years when he died in 1865 at the
age of four years. As Eli Collett of
Murcott he was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 28th February 1865.
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46O36
|
Herbert Collett was born at Murcott in 1862 and was
eight years old in 1871. He was 17 in 1881
when he was still living with his parents at Charlton-on-Otmoor. At that time Herbert and his brother Walter
(below) were both working with their father as agricultural labourers. Herbert’s mother died sometime during the
1880s, so by 1891 bachelor Herbert, age 26, was living with his father John
and brother Walter at Murcott. By the turn
of the century he was still living and working in the Murcott & Fencott
area of Oxfordshire. The 1901 Census
described him as being aged 36 and of Murcott, and his occupation was that of
a general labourer. Herbert was still a
bachelor at that time.
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46O37
|
Walter Collett was born at Murcott in 1865 and was five
in 1871. Ten years later Walter was 15
and was already working with his older brother Herbert (above) and his father
as an agricultural labourer at Murcott where they were all living at that
time. Walter’s mother Matilda died
during the 1880s so by 1891 Walter was an unmarried 24-year old labourer
still living at Murcott with his father John and his brother Herbert (above).
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Just
a short while later Walter married Ellen from Charlton-on-Otmoor and they
initially settled in Murcott, where their first two children were born. However, not long after the birth of the second
child the family headed for London and set up home in Hendon. According to the Hendon census of 1901,
Walter Collett of Murcott was 36 and a cowman working on a farm, his wife Ellen
Collett from Charlton was 37, and their Murcott born children were John
Collett who was eight and Florence M Collett who was six, while the two children
born at Hendon were William Collett who was three and Harry Collett who was just
six months old. At that time the
family was residing in Shoelands Cottage, where their three next-door neighbours
were William Mannering, who was the steward at Hendon Asylum, Joseph Hill a
medical practitioner, and John Hopkins a medical superintendent, all of which
might indicate that Walter was working on the land attached to the asylum.
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And
it was within the Hendon registration district that the family was still
living in April 1911. Walter Collett was
45, Ellen Collett was 46, and their children were listed as John Collett, aged
18, Florrie Collett, aged 16, William Collett, aged 13, and Harry Collett who
was 10. On that occasion Murcott was
recorded as the place of birth for both Walter and Ellen and the two older
children.
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46P67
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John Collett
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Born in 1892
at Murcott
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46P68
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Florence Matilda
Collett
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Born in 1894
at Murcott
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46P69
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William Collett
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Born in 1898
at Hendon
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46P70
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Harry Collett
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Born in 1900
at Hendon
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46O38
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Jane Collett was born at Murcott in 1870 and was
just one year old in the census of 1871 when she was living with her family
at Murcott. Her absence from the
family home in 1881 probably indicated that she died as a child during the
1870s. She was the last child of John
Collett and Matilda Attwood.
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46O39
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Richard Collett was born at Arncott in 1855 the eldest
child of John Collett and Lucy Foster. Rich Collett was five years of age in the Arncott
census of 1861, but by 1871 when he was 15 Richard and his family were
residing in the Buckinghamshire village of Boarstall. In the late 1870s he married local girl
Florence Alice Arnatt of Fencott and the first of the couple’s two daughters
was born at Elsfield just north of Oxford.
Almost immediately after the birth of the child the family left
Oxfordshire and moved to the Dorking area of Surrey where they were recorded
as living at the time of the census of 1881.
It was also in the area that the family was living in 1891, 1901 and
1911. However, the census in 1881
raises a big question over the ages of all members of the household. The census listed Richard Collett from
Arncott as working as a farm bailiff who was employed by J Bonner Esquire on
his 250-acre Shootlands Farm at Wotton near Dorking. Why then was his age stated as being 46
when he was 26, following which he was 35, 45 and 55 in the next three
Dorking census returns.
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Richard’s
wife Florence was listed as Alice Collett of Fencott who was 35 instead of
25, while their daughter Lucy Helen Collett from Elsfield who was recorded as
being 14 and not just one year old.
Living with the family and working with Richard as a bailiff’s help
was his brother Walter. Whilst his
place of birth was correctly recorded as Boarstall it was curious that he had
the name Walter John Collett and not Walter George Collett and that he was 45
years old and not 15. During the next
five years the family moved the five miles south to Ockley where Richard’s
and Florence’s second daughter was born.
By 1891 the family comprised Richard aged 35, Florence aged 34, and daughters
Lucy E Collett who was 11 and Martha A B Collett who was four years old.
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It
was presumably Richard’s work as a farm bailiff that was the reason why the
family made so many house moves and, just after the turn of the century,
another move had taken place which took them to nearby Capel, where they were
living in 1901. That year’s census
confirmed that Richard was continuing to work as a farm bailiff, that he was
45 and from Arncott and, that his wife was Florence A Collett of
Fencott. The couple’s two daughters were
still living with them and were Lucy E Collett, a 21-year old laundress, and
14-year old school girl Martha A Collett of Ockley in Surrey.
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During
the next ten years the couple’s youngest daughter Martha returned to Oxfordshire,
to live with her grandmother Lucy Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor. The rest of family remained living in the
village of Capel, and in April 1911 were recorded as Richard Collett who was
55, his wife Florence Alice who was 54, and their unmarried daughter Lucy
Ellen who was 24. Richard’s birth
place was confirmed as Arncott, his wife’s as Fencott, and his daughter’s as Elsfield,
and all within the county of Oxfordshire.
