Col. Joseph Read was born 6 March 1732 in Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts to John Read (1704-1771) and Lucy Read and died 22 September 1801 Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts of unspecified causes. He married Eunice Taft (1735-1762) 22 November 1753 in Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts.
Biography[]
Joseph Read was a soldier and a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.
Read was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, the son of John and Lucy Read. He married Eunice Taft of Uxbridge on Nov 22, 1753. His father John, served in the French and Indian Wars.
Military service[]
He was a lieutenant colonel of a band of minutemen militia at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Thereafter, until the end of 1776, he served as colonel in command of several regiments of the Massachusetts Line, including the 6th Massachusetts Regiment which was redesignated the 13th Continental Regiment but was most frequently referred to as Read's Regiment.
His regiment saw action at the Siege of Boston, New York Campaign and the Battle of Trenton before disbanding on 31 Dec 1776.
Read/Reed family[]
His brother was Lt. Colonel Seth Read, who commanded the Massachusetts 26th and 15th regiments and founded Erie, Pennsylvania. The Read brothers owned half of the land in the towns of Uxbridge and Northbridge, Massachusetts, in the mid 18th century. The family is known as "Reed" in Pennsylvania, and the Read name and spelling continued in Massachusetts. At some point after the revolution, Joseph Read moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts, where he died in 1801. He and his wife Eunice are buried in Brookfield. His brother Seth Reed, founded Erie, PA, and died there in 1797.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Nathan Reed (1765-) | |||
| Eunice Read (1755-) | |||
| Hannah Read (1759-1812) | |||
| Cheney Read (1759-1822) | |||
| Joseph Read (1760-) | |||
| Hannah Read (1762-) | |||
Siblings[]
References[]
- Col Joseph Read - Wikipedia
- Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, new, enlarged, and revised edition (Washington, D.C.: Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, 1914), p. 460.
- Buford, Mary Hunter (1895). Seth Read, Lieut.-Col.Continental Army; Pioneer at Geneva, New York, 1787, and at Erie, Penn., June, 1795. His Ancestors and Descendants.. Boston, Mass. pp. 167 Pages on CD in PDF Format.
Disambiguation[]
Do not confuse this person with a different Revolutionary War Colonel - Joseph Reed (1741-1785) who hailed from Pennsylvania. He was general adjutant to General Washington and had much communication and references to him.