The census return for 1881 records a total of 248 families with the name BYLETT, or with a variation such as Billett, Boylett, Bellot, etc. Of these, the highest percentage (54, or 22%) were living in London, as might be expected. Perhaps surprisingly, the next most favoured place was the Channel Islands where 26, or 10% of the families lived. In this analysis, and those that follow below, only the head of each family, as indicated in the census, is considered.
However, almost without exception all the Channel Islands families were BELLOT or a very similar form, which is likely to have been a French import.
Discarding this and similar variations the number of families reduces to 160. Again, the highest number (15%) were in London, closely followed by Dorset (14%), Somerset (13%) and Wiltshire (12%).
In 1881, then, almost 30% of all BYLETT (and close variations) families were living in either London or Dorset; over 50% were in London, Dorset, Somerset or Wiltshire; and with the exception of five families in Lancashire, almost 95% of families with that name were living in the southern part of England. By 1881 there had been a good deal of 'migration' into London from all parts of the country: it seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that the family name originated somewhere in Dorset or Somerset and gradually worked its way eastwards.
This site is concerned with those families living in Surrey, of which there were 14. Of these families, in only two cases was the head of the family not born in Surrey (one was born in Ramsgate, the other was from Wiltshire but married a woman from Guildford). The distribution of these 14 families was as follows.
One family, with a spelling of BYLATT, lived at Banstead: the father, James, was born at Wallingham but this may well be a transcription error for Warlingham. His wife, Mary, was born in Middlesex and the three children living with them were born in Hook, Croydon and Banstead.
Eight of the families spelt their name BILLETT. It is possible that this is a completely separate family, and nothing to do with the BYLETTs, but by and large census enumerators wrote down what they heard and so it is likely there is no significance in the different spellings. The eight families came mainly from the north of Surrey - three from Southwark, one each from Bermondsey, Battersea and Newington, one from Richmond and one from Shere. It is likely that the first six, at any rate, were related.
The remaining five families, with the spelling BYLETT, are the ones with which this history is primarily concerned. The most distant lived at Clapham; of the others, one lived at Reigate, one at Caterham and two at Merstham (both at the Noddyshall hamlet). These last four are almost certainly part of the same larger family.
The earliest record found so far is of Abraham Bylett, born about 1733. He married Mary SIMMONDS, born about 1740, on 14 APR 1762 in St Katharine's church. They wasted no time in producing a son, Abraham, who was baptised on 30 JAN 1763. He was the first of seven children, all of whom were baptised at St Katharine's and they are shown here: children of Abraham and Mary Bylett
(dates are, in general, dates of baptism):
No further records have been found of Elisabeth or Jacob.
Abraham (senior) died aged 91 and was buried on 01 FEB 1824; Mary died at the age of 86 and was buried on 21 JUN 1826. These were the two Byletts mentioned in the burial register as 'of Nodishall'.
Abraham and Jane's children were:
No further records of Maria or Jane have been found.
David, the fifth child, was baptised at St Katharine's on 08 APR 1805. He married Rosanna [Rosina], from Chipstead. She had been born on 14 MAR 1807 and baptised 05 APR at St Margaret's, Chipstead, the daughter of William and Rosina Pullen.
The marriage date has not yet been found; it did not take place at Merstham and David and Rosina were probably married at St Margaret's, Chipstead. Their eldest child, Ellen, was born in 1831 so it is likely that the marriage took place about 1830. Certainly from 1851 they were living in the most southerly of the Noddyshall cottages, the present-day Noddyshall; it is likely that this had been where David's grandparents had lived and died, and possibly Abraham and Jane had also lived here.
It was a small cottage of two floors, with each floor divided internally into two rooms. The floors were connected by a stone staircase in one corner, next to the fireplace. Despite the meagre living accommodation David and Rosanna brought up 12 children - at one time eleven children were living in the cottage with their parents. The children are shown in this diagram and were:
David, the father, lost his sight and in 1871 was shown as 'blind'. The family can be traced throughout the census returns, from 1851 to 1891.
By 1881 Matilda and Abraham were the only two children still living with their parents, but also sharing the cottage was another David Bylett. This was the same relative who had been living in the neighbouring cottage with James and Mary in 1871 (see below). Thomas GASSON, shown as a 12-year-old grandson, was also living there; he was the son of Matilda and Abraham's sister Amy and her husband Henry.
David (Rosanna's husband) died and was buried at St Katharine's church [plot K68] on 12 NOV 1885 and Rosanna survived him for a little over five years, dying in early 1891. The census later that year shows their children Matilda and Abraham, by that time aged 54 and 48 respectively, in the cottage with Elizabeth GASSON, their 18-year-old niece, who was a housekeeper (but where isn't given).
His brother James, married to Mary, lived in the adjacent cottage (the present Noddyshall Cottage). They produced eight children:
In 1841 another branch of the Bylett family were living in this cottage - David and Richard, together with Richard's wife Mary. Their relationship to 'our' David and his brother James isn't known, but related they presumably were as ten years later David was still there, sharing the cottage with James, Mary and six children. By 1871 James and Mary, with son John, are sharing the cottage with two lodgers, George and Mark WARREN, as well as yet another David Bylett and his three children Alfred Edwin, Elizabeth and William George. This David was a widower, his wife Elizabeth having died. Again it is not clear how he fits into the Merstham families.
On 14th July 1877 Mary died, aged 65, and was buried at St Katharine's [plot G13], and the next year John married Elizabeth PORT, from Shere. The 1881 census shows this cottage occupied by James, together with son John and daughter-in-law Elizabeth. James died on 9th February 1890 aged 82 and was buried at St Katharine's with his late wife; the next year's census shows just John and Elizabeth in the cottage.
John died on 26th January 1913 at the comparitively early age of 64; Elizabeth survived him by a little over a year, dying aged 63 on 9th June 1914. Both are buried [plot G12] at St Katharine's, together with Sarah Wilkinson KINGSLEY who died on 19th December 1916 aged 73. No relationship is evident from the tombstone.