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 SKETCH ^ 
 
 OF THE LIFE 
 
 Honorable John Read, 
 
 i> '^Sl^f 
 
 OF BOSTON, 
 
 I 722 -I 749. 
 
 By GEORGE B. REED 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED. 
 
 1903. 
 
RF-rklNTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF 
 THE BOSTONIAN SOCIETY FOR I90J. 
 
 f6l 
 
 ^(rU'jl 
 
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 
 
" A great yudge lives in his recorded opinions, but 
 a great Laivyer, a brilliant Advocate, lives only in memory 
 and tradition, and soon becomes little more than a 
 shining name." 
 
LIFE AND ACTIVITIES 
 
 HON. JOHN READ OF BOSTON, 
 
 The Honorable John Read, a distinguished lawyer and 
 citizen of Boston in provincial days, 1722-1749, "had as great 
 a genius," said President John Adams, "and became as emi- 
 nent as any man," and he prefaced his remark with this say- 
 ing of Mr. Read's : " My knowledge of the law cost me seven 
 years' hard study in that great chair." 
 
 It is my purpose in this paper to speak of Mr. Read more 
 particularly as a lawyer and of his career as such, premising 
 that what I have to say must necessarily be fragmentary, for 
 but little relating to his activities has come down to us through 
 the hundred and fifty years since his death. He was a native 
 of Fairfield, Connecticut, born January 29th, 1679, the son of 
 William Read of that town and grandson of William Read, 
 an early settler of Stratford, afterwards of Norwalk ; both 
 were men of property and distinction ; his mother (Deborah) 
 was a daughter of Nathaniel Baldwin of Fairfield, "ancestor 
 of an eminent and highly honored family." In the year 1692 
 he entered Harvard College and also his 'teens, and graduated 
 in 1697, seventh in a class of fourteen. For the information 
 of College "boys," I would say that nothing has come down 
 to us of his college career save what appears in the following 
 paraphrase of the first verse of the Psalms, repeated extern- 
 
pore by a sedate fellow-student on leaving a classmate's room 
 after "picking himself up" from the floor amid the wreck of 
 the chair in which, on entering, he was invited to sit : * 
 
 •• Blest is the man who hath not lent 
 To wicked Read his ear, 
 Nor spent liis life as Collins hath, 
 Nor sat in Southmayd's chair." 
 
 On leaving College Mr. Read turned his attention to the 
 ministry, the only field of activity, influence and usefulness 
 for educated men in those days ; and after some months' 
 preparation and at the age of eighteen years, entered upon 
 his labors in that calling, preaching first at Waterbury, Con- 
 necticut, then at East Hartford for a time, and about three 
 years at Stratford, when he began the study of the law, which 
 at that time, as a science, was in its infancy, so to speak, in 
 this country ; courts having been established (under the Pro- 
 vincial Charter) but a few years before, in 1692. 
 
 What led him to enter upon the study of the law is not 
 now known. It may have been owing to, or have grown out 
 of, the contentions which he and his friends and associates of 
 Stratford had with parties from Old Milford for lands includ- 
 ing the rich intervales on the Housatonic River in New Mil- 
 ford. It appears that, after he had obtained titles to these 
 lands given many years before by the Indians, which titles 
 had been received under a permit from the General Court 
 in 1670, with no restrictions or conditions, a patent was given 
 by the General Assembly in 1703, covering the same lands, 
 to parties from Old Milford who brought suits of ejectment. 
 Mr. Read acted as attorney for himself in defence ; and in a 
 petition to the General Assembly he says that, after gaining 
 his case in court fifteen times, he lost it on the sixteenth. 
 
 As this petition is interesting personally and historically, 
 and withal unique of its kind, I give it quite in full ; it was 
 
 • Anecdote of Rev. Hugh Adams in Farmer and Moore's Mist. Coll. of 
 N. H., Vol. 2. 
 
addressed to the General Assembly sitting at New Haven in 
 1710: 
 
 May it please the Honorable Court : Misfortunes in my ad- 
 ventures have undone me utterly, for as I thought with a prudent 
 foresight I purchased about twenty thousand acres of lands in 
 Wiantinock [New Milford and vicinity], parcel of a purchase of thirty 
 nine, recorded in May last ; had spent much to settle and defend it ; 
 settled some inhabitants with me yr afterwards, tried ye title and 
 defended it against home pretenders. Sixteen times have I been to 
 Court about it, ever gaining till ye last Courts Assistants wherein I 
 finally lost; and am utterly discouraged and broken — finding two 
 things, I St that I am not able to maintain suits forever, and that 
 Indian titles are grown into utter contempt, which things make me 
 weary of the world. Wherefore I pray, seeing I nor my father 
 have had not one foot of land by division or grant of town or 
 county, tho' spending all our days in it, that I may have liberty if I 
 can find a place in ye colony (whch I know not yet of) not granted 
 tQ nor purchased by any ; y't by your allowance I may settle it 
 with some others of my friends, where in obscurity we may get a 
 poor living, and pray for your health and prosperity with great 
 content. 
 
 "This Indian deed to Mr. Read," says Mr. Orcutt in his 
 excellent History of New Milford, "had stood on the records, 
 sanctioned by a court decision more than thirty years, when 
 the General Assembly gave the permit to the Old Milford 
 Company, and the deed was received upon the specific condi- 
 tions that the plantation should interfere with no other 
 titles." 
 
