Descendants of Francis PAGE

The location of our earliest known ancestor was Stottesden, Shropshire and Farlow, Herefordshire. Since Farlow was a chapelry of the Stottesden parish church, it became known as “Farlow in Stottesden”.

Francis Page was born in Stottesden about 1710. His wife, Hannah Lowe, was born about 1713 in Shropshire, parish unknown. They were married in Stottesden and had four children that we know of, all born in Farlow. Only two survived. Mary married Bonham Palmer at Farlow in 1750. This line has not been researched. Francis Page Jr. married Elizabeth Jones at Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. They had four children, two of whom, Margaret and Francis, have been traced. Margaret was an unmarried mother who had a son, Francis Page, in Hereford. Margaret’s brother was also named Francis. Now Francis the brother and Francis the son both married women named Esther and both families lived in the Ludlow area. Fortunately, several children in both families were baptized in a Non-conformist chapel in Ludlow, the records of which were filmed and transcribed by the LDS church.

The illegitimate Francis and his wife, Esther Palmer, had five sons. Francis, the oldest, died at the age of 18. Benjamin married Elizabeth Brittain and they had 6 children. They moved around a bit, as we find them in Bedfordshire, Montgomery County and Staffordshire. Of their seven children, Elizabeth married John Drew in Wales and they emigrated to Canada. There were 12 children in the Drew family, two of whom died young.
Robert Page, son of Francis Page and Esther Palmer, had 8 children with his wife Ann Hughes. The eldest child, John, went to Australia.

Francis Page, the uncle, had 10 children with his wife, Esther Matthews. We know of four who married and had families. They were John, Samuel, James and Thomas.
John Page, the second child, is our ancestor. He married Mary Price about 1827 and they had 10 children but only four survived: Mary, John Francis, Samuel and Esther. The children were all born in Ribbesford parish near Bewdley, where we find the family on the 1841 and 1851 census returns. John and his sons were listed as Painters (of houses).
1. Daughter Mary was a boot binder in 1851. She married Henry Reinman in 1854. Henry was a jeweller from London and they lived there until they died in 1905 and 1908.
2. Mary’s brother Samuel, who was married twice, continued in the house painting trade and remained in the Bewdley area.
3. Sister Esther was married twice, to William Carter and Thomas Scott. She died in Staffordshire.
4. John Francis Page, the other brother, married Harriet Jones from Cleobury Mortimer, where we find them in 1861. John was a house painter and inn keeper then, but by 1871 he had a job as a Relieving Officer at the Union Workhouse. John and Harriet had six children, all accounted for except Mary, last found on 1871 census, age 14. One son, Charles Page, with his second wife and 3 of his children, emigrated to Canada in 1910 and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Samuel Page, son of Francis and Esther, married Caroline Phillips and they had Henry and Samuel.
James Page, son of Francis and Esther, married Mary Hunt and had 8 children.
Thomas Page, the youngest son of Francis and Esther, married Caroline Phillips (not the same one that Samuel married) and had 7 children.