William KETT (1845–1849)
St Paul section: Position of grave not recorded [St Paul ref G.12]
William Kett was born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1845 and was only four years when he died. He was one of the ten children of Edward Rogers Kett and Sarah Plowman.
His father, Edward Rogers Kett was born in about 1799 in Melton, Suffolk, the son of William Kett, who had been Rector of Shottisham in Suffolk since 1781. Edward was matriculated at the University of Oxford as a “Pharmacopola” on 6 May 1829 at the age of 29, and In Pigot’s Directory of 1830, he is duly listed as a chemist in St Mary Hall Lane (Oriel Street) in All Saints parish. Young William never knew his grandfather, as he died at Shottisham at the age of 75 on 30 July 1832. In Jackson's Oxford Journal on 19 October 1833 Edward Kett thanked his customers who had supported him for the four years he was in St Mary Hall Lane, and announced that he had taken over the chemist's shop at 118 High Street run by Mrs Jane Sadler since her husband's death.
118 High Street
On 15 September 1834 at St Michael's Church, Oxford, Edward Rogers Kett married Sarah Plowman, and they had the following children:
- Sarah Charlotte Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1836 and baptised at All Saints Church on 9 March)
- Edward Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1837 and baptised at All Saints Church on 15 September)
- Mary Ann Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1839 and baptised at All Saints Church on 26 July)
- Thomas Plowman Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1841 and baptised at All Saints on 4 February)
- Miriam Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1842 and baptised at All Saints Church on 22 September)
- William Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1845 and baptised at All Saints Church on 10 October)
- John Garneys Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1847 and baptised at All Saints Church on 23 February; died at age of three months, buried in its churchyard on 2 March 1847)
- Charlotte Kett (born at 118 High Street, Oxford in 1848 and baptised at All Saints Church on 14 March)
- Elizabeth Garneys Kett (born at Clarendon Place, Oxford in 1851 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 9 March)
- William Heber Kett (born at Clarendon Place, Oxford in 1852 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 19 December).
On 9 December 1837 Edward Rogers Kett was declared bankrupt, but he continued to be listed in Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839 as follows:
Kett, Edward Rogers, 118 High st, Chemist & Druggist, Oil & Colourman, & Agent to the Naval & Military East India Company, & General Life Assurance Company
The 1841 census shows Edward Rogers Kett and his wife Sarah living at that address with their chldren Sarah (5), Edward (4), Mary (2), and Thomas Plowman Kett (five months), plus an apprentice and two female servants.
On 21 May 1842 the following advertisment relating to 118 High Street appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
TO be SOLD or LET, with possession at Michaelmas next,—All those convenient and well-situated PREMISES, in the centre of the High-street, Oxford, now in the possession of Mr. E. R. Kett, chemist and druggist; consisting of a double-fronted shop, excellent dwelling house, garden, extensive warehouses, and every convenience for carrying on any business requiring a good locality and extensive out-buildings.
Kett appears to have remained in these premises and young William appears to have been born here in 1846, but soon after the baptism of his sister Charlotte on 14 March 1848 the family moved to Clarendon Place, and Slater’s Oxford Directory of 1850 lists his father as a chemist there. (It is probably part of what is now Cardigan Street, where Gardner’s Directory lists Kett in 1852.)
Edward and Sarah Kett’s young eldest son William died in 1849:
† William Kett died at Clarendon Place in 1849 at the age of four and was buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 6 September 1849 (burial recorded in parish register of St Paul’s Church).
Edward Rogers Kett moved with his family to New South Wales in the early 1850s. He died in Australia on 22 October 1883 and is buried at West Terrace Cemetery in the State of South Australia.
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