Daniel Read

Of Attleborough. J. W. Reed (1861, p. 235) gives his birth as “Dec. 3, 1716,” at Attleborough, among the children of Capt. Daniel Read and Elizabeth Ide, and says: “The elder Daniel of this family was known, as was his father, by the appellation of ‘Captain.’” His age at death (“in his 85th y.” on 23 Feb 1801) puts his birth between Feb 1716 and Feb 1717, after his father’s marriage to Elizabeth Ide on 8 Dec 1715; the dates support her as his mother (inference). See the open questions on the earlier son Daniell of 1713.

His wife Mary (White) died on 23 Sept 1775, in the same weeks as their sons David (12 Sept), aged twenty-six, and Ezra (21 Sept), aged fifteen, and three of their Tyler grandsons; no cause is recorded.

Children (Lothrop pp. 40-41, from the Attleborough records, and J. W. Reed p. 235): Matthew, July 23, 1742; Hannah, June 26, 1744; Mary, 1746/7; David, 1748/9; Peter, 1751; Joel, 1753; Eunice, 1755; Daniel, Nov. 10, 1757; Ezra, May 2, 1760; Levi, Aug. 1762; William, Dec. 27, 1764.

The composer. His son Daniel was very probably the composer Daniel Read (1757-1836) of New Haven, author of the hymn tunes “Windham” and “Sherburne” and of The American Singing Book (1785) (inference). The Hymnology Archive gives the composer’s birth as 16 Nov 1757 at Rehoboth, “the son of Daniel and Mary Read” (Lothrop has 10 Nov, recorded at Attleborough). Lothrop says this family’s son Peter, a clergyman who moved to New Haven, had a son Ezra who worked “with his uncle, Daniel Read, in publishing musical and other works in New Haven,” the composer’s town. A Daniel Read of Attleborough also served three short stints in 1777-78, two of them recorded as at Rhode Island (MSSRW 13), which matches the composer’s biography.

The Revolution. Men named David, Joel and Peter Read of Attleborough, very probably his sons, served in the Revolution (inference). David and Joel marched in Capt. Jabez Ellis’s company on the Lexington alarm (11 days), the company of their brother-in-law Ebenezer Tyler. Joel then enlisted on 1 May 1775 in Capt. Caleb Richardson’s company at Roxbury and rose to sergeant, and Peter was a corporal on the Rhode Island alarm of Dec 1776 (MSSRW 13).

Open questions

• His birth and parentage: check the printed Attleborough births for the children of Daniel Read and Elizabeth Ide. His father also had a son Daniel (recorded “Daniell”), b. 9 Sept 1713, by his first wife. If that son survived, could he be this Daniel? His age at death (“in his 85th y.” in 1801) points to a birth about 1716, not 1713. J. W. Reed’s “Dec. 3, 1716,” at Attleborough, to Daniel and Elizabeth (compiled) would make him a second Daniel, the 1713 son having presumably died young; the page keeps the birth as “c. 1716” until the Attleborough record is seen.
• The marriage date: 2 April or 2 May 1741?