Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Read, Clare Sewell
READ, CLARE SEWELL (1826–1905), agriculturist, the eldest son of George Read of Barton Bendish Hall, Norfolk, by Sarah Ann, daughter of Clare Sewell, was born at Ketteringham on 6 Nov. 1826. His ancestors had been tenant-farmers in Norfolk since the end of the sixteenth century. He was educated privately at Lynn, and from the age of fifteen to twenty was learning practical agriculture upon his father's farm. Before he was of age he was managing the large farm of Kilpaison in Pembrokeshire, and was afterwards resident agent on the earl of Macclesfield's Oxfordshire estates. He returned to Norfolk in 1854 and took his father's farm at Plumstead, near Norwich, until 1865, when he succeeded a relative at Honingham Thorpe, and farmed about 800 acres there until Michaelmas 1896.
In July 1865 he was returned to parliament as conservative member for East Norfolk, which he continued to represent until the Reform Act of 1867, when Norfolk was divided into three constituencies. He sat for South Norfolk from 1868 to 1880, when he was defeated at the general election by one vote. He then declined to stand for North Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, but in Feb. 1884 was returned unopposed for West Norfolk, sitting until the dissolution of parliament in 1885, when he retired from the representation of the county. He unsuccessfully contested Norwich in July 1886.
In his first speech in parliament, in 1866, in support of Sir Fitzroy Kelly's motion for the repeal of the malt tax, he suggested, as an alternative, a beer tax of one penny per gallon upon all beer that was sold; that a licence should be paid by private brewers; and that all cottagers should be free to brew their own beer, a concession granted later. He strenuously supported and promoted all the acts of parliament passed for the suppression of cattle plague and all other imported diseases among live stock; advocated the inalienable right of the occupier of the land to destroy ground game; persistently contended for the compulsory payment of tenant farmers' improvements in the soil; argued that all property, and not land and buildings alone, should contribute to local as well as imperial burdens; and in 1876 carried a unanimous resolution in the House of Commons in favour of representative county boards.
In 1865 he served on the cattle plague commission, and for twenty years sat upon almost every agricultural committee of the House of Commons. In Feb. 1874 he was appointed by Disraeli parliamentary secretary to the local government board, but resigned in Jan. 1876, in consequence of the government refusing to extend to Ireland the Cattle Diseases Act which had been passed for Great Britain. This, however, soon afterwards became law. Upon his resigning his government appointment, he was presented by the farmers of England with a silver salver and a purse of 5500l. at a dinner given at the Cannon Street Hotel on 2 May 1876.
On the appointment in June 1879 of the duke of Richmond's royal commission on agriculture, Clare Sewell Read and Albert Pell [q. v. Suppl. II] were made assistant commissioners to visit the United States and Canada to inquire into and report on the conditions of agriculture there, particularly as related to the production and exportation of wheat to Europe. They were away six months, and travelled 16,000 miles.
In 1848 Read won the Royal Agricultural Society's prize essay on the farming of South Wales, and in 1854 and 1856 obtained the society's prizes for similar reports on Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. He contributed numerous other papers to the Royal Agricultural Society's 'Journal,' and acted frequently as judge at the Royal, Smithfield, Bath and West of England, and other agricultural shows.
He also wrote a valuable article on the Agriculture of Norfolk for the 4th edition of White's 'History, Gazetteer and Directory' of that county (1883).
In January 1866 he joined the Farmers' Club (originally founded in 1842), and was an active member till his death, frequently reading papers at meetings, serving on the committee, and acting as chairman for two separate years, in 1868 and again in 1892 (jubilee year). He was also a member of the council of the central chamber of agriculture (of which he was chairman in 1869) and of the Smithfield Club.
When his intention to give up farming in Norfolk was made known, a county committee organised a fund for presenting him with his portrait. This picture, painted by J. J. Shannon, R.A., now hangs in the castle at Norwich. In his later years Read lived in London at 91 Kensington Gardens Square, where he died on 21 Aug. 1905, but he was buried in his native soil at Barton Bendish. In 1859 he married Sarah Maria, the only daughter of J. Watson, and had by her four daughters.
[The Times, 23 and 28 Aug. 1905; Mark Lane Express, 18 Aug. 1905; personal knowledge.]