This is a fact. Moses Collett married Elizabeth Wiley 12 Jan 1743 in Baltimore County. I believe it is that simple. Some people suggest she was Elizabeth (Wiley) Armstrong but I believe they are only trying to rationalize the genealogy set forth by Howard Collett that Moses married Elizabeth Armstrong who was born 18 Aug 1725. By naming her Elizabeth (Wyle) Armstrong -- i.e. born Elizabeth Wyle then married first Mr. Armstrong -- they seek to have it both ways. For one thing, I don’t see how the timing allows for that, since Elizabeth was only 17 or 18 when she married Moses. And for another thing, I think, if that was the case, the marriage record would have said Moses Collett married Elizabeth Armstrong.
I can’t prove it but I think Elizabeth may be the daughter (or possibly niece) of Luke Wiley who was mentioned many times in Baltimore County land records. On 8 Jul 1742, Luke Wiley leased land from Thomas Brerewood on My Lady’s Manor, then on 25 Nov 1742 Moses Collett followed.

I’m not sure whether the marriage date of Moses and Elizabeth was based on the Julian calendar or whether someone, in transcribing it, made the adjustment -- so I’m not sure if we should regard that date as 12 Jan 1742/43 or 12 Jan 1743/44. I suspect the former but in any event it was after the late Nov 1742 land-lease by Moses. So whether Moses already was involved with Elizabeth in Nov 1742 or whether his land-lease was how he came to be involved I don’t know. My guess would be that he was quite involved with Elizabeth, their marriage was already planned when Luke enabled the acquisition of the My Ladys Manor property by Moses.

Elizabeth’s daughter Rachel married Josiah Sparks not long after his widowed mother married second Aquilla Wiley.

In 1763, the marriage of “Arrther” Wiley to John Stephenson was documented in the register of St. John’s/St. George’s. I strongly suspect this was a corruption of the name Athea, one of Luke’s known daughters. Curiously, J D Collett, who documented, but got so much wrong about the Collett family, said that Moses Collett, born 1725, died 1802 (J D was wrong on both those dates) was brother-in-law to J Stephenson whose wife was Esther Wyle. Here again, it sounds like there is some document I have yet to find that provides a little piece of information which would solve this puzzle once and for all.

Luke Wiley Pearce inventory pages 8 and 10 in Harford Inventories 1848-52

I believe the 1723 land-lease refers to a man named Daniel and his wife Ruth and son Moses. I believe it was the same Daniel and Ruth who had a son named Daniel born in 1724/1725. I believe it was the same Moses who we know from the 1742 land-lease, when he was age 24. That 1742 land-lease also referred to Daniel, age 18, who I believe was none other than the younger Daniel we know, son of Daniel and Ruth. I believe Moses and the younger Daniel were brothers, both sons of Daniel and Ruth. Everything, in my opinion, fits like a glove.

After reading in any number of places that Moses had died in Jefferson County which is now part of West Virginia, I went looking to see where it was in relation to Baltimore. I found that in 1780, Virginia formed Jefferson County but that area became part of Kentucky by 1792. Then, in 1801, Virginia formed a second Jefferson County, this one carved out of what had been Berkeley County. The truth is Moses moved to and died in Berkeley County, Virginia -- the part that later became Jefferson County. Still later, both Berkeley and Jefferson became part of West Virginia when it split off during the Civil War. Jefferson County is the easternmost county of West Virginia but nonetheless is quite distant from Baltimore.

After understanding the geography, I then was able to find the will of Moses Collett who died in 1782 in what was then Berkeley County, Virginia. I am certain it was our ancestor Moses since his wife was named Elizabeth and he acknowledged having a daughter named Rachel Sparks. He also had a son Stephen whose birth date from the records of St John’s Parish matches his birth date presumably stated in a family bible passed down through the Ohio family.

I don’t know when he moved to this area, though I have seen the date 1772 and separately 1774 given in this regard, but it is quite interesting to me in that Moses is (almost) unique among my ancestors in having gone that far West. My ancestors who lived in York and Baltimore County were as far West of the Susquehanna River as any of them ever got, on either Dad’s side (save William H Diehl who went to Kansas) or Mom’s. Some siblings of my ancestors and other descendants of my ancestors moved further West, but just two of my own direct ancestors.

I do not think his daughter Rachel went West with him and I don’t have an exact marriage date for her, but about 1772 would work just fine. I do think all of his sons went with him. An interesting question to me is how Rachel was supposed to lay claim to the cow and calf he bequeathed her in his will.

On the other hand, Moses sold a tract of land called “Collett’s Adventure” in 1758. He sold it to William Anderson, the same person (presumably) he had the joint life lease for from 1742. I wonder whether it might be the case that after Daniel died, Ruth married second Benjamin Anderson and that William therefore may have been Moses’ step-brother. And I also wonder if Moses was preparing to move on, in 1758, but if so, he would have taken 10-year old Rachel with him, so how did she find her way back to Baltimore County to marry?

Since I believe he died in 1782, he is not the Moses Collett found in 1790 in Patapsco Lower Hundred, BAL Co with himself and 10 females. Moses Collett, I suspect this one (not ours) and wife Rachel baptized Polley, Matilda, Susanna, Ann, Moses, Jemima and Rachel from 1783 to 1798.

Mandy Goodman, whose husband’s grandmother was a Collett, sent me this that someone had sent her. “In a family file folder in the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, I found research prepared by John H. Pearce Jr dated 04 May 1991 that lists the following about Moses.

Born: 07 Nov 1718 Place: 7th District, Baltimore Co, MD Marr: 12 Jan 1743 Place: St. John's Angl, Joppa, MD

Died: 1782 Place: Bullskin Run, Jefferson Co, VA Husband's father: Daniel Collett Husband's mother: Ruth ??

Moses's wife: Elizabeth Wyle/Wiley Born: 16 Aug 1725 Place: Clynmalira MD Father: Luke Wyle/Wiley Mother: Cassandra Carr

Children: Stephen (1746-1820), F Rachel (1748-1818 m Josiah Sparks), M Daniel (1752-1835 m Mary Haines 02 Feb 1781), Elizabeth (1754-1816), John (1757-1830), Isaac (1760-1837), Aaron (1763-1785), and Sarah (1766-1824 m Silas Ashby).

He goes on to say that all went to VA before 1774 and then all but Daniel and Sarah went on to Kentucky. Daniel and Sarah went to Ohio before 1812.

Well, Moses Collett was a tough man to nail down. Most sources say he was born in 1725, some say he died in 1782 and some 1802. Some sources say he married Elizabeth Wiley, some say Elizabeth Armstrong and some say Elizabeth (Wiley) Armstrong.

J D Collett invented a Moses Collett he said was born in 1705 and clearly there was a later Moses alive and well in Baltimore County around 1800 -- just to confuse things.

But after spending a lot of time just being confused by all the misinformation and what appeared to be multiple men named Moses Collet, I began to develop the theory that maybe there was only one Moses in that place at that time. Maybe the appearance that there were others was either erroneous facts about the one or mythological people. So, I began to focus on the one I knew of for sure who was born in 1718 and I thought was obviously the one who married Elizabeth Wiley in 1743. I have no idea where the 1725 birth date or the idea that she was Elizabeth Armstrong or Elizabeth (Wiley) Armstrong came from.

I also decided to see what I could find out about the supposed Moses who died in Jefferson County, Virginia in either 1782 or 1802. When I found the will of that Moses, I knew it was my ancestor Moses and I began to look more closely at his family especially the ones who moved to Berkeley County with him.