 It appears from records that Mr. Read was duly granted 
 lands in and about what is now New Fairfield, bordering on 
 the Province of New York, but, not choosing it as a place of 
 residence, he located within the bounds of the present town 
 of Reading, in that part of it then and now called Lonetown, 
 a very pleasant locality, where he erected a manor-house, 
 naming the estate " Manor of Lonetown." " Here," says the 
 late Lawyer Beers of Fairfield, in his Address on Mr. Read, 
 
8 
 
 delivered before the Fairfield County (Conn.) Historical So- 
 ciety, "were his professional headquarters, his counting- 
 room as a large operator in real estate, and the point from 
 which he journeyed to the General Assembly when a mem- 
 ber ; and it was here that he wrote the following curious 
 document that quaintly emphasizes his saying that • Indian 
 deeds had grown into utter contempt.* " 
 
 Know all men by these crooked scrawls and seals yt we Chick- 
 ens, alias Sam Mohawk, and Naseco do solemnly declare that we 
 are owners of ye tract of land called Lonetown, fenced around 
 between Danbiiry and Fairfield ; and John Read, Governor and 
 Commander-in chief thereof and of ye Dominions thereupon de- 
 pending, desiring to please us have plied the foot and given us 
 three pounds in money, and promised us a house next autumn. 
 In consideration thereof we do hereby give and grant to him and 
 his heirs forever, the farm above mentioned and corn appurtaining 
 and further of our free will, motion, and soverain pleasure make 
 ye land Manour ; Indowing ye hind thereof, and creating said John 
 Read, Lord Justice and Soverain Pontiff of ye same to him and 
 his heirs forever. Witness our crooked marks and borrowed seals 
 this seventh day of May, 1714. 
 
 In presence of Chickens, his X mark. 
 
 Liacus, his ? crook. alias 
 
 Sam Mohawk. 
 
 Martha Harney, her X mark. 
 
 Naseco, his ? mark. 
 
 The above mentioned personally appeared and acknowledged ye 
 above Instrument yr free act and cheerful deed, in Fairfield, ye 7th 
 day of May 1714 before me 
 
 Nathan Gold, I)ep. Gov. 
 
 his S seal. 
 
 This document, still preserved in the original, has some- 
 thing of the savor of triflmg, but it really came before the 
 Deputy Governor ant! was legally binding. 
 
Mr. Read was admitted to the bar October 6, 1708, at New 
 Haven, and we may infer from the following incident that he 
 at once exhibited much zeal in his clients' cause, for at the 
 next term of Court, May, 1709, he was admonished by the 
 Court and forbidden to plead until he should make an 
 acknowledgment, which he did October following, of not 
 intending any contempt. It is said that his offence was, 
 intimating that the Court was partial in a certain matter. 
 This was too much for the staid and stately Governor and 
 his Assistants to stand, at least from so young a "prac- 
 titioner." 
 
 May 22, 1712, he was appointed Queen's Attorney for the 
 Colony, and held the office several years. His name appears 
 often in the " Connecticut Colonial Records" in connection 
 with matters before the Courts and the General Assembly. 
 He was largely interested in the purchase and sale of real 
 estate and in procuring grants of lands from the Colonial 
 Government. He was one of the purchasers of the "Equi- 
 valent Lands," so called, — 105,793 acres given by Massachu- 
 setts to Connecticut in settlement of a boundary question, 
 and by the latter sold at auction in 17 16. Ten thousand 
 acres of the lands included in his share were in one body, 
 located in what is now the township of Ware, in Hampshire 
 County, and were known as the " Manor of Peace," as being 
 a peace offering to Connecticut. 
 
 As the sale of these lands was a noted one in its day, and 
 the parties to it were leading citizens of Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, most of them being residents of Boston, I will, 
 if the digression be permitted, give a short history of the 
 affair, together with the names of those forming the " syndi- 
 cate," as we should term it in our day, who made the purchase, 
 or rather for whom the purchase was made. 
 
 The settlement of the line of boundary between Connect- 
 icut and Massachusetts, in 171 3, threw within the line of 
 Connecticut the towns of Enfield, Somers, Woodstock, and 
 Suffield, which had thus far been under the jurisdiction of 
 
lO 
 
 Massachusetts. By an agreement between the two colonies 
 these towns were allowed to remain under Massachusetts rule, 
 in consideration of which that colony granted a tract of land 
 to Connecticut. 
 
 The land thus granted became known as the " Equivalent 
 Lands," and embraced liclchertown, Pclham, and parts of 
 Prescott and Ware, and other localities. They were sold by 
 the Connecticut Commissioners, Matthew Allyn, Joseph Tal- 
 cott, Roger VVolcott and Aaron Cooke, at a vendue holden at 
 Hartford, April 24th and 25th, 1716, for 683 pounds, which 
 was the most that was offered, being less than one farthing 
 per acre, says Trumbull. William Pitkin bid them off for the 
 following-named persons, as appears from the deed on record 
 at Springfield, viz. : 
 
 Gurdon Saltonstall Esq of New London, Paul Dudley, Adding- 
 ton Davenport, Thomas Fitch and Anthony Stoddard of Boston 
 Ksqrs, William Brattle of Cambridge clerk, Ebcnezer Pemberton 
 of Boston clerk, William Uunimer of Boston merchant for himself 
 and his brother Jeremiah Dummer Ksq, Jonathan Belcher merchant, 
 John White gentleman both of Boston aforesaid, and William Clark 
 in Common street in Boston aforesaid merchant, John Wainwright 
 of the same town merchant for himself and Henry Newman Esq 
 and John Caswell merchants both of London, Samuel Appleton 
 and Addington Davenport Esqrs as feoflfers in trust for Dame NLiry 
 Saltonstall wife of the aforesaid Gurdon Saltonstall Esq, Nathan 
 Gold of Eairfield in said Colony Esq for himself and Peter Burr of 
 the same town Esq, John Stoddard of Northampton in the said 
 Province F.sq for himself and I'ilisha Williams of Wethersfield in 
 said Colony Gentleman, and John Read of Lonetown in said Colony 
 Gentleman." 
 
