Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Page and Coleman Families Correspondence, Accession 7014-a, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by Anne Page Brydon of Richmond, Virginia, on January 4, 1989.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Genealogical Notes

Dr. Mann Page (1791-1850), son of Major Carter Page (1758-1825) and Mary Cary (1766-1797), married Jane Frances Walker (1799-1873), daughter of Francis Walker (1764-1806) of "Castle Hill" and Jane Byrd Nelson (1775-1808), in 1815 and produced twelve children. These include:

Most of these genealogical notes re the Page family were taken from Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia by R.C.M. Page.

All of the male children of Dr. Mann Page and Jane Frances Walker who survived to adulthood attended the University of Virginia. Their years of attendance are as follows: Francis W. Page (1839-1841); Carter H. Page (1843-1844); Frederick W. Page (1843-1845, 1848); Mann Page, Jr. (1848-1851); William Wilmer Page (1853-1857); Thomas W. Page (1854-1855); and R. Channing Moore Page (1860-1866).

Frederick W. Page (1826-1913) was appointed to the office of Assistant Librarian of the University of Virginia during the session of 1876-1877. Page became the Librarian in 1881 and also assumed the duties of the secretary of the Faculty. In 1882, he was displaced by the Board of Readjusters and succeeded by William A. Winston. In July of 1891, Page regained his position as the University of Virginia Librarian which he retained until his retirement in 1904. Page was Librarian during the terrible Rotunda fire of 1895 and much of the remainder of his time was spent in trying to replace the volumes lost to the flames.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of sixty-four letters, 1833, 1850, and 1868-1898, chiefly the personal correspondence of the Page and Coleman families of Albemarle County, Virginia, most with transcriptions by Nancy Morris . Many letters are accompanied by genealogical or other explanatory notes supplied by Anne Page Brydon . The transcriptions have been filed with their corresponding letter.

The donor has also supplied a chronological list of the letters which includes both the correspondents and recipients. An early letter from Sarah E. Coleman Chalmers , April 5, 1833, to her brother, Charles B. Coleman , though not on the list, was included by the donor because Special Collections has the diary of their brother, Dr. Ethelbert Algernon Coleman (# 7014).

Correspondents in the collection include: Sarah Embry Coleman Chalmers (1810-1852), Nathaniel Ragsdale Coleman , Mary Randolph Harrison , Jane Page Lewis , Mildred Macon , Dr. Hugh Thomas Nelson , Eliza M. Page , Evelyn Page , Frederick K. Page , Frederick W. Page , Lucy Brent Page , Mildred N. Page , Charlotte Nelson Meriwether Randolph , F. M. Randolph , Margaret Douglas Randolph , and Virginia C. Woollen . Most of the correspondence was written to Eliza M. Page and Anne Nelson Page Coleman .

Topics in the letters include: genealogical notes re the Coleman family (1833 Apr 5); a Sons of Temperance procession, and the last service in the " Old Church " in Lynchburg (1850 Apr 20); the diet of field hands and harvest news (1868 Jun 29); the serious illness and death of Mr. Hall, a teacher at " Edgehill , " Shadwell, Virginia , and the subsequent suspension of instruction (1870 May 11 & 27); Page family genealogical notes (1870 Jun 20); Eliza M. Page , a school teacher in Oakwood, Maryland , writes of her scholars and situation with Mr. and Mrs. Woollen ([1872] Oct 7 & 8); the death of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jr. at Shadwell and the failure of the National Bank of Charlottesville, Virginia ([1872] Oct 1); genealogical notes re Jane Frances Walker Page ([ca. winter of 1872]); remarks about the necessity of selling Shadwell (1873 Feb 5); details about the death of grandmother Jane Frances Page (1799-1873) at Keswick, Virginia (1873 Feb 9); and the last letter of Eliza Page who died en route to the Page home ([1873 Feb]).

Other subjects include: the news concerning the loss of cousin Amelie Sigourney (1832-1873), her husband Henry , and three younger children at sea, and its effect upon the residents of " Castle Hill " (1873 Dec 9); Aunt Charlotte's advice for Anne to break her engagement to Walker Fry ([1873] Dec 9); N.R. Coleman addressing Anne's uncertainties concerning her possible engagement and marriage to him (1874 Sep 3); notes about the Page family (1875 Jan 18); the death of Aunt Charlotte M. Randolph (1877 Apr 23, and May 2); the description of the trip of Frederick W. Page to New York to visit his brother Channing (1877 Oct 3); the mention of Uncle Channing's genealogical work, possibly for Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia and F.W. Page 's employment by the University of Virginia (1878 Jul 22); the death of Douglas Page (1879 Apr 16); the plans of Evelyn Byrd Page to teach at the academy opened by Rev. Cleland K. Nelson and his second wife Mary at Brookville, Montgomery County, Maryland ([1881 Sep ?]); a mention of the work of Page as the librarian at the University of Virginia (1882 May 19); the death of Dr. Davis at the University of Virginia (1885 Jul 25); and notes on the Meriwether sisters and their marriages (1898 Jun 29).