39L1

William Collett was born around 1749 and this may have taken place at Clanfield, a village in Oxfordshire just north of Faringdon.  It is known that he married Elizabeth Walker and that the marriage took place at Faringdon on 29^th April 1771.  Within the marriage register William was described as being ‘of Clanfield’ which was most likely a reference to where he was living at that time, rather than where he was born.

All of William’s and Elizabeth’s children were born at Clanfield and were baptised at the village church of St Stephen’s, pictured on the right.

The only other mention of the name Collett in the Clanfield Parish Records around this time related to Thomas Collett.

He was buried there in 1773, although no age at the time of his death was given, so he may have been the first born child of William and Elizabeth Collett.

William’s wife, Elizabeth Walker was baptised at Faringdon on 24^th February 1754.  She died in March 1802 and was buried at Clanfield on 23^rd March 1802.  Almost thirty-one years after her death, William Collett died in January 1833 at Clanfield where he was buried on 17^th January 1833.  He was aged 84.  William and his wife Elizabeth were buried in the same grave (plot A57) in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Church, the plot being immediately adjacent to plot A58 where a number of their children were already buried, including Thomas in 1773.

The first daughter born into the family and included in the list below may be an error as the child’s parents in this case were recorded in the Clanfield parish register as William and Mary Collett, unless Elizabeth Walker was Elizabeth Mary Walker.

39M1

Thomas Collett

Born during 1772 at Clanfield

39M2

Mary Collett

Baptised on 13.02.1774 at Clanfield

39M3

Jemima Collett

Baptised on 17.09.1775 at Clanfield

39M4

Henry Collett

Baptised on 03.01.1779 at Clanfield

39M5

WILLIAM COLLETT

Baptised on 02.10.1781 at Clanfield

39M6

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 24.10.1784 at Clanfield

39M7

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 24.09.1786 at Clanfield

39M8

Mary Collett

Baptised on 13.11.1788 at Clanfield

39M9

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 20.03.1791 at Clanfield

39M10

Jemima Collett

Baptised on 26.05.1793 at Clanfield

39M11

James Collett

Baptised on 25.12.1795 at Clanfield

39M12

Rachel Collett

Baptised on 13.05.1798 at Clanfield

39M1

Thomas Collett was born at Clanfield in 1772, the eldest and only child of William and Elizabeth Collett for whom no baptism record has been found.  The reason for that may be that, when he died during 1773, his parents had not yet considered his baptism.

39M2

Mary Collett was baptised at St Stephen’s Church in Clanfield on 13^th February 1774 and was buried there fourteen years later in 1788.  Mary was buried in plot A58, the same grave that had been already used for her sisters Jemima in 1785 and Elizabeth in 1786, and was later used for two of her brothers Henry and James.

39M3

Jemima Collett was born at Clanfield in 1775 and it was there that she was baptised on 17^th September 1775.  Tragically she died six months before her tenth birthday and was buried at Clanfield on 30^th March 1785.  She was buried in plot A58 in St Stephen’s churchyard where she was joined by her sisters Elizabeth and Mary over the following three years and by her brother James six years later.

39M4

Henry Collett was born at Clanfield in 1778 and baptised there on 3^rd January 1779.  He was a Yeoman of Clanfield and died there in 1858 aged 80.  He was buried in plot A58 at St Stephen’s Church on 10^th August 1858.  The same plot had already been used in the previous century for Henry’s sisters Mary, Jemima and Elizabeth, and his brother James, all of whom died during their infancy or childhood. 

39M5

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Clanfield in 1781 where he was baptised on 2^nd October 1781.  He became a farmer in Clanfield and he married Rachel who was born in 1780.  It would appear that William and Rachel lived all of their life at Clanfield where their children were born and baptised.  At the time of the census in June 1841 Rachel was aged 67 and at that time she was living at Glympton with three of her sons, Thomas, George and James.  Just over five years later Rachel died and was buried on 13^th August 1846.  William lived the life of a widower for a further twenty years following the death of Rachel and was aged 79 in the census of 1861.  He died five years later and was buried at Clanfield on 23^rd August 1866.

39N1

Henry Collett

Baptised on 18.11.1805 at Clanfield

39N2

William Collett

Baptised on 19.02.1807 at Clanfield

39N3

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 20.04.1809 at Clanfield

39N4

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 19.10.1810 at Clanfield

39N5

Rachel Collett

Baptised on 05.11.1812 at Clanfield

39N6

Mary Ann Collett

Baptised on 15.08.1814 at Clanfield

39N7

George Collett

Born during 1816 at Clanfield

39N8

JAMES COLLETT

Baptised on 12.06.1818 at Clanfield

39M6

Elizabeth Collett was born at Clanfield in 1784 and was baptised there on 24^th October 1784.  However, she died before her second birthday and was buried at Clanfield on 24^th June 1786.  Her grave in St Stephen’s churchyard was plot A58 which was also used by four of Elizabeth’s siblings.

39M7

Elizabeth Collett was born at Clanfield in 1786 where she was baptised on 24^th September 1786.  Elizabeth married William Weller at Clanfield on 30^th April 1805 and it was there, later that same year that their daughter was born.  Elizabeth was an inn keeper at Clanfield during her life which she may have taken on following the death of her husband.  It was at Clanfield that she died and was buried on 16^th December 1868 aged 82.  The grave in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Church was plot A55.

39N9

Mary Ann Weller

Born in 1805 at Clanfield

39M8

Mary Collett was born at Clanfield in 1788 and it was there that she was baptised on 13^th November 1788.  It was also at Clanfield that she married James Beechey on 10^th February 1808.  James was the son of Kezia Sly and farmer Samuel Beechey who was also born at Clanfield and baptised there on 8^th December 1785.  Rather strangely all bar two of Mary’s and James’ children were born and baptised at Clanfield, the other two having been born at Black Bourton, but all of them appear to have died at Wokingham in Berkshire.

It is also interesting that James’ younger brother William Beechey, who was born two years after James, also died at Wokingham.  So perhaps it was the children’s uncle William Beechey who was the reason for James’ children to move there.  Mary and James however continued to live at Black Bourton where Mary died in 1822 age 34, followed by James in 1840.

39N10

Rachel Beechey

Baptised on 20.04.1809 at Clanfield

39N11

William Collett Beechey

Born during 1810 at Clanfield

39N12

Kezia Beechey

Baptised on 02.10.1812 at Clanfield

39N13

Elizabeth Beechey

Baptised on 05.03.1815 at Clanfield

39N14

Samuel James Beechey

Born during 1817 at Black Bourton

39N15

Henry Beechey

Born during 1821 at Black Bourton

39M9

Thomas Collett was born at Clanfield in 1791 and was also baptised there on 20^th March 1791.  There is a family grave at St Stephen’s Church (plot A58) which indicates that an earlier Thomas Collett died and was buried there in 1773.  However, there is also a record in the Clanfield parish register that Thomas Collett died at Clanfield and was buried there on 11^th January 1864.  It therefore seems likely that this was the second of two Thomas Colletts born to William Collett and Elizabeth Walker.

The surviving Thomas Collett married Sarah Pawling who was born in 1790 at Grafton just south-west of Clanfield.  Sarah was baptised on 16^th February 1791 at Langford near Clanfield and was the daughter of John Henry and Appalonia Mary Pawling of Clanfield.  The wedding took place at Stephen’s Church in Clanfield on 21^st December 1815 and it was at Clanfield that their son was born and baptised.  Thomas and Sarah were both recorded as being aged 50 in the Clanfield census of 1841 and living with them was their twenty-five years old son William.  At this time the census recorded Thomas as a farmer.

By 1851 the family was still together with Thomas and Sarah both then aged 60 and son William 32 (sic).  On this occasion Thomas was a farmer of eight acres employing one man, who may have been his own son.  Just two years later Sarah died living Thomas to appear alone in the Clanfield census of 1861 in which he was described as a 70 years old widower and a farmer.

Three years later in 1864 and at the age of 73 Thomas passed away.  Sarah had died eleven years before her husband and was buried at Clanfield in 1853 aged 63.  Both Thomas and his wife were buried in the same grave in St Stephen’s churchyard, this being plot A2.

39N16

William Collett

Baptised on 21.12.1816 at Clanfield

39M10

Jemima Collett was born at Clanfield in 1792 where she was baptised on 26^th May 1793.  She married John Knapp at Clanfield on 3^rd August 1811.  John, who was baptised on 8^th April 1787 and was a baker, possibly came from a fairly wealthy background judging by the stone chest burial tomb in the graveyard of St Stephen’s Church in Clanfield in which he and his wife were interred. 

Jemima died first in 1834 aged 41 and was buried on 1^st January 1835, while John died nine years later at the age of 55 and was buried on 6^th April 1843.  The tomb at Clanfield has the grave reference A35.  All of their children were born and baptised at Clanfield except the last two, who were baptised at nearby Bampton.

39N17

George Knapp

Baptised on 01.03.1812 at Clanfield

39N18

Ann Knapp

Baptised on 15.08.1814 at Clanfield

39N19

Elizabeth Knapp

Baptised on 13.01.1817 at Clanfield

39N20

William Knapp

Baptised on 01.03.1819 at Clanfield

39N21

John Thomas Knapp

Baptised on 14.09.1821 at Bampton

39N22

Mary Miriam Kinch Knapp

Baptised on 31.10.1826 at Bampton

39M11

James Collett was born at Clanfield in 1795 where he was baptised on 25^th December 1795.  It is possible that there were two sons of William and Elizabeth Collett named James who were born in quick succession.  This idea results from the belief that a James who was born at Clanfield in early 1795 also died there shortly after he was born.

What is known is that the surviving James Collett later married Ann Tarrant at Stanford-in-the-Vale in Berkshire on 1^st March 1824, where Ann was born and where she was baptised on 19^th May 1804, the daughter of William and Ann Tarrant.  The couple spent all of their married life living at Clanfield and it was there that all of their children were born and baptised.

By the time of the census in June 1841, the family had already suffered the loss of their daughter Mary who died in April 1836 at the age of four years.  The census return listed the family as James Collett 45, his wife Ann who was 35, and their seven children: William 15, Ann 11, Thomas 8, Rachel 5, Mary 4, Henry 2, and Pamela who was under one year old.  A triple tragedy struck the family during the next five years when first their son William died in 1842, then James, and he was followed a year later in 1846 by his daughter Rachel.  All three died at Clanfield where James was buried in the graveyard of St Stephen’s Church on 26^th May 1845.

According to the next census in 1851, Ann Collett was a retired widow aged 46, and still living with her at Clanfield were all of her six surviving children.  These were Ann 21, Thomas 18, Mary 14, Henry 11, Pamela 10, and Jemima who was 8.  Having already suffered the loss of three of her children, her daughter Mary died two years later in 1853.

Ten years later in 1861 Anne was 56 and still had three of her children living with her.  These were Henry aged 21, Pamela aged 20 and Jemima aged 18.  By that time Ann Collett was a farmer of 62 acres, and was employing one man and one boy, the one man very likely being her own son Henry.  Ann survived for another nine year and died at Clanfield in 1870 where she was buried with her husband in grave plot A67 on 10^th June 1870.  The parish burial record described her as Ann Collett, mother of Pamela and Jimmi (meaning Jemima).