 The lands were surveyed and laid out in several plats and 
 divided into sixteen shares. 
 
 In May, 17 19, Mr. Read was api)ointed by Connecticut 
 one of the commissioners on the bountlary line between that 
 colony and New York ; and in March, 1720, was appointed 
 
II 
 
 commissioner to consult with commissioners from the Prov- 
 inces of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, 
 as to the means for recovering the credit of the paper money 
 in circulation. The record of the appointment reads as fol- 
 lows : * 
 
 Whereas, It has been proposed that commissioners from this 
 Colony and from the Provinces of the Massachusetts Bay, New 
 Hampshire and Rhode Island, meet at Boston and consider in what 
 manner the credit of the bills of said governments may be best 
 recovered and supported, and prepare a report to be made thereon 
 to the Assemblies of the said governments. 
 
 Resolved, That Mr. John Read, as a commissioner from this 
 government, attend the said meeting, and endeavour, with them, to 
 prepare such a report, and lay it before the General Assembly of 
 this Colony in May next. 
 
 His report,! proposing how to mend the value of the 
 paper money that Connecticut has put in circulation, is an 
 interesting document, in which he states the "necessity" for 
 so doing, " the remedy," and ** the present advantages " for 
 doing it. He says : 
 
 The paper money now abroad daily sinks in its value and 
 estimation, that already it don't serve as a just medium of trade, 
 but the merchants raise their goods, I believe, to what they think 
 it will sink to before they are paid, and so the husbandry (the stay 
 of the land) always come off the worst by it ; and its sinking faster 
 and faster will make it issue in evils unforeseen. Perhaps it may 
 be [ordered redeemed] by Act of Parliament, or by other orders 
 from England ; and if the order comes it may bring other incon- 
 veniences with it, and doubtless it is best to give our fathers at 
 home no occasion to reform any real evils among us, lest we be 
 grieved at the measures taken with us. At the best, in the course 
 it is now in, it will soon come to be no medium of trade, nor at all 
 serve the purposes proposed ; and we shall be obliged to give 
 
 * Connecticut Colonial Records. 
 
 1 Connecticut Archives, Finance and Currency, Vol. 2, Doc. 154. 
 
12 
 
 silver money for the payment of those old broken rags wherever 
 they are found — for money it will not be, and money we must have 
 and be just. 
 
 In 1722 Mr. Read came to Boston to live, residing at first on 
 Hanover Street where now stands the American House, and 
 later removing to a mansion on Queen Street, now Court 
 Street, the site of the present "Minot Building," opposite 
 the old Court House. 
 
 It is evident that his reputation as a man of high charac- 
 ter, and his fame as a lawyer, had preceded him, for he at 
 once entered upon a large law practice, and the following 
 year (1723) was elected by the Legislature Attorney General 
 of the Province. 
 
 Before proceeding further to note in detail his career here 
 in Boston, I would give a general outline of his character, 
 ability, and influence as a lawyer, as portrayed by Mr. Knapp 
 in his " Biographical Sketches of Eminent Lawyers, States- 
 men, and Men of Letters," published in 1821 : — 
 
 At the commencement of the last century, John Read, a man of 
 genius and profound acquirements, began his career as a lawyer. 
 To sterling integrity, extensive views and decision of character, he 
 
 added industry He reduced the jarring and contradictory 
 
 forms of practice to a system ; taught courts the advantages of 
 precedents, and practitioners the value of knowledge. All that 
 has come down to us from him shows acumen, research, and vigor 
 
 of understanding He was distinguished for genius, beloved 
 
 by the votaries of literature, reverenced by the contemporary 
 patriots of his country, the pride of the bar, the light of the law, 
 and chief among the wise, the witty and the eloquent — one who 
 lived long and did much, but yet of whom so little is matter of 
 historical record that a single page would contain all that is writ- 
 ten of him. It is painful to think that a man so proudly pre- 
 eminent among his peers should now be so buried in obscurity. 
 Tradition, it is true, is stored with anecdotes of him, but we look 
 in vain for written memorials To prove that he was a pro- 
 
