J. Meredith Read

John Meredith Read, Jr. (February 21, 1837 – December 27, 1896) was a United States diplomat and author.

For the American politician and father of J. Meredith Read, see John M. Read.

J. Meredith Read
U.S. Minister to Greece
In office
1873–1879
Preceded byJohn M. Francis
Succeeded byEugene Schuyler
Adjutant General of New York
In office
1861–1861
Preceded byFrederick Townsend
Succeeded byThomas Hillhouse,
Personal details
Born
John Meredith Read, Jr.

(1837-02-21)February 21, 1837
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedDecember 27, 1896(1896-12-27) (aged 59)
Paris, France
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
Delphine Marie Pumpelly
​
​
(m. 1859; his death 1896)​
RelationsJohn Read (grandfather)
Children4
ParentsJohn M. Read
Priscilla Marshall Read
Alma materBrown University
Albany Law School

Early life

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 in 1846. After his mother's death in 1841, his father remarried to Amelia Thompson in 1855.

His grandfather was lawyer and banker John Read. His great-grandfather was U.S. Senator from Delaware George Read, who was one of only 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.

He was a graduate 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]

Career

After becoming an attorney, he moved to Albany, New York becoming Adjutant General of New York in 1861.[2] He was one of the originators of the "Wide-Awake" political clubs in 1860. He was chairman in April of the same year of the committee of three to draft a bill in behalf of New York State, appropriating $300,000 for the purchase of arms and equipment, and he subsequently received the thanks of the war department for his ability and zeal in organizing, equipping, and forwarding troops.

Read was the first U. S. consul general for France and Algeria from 1869 to 1873 and from 1870 to 1872. He served as acting consul general for Germany during the Franco-Prussian War. His work representing German interests in Paris lasted several months after U.S. Minister to France Elihu Washburne ceased being official representative of the German government in June 1871.[3] After the war, he was appointed by the French Minister of War, General Ernest Courtot de Cissey to form and preside over a commission to examine into the desirability of teaching the English language to the French troops.

U.S. Minister to Greece

In November 1873, he was appointed U.S. Minister Resident in Greece.[4] One of his first acts was to secure the release of the American ship Armenia and to obtain from the Greek government a revocation of the order that prohibited the sale of the Bible in Greece. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, he discovered that only one port in Russia was still open, and he pointed out to Secretary of State William M. Evarts the advantages that would accrue to the commerce of the United States were a grain fleet dispatched from New York City to that port. The event justified his judgment, since the exports of cereals from the United States showed an increase within a year of $73,000,000. While Chargé d'Affaires, he received the thanks of the U.S. Government for his effectual protection of persons and interests of the United States in the dangerous crisis of 1878. Soon afterward the United States Congress, from motives of economy, refused the appropriation for the legation at Athens, and Read, believing that the time was too critical to withdraw the mission, carried it on at his individual expense until his resignation on September 23, 1879.[5]

In 1881, when, owing in part to his efforts, after his resignation, the territory that had been adjudged to Greece had been finally transferred, King George I of Greece created him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, the highest dignity in the gift of the Greek government. After 1881, he continued residing in Paris.[3]

Later life

Read was president of the social science congress at Albany in 1868, and vice president of the one at Plymouth, England, in 1872. He wrote Historical Enquiry concerning Henry Hudson, which discussed Hudson's origins, and the sources of the ideas that guided that navigator (Albany, 1866). Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy; from Roman Times to Voltaire, Rousseau and Gibbon was published in 1897.[6] He also made contributions to current literature, including Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, published in 1892.[7]

In 1892, the Reads gave a dinner in honor of the departing U.S. Minister Whitelaw Reid, at their home in Paris.[8]

Personal life
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), a daughter of Harmon Pumpelly (President of the Albany Savings Bank, the Albany Insurance Company and the Albany Gaslight Company) and Delphine (née Drake) Pumpelly (daughter of U.S. Representative John R. Drake) of Owego, New York.[9] Together, they were the parents of four children:[10]

After a severe attack of bronchitis,[24] Read died in Paris on December 27, 1896.[25] He was buried at the Old Communal Cemetery at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[26] His widow also died in Paris on May 29, 1902 and was buried in the same cemetery.[27]

Descendants

Through his youngest daughter, he was a grandfather of Countess Delphine Marie de Foras, who married Baron Joseph Humbert de Viry.[28] When in America, the Baron and Baroness de Viry lived at Emily Read Spencer's home,[29] Shipton Court, Lenox, Massachusetts (today the Seven Hills Inn).[30] They were the parents of Pernette de Viry (1918–2006), who married Jacques Siemons of the Manoir de Breuil-en-Auge, Calvados;[31] Julie Maxilienne de Viry (1919–2000), who married Woodbridge Strong (a son of New Jersey State Senator Theodore Strong);[32][33] Roselyne de Viry (1920–2014),[34] who became the wife of sculptor Thomas Talmadge Kinney Frelinghuysen (a son of Frederick Frelinghuysen) in 1949.[35]

