John Page letter to Margaret Lowther Page(1796 February 21)

• MS 2000.58
• Microfilm: M-1561
• 1 item

Written while attending session of the U.S. Congress. Concerns death of a family member . Mentions people in Philadelphia including Mrs. Hannah Nicholson Gallatin, Thomas Hartley, Mrs. Anne Lawson Nicholas and Mrs. James White.

John Page (1744–1808) was born and lived at Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County. Page graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1763, where he was a friend and the closest college classmate of Thomas Jefferson. 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.

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