Sir Francis Page (1661 – 19 December 1741) was an English judge and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1708 to 1713. Page was the son of Nicholas Page, vicar of Bloxham, Oxfordshire from 1663 to 1696. He entered

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

in 1685 and was called to the bar in 1690. He married Isabella White of Greenwich, Kent on 18 December 1690. In 1704 he became Serjeant-at-law. He made a second marriage to Frances Wheate daughter of Sir Thomas Wheate, 1st Baronet on 11 October 1705. Page was a trustee for the estates of the 3rd Earl of Sandwich, and so had access to the Montagu interest at Huntingdon. He was returned as Member of Parliament for

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

in the 1708 general election. He was classed as a Whig, but there is some confusion between his activities and those of another Page in the House of Commons. He stood down at the 1713 general election in favour of Lord Hinchingbrooke who had now attained his majority. He does not appear to have sought an alternative seat then or later. Page became

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher c ...

in 1713 and his career prospered under the Hanoverians. He became King's Serjeant 1715 and served on the special commission to try the rebels in Lancashire in 1715–16. He was promoted to

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

in 1718. He was further promoted to Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1726 and of the

King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court of common law in t ...

in 1727 when he was knighted. His coarseness and cruelty earned him a reputation as ‘the hanging judge’, and the singular distinction of being satirized by

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

, Fielding, Hogarth,

Dr Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary criticism, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicograp ...

and the poet Richard Savage, over whose trial for murder he presided. Savage wrote of him:
Of heart impure and impotent of head,
In history, rhetoric, ethics, law unread;
How far unlike such worthies, once a drudge –
From floundering in law causes – rose a judge;
Formed to make pleaders laugh, his nonsense thunders,
And on low juries breathes contagious blunders;
His brothers blush, because no blush he knows,
Nor e’er one uncorrupted finger shows. Page died without issue on 19 December 1741 age 80 years. He was buried at Steeple Aston in the family mausoleum constructed on the ruins of a chapel next to the parish church. The Flemish sculptor Henry Scheemakers created a grandiose monument to Page's specifications, which destroyed at least one of the existing tombs when it was erected. Most his estate, including a house in ‘Bedford Row’ and a manor at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, was left to his great-nephew

Francis Bourne Francis Alphonsus Bourne (1861–1935) was an English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the fourth Archbishop of Westminster from 1903 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1911. Biography Early life Franci ...

on condition that he changed his name to Page.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Francis Justices of the King's Bench 1661 births 1741 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1710–1713 Justices of the common pleas 18th-century English judges