Edward Rogers Kett (c.1799–1883)
Edward Rogers Kett was born in about 1799 in Melton, Suffolk, and was the son of William Kett, who had been Rector of Shottisham in Suffolk since 1781.
Kett was matriculated as a “Pharmacopola” (chemist) on 6 May 1829, at the age of 29, and just three days later on 9 May the following advertisement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal:
In Pigot’s Directory of 1830, he was duly listed as a chemist in St Mary Hall Lane (Oriel Street) in All Saints parish.
On 18 August 1832 there was a notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that the Revd William Kett, father of Mr Kett, druggist of Oxford, had died at the age of 75.
On 19 October 1833 in Jackson's Oxford Journal, 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 that had been run by Mrs Jane Sadler since her husband's death.
On 15 September 1834 at St Michael’s Church, Edward Rogers Kett married Sarah Plowman of Oxford, 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, Kett was declared bankrupt, and the following notice was published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 21 September 1839:
Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839 shows that Kett was then still based at 118 High Street, and he was described 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 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.
His shop at 118 High Street was advertised for sale or let on 21 May 1842, but Kett was still listed here in 1846. Some time after the baptism of his daughter Charlotte on 14 March 1848 he moved to Clarendon Place, where Slater’s Oxford Directory of 1850 lists him as a chemist. He was described as an apothecary at the baptism of all his children except the last in 1852, when he was described as a “surgeon” of Clarendon Place.
His son William Kett died at Clarendon Place at the age of four and was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
The 1851 census shows Kett (now described as a druggist and grocer) living at 13 Clarendon Place with his wife and seven surviving children. The family has one servant.
Clarendon Place would have been named after the University Press in Walton Street, and was probably part of what is now Cardigan Street, as Gardner’s Directory lists Kett as a chemist in that street in 1852.
Edward Rogers Kett and his family moved to New South Wales in the early 1850s. He died in Australia on 22 October 1883 and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery in the State of South Australia.