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Sir Francis Page (1661 – 19 December 1741) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1713.
Page was the son of Nicholas Page, vicar of Bloxham, Oxfordshire from 1663 to 1696. He entered Inner Temple 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 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
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
Page was the son of Nicholas Page, vicar of Bloxham, Oxfordshire from 1663 to 1696. He entered Inner Temple 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 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
Events
January–March
* January 17 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore leads the Carolina militia out of Albemarle County, North Carolina, in a second offensive against the Tuscarora. Heavy snows force the troops to take re ...
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 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 a ...
in 1718. He was further promoted to Justice of the Court of Common Pleas
Justice of the Common Pleas was a puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice. The Common Pleas was the primary court of common law within England and Wales, dealing with "common" ple ...
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 court of commo ...
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, Fielding, Hogarth, Dr Johnson 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
Henry Scheemakers (birth name: Hendrik Scheemaekers) (Flanders c.1686 - Paris, 18 July 1748) was a Flemish-born sculptor who worked in England and France in the first half of the 18th century.Francis Bourne 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