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46P71
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Lucy Ellen Collett
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Born in 1879
at Elsfield, Oxon
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46P72
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Martha Alice C Collett
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Born in 1886
at Ockley, Surrey
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46O40
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Martha Ann Collett was born at Arncott in 1857 and was
four in the Arncott census of 1861. In
1862 her family left Arncott and moved to Charlton-on-Otmoor where Martha
died in 1863. She was buried at St Mary’s
Church in Charlton on 4th March 1863 aged six, when her place of
residence was confirmed as Charlton. Six
days after her burial Martha’s baby sister Lucy Louisa Collett (below) was
also buried there.
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46O41
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John Edwin Collett was born at Clew Hill (Farm) in
Arncott in the fourth quarter of 1859 and was two years old in the 1861 Arncott
census. Ten years later in 1871 he was
listed as being aged 12, but for the next census in 1881 his age was given as
20. That year he was still living with
his parents who, by that time, had left Arncott and were living at Pansole
Farm in Boarstall, where John Edwin was simply listed as being a farmer’s
son. It seems likely that, following
the death of his father in December 1881, John took over running the farm,
which it would appear he did until the early 1890s when he became a married
man.
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It
is also likely that he continued to live at Pansole Farm after he was
married, where he was joined by his younger brother William (below) and his
family around the mid 1890s. John
married late in his life, being around thirty-three years of age when he wed
Mary Jennings. The marriage took place
in early 1893 and was recorded in the Thame registration district. Mary Jennings was born at Oakley in 1863
and was the daughter of farm labourer George Jennings of Turn Again Lane in
Oakley in Buckinghamshire and his wife Ruth Lake of Boarstall.
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In
1881 Mary was in domestic service at 29 Montpelier Square in Westminster, the
home of retired licenced victualler Joseph Edmons who came from Edgcott in
Buckinghamshire, not far from Mary’s own home. By 1891 Mary had returned to Oakley and was
living with her parents once again.
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John and Mary were both listed in the 1901
Census and were living at Boarstall where John’s
occupation was that of a farmer 40.
Mary of Oakley was aged 36.
However, instead of giving his place of birth as Arncott, John gave it
as Boarstall Honeyburge. The marriage
is understood to have produced nine children for the couple, of which only
five are detailed below. In the 1901
Census only two of the couple’s possible four children were listed with John and
Mary, and they were Ruth who was four and Annie who was one year old, and both
of them born at Boarstall.
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The
census of 1911 confirmed that farmer John Edwin of ‘Cluehills’ (Clew Hill)
was 52, and that his wife of eighteen years was Mary, age 48 and from Oakley. At that time the couple were living at
Arngrove Farm midway between Boarstall and Brill. The children living with them in April 1911
were Lucy Ruth, age 14, Annie Elizabeth, age 11, Mary Margaret, who was nine,
Hilda Maud, who eight, and Lillian Edith who was two. It therefore must be assumed that the four
unnamed children listed below had died by that time, and the first two before
1901.
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Also
living with the family was 53-year old servant Walter George Allam from Oddington
in Oxfordshire, whose occupation was listed as being a cowman and farm
labourer. In addition to him, John’s
cousin one-step-removed Aubrey Collett (below) was also living at Arngrove
Farm at that time. John Edwin Collett
lived a long life and died at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 13th December
1943 at the age of 84 and was buried shortly after at Boarstall.
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46P73
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a Collett
child
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Born in 1893
at Boarstall; infant death
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46P74
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a Collett
child
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Born in 1895
at Boarstall; infant death
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46P75
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Lucy Ruth Collett
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Born in 1897
at Boarstall
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46P76
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Annie Elizabeth Collett
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Born in 1899
at Boarstall
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46P77
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Mary Margaret Collett
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Born in 1901
at Boarstall
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46P78
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Hilda Maud Collett
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Born in 1902
at Boarstall
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46P79
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a Collett
child
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Born in 1904
at Boarstall; infant death
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46P80
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a Collett
child
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Born in 1906
at Boarstall; infant death
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46P81
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Lillian Edith Collett
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Born in 1908
at Boarstall
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46O42
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William Foster Collett, who was known as Bill, was born at
Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott in either late 1860 or early 1861 as he was under
one year old at the time of the 1861 Census. By 1871 he was aged ten and was living with
his parents, whereas by April 1881 he was 20 and had left the family home by
then. That year’s census recorded him
living alone at nearby Horton-cum-Studley in what appears to be accommodation
attached to Warren Farm where he was employed as a domestic industrial
general servant. The census also confirmed
his place of birth as having been Arncott.
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Around
eight and a half years later, when he was approaching his twenty-ninth
birthday, William married (1) Mary Leach at Oxford during the fourth quarter
of 1889, Mary having been born at Blackthorn in 1867. Mary was the daughter of farmer James Leach
and his wife Emma of Arncott. According
to the 1881 Mary was 13 and was living with her family at Ambrosden just west
of Blackthorn. Shortly after the couple
were married Mary presented William with the first of their three known
children.
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By
the time of the census in 1891 the family of three was living at Arncott where
William was 30, Mary was 23, and their son William was just one year old. Two years later the couple’s second and third
child were born at Arncott where the first was also born, before the family
moved across the county boundary to settle in Boarstall. The move to Boarstall may have been a return
to the family home at Pansole Farm where it is known William and his family
lived during his life. William’s older
brother John Edwin had managed the farm following the death of their father
died at the end of 1881 and had probably continued to run the farm until
around 1893 when he married, after which it may have been jointly managed by
the brothers.
