Clare Sewell Read
Clare Sewell Read (6 November 1826 – 21 August 1905) was a British agriculturist and Conservative politician.[1][2]
Early life
He was born in 1826 in Ketteringham, Norfolk, and was the eldest son of George Read of Barton Bendish Hall, and his wife Sarah Anne, daughter of Clare Sewell.[1][3] The family had been farming land in Norfolk for three centuries, and following private education in King's Lynn Read spent five years learning practical agriculture on his father's farm at Plumstead. He subsequently managed large farms in Pembrokeshire and Oxfordshire, before returning to Plumstead in 1854.[2] In 1865 he inherited an 800-acre (3.2 km2) farm at Honingham Thorpe, which he farmed for the next three decades.[1][2] He was described in 1870 as "a yeoman and tenant farmer on an extensive scale".[1]
Family
In 1859 he married Sarah Maria Watson daughter of a former Sheriff of Norwich, and they had four daughters.[1][2]
House of Commons
In
In 1874 he was appointed to a junior ministerial post in the
Following the loss of his seat, he refused candidacies at North Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. In 1884 the sitting member for West Norfolk resigned, and Read was elected unopposed to fill the vacancy at the ensuing by-election.[4] His return to the Commons was only brief, however, as he chose not to stand at the 1885 general election.[5] He was persuaded to stand at Norwich when a further election was called in 1886. He did not take the seat, and did not make any more attempts to enter parliament.[2]
Agriculturist
Read was a recognised authority on matters agricultural. In 1848, 1854 and 1856 he was awarded prizes by the
In 1879 a Royal Commission on the Depressed State of the Agricultural Interest under the chairmanship of the Duke of Richmond was appointed. Along with Albert Pell, Read was made an assistant commissioner, and the two men visited the United States and Canada to inquire into the production and export of wheat. Over six months the two assistant commissioners travelled 16,000 miles (26,000 km).[2]
Later life
Although no longer in parliament, Read continued to represent the interests of farmers through the societies of which he was a leading member. In 1892 he was called as an expert witness before a Board of Trade investigation into corn sales, and in 1894 appeared before the Royal Commission on Agriculture.[6][7] In 1896 Read retired from farming, and in the following year the landlords and tenant farmers of Norfolk formally presented Read with his portrait at a ceremony at the Norwich Shire Hall to mark their "deep sense... of the value of the services that he had rendered to agriculture".[2][8]
On retirement, Read moved to London, taking up residence at 91 Kensington Gardens Square.
Clare Sewell Read died at his London home in August 1905.[3] He was buried in Barton Bendish, Norfolk.[2]
References
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
- ^ a b c d e f g h Mair, Robert Henry (1870). Debrett's Illustrated House of Commons and the Judicial Bench (PDF). London: Dean & Son. p. 232. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Obituary: Mr Clare Sewell Read". The Times. 23 August 1905. p. 7.
- ^ a b "Election Intelligence. Norfolk (West)". The Times. 21 February 1884. p. 9.
- ^ "The New Parliament". The Times. 16 December 1885. p. 6.
- ^ "Political Notes". The Times. 17 May 1892. p. 5.
- ^ "Royal Commission On Agriculture". The Times. 16 April 1894. p. 7.
- ^ "Presentation To Mr. Clare Sewell Read". The Times. 27 September 1897. p. 7.
- ^ "R.S.P.C.A.". The Times. 5 December 1903. p. 6.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Clare Sewell Read
- Read, Clare Sewell (1900). "The Farmer's Year". Webb's Practical Farmers' Account Book. Foxearth and District Local History Society. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- "Portrait of Clare Sewell Read". Vanity Fair. National Portrait Gallery. 1875. Retrieved 9 August 2009.