Author: Collett, John
Biography:
COLLETT, John (1773-1823: ancestry.co.uk)
Collett’s Sacred Dramas was, the Preface states, inspired by Hannah More’s (q.v.) book of the same title which was published in 1782. The title page identifies the author as master of an academy in Evesham, Worcestershire; Collett had relocated his school to Evesham from Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire, where it was founded in about 1797. The book is dedicated to “the Rev. F. T. Travel” (sic for Travell), Rector of Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, “as a feeble token of gratitude, for the many favours conferred in early life.” Travell was the rector in Upper Slaughter from 1764 to 1808. A John Collett was baptised in Bourton on the Water on 14 June 1761, son of Thomas and Sarah Collett (or Collet). However it is more likely that the author was John Collett, one of ten children of William Collett and his wife Anne Matthews, who was baptised at Upper Slaughter on 14 June 1773. That John Collett married Martha Hobbs on 30 Sept. 1800; they had two children. Martha died in 1810 and he married Leah Hobbs, likely her sister, on 30 Oct. 1811; they had four children. He died in Aug. 1823 and was buried at Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, on 13 Aug. (CCEd 25 Jan. 2024; N. A. Hans, New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century [2013]; findmypast.co.uk 25 Jan. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 6 May 2025) SR