John Page 1586-1676 Immigrant

Recently I broke through a "brick wall" and here is the first of what I hope will eventually be several blog posts about our "new" ancestors.  I was hoping to find an inspiring story about this man, about  how he started from nothing and became a respected member of society, or maybe how he was already a respected member of society when he arrived here.  Sadly, neither situation seems to be the case.  John Page was a man with faults, perhaps more faults than some of our other ancestors.  His family here appears to be somewhat dysfunctional.  It's not really the kind of post I like to write.  But here it is.

John Page was most likely christened on September 25, 1586 in Boxted, Essex, England to Robert and Susanna Syckerling Page.  He was "about 90 years old" when he died in 1676, and he stayed in the same general area until about 1630.  One June 5, 1621, he married Phebe Paine, daughter of William and Agnes Neves Paine, at Lavenham, Suffolk, England.  These two towns were about 14 mile apart but of course their homes may have been closer than that.  When the Pages prepared for their move to America in 1630, they were living in Dedham, which was about 11 miles from Lavenham.  Other folks from Dedham went with the Winthrop Fleet also, so the Pages were not alone. 

Technically they weren't alone anyway, because at least two of their children, our two ancestors, were with them on the trip.  Both children were born after several years of marriage so it's possible that there were other children, or other pregnancies, that we don't know about.  Also several of Phoebe's siblings were in the area, so she probably saw them from time to time.  And then, they were part of Rev. George Phillip's company, so they had brothers and sisters in Christ.  John and Phoebe would have two more children in Watertown, but Daniel didn't live long.  Samuel would join Phoebe against older brother John in a lawsuit after father John died in 1676. 

John was appointed constable of the new town of Watertown in 1630, and admitted freeman there in 1631.  He was a grantee in several land divisions in the early years of the town, but by 1642 was no longer receiving land through the town land divisions.  Apparently he had already sold his homestead, which meant he was no longer eligible to acquire land by grant.  He was in financial trouble early, writing such a desperate letter back to Dedham that a pastor there sent him some flour so he could feed his family.  Was the man a poor money manager, or a speculator, or had he simply miscalculated how much money and food he would need in the New World? Maybe the loss of his home by fire in 1631 had forced him over the edge, financially.  

John and Pheobe's daughter Phebe caused them grief.  As she matured, she resented her father and had various ummm various escapades with men she wasn't married to.  (This is a G rated blog, so I'm trying to be careful here).  Apparently she could still get along with her mother, but her relationship with her father was cold and distant.  She sued a man for defamation, for saying she was with child while unmarried, but there were a lot of witnesses against her and she lost the case.  This was when Phebe reported she just wanted to go far away and lie down and die.  Fortunately for us, she was not granted her wish. 

We know little else about John.  He apparently withdrew a little ways from town onto land he owned, and lived the rest of his life there.  He and his wife Phebe lived in a half a dwelling, the other half perhaps occupied by John Page Jr.  (Son John had gone to help settle Groton, Massachusetts but had returned to Watertown when Groton was burned during King Philip's War).  John died December 18, 1676 and Phebe died less than a year later, on September 25, 1677. 

There was quite a fight in court about John's estate.  The inventory was not totaled but it included land valued at 50 pounds, and a Bible and two small books, plus various household goods and 2 cows.   The court ruled that son John, executor, was entitled to all of the estate because of the care he had given his father in his old age.  Samuel and Phoebe got nothing.  This apparently caused quite a fuss in the town, as people took sides in the dispute, but the court ruling stood. 

That's what we know about John Page.  We don't know how faithful to the church he might have been, or how his life changed as he met economic reverses.  We don't know why it seems that he didn't overcome them.  We don't know why his daughter held him in such low esteem, or why she had her various escapades.  We simply don't know why he might be diagnosed today as "failure to thrive".  But he's our ancestor, and without him, where would we be?

Our line of descent is:

John Page-Phebe Paine
Phebe Page-James Cutler
Jemima Cutler-Zerubabbel Snow
William Snow-Elizabeth Stevens
Lucy Snow-Josiah Whittemore
Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster
Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants