PAGE, Joshua
Joshua Page was born at Hindolvestone Norfolk in late 1810 or early 1811 and baptised at St Nicholas church, Ipswich on 25 January 1814, son of Augustine Page (1783–18 September 1853), master of the boys school at Ampton, Suffolk from 1821, and his first wife Mary née Drake, who married at Swanton Novers, Norfolk on 1 November 1808, Mary was buried at St Mary at Elms, Ipswich on 16 May 1813, aged 27, Augustine married twice more, Maria Gowing (died 27 December 1830) and in 1831 Christina Hanson (died 4 May 1856). Joshua was a letterpress printer at St Clement’s Fore Street, Ipswich 1838–1846 and found himself in financial difficulties over the publishing of his father’s 'Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller' (Ipswich 1844) when the balance of the printed sheets was retained by the printer Frederick Pawsey for non-payment of his debt, Pawsey in 1847 re–issued the book with a new title page. Page married at Ipswich in 1837, Susan Talmash Baldiston (4 June 1818-8 September 1864), only daughter of Samuel Baldiston. In 1851, living in Master’s Land, St Margaret’s parish, Ipswich, being described as ‘gardener of 3 acres employing one man & proprietor of houses’, with his 32-year-old wife Susan, who was born at Ipswich and their children Susan 12, Sarah 9, Jessey 6, Frederick 4 and Emma 3, all born at Ipswich. In 1858 he re–appears as a photographic artist at Rose Cottage, London Road, Ipswich, later being described as a printer at this address and the Ipswich Advertiser of 1 August 1860 reports: - ‘Mr. Thomas Kemp, the Superintendent Registrar for Ipswich, has appointed Mr. Joshua Page, of London Road, Registrar of Marriages, vacant by the death of J. O. Francis, Esq.’ On the retirement of printer James Dorkin, Joshua took his business and in 1861, a printer & stationer & registrar of marriages at 42 Upper Brook Street, Ipswich together with his wife Susan, who ran a servant’s registry, with the addition of 8-year-old twin daughters Kate and Mary. Wife Susan was buried in Ipswich Cemetery on 12 September 1864, aged 46. In the 'Ipswich General Directory 1862–3' Joshua is recorded as registrar of marriages, bookseller & stationer, and registry for servants at 42 Upper Brook Street, Ipswich and was still there 1865–68 when he voted in the Ipswich elections and was still at Brook Street in 1871 with his two daughters Emma and Kate. He married secondly in 1872, at the age of 61, 26-year-old Elizabeth Emma Nagle and in 1881, a 71-year-old acting registrar of marriages, living at 15 Great Wingfield Street, Ipswich with his 35-year-old second wife Elizabeth, teacher of pianoforte, born Wrentham, Suffolk, and their son Augustine Frederick Nagle Page 7, born Ipswich. He exhibited, but is not recorded as a member, at the Ipswich Fine Art Club from 15 Wingfield Street, Ipswich in 1881, four watercolours ‘The Pet Donkey’, 'Winter, Wrentham, Suffolk', 'Old Bolton' and 'Solitude, Macbeth's Castle' and in 1882 'Chauntry Locks, Ipswich', 'Gainsborough Lane' and 'Near Downham Reach'. Joshua Page died ‘after a long and painful illness’ at 15 Great Wingfield Street, Ipswich on 7 March 1887, aged seventy-seven and buried in Ipswich Cemetery three days later. [Copsey-Ipswich Book Trades (Ipswich 2011.)]