Read, George, 1733-1798

George Read (September 18, 1733 – September 21, 1798) was a politician from New Castle in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President of Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party, who served as U.S. Senator from Delaware and Chief Justice of Delaware. Read was one of only two statesmen who signed four of the great State papers on which the country's history is based: the original Petition to the King of the Congress of 1774, the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.

Born in Cecil County, Maryland, his family moved to New Castle County, Delaware when he was an infant. As he grew up, George Read joined Thomas McKean at the Rev. Francis Allison's Academy at New London, Pennsylvania and then studied law in Philadelphia. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1753 and a year later he returned home to establish a practice at New Castle, Delaware. In 1763 John Penn, the Proprietary Governor, appointed George Read Crown Attorney General for the three Delaware counties and he served in that position until leaving for the Continental Congress in 1774. He also served in the Colonial Assembly of the Lower Counties for twelve sessions, from 1764/65 through 1775/76. Read was elected to serve along with the more radical McKean and Caesar Rodney in the First and Second Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777. He was frequently absent, and when the Congress voted on American Independence on July 2, 1776, Read surprised many by voting against it. However, when the Declaration of Independence was finally adopted, Read signed it despite his natural caution.

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