The seventeenth century was time of
turmoil. It began with the death of Queen Elizabeth, the accession of
James I and the Gunpowder Plot. In mid century came the Civil War and
the Commonwealth, followed in 1688 by the bloodless revolution that
brought William of Orange to the throne. The Great Plague spread across
Essex from London in 1665-67 and almost a third of the population of
Braintree died, though not, it seems, any of the Collis family.
Movement was difficult, not only because the roads were in constant
need of repair, but also because Charles If passed the Act of Settlement
which meant that anyone, coming to a parish not his own, could be sent
back so that he would not become a charge on the rates.
Braintree.
Robert Collis, a member of the town
council, is recorded as a master weaver in 1634. John Collis, Probably
Robert's son, also a weaver, is first recorded in Braintree, Essex,
in 1664 when John and his wife Mildred christened their first child
John, at the parish church. They had five more children, Arter(b.1673),
Robert(b.1675), Mary(b.1667),, Elizabeth(b.1665) and Sarah(b.1676),
but it was John (b.1664) who continued the weaving business and is recorded
as an apprentice master in 1721. John married his first wife, Elizabeth
Watson, in 1688 and they had seven children before she died in 1711.
They were Elizabeth(b.1689), John(b.1691), Mary(b.1693), Robert(b.1696),
William(b..1698), James(b.1701) and Thomas(b.1704 ).