Agnes Marie Collett

Agnes Marie Collett was born in 1854 in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk.   She was the daughter of the Revd William Collett (1818-1882) and Mary Cecil Augusta von Linsingen (1815-1863).   

William was curate of Stanningfield and later rector of Hawstead in Suffolk.   Mary was the daughter of Count William von Linsingen, Chamberlain to George V, King of Hanover, who was born in London on 15th March 1815, and baptised at St Lukes in Chelsea on 9 April 1815.

Agnes married the Revd Alexander John Woodforde on 27 August 1886 at St Nicholas Parish Church, Uphill, Weston-super-Mare.  His first wife, Elizabeth Laishley, had died on 5 August 1885.

They had one child, Dorothy Cecil Woodforde, who was born on 20 December 1888 and died on 8 January 1889.   After the death of her husband, Agnes remained in the area.  She died on 24 December 1920 at 41 All Saints Road, Weston-super-Mare.   Her executors were her step-son Dr Robert Edmond Heighes Woodforde and Richard Drewett of the legal partnership Woodforde and Drewett.

Her sister, Sophia Elizabeth Collett (1844-1899), was an acclaimed painter of miniature portraits.   She exhibited seven miniatures at the Royal Academy between 1889 and 1893 and exhibited at the Liverpool Walker Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Royal Miniature Society.

It is known that Leonora Julia Collett (1871-1967), who was half-sister of Agnes and Sophia, sometimes visited members of the Woodforde family and is remembered for having a deep interest in miniature portraits.  Leonora was the daughter of the Revd William Collett and his second wife, Charlotte Johanna Caroline Stowiczett, who is listed in the 1861 census of Hawstead as the Governess for the Collett children.

Between 1864 and 1909, Agnes witnessed the death of her mother (1864) and step-mother (1874), her father (1882), her only child (1889), her step-daughter Katherine (1904) and her husband (1909).