Sir Thomas READE IV (1569- 1650)  was Alex’s 12th Great Grandfather, one of 8,192 in this generation of the Shaw line.

WARNING: There is a considerable amount of conflicting information about this couple, especially dates of birth and death, yet many have concluded this is the correct lineage for sons Esdras, William, and Thomas. However, there is very little documentary evidence I have seen. Most seem to rely on LDS records, which may be fraught with error. Mary M. Zashin cites “A Record of the Redes of Barton Court, Berkshire,” by Compton Reade, which seems to contain fairly reliable information. This source puts Thomas’s birth at 1606/7, making it impossible for he and Mary Cornwall to be the parents of immigrants William, Esdras and Thomas Reade.

The Reades and Cornwalls were very close families.  To make matters even more confusing Thomas Reades married Mary Cornwells in multiple generations.

Sir Thomas Read was born 1569 Brockett Hall, Berkshire, England. He married Mary CORNWALL. Sir Thomas died 20 Dec 1650 in England.

Mary was born about 1565, Berkshire, England. Her parents were Sir Thomas CORNWALL, Lord of Shropshire (b. ca 1533 in Burford, Shropshire) and Elizabeth WOODRUFF.

Another story is that Sir Knight Thomas Reade was born 1 Jul 1545 in Barton Court, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, England. His parents were Sir Knight Thomas READE II b. 1523, Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England and Mary STONHOUSE, b. 1517, Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England.  He married Mary BROCKETT around 1599.  Sir Thomas died 14 SEP 1625 in LP. Kent, England.

Mary Brockett was born 1576 in Brocket Hall, Hertford, England. her parents were Sir John BROCKETT Knight (1528 – 1598) and Helen LYTTON (1540 – 1582). Mary died 22 Feb 1606 in Brocket Hall, Hertford, England.

Great stories are told of their son Sir John Brockett of Brocket Hall, husband of Helena Lytton and Dame Elizabeth Moore. The great Brocket Hall was situated at the extreme northern corner of Hatfield parish. This Sir John Brocket was a doughty knight, twice Sheriff for the county like his ancestors. He was “entrusted with the training and inspection of the men levied in this part of Hertfordshire at he time of the Armada.” It was “whilst Mary was on the throne, Elizabeth was kept under house arrest at Hatfield House. She used to walk along the banks of the River Lea to visit John Brocket, probably plotting to raise an artillery to overthrow Mary. In 1558 Elizabeth was sitting under an oak tree on the far side of the lake when a horseman galloped from London bringing the news that she was the new Queen. In 1558, in recognition of their friendship, Elizabeth bestowed a knighthood on Sir John Brocket.” Sir John was buried at Hatfield in the year 1598. Sir John by his wife Helena, daughter of Sir Robert Lytton, had daughters Margaret, Anne, Elizabeth, Helen and Mary. All who married well. By Dame Elizabeth, his second wife he had Frances who married Dudley, third Lord North. Having no male issue, the estate of Brocket Hall was passed to descendants of Mary, youngest daughter of John and Helena, who married Thomas Reade.

William Reede was born on 18 Apr 1601  in Brocket Hall, a country house in Hertfordshire,  England, the first of which was built in 1239.   (A fortnight before she became Queen in 1558, Elizabeth I was staying at Broket Hall, as shown by a letter signed by herself.) The present hall dates from the mid 18th century.

Children of  Thomas and Mary:

	Name	Born	Married	Departed
1.	Crompton Reade	ca. 1581	Mary Cornwall (Daughter of Gilbert Cornwall)
2.	Edward Reade	c. 1583
3.	Col. Thomas Reade	c. 1585		1663 England
4.	William READE	18 Apr 1601  in Brocket Hall,	Mabel KENDALL in 1625 in Brocket Hall.	31 Oct 1656 in Newcastle, Northumberland, England.
5.	Sir John Reade? 1st Baronet Reade, of Brockett Hall, co. Herts	1616	Susanna Styles 2 Jan 1640	Feb 1693/94.