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According
to the census of 1901 the family still living at Boarstall comprised farmer
William, age 40 of Clew Hill, and his two sons William, who was 11, and
Richard, who was eight, both of them listed as having been born at ‘Cluhills’
(Clew Hill) in Arncott. His youngest
son Hubert was absent from the family home on that day and was recorded in
error as Hubert W Cottett aged six years from Cluehill, as a visitor to the
home of widower James Griffin, the employer of his aunt Edith Bessie Collett
(below) – his father’s sister – at The Limes in Tetsworth, three miles south of
Thame. Tragically the family had suffered
a double loss during the 1890s with, first the death of William’s and Mary’s
daughter Lilian, and later Mary herself, who died in 1895 while giving birth
to baby Hubert.
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About
eleven years after Mary had died William married (2) Eva Annie Jane Malin
during the spring of 1906. That took
place in Warwickshire and was registered in the Rugby area. Eva was the daughter of boot maker and
postmaster George Malin and his wife Elizabeth who was an assistant shopkeeper. Eva was born at Willoughby near Rugby in
1882 and was over twenty years younger than her husband William Collett. At the time that she married William she
was working with her parents in their shop and post office in Willoughby.
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Once
married the couple continued to live in Boarstall where their son was born a few
years later. However, shortly after the
birth, the family left Boarstall and moved the short distance to nearby Brill
where they were living in April 1911.
The census that month revealed that William Foster Collett was 50 and
his new wife Eva was much younger at 28 years of age. At that time, they were living at Panshill
Farm in Brill, where William was a farmer from Arncott. It seems highly likely that it was at
Pansole Farm in Boarstall where they were living at that time.
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The
census confirmed that the couple had only been married for four years, but
that the marriage had produced one son for William and Eva. It seems very likely that further children
may have been born into the family over the following years. In addition to their new baby son, two of
William’s surviving children from his previous marriage were also still living
with the family. The new arrival was Leslie
P Collett who was just one year old, and the two older boys were Richard J
Collett, age 17, and Hubert W Collett, who was 15, who were both working on
the farm with their father. William
Foster Collett lived a long life and died at Boarstall on 20th
July 1945 at the age of 84 and was followed shortly after by his wife Eva, who
died on 9th June 1947.
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46P82
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William Collett
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Born in 1889
at Arncott
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46P83
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Lillian Esther Collett
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Born in 1891
at Arncott
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46P84
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Richard J Collett
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Born in 1893
at Arncott
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46P85
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Hubert Walter Collett
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Born in 1895
at Arncott
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The
following is the only known child of William Collett by his second wife Eva:
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46P86
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Leslie P
Collett
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Born in 1909
at Arncott
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46O43
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Lucy Louisa Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in June
1862 and died nine months later and was buried at St Mary’s Church in
Charlton on 10th March 1863 six days after her older sister Martha
Ann Collett (above) was buried there.
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46O44
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James Bottrell Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1864
and was baptised there on 5th June 1864, the son of John Collett and
Lucy Foster. After he was born, the
family left Charlton and moved to Boarstall.
In the two census records following his birth he was seven years old
and 17, and for the latter he was listed as a farmer’s son and was still
living with his parents at Pansole Farm in Boarstall.
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Ten
years later James was 26 when he was living with his widowed mother Lucy and
three of his siblings in the Bicester area.
At the age of thirty-one in the summer of 1895 James Bottrell Collett
married Ellen Martha Cox at Bicester, where the marriage was recorded at the
register office (Ref. 3a 1470) during the third quarter of the year. The witnesses at the wedding were Herbert
Alfred Cooper and Susan Watson. Ellen
was born at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley in 1866 and was the
daughter of farmer Thomas Cox and his wife Margaret. It is very likely that Ellen Martha was a
niece to Anne Cox of Horton-cum-Studley who married Thomas Collett in
1867.
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Almost
immediately after they were married Ellen presented James with a son while
they were living at Murcott. The
family then left Murcott and moved to nearby Arncott where they were living
at the time of the 1901 Census. James B
Collett was a farmer of 36 from Charlton, Ellen M Collett his wife was 34 and
of White Cross Green, and their son Murray J Collett was four years old and
of Murcott. It was later that same
year when the couple’s next child was born, although sometime after the birth
the family left Oxfordshire and moved across the county boundary in to neighbouring
Warwickshire.
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By
the time of the next census in 1911 the family had been extended by the birth
of a further two sons, both of whom had been born after the family had
settled in the Warwickshire village of Willoughby. According to the census that year for
Willoughby & Grandborough James Bottrell Collett, age 46 and from
Charlton in Oxfordshire, was a farmer and a grocer, while his wife Ellen
Martha Collett was 44. The children listed
with them on that occasion were Murray James Collett, age 14 and from Murcott,
Cyril John Collett, who was nine and whose birthplace was confirmed as
Arncott, Rowland Thomas Collett, who was seven, and Basil (as Bazil) Dean Collett
who was four, both of Willoughby. At
that time in their life the family was supported by a domestic servant Nellie
Ridley who was 16, while their daughter Marjorie must have been born after the
second of April 1911.
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46P87
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Murray James Collett
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Born in 1896
at Murcott
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46P88
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Cyril John Collett
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Born in 1901
at Arncott
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46P89
|
Rowland Thomas Collett
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Born in 1903 at
Willoughby, Warw.
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46P90
|
Basil Dean Collett
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Born in 1906
at Willoughby, Warw.
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46P91
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Marjorie
(Margery) Collett
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Born after 1911
at Willoughby
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46O45
|
Walter George Collett was born in 1865 just after his parent left Charlton-on-Otmoor
for Boarstall where they were living in 1871.
