William Reade was born in 1587 in Hertfordshire, England. He and his wife Mabel sailed with their children to American colonies from London on the ship Defence in July 1635. The family first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts. They later lived in Scituate and Woburn, where William bought a farm from Nicholas Davis of Charlestown. Years later, he returned to England where he lived out the remainder of his life in either Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Northumberland. After his death in 1656, Mabel returned to Woburn, Massachusetts where she married Henry Summers.
William and Mabel’s son, Ralph, was born in England in 1630. He married Mary Peirce, daughter of Anthony Peirce of Watertown, on March 31, 1654. Ralph and Mary had several children: John (b. 1660), Joseph, William (b. 1658 and killed by his brother Timothy in 1688, who mistook him for a deer), David, Daniel (b. 1666), Timothy (b. 1664), Jonathan, and Mary. Ralph’s wife Mary died on February 18, 1700 and he later died on January 4, 1711. Ralph’s son Daniel bought the Squaw Sachem land from John Fowle in 1707 and the earliest records in the collection begin with him.
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References:
Ancestry.com. U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2012.
Ancestry.com. U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010.