39N23

William Collett

Baptised on 13.08.1826 at Clanfield

39N24

Ann Collett

Baptised on 09.08.1829 at Clanfield

39N25

Mary Collett

Baptised on 14.08.1831 at Clanfield

39N26

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 04.11.1832 at Clanfield

39N27

Rachel Collett

Baptised on 14.09.1834 at Clanfield

39N28

Mary Collett

Baptised on 27.11.1836 at Clanfield

39N29

Henry Collett

Baptised on 09.06.1839 at Clanfield

39N30

Pamela Collett

Baptised on 12.12.1840 at Clanfield

39N31

Jemima Collett

Baptised on 27.11.1842 at Clanfield

39M12

Rachel Collett was born at Clanfield in 1797 and was baptised there on 13^th May 1798.  And it was there that she married William Horn on 9^th November 1816.  William had been born at Thrupp in Berkshire in 1794.  In the earlier records relating to William’s family the spelling of their surname was as above, that is without the ‘e’.  It was only in later generations, around the end of the nineteenth century, that it was changed to the more familiar spelling of Horne.  It would appear that all of their children were born at Clanfield, where Rachel died and was buried on 25^th May 1872.  Her husband had died nearly nine years earlier and was buried at Clanfield on 4^th December 1863.  According to the census of 1861 Rachel was aged 64 and William was aged 68.

39N32

Henry Horn

Baptised on 17.08.1817 at Clanfield

39N33

Eliza Horn

Baptised on 24.12.1820 at Clanfield

39N34

Louisa Horn

Baptised on 21.09.1823 at Clanfield

39N35

Charles Horn

Baptised on 21.05.1826 at Clanfield

39N36

William Horn

Baptised on 04.01.1829 at Clanfield

39N37

Jesse Horn

Baptised on 21.10.1832 at Clanfield

39N38

George Horn

Baptised on 17.10.1839 at Clanfield

39N4

Thomas Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 19^th October 1810.  He was still not married in June 1841 when he was twenty-eight and was still living with his mother Rachel and his younger brothers George and James (below) in Glympton.  It would appear that that Thomas remained a bachelor well into his forties, since no earlier marriage record has been discovered.  What is known is that he married Mary Ann Kerly at Wallingford around 1851.  Mary Ann was thirteen years younger than Thomas, having been born at Faringdon in 1823.

Once married, the couple settled in Clanfield where all three of their children were born.  However, the last of the three children only survived for three weeks.  So by 1861 Thomas and Mary Ann were confirmed as living at Clanfield with just two of their children.  The family was made up of Thomas, who said he was 48 rather than 50, his wife Mary Ann who was 37, their son Lancelot who eight, and their daughter Emily who was seven years old. 

Tragedy struck the family for a second time in three years when, just ten weeks after the census day, Thomas died at Clanfield where he was buried on 16^th June 1861, leaving Mary Ann a widow after just ten years of marriage with her two young children.  According to the next census in 1871, Mary A Collett was forty-seven and a widow and was still living in Clanfield, at Clanfield Street, with just her son Lancelot who was eighteen.  Mary’s place of birth was confirmed as Faringdon and under occupation the census return simply read ‘landowner’.  Lancelot’s place of birth was confirmed as Clanfield and his occupation at that time was assistant baker.

It would appear that Mary Ann’s daughter Emily had already left the family home as she was listed as being E T Collett of Clanfield who was eighteen and who was living and working in the Thame & Brill registration of Oxfordshire.  By the time of the census of 1881 Mary Ann Collett was 57 and was still living at Clanfield with her son Lancelot, when once again she was described as being an owner of land.

39O1

Lancelot Collett

Born in 1852 at Clanfield

39O2

Emily Louise Collett

Born in 1854 at Clanfield

39O3

Miriam Anne Collett

Baptised on 05.06.1858 at Clanfield

39N7

George William Collett was in 1816 and most likely at Clanfield.  By June 1841 as George he was aged 25 and was living with his mother Rachel Collett at Glympton with his two brothers Thomas (above) and James (below). 

39N8

JAMES COLLETT was born at Eynsham where he was baptised on 12^th June 1818.  The census of 1841 listed James as being aged 21 and living at Glympton with his mother Rachel and his older brothers Thomas and George (above).  Four years after James married Mary Hartley at Woodstock in 1846.  Mary was believed to have born at Wootton near Woodstock in 1817 although the census details below places her date of birth around 1819 or 1820.

Following the wedding the couple initially set up home at Glympton, just north of Woodstock, where some or all of their children were born.  However, almost twenty years after they were married James and Mary had moved south and were living in the Bampton & Witney registration district of Oxfordshire which includes Clanfield.  According to the 1861 Census the family at that time comprised James, age 41, and Mary, age 40, with their daughters Rachel, who was 12, Mary Ann, who was five, and Elizabeth who was three, and their sons Frederick, age 10, and Francis who was eight.

Ten years later the couple were still living in the Clanfield area where both James and Mary were listed as being aged 51 in the Witney & Bampton census of 1871.  The only one of their children listed as living with them at that time was their son George aged 23 who was confirmed as having been born at Glympton.

The married lasted for 32 years before James died in 1878 aged 58.  He was buried on 29^th January 1878 in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Church at Clanfield in grave plot B7.  So by 1881 Mary, aged 61 and an annuitant, was a widow living with her eldest son Henry George Collett at his family’s home in Clanfield.

Henry’s wife died in 1882 and she may have been followed by Henry sometime later and this may have been the reason why Mary left Clanfield and moved in with her son Frederick at his home in Lower Mitton near Stourport in Worcestershire where in 1891 she was aged 71.  No further record of Mary has been found so it may be assumed that she passed away before the end of the century.

39O4

James Collett

Born in 1844 at Glympton

39O5

Henry George Collett

Born in 1847 at Glympton

39O6

Rachel Ann Collett

Born in 1849 at Glympton

39O7

Frederick William Collett

Born in 1851 at Glympton

39O8

Francis Charles Collett

Born in 1853 at Glympton

39O9

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1855 at Glympton

39O10

Elizabeth Emma Collett

Born in 1858 at Glympton

39N9

Mary Ann Weller was born at Clanfield in 1805.  She married Benjamin Ward at Burford on 14^th June 1830.  Benjamin was born at Alveston near Stratford-on-Avon in 1793 and was a printer and later, was Master of the Witney Workhouse.  The couple’s first three children were born at Burford.  Shortly after, Mary and Benjamin moved to the village of Curbridge just south-east of Witney where all of their remaining children were born.  Mary died at Witney in 1853.

39O11

Thomas Ward

Baptised on 12.08.1831

39O12

Henry Collett Ward

Baptised on 21.02.1833

39O13

Jane Ward

Baptised on 01.10.1834

39O14

Elizabeth Ward

Baptised on 27.01.1836

39O15

Benjamin Ward

Born in 1837

39O16

William Ward

Born in 1839

39O17

Lydia Ward

Born in 1841

39O18

Samuel Ward

Born in 1846

39O19

Walter Alfred Ward

Born in 1848

39N10

Rachel Beechey was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 20^th April 1809.  She never married and followed her brother William to Wokingham with whom she was recorded as living in 1871 Census as aged 62.  It would appear that she lived the rest of her life with her brother as confirmed by the Wokingham Census of 1881 when she was aged 72.  And it was there that Rachel died in 1888.

39N11

William Collett Beechey was born at Clanfield and was baptised on 12^th August 1810.  He married Elizabeth Evans at Wokingham where they settled during the 1830s and where all of their children were born.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas and Sally Evans and was born in 1809.  By the time of the 1851 Census William aged 40 and Elizabeth aged 42 and their children were confirmed as living at Wokingham.  Ten years later Elizabeth was still there aged 52, but on the day of the census William was working in Staines.  The children living with Elizabeth in 1861 were William 23, Frederick 18, Charlotte 17, Alfred 13, Maria 11, Minnie, who was nine, and Maud who was seven.

In the 1871 Census for Wokingham William was aged 60 and Elizabeth 62 and living with them was William’s older sister Rachel Beechey aged 62.  The 1881 Census confirmed William C Beechey as being aged 70 and a school master born at Clanfield, and that he was living at Rose Street in Wokingham with his wife Elizabeth aged 72 who had been born at Wokingham.

Living with them was William’s unmarried older sister Rachel aged 72 and five of the children, all not married.  These were Sarah E M Beechey 45, Margaret E Beechey 35, Alfred B C Beechey a clergyman without care of souls a Bachelor of Arts of T C D aged 33, Rachel E M Beechey 30 and Minnie K A Beechey 28 both listed as school governesses and teachers, and all born at Wokingham.  It was at Rose Street that William died four years later in 1885, followed five years after by Elizabeth in 1890 while she was still living at the same address.

39O20

Sarah Elizabeth Mary Beechey

Born in 1835; died 1920

39O21

Prince William Thomas Beechey

Born in 1836

39O22

William Jones Henry Beechey

Born in 1837; died 1909 at Wokingham

39O23

George Evans Beechey

Born in 1838; died 1930 Black Bourton

39O24

James Samuel Robert Beechey

Born in 1840

39O25

Frederick Mainzer Charles Beechey

Born in 1842; died 1874

39O26

Margaret Eleanor Charlotte Beechey

Born in 1844

39O27

Jane Kezia Priscilla Beechey

Born in 1846; infant death pre 1851

39O28

Alfred Barnard Collett Beechey

Born in 1847; died 1930

39O29

Francis Edward Richard Beechey

Born in 1849; died 1850 at Wokingham

39O30

Rachel Eliza Marian Beechey

Born in 1850; died 1919

39O31

Minnie Katharine Annie Beechey

Born in 1852

39O32

Maud Alice Louisa Beechey

Born in 1854; died 1868

39N12

Kezia Beechey was born at Clanfield and it was there that she baptised on 2^nd October 1812.  At sometime in her life, and possibly following the early death of her mother, Kezia moved to live at Wokingham near her older siblings William and Rachel (above), where she later died in 1885.

39N13

Elizabeth Beechey was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 5^th March 1815.  It seems very likely that she married Mr Hemming or Mr Kennedy and was living in the Faringdon & Witney registration district in 1841.  However, the couple eventually moved to live in Aylesbury where Elizabeth died before 30^th March 1851.

39N14

Samuel James Beechey was born at Black Bourton and was baptised there on 23^rd November 1817.  It would appear that while still living at Black Bourton Samuel married (1) Ellen there, possibly around 1840.  Sometime after 1861 Ellen died following which Samuel moved to Wokingham as did all of his siblings.  What is known is that during the twenty years following their marriage Ellen died.  And so it was that in 1862 Samuel met and married (2) Sarah Over.  Sarah was born at Farnham in Surrey in 1824 as confirmed by the 1871 Census at which time Samuel aged 53 and Sarah aged 46 were living at Wokingham.

