J. Meredith Read

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]

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.

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]

• Harmon Pumpelly Read (1860–1925),[11] a capitalist who married French born Catherine Marguerite de Carron d'Allondons (1866–1940).[12]
• Emily Meredith Read (1863–1940),[13] who married Francis Aquila Stout, a great-grandson of signer Lewis Morris,[14] in 1884.[15] His sister, Sarah Morris Stout,[16][17] was the wife of Baron Ancelis de Vaugrigneuse of the French Embassy in Washington.[18] After his 1892 death, she married Edward Spencer, a descendant of one of the founders of Stockbridge, at the American Cathedral in Paris in June 1894.[19][20]
• John Meredith Read III (b. 1869), who married Countess Alix de Foras, a daughter of Count Amédée de Foras, the Grand Marshal of the Court of Bulgaria, in 1901.[21]
• Marie Delphine Meredith Read (b. 1873), who married Count Maximillien de Foras of Château de Thuyset, Thonon-les-Bains, Haute Savoie in 1895.[22] Count Max was the brother of Countess Alix de Foras.[23]

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]

• Read family papers: 1792-1896 at the University of Pennsylvania
• J. Meredith Read at Find a Grave