Walter George Collett was five on that occasion but was not living
with his family at Boarstall in 1881.
Instead he was living and working in Surrey with his farm bailiff
brother Richard and his family at Wotton near Dorking. However, the accuracy of the detail within
the census has been brought into question.
Why every member of the household was credited with an enhance age is
the big issue. According to the census
return Walter John (sic) Collett rather than Walter George was 45 (sic) and
not 15, although his place of birth was correctly given as Boarstall in
Buckinghamshire. At that time, he was
working for his brother as a bailiff’s help at Shootlands Farm which was
owned by J Bonner Esq.
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It
was during the 1880s that Walter George Collett married Ellen Busby who was
born at Ambrosden in Oxfordshire in 1864, not far from where his older siblings
were born. It seems likely that they
were married in Oxfordshire before they initially settled in the Peckham area
of Camberwell & Peckham in London.
And it was there that the pair of them were residing in 1891 when
Walter Geo Collett from Boarstall was 25 and his wife was Ellen Collett who
was 26 and expecting their first child.
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Walter
and Ellen left London not long after the census and made their way to Blackthorn
near Arncott and Ambrosden, where their first two children were born. Around the middle of the 1890s the family
temporarily lived at Southmoor in Berkshire for a short while before settling
in the village of Waterstock, midway between Oxford and Thame, towards the
end of that decade, and it was there that their fourth child was born. However, Ellen Collett nee Busby did not
survive the ordeal of giving birth for a fourth time and died shortly after or
even during the birth. By the time of
the census at the end of March in 1901 Walter was a widower when he and his
young family were living in a cottage in Waterstock.
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The
census return that month confirmed that Walter G Collett was 35, and that looking
after him and his children was his sister unmarried Esther Collett, age 33,
who was described as his housekeeper. Walter was employed as a farm bailiff, while
the place of birth for both him and his sister was recorded as Panshill in
Buckinghamshire, a likely reference to Pansole Farm in Boarstall – see below. Their children in 1901 were named as Winifred
Eva Collett who was nine and Walter C F Collett who was eight, both of them
born at Blackthorn, Percival T Collett who was six and born at Southmoor, and
William J Collett who was only two months old who had been born at Waterstock
where it is assumed his mother died.
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Around
three years later Walter George Collett married (2) Elizabeth A M Way who was
from Ickford near Aylesbury. Elizabeth
was the eldest daughter of farmer Thomas Richard Way from Worminghall and his
wife Sarah from Ickford. By the time
of the next census in 1911 the family had been dramatically reduced, with
only Walter’s youngest son still living with him and his new wife. The three of them were still residing in Waterstock,
where Walter Collett from Boarstall was 45 and a farm bailiff who had been
married to Elizabeth, age 40, for six years with no issue. Walter’s son was named as William Collett from
Waterstock who was 10 years of age and still attending the local school,
while their accommodation was described as having five rooms.
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Of
Walter’s three absent children in 1911 it is known that Percival Thomas
Collett eventually had a granddaughter in America, while his only daughter
was living and working within the Marston Headington district of Oxford in
1911 when she was described as Winifred Eva Beatrice Collett aged 19 and from
Blackthorn. As regards Walter’s
missing eldest son Walter, no record of him has been found, nor has any thing
been heard of him after 1901. It is
also worth noting that it was at Panshill Farm [Pansole Farm] where Walter’s
older brother William was living with his family in 1911.
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46P92
|
Winifred Eva Beatrice
Collett
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Born in 1891
at Blackthorn
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46P93
|
Walter C F
Collett
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Born in 1892
at Blackthorn
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46P94
|
Percival Thomas Collett
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Born in 1894
at Southmoor
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46P95
|
William J Collett
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Born in 1901
at Waterstock
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46O46
|
Esther Collett was born at Boarstall in 1867 and was
three years old in the Boarstall census of 1871. Ten years later Esther was 13 when she was living
at Pansole Farm in Boarstall with her family.
Curiously no record of Esther has so far been found in 1891 or
1901. However, by April 1911 Esther Collett
was still a spinster at the age of 43, when she was living with her elderly
mother Lucy Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor.
Also living with them was Esther’s younger sister Beatrice and the
sister’s niece Martha A Collett, the daughter of their oldest brother Richard
(above).
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46O47
|
Edith Bessie Collett was born at Boarstall,
Buckinghamshire, in 1870 and was one year old in the census of 1871. Ten years later, according to the census in
1881, she was 11 years of age when she and her family were living at Pansole
Farm in Boarstall. With the death of
her father later that same year, Edith was still living with her widowed
mother Lucy in 1891 and was 20 years old.
Upon the death of her mother, spinster Edith sought work as a domestic
servant and, in 1901 and at the age of 30, Edith B Collett was living at The Limes
in Tetsworth, a village on the main road between Oxford and London. In error, her surname was recorded by her
employer on the census form as Cottett, while her place of birth was written
as Panshill, Bucks – which is in Boarstall.
At that time in her life she was working for 76 years old widower James
Griffin, while visiting The Limes that day was Hubert W Collett from Cluehill
in Oxfordshire, who was six years of age. Hubert Walter Collett was Edith’s nephew, the
son of her brother William Foster Collett and his wife Mary Leach who died
during the birth.
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Sometime
after 1901 Edith married William (Will) Harding and it is thought that they
lived at Hampton Poyle, just north of Kidlington. However, in 1911 Edith Bessie Harding from Boarstall
was 40 when she was living with her husband and her brother-in-law at Onley Fields
in Rugby, Warwickshire. William Harding
from Northumberland was a farmer and was also 40, while his brother John
Harding, also from Northumberland, was 44.
