George Read was born in 1733 in Cecil County Maryland. He grew up in New Castle, Delaware, however, and attended school in Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen he began reading law in with a lawyer in Philadelphia. He was admitted to the bar in 1753, and opened his own practice in New Castle the following year.
Read became involved in the Patriot cause when he was serving as crown attorney general for present day Delaware and protested against the Stamp Act. He began to serve on the colonial legislature in 1765, and earned himself a reputation as a moderate. From 1774 until 1777, he attended the Continental Congress. He returned to state politics in this same year, and began a term as speaker of the legislative council. In 1786 he was present at the Constitutional Convention where he proved to be quite diligent in pushing for ratification. Delaware was, in fact, the first state to ratify the Constitution. Later, from 1789-1793, Read was elected to the U. S. Senate. He died in New Castle in 1798 at the age of sixty-five and was buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard.