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Preferred Citation:

John Page Memorandum book, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Biographical Information:

John Page (April 17, 1744 - October 11, 1808) was a figure in early United States history. He served in the U.S. Congress and as Governor of Virginia.

Page was born and lived at Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County. His great grandfather was Colonel John Page (1628-1692), an English merchant from Middlesex who emigrated to Virginia with his wife Alice Lucken Page and settled in Middle Plantation. He was the brother of Mann Page III.

John Page was graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1763, where he was a friend and the closest college classmate of Thomas Jefferson, having exchanged a great deal of correspondence. He then served under George Washington in an expedition during the French and Indian War. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1776. He also served during the American Revolutionary War as an officer in the Virginia state militia, raising a regiment from Gloucester County and supplementing it with personal funds. During that war, he attained the rank of colonel.

Page was also involved in politics. He became the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and served 1776-1779. He was then a member of the Virginia House of Delegates 1781-1783 and 1785-1788. Page was elected to the First United States Congress and reelected to the Second and Third, and to the Fourth as a Republican. Overall, he was Congressman from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1797.

After his terms in Congress, he was again a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1797, 1798, 1800, and 1801. He became the Governor of Virginia in 1802 and served to 1805. After being governor, he was appointed United States commissioner of loans for Virginia and held office until his death in Richmond, Virginia on October 11, 1808.

He was interred in St. John's Churchyard in Richmond.

Scope and Contents

Memorandum book, 1762-1797, of John Page begun while a student at the College of William and Mary. It contains a record of the General Episcopal Convention in Philadelphia in 1785, notes in Latin and Greek, and scientific and astronomical writings, including a notation of a November 1776 observation of astronomical activity by Page and Bishop James Madison.

Related Material

The bulk of John Page's papers are arranged as; Page Family Papers (Mss. 94 P14), Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary. See also; John Page Letter to Henry Tazewell, 1798, John Page Letter to "Dear Sir", 1804, John Page Letter to James Madison, 1804, John Page Letter to Philip Mazzei, 1789, John Page to [?], 1805, and the John Page Poem "What Muse Can Dictate", all at Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• College of William and Mary--History--18th century
• Episcopal Church--Virginia--History--18th century
• History of science--Colonial period
• Madison, James, 1749-1812
• Notebooks