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Edith
B Harding was still living in Warwickshire when she died in 1939. Probate of her Will confirmed that Edith
Bessie Harding of White House in Willoughby, wife of William Harding, died on
2nd December 1939, when the executors of her state valued at £210
19 Shillings 11d and proved in London 1st March 1940 were named as
Hubert Walter Collett and John Robert Pickering, farmers. The death of Edith Bessie Harding at the
age of 69 was recorded at Rugby register office (Ref. 6d 1292) during the
fourth quarter of 1939. It seems
highly likely that Hubert Walter Collett was raised by Edith from the time of
his birth and the death of his mother in 1895, until his father William
Foster Collet remarried in 1906, after which they were reunited, as confirmed
in the 1911 census.
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46O48
|
Beatrice Mary Collett, who was known as Beattie, was born at
Boarstall in 1871. At the age of nine
years she was living with her family at Pansole Farm in Boarstall. Beatrice was still living with her widowed
mother at Boarstall in 1891 at the age of 19 and was listed as being 28 in
the 1901 Census. By April 1911, when
Beatrice M Collett was 39, she was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor with her
mother Lucy, her sister Esther, and her niece Martha A Collett. Beatrice never married and, possibly following
the death of her mother, she returned to lived at Boarstall where she died
just short of her sixtieth birthday on 16th May 1930, and it was
there also that she was buried.
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46O49
|
Herbert Spencer Collett was born at Boarstall in 1874. His early years were spent at Pansole Farm
in Boarstall where he was six years old at the time of the census in
1881. His father John died at the end of that same year when he was
still six, following which he continued to live with his mother until towards
the end of the century, at which time he left the family home to make his way
in the world. In 1901 Herbert was 26
and was a farmer living at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Curiously on that occasion he gave his place
of birth as being Panshill rather than Pansole. It may be significant that Herbert’s older
brother William Foster Collett (above) and his family were living at Panshill
in Brill in 1911.
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It
was two years later that Herbert married the slightly old Mary from Fencott and
by the time of the census in 1911 the couple was living at Murcott in
Oxfordshire. Herbert Collett from
Panshill was 35 and a grazier and his wife of seven years was Mary Collett
who was 40. Although the census return
confirmed that no children had been born to the couple, Mary may well have
been with-child on the day of the census, since it is established that the
marriage produced at least one child who was more than likely born at Murcott
and he is known to have lived at nearby Fencott at sometime during his life.
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46P96
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Herbert Collett
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Born circa
1911 at Murcott
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46O50
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Arthur Collett was born at Murcott in 1852, the only
known child of Richard Collett from Boarstall and his wife Mary from Oakley, whose
birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 504) during the third quarter of the
year. Not long after he was born, he
was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 17th
July 1852 when his parents were confirmed as Richard and Mary Collett. With no later record of his mother it seems
likely that she may have not survived his birth. By the time of the census in 1861 Arthur
Collett aged eight years and from Murcott was living with his grandparents
Richard and Martha Collett at Bicester when his father Richard was living and
working in Birmingham. His elderly
grandparents passed away during the 1860s, so in 1871 Arthur Collett was 18
and was working as a farm servant at Boarstall on the farm of his uncle John
Collett from Wendlebury, his father’s older brother.
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46O52
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Aubrey Thomas Collett was born at Whitecross Green in
Horton-cum-Studley during 1868 and within a few months of the marriage of his
parents. His mother Anne Cox came from
Horton, but in the Fencott census of 1881 she and her husband gave Aubrey’s place
of birth as Arncott, to possibly correspond with the couple’s next two children.
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In
the 1881 Census Aubrey was listed as Albury Collett, age 13, who was described
as a farmer’s son. It was nearly
twenty years later that he married Amy Elizabeth Mary Haynes during the first
quarter of 1900. Amy was born at
Oddington and was the daughter of Oddington farmer William Haynes and his wife
Maria. By the end of March 1901, they
were living at Boarstall where farmer Aubrey was 32 and his wife Amy was 29.
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After
a further ten years the marriage appears not to have produced any children
for Aubrey and Amy, even after eleven years together. According to the census in 1911 they were
living at Arngrove Farm midway between Boarstall and Brill. Aubrey was 43 and from Arncott, while Amy
was 40 and from Oddington. Arngrove
Farm was also where Aubrey’s cousin one-step removed, the farmer John Edwin
Collett, lived with his family.
Supporting Aubrey was Frank Tott, age 17 and a pupil farmer, Ernest
Clifford, age 15 who was a farm labourer, and domestic servant Bessie
Faulkner who was 23 and from Ludgershall.
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46O53
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Herbert James Collett was born at Arncott in 1870 and in
the 1881 census for Fencott he was listed as being aged 10 and was 20 ten
years later in 1891 and, on both occasions, he was living with his
parents. In the late 1890s Herbert
married Emma of Launton near Bicester, who was very likely the older sister
of Florence of Launton who married Herbert’s cousin Thomas H Collett (below). According to the census of 1901 Herbert
Collett of Arncott was 30 and a farmer at Ludgershall, which is about five
miles from Launton and three miles from Arncott. His wife Emma was 26 of Launton, and listed
with them were their two daughters Doris, who was one year old, and Elise who
was under one year old. Both of the
girls had been born at Ludgershall in Buckinghamshire.
