Charles Read (195)

Charles Read (1 February 1715–27 December 1774) was a public officeholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and American Society, elected to both in 1768. Born and educated in Philadelphia, his wealthy father paid for his travels through Europe as a young man before his mother’s relations secured him a commission in the Royal Navy in 1736. This career proved short-lived and by 1737 he had sold his commission and returned from Antigua with his new bride to Philadelphia. Prompted by his father’s bankruptcy and death during his travels, he quit the mercantile business and moved to Burlington County, New Jersey, in 1739. Over the next three decades, Read amassed wealth and status via his public officeholding and land speculation. His public offices eventually grew to include his appointment as the Secretary of the Province (for New Jersey) in 1744, his election to the assembly for Burlington County (where he was chosen as Speaker in 1751), and his appointment as associate judge of New Jersey’s Supreme Court after 1749. During this same time Read improved his fortunes considerably, not through any of his work in agriculture, but his energies in the purchase and sale of Indian land, totaling some 35,000 acres. His financial undoing, however, proved his investing in and building of iron works. Eventually, his financial and personal losses drove him to abscond to the West Indies in 1773 where he opened a small shop of goods. (PI)