Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/402

 the fund for the purchase and preservation of Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon. She also, under the Keeley management, fulfilled an engagement at the Lyceum Theatre. On 24 Jan. 1844 she married Thomas German Reed. She continued from 1847 till 1854 at the Haymarket, Drury Lane, and the Olympic theatres. On 26 Feb. 1851, at Drury Lane, on Macready's last appearance, she was the Hecate in ‘Macbeth.’ Her last regular appearance on the stage took place in 1858; but she was seen at the Gaiety on 7 Feb. 1877 as the Beadle's Wife in ‘Charity begins at Home,’ for John Parry's benefit, when she, her husband, and their son, Alfred German Reed, appeared together.

After touring in the provinces in 1854 with an entertainment in which her husband played the piano and she gave representations of different European styles of singing, she opened in London on 17 March 1855 the entertainment called ‘Miss P. Horton's Illustrative Gatherings.’ Her varied impersonations were admirable (, Journal of a London Playgoer, 1866, pp. 113–14), and she afterwards contributed greatly to the success of ‘Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainment,’ both at the Gallery of Illustration and afterwards at St. George's Hall. She retired from the ‘Entertainment’ in 1877. She died at the residence of her son-in-law, Edward Mitchell, at Bexley Heath, Kent, on 18 March 1895 (Times, 17 March 1895 and 23 March; Era, 16 March 1895 and 23 March).

The son, (1847–1895), actor, after serving an apprenticeship to John Penn & Sons, engineers, Greenwich, commenced acting small parts at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, but joined his parents' ‘Entertainment’ at the Gallery of Illustration in 1871. He improved rapidly as a comedian. On his father's and mother's retirement in 1877 he entered into partnership with Richard Corney Grain for the purpose of continuing the ‘Entertainment.’ Grain contributed diverting musical sketches, while Reed directed the dramatic part of the entertainment, in which he always took a leading part. Among the pieces produced by him were revivals of F. Clay's ‘Sensational Novel,’ and W. S. Gilbert's ‘Happy Arcadia,’ and ‘My Aunt's Secret.’ His best characters were Thomas Killiecrumper in ‘Killiecrumper,’ Thomas Trotter in ‘In Possession,’ and John Bigg in ‘Wanted an Heir.’ He died at Loweney House, Maude Grove, Fulham, on 10 March 1895, and was buried in Brompton cemetery. His partner, Corney Grain, died six days later. Reed was married and left a son, Walter German Reed (Times, 11 March 1895; Era, 16 March 1895; Sketch, 20 March 1895, p. 399, with four portraits).

[Grove's Dictionary of Music, 1883 iii. 90–1, 1889 iv. 769; Pascoe's Dramatic List, 1879 pp. 267–8, 1880 pp. 282–4; E. L. Blanchard's Life, 1891, pp. 218, 425, 708, 724; Planché's Extravaganzas, 1879, vol. iii. (portrait of Mrs. Reed); Cassell's Saturday Journal, 13 July 1894 (with portrait of Mrs. Reed); D. Williamson's The German Reeds and Corney Grain, 1895; information from Walter German Reed, esq.]  REEDE, JOHN (1593–1683), son of Gerard van Reede, a Dutchman, was born in 1593. He became a canon or deacon in the cathedral of Utrecht in 1620, but in 1623 acquired the title and lands of Renswoude, and was elected to the States-General of Holland. He was commonly designated as Renswoude, which is misprinted in Whitelocke's ‘Memorials’ (1853, i. 440) as Rainsborough. In 1644 he was despatched with William Boreel of Amsterdam as ambassador-extraordinary to England in the attempt to reconcile king and parliament. He visited Charles I at Oxford, and was created Baron Reede on 24 March 1644, with limitation to his heirs male, while Boreel is said to have been made a baronet. Sir Edward Walker, who was with the king at the time, says that Reede had only the title and dignity of baron, with no place or voice in parliament (cf., Hist. Peerage, 1857, p. 394). The commons resented the interposition of the ambassadors, and, on the return of Boreel and Reede to the Hague in May 1645, complaint was made that they had behaved as ‘interested parties rather than public agents.’ Their correspondence with their government, transcribed from the archives at the Hague, is in Add. MS. 17677 R. ff. 246–69. A medal of Reede was engraved in England in 1645 by Thomas Simon [q. v.]

After his return to Holland he was sent ambassador to Denmark, and from 1652 to 1671 was president of the States-General, a position which he resumed in 1674. He wrote, on 12 Sept. 1652, to Charles II, at St. Germains, offering his services (Cal. of Clarendon Papers, ii. 148). Another medal, celebrating Reede's fifty-fifth anniversary of his wedding day, was struck in England in 1672, bearing a curious inscription. Reede died at Renswoude in February 1683. His portrait was engraved by Hollar in 1650. By his wife, Jacqueline de Heede, Reede had numerous descendants. His letters to Sir Edward Nicholas, with reference to the appointment of his second son, Henrik,