Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reede, John de
REEDE, JOHN de, Baron Reede (1593–1683), son of Gerard van Reede, a Dutchman, was born in 1593. He became a canon or deacon in the cathedral of Utrecht in 1620, but in 1623 acquired the title and lands of Renswoude, and was elected to the States-General of Holland. He was commonly designated as Renswoude, which is misprinted in Whitelocke's ‘Memorials’ (1853, i. 440) as Rainsborough. In 1644 he was despatched with William Boreel of Amsterdam as ambassador-extraordinary to England in the attempt to reconcile king and parliament. He visited Charles I at Oxford, and was created Baron Reede on 24 March 1644, with limitation to his heirs male, while Boreel is said to have been made a baronet. Sir Edward Walker, who was with the king at the time, says that Reede had only the title and dignity of baron, with no place or voice in parliament (cf. Nicolas, Hist. Peerage, 1857, p. 394). The commons resented the interposition of the ambassadors, and, on the return of Boreel and Reede to the Hague in May 1645, complaint was made that they had behaved as ‘interested parties rather than public agents.’ Their correspondence with their government, transcribed from the archives at the Hague, is in Add. MS. 17677 R. ff. 246–69. A medal of Reede was engraved in England in 1645 by Thomas Simon [q. v.]
After his return to Holland he was sent ambassador to Denmark, and from 1652 to 1671 was president of the States-General, a position which he resumed in 1674. He wrote, on 12 Sept. 1652, to Charles II, at St. Germains, offering his services (Cal. of Clarendon Papers, ii. 148). Another medal, celebrating Reede's fifty-fifth anniversary of his wedding day, was struck in England in 1672, bearing a curious inscription. Reede died at Renswoude in February 1683. His portrait was engraved by Hollar in 1650. By his wife, Jacqueline de Heede, Reede had numerous descendants. His letters to Sir Edward Nicholas, with reference to the appointment of his second son, Henrik, to the important post of Dutch ambassador to Spain in 1656, are in Egerton MSS. 2534 (f. 181), 2535 (ff. 23, 499, 524, 568), and 2536 (f. 31).
[Medallic Illustr. of Brit. Hist. i. 320, 550; Nicholas Papers (Camd. Soc.), ii. 85, 87, 104, 160; Van der Aa's Biograph. Woordenboek der Nederlanden, xvi. 140; Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom, vi. 337; App. to 47th Rep. of Dep.-Keeper Publ. Rec. p. 123; Ashmolean MS. 832, fol. 225; Granger's Biogr. Hist. ii. 425.]