George Read

                    George Read was an attorney and a politician from New Castle, New Castle County, Delaware.  He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as the United States Constitution.  In addition, he was President of Delaware, the first U.S. Senator from Delaware, and the Chief Justice of Delaware.

                    Read was born on September 18, 1733, in Cecil County, Maryland, one of six sons of John (from Ireland) and Mary Howell Read (from Wales).  The family moved to New Castle County, Delaware, when he was just an infant, and settled near a village named Christiana.  He studied at the Rev. Francis Allison's Academy at New London, Pennsylvania, with Thomas McKean and then studied law in Philadelphia with John Moland.  George was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1753; the next year he established a law practice in his home town of New Castle, Delaware.

                    George married Gertrude Ross Till in 1763. Gertrude was the daughter of the Rev. George Ross, the Anglican rector of Immanuel Church in New Castle, as well as the widowed sister of George Ross, a future signer of the Declaration of Independence.  George and Gertrude became parents of five children:  John, George Jr., William, John, and Mary.  (Mary married Matthew Pearce and was often confused with her aunt Mary Read who in 1769 married Gunning Bedford, Sr., a future Governor of Delaware.)  The Read family lived on The Strand in New Castle, and their house at that time was in what became the garden of the present Read House and Gardens, owned by the Delaware Historical Society.  The Reads were members of Immanuel Episcopal Church.

                    In 1763 Read was appointed by John Penn, the Proprietary Governor, to the office of Crown Attorney for the three Delaware counties; he served in that position until he left for the Continental Congress in 1774.  Read also served in the Colonial Assembly of the Lower Counties for twelve sessions, from 1764/65 through 1775/76.  On June 15, 1776, the General Assembly of the Lower Counties declared its separation from the British government in anticipation of the Declaration of Independence.  After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Read was elected as a delegate to a Delaware constitutional convention called to draft a constitution for the new state of Delaware.  George was elected/appointed as President of the convention and led in the passage of the Delaware Constitution of 1776; his associate Thomas McKean had drafted the document.

                    George Read was elected as a representative to the first Legislative Council of the Delaware General Assembly and was then chosen as the Speaker in both the 1776/77 and the 1777/78 sessions.  "At the time of the capture of President John McKinly, Read was in Philadelphia attending Congress, and after narrowly escaping capture himself while returning home, he became President on October 20, 1777, serving until March 31, 1778."  At that time British soldiers occupied Philadelphia and controlled the Delaware River.  Read tried to recruit more soldiers to protect Delaware but was not very successful. 

                    Caesar Rodney replaced Read as President of the Assembly, but Read continued to serve in the Legislative Council until 1788 except for one year of ill health and two years of service in the House of Assembly (1780-1782).  Read was appointed in 1782 as Judge of the Court of Appeals in admiralty cases.

                    In 1786 George Read was again called to national service when he represented Delaware at the Annapolis Convention.  Due to the small number of states represented, the sole business conducted was "a report calling for a broader convention to be held in Philadelphia the next year."  Read represented Delaware the next year in Philadelphia at the meeting we know as the Constitutional Convention. 

                    The following quote comes from Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution written by Wright and Morris:  "Read immediately argued for a new national government under a new Constitution, saying `to amend the Articles was simply putting old cloth on a new garment.'  He was a leader in the fight for a strong central government, advocating, at one time, the abolition of the states altogether and the consolidation of the country under one powerful national government.  `Let no one fear the states, the people are with us,' he declared to a Convention shocked by this radical proposal.  With no one to support his motion, he settled for protecting the rights of the small states against the infringements of their larger, more populous neighbors who, he feared, would `probably combine to swallow up the smaller ones by addition, division or impoverishment.'  He warned that Delaware `would become at once a cipher in the union' if the principle of equal representation embodied in the New Jersey (small-state) Plan was not adopted and if the method of amendment in the Articles was not retained.  He favored giving Congress the right to vote state laws, making the federal legislature immune to popular whims by having senators hold office for nine years or during good behavior, and granting the U.S. President broad appointive powers.  Outspoken, he threatened to lead the Delaware delegation out of the Convention if the rights of the small states were not specifically guaranteed in the new Constitution."

                    When Read was assured that the small states were guaranteed these rights, Read led the ratification movement in Delaware, resulting in Delaware becoming the first state to ratify the new Constitution.

                    After the new Constitution was adopted, the Delaware General Assembly elected George Read as one of the state's two U.S. Senators.  His term in the Senate began March 4, 1789; he was reelected in 1791 and resigned on September 18, 1793, to accept an appointment as Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.  He served in that position until his death on September 21, 1798, at New Castle.  He is buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Church Cemetery in New Castle.

                    George Read was described as "tall, slightly and gracefully formed, with pleasing features and lustrous brown eyes.  His manners were dignified, bordering upon austerity, but courteous, and at times captivating.  He commanded entire confidence, not only from his profound legal knowledge, sound judgment, and impartial decisions, but from his severe integrity and the purity of his private character" (Life and Correspondence by William T. Reid).

                    Read was also described by a fellow delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as follows:  "his legal abilities are said to be very great, but his powers of oratory are fatiguing and tiresome to the last degree; his voice is feeble and his articulation so bad that few can have patience to attend him."

                    "Historians like John Munroe have generally recognized that all in all, Read was the dominating figure in Delaware politics during his career, directly or indirectly providing consistent and reliable leadership to the new state."

                    Stonum, the home of George Read, is now a historic landmark.  His son, George Read II, built the house that is currently on The Strand in New Castle.  This house is owned by the Delaware Historical Society, restored and opened to the public.  His legacy includes a school in New Castle and a dorm at the University of Delaware named for him.

