Background
Read was born in Scotland, on the 3rd of February, 1723, one of thirteen children of an affluent Forfarshire family.
Read was born in Scotland, on the 3rd of February, 1723, one of thirteen children of an affluent Forfarshire family.
She may have received her education in Edinburgh. Read was for some years a fashionable artist in London, working in oils, crayons, and miniature. Read"s talent for portraiture was highly regarded in her day, and was the subject of an epistle by Tobias Smollett:
Let candid Justice our attention lead,
to the soft crayon of the graceful Read. and praised by William Hayley.
Mission Read resided in Saint James"s Place, London until 1766, when she removed to Jermyn Street.
She is reported as being in that country in 1775 and 1777, and as dying at sea near Madras. Her death is recorded as 15 December