Page Baronets

Three successive generations of the same English family were each named Gregory Page. A wealthy family whose fortune was not inherited but initially accumulated through trade, the Pages were strongly associated with the development of north-west Kent (now south-east London) during the 18th century.

First generation

Gregory Page (1626– November 1693) was a wealthy London merchant, shipwright and director of the British East India Company.

econd generation

His son (c. 1669-25 May 1720), also named Gregory Page, followed in his father's footsteps as a merchant. He was elected MP for Shoreham in West Sussex in December 1708, a seat he retained until 1713. Created a baronet (3 December 1714), Page regained the seat in 1715 and held it until his death.

His wife, Dame Mary Page (nee Trotman - daughter of Thomas Trotman of London), with whom he had four children, died on 11 March 1728 aged 56 and was buried at Bunhill Fields in the City of London, with an epitaph that hinted at a painful illness (possibly Meigs' syndrome [ [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3278169 Cat.Inist ] ] ): "In 67 months she was tapped 66 times … 240 gallons of water drawn without ever repining at her case or ever fearing the operation" [ [http://flickr.com/photos/simon-crubellier/102723470/ Bunhill Fields sur Flickr : partage de photos ! ] ] (240 imperial gallons is equivalent to 1,100 litres).

Third generation

Page was succeeded by his eldest son, the second baronet, also named Sir Gregory Page (c. 1695-4 August 1775). A minor in the care of two guardians, he inherited several properties and a substantial fortune in shares in South Sea Stock, which were sold just before the so-called ‘South Sea Bubble’ burst in the autumn of 1720, ruining thousands of investors.

Page invested a substantial part of his fortune into further property, particularly in what was then north-west Kent. In 1723, he built a manor house in the Westcombe Park area, just north of Blackheath, but later preferred to live in a huge mansion at Wricklemarsh nearby. This was designed by architect John James, built for £90,000, and stood in a 250 acre (1 km²) park, once the property of Sir John Morden. A ground plan and cross-section through the mansion's rooms were included in "Vitruvius Britannicus" in 1739, and according to a contemporary description, Wricklemarsh was::"one of the finest houses in England, resembling a royal palace rather than a residence of a gentleman. The gardens are laid out in the most elegant manner and both the paintings and furniture are surprisingly fine. All rooms are hung with green or crimson silk damask and the cornices, door-cases and chair-frames are all carved in gilt. The chimney pieces are all fine polished marble." [DNB]

(The surrounding land later formed part of the Blackheath Park housing estate created by John Cator, after he purchased Wricklemarsh in 1783).

Page's fields of interest were said by the "Dictionary of National Biography" to include "scholarship and languages, engineering, construction, naval architecture and surveying, collecting and building". The Wricklemarsh mansion was lavishly furnished and housed Page's art collection, with paintings by Rubens, van Dyck, Claude, Poussin, Veronese, Salvator Rosa, Nicolaes Berchem, and a group of ten pictures by Adriaen van der Werff. Six Dutch East India wood chairs inlaid with the Page/Kenward arms in mother of pearl are in the Soane Museum. Page was the founder and patron of the dining club, the Free and Easy Society, for which a number of Qianlong Chinese armorial punch-bowls were made c.1755. [DNB]

Page's other property investments included the purchase of Battlesden Manor in Bedfordshire from Lord Bathurst in 1724. [ [http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/bedscc/sdcountyrec.nsf/web/thepage/Battlesden Bedfordshire County Council page re Battlesden] ]

In 1733, for £19,000, Page bought the dilapidated Elizabethan manor house at Well Hall Place, Eltham, demolishing it to build a new mansion home, Page House (eventually demolished in 1931).

Page also supported the creation of a new charity in London called the Foundling Hospital. In its Royal Charter, issued in 1739, he is listed as one of the original governors. [R.H. Nichols and F A. Wray, "The History of the Foundling Hospital" (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 348.] The charity worked to save abandoned children off the streets of the capital.

Upon his death in 1775, Page's fortune was bequeathed to his great-nephew Sir Gregory Turner of Ambrosden, Oxfordshire, who added 'Page' to his surname to become Sir Gregory Page-Turner. [ [http://www.rootsweb.com/~engbdf/polhillfamily.html Polhill Family History] ] Page was interred in the family vault at St Alfege's Church, Greenwich.

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