References
  1. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Read, John, planter" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  2. Hugo, Francis M., New York Secretary of State (1919). Manual for Use of the Legislature of the State of New York. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company. pp. 464–465.
  3. Fuller, Joseph V. (1935). "Read, John Meredith, diplomat". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  4. "Dinner to Gen. J. Meredith Read:". The New York Times. November 18, 1874. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  5. "Our Late Minister to Greece.; an Athenian Tribute to Gen. J. Meredith Read". The New York Times. August 20, 1879. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  6. "Review of Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy from Roman times to Voltaire, Rousseau, and Gibbon by General Meredith Read". The Quarterly Review. 187: 177–208. January 1898.
  7. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Hudson, Henry" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  8. "In Minister Reid's Honor; a Farewell Dinner in Paris by Gen. Read". The New York Times. March 21, 1892. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  9. HABS No. NY-5460, "Harmon Pumpelly House, 113 Front Street, Owego, Tioga County, NY", 11 photos, 13 data pages
  10. "Read, Delphine Marie | Seward Family Digital Archive". sewardproject.org. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  11. "MAJOR HARMON P. READ; Authority on Heraldry Dies at His Home in Albany,". The New York Times. December 23, 1925. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  12. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (January 3, 1940). "Mrs. Harmon P. Read". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  13. "MRS. EDWARDS SPENCER; Daughter of Former Minister to Greece Had Estate in Lenox". The New York Times. April 30, 1940. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  14. Aitken, William Benford (1912). Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Knickerbocker Press. p. 148. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  15. "A Wedding in Newport.; Marriage Oe Francis Stout to Miss Emily Meredith Read". The New York Times. August 22, 1884. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  16. Times, Special to The New York (April 23, 1904). "Baroness de Vaugrigneuse". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  17. "CRY OF FRAUD IN FIGHT OVER BARONESS'S WILL; J.H. Carpenter, Residuary Legatee, Charged with Undue Influence. ESTATE IS OVER $400,000 Contesting Cousins of Sarah Morris de Vaugrigneuse Oppose Carpenter as Temporary Administrator". The New York Times. August 4, 1904. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  18. Americana: Volume 1, Issue 4. American Historical Company. 1906. p. 324. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  19. "SPENCER--STOUT". The New York Times. June 26, 1894. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  20. Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1894. p. 292. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  21. Times, Special to The New York (April 1, 1901). "JOHN MEREDITH READ MARRIED; Albany Man Weds Countess Alix de Foras at Rome". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  22. "AMERICAN MARRIAGE IN PARIS.; Delphine, Daughter of Gen. Read, Becomes Countess de Foras". The New York Times. November 6, 1895. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  23. "Count Max De Foras". The New York Times. July 6, 1937. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  24. "Gen. Read Very Ill". The New York Times. December 25, 1896. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  25. "DIED -- READ". The New York Times. December 31, 1896. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  26. "The Funeral of Gen. Read". The New York Times. January 1, 1897. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  27. "THE LATE MRS. D.M.P. READ.; Widow of Col. John Meredith Read's Experiences in Momentous Periods of the World's History". The New York Times. June 1, 1902. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  28. Mémoires and Documents, Volumes 28-29 (in French). 1886. p. 30. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  29. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (November 22, 1938). "HOMES IN BERKSHIRES PLAN HOLIDAY EVENTS; Mrs. Edwards Spencer and G. M. L. La Branches to Entertain". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  30. "Roselyne deViry Frelinghuysen". The Berkshire Eagle. March 12, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  31. "PERNETTE DE VIRY WED; She Became Bride in France on Aug. 3 of Jacques Siemons". The New York Times. August 22, 1946. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  32. "JULIE M. DE VIRY BECOMES A BRIDE; Daughter of French Baron Is Married at Junior League to Woodbridge.Strong WEARS SATIN AND TULLE Pernette and Roselyne de Viry Among Sister's Attendantsm Stephen Strong Best Man". The New York Times. March 5, 1942. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  33. "Ms. Woodward Engaged to Wed". The New York Times. January 31, 1988. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  34. "Roselyne deViry Frelinghuysen". The Berkshire Eagle. March 12, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  35. "ROSELYNE DE VIRY WED; Bride at St, Bartholomew's to Thomas T. K. Frelinghuysen". The New York Times. September 4, 1949. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
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