Bowes Reed

Bowes Reed (November 1740 – July 20, 1794) was a Revolutionary officer, politician, and public servant from New Jersey. He was the brother of Joseph Reed, a member of the Continental Congress and President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania (equivalent to Governor).

Reed was born in 1740 in Trenton, New Jersey (then part of Hunterdon County) to Andrew Reed, a shopkeeper and merchant, and Theodosia Bowes. In 1767 he was appointed surrogate of Hunterdon County, and he later resided in Burlington. In 1773 he was licensed as an attorney-at-law, but he never became a counsellor.

In June 1776, at the beginning of the Revolution, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey appointed Reed Lieutenant Colonel of the battalion to be raised in Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland and Burlington counties. One of his duties was the guarding of William Franklin, the last Colonial Governor of New Jersey, who had been taken prisoner. In September 1776 he was commissioned Colonel of the First Regiment of Burlington, resigning in March 1778.

Reed served in a number of other capacities during the Revolution. He was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1776, and he served as a Justice of the Peace of Burlington County from 1777 to 1779. In 1778 he was named Deputy Secretary of State of New Jersey, and later that year, upon the resignation of Charles Pettit (the husband of Reed's sister Sarah), he was elevated to the position of Secretary of State.

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