Not many children of knights or baronets immigrated to America in the Great Migration. Were our Reades exceptions?

Descendant of CHARLEMAGNE, ALFRED THE GREAT, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, HENRY I, Empress MATILDA, HENRY II, KING JOHN, HENRY III, EDWARD I, Sir William MARSHALL, STRONGBOW DE CLARE, AND Lady GODIVA?

Descendant of MALCOLM III, DAVID I, WILLIAM The Lion, SSomerled Lord of the Isles, and the Ancient Kings of Scotland?

Descendant of LLEWELYN The great Prince of Wales, BRIAN BORU, Ireland’s greatest king, and King LOUIS VII of France  and ELEANOR of Aquitaine?

Contrasting Stories of Four Generations of Thomas Reades

1st Generation – The first Thomas READE’s parents were William READE and Gertrude PASTON. He married Mildred CECIL.

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2nd Generation – Thomas READE (or Read or Rede) was born about 1490. He married Ann HOO. Her parents were Thomas HOO, Esq. of Hoo, County of Hertford and [__?__] NEWMAN. Thomas died in April 1556, St Helen’s, Abington, Berkshire, England.

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3rd Generation – Thomas READE was born about 1515. He married Mary STONEHOUSE, of Little Peckham in County of Kent and Radley. Mary was born about 1517, Hertford, England. Her parents were George STONEHOUSE (Wiki) and [__?__]. Thomas Read was a Clerk of the Green Cloth.

Alternatively, it was the next generation’s Thomas that married Mary Stonehouse.

The Clerk of the Green Cloth was a position in the British Royal Household. The clerk acted as secretary of the Board of Green Cloth, and was therefore responsible for organising royal journeys and assisting in the administration of the Royal Household.

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4th Generation – Sir Thomas READ was born 1 Jul 1545, Berkshire, England. He married Mary BROCKET. Mary’s father was Sir John Brocket (Knight), of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. Sir Thomas died 25 Sep 1604, Dunsten, England.

Alternatively, it was the next generation Sir Thomas Read who married Mary Brocket.

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5th Generation – Sir Thomas READ was born 1569 Brockett Hall, Berkshire, England. He married Mary CORNWALL. Mary was born about 1565, Berkshire, England. Her parents were Sir Thomas CORNWALL, Lord of Shropshire (b. ca 1533 in Burford, Shropshire) and Elizabeth WOODRUFF (1537 – ). Sir Thomas died 20 Dec 1650 in England.

Another idea is that this Thomas was born earlier, about 1549, Brockett Hall, Hertfordshire and died 14 Sep 1625 Kent, England..

This Thomas might have married Mary Brocket.  Alternatively, this Thomas was born in 1675 and married Mary Stonhouse.

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Sir Thomas Reade (1575-1650) From Royal Berkshire History

High Sheriff of Berkshire, Oxfordshire & Hertfordshire
Died: December 1650 at Dunstew, Oxfordshire

Sir Thomas Reade was the son of Thomas Reade, the Sheriff of Berkshire, from Barton Court in Abingdon St. Helen, and his wife, Mary the daughter of George Stonhouse of Radley Hall, Clerk of the Green Cloth. He matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford, with his brothers John and Richard, on 6th July 1593, aged 17, and was a student of the Middle Temple in 1594. He inherited his father’s estates in 1604 and purchased a number of others, to become Lord of the Manors of Beedon, Appleford and Barton Court (Berkshire); of Denford (Northamptonshire); of Dunstew and Ipsden (Oxfordshire); and of Minsden, Hitch and Brocket Hall (Hertfordshire). He also had a house in Oxford called ‘The Castle’.

Thomas served as High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1606, High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1615, and of Hertfordshire in 1618. He was knighted at Royston on 21st July 1619. In 1625, a number of gentlemen were called upon to lend money to King Charles I during his independent rule which preceded the Civil War. It was a forced loan productive of widespread discontent. The five Hertfordshire gentlemen most heavily taxed included Sir Thomas Reade who was asked for £30. Eleven years later, Sir Thomas, together with Sir William Lytton and Lord Falkland, refused to pay ship-money to the King for Hertfordshire, and the bailiff did not dare to distrain for fear of being sued.

