Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/366

 , where he was appointed a magistrate. For twenty years he was chairman of the county bench at Wallingford. The goodwill of the people of India pursued him, and the maharajah of Benares, as a mark of esteem, established a public well for the villagers of Stoke Row, a hamlet in the Chiltern Hills on the upper portion of the Ipsden estate. It was sunk 398 feet deep, and was opened on 24 May 1864, and was the first instance of a charitable gift from an Indian prince to the poor of the ruling country. Reade's youngest brother, Charles, the novelist, had described in the ‘Woman Hater’ the previous defective water supply of the village, under the imaginary title of Hill Stoke. The maharajah's example was followed by Rajah Sir Deonarayun Singh, K.C.S.I., who provided a second well for an outlying portion of the village a mile distant.

Reade died at Ipsden on 11 Feb. 1886, and was buried in Ipsden churchyard. He married Eliza, the youngest daughter of Richard Nossiter Burnard of Crewkerne and Collyford in Somerset, by whom he had ten children. Five survived him.

[Family papers and journals; Hon. East India Company's Despatches; Government of India Records; Kaye and Malleson's History of the Sepoy War.]  READE, JOHN EDMUND (1800–1870), poetaster and novelist, born in 1800 at Broadwell, Gloucestershire, was the son of Thomas Reade of Barton Manor, Berkshire, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir John Hill (d. 24 Jan. 1837). His grandfather, Sir John Reade, was fourth baronet, being great-grandson of Compton Reade of Shipton Court, Oxfordshire, who was created a baronet on 4 March 1661.

John Edmund was educated at a school at Doulting Sheepslate, near Shepton Mallet. His first work, a collection of poems entitled ‘The Broken Heart,’ was published in 1825. From that time till the close of his life he devoted himself to authorship, and developed a remarkable capacity for plagiarism. Byron served for his chief model, but his poems and plays are full of sentiments and phrases taken undisguisedly from the best-known writings of Scott, Wordsworth, Ben Jonson, Croly, and others. His ablest work, ‘Cain, the Wanderer,’ was published in 1830. It bears traces of Byronic influence, and obtained for its author an introduction to Coleridge and a eulogy from Goethe. In 1838, after a long stay in the south of Europe, he published his longest poem, ‘Italy,’ which bears a close resemblance to ‘Childe Harold,’ reproducing even the dying gladiator.

Most of Reade's life was passed in Bath and the west of England, but he was in the habit of making long sojourns in central and southern Europe. He died on 17 Sept. 1870. He married his cousin, Maria Louisa, elder daughter of George Compton Reade, by whom he left a daughter, Agnes Coralie, who married Arnold Highton in 1881. After the marriage her husband assumed the additional surname of Reade.

Besides the works already mentioned, Reade published: 1. ‘Sibyl Leaves: Poems,’ 1827, 8vo. 2. ‘The Revolt of the Angels,’ an epic drama, 1830, 8vo. 3. ‘Catiline,’ a tragedy, 1839, 8vo. 4. ‘Prose from the South,’ 1846, post 8vo; 2nd edit. 1847. 5. ‘The Light of other Days,’ a novel, 1858, 8vo. 6. ‘Wait and Hope,’ a novel, 1859, 8vo. 7. ‘Saturday Sterne,’ a novel, 1862, 8vo, besides other poems and dramas. Several collective editions of his poems were published, the most complete being that of 1865, in 3 vols. 8vo.

[Reade's Works; Men of the Reign, p. 747; Powell's Living Authors of England, ed. 1849, p. 251; Chambers's Cyclop. of Engl. Lit. ii. 417; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. ii. 1754; Burke's Baronetage.]  READE, JOSEPH BANCROFT (1801–1870), chemist, microscopist, and photographic discoverer, eldest son of Thomas Shaw Bancroft Reade and Sarah, his wife, daughter of Richard Paley, was born at Leeds, Yorkshire, on 5 April 1801. His father was the author of ‘Christian Retirement’ (1829), ‘Christian Experience’ (1832), and ‘Christian Meditations’ (1841), all issued (in 12mo) as ‘by a layman.’ From Leeds grammar school Joseph proceeded in 1820 to Trinity College, Cambridge, but soon migrated to Caius College, where he was elected a scholar. He graduated as a senior optime in 1825, and was ordained deacon in the same year as curate of Kegworth, Leicestershire. In 1826 he took priest's orders, and in 1828 proceeded M.A. From 1829 to 1832 he was curate of Halifax, from 1832 to 1834 incumbent of Harrow-on-the-Weald, and from 1839 to 1859 rector of Stone, Buckinghamshire, to which benefice he was presented by the Royal Astronomical Society. From 1859 to 1863 he was rector of Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire; and from 1863 till his death, rector of Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury.

Reade's earliest published papers belong to 1837, and deal with the structure, composition, and ash of plants. They were published in the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ some of them having been communicated to the British Association. He was elected a fellow