1Axel Hayford Reed, Genealogical Record of the Reads, Reeds, the Bisbees, the Bradfords of the United States of America in the Line of . . ., p. 16 (1915).
URL = http://www.archive.org/stream/genealogicalreco00reed/genealogicalreco00reed_djvu.txt.
"V JOSEPH READ, son of Thomas Read and Sarah Fletcher, b. in Chelmsford, Mass., June 4, 1716. He was of the fifth generation of Esdras Read, our English born ancestor. He married Ruth Underwood, May 30, 1737. He bought a farm in Westford, in 1740, and became a very prominent man in that town, which he represented in succession for twenty years in the general court. He took an active part in the interest of the Colonists against the English egression and was one of the "Boston Tea Party" that helped empty a ship load of tea into Boston harbor as a resentment of the English tax they had put on it and undertaken to make the colonists pay. It appears from the record that he and his five sons served in the revolutionary war to gain our liberty of free government from the English self-imposed yoke. Ruth Underwood died Dec. 8, 1777. Children born to Joseph and Ruth were: Joshua, b. Dec. 1, 1737. Ruth, b. Jan. 4, 1740. Benjamin, b. Dec. 31, 1742. Joseph, b. Oct. 9, 1746. Leonard, b. April 23, 1750. Molly, Aug. 31, 1751. SAMPSON, b. May 13, 1754."