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George Read (U.S. statesman)

George Read
GeorgeRead.gif
Chief Justice of Delaware
In office
September 30, 1793 – September 21, 1798
Preceded by William Killen
Succeeded by Kensey Johns
United States Senator
from Delaware
In office
March 4, 1789 – September 18, 1793
Preceded by new office
Succeeded by Henry Latimer
President of Delaware
In office
October 20, 1777 – March 31, 1778
Preceded by Thomas McKean
Succeeded by Caesar Rodney
Continental Congressman
from Delaware
In office
August 2, 1774 – December 17, 1777
Preceded by new office
Succeeded by Caesar Rodney
Personal details
Born (1733-09-18)September 18, 1733
Cecil County, Province of Maryland
Died September 21, 1798(1798-09-21) (aged 65)
New Castle, Delaware
Resting place Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard, New Castle
Political party Federalist
Spouse(s) Gertrude Ross Till
Residence New Castle, Delaware
Profession lawyer
Religion Episcopalian
Signature

George Read (/rd/; September 18, 1733 – September 21, 1798) was an American lawyer and politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President of Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party, who served as U.S. Senator from Delaware and Chief Justice of Delaware. Read was one of only two statesmen who signed all three of the great State papers on which the country’s history is based: the original Petition to the King of the Congress of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.

George Read was the son of John and Mary (Howell) Read. George's father was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of an Englishman of large fortune belonging to the family of Read of Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and Oxfordshire. The death of his beloved having left George's father bereft, John Read came to the American colonies and, with a view of diverting his mind, entered into extensive enterprises in Maryland and Delaware.

Soon after his arrival in America, John Read purchased a large landed estate in Cecil County, Maryland, and founded, with six associates, the city of Charlestown, on the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay, twelve years after Baltimore was begun, with the intention of creating a new market for the northern trade, and thus developing northern Maryland and building up the neighboring iron works of the Principio Company, in which the older generations of the Washington family, and at a later period General George Washington himself, were also largely interested.


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