READE, Thomas (1612-62), of Wickford, Essex.

Thomas Reade was the youngest son of a minor Essex family, and his early life is correspondingly obscure. The remarriage of his mother (after his father’s death in 1623) to her neighbour, the puritan divine Hugh Peter, transformed Reade’s prospects, not least because of Peter’s strong connections with the Massachusetts Bay Company and the Winthrop family.14R.C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vols. Boston, Mass. 1869), ii. 131. From the mid-1630s the Reades and Winthrops were bound together by a series of marriages: in 1635 John Winthrop II took as his second wife Thomas’s sister Elizabeth; in 1641, another sister, Martha, married another New England settler, Samuel Symonds; and when in 1643 Thomas married the daughter of a Kent family with mercantile interests in London, the match was brokered by Peter (who was the bride’s ‘near cousin’) only after his attempts to marry her to one of John Winthrop I’s sons had failed.15Winthrop, Life and Lttrs. ii. 130; Winthrop Pprs. iv. 316, 354n. There are also indications that Thomas Reade was acting as a business associate of the Winthrops before the civil war. In 1638, Hugh Peter told John Winthrop I that ‘Ancient Reade’ was delighted ‘at your bounty in your grains sent’, and in 1639 he reported that ‘Thomas Reade would have heartily come and done your business, and if there be cause stands ready’.16Winthrop Pprs. iv. 5, 165. It may have been in this period that Reade first acquired property near Salem, Massachusetts – an area dominated by the powerful Winthrop interest.17Genealogical Gleanings ed. Waters, ii. 1305.

Considering the separatist circles in which he moved, it is unsurprising that Reade sided with Parliament in 1642, and by October of that year he had been commissioned as a captain in Essex’s army, serving with the regiments of James Holborne and William Davies.18SP28/3A, ff. 46, 52, 212; SP28/4, ff. 125, 182 ; SP28/5, f. 93 ; BHO, Cromwell Assoc. Database. Reade impressed his commanders sufficiently to be promoted to the rank of major when the New Model army was formed in the spring of 1645. He was wounded at Taunton in May 1645, when his colonel, Walter Lloyd, was killed, and he was with the regiment (now commanded by William Herbert) when it took part in the storming of Bristol in September of that year.19Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. i. 384-5; M. Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army (2015-16), i. 48, 70. In 1647, when Robert Overton took over as colonel, Reade was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel; it was in that capacity that he was present at the army’s meetings at Saffron Walden in May, and he was appointed by Fairfax to the committee of officers on 18 July. At the Putney debates, on 29 October 1647, Reade expressed sympathy with those who argued for the extension of the franchise to all men, saying that ‘I see no reason why any man that is a native ought to be excluded that privilege, unless from voluntary servitude’, but there is no indication that he agreed with the Levellers over other issues, and his military service attests to his continuing loyalty to the army grandees.20Clarke Pprs. i. 52, 217, 341-2. In Overton’s absence as governor of Hull in 1648, Reade took effective command of the regiment during the second civil war, when he worked closely with Oliver Cromwell*. In March 1648 Reade led eight companies into Wales and was praised for his service in the battle of St Fagans in May; he served at the siege of Pembroke in June, when his troops were commended by Cromwell; and in August he accompanied Cromwell in his march against the Scots, fighting at the decisive engagement at Preston in the same month.21Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. i. 386-7; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, i. 618. According to Cromwell’s official report to Speaker William Lenthall*, Reade’s regiment was one of those which ‘had the greatest work, they often coming to push of pike and to close firing, and always making the enemy recoil … indeed I must needs say, God was as much seen in the valour of the officers and soldiers … as in any actions that hath been performed’.22Abbott, Writings and Speeches, i. 635. George Fenwick assumed command of the regiment in May 1649, and it marched into Scotland in July 1650. In a mark of Reade’s standing with the senior officers, when Colonel Edward Sexby was cashiered in the summer of 1651, Reade was given command of his regiment of foot.23Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. i. 388-9; Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 48, 73.

Military duties in Scotland dominated Reade’s career throughout the 1650s. In August 1651, as Cromwell followed Charles Stuart south with the bulk of the army, Reade stayed in Scotland with the brigade under George Monck*, and set about reducing the garrisons north of Edinburgh. When Stirling Castle fell to Monck on 14 August, Reade was appointed as governor of the castle and the town – a position he held until the Restoration.24Scot. and Commonwealth ed. Firth, 1, 5; Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, 79. His appointment as governor of the most important stronghold in Scotland again attests to Reade’s perceived trustworthiness. Although his regiment took part in punitive expeditions, such as that through Argyllshire and the western Highlands in June 1652, and was engaged in garrisoning remote castles, including Dunollie and Dunstaffnage near Oban, Reade himself rarely strayed far from Stirling.25Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. ii. 550, 564. Over the next few years Reade carefully monitored the surrounding shires and the routes into the highlands, playing a key role in foiling attempts by the rebels under the earl of Glencairn to concentrate their forces and raid the lowlands in 1653.26Scot. and Commonwealth, ed. Firth, 194, 203-5. He oversaw the strengthening of the defences at Stirling, which, by 1657, housed a garrison twice as large as any in Scotland.27Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS LI, f. 17. Reade was also increasingly involved in the civilian administration. In April 1652 he was appointed sheriff of Stirlingshire, and in 1653-4 he acted as regulator of the assessment there and in neighbouring Clackmannanshire.28Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, 164. He was assessment commissioner and justice of the peace for both shires from 1655-6, and before the arrival of the Scottish council he readily intervened in civilian disputes using his authority under martial law.29A. and O.; Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 311; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 22 Oct. 1655. Reade was not above interfering in local religious disputes, such as the row over the position of the Protester minister, James Guthrie, as minister of Stirling. In this case, Reade’s support for Guthrie (and his opposition to the burgesses) marked his own religious preferences as well as his obedience to the orders of General Monck.30Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 4 Aug., 3 Sept., 16 and 29 Oct. 1656; supra, ‘Linlithgow Burghs’.