                    The following is written on the tombstone of George Read:  "George Read born A.D. 1732, Died 21 Sept. 1798, Member of the Congress of the Revolution, the Convention that framed the Constitution of the U.S. and of the first Senate under it, Judge of the Admiralty, President and Chief Justice of Delaware, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence…."

Gertrude Ross Read

Gertrude Ross, daughter of Reverend George Ross, was the young widow of Thomas Till in 1763 when she married George Read, a prominent attorney in Newcastle, Delaware, and future signer of the Declaration of the Independence. She was also a sister to George Ross, who later signed the Declaration of Independence, and a half-sister to John Ross, a successful attorney in Philadelphia.

Gertrude received a good education under the direction of her father. He "carefully cultivated" her "naturally strong" understanding "beyond the common lot of most girls of her days, even in educated families. She was described as being "beautiful" with "elegant" manners, and exemplary "piety."

Even though she was "constantly separated from her husband," "suffered considerable hardship," and often had to "fly from her home at a moment's notice" with her "infant family," she never complained. Instead, she "encouraged her husband in every possible way" by her words and her "cheerful manner" in bearing her burdens.

Gertrude lived a "troubled" life during the Revolution because the enemy prowled along the "maritime border of Delaware and kept the little Province in a continuous state of alarm by predatory incursions." The British Army sometimes occupied parts of Delaware or simply marched across it; in either case, their presence necessitated frequent moves for Gertrude and her family.

Gertrude was well-known for her love and ability to grow flowers, especially tulips, and had an "extensive garden of the old-fashioned mansion" in Newcastle. She spent most of her life in this home except when she was forced to flee to Wilmington or Philadelphia.

Gertrude and George were parents of five children, four sons and one daughter: John Read (died in infancy); George Read, Jr. (born in 1765, married his cousin Mary Thompson, and was U.S. District Attorney for Delaware for thirty years); William (born in 1767, married Ann McCall, and was Consul-General for Naples at Philadelphia for many years); John (born in 1769, married Martha Meredith, and became Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania); and Mary Howell (married Matthew Pearce of Maryland).

Facts and quotes are from Wives of the Signers: The Women behind the Declaration of Independence, pp. 209-215.

George Read

George Read, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in 1734 in Cecil County, Maryland, the first of six sons. His grandfather, a wealthy resident of Dublin, and his father emigrated from Ireland about 1726.

George attended school in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he studied Latin and Greek. He was already fluent in English due to the efforts of his father in teaching him. He later studied under the direction of Reverend Doctor Allison; some of his classmates became members of the Continental Congress or held other high political offices.

Read was only 17 when he started studying law in the office of John Morland who was a distinguished barrister in Philadelphia. George was very studious and earned the confidence and friendship of his teacher. He was only 19 when he was admitted to the bar in 1753. He proceeded to establish an honorable and successful law practice.

When George was admitted to the bar as a practicing attorney, he voluntarily signed a deed releasing all his legal rights to the estate of his father to his siblings. He stated that he had received his share of the estate in obtaining his education and felt that he would be treating his siblings unfairly if he made any additional claims on the estate.
George moved his practice to New Castle County, Delaware, in 1754, where he again ran a successful law office even though there were many other successful attorneys in the area.

In 1763 George married a Miss Ross, daughter of George Ross, the pastor of a Church in New Castle. At age 29, Read became Attorney General for the "lower counties on the Delaware" of Kent, Sussex, and New Castle. He held this office until he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774.

George was elected as a member of the Delaware General Assembly in 1765 and was reelected eleven consecutive years. As a member in that assembly he proposed a statement to the King against the Stamp Act. Recognizing that complaints from individual Colonies would not be effective, George was one of the patriots who thought a General Convention would bring more justice. When Boston residents were suffering from the Boston Port Bill, George became active in a movement to collecting money and other aid to help them.

Along with Caesar Rodney and Thomas M'Kean, George was appointed in 1774 as a delegate to the General Congress slated to meet in Philadelphia in September 1774. George was also elected as a delegate in 1775 and 1776. During the 1776 convention, he divided his duties in the Congress and serving as Vice President of Delaware. He was an avid supporter of the Declaration of Independence and considered it a privilege to sign the document. George was President of the Delaware Convention that framed a State Constitution.

Soon after the battle of Brandywine, Governor M'Kinley, President of Delaware, was taken as a prisoner by the British in 1777. George, as Vice President, became the Acting President and discharged his additional duties faithfully. At the same time, he was an active member of the Committee of Safety. With his musket in his hands, George marched with the militia on several occasions to repel invasion. In fact, George and his entire family narrowing escaped at the time of the capture of Governor M'Kinley.

George's health declined to the point that he resigned his seat in the Assembly of Delaware in August, 1779 - only to be re-elected to the position the next year. He was appointed in 1782 as one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals in Admiralty cases and continued in that position until the tribunal was abolished. Read was appointed by Congress in 1785 to be a Justice on a special Court to decide the boundary between Massachusetts and New York.

In 1786 George selected to be a member of a convention meeting at Annapolis, Maryland. The convention was given the responsibility to "consider and repair the defects in the Articles of Confederation." This conference is considered to be the "egg" or the seed for the 1776 convention that gave us the U.S. Constitution.

George was elected, under the new Constitution, to be a Senator for the state of Delaware in 1788. He continued in that position until 1793 when he became Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. He was still serving as Chief Justice when he died from a sudden illness in the autumn of 1798 in the 64th year of his life.

Facts are from Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, pp. 137-140.