Read, David Breckenridge

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: John D. Blackwell, “READ, DAVID BREAKENRIDGE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/read_david_breakenridge_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, politician, educator, and author; b. 13 June 1823 in Augusta Township, Upper Canada, third son of John Landon Read and Jennet Breakenridge; m. 20 Sept. 1848 Emily Ballard in Picton, Upper Canada, and they had three sons and four daughters; d. 11 May 1904 in Toronto.
    • David Breakenridge Read was educated at Brockville and in 1836 was sent to Upper Canada College in Toronto. There he mingled with the sons of the provincial élite. In 1840 he was admitted as a student by the Law Society of Upper Canada. He began his articles in the Brockville office of George Sherwood. After his call to the bar in June 1845, he established his own firm in Toronto; he would eventually take in partners and build a large, successful practice.
    • Read seems to have preferred less partisan civic involvement. In 1856 Attorney General John A. Macdonald appointed him to a commission to revise and consolidate the statutes of Upper Canada. As junior commissioner, Read had the onerous task of secretary. In many respects, the late 1850s marked the zenith of Read’s legal career and he was honoured in 1858 by being appointed qc. In November 1855 he had been elected a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, and until his retirement in April 1881, he served the society continuously, taking special interest in legal education.
    • Read’s most durable legacy is his historical writings. Chief among these is Lives of the judges of Upper Canada and Ontario . . . (1888). Valuable for Read’s personal recollections of early jurists, it has become a classic in Canadian legal historiography. He also wrote early biographies of two Upper Canadian heroes, John Graves Simcoe and Sir Isaac Brock, in 1890 and 1894 respectively. These sometimes meandering studies, steeped in the nostalgia and patriotism of Ontario’s centennial celebrations, reflect the author’s reverence for “the old regime of toryism.” His Canadian rebellion of 1837 (1896) offers a conservative counterpoint to the influential Whig interpretation of John Charles Dent*. Read’s final work, The lieutenant-governors of Upper Canada and Ontario, 1792–1899 (1900), is an informative mixture of research and reminiscence.
  • Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6903
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70005709/david-breakenridge-read