Despite his resistance to Royal taxes, Sir Thomas had the honour of entertaining King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria at Barton Court on three occasions. This old Abbot‘s palace was a Norman building whose ruins covered five acres. It was held by Sir Thomas on condition that he entertained Royalty whenever they required him to, and it was therefore sometimes styled the ‘King’s House in Abingdon’. This burden discounted largely the actual value of the mansion and estate and, indeed, in the Patent Rolls, Sir Thomas’ father is found contemplating escaping this obligation by aliening his rights. However, this transfer never took place.

The first occasion when the Court exercised its indubitable right of claiming the Reades’ hospitality was early in the reign of Charles I. On 19th August 1629, “the King and Queen came to Oxford from Barton, but making no stay there went on to Woodstock. They left Woodstock on the 27th, and were met at Greenditch by the Mayor and Corporation, who presented the King with a fair gilt bowl and the Queen with a pair of rich gloves. After dinner at Merton College His Majesty conferred the honour of Knighthood upon William Spencer, of Yarnton, Esq., and he then returned to Barton.” The second occasion of a Royal visit to Barton Court is inferred from a reference in the Churchwardens accounts of St. Helen’s, Abingdon, under date 1638: “To the ringers when the King came to Barton 16 shillings; to the ringers upon the King’s return sixteen shillings.” The third occasion occurred on 17th April 1644. Essex, Waller and Robartes were advancing in force from London and the King, fearing for the safety of Queen Henrietta Maria, brought her to Barton, as the first stage on her journey to Exeter and safety abroad. Hence Barton and Sir Thomas witnessed the final farewell of the ill-starred Royal couple. Charles, on a subsequent visit selected Sir Thomas’ third son as a recipient of Royal favour and the father appears to have become attached to the Royal forces at Oxford.

In April 1645, Cromwell, at the head of the New Model, was advancing over the Chilterns, while the Royal cavalry, under the command of the Earl of Northampton, lay at Islip on the opposite side of Oxford. King Charles, evidently desirous that his horse should wheel round and confront Cromwell on the eastern side of Oxford, despatched Sir Thomas Reade, under escort of Lieut. Denton, to Lord Northampton, with whom he was connected through his sister-in-law, Lady Spencer, and who was godfather to his grandson, Compton.

However, Reade and Denton were captured by the enemy during Major Thomas Sheffield’s skirmish with the Earl of Northampton’s Horse. The Parliamentarians were most pleased with the seizure of two letters which were found on Sir Thomas’ person, one from the King, subscribed by Secretary Nicholas, calling them ‘rebels’ and the other from Sir Christopher Hatton to the Earle of Northampton. Sir Thomas was held by a Major Hurry until taken in custody to the Parliamentary committee for Hertfordshire, meeting at St. Albans to examine the whole business and report back to the Committee of Both Kingdoms. The Hertfordshire committee was composed, with others, of the Earl of Salisbury, Sir John Reade, of Brocket Hall (Sir Thomas’ third son), Sir Brocket Spencer (his wife’s nephew) and Sir Rowland Lytton (his wife’s cousin). It may fairly be surmised that the circumstance of Sir Thomas being sent for trial to so amicable a committee was due to the influence of Speaker Lenthall, his near neighbour at Bessilsleigh, whose son later married the widow of one of Sir Thomas’ Stonhouse relatives.