13 
 
 found lawyer, not trammeled by the mere letter of the law, nor 
 confused by its prolixity, it is only necessary to look at his legal 
 labors which are now extant. He from his own high responsi- 
 bility reduced the quaint, redundant and obscure phraseology of 
 the English deeds of conveyance to their present short, clear and 
 simple forms now in common use among us. Forms seemingly 
 prolix have generally their use, and most lawyers are attached to 
 them from habit, and from a belief that it is better to be tautological 
 than obscure from too much brevity. His influence and authority 
 must have been great as a lawyer to have brought these retrenched 
 forms into general use. The declarations which he made and 
 used in civil actions have many of them come down to us as prece- 
 dents, and are amongst the finest specimens of special pleading 
 which can be found. Story has preserved some of his forms, and 
 Parsons used to say that many other lawyers had assumed his 
 works as a special pleader as their own, and that the honors due 
 him had, by carelessness or accident, been given to others who 
 
 had only copied his forms His method of managing causes, 
 
 his terse arguments, his cutting irony, his witticisms, and his good 
 nature, too, were well known to that generation of lawyers to which 
 Gridley, Trowbridge and Pynchon belonged ; and facts illustrating 
 his powers and disposition were familiar to the next — to Lowell, 
 Parsons, and those just gone. Everything said of him went to 
 show his genius, his learning, sagacity, eccentricity, integrity and 
 benevolence. 
 
 I have said that Mr. Read wsls elected in 1723 by the 
 Legislature Attorney General ; he was also chosen in 1724, 
 but the Governor negatived the vote, not that he objected to 
 Mr. Read, but he claimed the authority to appoint, and this 
 difference of opinion, and contention between the House of 
 Representatives and the Governor and Council over the office 
 continued unabated and unsettled for many years, even down 
 to the adoption of our State Constitution. It was about the 
 only office connected with the Courts in which there was any 
 question as to where the authority to choose really rested. 
 This matter has of late years been thoroughly looked up and 
 
14 
 
 written up by one fully competent to do so,* and the record 
 is very interesting historically, but I will not enter upon it ; 
 sufficient for my narrative here to say, that amid all the dis- 
 sensions between the two branches of the Legislature Mr. 
 Read was chosen and consented to for the office in 1725, 
 1726, and 1727. His election not being consented to in 1724 
 enabled him to defend, or to take some part in the defence of 
 a Boston bookseller in a suit for libel brought against him by 
 the Government, which attracted much attention at the time. 
 On his client's appeal to the Superior Court for arrest of 
 judgment Mr. Read made an able argument which has been 
 preserved. A full account of this trial has been written by 
 one of our leading local historical writers,! from which I 
 extract the following graphic description of the sittings of the 
 Court in those days : — 
 
 On the 3d of the rnonth (Novemberj Anno Domini 1724, in the 
 Council Chamber of the Old State House, familiar to all Bostonians, 
 the Superior Court of Judicature and Assize opened its session. 
 The Judges, the Jury, and the Attorneys were all in their places. 
 A slight draft on the imagination will furnish a vivid picture of this 
 Court room as it appeared on that crispy autumnal morning. A 
 few fagots of hickor)' were blazing on the ample hearth. The arms 
 of the House of Hanover and portraits of the royal family of Eng- 
 land were looking down from the walls of the spacious room, to 
 give dignity and authority to the proceedings of the highest legal 
 tribunal in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. At one .side, 
 on a dais slightly raised, sat the Chief-Justice, and on either side 
 the Associate Justices all in their official robes, bands, and wigs. . . 
 Around a spacious table, near the centre of the room were the 
 attorneys in their citizens' dress. Among them was Robert Auch- 
 muty acting in place of the Attorney General by appointment of the 
 Council, and not far removed was the distinguished John Read, 
 already the corypheus of the Boston Bar, and near him his client. 
 In their proper place sat the impanelled jury. Besides these, there 
 were present in an unofficial way, we may believe, the ministers both 
 
 •Mr. Abncr C. Goodell. 
 
 1 Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, D. D. 
 
15 
 
 of the Church of England and of the Dissenters and other gentle- 
 men drawn thither by their interest in this trial. The chief interest 
 centred in the arguments of the learned, able and distinguished 
 counsel on both sides. After the usual formalities, the administra- 
 tion of the oath to the jurors, the reading of the indictment, the 
 trial was opened. 
 
 The argument of Mr. Read in arrest of judgment in this 
 case, was written out in his own hand and signed by him, and 
 is still preserved in the files of the Supreme Judicial Court of 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 In 1727 Mr. Read appeared again in quite a celebrated 
 case, this time before the Legislature, in behalf of the Min- 
 isters of the Church of England in Boston, claiming the right 
 to be members of the Board of Overseers of Harvard Col- 
 lege by force of the term "teaching elders" in the first 
 charter of the College granted in 1642, the Board of Over- 
 seers denying their right by force of these terms. The reply 
 of the Ministers to the answer of the Overseers, says Presi- 
 dent Quincy in his History of the College, " was prepared 
 and signed by their counsel, John Read, one of the most 
 eminent lawyers of that period in New England;" and their 
 right to a seat in the Board was maintained on various 
 grounds, one of these being that 
 
 They have been duly ordained, instituted and inducted into their 
 respective churches, and are in fact proper teaching elders of these 
 churches, as we have alleged, and are ready to prove, and this has 
 not been denied by the answer aforesaid, and therefore they are by 
 the Act [of 1642] made Overseers, and have a right to sit as such. 
 
 Upon the whole, we account the College a common interest, and 
 beg leave, with the answers, to call it our College, and the said Act 
 our depositum. They will have nevertheless benefit of it, and we 
 shall all have the more charity, and the better title to a blessing on 
 it, which is and shall be the constant prayer of your Honors' most 
 humble Orators. 
 