According to the 1881 Census Samuel J Beechey, aged 60 and of Black Bourton, was the inn keeper and licenced victualler of The Greyhound Inn at Finchampstead just south of Wokingham in Berkshire.  He was also a baker by trade and at that time the couple had living with them Sarah’s brother Herbert John Over of Finchampstead, a baker and general assistant aged 29.  On that occasion Sarah’s age was given as being 55 and her place of birth confirmed as being Farnham in Surrey.

39N15

Henry Beechey was born at Black Bourton around 1820.  It would appear that he was born shortly before his mother died and he may have stayed with his father at Black Bourton when the rest of his family appear to have moved to live at Wokingham.  What is known is that he married Jane Harris at Witney in 1848.

39O33

Phoebe Mary Beechey

Date of birth unknown

39N16

William Collett was born at Clanfield, or even Langford near Clanfield where his mother Sarah Pawling was born, but was baptised at nearby Grafton on 21^st December 1816.  He married (1) Harriet Monk at Witney after 6^th June 1841 and it would appear that Harriet, who was born at Clanfield in 1819, conceived William’s first child before the couple were married as the child also was baptised with Harriet’s maiden name.

William and Harriet both featured in the 1851 Census with their five children and one year after the census day Harriet presented William with their sixth.  The census also revealed that William was a farmer employing three men.  All six children from William’s first marriage were born at Bampton the next village north-west of Clanfield.  It is likely that Harriet died while the family was at Bampton, although she was buried at St Stephen’s Church in Clanfield on 25^th March 1854.

The census seven years later recorded the family as living at the Red Lion Inn at Clanfield where farmer William aged 44, his eldest daughter Sarah Collett aged 20, Thomas 18, Appolonia 17, Sarah S Collett as 16, Harriet E Collett 14, and William H Collett who was nine years old.  Fourteen years after the death of his first wife William married (2) Sarah Kench at Witney in 1868.  Sarah was the daughter of Mary Ann Kench and was born at Faringdon in 1833 where she was living and working in 1861.

However, it seems likely that unless there is an error in the date of their marriage, two of their children were born prior to the wedding ceremony.  This partnership produced a further four children for William, with the first three children having been born at Clanfield and the last one after the family had moved back at Bampton.  Three of the four children from William’s second married were listed with the couple at Mill Street in Bampton in 1871, just prior to the birth of their last child who was born a year later.  William was 54, Sarah was 37, and their three children were Jonathon, who was five, Julia, who was three, and Onesiphorus who was one year old.  William was then a miller and a farmer of 200 acres employing five men and two boys.

Also still living with his father was William’s youngest son from his first marriage, nineteen years old William H Collett.  Over the following decade William’s farm holding reduced from 200 acres to just 4 acres as confirmed in the 1881 Census.  Whether this was by choice or for health reasons is not known, but it is known that none of his sons continued in farming so it was not passed onto any of them.

By the time of the 1881 Census the family was still living at Mill Street in Bampton where, at the age of 64, William’s occupation was then recorded as being that of a miller with the four acres of land.  His place of birth was given as Grafton and his wife Sarah of Faringdon was 47 years of age.

The only children living with them on 3^rd April 1881 were sons Jonathan 15 and Onesiphorus 11 and daughters Julia 13 and Susannah aged 8.  The census record confirmed that Jonathan, Julia and Onesiphorus were born at Clanfield, while Susannah was born at Bampton.  It is believed that William and Sarah both died sometime after April 1881 and sometime before 1891 since neither has been found in the census for 1891 or 1901.

39O34

Sarah Catherine Collett Monk

Baptised on 10.03.1841

39O35

Thomas Cornelius Collett

Baptised on 26.08.1842

39O36

Appolonia Hannah Collett

Baptised on 08.10.1843

39O37

Sarah Selina Collett

Baptised on 27.08.1845

39O38

Harriet Eliza Collett

Baptised on 27.08.1847

39O39

William Henry Collett

Baptised on 30.02.1852

39O40

Jonathan Nathaniel Collett

Born in 1866

39O41

Julia Isabella Collett

Born in 1867

39O42

Onesiphorus Oliver Collett

Born in 1869

39O43

Susannah Ada Collett

Born in 1872

39N18

Ann Knapp was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 15^th August 1814.  She never married and died in 1841 aged 27.  Ann was buried on 3^rd April 1841 in plot A35 in the grounds of St Stephen’s Church with her sister Elizabeth (below).

39N19

Elizabeth Knapp was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 13^th January 1817.  Like her sister Ann, Elizabeth also died while still a spinster, in 1838 at the age of 22.  Elizabeth was buried on 22^nd July 1838 in plot A35 in the grounds of St Stephen’s Church with her sister Ann (above).

39N21

John Thomas Knapp was born at Bampton and was baptised there on 14^th September 1821.  He was a builder and married (1) Jane Richardson Lay at Oxford in 1846 with whom he had eight children before she died.  Jane was born in 1823 and was buried at Clanfield on 4^th February 1860.  All of their children were born and baptised at Clanfield.  A couple of years after her death John married (2) Ann Clare at Headington in 1862 with whom he had a further three children, all born at Clanfield.  Ann was born at Black Bourton in 1827.

39O44

Leonard Randolph Knapp

Baptised 21.07.1847; died 04.08.1926

39O45

Elizabeth Ann Knapp

Baptised 04.10.1848; bur. 20.02.1863

39O46

George Knapp

Baptised 09.05.1850; died in 1889

39O47

Sarah Jane Knapp

Baptised on 15.10.1851

39O48

Caroline Knapp

Baptised on 23.07.1854

39O49

Alice Knapp

Baptised 08.09.1856; bur. 10.09.1856

39O50

William Knapp

Baptised 15.10.1859; bur. 01.11.1859

39O51

Richard J Knapp

Born in 1851

39O52

Bessy Knapp

Baptised on 06.11.1863

39O53

Miriam Martha Knapp

Baptised 24.12.1865; bur. 30.04.1883

39O54

Thomas Knapp

Baptised 22.01.1868; bur. 24.10.1889

39N23

William Collett was born at Clanfield and it was there that he was baptised on 13^th August 1826.  He was fifteen years of age in the census of 1841, but died just over a year later and was buried at Clanfield on 13^th July 1842.

39N24

Ann Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 9^th August 1829, the eldest daughter of James Collett and Ann Tarrant.  She was eleven years old in the Clanfield census of 1841 when she was living there with her parents and six siblings.  During the next five years she suffered the loss of three members of her family.  First to die was her older brother William (above) in 1842, and he was followed three years later by her father, and one year after that by her sister Rachel (below). 

Four years before the 1841, the family had suffered the loss of Ann’s sister Mary (below).  So by the time of the next census in 1851, Ann at the age of 21 was living at Clanfield with her widowed mother Ann, and with her five surviving siblings. 

Just over one year later Ann married Richard Griffin at Clanfield on 3^rd July 1852.  However, the couple’s only child was born at nearby Black Bourton, but died shortly afterwards and was buried at Clanfield.  Just over a year later Ann died and was also buried at Clanfield on 6^th February 1855.

39O55

Mary Miriam Griffin

Born in 1853; buried on 07.01.1854

39N25

Mary Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 14^th August 1831.  Tragically she died before reaching her fifth birthday and was buried at Clanfield on 24^th April 1836.

39N26

Thomas Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 4^th November 1832.  At the time of the census in 1841 he was eight years old and living at Clanfield with his parents, and was 18 in 1851 when he was still living there with his widowed mother and five siblings.  It is also understood that Thomas died at Clanfield on 1^st October 1890, although to date, no record of him has been located in any of the census returns for 1861, 1871 and 1881.  This may therefore indicate that it was another Thomas who died in 1890.

39N27

Rachel Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 14^th September 1834 and was five years old in 1841.  However, just like other members of her family, she died while still very young and was buried at Clanfield on 10^th October 1846.

39N28

Mary Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 27^th November 1836.  She was four years old in 1841 and was 14 years of age in 1851.  Sadly, just over two years later she was yet another member of the family to die before reaching adulthood and was buried at Clanfield on 25^th October 1853.

39N29

Henry Collett was born at Clanfield in 1839 and it was there that he was baptised on 9^th June 1839, the youngest son of James Collett and Ann Tarrant.  He was two years old in June 1841 and in 1845 his father died when he was only six years old.  Henry was eleven years old in the Clanfield census of 1851, when he was living in the village with his mother and his five siblings.  By 1861 Henry was still living at Clanfield with his mother and his two younger sisters Pamela and Jemima (below) when he was 21.  At that time in his life his mother had a 62 acre farm on which she employed one man and one boy, Henry very likely being the man.

Ten years later he was still not married and was still living with his spinster sisters Pamela and Jemima at Clanfield.  What happened to Henry after 1871 still needs to be determined, but so far no further record of him has been found in any census after 1871.

39N30

Pamela Collett was born at Clanfield during the second half of 1841, and it was there that she was baptised on 12^th December 1840.  The census in June the following years indicated that she was under one year old.  Four and a half years after she was born her father died at Clanfield, and either side of his passing two of Pamela’s siblings, William and Rachel also died. 

After these sad events she continued to live at Clanfield with her mother and was 10 years old in 1851, and 20 years old in 1861, when just herself, her brother Henry (above), and her sister Jemima (below) were the only members of the family still living with their mother.  Nine years later Pamela’s mother died at Clanfield and in the census the following year the unmarried Pamela Collett aged 30 was still living in the village with her two unmarried siblings Henry and Jemima.

Pamela never married and in 1881 was still living at Clanfield at the age of 40, when she was an out of work housekeeper.  By 1891 Pamela had left Clanfield and was living in the Hendred & Wantage registration district aged 50.  The census record confirmed that she had been born at Clanfield.  Just after the turn of the century Pamela was 60 years of age and was living at Chilton Entire where she was employed as a domestic housekeeper.  She was recorded as Pammie Collett of Clanfield.

39N31

Jemima Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 27^th November 1842, the youngest child of James Collett and Ann Tarrant.  She was just thirty months old when her father died in 1845, following which she continued to live with her mother at Clanfield.  She was eight years old in 1851 and by the time of the census in 1861 she was aged 18, on both occasion she was living with her mother and other members of her family.  Following the death of her mother in 1870 Jemima Collett, at the age of 28, was living with her brother Henry and sister Pamela (above) at Clanfield in 1871.  It would appear that she never married, since Jemima Collett died at Headington in Oxford in 1888.  To date no record of Jemima has been found in the census of 1881.

39N32

Henry Horn was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 17^th August 1817.  He was a plumber and a glazier and he married Elizabeth Wheeler at Lechlade on 22^nd December 1839.  Elizabeth was born at Lechlade on 14^th November 1820.  All of their children were born at Abingdon-on-Thames where Henry died in 1875, followed by his wife in 1884.  Tragically the death of their eldest son at Abingdon preceded their own deaths.

It is believed that there were more children born into the family than just the three indicated below, and that some of these were also victims of infant death.  In Abingdon around this time it is known that there were other Horn families, but to date it has not been exactly determined which children came from one family or the other.  What is known is that the Horn children of this family were not baptised at any parish church in Abingdon.

