History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 46

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Lieutenant-Colonel Frank sand- French, born

Louise Gertrude Read, born at the family man- sion, New Castle, Delaware, second daughter of in 1941 at Houlton, Maine, entered the United States army, 1861, as -crond lieutenant of artillery, and was made captain and brevet lieutenant- colonel for gallant and meritorious conduct dur- ing the war; died 4th of September, 1865, at New Castle, Delaware, of wounds received at the battle of Antietam ; unmarried.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

William Henry French, of the United States army, born 17th of July, 1841, at New port, Rhode Island, while his father was stationed at Fort Adamıs. Ile married Emily Ott in IST9, and has three daughters.

Lieutenant Frederick Halverren French, a graduate of West Point in 1877, second lieutenant United States army summe year ; first lientenant 1860; retired January, 1885 ; unmarried.

Lieutenant George Rose French. United States Navy, born 8th July, 1857, at Fort Mellenry, Baltimore, Maryland, while his father was sta- tioned there; a graduate of the Academy, Annapolis, in 1850; midshipman of the United States Navy in 1882; ensign, June, 1884 : married, in Baltimore, 26th of March, 1885, Elizabeth Hollingsworth, daughter of Charles Findlay, Esq. Mrs. French was born the 17th of November, 1856. They have one son, Findlay French.

Annie Read French, born the 24th of May, 1853, at Tampa, Ilill-borough County, Fla., while her father was stationed there : married, the 24th of May, 1875, to Captain John M. Clem, of the United States army. Hle was born at Newark, Lieking county, Ohio, in 1853, entered the United States army in 1862 as a drummer-boy, and distinguished himself in the battles of Chickamauga, and Shiloh, and became famous as the " Drummer-boy of Chickamauga," and for his distinguished services and gallantry was appointed, when only ten years of age, a sergeant in the United States army ; be- came second lieutenant in 1870, first lieutenant in 1874, and captain and assistant quartermaster in 1882. They have one son, John Clem.

Rosalie French, born 4th June, 1861, at New Castle, Delaware, married Lieutenant J. Conklin, of the United States army.

Julia Rush Read, fifth daughter of the Hon. George Read (3d), of Delaware and Louisa Ridgely Dorsey, his wife, born at the family mansion, New Castle, Delaware, and married General Samuel Jones of Virginia, who graduated at West Point, and attained the rank of captain in the United States army. He became a major- general in the Confederate army, and commanded during the Rebellion the Departments of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. They have one child, Emily Read Jones, who is un- married.

Emily Read, sixth daughter of the Hon. George Read (3d), of Delaware and Louisa Ridgely Dorsey, his wife, was born at the family mansion, New Castle, Delaware, where she still resides. She has contributed to the Encyclopedia Bri- tannica, and has produced anonymously " Life in New Sweden Two Hundred Years Ago." She is also the authoress, in conjunction with her niece Miss Marian Reeves, of " Old Martin Boscawen's sister, Mary Read, born the frith of Juta. Jest," and " Pilot Fortune."

Lieutenant John Alexander Lockwood, of : United States army, Professor of Military The at the University of Michigan, is the son of 1 John Alexander Lockwood, born at Dover. i. aware, in 1812, by his wife, Julia Read MeL .... born 21st of February, 1818, at Wilmington, b aware, married the 20th of October, 1840, diet t 21st of November, 1880, at Washington, D. C.

Lieutenant Lockwood was born on the Both October, 1856, at Dre-den, Saxony, Germany. H. is the grandson of Dr. Allen Mebane and hi- we. Catharine Anne Read, and fifth in descent tro !. George Read, of Delaware, the signer. ITis it; Florence Lockwood, born at Florence, Italy, ti 26th of April, 1853, married, the 17th of Febr .. ary, 1878, Captain Charles AAlfred Booth, of th United States army.