 (Signed) Jn^ Read iP Quer. 
 
i6 
 
 An incident took place in Boston in the following year 
 (1728) that led to a contest in the settlement of an estate 
 surpassing in many respects even those of our own day ; 
 it extended over several years of time. At its crisis Mr. 
 Read appeared as counsel for the heirsat-law, and his pre- 
 sentation of the matter to the Governor and Council put an 
 end to the case, so far at least, we may believe, as the courts 
 in this country were concerned. The case is clearly stated, 
 and sufficiently full for our understanding of the matter, in 
 the answer of Mr. Read to the appeal, which I quote in full, 
 avoiding the abbreviated form of words in general use at that 
 day, and the inserting of the real names of the parties : — 
 
 Province of the 
 Massachusetts Bay SS. 
 
 To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq': Captain General and Gov- 
 ernor in Chief, and the Honorable Council. 
 
 Andrew Sewall of Boston Esq^ for himself and others the next 
 friends of Howard Phelps late of Boston deceased, 
 
 Humbly Showeth, 
 
 That Gordon Phelps of Boston Esq': Administrator of the es- 
 tate of the said Howard Phelps deceased has taken the personal 
 estate of the said Howard and converted the same to his own use, 
 and after waiting some years for his account thereof, the honorable 
 Judge of Probate impowered the said Andrew Sewall to sue for the 
 penalty of his administration bond, and by the Judgment of the 
 Superior Court in Boston in February last [1733] he recovered 
 Judgment against him for the amount thereof and costs. 
 
 That your petitioners on the twenty fourth of April last peti- 
 tioned the said Judge of Probate for the money to be paid to and 
 amongst them, and instead of that, his Honor made a decree that 
 he would pay the said sum to them in equal parts, they giving bond 
 to refund ui)on proper occasion, and the said Gordon Phelps ap- 
 |iealed to Your Excellency and this honorable Board from that 
 decree, and his appeal was allowed accordingly. 
 
 Now may it please your Excellency the said Andrew Sewall hum- 
 bly conceives that there was no colour for the said appeal by law. 
 
'7 
 
 and the reason truly is that there is no colour for the decree. The 
 Judge of Probate is impowered to make decrees for the division of 
 the intestate's estate and take bonds of the Administrator that he 
 shall perform his decrees, but when the Judge of Probate cannot 
 come at the knowledge of the estate of the deceased nor make any 
 order upon him to pay any of it out, but is forced to sue the Admin- 
 istration bond against the Administrator and recovers the money 
 into his own hands 'tis for the use of the next of kin, and he is to 
 pay it directly to and among them, and it is demandable of him by 
 action of the Common Law as so much money received for the 
 use of the next of kin, and their receipts discharge him and there 
 is no use nor room for a decree touching it, as your petitioners hum- 
 bly conceive. Wherefore your petitioners humbly pray that the said 
 appeal may be discharged and the Judge of Probate suffered to pay 
 the parties the money recovered by judgment of the Superior Court 
 aforesaid, and your petitioners as in duty bound &c. 
 
 ^ ^ Jn? Read ^ Quer, 
 
 In Council May 4, 1733 Read and Or- 
 dered that the Petitioners forthwith serve 
 Gordon Phelps Esqr. with a copy of the 
 Petition, and that he give in his answer 
 thereto as soon as may be. 
 
 J. Belcher. 
 
 It is evident from what follows that the order of the Gov- 
 ernor and Council was complied with, and the case decided 
 against Gordon Phelps, and the prayer of the petitioners 
 granted, for the case was carried by Phelps on appeal to the 
 Privy Council in England on the plea that the English law of 
 primogeniture was in force in Massachusetts, by which he 
 claimed the property, and the Council there confirmed the 
 decision here of the Governor and Council. 
 
 Mr. Read was employed by Connecticut in her controversy 
 with New York and also with Rhode Island as to boundary 
 lines, and by Massachusetts in her controversy as to the same 
 with New Hampshire and Rhode Island. He was also Attor- 
 ney for the Town of Boston in many important cases, — one 
 of which (an ejectment case) relating to land in Dock Square 
 
1 
 
 i8 
 
 and vicinity leased to parties by the Town was in the Courts 
 for several years (1/33- 1739), ^"^^ ^^^^^ rn^ny trials, retrials 
 and trials anew, was finally decided in favor of the Town, and 
 on appeal to the King in Council the decision of the Superior 
 Court here was sustained. 
 
 Mr. Read had a great knowledge of the science of special 
 pleading.* Judge Trowbridge, in speaking of this, related 
 the following anecdote to a gentleman of the bar, then living. 
 The facts show sagacity and acutcness, then the great requis- 
 ites for distinction, and which at all times have their weight 
 in making up a lawyer's character : 
 
 A merchant of Salem, or Boston, who had a ship and cargo 
 seized by the King's custom-house officer for a breach of the Acts 
 of Trade, applied to Mr. Read for advice. He told him to replevy 
 the ship and cargo, and a writ of replevin was made out in the form 
 prescribed by the old Province law, commanding the sheriff to 
 replevy the same, and deliver them to the plaintifT upon his giving 
 bond to answer the cost and damages at the next Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas and respond to the judgment finally given thereon, and 
 summon the seizing officer to appear and show cause why he had 
 taken away and impounded the ship and cargo. And as the abat- 
 ing of writs seemed at that time to be a great part of the practice, 
 Mr. Read intentionally had given the defendant in replevin no 
 addition, or else a wrong one. On the day of the sitting of the 
 court, his client came to him in great agitation, and told him the 
 counsel for the defendant had found a flaw in the writ and intended 
 to have it abated. Mr. Read endeavored to calm his client's appre- 
 hensions, without letting him into the secret of his intentions, and 
 told him to enter the action. Upon the sitting of the court the 
 counsel for the defendant whispered across the table to Mr. Read, 
 informing him of the mistake made in the writ, and that he in- 
 tended to have it abated. Mr. Read, having examined the writ 
 and finding it erroneous, desired defendant's counsel to let him 
 mend it, but he refused. Mr. Read then told him if he would take 
 advantage of his mistake he could not lielp it, but lie must plead 
 
 • From " Knapp's Biographical Sketches." 
 