Despite such differences, Reade’s relations with the local community seem to have been reasonably good. In acknowledgement of the trust that had built up between governor and burgesses, in August 1654 the burgh of Stirling went as far as to appoint him their commissioner to meet with the other ‘Linlithgow Burghs’ to elect their MP.31Extracts Recs. Stirling, 1519-1666 ed. R. Renwick (Glasgow, 1887), 214. His local standing may also have influenced his return as MP for the Linlithgow shires (Linthlithgowshire, Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire) in the same year, although it was doubtful that the election, held in Stirling itself, would have witnessed an open challenge to the garrison commander. Reade’s involvement in this Parliament, once disentangled from that of his namesake, Richard Reade, seems to have been very slight, and he was appointed to only four committees in the same number of months, including the committee for privileges when it discussed the Irish elections (5 Oct.) and those to consider public accounts (22 Nov.) and public debts charged on the excise (18 Jan.).32CJ vii. 373b, 381a, 387b, 419a.

During the later 1650s Reade grew closer to George Monck. In February 1659, for example, Monck trusted Reade to ensure that attempts by ‘discontented spirits’ in the English army would not threaten the loyalty of the regiments north of the border.33Winthrop Pprs. v. 427. Reade used this relationship to advance the interests of his nephew from New England, Fitzjohn Winthrop, whose earlier patron, Colonel Stephen Winthrop*, had died in 1658. Reade, who had been a friend of Stephen since the later 1640s, interceded with Monck to ensure Fitzjohn’s commission in his own regiment, as a lieutenant in September 1658, and as captain-lieutenant in December 1659.34Winthrop Pprs. v. 356; Mass. Hist. Soc. Collns. ser. 6, iii (1889), 427-8. Under the general’s protection, the officer-list of Reade’s regiment was approved without alteration by the Rump’s committee of safety in September 1659, and the loyalty of the regiment to Monck in the next few months was ascribed to ‘the care and good example of the colonel, who was a person that always loved and esteemed the general’.35CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 184; Baker, Chronicle (1679), 669.

On 3 November 1659 Reade attended the council of war convened by Monck at Edinburgh in response to the letter from the English army denouncing the Rump Parliament. Reade, with his lieutenant-colonel (Monck’s relative, John Clobery†), was part of the five-member committee which drew up instructions for the commissioners sent to treat with the English commanders, in the hope of averting a clash between the two armies.36Clarke Pprs. iv. 96-9. In later weeks, Reade was the leading light of the council of Scottish officers, in their continuing correspondence with their own agents, and with the increasingly bellicose English army.37Clarke Pprs. iv. 128, 178. Reade’s good relations with the locals in Stirlingshire also paid off. In December 1659 he was able to leave Stirling under his junior officers and join Monck at Coldstream, with the Stirlingshire gentlemen formally authorised to assist the garrison in suppressing any disturbances.38Clarke Pprs. iv. 194-5, 208. Reade commanded the second division of the Scottish army when it marched into England, and in February 1660 his regiment entered London with Monck, and was quartered in the area between the capital and Westminster, including Covent Garden, the Strand and Somerset House.39Baker, Chronicle, 667, 680. On 11 February Reade signed the officers’ letter demanding the closure of the Rump and the calling of a new Parliament, and also calling for the return of the secluded Members.40Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. ii. 568; Ludlow, Mems. ii. 215n; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS LII, f. 66v.

Reade’s association with Monck ensured his smooth transition from the commonwealth’s service to that of Charles II. His regiment was one of the last to be disbanded, on 12 October 1660.41Firth and Davis, Regimental Hist. ii. 568. Reade’s connections with the Winthrops remained strong, and in September 1660 John Winthrop II advised Fitzjohn to decide his future ‘with the advice of your honoured uncle’, adding a month later that he himself hoped that Reade would intercede with Monck for ‘the requesting his favour to our colony’ as well as to individual family members.42Mass. Hist. Soc. Collns. ser. 5, viii. 70, 72. Other friends and relatives all benefited from the change of regime. Monck became duke of Albemarle; and Reade’s nephew John Banks* (the MP for Maidstone, 1654-9), was granted a baronetcy in August 1661.43CB. Reade was unable to share in this good fortune, as by July 1662 he was seriously ill, and he had died before November of that year. He left a substantial amount in money to his widow and surviving children, and held lands in Essex and New England. His overseers (and the guardians of his children) were members of his wife’s family, including his nephews Sir John and Caleb Banks, and Thomas Cooke* of Pebmarsh.44Genealogical Gleanings ed. Waters, ii. 1305. It is tempting to see Monck’s hand behind the government’s grant of an annuity of £50 to Reade’s widow, passed on 25 July 1664.45CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 650. Reade’s widow lived near Bishopsgate in London during the 1670s, and remained in close contact with the Winthrops and the Bankses; and her son, Samuel, was a friend and business partner of Fitzjohn Winthrop until the early eighteenth century.46Mass. Hist. Soc. Collns. ser. 5, viii. 163-4, 364-5, 501; ser. 6, iii. 328.