39O56

Charles Henry Horn

Born in 1843; died 1864

39O57

Rachel Ann Horn

Born in 1848

39O58

Eliza Jane Horn

Born in 1851

39N33

Eliza Horn was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 24^th December 1820.  She married carpenter Henry Kerly at Clanfield on 16^th August 1841.  Henry was born at Faringdon in 1824 and was very likely the brother to Mary Ann Kerly who married Thomas Collett (above).  Within a year of the date of their marriage Eliza and Henry were living at Poplar in London where all of their children were born and where Eliza died in 1857.  Henry died in 1872 at West Ham.

39O59

Elizabeth Kerly

Born on 12.09.1842

39O60

William Collett Kerly

Born on 10.11.1844

39O61

Louisa Susan Kerly

Born on 03.12.1846

39O62

Henry John Kerly

Born in 1849; died 1856 at Poplar

39O63

John Charles Kerly

Born in 1851; died 1893 at Stepney

39O64

Rachel Pamela Kerly

Born in 1853

39N34

Louisa Horn was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 21^st October 1823.  Around the time of 1851 she was working as a domestic servant and she later married William Martin at Headington in 1852.  William had been born in 1828 at Bicester.

39N35

Charles Horn was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 21^st May 1826.  He married (1) Ann Brooks at Clanfield on 18^th November 1848 who had been born there in 1828.  All of their children were born and baptised at Clanfield.

The family lived their whole life at Clanfield where, in 1881, Charles was working as a sawyer aged 54.  With him was Ann aged 52 who was employed as a laundress, together with three of their children, Eliza aged 17 and an assistant laundress, Walter 14 and Annie 11.  Charles’ wife Ann died at Clanfield seventeen years later and was buried there on 15^th July 1898.

Fifteen years after her death Charles married the widow (2) Mrs Amelia on 25^th October 1913 at Clanfield.  However, after just over two years with Amelia, who was born in 1825, Charles died on 30^th December 1915 and was followed by Amelia only five days later on 4^th January 1916.

39O65

Henry Charles Horn

Baptised on 19.08.1849; died 1877

39O66

Rachel Horn

Baptised and buried on 05.10.1850

39O67

Troilus Horn

Baptised on 04.01.1852; died 1903

39O68

Elizabeth Horn

Born in 1855

39O69

George Horn

Born in 1858

39O70

Emily Horn

Born in 1859

39O71

Eliza Horn

Born in 1864

39O72

Walter Horn

Born in 1865; died 18.12.1916

39O73

Edward Horn

Born in 1867

39O74

Ann Horn

Born in 1870

39N36

William Horn was born at Clanfield where he was baptised on 4^th January 1829 and where he married Rebecca Charlotte Ham on 7^th April 1851.  Rebecca was born at Knightsbridge in London in 1828.  All of their children were born and baptised at Clanfield and it was there that William died and was buried on 7^th March 1879.  In 1881 the family living at Clanfield was made up of William’s widow Rebecca aged 52 from Knightsbridge, sons Willoughby aged 18 and Henry aged 11 - both working as agricultural labourers, and daughter Jane aged 23, a general servant.  Rebecca Horn died before the turn of the century and was buried at Clanfield on 10^th June 1896. 

39O75

Charles William Horn

Baptised on 04.01.1852

39O76

Georgina Horn

Baptised on 05.02.1854

39O77

Frederick Horn

Baptised on 17.02.1856; died 1878

39O78

Jane King Horn

Baptised on 16.05.1858

39O79

Agnes Horn

Baptised on 27.05.1860

39O80

Willoughby George Horn

Baptised on 09.11.1862

39O81

Edith Horn

Baptised on 29.04.1866

39O82

Elizabeth Adelaide Horn

Baptised on 26.04.1868

39O83

Henry Thomas Horn

Baptised on 29.05.1870

39N37

Jesse Horn was born at Clanfield and it was there that he was baptised on 21^st October 1832.  He married Caroline Clack at Clanfield on 21^st May 1853 and all of their children were born at Clanfield.  Caroline was born at Clanfield in 1837 and it was there that she also died on 27^th December 1918.  Jesse, who was a labourer, had died over fifty years earlier and was buried there on 19^th June 1867 exactly a year after the birth of his last child.  According to the 1881 Census widow Caroline, aged 43 and an agricultural labourer, was living at Clanfield with three of her sons who were all agricultural labourers, even the youngest, ten years old John.  The other boys were Albert aged 21 and Jessie aged 14.

39O84

William Horn

Baptised on 11.02.1855

39O85

Edwin James Horn

Baptised on 28.09.1856

39O86

Catherine Horn

Baptised on 10.03.1858; died 1858

39O87

Albert Horn

Baptised on 11.09.1859

39O88

Louisa Horn

Baptised on 23.02.1862; died 1862

39O89

Alice Horn

Baptised on 24.05.1863

39O90

Sarah Jane Horn

Baptised on 26.02.1865

39O91

Jesse Horn

Baptised on 24.06.1866

39O92

John Horn

Born in 1870

39N38

George Horn was born at Clanfield where he was baptised on 17^th October 1839.  He married Harriet Shayler on 18^th August 1860 at Leafield between Witney and Shipton-under-Wychwood.  The couple’s first five children were all born at Leafield, while the last was born at Ramsden north of Witney.

Harriet was born at Leafield and was baptised there on 15^th October 1837.  In 1881 the family was living at an address referred to as ‘By the Pool’ in Leafield.  The census confirmed that George was a carpenter and joiner aged 41 of Clanfield and that his wife Harriet was aged 43 and of Leafield.

Their children at that time were Randolph, age 16, Frederick, age 14, Jane, age 11, and Annie who was four.  Eldest son Randolph was listed as having no occupation.  George and Harriet returned to live at Clanfield late in their life, since it was there that they both died and were buried, George on 8^th July 1914, followed by Harriet on 4^th April 1918.

39O93

Walter Horn

Baptised on 15.03.1861; died 1861

39O94

Randolph Horn

Baptised on 01.06.1862; died 1862

39O95

Randolph Leonard Horn

Born in 1864

39O96

Frederick Walter Horn

Born in 1866

39O97

Jane Elizabeth Horn

Born on 07.12.1869

39O98

Annie L Horn

Born in 1876

39O1

Lancelot Collett was born at Clanfield in 1852, and was baptised there on 24^th April 1853, the eldest son of Thomas Collett and Mary Ann Kerly.  It is possible that the year of his baptism was 1863, although this seems unlikely since his sisters were baptised at Clanfield in 1858 and may therefore, be just a misinterpretation of the year.  The Clanfield census of 1861 confirmed that Lancelot was eight years old and was little in the village with his parents and his sister Emily (below), his younger sister Miriam having died in 1858.

Shortly after the census day in 1861, Lancelot’s father died and by the time of the next census in 1871 his sister had left the family home.  This meant that at that time Lancelot was eighteen and was living at the family home in Clanfield with just his widowed mother.  He was working as a baker’s assistant on this occasion, while his mother was described as a land-owner.

Rather strangely, according to the census of 1881, Lancelot was stated as being 21, but once again, that was probably an error in translation, it being more realistic that he was actually twenty-seven.  He was still living with his ‘land-owner’ mother, although he was not credited with any occupation at this time.

It has not been determined when he eventually became a married man, but it is known that he married Annie Poole who was born at Bampton in 1858 and was six years younger than Lancelot.  Annie Poole was 22 years old in 1881, when she was working as a domestic servant at the home of Richard Sheaf, a draper of Market Square in Witney.  Working alongside her was Elizabeth Lapworth also aged 22 of Southrop near Lechlade.  See Ref. 39O34 for another possible connection to the Lapworth family.

Curiously no record of Lancelot and Annie has been found in either of the census returns for 1891 and 1901, so it was not known if the marriage produced any children for the couple.  However, by April 1911 they were living at a two-roomed house in Horsepath within the Headington area of Oxford.  Annie Collett was fifty-two and she gave her place of birth as Clanfield, the same as her husband.  Lancelot Collett was fifty-eight and his occupation was that of a horse dealer, having his own account.

To the question of ‘how many years married’ was included the initials N.K, but more enlightening under the question about children, the answer was none.  In addition to all of this there was something written under occupation for Annie, but sadly it is illegible.

39O2

Emily Louise Collett was born at Clanfield in 1854 but was not baptised there until 13^th June 1858.  She was the only surviving daughter of Thomas Collett of Clanfield and Mary Ann Kerly of Faringdon.  At the time of the census in 1861 Emily was seven years old and was living with her parents and older brother Lancelot (above) at Clanfield.  Following the death of her sister Miriam (below) in 1858, and the death of her father just after the census day in 1861, it is not clear what happened to Emily in 1871.  Her widowed mother, together with her brother, was still living at Clanfield, but no record of Emily has been found in that area at that time.

The only possibility is that Emily was the person referred to as Emily T Collett aged eighteen of Clanfield who was living and working in the Thame & Brill registration district of Oxfordshire, but this has not been proved.  What is known is that two years after the census day she married her ‘one-step removed’ cousin Henry George Collett (Ref. 39O5) at Clanfield on 29^th April 1873.  Henry George Collett was the son of James Collett and Mary Hartley and was born at Glympton in 1847. 

The married produced three children for the couple before Emily died at Clanfield in September 1882 and was buried in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Church in the village on 25^th September 1882.  For further details of the continuation of this family, see Ref. 39O5 (below).

39O3

Miriam Anne Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 5^th June 1858, the daughter of Thomas Collett and Mary Ann Kerly.  Tragically she only survived for three weeks and was buried at Clanfield 24^th June 1858.

39O4

James Collett was born at Glympton in 1844 and was seven years old at the time of the Glympton census of 1851.  Ten years later when he would have been aged 17 he was not listed with his family who had moved to Clanfield and so far not further record of James has been found in the UK.

39O5

Henry George Collett was born in 1847 at Glympton where he was living with his parents in 1851 aged three years, but was listed in the census as George.  Curiously in 1861 George aged 15 was listed as living in Wokingham, while his family had left Glympton and had moved south to settle in Clanfield, and the area where his father James Collett had been born.  And it was also to Clanfield that Henry eventually moved to be reunited with his family and where he married Emily Louise Collett (Ref. 39O2) on 29^th April 1873.  It seems highly likely that Emily was with-child on the day of their wedding, since the couple’s first child was baptised only six months later.

Emily was born at Clanfield in 1854, but was not baptised until 13^th June 1858.  She was the daughter of landowner Thomas Collett of Clanfield and his wife Mary Ann Kerly of Faringdon.  Thomas Collett was the cousin of Henry George Collett’s father James Collett.  Henry George and Emily Louise were therefore cousins one-step removed.

Henry was a baker and all of his children were born in the village of Clanfield where they were baptised.  In April 1881 the family living at Clanfield comprised Henry who was 33 and born at Glympton, his wife Emily who was 27 and from Clanfield, and their children Miriam, who was seven, Mary, who was five, and James who was one year old.  Living with them was Henry’s widowed mother, sixty-one years old annuitant Mary Collett of Walton in Oxford.  Within eighteen months of the census date Henry’s wife Emily died at Clanfield, where she was buried on 25^th September 1882.

No record of the family has so far been found in either of the census returns for 1891 or 1901.  However, in 1911 Henry’s eldest daughter was recorded living in the Alton registration district of Hampshire, while his youngest daughter was living in Henley-on-Thames.

39P1

Miriam Eleanor Collett

Baptised on 02.11.1873

39P2

Mary Charlotte Collett

Baptised on 04.06.1876

39P3

James George Collett

Born in 1879 at Clanfield

39O6

Rachel Ann Collett was born at Glympton in 1849.  Just prior to 1861 Rachel’s parents left Glympton and moved back into the Bampton & Witney area where her father was born.  And it was at Clanfield that she was listed in the 1861 at the age of 12 living with her family.  Like her brother Henry (above), Rachel also retained the longstanding family links to Clanfield, as it was there that she married Thomas Cornelius Collett (Ref. 39O35) on 12^th June 1866. 

Thomas was the son of William Collett and Harriet Monk, which again resulted in the fact that the couple were cousins one step removed.  He was born at Bampton in 1830 where he was baptised on 26^th August 1842 at the age of twelve.  All of the children of Rachel and Thomas were born and baptised at Clanfield. 

According to the census of 1871 the family living at Clanfield comprised Thomas C Collett, Rachel A Collett aged 22, together with their first three of their eight children Alfred, who was four, Edith, who was two, and baby Albert who was not yet one year old.  Thomas gave his age in 1871 as 28 when in fact he was 41, perhaps out of embarrassment regarding the big age difference between himself and his younger wife.  It was only after her death that Thomas reverted to using his correct age in the later census records.

Tragically Rachel died eight years later in 1879 within days of the birth of her last child and, just two days before it was baptised, Rachel was buried at Clanfield on 25^th April 1879.  The same child’s absence from the census in 1881 suggests that he too did not survive.  The 1881 Census recorded that widower Thomas was a carpenter aged 51 and confirmed his place of birth as Bampton.  Living with him in Clanfield at that time were his daughters Edith, age 12, and Mary, who was four, and his sons Albert, age 10, William, who was nine, Thomas, who was seven, and Frederick who was five years old.

Thomas Collett survived his wife by seventeen years, during which time he continued to bring up his young family with the help of the older children and, upon his death, he was also buried in the graveyard at St Stephen’s Church.  That took place on 13^th September 1896.

39P4

Alfred Ernest Collett

Baptised on 24.02.1867

39P5

Edith Kate Collett

Baptised on 11.11.1868

39P6

Albert Edward Collett

Baptised on 13.11.1870

39P7

William James Collett

Baptised on 25.01.1872

39P8

Thomas Cornelius Collett

Baptised on 20.04.1873

39P9

Frederick Charles Collett

Baptised on 18.01.1876

39P10

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 04.04.1877

39P11

Ernest Leopold Collett

Baptised on 27.04.1879

39O7

Frederick William Collett was born at Glympton in 1851.  Around eight or nine years after he was born his family moved to Clanfield where they were living in 1861 and where Frederick was ten years old.  He married Lydia Wall at Bridgnorth in Shropshire in 1874, Lydia having been born at Morville in Shropshire in 1850, the daughter of Francis and Sarah Wall.  The couple’s first six children were born at Birmingham, with the last two born at Stourport in Worcestershire.

In 1881 the family was living at 405 Monument Road in Birmingham where Frederick aged 30 was a grocer from Glympton.  His wife was Lydia from Morville aged 30 and their children were Nellie who  was four, Frederick who was three, and one year old Frank; all confirmed as being born at Birmingham.  The couple’s ‘missing’ eldest daughter Edith, aged six, was a visitor at the home of her grandfather Francis Wall who was a boot maker living at The Post Office in Morville.

Living with the Collett family at Monument Road in 1881 was Frederick’s nephew Alfred E Collett aged 14 who was working with him as a grocer’s assistant.  Alfred was born at Clanfield and was the son of Frederick’s sister Rachel Ann Collett (above).  The family was also supported by Phoebe H Steadman aged 26, a general servant from Tipton in Staffordshire.

During the next decade Frederick and his family left Birmingham and travelled south to Worcestershire where they settled at Lower Mitton in Stourport.  By April 1891 the family was almost complete, with the birth of Frederick’s and Lydia’s last child due to be born shortly after the census day that year.

The 1891 Census listed the family as Frederick and Lydia, both aged 40, and their children Edith Collett, age 16, Nellie G Collett, age 14, Frederick J Collett, age 13, Frank R W Collett, age 11, Lillian S Collett, who was eight, Harold P Collett, who was four, and Mary Collett who was just two years old.

Frederick’s wife Lydia was very likely with-child on the day of the census, since later that same year she presented Frederick with a final son.  Also living with the family in 1891 was Frederick’s mother, seventy-one years old Mary Collett.  Frederick died at Kidderminster just two years later in 1893, so by 1901 Lydia was working as a licenced victualler to support her family and was still living at Lower Mitton at the age of 50.  With her on that occasion were daughters Nellie G Collett 24 and Mary Collett 12, and her sons Frederick J Collett 22, Harold P Collett 14, and Ernest H Collett who was nine years old and whose place of birth was given as Stourport rather than Lower Mitton, the same as for his sister Mary.

Ten years later in April 1911 Lydia was 60 and was still living at Lower Mitton, by which time all of her children had left the family home to go their own way in life.  Only Lydia’s daughter Lillian Sarah Collett was listed with her in the census return that year, and she had returned from Birmingham where she had been employed as a pupil teacher in 1901.

39P12

Edith Collett

Born in 1875

39P13

Nellie Mabel Collett

Born in 1876

39P14

Frederick James Collett

Born in 1877

39P15

Frank Howard Collett

Born in 1879

39P16

Lillian Sarah Collett

Born in 1882

39P17

Harold Percy Collett

Born in 1886

39P18

Mary Collett

Born in 1889 at Stourport

39P19

Ernest Harry Collett

Born in 1891

39O8

Francis Charles Collett was born at Glympton in 1853.  Around six or seven years after he was born his family moved to Clanfield where they were living in 1861 and where Francis was eight years old.  He married Emma Selina Barnett on 4^th August 1874 at Clanfield.  Emma was baptised at Alvescot on 1^st August 1852.  The couple’s first child was born at Wantage, but baptised at Clanfield, while the second child was born at Walsall and again baptised at Clanfield.  The third child was also born at Walsall and the couple’s next four children were all born at Birmingham.

It was at 2 Brighton Place, off the Winson Green Road, in Birmingham that the family was living in 1881.  Francis was a baker aged 27 and born at Clanfield, where his wife aged 28 stated that she had also been born.  Living with the family as a boarder was 21 years old Louisa Barnett, a dressmaker from Clanfield who was very likely Emma’s younger sister.  Towards the turn of the century Francis and Emma were still living in Birmingham where Francis died in 1896.  In 1901 Emma, aged 47 and a widow from Alvescot, was still living in Birmingham with four of her children, Kate, Francis, Louisa and Albert.

39P20

Anne Selina Collett

Born in 1874

39P21

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1875

39P22

Kate Collett

Born in 1877

39P23

Emma Gertrude Collett

Born in 1878

39P24

Francis Walter Collett

Born in 1880

39P25

Louisa Collett

Born in 1882

39P26

Albert Collett

Born in 1885

39O9

Mary Ann Collett was born in 1855 and it is believed that this took place at Glympton although by the time of the 1861 Census Mary Ann and her family had moved to Clanfield where she was listed as being five years old.  No later records for Mary have so far been found and she was not living with her parents at Clanfield in 1871.

39O10

Elizabeth Emma Collett was born in 1858 and it is believed that this took place at Glympton and was shortly followed by her family moving south to Clanfield where in 1861 she was three years old.  No later records for Elizabeth have so far been found and she was not living with her parents at Clanfield in 1871.

39O11

Thomas Ward was born at Burford where he was baptised on 12^th August 1831.  He married Ellen Ward in 1859 at Headington.  Ellen was born at Alveston near Stratford-on-Avon in 1832.  During his life Thomas was employed as a piano tuner and a piano maker.

39O12

Henry Collett Ward was born in 1833 and was baptised at Burford on 21^st February 1833.  He worked as an asylum clerk and steward and married Ann Feaster at Scarborough in 1875, Ann also having been born in 1833.

39O21

Prince William Thomas Beechey, who was referred to as Tom, was born at Wokingham in 1836 and baptised there on 10^th April 1836.  The order in which his names were given varied from time to time.  As Thomas P W Beechey he was listed in the 1861 Census for the Guildford area as being aged 24 and born at Wokingham.  Whereas ten years later he was referred to as Prince W T Beechey aged 34 and of Wokingham to where he had returned in 1871.  Five years later he married Amy Reeve in 1876.  Amy was nineteen years younger than Tom having been born at Leighton Buzzard in May 1855, the daughter of Charles Reeve and Frances Mary Deverell.

Whilst it is established that Tom’s and Amy’s first four of their fourteen children were born at Pinchbeck just north of Spalding in Lincolnshire, no trace of the family has so far been found in the 1881 Census.  All of the sons of Tom and Amy had the additional christian name of Reeve and the first four children were Barnard (1877-1915), Charles (1878-1915), Maud (1879-1885) and Leonard (1881-1917).

It is known that their fifth child, Christopher William Reeve Beechey who was born in 1883, emigrated to Australia in 1910 where he died in 1969.  He was an Anzac and fought at Gallipoli during WW1 and was shot by a Turkish sniper but survived to live to the age of 85 years – see below.

Of the couple’s other children after son Christopher, there was Frances Mary Deverell Beechey (1885-1977), Frank Collett Reeve Beechey (1886-1916), Eric Reeve Beechey (1889-1954), Harold Reeve Beechey (1891-1917), Katherine Agnes Beechey (1893-1971), Margaret Eleanor Beechey (1894-1963), Winifred Lucy Beechey (1895-1976), Edith Emily Beechey (1897-1992) and Samuel St Vincent Reeve Beechey (1899-1977).

The photograph on the right provided by Mary-Jane Hooker shows Edith Emily Beechey who, when the picture was taken in 1960, was Edith Emily Mucklow.

In 1901 the census entry for Tom referred to him as Prince W T Beechey aged 64 and confirmed his place of birth as Wokingham.  At that time he was living at The Rectory in Friesthorpe with his family, where he had been the Church of England clergyman since 1890.  His wife was listed as Amy aged 45 of Leighton Buzzard.  All six of the couple’s children living with them on 31^st March 1901 were born at The Rectory in Friesthorpe.  They were Harold, who was 10, Katherine, who was eight, Margaret, who was seven, Winifred, who was five, Edith, who was three, and Samuel aged one year.

Five of Tom’s and Amy’s older children, who had left the family home by the turn of the century, were also listed in the 1901 Census.  The first of them was their oldest son Barnard aged 23 and confirmed as having been born at Pinchbeck in 1877.  He was living in the City of Lincoln in 1901 where he was working as an assistant (school) master.  He was referred to as Bar by members of the family.  Their two sons Leonard aged 19 and Christopher aged 17 were living together in Kensington where they were working as clerks, and both were confirmed as having being born at Pinchbeck.

