Virginia and Virginians eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore. Executives of the state of Virginia, from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powel Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury |
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JOHN PAGE. |
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JOHN PAGE.
No patriot among the worthies who have illumined the annals of the
Old Dominion could boast a more widely honored lineage and more influential
family connections than the distinguished subject of this sketch,
John Page, of "Rosewell," Gloucester county, Virginia. John Page,
the first of the family in the Colony, a relative of Sir Gregory Page,
baronet of Greenwich, County Kent, England, was born in England,
about the year 1627; emigrated to Virginia in 1650; married in 1656,
Alice Luckin, of County Essex, England; became a member of the
Colonial Council; died January 23, 1692, in the county of York, and
was buried in Bruton parish churchyard, Williamsburg, Virginia. A
chaste and substantial monument was erected over his remains in 1878,
of pious instructions from Hon. John Page, to his children, was published
in 1856, under the title of a "Deed of Gift," by the late Bishop
Wm. Meade, of Virginia. Matthew, the second son of Hon. John Page,
was born in 1659, and died January 9, 1703, at his seat, "Rosewell,"
in Gloucester county. He was also a member of the Council, and one
of the members of the original board of trustees of William and Mary
College. He married, in 1689, Mary, only child and heiress of John
and Mary Mann, of "Timberneck," Gloucester county. Of their children,
Mann was the only survivor, born in 1691; member of the Council;
died January 24, 1730, at "Rosewell," the imposing mansion at
which seat, still standing, he completed the year of his death; his tomb
is also there. He was twice married; first, in 1712, to Judith, daughter
of Hon. Ralph Wormeley, secretary of the Colony, and secondly, in
1718, to Judith, second daughter of Hon. Robert ("King") Carter.
Mann, the eldest child of the second marriage, born about 1718; married
first in 1743, Alice, daughter of Hon. John Grymes, of Middlesex
county, a member of the Council; married secondly, about 1748, Anne
Corbin, daughter of Hon. John Tayloe, of "Mount Airy," Spotsylvania
county, a member of the Council. John Page, the eldest child of the
first marriage, and the subject under notice, was born at "Rosewell,"
April 17, 1743 (old style). After private tuition under the Rev. William
Yates, and one learned and worthy William Price, he entered the
grammar school of William and Mary College in 1760, and graduated
from that institution in 1763, with distinction. His classical attainments
brought him under the favorable notice successively of the Colonial
Governors Dinwiddie, Fauquier, Lord Botetourt, and the Earl of
Dunmore. He was appointed a Visitor of William and Mary College
in 1768, and in 1773 represented it in the House of Burgesses, and was
also a member of the Council, and by his opposition in that body, in
1775, to the measures of Lord Dunmore, incurred his displeasure, particularly
in boldly advising him to give up the gunpowder which the
Governor had seized. Continuing in the Virginia Assembly, he was
distinguished by his talents and patriotism, and as a member of the
Committee of Safety, in 1775, and of the First Council under the Constitution,
in 1776, and as Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth,
he rendered important services in the Revolutionary struggle. He also
contributed freely from his private fortune to the public cause, and
served as colonel of militia from Gloucester county in 1781. In the
midst of exacting public service, and the exciting events of the period
of the incipiency of the American Revolution, John Page yet found time
for investigations in natural and in physical science, of which evidences
in his MS. of Meteorological Observations have been preserved, one of
them being in the possession of the present writer. In testimony of his
attainments, John Page was, June 16, 1774, elected the first president
In 1784 he served with Bishop James Madison and Robert
Andrews, of Virginia, and Andrew Ellicott, of Pennsylvania, in ascertaining
and fixing the boundary line between the two states. In 1785
he was a lay deputy from the convention of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Virginia, with Rev. Dr. David Griffith and Rev. Samuel S.
McCroskey, D.D., in the National Convention held in New York City.
In 1789 he was elected one of the earliest representatives in Congress
from Virginia, upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution—the seat
of government being at that time in the city of New York—and continued
to act in that capacity until 1797. In 1794 he served as lieutenant-colonel
commandant of a regiment from Gloucester county in the
suppression of the "Whiskey Insurrection" in western Pennsylvania.
In 1796 and 1799 he published Addresses to the People, and in 1800
was a Presidential elector. December 1, 1802, he succeeded James
Monroe as Governor, filling the office most acceptably, and by two successive
annual re-elections, under the provisions of the state constitution,
serving until December 1, 1805, when, not being eligible again
until after an interval of four years, he was succeeded by William H.
Cabell. In 1806 Governor Page was appointed by Jefferson United
States Commissioner of Loans for Virginia, and acted in that capacity
until his death at Richmond, October 11, 1808. He was buried in the
churchyard of the venerable sanctuary of St. John, at Richmond, and
his grave, in the eastern portion of the grounds, was unmarked until
1881, when Dr. R. C. M. Page, of New York, reverently placed
over his remains a handsome tomb of Carrara marble. Governor
Page was twice married, first, about 1765, to Frances, daughter of Colonel
Robin and Sarah (daughter of "Scotch Tom" Nelson) Burwell, who
dying in 1784, aged thirty-seven years, Governor Page married secondly
in 1789, in New York City, Margaret, daughter of William Lowther,
of Scotland. By the first marriage he had twelve children, nine of
whom survived; of these nine, five married sons and daughters of their
illustrious kinsman, General Thomas Nelson. Of eight children, the
issue of the second marriage, only two married. The descendants of
Governor Page comprise the worthy names of Nelson, Smith, Digges,
Pendleton, Meade, Berkeley, Blair, Anderson, Saunders, and others.
The county of Page, formed from those of Rockingham and Shenandoah,
in 1831, was named in honor of Governor Page. The following
is a just tribute to his worth: "Hon. John Page was, from his youth, a
man of pure and unblemished life. He was a patriot, a statesman, a
philosopher, and a Christian. From the commencement of the American
Revolution to the last hour of his life he exhibited a firm, inflexible,
unremitting, and ardent attachment to his country, and rendered her
very important services. His conduct was marked by uprightness in all
which he passed—in seasons of gladness and affliction. He was not only
the patriot, soldier, and politician, the well-read theologian and zealous
churchman—so that some wished him to take orders, with a view to
being the first bishop of Virginia—but he was a most affectionate
domestic character."
There are two original portraits of Governor Page in existence.
One representing him as a handsome youth, at the age of fourteen
years, said to have been painted by the celebrated Benjamin West,
and now in the possession of his descendant, Dr. R. C. M. Page, of
New York City, who generously presented the State of Virginia, in
October, 1880, with a copy by G. P. A. Healey, of New York City,
and which copy is in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia. The
other, by Charles Wilson Peale, is in the Museum of the Independence
Hall building, Philadelphia.
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