Gregory Page

Three successive generations of the same English family were each named Gregory Page. A wealthy family whose fortune was not inherited but initially accumulated through trade, the Pages were strongly associated with the development of south-east London during the 18th century.

Gregory Page (1626– November 1693) was a wealthy London merchant, shipwright and director of the British East India Company.

His son (c.1669-25 May 1720), also named Gregory Page, followed in his father's footsteps as a merchant. He was elected MP for Shoreham in West Sussex in December 1708, a seat he retained until 1713. Created a baronet (3 December 1714), Page regained the seat in 1715 and held it until his death.

His wife, Dame Mary Page, with whom he had four children, died on 11 March 1728 aged 56 and was buried at Bunhill Fields in the City of London, with an epitaph that hinted at a painful illness (possibly Paracentesis or Meigs' syndrome ): In 67 months she was tapped 66 times … 240 gallons of water drawn without ever repining at her case or ever fearing the operation (240 imperial gallons is equivalent to 1,100 litres).

Page was succeeded by his eldest son, the second baronet, also named Sir Gregory Page (c.1695-4 August 1775). A minor in the care of two guardians, he inherited several properties and a substantial fortune in shares in South Sea Stock, which were sold just before the so-called ‘South Sea Bubble’ burst in the autumn of 1720, ruining thousands of investors.

Page invested a substantial part of his fortune into further properties, particularly in south-east London. In 1723, he built a manor house in the Westcombe Park area, just north of Blackheath, but later preferred to live in a huge mansion at Wricklemarsh in nearby Lee. This was designed by architect John James, built for £90,000, lavishly furnished and hung with paintings by Rubens, van Dyck and Titian (among others), and stood in a 250 acre (1 km²) park, once the property of Sir John Morden. This area later formed part of the site of the Blackheath housing estate created by John Cator.

In 1733, for £19,000, Page bought the dilapidated Elizabethan manor house at Well Hall Place, Eltham, demolishing it to build a new mansion home, Page House (eventually demolished in 1931).