Barton is believed to have been destroyed by the Parliamentary forces from Abingdon around this time, despite the efforts of Sir Thomas’ twenty-year-old grandson, Compton Reade. It would seem that all this was too much for Sir Thomas and he made his peace with the Parliament very soon after his capture. His name does not occur among the delinquents who compounded for their estates and, described as ‘of Dunstew’, he was appointed one of the Parliamentary Committee for Oxfordshire in 1646, probably one of the Sub-Committees for compounding with delinquents. How long that state of affairs lasted is uncertain, for on 12th September 1650, only three months before Sir Thomas’ death, the Council of State Day’s Proceedings state that his name was to be left out because he refused to act on the committee. Sir Thomas Reade presumably died, and was certainly buried, at Dunstew in December 1650. After his death, his wife resided at Brocket Hall.

Reade Baronets

Peerages – From ThePeerage.com  A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe. This site does not have an interest in finding Americans of noble descent and is a more reliable source than many wishful genealogies.  On the other hand Peerage.com is not designed to track all offspring so there is still room for conjecture.

William READE’s father could be Sir Thomas Reade  was born in 1575. He died circa December 1620. [Note that no wife’s name is listed]

Children of Sir Thomas Reade

• Frances Reade  She married Sir William Russell, 1st Bt. on 1 Dec 1624. Child of Frances Sir William was Reade and Sir William was  Mary Russell  b 1634.   Mary Russell married, firstly, Wingfield Cromwell, 2nd Earl of Ardglass (wiki) son of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Ardglass (wiki) and Elizabeth Meverell She married, secondly, Charles Cotton between 1670 and 1675. She died after 12 Sep 1687.Charles Cotton (1630 – 1687) was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the highly influential The Compleat GamesterIn 1656 he married his cousin Isabella Hutchinson, the daughter of Charles Hutchinson, M.P. for Nottingham. She was a half-sister of Col. John Hutchinson; They had one child, Catherine Cotton, who married Sir Kingsmill Lucy, 2nd bt. her mother Isebella (Hutchinson) Cotton, died in 1670. At the request of his wife’s sister, Miss Stanhope Hutchinson, he undertook the translation of Pierre Corneille‘sHorace in 1671. In 1675, he married the dowager Countess of Ardglass; she had a jointure of £1500 a year, but he did not have the power to spend it.The 1674 first edition of The Compleat Gamester is attributed to Cotton (by publishers of later editions, to which additional, post-Cotton material was added in 1709 and 1725, along with some updates to the rules Cotton had described earlier. The book was considered the “standard” English-language reference work on the playing of games – especially gambling games, and including billiards, card games, dice, horse racing and cock fighting, among others – until the publication of Edmond Hoyle‘s Mr. Hoyle’s Games Complete in 1750.

• Elizabeth Reade  She married Sir Gilbert Cornwall (1598-1671), son of Sir Thomas Cornwall and Anne Lyttelton. [Sir Gilbert and Anne are supposed to be the parents of our our Sir Thomas READE’s wife Mary CORNWALL, but as you can see, they were much to young and a different Mary Cornwall was confused.]  Child of Elizabeth and Sir Gilbert was Thomas Cornwall ( ? – 1686).  Thomas married his first cousin Anne Reade, daughter of Thomas Reade.  Thomas Cornwall was a royalist during the Civil War. He succeeded to the title of 14th Baron of Burford, Shropshire [feudal barony] in 1671. He died in 1686.

  Child of Thomas Cornwall and his first cousin cousin Anne Reade, daughter of Thomas Reade below  —  Thomas Cornwall (1651-1724) He married Katherine Read.    He succeeded to the title of 15th Baron of Burford, Shropshire [feudal barony] in 1686.

• Thomas Reade b. 22 Feb 1606/07, d. c Dec 1634  He had a daughter Anne who married  Thomas Cornwall (1651-1724) above.

Mary Cornwall’s father is often reported to be Sir. Thomas Cornwall (1573-1638) He was born too late to have a grandchild William READE who was born in 1600. Sir Thomas Cornwall was born in 1573. He was the son of Thomas Cornwall and Katherine Hartley. He married Anne Lyttelton, daughter of Sir Gilbert Lyttelton.    He was invested as a Knight in 1603.  He succeeded to the title of 12th Baron of Burford, Shropshire [feudal barony] in 1615.  He held the office of Sheriff of Shropshire in 1634.  He died in 1638. 

