The Page Family

The Page Family. . Patriarch John Page emigrated from England to Virginia in 1653. He quickly rose to prominence and through the headrights system and tobacco cultivation, accumulated vast wealth that sustained his growing family. He erected a substantial brick house at Middle Plantation, at the outskirts of what later became Williamsburg, in 1662. He was later instrumental in establishing both the College of William and Mary and the colonial capital nearby. His son, Matthew Page, inherited land holdings throughout Virginia but chose Gloucester, not Williamsburg, as his home. Successive generations of the family sustained a tradition of public service with Page men serving on the Governor's Council, in the House of Burgesses, the Continental Congress, as Virginia's Governor, in the United States Congress, and at the first General Convention of the Episcopal Church., The ruins of Mann Page's unrivaled mansion house, Rosewell, still stand about 5 miles west of here. The family graves at Roswell included a number of elegant stone tombs, which have been relocated to Abingdon Church, where the Pages long worshipped in the north gallery.