Reading, John

Reading, John an English theologian, was born in 1588, in the county of Buckingham. He was curate at Dover, and afterwards chaplain of Charles I, but he manifested so much zeal in defending the cause of the king that in 1642 he was cast into prison, where he remained seventeen months. Archbishop Laud having conferred upon him, during his detention at the Tower, the parish of Chatham and a prebend at Canterbury, the king would not allow him to take possession of either of these benefices; and he even had a new imprisonment to undergo. When in 1660 Charles II landed at Dover, it was Ieading who was first congratulated, upon his return, on the renown of the city. We have several religious works written by Reading, among others, A Guide to the Holy City (Oxford, 1651, 4to): — An Antidote to Anabaptism (1654, 4to); also several sermons. Reading died Oct. 26, 1667, at Chatham, Kent. See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.