Child of Sir Thomas Cornwall and Anne Lyttelton

• Sir Gilbert Cornwall (1598-1671)  He married Elizabeth Reade, daughter of Sir Thomas Reade.  He was invested as a Knight in 1620. He succeeded to the title of 13th Baron of Burford, Shropshire [feudal barony] in 1638. He died in 1671. Child of Sir Gilbert Cornwall and Elizabeth Reade
  • Thomas Cornwall d. 1686  (See above)

Perhaps

Children

3. Col. Thomas Reade

Multiple birth dates for Colonel Reade are cited.  I’m using 1585, but 1583, 1596, 1598 and 1600, 1606, 1610 and 1622  are all commonly used.  He married Alsea [__?__].  Thomas came to America with Winthrop’s Great Migraton in 1630. Had town grant of three hundred acres of land in 1637, lying next to that of Governor Endicott. The first settlers had grants of land in proportion to their amount of funds in common stock. There were but four persons in Salem who had as large a sum of grants as Col. Read. He was a man of prominence, and held the rank of colonel in 1643. Was probably an officer of that rank before he came to America. He was colonel in British Army at restoration of Charles II in 1660. Thomas Read died in England in 1663. His son Abraham settled his estate.

Thomas’s descendant, Erik K. Reed, in a letter dated 27 Dec 79 wrote: “Col. Thomas Reed came to Massachusetts in 1630 (NOT a Puritan!), went back for a while to Somersetshire & I think his son was born there & then back to Mass.

5. Sir John Reade, 1st Bt.

Sir John Reade, 1st Bt. was born circa 1616.He married Susanna Style, daughter of Sir Thomas Style, 1st Bt., on 2 January 1640. He died circa February 1693/94.  He was created 1st Baronet Reade, of Brockett Hall, co. Herts [England] on 16 March 1641/42.

Esdras Reed was not a son of Sir Thomas or a brother of William

Esdras Reade was born about 1595 at Sutton, Mallet, Somerset, England. His parents were Esdras Reade and Bathsheba [__?__]. He first married Elizabeth Watson 18 Oct 1621 at St. Michael’s Crooked Lane, London, England.  He next married Sarah Dickinson 22 Feb 1630/31 at: Saint Katherine’s by the Tower, London, England. Esdras died 27 Jul 1680 Boston Mass.

According to Axel H. Reed and other researchers, Esdras came to America on the ship “Defence” which sailed from London in July 1635 and arrived in Boston Oct. 6, 1635.   however, I don’t see his name on the manifest.  The son of Sir Thomas Reade of Brocket Hall, the researchers say, Esdras had a brother William who came over in the same ship bringing his wife and four children. However, there is considerable confusion regarding the dates of the various Reades of Brocket Hall, so it is impossible at this time to conclude that Esdras is indeed the son of Sir Thomas Reade.

According to the story, Esdras had a tract of land in Boston which he sold to his brother William, then he relocated to Salem, Massachusetts, and associated with the Rev. Mr. John Fiske [son of our ancestor John FISKE] and his church. Esdras was a great friend of Rev. Fiske and took a great interest in church affairs, becoming a prominent and leading member of the congregation. In 1656 the group relocated to Chelmsford at the suggestion of Esdras.

Esdras left Chelmsford in 1661 and returned to Boston. He owned considerable real estate on Copp’s Hill in Boston at the time of his death. Esdras’s gravestone is still standing on Copp’s Hill today. The inscription reads, “Here Lyeth Buried Ye Boddy of Esdras Reade Aged 85 Years Dec’d July Ye 27 1680”.

Sources:

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I1560

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jwmoore&id=I1825

http://thepeerage.com/p1932.htm#i19319

http://www.realtime.net/~edowdavd/Brockettpap.html

http://bryan-thorne.com/Genealogy/READ_thomas_sir_-_baroneted_ca1560.htm