William Read, of Philadelphia, consul-general of the Kingdom of Naples, was the second son of George Read, the signer, of Delaware. He was born in the Read mansion, New Castle, Delaware. October 10, 1767, and died in his own man-ion, at Philadelphia, September 25, 1846. He was married, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, on t !.. 22d of Semember, 1796, by Bishop White, to Anne MeCall, daughter of Archibald MeCal and Judith Kemble, his wife. Mrs. R. was born on the 2d of May, 1772, aul died the 17th of July, 1845. Mr. William Read. who removed to Philadelphia at an early age, w :. -. for many years, consul-general of the Kingdom of Naples, and represented several other foreign powers. He was a brother of George Reed (2d), of New Castle, and of the Hon. John Read, of Philadelphia. He resided in an ancient and spacious mansion on second Street, then t' most fashionable part of Philadelphia. eldest son, George Read, of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia, on the 10th of June, 1797. in the large mansion in Second Street, three door- above Spruce, on the west side. In accordance with the ancient family usage, he was taken to New Castle, Delaware, and christened on the 29th of October, 1797, in Emmanuel Church, of which his great-grandfather, the Rev. George Ross, w :- the first rector in 1703. Mr. Read resided nearly forty years in spain, first going thither on the 101. of October, 1817. He wa- for a long time Unis d States consul in that Kingdom. He isstill living. and in his ninety-second year is extremely active in his habits, and his anecdotes are as interestit : and his wit as vivacious as in his earlier years. 11. is unmarried. His three brothers. - William Archibald Reel, a planter near New Orleans ; JJolet Read, a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia ; at : Samuel MeCall Read, also a planter near New 1; leans, Louisiana-died without issue, Is n';

1799, died the 7th of July, 1875; married.

WILLIAM RZAD ESTRE.

CONSUL CENEPAL SE THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES

Readthe٤,١٢٠٢

The Honorable John Read 500 18.1

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DELAWARE DURING THE REVOLUTION.

in 1827, Coleman Fisher, of Philadelphia, son of the daughter of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, of the Samuel and grandson of William Fisher. Mr. Fisher was born in Philadelphia in 1793, and died ther! the 4th of March, 1857. Their children are the present William Read Fisher, Esq., of Philadelphia; Elizabeth Rhodes Fisher, who married Eugene .1. Livingston, Esq, of Livington Manor, New York, and died in 1877 : Sally West Fisher and Mary Read Fisher. The eldest son, Coleman P. Fisher, a distinguished engineer, died some years ago unmarried. Mrs. Livingston left one son and two daughters.

Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, and the sister of General John Cadwalader, whose daughter Fanny married Loud Erskine and Colonel Lambert Cadwalader. Her brother-in-law, General Philemon Dickinson, commanded the New Jersey forces at the Millstone and at the battle of Mon- mouth, and John Dickinson, author of the " Far- mer's Letters," was her cousin. Mrs. Read's grandfather, Reese Meredith, the son of Reese Meredith, Esquire, of the county of Radnor, was born in Wales in 1705, removed to Philadelphia The Hon. John Read, of Pennsylvania, an eminent lawyer, financier and philanthropist, and one of the leaders of the Federal party, was the fourth son of George Read, of Delaware, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a framer and signer of the Constitution of the United States. The eldest son, John, named in honor of his grand- father, had died in infancy, and the fourth son received the same name, and consequently seemed to take the place of his elder brother. His mother, Gertrude Ross, was the daughter of the Rev. George Ross, Reetor of Immanuel Church, New Castle, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh in 1700, and of the Divinity School in 1702, who having been ordained by the Bishop of London, in 1727, and married the granddaughter of Samuel Carpenter, owner of the " Slate Roof House," the partner of William Penn and one of the executors of his will. Reese Meredith sprang from the very ancient Cambrian family of Meredith to which belong Lord Athlumney, Baron Meredith and the Merediths, Baronets of Greenhills and Carlands- town, County Meath. He was one of the wealthiest men of his day; his town house was in Walnut Street below Second; his country seat was on the west bank of the Schuylkill opposite Fairmount. Ilis son, General Meredith, resided in a large mansion on the north side of Chestnut Street, two doors above Fifth, opposite Independence Hall. His country seats were Greenhills, Philadelphia became one of the founders of the Church of County; Otter Hall, near Trenton. New Jersey, and Belmont, near the present town of Seranton, Pennsylvania.

England in America. Mr. Ross was born in 1679 and died in 1754. His daughter, Mrs. Read. was beautiful in person, her manners were retined and gracious, and her piety was shown in a constant succession of charitable deeds. As her pious father expressed it in his autobiography, the family es- eutcheon was without spot or stain. Her grand- father, David Ross, Esquire, of Balblair, was a descendant, through the house of Balamuchy. of the ancient family of the Earls of Ross. Her eldest brother, John Ross, had preceded her lis- band as attorney-general; a younger brother, George Ross, was a distinguished judge and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, while the patriotie sermons of another brother, the Rev. Eneas Ross (an eloquent divine of the Church of England, who had received his degrees at Oxford , had fired the heart of the colonies at the opening of the Revolution.