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Later
that same year a third daughter was born into the family while they were
still living at Ludgershall. However,
that event may have caused the death of Emma, since Herbert was a widower
living with his parents on their farm at Fencott in April 1911. According to the census return that year,
Herbert Collett of Arncott was 40 and was working on the farm, presumably
with his father 69-year old Thomas Collett of Fencott. Also living with the family was Herbert’s
youngest daughter Eton who was 10 and who had been born at Ludgershall.
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It
is not clear what had happened to Herbert’s middle daughter Elise Collett, while
his eldest daughter, Doris Collett from Ludgershall (recorded in error as
Lurgeshall), was 11 years of age and a visitor at Tower Farm in nearby
Boarstall. That was the home of siblings
Sidney P Blake, a farmer from Boarstall who was 32, and Sarah A Blake who was
40 and also from Boarstall. Brother
and sister were both unmarried while Sarah, who was acting as housekeeper for
her brother, was supported by housemaid Beatrice L Tortrum aged 23 from
Heyford in Oxfordshire.
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46P97
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Doris Collett
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Born in 1899
at Ludgershall
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46P98
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Elise Collett
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Born in 1900
at Ludgershall
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46P99
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Eton Collett
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Born in 1901
at Ludgershall
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46O54
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Mildred Collett was born at Arncott in 1871 and shortly
after she was born the family moved to nearby Fencott where she was nine
years old in 1881 and was 19 in 1891.
In the 1901 Census there was a Mildred Hall, age 30 and from Arncott,
was living at Harrow in North London where she was working as a domestic
cook. The only other Hall living at
Harrow at that time was an Anthony Hall aged 62 and also from Arncott who may
have been her father-in-law.
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46O55
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Beatrice Collett was born at Fencott in 1875 and was five
years old and was 15 years of age in the next two census returns in 1881 and
1891 for Fencott. By 1901 Beatrice was
25 and was still unmarried when she was still living with her parents.
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46O56
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Percival Cox Collett was born at Fencott in 1877, his
birth being recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 675) during the
third quarter of that year, when he was named as the son of Thomas Collett
and his wife Anne Cox. He was four
years old and was 13 in the next two Fencott censuses in 1881 and 1891. By March 1901 he was referred to as Percy
Collett when he was 23 and was still living with his parents. Shortly after the census day it would appear
that Percival moved to nearby Ludgershall where, it is possible, he worked
with his brother Herbert James Collett (above) who was living there with his
young family.
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It
was during the next couple of years that Percival was married (1) for the first
time, that marriage producing a daughter for him who was born at Ludgershall. However, it would appear that the mother of
his children did not survive since in 1909 Percival Cox Collett married (2)
Ada Martha Davenport at Chorlton in Lancashire, where the event was recorded
(Ref. 8c 1205) during the last three months of that year. The witnesses were named as Gladys Edith
Armitage, William Dalley and Mary Ellen Miller.
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Once
married Percival returned to Charlton-on-Otmoor where the couple was living
in April 1911 together with his daughter Amy.
The census return on that occasion confirmed that Percival Con (sic)
Collett from Fencott was 33, that his wife Ada Martha Collett was also 33,
and that Amy Collett of Ludgershall was six years old. Percival Cox Collett lived a long life and
died in 1964 at the age of 87, his death being recorded at Oxford register
office (Ref. 6b 872) during the third quarter of the year.
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46P100
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Amy Collett
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Born in 1904
at Ludgershall
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46O57
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Arthur Collett was born at Fencott in 1879 and was two
years of age in 1881 and 11 years old ten years later in1891. Arthur was the only member of the family
who has not been identified in the census of 1901, which may indicate that he
was out of the country at that time. Furthermore,
no record of Arthur has been found in the census of 1911.
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46O58
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Sarah Ann Collett was born at Fencott in 1870 and was a
twin with her sister Mary (below).
Before the girls were one year old the family of four have left Fencott
and in early April 1871 were recorded as living in the hamlet of Beckley
within the Headington St Clements area of Oxford, when both girls were still
under one year old. A further move
during the 1970s took the family to Swyncombe near Watlington where they were
living at Darkwood Farm in 1881. Sarah
A Collott (sic) was listed in the census as being aged 11 the same age as her
sister Mary (below).
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Sarah
Ann Collett was 21 in 1891, by which time her family was again living within
the Bicester & Bletchington registration district. However, no record of her as Sarah Collett
has been found after that time, so it is possible, although not yet proved,
that Sarah married Ernest Cox who was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1869. However, it does seem very likely considering
the two previous links between the Collett and Cox families. Sarah and Ernest initially settled in Murcott
where their son Wilfred Cox was born in 1898 before they moved to Boarstall
where they were living in 1901. Sarah
was 30 and of Fencott, Ernest was 31 and a farmer at Boarstall, and son
Wilfred was two years old.
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46O59
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Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott in 1870, the same
time and place that her sister Sarah (above) was born according to the subsequent
census returns, thus making them twin sisters. Shortly after she was born her family moved
to Beckley where they were living in 1871, when Mary was under one year
old. Another move took place in the
next decade, when in 1881 the family was living at Darkwood Farm in Swyncombe,
where Mary E Collott (sic) was 11.
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In
the census of 1891 she was living with her family in the Bicester area once
again, when she was recorded as Elizabeth Mary Collett, age 21. Unlike her sister Sarah, Mary was still
unmarried at the start of the new century when she was 30 and was still
living with her parents at Writchwick Farm in the Market End area of Bicester
at the time of the census in 1901. It
was probably shortly after that when she married, since her parents were
living alone in Market End by 1911.
