JOHN PAGE was born at Rosewell in Gloucester County, Virginia. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in 1763, after which he served as a member of the Colonial Council in the reign of King George III, as President or senior member of the Council of State under Patrick Henry, and as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1776. After being defeated for the governorship by Thomas Jefferson in 1779, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1781 to 1783 and again from 1785 to 1788. He was then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1789 to 1797, after which he returned to the Virginia House of Delegates for a number of terms. He was elected governor by the state legislature for three one-year terms. After leaving office, he was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to the position of U.S. Commissioner of Loans, serving in that capacity until his death in Richmond, where he was interred in St. John’s Churchyard.