John Read was born in the Read mansion, New Castle, Delaware, on the 17th of July, 1769. He graduated at Princeton in 1787, studied law with his father, was called to the bar and removed to Philadelphia in 1789, where he married in 1796, Martha Meredith, eldest daughter of General Samuel Meredith, member of the Continental Con- gress, first Treasurer of the United States, and an intimate friend of General Washington. George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- ence and a framer of the Constitution of the United States, was Mrs. Read's nucle. Her mother was

John Read was appointed by President John Adams, in 1797, Agent General of the United States under Jay's Treaty. He filled this import- ant office with marked ability also under the ad- ministration of President Thomas Jefferson, and until its termination in 1809, and published a valuable volume entitled "British Debts " He was City Solicitor, a member of the Common and Supreme Couneils of Philadelphia, and took an active part in the defense of the Delaware during the War of 1812. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and chairman of the Committee of Seventeen in 1816. He was Senator from 1816 to 1>17 : was appointed by the legisla- tive body State Director of the Philadelphia Bank, and on the retirement of his wife's unele, George Clymer, the signer, in 1819, became President of that Bank, which office he held until 1841. Hle was also the president of many other important corporations. An active, wise and liberal church- man, he constantly figured in the national councils of the Epi-copal Church, and he was for many vears Rector's warden of Christ Church, St. Peter's and St. James'. He died at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 13th July, 1854, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the Read vault, Christ Church, Philadelphia, He was the father of the Hon. John Meredith Read, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. His humanity and philanthropy

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IHISTORY OF DELAWARE.

were largely manifested during the terrible out- November, 1874, in the seventy-eighth year of his break of yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793. when he contributed liberally from his purse, and exposed his life throughout the entire course of that epidemie in behalf of his suffering fellow- citizens. age. He graduated at the University of Penn-vl- vania at the age of fifteen in 1812 : was called to the bar in 1918 ; elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1822 and again in 1823 ; and after- wards became city solicitor and member of the se- Mr. Read had three sons, chief justice John Meredith Read, of P'a . Edward Read, who died in infaney, and Henry Meredith Read. M.A., M.D. The latter was born at his father's man-ion in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, on the 31st October, 1802, graduated at Princeton in 1820, and at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1823. He was a man of brilliant promise, but died prematurely and unmarried on the 16th of March, 1828, in the twenty-sixth year of his age. Mr. Read's daughters were Margaret Meredith, born 6th May, 1800 and died in 1802, and Mar- garet Meredith Read, born 7th April. 1806. and died, unmarried, the 13th March, 1854. The latter was a lady of remarkable accomplishments, and a general favorite in society. Mr. Read's children were all taken in infancy to New Castle to be christened at Emmanuel Church, in accordance with ancient family usage. leet council, and drew up the first elcar exposition of the finances of Philadelphia. He was appointed United States district attorney of the eastern dis- triet of Pennsylvania, in 1837, and held that office eight years. He was also judge advocate on the Court of Enquiry on Commodore Elliot, solicitor- general of the Treasury Department, and attorney- general of Pennsylvania. Although his family were eminent and powerful Federalists, he early became a Demoerat and was one of the founders of the Free Soil wing of that party. This militated against him when he was nominated to the Senate in 1845, as judge of the supreme court of the United States ; for the Southern senators opposed his confirmation, and he consequently requested the president to withdraw his name. He was one of the earliest, most ardent and effective upholders of the annexation of Texas, and the building of railways to the Pacifie. He powerfully assisted Mr. Read's spacious mansion stood on the south side of Chestnut Street, between Seventh and Eighth Streets, Philadelphia, surrounded with gardens, wherein tulips bloomed in profusion, running back to his stables which fronted on San- som Street. To this hospitable house resorted all the wealth and fashion of the carly part of the century. Mr. Read, like his father and grand- father, was a collector and reader of rare books. His reading was extended and profound, and his memory was remarkably retentive, and always obedient to his call. He related with dramatic foree the incidents of his chialhood, which was passed among the most stirring scenes of the Revo- lution. Andrew Jackson in his war against the United States Bank, and vet after its downfall, Mr. Nicho- las Biddle came to him and begged him to be his counsel In the celebrated trial of Castner Hanway, for treason, Judge Read was engaged with Thaddeus Stevens, and Judge Joseph J. Lewis, for the defendant, and made such a masterly argument, that Mr. Stevens said he could add nothing, for his colleague's speech had settled the law of treason in this country. This great triumph gave Judge Read an international reputation, and English jurists paid the highest compliments to his genius and learning. He showed his repugnance for slavery in the Democratic Convention held in Pittsburgh, in 1849, where he offered a resolution Mr. Read's miniature by an unknown but ad- mirable artist, represents him at the age of'twenty- five. The oil painting by Sully give an idea of him in his more mature years. Unlike hi- paternal and maternal family, he was not above the medium height, but lie had the refined but strongly defined features of the Reads, and he inherited their courtly and agreeable manners. against the extension of slavery, which coneluded with these remarkable words : " Esteeming it a violation of States rights to carry it ( slavery) be- yond State limits, we deny the power of any citi- zen to extend the area of bondage beyond the pre- sent dimension ; nor do we consider it a part of the constitution that slavery should forever travel with the advancing column of our territorial progress."