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46O60
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Albert
JOHN Collett was born at Fencott in 1871, but within two years the
family had moved to Charlton-on-Otmoor before eventually ending up at nearby
Oddington in 1881. On that occasion Albert
was nine, when he was described as the son of farmer John Collett. Ten years later the Collett family was
residing at Main Road in Oddington where Albert J Collett was 19 with no
stated occupation perhaps because he was working with his father on the family’s
farm.
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It
was two years later that he married (1) Maud Cox of Whitecross Green in
Horton-cum-Studley around 1893, Maud being the daughter of Thomas and Margaret
Cox. Albert’s uncle Thomas Collett
(Ref. 46N22) married Anne Cox who was very likely the sister of Thomas Cox and
therefore the aunt of Maud Cox. Once
married Albert and Maud moved to Piddington, on the county boundary between Oxfordshire
and Buckinghamshire to the east of Bicester, where their first three children
were born.
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Towards
the end of the century the family left Piddington when Albert took over the
running of a farm at Tubney, four miles to the west of Abingdon-on-Thames. The 1901 Census for Tubney recorded Albert
J Collett as 29 and from Fencott near Islip, and Maud A Collett his wife who
was 27 and of Whitecross Green. Their
three children were Edith, who was five, Cecil, who was three, and Winifred
who was under one year at that time.
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Two
further children were added to their family but tragically Maud Collett nee
Cox died in 1905 giving birth to the couple’s last child, following which she
was buried in the churchyard of St Andrews Church in Oddington. Therefore the information previously
printed here, about her being separated from Albert and living at Edgehill,
was totally incorrect. As a result of his
loss, and with five children under ten years of age to look after, Albert
subsequently married Mary Edith Stanger. It is possible that they were married
around 1910 since their union produced a sixth child for Albert while he was
living and farming at Shotteswell, just north of Banbury. The Shotteswell census of April 1911 revealed
that Albert John Collett of Fencott was 39, his wife was Mary Edith Collett
who was 36, and their children at that time were Edith Margaret Collett, age
15, Cecil John Collett, age 13, both born at Piddington, and Percy Thomas who
was nine.
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At
that same time in 1911 Albert’s daughter Winifred was away at boarding school,
while there appears to be no record of his youngest daughter Maud who is
known to have been alive many years later.
Her absence also gives credence to the fact that her mother Maud died
around the time she was born and that she was then most likely brought up by
foster parents and was only reunited with her own family at a later
date. Albert John Collett outlived
both of his wives who were both buried at Oddington in adjacent graves and,
prior to his own death some years later he chose to be buried alongside his
first wife.
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46P101
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Edith
Margaret Collett
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Born in 1895 at
Piddington
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46P102
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Cecil John Collett
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Born in 1897
at Piddington
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46P103
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Winifred M
Collett
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Born in 1900
at Piddington
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46P104
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Percy Thomas Collett
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Born in 1901
at Tubney
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46P105
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Maud Collett
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Born circa
1905
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The
following is the only known child of Albert John Collett and his second wife
Mary Edith Stanger:
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46P106
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Robert John
Collett
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Born in 1911
at Shotteswell
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46O61
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Thomas H Collett was born at Fencott in 1872 and was eight
years old in the 1881 Census for Oddington where he and his family were
living. It was also at Oddington, on
the Main Road in the village, that Thomas H Collett from Fencott, age 18, was
living with his family when both he and his older brother Albert were very
likely working alongside their father on the farm. By the end of the century Thomas was established
as a farmer at Standlake, south of Witney, when he was married to Florence
and had a son who was born there. In
the census of 1901 Thomas of Fencott was 28, his wife was 24 and of Launton
near Bicester, and their son Stanley R Collett was still not one year old.
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Florence
may well have been the younger sister of Emma of Launton who married Herbert
James Collett (above), the cousin of Thomas H Collett. All of the couple’s subsequent children
were born at Standlake, where the family was still living at the time of the
census in 1911. Thomas H Collett of
Fencott was 36 and his wife Florence was 32. Their six children were Stanley N Collett,
who was nine, Irene Collett, who was eight, Flossie Collett, who was seven,
Kenneth Robert Collett, who was four, Joan Collett, who was three, and
Rowland Collett who was one years old.
Further children may have been born to Thomas and Florence over the
following years.
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46P107
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Stanley (N or
R) Collett
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Born in 1900 at
Standlake
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46P108
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Irene Collett
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Born in 1901
at Standlake
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46P109
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Florence
(Flossie) Collett
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Born in 1903
at Standlake
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46P110
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Kenneth Robert
Collett
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Born in 1906
at Standlake
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46P111
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Joan Collett
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Born in 1907
at Standlake
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46P112
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Rowland Collett
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Born in 1910
at Standlake
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46O62
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Sarah Cecilia Collett was born at Charlton in 1873 the
daughter of John and Edith Collett. An
error in the census of 1881 named her as Sarah J Collett when she was living
at Oddington with her family at the age of seven. She was not living with her family at Main
Road in Oddington in 1891, instead she was listed as Sarah C Collett, age 17,
who was living and working nearby within the same Bicester & Bletchington
census registration district. Towards
the end of that decade Sarah married farmer Henry Taylor from Launton near
Bicester with whom she had five children up to 1910. Initially the couple settled in Charlton-on-Otmoor
where their first two children were born, before moving to Chalgrove where
the remainder were born.