19 
 
 it ; and thereupon a plea of abatement was made, in writing — for 
 some time such pleas were made ore tenus (word of mouth) — that 
 the writ might abate and for costs — without requesting a return of 
 the ship and cargo, and judgment was made up accordingly. Then 
 Mr. Read told his client to let execution be taken out against him, 
 and when the officer came to serve it to pay the sum, and not 
 before. At the next term suit was brought on the bond, and Mr. 
 Read prayed oyer of the bond and condition, and pleaded in bar 
 that he had fully complied and performed its conditions by enter- 
 ing and prosecuting the suit to final judgment, and by paying the 
 execution, in proof of which he produced the sheriff's return on 
 the same. The merchant having sent his ship to sea upon her 
 restoration to him by the writ of replevin, there was an end to the 
 cause. 
 
 Mr. Read "was, w^ithal, eccentric, and among other in- 
 stances of it he used to travel incognito into the other colo- 
 nies, and occasionally would volunteer in the defence of 
 actions, and always astonished both courts and juries by his 
 profound learning, his captivating eloquence and his sparkling 
 wit, which produced a more striking effect from the little 
 indication which his garb or external appearance gave of 
 what they ought to expect."* 
 
 There is a well-authenticated story of his eccentricity of 
 character, told by Mr. Knapp, which I will quote : 
 
 The intercourse between the South and the North was nothing, in 
 a commercial or social point of view, then to what it now is. Mr. 
 Read, one autumn, made up his mind to spend the winter at the 
 South, and planned the journey after his own manner. Dressing 
 himself in the plainest garb which could be considered decent, he 
 cut his staff, slung his pack, and commenced his peregrinations. . . . 
 As he went on his journey he excited astonishment wherever he 
 came and among all classes he met. With the breeder of horses he 
 was a veterinary surgeon ; with farmers, an experienced agricul- 
 turist ; with mechanics, a master of all trades ; every one with 
 whom he conversed thought he belonged to his own art, trade or 
 
 * Washburn's Judicial History. 
 
20 
 
 calling. In some part of his journey he entered a village in which 
 a court was sifting, and a cause was soon to come on which made a 
 great excitement among the populace. The plaintiff was poor; his 
 title, though just, involved in much intricacy — the defendant was 
 rich, and had able counsel. Mr. Read collected the facts, and 
 having full confidence in the cause, offered his services to the plain- 
 tiff as counsel, and notwithstanding his appearance scandalized the 
 profession, yet the plaintiff had sagacity to discover his merit from 
 a short conversation with him. On the day of the trial the counsel 
 and client entered the court. His vulgar garb was soon forgotten 
 in his first address to the court, stating what induced him to engage 
 in (he cause before them — a love of justice, and to show that 
 honesty should be fearless ! In a few minutes he both astonished 
 and captivated them. The cause went on, and he displayed such 
 learning and ability, such knowledge even of the statute law of the 
 Province in which he then was, that every one present was filled 
 with admiration and respect for the man. The case was won, and 
 he instantly left the place for new adventures. 
 
 In Mr. Abraham Holmes's Address, delivered before the 
 Members of the Bar of the County of Bristol, in 1834, ap- 
 pears the followiiij^ relating to iMr. Read : 
 
 John Rend was a man of profound abilities, and of very extensive 
 
 acquirements but with all was rather eccentric. Tradition 
 
 has handed down an anecdote which, for the sake of illustrating his 
 amazing resources of mind, I will recite: " He was in the ministry 
 before turning his attention to legal studies, and in one of his 
 eccentric excursions he called on an intimate friend, a clergyman, 
 whose name was Walker, in the afternoon of a Saturday. Walker 
 was rejoiced again to see his old friend Read, and invited him to 
 spend the Sabbath with him, to which Mr. Read willingly agreed. 
 In the evening Walker told him that he must preach for him the 
 next day. Mr. Read declined. Mr. Walker insisted. After some 
 further conversation, Mr. Read found that he must either preach or 
 disoblige and offend his old friend ; he chose the former, and con- 
 sented to preach. The next day, after the first prayer, and singing, 
 Mr. Read rose and opening the Bible, read his text: ' And the 
 Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? and Satan said unto 
 
21 
 
 the Lord, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up 
 and down therein,' and looking around on the congregation, said : 
 ' Without any formal introduction to this discourse from these 
 words, I shall raise the doctrinal proposition, viz. : the devil is a 
 Walker.' 
 
