Gertrude Ross Read
Wife of George Read, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
1732 – 1802 A.D.

Gertrude Ross Till, the young widow of Thomas Till, who in 1763 put aside her weeds to become the wife of George Read, a prominent young lawyer of Newcastle, Delaware, was the daughter of Reverend George Ross, who was for more than half a century a clergyman in that town. Also, she was the sister of George Ross, afterward, like her husband, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and half-sister of John Ross, an eminent legal practitioner at the Philadelphia bar.

She seems to have been admirable fitted to be the life companion of the public-spirited young man she married, Read, who after having been received an an excellent classical education, was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, was a man of the highest principles. As the eldest of his father’s six children, he was entitled, under existing Delaware laws, to two fifths of his father’s estate. As soon as he came of age, he made over all his rights in the estate to the younger children on the plea that the amount spent upon his education was all that he could ask from the estate by right.

When the contest between Great Britain and her Colonies began in 1765, he held office under the Crown, Attorney-General for the “lower counties” in Delaware, but that did not prevent him from the entering actively into every measure to prevent him from entering actively into every measure to protect the rights of the people. From that time until his death is 1798 he was always in the public service, member of Congress, Judge in the Court of Appeals, United States Senator, and Chief Justice of Delaware.

Gertrude had been highly educated by her father. Her understanding, naturally strong, was carefully cultivated by him, beyond the common lot of most girls of her days even in educated families. Moreover, it is said, “her person was beautiful, her manners elegant, and her piety exemplary.”

“During the Revolution,” says Sanderson, “she was almost constantly separated from her husband owing to his unremitting service to his country. She herself suffered considerable hardship, being often compelled to fly from her home at a moment’s notice and this encumbered with an infant family. But she was never dejected or complaining; on the contrary, encouraged her husband in every possible way, not only by word but by the cheerful manner in which she bore the hardships and burdens which fell to her lot.”

Mrs. Read’s life during the Revolution was a troubled one. The enemy was almost constantly on the maritime border of Delaware and kept the little Province in a continuous state of alarm by predatory incursions. The British army at different periods occupied parts of its territory or went across it making frequent changes of habitation necessary.

While in Congress, Mr. Read wrote as freely to his wife about public affairs as about their domestic concerns, and always in the same spirits of delightful comradeship.

Mrs. Read was noted for her fondness and taste for horticulture and was very fond of the profusion of flowers, especially tulips, which grew in the extensive garden of the old-fashioned mansion, in Newcastle. There she spent most of her life except for short periods of time, during the Revolution, when she was forced, for safety, to take her family to Wilmington or Philadelphia.

There were five children born to Gertrude and George Read, four sons and one daughter. John read, the first born, died in infancy.

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Reference: The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods by Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green, A.B. Third Volume, Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.