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The
census in 1901 recorded the young family at Chalgrove, south-east of Oxford,
where Henry Taylor was 31 and a farmer from Launton and his wife Sarah C Taylor
from Charlton was 27. Their two
children on that day were named as Hilda Taylor who was two and William H Taylor
who was a few months old. Ten years
later the eldest child was recorded with a different name. It was at Chalgrove that the family was
still living in 1911 when Henry was 42, Sarah Cecilia was 37, Edith Mary
(previously Hilda) was 13, William Henry was 10, Linda Marjorie was seven, Cecilia
was three, and Florence was one year old.
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46O63
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John Collett was born at Oddington, south of
Bicester in Oxfordshire, either at the end of 1885 or very early in 1886, his
birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 854) during the first quarter of 1886. It was at Oddington where John was with his
family in 1981 at a dwelling in Main Road, when he was five years old. He was listed as being 15 in 1901 when he
was once again living at Oddington with his parents John and Edith Collett. John junior was presumably working with his
father and was described as a farmer’s son.
Ten years later John was still a bachelor at 25 when he was still
living at Oddington with his parents.
His parents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1920 and
following their later deaths, John continued to live in his parent’s house at
Oddington. Whilst he may have been
married, John never had any children and at the time of his death the land he
farmed at Hampton Poyle passed to his nephew Cecil John Collett (Ref. 46P102).
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46O64
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Elizabeth Collett was born at Hailey near Witney on 3rd
February 1848, the eldest child of William Collett and Harriet Hunt. She may have been born at the family home in
Crawley Road where three-year-old Elizabeth Collett was living with her family
at the time of the census in 1851. By
the time she would have been 13 in 1861, Elizabeth was no longer living with her
family at Hailey, although where she was on the day of the census has still
to be discovered. What is known is
that she married Jason Dore who was the son of John Dore and Esther
Buckingham, the wedding taking place on 11th January 1870 at St.
Clements in Oxford.
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Jason
Dore was also born at Hailey, but in 1846, the son of John and Esther Dore, with whom
Elizabeth had six children. Their
eldest child was Louisa Annie Dore who was born at Hailey within weeks of their wedding
day, her birth recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 709) during the first three months
of 1870. Louisa was the great
grandmother of Les Brown who kindly provided this new information about the
family of Jason and Elizabeth Dore. Elizabeth Dore nee Collett died
in 1908, following which her death was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 573)
during the last three months of the year. It was almost exactly two years later that
Jason Dore died in 1910, his
death recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 557) during the fourth
quarter of that year, when he was 63.
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By the time of the census in 1871, Elizabeth
and Jason were recorded in the Ramsden census as Jason Dore from Hailey who
was 23 and a carpenter, while Elizabeth Dore, also from Hailey, was also 23
years of age. Ramsden lies just two miles north of Hailey. On that census day, the couple’s daughter, Louisa was one year old when
she was staying with Elizabeth’s parent’s home at Cape Terrace, Gloucester
Place, in Witney. Just less
than one year later Elizabeth gave birth to her son Arthur Dore on 19th
February 1872, by which time the family was residing in the Eynsham area where
all of her remaining children were born. They were Mary Ann Dore, born on 25th
May 1873 who died that same year, Ada Millicent Elizabeth Dore, born on 10th
January 1875, Francis Dore, born on 15th March 1877 who died four
days later, and William Jason Dore who was born on 21st November
1879 and who died the following year.
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According
to the census in 1881 the family of Jason Dore, aged 33 and a carpenter and a
publican, was recorded as the occupants of the Jolly Sportsman Inn on Abbey
Street in Eynsham. Living there with
him was his wife Elizabeth, also 33, together with his three surviving
children. They were Louisa A Dore who was
11 and born at Hailey, Arthur Dore who was nine and born at Eynsham, as was
Ada M Dore who was six years of age. All
three of them were attending the local school. Lodging at the inn that day were two men, Jason’s
younger brother Abner Dore who was 25 and an agricultural labourer, and
widower Charles Moore who was a butcher of 35.
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The
next census in 1891 revealed that the couple’s eldest child had left home to
be married by then, so the census return listed the family living at Acre End Street in Eynsham
as Jason Dore aged 44 who
was continuing to work as a carpenter, Elizabeth Dore aged 43, Arthur
Dore aged 19 and a farm servant
and Ada Dore who was 16. It was nearly
five years earlier that Louisa Annie Dore, aged barely sixteen, had married
Ernest William Druce on 25th April 1886 at the Church of St Mary
& St John in the Cowley district of the City of Oxford. Ernest was the son of Samuel Druce and Mary
Shillingford and had been born at Eynsham on 16th November
1865. Tragically they were only married
a short while, when Louisa Annie Druce nee Dore died on 22nd
December 1899, but not before she had presented her husband with four children, as confirmed in
the Eynsham census of 1891, where the young family was recorded at Church Square. Ernest Druce was 25 and a farmer, Louisa
Druce was 23, Ernest was four, Evelyn was three, Frederick was two and Daisy
Druce was under one year old.
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The tragic situation at the end of 1899
was confirmed in the census of 1901, when Jason and Elizabeth, not only had their
unmarried son still living with them at Eynsham, but also two grandsons. Carpenter Jason Dore was 54, his wife Elizabeth
was 53, their son Arthur Dore was 29 and a baker. The two grandchildren staying with the
family that day, at Span Acre Lane, were recorded as Ernest William Druce,
who was 14 and an errand boy at nearby grocer’s shop, and Owen Foster Dore who
was three years old. Ernest William Druce senior died many years
later on 7th June 1947 while living at The Square in Eynsham.
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