He was an officer in Oliver Cromwell"s army, and a soldier from the age of sixteen. When Charles II of England was restored to the throne, Read left for America. He settled first in Providence, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
He later moved to Rye, Province of New York, in 1684, where he lived for three or four years.
He then established himself in the western part of Norwalk, at a house he built on the eastern side of the Five Mile River, north of the Old Post Road and nearly two miles from the Long Island Sound at a place called Reed"s Farms. His name is found among the records of the town of Norwalk in 1687.
John Read was admitted to the bar in 1708 in Norwalk, Connecticut. His house was used for a meeting place for some years.
He died in Norwalk, in the ninety-eighth year of his age, in 1730, and was interred in a tomb on his own farm.