And because of that, I met the wife of a 6th or 7th cousin of mine who was active in genealogy. Her name is Mandy Grantham Goodman and she has shared with me some things she has come across over the years. The most interesting thing to me was this:

A man named Charles H Collett of Ada, OH was in possession of a scrapbook compiled initially by Daniel Collett (1809-1866) and handed down several generations to Charles H, who summarized it. So I am quoting Charles H Collett who in turn is really quoting Daniel who was the son of Isaac and grandson of Moses.

“The following history of the Collett family was copied as it is recorded in the scrap book of Daniel and Sarah Kyle Collett, on the inside cover of which is the date January 11, 1859, said scrap book having come to the writer through his father, Daniel H Collett.

The following is a correct and true exhibit of the families and generations of Colletts so far and to as early a period of time as could be ascertained. The first came from France, in Europe, having one son who was the father of Moses Collett, born in the State of Maryland, November 17th, AD 1718, and married and resided in Jefferson County, Virginia. He died in the month of June AD 1783 and his wife, Elizabeth Collett, was born August 18, 1725 and their children and descendants are as follows:

Stephen Collett, born May 4th AD 1746, Rachel Collett born December 5th 1748, Daniel Collett born February 10th 1752, Elizabeth Collett born December 18th 1754 John Collett born November 6th 1757, Isaac Collett born June 14th 1760, Aaron Collett born May 11th 1763 and Sarah Collett who married a Mr. Ashby, was born September 30th 1766. The above is the first generation of which there is any record.

The above named Daniel Collett entered the Army of the Revolutionary War....served at Valley Forge....He married Mary Haines who was born October 10th, AD 1753 and died September 18th AD 1826 in Chester Township, Clinton County.....The said Daniel migrated to Clinton County in 1813 where he owned by right of purchase about 3000 acres of land. He died June 28th, 1835.”

I believe this document is definitive. It gives us exact birth dates for Moses, his wife Elizabeth and all his children but especially of interest to me, for Rachel. And they conform to what I then knew and/or had come to believe. Moses, 1718, yes. Rachel whose tombstone indicates mid-December 1748, yes. Stephen, 4 May 1746, the exact date recorded in the records of St. John’s Parish, yes.

And since we know that Moses married Elizabeth Wiley in 1743, if she was born in 1725 and thus was about 18 -- I think it probably rules out any idea that she had been married previously. This was Moses’ grandson recording these dates -- in 1849. He was not getting his facts from some bogus tree on the Internet, he must have had a way to know them as fact.

There is reference in another document I was given to “Judge Joshua’s bible” and I believe that Joshua, grandson of Moses, perhaps had the family bible and that is the source of all of the specific dates. Joshua was a Judge in Warren County, OH.

The only problem I have with this family history as written is the vague narrative about Moses’ ancestry -- “the first came from France having one son who was the father of Moses”. It is unfortunate that Daniel did not know more about his grandfather’s ancestry. What he wrote is, I think, purposefully vague, is clearly “family tradition” -- and like most family tradition may have elements of truth thought to apply to a person of just one or two generations previous but actually that pertain to an ancestor of much longer ago. If I thought J D Collett was accurate, I would not look at what Daniel wrote as being a specific contradiction of that. In the final analysis, that part was not very helpful at all. But everything else surely was.

The will of Moses Collett listed wife Elizabeth and named his children, to whom, except for son Stephen, he gave simply livestock. His wife was to have her choice of either of the dwelling houses he possessed and otherwise to have her third of his estate. The residue of his estate and Elizabeth’s third upon her decease was all to go to son Stephen though he was to make some unspecified payments for that to his brethren and sisters.

The children he listed were Stephen, Daniel, Rachel now “sirnamed” (sic) Sparks, Elizabeth, John, Isaac, Aaron and Sarah. I always had the strong feeling that he listed his children in birth order, he specifically said that Isaac, Aaron and Sarah had not yet attained the age of 21. Indeed, the birth dates as given by grandson Daniel supports that very conclusion.

Fairly soon after Moses died, some of his sons moved further west and by 1820, all were in Ohio or elsewhere.