The Hon. John Meredith Read, LL. D, "a great jurist and a wise statesman," was the son of the Hon. John Read, of Pennsylvania, grandson of the Hon. George Read, of Delaware, and the great-grandson of Col. John Read, of Maryland and Delaware. He was born in the man-ion of his grandfather, General Samuel Meredith, to whom his parents were then paying a visit, in Chestnut Street, two doors above Fifth Street, op- posite Independence Hall, on the 21st of July, 1797 ; and he died in Philadelphia, on the 29th of

Hokling these strong views he naturally became one of the founders of the Republican Party, and he delivered at the Chinese Museum, in Philadel- phia, at the beginning of the electoral campaign in 1856, his celebrated speech upon the " power of Congress over shivery in the territories." This struck a key-note which resounded throughout the country, and his discourse formed the text of the oratorical efforts of the Republican Party. It w.t. under his lead that the Republican Party gained its first victory in " Pennsylvania, for he carried

John MC. Runde

CHIEF JUSTICE OF PENNSYLVANIA

wat- ( whichhiv -rest

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DELAWARE DURING THE REVOLUTION.

that State in the autumn of 1858, as a candidate for judge of the Supreme Court, by nearly 30,000 majority. This brought him prominently forward as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, and Mr. Lincoln's friends proposed to nominate Judge Read for President, with Mr. Lincoln for Vice-President. This arrangement was destroyed by the defeat of Judge Read's sup- porters by the friends of the Hon. Simon Cameron n the Pennsylvania Republican Convention, in February, 1860. Nevertheless Judge Read re- ceived a number of votes in the Chicago Conven- tion, although he had thrown his influence in favor of his friend, Mr. Lincoln. The decisions of Judge Read run through forty-one volumes of re- ports. In whatever branch of the law a question arose, he met and disposed of it with a like able grasp and learning. He was familiar with civil and criminal law, and their practice, with interna- tional and municipal laws, with law and equity, with the titles, limitation-, and descents of real and personal estates, with wills, legacies, and in- testacies, with the constitution, charters, and statutes of the United States, the States and all our cities. Ilis opinion was adopted as the basis of the Act of March 3, 1863, authorizing the Presi- dent during the rebellion to suspend the writ of habeas corpus ; and throughout the country his talents and his influence were constantly enlisted in behalf of the general government, and all his decisions were governed by the ardent and lofty patriotism which characterizes his conduct through life. IFe relieved the American Philosophical Society from arbitrary taxation by deciding that the land in Independence Square, on which its ball stands was granted by the state forever for publie uses ; and, as it could not be soll by any form of execution, no taxes could consequently be a lien upon it. His judgment also placed the Public Buildings of Philadelphia on their present site. Another famous deci-ion was that refusing an in- junction to prevent the running of the passenger tramways on Sunday. He could not consent to stop the " poor man's carriage, the passenger car." Many thousand copies of this opinion were printed in the East and West, and it carried publie opinion with it wherever it was read. His associate on the Supreme bench, Judge Williams, in his address to the bar of Philadelphia said : " Chiet Justice Read po-sessed talents and learning of a very high order, and his personal and official intlu- ence were very great. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word ; a gentleman of the old school, of the very highest sense of honor, of great dignity of character, and in social intercourse kind, affable and courteous. He was a true friend, strong and unswerving in his attachments, ready to make any sacrifice for his friends, and when they were in trouble he was untiring in his efforts to

