Hi and thanks for your reply:
I obtained the marriage certificate of my ancestor Henry William Page (Cheltenham RO 1837), which gave his address prior to marriage as 44 Gt Marylebone St, his occupation as butcher and his father's name as Henry Page. Later I obtained Henry William Page's death certificate - he died 1 Oct 1844 at 20 Bury Street (of consumption age 29years 9months, giving him a DOB late 1814 or early 1815), the informant's name being Henry Page.
This led me to the census record you identify, and to Henry Page who I assume must be Henry William Page's father. I'm interested that you managed to decipher the enumerator's terrible handwriting in the name Horace. That it was Horace seems to be confirmed by the IGI record you mention of Horace Haverhill Page, 1828.
In the 1841 record, Francis Downey turns out to be the son of one of Henry Page's daughters, Mary Teresa, who married Francis Downey 11 July 1831, St James Westminster. I found Henry Page again in 1851 living in Hillingdon - described as an annuitant, 61 years old. Living with him was Catherine Downey, another child of his daughter Mary Teresa. I think Francis Downey was the son of a plumber in Duke Street. Henry's will of 1851 (see below) refers to his son-in-law as a plumber.
Henry Page died in the summer of 1851: in his will he lists all his daughters by their married names, noting that he did not know the present whereabouts of Mary Teresa. I have so far been unable to find Mary Teresa and her husband in 1841, and unable to find the Downey children in any later census. There is a possible Mary Teresa in 1851 - a Mary Downey, general servant, was an inmate of Westminster workhouse, and FreeBMD records the death of a Mary Theresa Downey in Westminster 1854. There is a possible record for Francis Downey in 1851 as a seaman, in a long list of seamen in Middlesex, Poplar.
I have failed so far to find any later mention of Horace Haverhill Page - he does not seem to be listed as a death, though many deaths, I suppose, went unrecorded. It is possible that he emigrated. In his will Henry Page does not mention his sons by name: he simply refers to 'such of my sons as may be still alive at the time of my death', and Admon was granted to a Charles George Page 'the natural and lawful son of Henry Page'. Charles George was born around 1824 and in 1841 is found as a butcher in Hillingdon, close to where his father would die in 1851.
So far I have found nothing that might help me find Henry Page's origins, or the origins (and maiden name) of his wife Jane.
Thanks again for your reply and for your interest, and if you have any suggestions that might help, I would be really grateful. I am still a novice in the field of family research
Ian in Cornwall