The fourth was daughter Frances aged 16 and also confirmed as born at Pinchbeck in 1884.  She was living in Bristol in 1901 where she may have been receiving her education.  The last and youngest of the five was Frank Collett Reeve Beechey aged 14 who was confirmed as having been born at Friesthorpe in 1886 and who was being educated in Surrey in 1901.

With their father being the Reverend P W Thomas Beechey the family enjoyed the benefit of living in the very grand accommodation that was the eight bedroom rectory built in 1860, which was provided by the church while he was the vicar at Friesthorpe.  This would therefore have been the reason for his widow to vacate the property upon his death.

And so it was on 5^th May 1912 that Tom died at Friesthorpe and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church.  Following the death of her husband, Amy left Friesthorpe five months later and moved to her new home at 14 Avondale Street in Lincoln in September that same year.  That was confirmed in a letter written by Amy’s sister Agnes and dated 5^th September 1912.  The letter also made reference to the twenty pounds a year ‘church’ pension that Amy received, with a comment that ‘those members of her family who were earning and can, must allow her something’.

That was a particularly sad time for Amy as her mother Frances Mary Reeve died in 1913 and over the next five years she lost five of her sons – see below.  At some stage over the following years Amy moved house for a final time and, twenty-four years after Tom’s passing, Amy died on 26^th December 1936 while living at 197 Wragby Road.  She was buried in Lincoln.

In 2006 a book entitled ‘Brothers in War’ written by British journalist Michael Walsh was published which tells the tragic story of the eight sons of Tom and Amy who fought in the Great War, of whom only three returned alive.  The back cover of the book carries a photograph of Amy Beechey makes very interesting reading about the life and times of a typical English family.

Inside St Peter’s Church in Friesthorpe there is a plaque commemorating the five sons of the Reverend P W T Beechey who lost their lives between 1914 and 1919 which reads as follows.

And it was Mary-Jane Hooker of Australia, whose great aunt was Amy Beechey, who kindly provided the details of the Beechey family line.

39O34

Sarah Catherine Collett Monk was conceived before her parents were married and was baptised at Bampton on 10^th March 1841.  There is a possibility that she was born at Clanfield where her mother had previously lived, although later census records revealed her place of birth to be Bampton.  Sarah’s mother died when she was thirteen years old in 1854 and by the time of the census of 1861 she was 20 years of age and was still living within the family home at Bampton with her widowed father.

Three years later Sarah married Joseph Lapworth at Clanfield on 28^th April 1864, Joseph having been born in 1830 at Buckland in Berkshire.  Joseph’s occupation was that of a farmer and both of his children were born at Buckland, although his son Joseph was baptised at Clanfield.  In 1881 the family of four was living at Mount Owen Farm in Bampton where Joseph was listed in the census as an agricultural labourer.

Twenty years later Joseph had retired and he and Sarah had moved away from Bampton and were living at Worth in Crawley, East Sussex.  The 1901 Census confirmed Sarah as being aged 58 of Bampton, while her husband, aged 68, was listed as a domestic gardener.

Their daughter Fanny, who was a dressmaker in 1881, married Henry Eugene Clayton at Marylebone in 1889, he having been born in 1867 at St James in London.  Sadly the marriage only last a few years before Fanny died at St Pancras in 1896.  Sarah’s and Joseph’s son Joseph married Edith Askew who was born at Oxford in 1869, the wedding taking place at Strood in Kent in 1892.

39P27

Fanny Lapworth

Born in 1867

39P28

Joseph Victor Lapworth

Baptised on 15.03.1870

39O35

Thomas Cornelius Collett was born at Bampton and it was there that he was baptised on 26^th August 1842.  Thomas’ mother died in 1854 so by the time of the census of 1861 he was 18 years of age and was still living within the family home at Bampton with his widowed father.  Thomas later married Rachel Ann Collett (above) who was his cousin one step removed.  See reference 39O6 for more details.

39O36

Appolonia Hannah Collett was born at Bampton where she was baptised on 8^th October 1843.  She was just over ten years old when her mother died in 1854, and was 17 at the time of 1861 Census when living with her widowed father and the rest of her family.  Eight years later Appolonia married John Holliday Turner at Clanfield on 15^th February 1869.  John was from Gloucestershire and was born at Northleach in 1836 and his occupation in 1881 was that of a baker and grocer at Clanfield.  All of their children were born at Clanfield, where three of them also were buried. 

According to the Bampton census of 1891, the family by that time comprised John Holiday Turner 54, Appolonia H Turner 48, and their daughters Edith B Turner 21, Emma J Turner 19, Annie B Turner 17, and Charlotte M Turner who was seven years old.

John died five years later, and his death was recorded at Witney in 1896.  Just after the turn of the century Appolonia Turner was fifty-seven and her place of birth was confirmed in the 1901 Census as Bampton.  By then she was living in the Aston & Cote area of Oxfordshire which are both neighbouring villages to Bampton, and it was there that she was described as living on her own account.

Charlotte’s eldest daughter Edith Bertha Turner married Thomas Henry Martin at Witney during 1891 but after the census that year, Thomas Martin having been born at Witney in 1867.  Her daughter Annie Beatrice was also married at Witney but during 1901, while her youngest daughter Charlotte was married during the first ten years of the new century.

39P29

Edith Bertha Turner

Born in 1870

39P30

Clara Rose Turner

Born in 1871; buried on 01 May 1871

39P31

Emma Jane Turner

Born in 1872

39P32

Annie Beatrice Turner

Born in 1874

39P33

Kate Selina Turner

Born in 1875; buried on 14 Jun 1877

39P34

John William Turner

Born in 1879; buried on 07 Dec 1879

39P35

Charlotte Mabel Turner

Born in 1883

39O37

Sarah Selina Collett was born at Bampton and was baptised there on 27^th August 1845.  When she was just around nine years of age her mother died in 1854 and by 1861 at the age of 16 she was living with her father and her siblings.  Four and a half years later Sarah married Richard Walter Brooks on 25^th October 1865 at Clanfield, where Richard was born in 1842.  Richard’s occupation was that of a baker.  Sarah’s first five children were born at Clanfield following which, between 1872 and 1874, the family emigrated to Canada and the remaining three children were born at Ontario.  Tragically two of the children died whilst still in infancy.

39P36

Selina Beatrice Brooks

Baptised on 26.10.1866

39P37

Richard Walter Brooks

Baptised on 22.01.1868

39P38

Florence Clementina Brooks

Baptised on 15.02.1869

39P39

John Thomas Brooks

Born in 1870; buried on 16.04.1871

39P40

Louise Blanche Brooks

Baptised 28.08.1872; bur. 10.09.1872

39P41

Cornelius Brooks

Born in 1875

39P42

Henry Brooks

Born in 1876

39P43

Raymond Brooks

Born in 1880

39O38

Harriet Eliza Collett was born at Bampton and was baptised there on 27^th August 1847 seven years before her mother died.  In the 1861 Census for Bampton she was 14 years old and was living there with her father and her brothers and sisters.  It seems more than likely that she was eventually married before the date of the next census since no record of her as Harriet Collett has been found to date.

39O39

William Henry Collett was born at Bampton where he was baptised on 30^th June 1852.  Two years and one month after he was baptised his mother died at the age of 35, possibly during the birth of another baby.  As it was William was the last child of William and Harriet.  Six years after the passing of his mother William was listed in the Bampton census of 1861 as being aged nine years, when he was living with his widowed father and the rest of his family.  Ten years later in 1871 William was the only child from his father’s first married to still be living with him and his new wife.  Nine years later unmarried William Henry Collett died and was buried in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Church in Bampton on 14^th February 1880.

39O40

Jonathan Nathaniel Collett was born at Clanfield in 1866.  At the age of 15 he was still at school and was living with his parents at Mill Street in Bampton, as he had been in 1871 when he was five years old.

39O41

Julia Isabella Collett was born at Clanfield in 1867.  In 1881 she was aged 13 and was living at Mill Street with her family.  By the turn of the century she was still unmarried and was working as a draper and China dealer while living at Cheapside in Bampton with her sister Susannah (below) and next door to where her brother (below) lived.  The 1901 Census confirmed she was born at Clanfield and was aged thirty-three at that time.

During the next ten years Julia left Oxfordshire and moved to Wokingham in Berkshire where she was recorded as living in April 1911.  The census return that year confirmed she was Julia Isabella Collett aged forty-three who had been born at Clanfield.  It is understood that one of the sisters of Onesiphorus Oliver Collett left Bampton and was later married, so it seems likely that this was a reference to Julia.

39O42

Onesiphorus Oliver Collett was born at Clanfield in 1869, as confirmed by the 1871 and 1881 Censuses in which he was aged one and eleven years respectively.  On both occasions he was living with his family at Mill Street in Bampton.  He was a very clever and astute business man and at the age of only seventeen he opened a watchmakers and jewellery business at Cheapside in Bampton where his sisters Julia (above) and Susannah (below) also lived right next door. 

It was in 1888 that Onesiphorus began renting the shop at Cheapside from William Angel Smith with the adjoining premises being used by blacksmiths Cripps & Sons. 

Over the following years many improvements and extensive alterations were made to the building as Onesiphorus’ developed his business interests.

This pictures show Onesiphorus (middle) in front of Cheapside holding one of his cycles in the 1890s.                    See Cheapside in 2008 below

Towards the end of the century he took up with Mary Emma Warner whom he married at Witney in 1899.  Mary had been born in 1871 at The Mumbles on the Gower Peninsula in Wales.  Following their wedding day the couple settled down to live at Cheapside where their children were born.  Onesiphorus was obviously burdened by his christian name and therefore used the name Oliver at the time of the 1901 Census, in which he was recorded as being 31 and born at Clanfield.  Living with him at Bampton was his wife Mary who was 29, together with their two young daughters, Florence aged two and Ethel who was under one year old.  Oliver’s occupation at that time was confirmed as that of a watchmaker and jeweller.

In addition to mending watches Oliver had thoughts about motorised travel and around 1900 he built a motorcycle to which he later added a sidecar which was the first of its kind in that part of Oxfordshire.  Between 1901 and 1902 he concentrated less on his jewellery business in order to expand his motorcycle business which he did by taking over the adjoining premises known as Cromwell House.  It was there that he built his first small motorcar which he named the Bampton Voiturette which is pictured below with Oliver and Mary and daughter Ethel, the grandmother of Brenda Daphne Florence Rockall.

The vehicle had the engine positioned in front of the radiator as favoured by Renault in France at that time. 

It should also be noted that the Bampton Voiturette was completed ten years before William Morris produced the Bullnose Morris car.

However, it was not easy to sell the idea of motorised transport in England at that time, which was seen purely as a luxury for the rich.  This negative attitude, coupled with a period of recession in 1907, resulted in Oliver abandoning his plans to build motor vehicles by 1908.

Paradoxically this was the same year that William Morris began production of his very successful Bullnose.  And it was also in 1908 that the blacksmith Mr Cripps died and upon his death his sons sold the business to Messrs Townsend & Wheeler.  Oliver was then given the chance to take over the tenancy of the whole of the building.

