J. Meredith Read

Read was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 21, 1837. He was one of five children born to Priscilla (née Marshall) Read and John Meredith Read, Sr., a prominent Philadelphia jurist who served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania. After his mother's death in 1841, his father married Amelia Thompson in 1855.

His paternal grandfather was lawyer and banker John Read. His paternal great-grandfather George Read, a U.S. Senator from Delaware who was one of two statesmen who signed the original Petition to the King of the Congress of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.

Read graduated from Albany Law School in 1859 and studied international law in Europe before admission to the bar in Philadelphia. He later graduated from Brown University, where he received the degree of A.M. in 1866.[1] While at Brown, he joined the fraternity Alpha Delta Phi.[2]

After becoming an attorney, Read moved to Albany, New York and became the Adjutant General of New York in 1861.[3] He was one of the originators of the "Wide-Awake" political clubs in 1860. In April 1860, he was chairman of the committee of three to draft a bill on behalf of New York, appropriating $300,000 to purchase of arms and equipment for the Civil War. Later, the War Department thanked him for his ability and zeal in organizing, equipping, and forwarding troops.

He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1867.[4]

The Château de Thuyset, Thonon-les-Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva

On April 7, 1859, Read was married to Delphine Marie Pumpelly (1833–1902).[10] Her father was Harmon Pumpelly, president of the Albany Savings Bank, the Albany Insurance Company, and the Albany Gaslight Company. Her mother was a Delphine Drake Pumpelly, daughter of U.S. Representative John R. Drake of Owego, New York.[10] Together, they were the parents of four children:[11]

• Harmon Pumpelly Read (1860–1925),[12] a capitalist who married French-born Catherine Marguerite de Carron d'Allondons (1866–1940).[13]
• Emily Meredith Read (1863–1940),[14] who married Francis Aquila Stout, a great-grandson of signer Lewis Morris,[15] in 1884.[16] His sister, Sarah Morris Stout,[17][18] was the wife of Baron Ancelis de Vaugrigneuse of the French Embassy in Washington.[19] After his 1892 death, she married Edward Spencer, a descendant of one of the founders of Stockbridge, at the American Cathedral in Paris in June 1894.[20][21]
• John Meredith Read III (b. 1869), who married Countess Alix de Foras, a daughter of Count Amédée de Foras, the Grand Marshal of the Court of Bulgaria, in 1901.[22]
• Marie Delphine Meredith Read (b. 1873), who married Count Maximilien de Foras of Château de Thuyset, Thonon-les-Bains, Haute Savoie in 1895.[23] Count Max was the brother of Countess Alix de Foras.[24]

In 1892, the Reads gave a dinner in honor of the departing U.S. Minister Whitelaw Reid, at their home in Paris.[25] After a severe attack of bronchitis,[26] Read died in Paris on December 27, 1896.[27] He was buried at the Old Communal Cemetery at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[28] His widow also died in Paris on May 29, 1902, and was buried in the same cemetery.[29]

• Read family papers: 1792–1896 at the University of Pennsylvania
• J. Meredith Read at Find a Grave