Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/166

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

10 have been immediately afterwards appointed to the council, as he was present at meetings of that body from 1677 to 1683. At this later date his health became very bad and he was unable to attend for sometime. His illness,

lish house of that name, a branch of "the Pages of Harrow on the Hill"' of Middlesex, England. He was born in 1627 and came to X'irginia about 1650. Of the earlier years of his life in \'irginia, save that he acquired a

indeed, was so serious and long continued that considerable tract of land given in reward

ill England he was reported dead and his name for services in transporting persons into the

left out of the commission to the councillors colony, very little is known, but 1657 he

of 1685. He therefore prepared a petition represented York county in the house of

setting forth his various services to the colony and praying to be restored to the council, which was forthwith done. He continued active up to 1690. but, his health again failing, he prepared, two years later, another petition

burgesses. The commissioners to suppress Bacon's rebellion reported that "]\lajor John Page was a great loser in his estate by the rebellion." On Dec. 12, 1681, Lord Culpeper wrote to the authorities in England that he

asking to be relieved of all his public offices, j.ad appointed "Colonel John Page of the As-

This was also granted and the few remaining years of his life he spent in retirement at "Ar- lington," his house in the present Northamp- ton county. He died on the 9th of Jan., 1696, according to the inscrii:ition on his tomb at "Arlington."

Meese, Henry, as "Colonel Henry Meese,'" received a grant of 2,000 acres of land in Staf- ford county on June 7. i6C>6. and, as "Lieut. Col. Henry Meese," he was, in the year fol- lowing, a member of the Northern Neck com- mittee. On March 14, 1678-79, the King ordered that Meese be added to the council, and his commission was dated May 10, 1680, but on Dec. 12. 1681. Lord Culpeper wrote that he had a])pointed a councillor in the place of Col. Henry Meese, who was living in Eng- lanrl. It appears from the letters of William Fitzhugh that Ins wife survived him and made England her home. There is some reason to believe that he left a daughter Grace, who mar- ried Charles Ashton. of Northumberland county, Virginia, ancestor of the well-known family of that name.

Page, John, the progenitor of the Page family of \'irginia. was a member of the Eng-

sembly to be councillor." He was present at meetings of the council as late as 1689. In 1686 he was appointed, together with Nicholas Spencer and Philip Ludwell to revise and annotate the laws of the colony. On Oct. 15, 1 69 1, the privy council in England ordered that Col. John Page, who had been thought to be dead, and for that reason omitted from the last nomination of members of the council, sh.ould be "restored to his place and presi- dency in the said Council of \'irginia.'" Col. Page was a man of pious hfe and took a great interest in the welfare of his parish. It was liC who ga\e the land and twenty pounds in money towards building the old Williamsburg church, which is still in a good state of preser- vation. .\ tine collection of portraits, repre- senting members of this family, including Col. John Page, is to be seen in the library of Wil- liam and Mary College.

Beverley, Robert, was a descendant of an old English family of Yorkshire, which had been staunch in its support of the King dur- ir.g the civil war, Robert Beverley himself growing up with strong royalist ])roclivities. He was probably a native of the town of Bev-