In the Kelly’s Directory of 1911 he was simply listed as “Mr O. O. Collett, watchmaker”.  In addition to this, the census conducted in April 1911 listed the Bampton based family as Onesiphorus Oliver Collett aged forty-two, his wife Mary Emma Collett aged thirty-nine, and their daughter Ethel Cecilia Mary Collett who was ten years old who was born at Bampton.  Also living with the family at their home at Cheapside on that occasion was Susannah Ada Collett, Oliver’s younger sister.

Although their son was believed to have been born after the census day in 1901, no trace of him has been found in the census of 1911.  Only one Christopher Collett born in Oxfordshire appears in that census and he was ten years old and recorded in the Headington district of Oxford City with his own family.  Therefore Christopher the son of Onesiphorus Collett must have been born after April 1911.

Oliver eventually purchased Cheapside from William Angela Smith in the earlier 1920s.  In 1922 with the launch of the radio and the British Broadcasting Corporation, Oliver immediately spotted another business opportunity and added ‘wireless set repairs’ to his many skills.  It was also around this time that he installed a petrol pump at his Cheapside garage where he also repaired motor cars and motor cycles.

Oliver Collett died in 1934 when his business and the premises at Cheapside were passed on to his son Christopher who maintained it until after the Second World War when it was sold to Leonard Hughes.  More recently Cheapside has been renamed as Exeter House (see below).

39P44

Florence Collett

Born in 1899

39P45

Ethel Cecilia Mary Collett

Born in 1900

39P46

Christopher Collett

Born after 1911

39O43

Susannah Ada Collett was thought to have been born at Clanfield in 1872.  However, in the 1881 Census her place of birth was given as Bampton, and it was there at Mill Street that she was living with her family in April that year aged 8.

By 1901, and at the age of twenty-eight, Susannah was still a spinster living with her sister Julia (above) at Cheapside in Bampton and next door to her brother Onesiphorus.  The census record also confirmed her place of birth as being Bampton and that she was working as a housekeeper.

Cheapside today is known as Exeter House and proudly stands near the centre of Bampton having been beautifully preserved for all to see in 2008.  The picture above was taken during a visit to the exhibition at Bampton Library in honour of Susannah’ brother Onesiphorus Oliver Collett who used the premises for his many businesses and was owned by the family until after WW2.

It is known that one of Onesiphorus’ two sisters was eventually married and left Bampton, and it is possible this was a reference to Julie Isabella Collett who was living in Wokingham in 1991.  On the other hand Susannah Ada Collett of Bampton was still unmarried in April 1911 at the age of thirty-eight, and was living at Bampton with her brother Onesiphorus (above) and his wife and their youngest daughter.

39O57

Rachel Ann Horn was born at Abingdon-on-Thames in 1848.  She married (1) George Samuel in Abingdon on 26.12.1872.  On the marriage certificate George, who was an engineer, gave his address as being at Greenwich in London.  However, it is understood that he was born at Glasgow in 1842 and was the son of carpenter William Samuel.  During the year following their wedding Rachel presented her husband with a baby son George William Henry Samuel but he tragically died in 1874.  It would also appear that around this same time Rachel’ husband also died.

Rachel then married (2) Henry Josiah Eeles at Abingdon on 2^nd April 1878, with whom she had a further seven children and all bar one (see below) was born at Abingdon between 1879 and 1890.  Henry was born at Bampton in 1852 and died in 1891 shortly after the birth of their last child, while Rachel died many years later in 1936.

The third child of Rachel and Henry was Margaret Ellen Eeles who was born on 7^th May 1883 at Birmingham.  On 23^rd August 1906 she married shopkeeper Rupert Stanley Beak at Abingdon.  Rupert was born at Southrop near Lechlade on 22^nd March 1879 and died at Hatford near Faringdon on 21^st January 1949, while Margaret died at Faringdon on 30^th April 1970.  Margaret’s and Rupert’s second son was Percy Beak and he was the grandfather of Hugh Hudson who kindly provided the vast majority of the information in this family line.  Percy spent about twenty years of his life compiling a fairly comprehensive family tree which, upon his death, was passed onto Hugh to maintain.

39O58

Eliza Jane Horn was born at Abingdon in 1851 where she married Samuel Keates in 1875.

39P1

Miriam Eleanor Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 2^nd November 1873, the eldest child of cousins Henry George Collett and Emily Louise Collett.  She was seven years old in the Clanfield census of 1881.  Following the death of her mother during September 1882 the family has not been located in 1891 or 1901.  However, in April 1911 unmarried Miriam Eleanor Collett from Clanfield in Oxfordshire was 36 and was living in the Alton area of Hampshire.

39P2

Mary Charlotte Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 4^th June 1876.  She was the second child of Henry George Collett of Glympton and Emily Louise Collett of Clanfield, and was five years old in the Clanfield census of 1881.  Mary’s mother died during the following year and the remaining members of the family have not been traced for the next thirty years.  Mary was not married by April 1911, when she was recorded as living in the area of Henley-on-Thames in Berkshire.  The census return confirmed that she was simply Mary Collett from Clanfield who was 35 years old.

39P4

Alfred Ernest Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 24^th February 1867.  At the age of 14 years he was working as a grocer’s assistant with his grocer uncle Frederick William Collett (Ref. 39O7) at 405 Monument Road in Birmingham.  Alfred married Jane Matilda Price in 1895 at Dudley, Jane having been born at nearby Cradley Heath in 1876.  Shortly after they were married Jane presented Alfred with a son who was born in Birmingham.

Five year later in 1901, the family of three was still living in Birmingham, where Alfred Collett from Clanfield was 34, his wife Jane from Cradley Heath was 24, and their son Alfred was five years old.  The census on that occasion did not reveal an occupation for Alfred.  No further children were added to the family, and by April 1911 the family of three was living in the Kings Norton district of Birmingham.  Alfred Ernest Collett senior was 45, Alfred Ernest Collett junior was 15, and the family was completed by Jane Matilda Collett who was 35.

39Q1

Alfred Ernest Collett

Born in 1896 at Birmingham

39P5

Edith Kate Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 11^th November 1868.

39P6

Albert Edward Collett was born at Clanfield where he was baptised on 13^th November 1870.  When only nine years of age his mother Rachel died, so by 1881 he was confirmed as being aged 10 and was living at Clanfield with his widower father Thomas and the rest of his family.  It would appear that he married Emma Hunt of Brize Norton and in 1891 the couple were living in the Burford & Witney registration district where Albert was 22 and Emma was 21.  Tragically a year later Albert Edward Collett died and was buried at Clanfield on 19^th April 1892.  The 1901 Census revealed that widow Emma Collett was living in nearby Alvescot at that time.

39P7

William James Collett was born at Clanfield and it was there that he was baptised on 25^th January 1872.  He married (1) Caroline at Clerkenwell who was born there in 1876, as confirmed by the census of 1901.  According to the census return that year William Collett of Clanfield was 28 and was working as a gas stoker while living at Clerkenwell in London with wife Caroline who was 24, together with their two children, William James who was three, and George who was one year old.

During the next two years two further children were added to the family, following which it is possible although not proved, that Caroline died and possible during the birth of the second of these two children.  The reason for making this assumption is that by April 1911 William was married to (2) Catherine who was not from Clerkenwell as Caroline had been, and by which time a fifth child had been added to the family, following a three year gap.  

On that occasion William James Collett of Clanfield was 39 and was still living at Clerkenwell where all five of his children had been born.  His wife Catherine Collett was 35, and the five children were William James Collett, age 13, George Collett, age 11, Charles Collett, who was nine, Florence Collett, who was seven, and Alice Louisa Collett who was four years old.

39Q2

William James Collett

Born in 1897 at Clerkenwell

39Q3

George Collett

Born in 1899 at Clerkenwell

39Q4

Charles Henry Collett

Born in 1901 at Clerkenwell

39Q5

Florence Maud Collett

Born in 1903 at Clerkenwell

39Q6

Alice Louisa Collett

Born in 1906 at Clerkenwell

39P8

Thomas Cornelius Collett was born at Clanfield where he was baptised on 20^th April 1873.  He worked as a labourer and married Mary Bennett in 1897 on the Gower in South Wales.  Mary was born in 1876 at Llanrhidian, which is also on the Gower.  Thomas worked as a general labourer and, according to the 1901 Census Thomas, age 27, was recorded in error by the enumerator as having been born at Mansfield in Oxfordshire, not Clanfield.  At that time his wife Mary, age 24, was listed as being born at Llanrhidian Higher, where their daughter, Edith K Collett, age two years, was also born and where the family was living on that occasion.  No record of the family has been found after that time.

39Q7

Edith K Collett

Born in 1898 at Llanrhidian, Wales

39P9

Frederick Charles Collett was born at Clanfield and was baptised there on 18^th January 1876.  He was five years old in 1881, although his mother had died in childbirth during 1879, so Frederick was brought up by his widowed father Thomas.  Ten years later in 1891 Frederick was 15 when he and his sister Mary (below) were the only members of the family still living with their father.

It was eight years later that he married Jessie Matilda Cross at Islington in London during 1899.  Jessie was born at Highbury in 1879, as confirmed by the 1901 Census, in which Frederick was 23 and of Clanfield, living and working at Hampstead as a stage carriage driver.  Their son who was born at Hampstead was under one year old.

Frederick was absent from the census return in 1911, as was his eldest child.  Instead the census that year recorded his family as Jessie Collett from Highbury, who was twenty-nine, living in the St Pancras area of London with her two daughters Elsie Mary Collett who was eight, and three years old Edith Florence.

39Q8

Frederick Charles Collett

Born in 1900 at Hampstead

39Q9

Elsie Mary Collett

Born in 1903 at Hampstead

39Q10

Edith Florence Collett

Born in 1907 in London

39P10

Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Clanfield where she was baptised on 4^th April 1877.  In the censuses of 1881 and 1891 she was four years old and 14, and on both occasion she was living with her father following the death of her mother when she was just two years old.

39P11

Ernest Leopold Collett was born at Clanfield but sadly what should have been a happy event resulted in the death of his mother Rachel.  Ernest was baptised at St Stephen’s Church in Clanfield on 27^th April 1879, two days after his mother’s funeral at the same church.  Further tragedy followed, when Ernest also passed away while still an infant and was therefore missing from the family at the time of the census in 1881.

39P12

Edith Collett was born at Birmingham in 1875 and according to the 1881 Census she was a visitor, aged six years, at the home of her grandfather Francis Wall and his wife Sarah at Morville in Shropshire.  That situation may have been to ease the pressure on Edith’s mother who had just given birth to a baby brother.  Edith later married Harold (Harry) Kemp who was also born at Birmingham in 1871.  Harry was working as a pork butcher at Aston in 1901, but no trace has been found of his wife in that year’s census.  However, in April 1911 the childless couple was residing in the Kings Norton district of Birmingham where Edith Kemp of Birmingham was 36 and her husband Harold Kemp was 29.

39P13

Nellie Mabel Collett was born at Birmingham in 1876.  Rather strangely she was referred to as Nellie G Collett in both the 1881 and 1901 Census records.  In the latter she was 24 and was living at the family home in Lower Mitton in Worcestershire with her widowed mother.

