Page-Turner Family History

"The Free & Easy Society Under the Rose ",  Sir Gregory Page, 2nd bt 1689–1775 Members Club           A Chinese Imari Punch Bowl,   Kangxi,  circa 1718 with the arms of  Sir Gregory Page & the "Free and  Easy Society under the Rose," interior detail of the rose in the center of the Punch Bowl. One of Sir Gregory's diversions away from the acquisition of more land and art collecting for  Wricklemarsh, was the founding of the "Free and Easy Society", a dining club. Which is a reminder of the extent to which private societies flourished throughout the eighteenth-century England. other societies of this period being the Order of Bucks and the Hellfire Club, founded by Sir Francis Dashwood 1st. Bart. of West Wycombe. It is not known how many members there were, its form of origin, or the exact date of the founding of the club; but the following interesting advertisement appeared in the Whitehall Evening Post, from the 2...

Sir Gregory Page, second baronet (1689–1775)  Art Collector and Patron Peter Paul Rubens Pausius and Glyceira ex collection Sir Gregory Page 2nd Bt Sir Gregory Page 2nd Bt 1689-1775 was extremely wealthy by the time his father died in 1720. He inherited £600,000 and was wealthy in his own right. He was, for example, a large stockholder in the East India Company, having opened his own account on the 30th. March 1709 (the year after his 21st. birthday) and was appointed a director of the company in 1719 and 1720 (the year his father died). His account was not closed until the year before his death in 1774. Sir Gregory also held East India 3.1/2 % Annuities (later 3%) from the 22nd. January 1753 to the 19th. December 1781 (which stood in his name, though owned by his trustees, for some six years after his death. Whereas the main thrust of the first baronet, had been mainly to build up a large fortune through trade and commerce, his son, the second baronet, took a quite different cour...