 Mr. Walker was electrified ; his eyes expanded to an unusual 
 extent ; the old people sat aghast, the young people could not con- 
 ceal their giggling. Mr. Read's countenance remained unchanged, 
 and an unusual solemnity spread over his face. He proceeded to 
 show what the devil's object was in walking up and down in the 
 earth. This, he said, was to draw men from the path of virtue, 
 piety and religion. He then went on to show the infinite variety 
 of means the devil made use of in tempting mankind to sin and 
 iniquity, all which he particularly specified ; and when some means 
 failed, he resorted to others more suited to the particular bent of 
 the person's mind : all which he very fully illustrated. He then 
 went on to state the means which we ought in all cases to resort to 
 in order to defeat these attempts of the devil ; and closed the 
 whole with some pressing practical reflections. 
 
 Mr, Read found time in the midst of his legal labors to 
 write a Latin Grammar which was published in 1736. It is a 
 small i6mo book of 34 pages, with an appendix of 20 pages 
 of anomalous words. In the introduction he says : 
 
 Grammar is the knowledge of the nature of human speech, and 
 teaches us the nature of words, their syntax, or construction into 
 sentences, and prosodia, or the composing of sentences into verse, 
 A word is a part of speech, expressing a single thought, and is 
 either written or pronounced. In writing we use so many letters 
 as to signify and distinguish every posture, touch and action of the 
 organs of speech, whereby the words of a language are spoken, 
 and the sound of every syllable formed. The Latins have two and 
 twenty, to which we give the same names and sounds as to those 
 of our mother tongue. 
 
 He ends the book as follows : 
 
 Now, therefore, let the tutor distinctly read every chapter [of the 
 Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible] into English, explaining the 
 
22 
 
 nature and difference of the syntax and translations, as need re- 
 quires ; and then the pupil, by comparing the Knglish and Latin 
 translations by himself, shall easily attain the Latin ton<;ue, and at 
 the same time furnish his mind with the fundamental principles of 
 all human knowledge, establish his heart with true wisdom and 
 conduct of life, and finally grow up in favor with God and man. 
 Amen. 
 
 Besides his legal business, Mr. Read was engaged in the 
 purchase and sale of real estate and in other business enter- 
 prises. In 1737 he purchased at auction, of the town of 
 Boston, a township of 23,040 acres in this State, now known 
 as Charlemont, then called Boston Plantation No. r, and a 
 few months afterwards sold all of it except 1,760 acres. In 
 1738 he deeded to his son William his house and lot on Han- 
 over Street, and the 1,760 acres of land in Charlemont, and 
 his share, interest, and estate in a township at Piscataqua 
 River — " in consideration of my natural love and affection 
 for my loving son, William Read, of Boston, gentleman, and 
 for his advancement in the world ; " and the same year 
 bought the large mansion house and lot on Queen Street, 
 now Court Street, before referred to, where he resided until 
 his death. He this year (1738) served as a member of the 
 House of Representatives, and "was the first lawyer who 
 was ever chosen a member of the General Court."* From 
 the Journal of the House that year, it appears that he was a 
 member of most of the important committees, and made 
 many of the committee reports. 
 
 In 1739 (October 15th) Mr. Read presented a petition to 
 the General Court of Connecticut, praying their aid in ob- 
 taining a Patent from the Crown for the coinage of copper 
 money from the metal produced from the native ores of that 
 Colony, the profits of the coinage to be secured to him, he 
 defraying all expenses incident to the attempt, whether suc- 
 cessful or otherwise. This petition (a lengthy one), and a 
 
 • Washburn's Judicial History of Massachusetts. 
 
A 
 
 T 1 K 
 
 ram mar. 
 
 By f^?n Re^d, 
 
 of Bofion in New-Mngland'^ Gent. 
 
 B o sro N ', 
 
 printed by S. Kneeland & T. Creek 
 in Queen-ftreet. MjOccTj^xxvi. 
 
23 
 
 letter from Mr. Read referring thereto, are preserved in the 
 Collections of the "Connecticut Historical Society." 
 
 December 20th of the same year (1739) he sent the follow- 
 ing memorial to the General Court of Massachusetts, "for a 
 paper currency to introduce money " (specie*), addressed as 
 follows : 
 
 To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq., Capt. Gen''l and Governor 
 in Chief, the Hotiorable Council, and Representatives, in General 
 Court Assembled : 
 
 20th December 1739. 
 
 The memorial of John Read, of Boston, gent.: Whereas Province 
 bills were formerly introduced into trade here upon a par with 
 money, and served some time as though so much money had been 
 brought in among us. But, as the bills increased, the money we 
 had gradually left us, and the falling and uncertain discount put 
 upon bills effectually barred the return of money into our trade 
 again. And yet money, by divine appointment the standard to 
 measure the value of all things, still doth that office for us ; for 
 the merchant always sells for so much as will produce him the same 
 sterling he gives, with reasonable advance to answer the depreciating 
 of our bills, when to be paid him, the chance of markets when he 
 shall come to them, and his reasonable profit upon the whole. 
 
 Now, therefore, since our bills are decreased and determined to 
 be all speedily called in, it is time to contrive some means to intro- 
 duce money again : and the only way to do that quietly is to fix 
 some bills and money upon a par again, that as the bills sink the 
 money may gradually return again, as it gradually departed from us. 
 
