History of the Reed family in Europe and America

WILLIAM READE OF WOBURN. 61
CHAPTER IV.
WILLIAM READE OF WOBURN, AND HIS DESCENDANTS.
William Reade, supposed to be the son of Thomas and
Mary of Brocket Hall, was born in 1587, and was the
oldest of any of the Puritan emigrants by the name of
Reade. He sailed from London in the ship " Defence," in
July, 1635 ; Capt. Edward Fostick, master ; and arrived at
Boston, Oct. 6, the same year, with his wife, who was Mabel
Kendall, born in 1605. Their children, who sailed with
them, were — George, born in 1629 ; Ralph, 1630 ; and
Justice, afterwards Abigail, born in 1633. He settled in
Dorchester, but did not remain there. He was made free-
man, March 4, 1638. In August, 1639, he sold his real
estate in Dorchester to Thomas Clark, and moved to Scitu-
ate. He was constable of Scituate in 1644. He sent his
wife to Dorchester, on horseback, in 1644, with an infant
named Israel, to be baptized ; he being a member of the
church in that place. His brother Esdras, who had a grant
of land from the town of Boston, situated at Muddy River
(now Brookline), sold the same to William, who took up
his residence upon it, where he lived till 1648 ; when lie
bought a farm in Woburn, of Nicholas Davis of Charles-
town, and removed to that place. He is the ancestor of the
Woburn, Lexington, Bedford, and Burlington Reads ; he is
also the paternal ancestor of a large portion of the Reeds in
Maine ; and almost every State in the Union has some of