Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Page, Thomas Hyde
PAGE, Sir THOMAS HYDE (1746–1821), military engineer, was the son of Robert Hyde Page (d. 1764), by Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Morewood, and great-granddaughter maternally of Sir George Devereux, kt., of Sheldon Hall, Warwick. His grandfather was John Page, who married Sarah Anne, sister and sole heir of Thomas Hyde; the latter claimed descent from Sir Robert Hyde of Norbury, Cheshire, ancestor of the Earls of Clarendon.
At Woolwich Page received as the first cadet a gold medal from George III. He was appointed sub-engineer in 1774, and lieutenant later in the same year. In 1775 Lord Townshend, then master-general of the ordnance, requested Page ‘to take a view of Bedford Level,’ with the purpose of improving the general drainage in the county. This he did, and his manuscript report to Lord Townshend, dated 31 March 1775, is preserved in the library of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Going with his corps to North America, he distinguished himself in his capacity as aide-de-camp to General Pigott at the battle of Bunker's Hill (17 June 1775), and was severely wounded (Porter, Hist. Corps of R. E., i. 203). Lieutenant-colonel John Small, who was major of brigade to General Pigott at the battle, writing to Page in 1790, speaks of having witnessed his professional intrepidity and skill. In consequence of his wound he received an invalid pension. In 1779 he raised and organised one of the first volunteer corps in the kingdom, known as the Dover Association.
Captain Page was ‘engineer of the coast district’ in 1782, when the board of ordnance (Lord Townshend being master-general) took into consideration the ‘want of wholesome fresh water where dockyards and garrisons were established.’ The Parade within the garrison of Sheerness was the first place fixed upon for the intended well, and the works were placed under Page's direction. He determined to try to sink through the quicksands by means of two cylindrical frames of wood of different diameters, excavating within the small circle first, and lowering it progressively as the large circle was formed above it. The experiment failed, and Page was much blamed. In the House of Commons the experiment was said to be ‘not a well for fresh water, but a sink for the money of the public.’ A second attempt was made, this time in Fort Townshend at Sheerness, and was successful. Page's report upon the Sheerness well is dated 12 May 1783. Plans and sections are published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,’ vol. lxxiv., together with an account of similar wells in treacherous soils at Harwich and Landguard Fort. An account of the borings will also be found in ‘The Beauties of England and Wales’ (1808, viii. 708–9). Page also constructed the ferry at Chatham, and his system of embankments for military works and inland navigation gained him the gold medal of the Society of Arts. He was chief consulting engineer in the improvement of the Port of Dublin, of Wicklow Harbour, of the inland navigation of Ireland, and of the Royal Shannon and Newry canals. He directed the repairing of the disastrous breach in the dock canal at Dublin in 1792, and was chief engineer for forming the New Cut from Eau Brink to King's Lynn, a problem of navigation and drainage that had puzzled engineers since the time of Charles I.
On 10 July 1783 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, being described in his certificate of candidature as ‘Capt. Thomas Hyde Page, of St. Margaret Street, Westminster, one of his Majesty's Engineers, a Gentleman well versed in Mechanics and many other Branches of Experimental Philosophy.’ He signed the charter-book and was admitted into the society on the same day. He was knighted on 23 Aug. 1783, but states in his ‘Account of the Commencement and Progress in sinking Wells at Sheerness,’ p. 10, that he ‘considered the knighthood to have reference to his military services, and not to the well at Sheerness.’ In the following year (1784) he was transferred to the invalid corps of the Royal Engineers. He died at Boulogne on 30 June 1821 (Times, 5 July 1821).
Page married, first, in 1777, Susanna, widow of Edmund Bastard of Kitley, Devonshire, and sister of Sir Thomas Crawley-Boevey, bart., of Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire; secondly (in 1783), Mary Albinia (d. 1794), daughter of John Woodward (formerly a captain in the 70th regiment) of Ringwold, Kent; and, thirdly, Mary, widow of Captain Everett, R.N. He had issue by his second wife only—viz. three sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Robert Page, of Holbrook, Somerset, was born 29 Sept. 1792, married in 1815, and had nine children (see Burke, Landed Gentry).
Portraits of Sir Thomas Hyde Page and his second wife—the first by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the second by Sir Thomas Lawrence—are in the possession of Sir Thomas Hyde Crawley-Boevey, bart., at Flaxley Abbey. Another portrait of Sir Thomas by Loutherbourg is in the possession of a granddaughter, Miss Page, of 16 Somerset Place, Bath.
Page published: 1. ‘Considerations upon the State of Dover Harbour,’ Canterbury, 1784, 4to. 2. ‘Minutes of the Evidence of Sir T. H. Page on the Second Reading of the Eau Brink Drainage Bill,’ London, 1794, 8vo, tract. 3. ‘Observations on the present State of the South Level of the Fens’ [first printed in 1775]. 4. ‘The Reports or Observations on the Means of Draining the South and Middle Levels of the Fens,’ no place, 1794, 8vo, tract. 5. ‘An Account of the Commencement and Progress in Sinking Wells at Sheerness,’ &c., London, 1797, 8vo. 6. ‘Reports relative to Dublin Harbour and adjacent Coast made in consequence of Orders from the Marquis Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in the Year 1800,’ Dublin, 1801, 8vo, tract. 7. ‘Observations upon the Embankment of Rivers; and Land inclosed upon the Sea Coast,’ &c., Tunbridge Wells, 1801, 8vo, tract.
[Authorities cited; private information; Page's works.]