George Bryan Collett

GEDCOM Note

<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Born during the reign of: George III, 'George William Frederick' (25 October 1760 - 29 January 1820)</p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"> </p>

GEDCOM Note

<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14M16 George Bryan Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 8th April 1812, the eldest of the seven children of tenant farmer Joseph Collett and his wife MaryBryan. Following the death of his father in 1827, young George worked with his mother on the 244-acre family farm at Eyford. In 1841 he was still farming with his mother, supported by seven farm labourers, when George was 19 and living with his mother and sister Martha (below) at The Square in Upper Slaughter at the home of John and Anna Davis. Soon after that George left the farm when he moved to Stanway in Gloucestershire, eight miles from Eyford. It is tempting to consider that Edward Witts, Rector and Justice of the Peace for Upper Slaughter, might have been a catalyst for that move. Edward was just a year younger than George and, as the son of a respected farmer, it is conceivable that they may have been childhood friends. Given that George became a farm bailiff, he may have been employed on the Stanway estate as a farm servant to the Earl of Wemyss.</p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">He remained unmarried for much of his early life and, it was not until 15th October 1846, that George Bryan Collett married Elizabeth Emms from Hazleton, which lies five miles south-west of Bourton. The marriage at Stanway was recorded at nearby Winchcombe (Ref. xi 794a) and recorded his age as being 35 years, 9 months and 14 days, compared to his bride, who was just 20 years, 3 months and 14 days old. From that information it has been calculated that Elizabeth was born on 1st July 1826, and within the IGI there is the baptism of an Elizabeth Emms on 20thAugust 1826 at Ebrington, who was the daughter of William and Ann Emms. It is also very likely that Elizabeth’s slightly older brother was Oliver Webb Emms who married Elizabeth Galey at Didbrook during the summer of 1847, the event also recorded at Winchcombe. That would then account for one of George and Elizabeth’s sons also being given the name Oliver Emms Collett.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Once married the couple initially settled in the village of Condicote, not far from Stow-on-the-Wold, where their first child was born during the following year.Not long after the birth, the family moved to nearby Lower Swell, where the next three children were born, and where the family was living at Swell Hill on the day of the census in 1851. George Collett, aged 39 and from Slaughter, was a farm bailiff, his wife Elizabeth was 24 and from Hazleton, and their two sons were Joseph Collett who was three years old and from Condicote, and Oliver Collett who was two, who had been born at Swell. It was Oliver’s baptism record at Lower Swell, that included his full name as Oliver Emms Collett. By the time of the next census in 1861, the family had left Lower Swell and was living at Longborough, just two miles from Lower Swell and Condicote. During the past decade two further sons had been born to George and Elizabeth at Lower Swell, but by 1861their oldest son was no longer listed with the family. According to the Longborough census that year, George Collett was still a farm bailiff, although his age was recorded in error as 40 and not 49,and he said he was born at Bourton-on-the-Water. Elizabeth Collett from Hazleton was 34, and their three sons were Oliver Collett, aged 12, George Collett who was six, and James Collett who was two years old. Their eldest son Joseph would have only been 13, so it is possible that he had died prior to that date.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Within the next twelve months the family moved again, when they left Longborough for the village of Eyford, within the parish of Upper Slaughter, where their daughter and last son were both born. It was obviously George’s occupation as a farm bailiff that resulted in so many moves for the family and, by 1871, they had moved once more, on that occasion to South Cerney, near Cirencester. At the time of the census that year, the couple’s two eldest sons had already left the family home to make their own way in the world. The remainder of the family was recorded as George Collett from Upper Slaughter who was 59 and a farm bailiff, his wife Elizabeth from Hazleton who was 44, and their four children George Collett who was 16 and James Collett who was 12, both born at Lower Swell, and Mary Collett who was eight and Frederick Collett who was five years old, both of them born at Eyford.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">Ten years after that, George Collett, aged 69 from Upper Slaughter, was still working as a farm bailiff while, once again, residing in South Cerney at Cerney Fields. Elizabeth Collett was 54 and from Hazleton, Mary Collett was 18, and Frederick Collett was 15 and had already left school and was a plough boy working on a local farm. Both of the children were confirmed as having been born at Eyford. Over the following decade, both children, Mary and Frederick, left the family home, presumably to be married, leaving just George, aged 79 and a retired farm bailiff, and Elizabeth, aged 64, still living in South Cerney, but at Berkeley Horns in the village in 1891. It was also at South Cerney where first Elizabeth Collett died, her death recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 215) during the second quarter of 1893 and, after four years as a widower, the death of George Collett was also recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 218) during the last three months of 1897, when he was 85 years old.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">It is interesting, that within The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson by Alan Sutton (compiled in 1917), there is a diary entry for 16th December 1846, before George became a married man, which reads as follows:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">“Rumour had been long busy with his wife’s conduct, or rather, misconduct, it being currently reported that she received male visitors improperly; George Collett, the young farmer, and William Dix, the married farmer, with a grown-up daughter, are particularly mentioned.”</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N15 Joseph Collett - Born in 1847 at Condicote</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N16 Oliver Emms Collett - Born in 1849 at Lower Swell</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N17 George Collett - Born in 1854 at Lower Swell</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N18 James Collett - Born in 1858 at Lower Swell</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N19 Mary Collett - Born in 1862 at Eyford</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr">14N20 Frederick Collett - Born in 1865 at Eyford</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"> </p>