serve them. He was a man of the strietest integ- rity, and despised everything that was low and vile With him the equity and justice of the case was the law of the case. He was a man of chival- rous courage, persistent purpose, and inflexible will. Ile did not know what fear is." A partial list of Chief Justice Read's published writings are to be found in Alllibone's " Dictionary of Authors," and his merits as a lawyer and a judge, were ably and eloquently portrayed by the Ilon. Eli K. Price, in his discourse upon Chief Justice Read, before the American Philosophical Society. "Judge Read was one of the last of the great Philadelphia lawyers, for he was a leader among such men as the Sergeants, Binney, Chauncey, the Rawles and the Ingersolls." In speaking of his inherited qualities Colonel Forney said : "Chiet Justice Read belonged to a race of strong men. He was a man of the most marked individuality, and was constantly engaged in originating useful measures for the welfare of the General and State Governments, and his amendments formed an essential part of the constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and his ideas were formulated in many of the statutes of the United States which owed their existence to him He was contented to create useful legislation which smaller men often fathered. He never sought office, and fre- quently refused the highest national posts.

Chief Justice Read was Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania his great-grandfather, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. having been one of the founders of Masonry in that Province, and mem- bers of his family, the Reads, having filled the highest offices in Masonry, in Delaware.

There are many portraitsof Chief Justice Read. One hangs in Masonic Hall in the gallery of Grand Masters, another adorns the Supreme Court-room in Philadelphia, but perhaps the best likeness is a miniature by J. Henry Brown, which was admir- ably engraved by Samuel Sartain. This engraving was copied in the London Graphie, in connection with a spirited notice of Chief Justice Read, written by h's kinsman, Charles Reade, the famous novelist.

Chief Justice Read married first, Priseilla, daughter of Hon. J. Marshall, of Boston, on the 20th of March, 1828; Mrs. Read who was born the 19th of December, 1808, died in Philadelphia. on the 18th of April, 1841. She was the granddaughter of Lieut Marshall, of the Revolutionary army, and eighth in descent from a captain in Cromwell s army, who was promoted for conspicuous services at the siege of Leicester, and at the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby. Mrs Read and her sister Emily Marshall, afterwards, Mrs. William Foster Otis, of Boston, were the most celebrated belles of their day. By his first wife, Chief Justice Read had six daughters, of whom only one sur

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vived infancy, viz., Emily Marshall Read, who struggle for national existence was imminent. But married. in 1-49, William Henry Hyde, Esq., and died in 1854, leaving an only daughter, Eunna II. Hyde, who married George W. Warts. Esq. First Secretary of Legation and Charge d' Aghires of the United States, at Rome, and died at Rome without issue.

By his first wife, wer Marshall, Chief Justice Read had also an only son-General JJohn Mere- dith Read, late United States minister to Greece.

Chief Justice Read married secondly in 1-65, Amelia, daughter of Edward Thomson, E-g, and sister of Hon. John R Thomson, United States Senator from New Jersey, and of Admiral Edward Thomson of the United states navy.

Chief Justice Read died at Philadelphia, on the 29th of November, 1374, in his seventy-eighth year. His widow, Mrs. Amelia Thomson Read, survived him twelve years, dying the 14th of Sep- tember, 1886, without i -- ne.

General John Meredith Read, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece, F. S. A., M. R. I. A., F. R. G. S., son of Chief Justice John Meredith Read, of Pennsylvania, grand-on of Hon. John Read, of Pennsylvania, and great- grandson of George Read, of Delaware, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and fifth in descent from Colonel John Read, of Maryland and Delaware, was born on the 21st of February, 1837, at his father's residence. $5 South Sixth Street, Washington Square, Philadelphia, and re- ceived his education at a military school. Gradu- ated at Brown University, Master of Arts, 1859 ; at the Albany Law School, LL. B. ; studied civil and international law in Europe; was called to the bar in Philadelphia ; and removed to AAlbany, New York. At the age of eighteen, he con- manded a company of national cadets, which after- wards furnished many commissioned officers to the United States army during the Rebellion. At the age of twenty he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor of Rhode Island with the rank of colonel. Hle engaged actively in the presidential campaign of 1856, and in 1560 organized the wide- awake movement in New York which carried the State in favor of Mr. Lincoln for the presidency.

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards Number of Pages: 776

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776