John Read (Connecticut politician)

John Reed (1633 – 1730) was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Norwalk, Connecticut Colony in the May 1715 and October 1717 sessions.

John Reed
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Norwalk [1]
In office May 1715 – October 1715 Serving with John Betts
Preceded by	Joseph Platt, Samuel Comstock
In office October 1717 – May 1718 Serving with Samuel Hanford
Succeeded by	John Bartlett, Samuel Marvin
Personal details
Born	1633[2][3] Wendron, Cornwall, England [2]
Died	1730[2][4] Stamford, Connecticut Colony [2]
Resting place	Reed's Farm, Rowayton, Connecticut [2]
Spouse(s)	Anne Samson Derby (widow of Francis Derby) (m. 1652, Providence, Rhode Island),[2][3] widow Scofield of Stamford
Children	John Reed, Jr., Thomas Reed, William John Reed, Mary Reed Tuttle, Abigail Reed [2][3]
Residence	Providence, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rye, Province of New York (1684–1687), Norwalk (present day Rowayton), Connecticut Colony (1687)[3]
Occupation	Lawyer
Military service
Allegiance	Roundhead
Rank	Colonel
Unit	Army of the Protector[3]
Battles/wars	English Civil War, Corfe Castle (1649)

He was the son of James Reed.[2]

He was an officer in Oliver Cromwell's new model army, and a soldier from the age of sixteen.[4] When Charles II of England was restored to the throne, Reed left for America. He settled first in Providence, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.[4] In Providence, he married Anne Samson Derby.[4] He later moved to Rye, Province of New York, in 1684, where he lived for three or four years.[4] He then established himself in the western part of Norwalk, at a house he built on the eastern side of the Five Mile River, north of the Old Post Road and nearly two miles from the Long Island Sound at a place called Reed's Farms.[4] His name is found among the records of the town of Norwalk in 1687.[4] John Reed was admitted to the bar in 1708 in Norwalk, Connecticut. His house was used for a meeting place for some years. His wife died and he married again to the Widow Scofield from Stamford.

He died in Norwalk, in the ninety-eighth year of his age, in 1730, and was interred in a tomb on his own farm.

Notable descendants

• Third great-grandfather of William Benjamin Reed (1833–1909), mayor of South Norwalk, Connecticut from 1891 to 1892.

References

1. Nathaniel Bouton (1851). An Historical Discourse in Commemoration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of Norwalk, Ct., in 1651: Delivered in the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, July 9, 1851. S.W. Benedict. pp. 78–.
2. "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/SGBJ-BYR : accessed 2014-05-17), entry for John /Reed/.
3. Jacob Whittemore Reed (1861). History of the Reed family in Europe and America. pp. 445–.
4. Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island: Genealogical Records and Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and of Many of the Old Families ... J.H. Beers & Company. 1908. pp. 618–.