39P14

Frederick James Collett was born at Birmingham in 1877 and was living with his family at 405 Monument Road in Birmingham in 1881 when he was three years old.  Following his parents move to Stourport some seven years later Frederick J Collett was 13 in 1891 when he was living in the Lower Mitton area of the town.  He was still living there with his widowed mother Lydia at the aged of 23 in March 1901 when his occupation was that of a commercial clerk.

Around the middle of the next decade Frederick married Amy, and by April 1911 their marriage had produced the couple’s first child.  According to the census at that time, the family was living in Stourport and comprised Frederick James Collett from Birmingham who was 33, as was his wife Amy Elizabeth Collett, while their daughter Edith Muriel Collett who had been born at Stourport was two years old.  It would seem highly likely that further children were born into the family after that time, although no records have so far been found to confirm this.

39Q11

Edith Muriel Collett

Born in 1908 at Stourport

39P15

Frank Howard Collett was born at Birmingham in 1879 and possibly at 405 Monument Road where his family was living in April 1881.  By the time of the census that year Frank Collett was one year old, and ten years later he and his family were living in the Lower Mitton district of Stourport when he was recorded in the census of 1891 as Frank R W Collett who was 11 years old.

Frank W Collett from Birmingham was 21 in March 1901 when he was living in Birmingham where he was working as an assistant pork butcher. He was still unmarried ten years later when, as Frank Ward Collett he was living alone in the Kings Norton district of Birmingham.

39P16

Lillian Sarah Collett was born at Birmingham in 1882 and very likely at 405 Monument Road where her grocer father and her family were living in 1881.  By 1891 her family had moved to Worcestershire and was living in the Lower Mitton district of Stourport where Lillian S Collett was eight years old.

Following the death of her father in 1893, when she was only ten years old, Lillian and her family continued to live at Lower Mitton, but by March 1901 Lillian had returned to Birmingham where she was living and working as a pupil teacher at the age of 19.

Possibly as a result of her older sisters being married in the early years of the new century, it would appear that the unmarried Lillian returned home to Lower Mitton to be with her mother Lydia.  The April census in 1911 confirmed that Lillian Sarah Collett from Birmingham was 28 and that she was living at Lower Mitton with her mother Lydia Collett who was 60.

39P17

Harold Percy Collett was born at Birmingham in 1886 and shortly after he was born his parents left Birmingham to settle in the Lower Mitton area of Stourport.  And it was there that he was living with his parents in 1891 at the age of four years.  Two years later in 1893 Harold’s father died, and by March 1901 Harold was 14 years old was still attending school in Stourport while living with his mother at Lower Mitton.

Sometime during the following years Harold left Stourport and settled over the county boundary in Warwickshire, probably for work reasons.  In April 1911 Harold Collett from Birmingham was 25 and was living and working in an institution in Feckenham area of the Alcester registration district.

39P19

Ernest Harry Collett was born at Lower Mitton in Stourport, Worcestershire during 1891, but after the fifth April that year.  Ernest was only two years when his father Frederick William Collett died in 1893, so by 1901 he was living with his mother Lydia Collett and the rest of his family at Lower Mitton at the age of nine years.  The information in the census return that year suggested that he had been born at Stourport rather than Little Mitton.  Curiously no record of Ernest has so far been located within the next census in 1911.  What is known is that he married and joined the Royal Navy with which he saw active service during the First World War.

During the Great War he was attached to the battleship HMS Vanguard and performed the role of Leading Cook’s Mate service number M/2997.  Tragically in 1917 while the battleship was in Scapa Flow the vessel suffered an internal explosion killing all but nineteen of the crew of 823.

One of the victims was Ernest Harry Collett aged 25, whose death was recorded as 9^th July 1917, and whose name appears on the Chatham Naval Memorial Ref. 25.  His next-of-kin at that time was recorded as Mrs F B Weeks formerly Collett of 6 Elm Terrace, Cobham Road at Strood in Kent, who may have been his mother as she would have been Mrs Frederick Bill Collett when his father was alive, who could remarried after 1911.

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Anne Selina Collett, who was referred to as Annie, was born at Wantage in 1874, but was baptised at Clanfield on 16^th May 1875.  Anne and her family were living at 2 Brighton Place, off the Winson Green Road, in Birmingham in 1881, and just after the turn of the century in March 1901 Annie Collett from Wantage was 26 and working as a watch finisher in Birmingham.  Sometime during the first decade of the new century Annie married Herbert Lane and in 1911 the childless couple was living at Kings Norton in Birmingham where Herbert Lane was 38, while his wife Annie Selina Lane from Wantage was 37

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Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Walsall in 1875 and she married Jesse Keep during 1900 at Birmingham, possibly in a joint ceremony with her sister Emma Gertrude (below).  Jesse was born at Faringdon in 1872.  According to the census in 1911 Mary Elizabeth Keep from Walsall was 35, her husband Jesse Keep from Faringdon was 38, and by that time the marriage had produced four children for the couple.  They were Francis Herbert Keep, who was nine, Elsie Doris Keep, who was seven, Edith Mary Keep, who was four, and William Jesse Keep who was one year old.

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Kate Collett was born at Walsall in 1877 as confirmed by the 1881 Census, but by 1901 she was 24, was unmarried, and stated that she had been born at Birmingham.  At that time she was working as a general domestic servant and still living at the family home with her widowed mother.

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Emma Gertrude Collett was born at Birmingham in 1878, and like her sister Annie (above) she too was baptised at Clanfield on 29^th December 1878.  Emma married Henry Richard Ives in 1900 at Birmingham, where he was born in 1875.

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Francis Walter Collett was born at Birmingham in 1880.  At the age of 21 he was still living in the family home and his occupation was that of a castor metal plater.  Over the next few years he married Elizabeth with whom he had two children prior to April 1911.  The census at that time recorded the family of four living in the Kings Norton district of Birmingham where Francis Walter Collett was 31, his wife Elizabeth Catherine Collett was 30, and their two children were John Thomas Collett who was five, and Olive Gertrude Collett who was two months old.

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John Thomas Collett

Born in 1905

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Olive Gertrude Collett

Born in January 1911

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Louisa Collett was born at Birmingham in 1882.  On leaving school she entered into domestic service and in 1901 was living with her mother and her family in Birmingham where she was employed as a general servant, possibly working with her older sister Kate (above).

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Albert Collett was born at Birmingham in 1885.  By the time he was 15 he had left school, when he gave his occupation as being that of a salesman in the 1901 Census.  By the time of the next census in 1911 Albert was 25 and was married to Louise Marie who was 26, and together they were living in Birmingham with their one year old son Frank.

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Frank Collett

Born in 1909 at Birmingham

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Charlotte Mabel Turner was born at Clanfield on 23^rd November 1883, the youngest of seven children of Appolonia Hannah Collett and John Holliday Turner.  Upon leaving school Charlotte entered into domestic service and at one time in her life she was employed as a nanny by the Bonham Carter family.  At the time of the census in March 1901 Charlotte M Turner was 17 when she was living in Abingdon-on-Thames where she was employed as a mother’s help.  Her place of birth on that occasion was stated as being Bampton rather than Clanfield.

Sometime during the first decade of the new century she married Charles Lawrence Barnard who was born at Farmington near Northleach in 1882, and the couple initially settled in Thornton Heath in London where the first of their three children was born.  By the time of the census in April 1911 the couple’s second child had been born and the family by then was living in the Edmonton area of London.  The family on that occasion comprised Charles Lawrence Barnard who was 29, Charlotte Mabel Barnard who was 27, and their two daughters Enid Mabel who was two and Olive Lavinia who was five months old.

During the following year the family was completed with the arrival of a son for Charlotte and Charles.  Sometime later the family lived in the Battersea, and much later at Edgware in Middlesex where Charles died in 1953.  Following his death, Charlotte moved to Southgate in north London where she died five years later on 23^rd October 1958.

The couple’s three children were Enid Mabel Turner Barnard who was born on 19^th May 1908 and who died in July 1989, Lavinia Olive Barnard who was born during November 1910 and who died in 1987, and Henry Lawrence Barnard who was born in 1912 and who died in 1986.  Enid Mabel Turner Barnard was the mother of Susan (Sue) Jacqueline Smethers nee Reynolds who kindly provided the details of her grandmother’s family.

Each of Enid’s siblings was married and each marriage produced just one child.  For Lavinia Olive Barnard, she became Lavinia Clarke and had a daughter Ann Clarke, while Henry Lawrence Barnard had a son Andrew Barnard.

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Florence Collett was born at Cheapside in Bampton during 1899 and was two years old in the Bampton census of 1901 when she was still living at Cheapside with her parents and sister Ethel (below).  As the older of the two sisters, Florence was not living with her family at Cheapside in Bampton in April 1911, although she was still recorded as living in the village as Florence Collett of Bampton, age 13.

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Ethel Cecilia Mary Collett was born at Cheapside in Bampton in 1900 and was one year old at the time of March census in 1901 when she was still living there with her parents and her sister Florence (above).  It is understood from her granddaughter Brenda Daphne Florence Rockall, that it was Ethel who was pictured in the Bampton Voiturette with her father Oliver, the designer and builder of the vehicle, and her mother Mary.  Ten years later Ethel was still living at Cheapside with her parents and was recorded in the census of 1911 as Ethel Cecilia Mary Collett of Bampton who was ten years old.

Working for Ethel’s father in his car building business in Bampton was an apprentice mechanic by the name of Percy George Moss.  He was eleven years younger than Ethel, but in 1932 they were married, following which Ethel was ostracised by the Collett family, firstly because Percy Moss was not a member of the Plymouth Brethren, and secondly because he was a servant employed by her family and therefore deemed not fit to marry their daughter.

The marriage of Ethel and Percy resulted in the birth of two daughters, the eldest child being Dorothy Ethel Moss who later married to become Dorothy Ethel Rockall.   In turn Dorothy and her husband had two daughters, and they were Susan Dorothy Frances Rockall and Brenda Daphne Florence Rockall.  And it was the latter who kindly provided the new information regarding the life of her grandmother Ethel Cecilia Mary Collett.

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Christopher Collett was born at Cheapside in Bampton but very likely after the census in 1911.  What is known is that upon the death of his father, Onesiphorus Oliver Collett in 1934, he took over the family shop and garage at Cheapside, which he continued to manage until sometime after the Second World War when the business, and presumably the premises, were sold to Leonard Hughes.

It is established that Christopher Collett was married at sometime in his life, and that he and his wife had at least one child, a daughter Muriel who was also later married, although there were no children resulting from that marriage.

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Muriel Collett

Born in 1909 at Birmingham

APPENDIX – Other Bampton Colletts

During an investigation into another branch of the Colletts, a family was discovered in Bampton at the time of the census in 1861.  Esther [Ester] Collett, age 38, was a housekeeper who had three children living there with her.  They were Elizabeth, age 10, Ann who was four, and Walter Collett who was one year old.  Her two daughters had both been baptised at Bampton, although no similarly record has been found for Walter.  Elizabeth was baptised as Elizabeth Steptoe Collett on 5^th January 1851, and Ann was baptised as Ann Maria Collett on 10^th March 1857.  On both occasions the parish record only gave the name of the mother, that being Esther Collett.