 To this end, I propose that a sufficient number of you and mer- 
 chants put in bank 30,000 ozs. of sterling money at 29 shillings an 
 ounce, the present rate of money in all our trade ; add four times 
 so much more in their bills payable, at four equal yearly payments 
 in money, all making a bank of ;^2 17,500. Let out this money and 
 bills in the same proportion annually at five per cent, interest paid 
 in mone}', so far as it goes to supply the place of the bills paid oiT 
 and sunk. After these bills are paid off, make new ones payable in 
 
 * Massachusetts Archives, " Pecu," Vol. 3, pp. 113, 114. 
 
24 
 
 three years, then more payable in two years, then more payable in 
 one year, and at the end of ten years seven tenths of this bank will 
 be turned into money, and so money may be certainly and very 
 
 gradually recovered and brought back into all our trade again 
 
 Therefore I humbly propose to this honorable court, for so public a 
 benefit, to grant the use of the sums aforesaid in Province bills, 
 during the space above mentioned for the supply of this bank, 
 gratis ; in case His Majesty shall think fit to allow of it, and I can 
 find sufficient undertakers for it. If this honorable court will so far 
 favour and encourage it, I shall use my best endeavours, and have 
 just ground to hope 1 shall bring it to effect. 
 
 I am, may it please yr Excellency and this Honorable Court, 
 your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 Jn? Read. 
 
 This memorial of .Mr. Read's was read in the Council Dec. 
 27th, and sent to the House, and there received two readings 
 — Dec. 28th and March 19th — and was then returned to the 
 Council. His scheme was one of several presented by emi- 
 nent and wealthy men, to meet an exigency in the financial 
 affairs of the Province. A plan was finally adopted, and in 
 1742 the following order was passed in Council : 
 
 Council Records, April 7, 1742. 
 John Read, Esq., having at the desire of this Board prepared the 
 form of a Notification or Advertisement to all Persons lately con- 
 cerned in either of the schemes for making a medium of Trade, 
 immediately to bring in the sums they are engaged for, and have 
 received, pursuant to the Act of Parliament made for that purpose, 
 The said Advertisement was read and approved of, and the Secre- 
 tary ordered to sign it in the name of the Governor and Council, 
 and publish it in the several newspapers. 
 
 Mr. Read was a member of the Governor's Council in 1741 
 and 1742 — the latter part of Governor Belcher's administra- 
 tion and the first part of Governor Shirley's. Governor 
 Belcher, at the commencement of his administration, had 
 persuaded his Council that upon the appointment of a new 
 Governor it was necessary to renew all civil commissions. 
 
25 
 
 The same was proposed in Council by Shirley, and the pre- 
 cedent brought up, but "Mr. Read, being then a member of 
 the Council, brought such arguments against the practice 
 that a majority of the board refused to consent to it."* .... 
 " While he sat at that board he was their oracle, and was 
 eminently useful to the country."!. ..." As a legislator he 
 was conspicuous, but so unambitious a man could not have 
 been a regular leader. He was too independent and enlight- 
 ened for a lover of prerogative, and too honest for a leader 
 of faction ; he spoke with frankness, regardless of political 
 consequences. A great man who condescends to enter into 
 the politics of the day, and bear the heat and burden of it, 
 owes nothing to the public for his honors ; but the public 
 are much indebted to him for his exertions. "$ 
 
 Mr. Read was a communicant at " King's Chapel," and 
 one of the Wardens of the same for two years (1735-36). 
 He died February 7th, 1749, leaving a large estate to his 
 family. 
 
 Of his character, ability, standing and influence as a man 
 and a lawyer, distinguished writers and statesmen have 
 spoken. 
 
 Governor Hutchinson speaks of him, "as a very eminent 
 lawyer, and what is more, a person of great integrity and 
 firmness of mind." 
 
 President John Adams, in a letter to a friend, says, "that 
 he had as great a genius and became as eminent as any 
 man." .... And in his controversy with General William 
 Brattle in 1773, on the " Independence of the Judiciary," 
 speaks of Mr. Read as " that great Gamaliel," and General 
 Brattle in the same controversy says, " Mr. Read was to every 
 lawyer as highly esteemed for reforming and correcting the 
 law and the pleadings as Justinian was at Rome." 
 
 * Gov. Hutchinson's History of Mass., Vol. 2, page 336. 
 t Elliott's Biographical Dictionary, 
 t Knapp's Biographical Sketches. 
 
26 
 
 Mr. Stearns in his legal work on " Real Actions" says, " In 
 the beginning of the iSth century, the administration of jus- 
 tice had been considerably improved and the proceedings 
 assumed a somewhat more correct form. This improvement 
 is chiefly ascribed to the efforts and influence of John Read, 
 who is represented as a man of uncommon talents, profound 
 learning, and in every point of view the first lawyer in Massa- 
 chusetts in the early part of the last century." 
 
 Mr. Elliott in his Biographical Dictionary says, " Mr. Read 
 was a gentleman of very brilliant talents, of sterling integ- 
 rity, a friend of the people, of the laws, and of government. 
 For his superior ability he was considered as one of the great- 
 est lawyers in this country. The succeeding generation 
 indulged a pride in quoting his legal opinions and sayings in 
 common conversation." 
 
 President Quincy speaks of him, "as one of the most emi- 
 nent lawyers of that period in New England." 
 
 And Governor Washburn says, " that he filled a wide sphere 
 in the affairs of the Province while he lived, and did much, 
 perhaps more, than any one man, in introducing system and 
 order into the practice of the Courts of Massachusetts." 
 
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