1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reed, Andrew

REED, ANDREW (1787-1862), English nonconformist divine and philanthropist, was born in London on the 27th of November 1787. He entered Hackney Independent College in 1807 and was ordained minister of New Road Chapel in 1811. About 1830 he built the larger Wycliffe Chapel, where he remained until 1861. He visited America on a deputation to the Congregational Churches in 1834 and received the degree of D.D. from Yale. Reed's name is permanently associated with a long list of philanthropic achievements, including the London Orphan Asylum, the Infant Orphan Asylum and the Reedham Orphanage, which he undertook on non-denominational lines because the governors of the other institutions had made the Anglican Catechism compulsory. Besides these he originated in 1847 an asylum for idiots at Highgate, afterwards moved to Earlswood in Surrey with a branch at Colchester, and in 1855 the Royal Hospital for Incurables at Putney. He died on the 25th of February 1862. Besides an account of his visit to America (2 vols., 1834), he compiled a hymn-book (1841), and published some sermons and books of devotion.

His second son, Sir Charles Reed (1819-1881), was a successful type founder and a keen supporter of popular education. As a common councillor of the city of London he developed the Guildhall Library of the City of London School. He was elected M.P. for Hackney (1868 and 1874) and for St Ives, Cornwall (1880), and served as chairman of the London School Board (1873-1881) in succession to Lord Lawrence. He was interested in antiquarian research and in philanthropic work, being an associate of George Peabody and an active worker in connexion with the Sunday School Union, the Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society and the London Missionary Society. His eldest son, Charles Edward Baines Reed (1845-1884) was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became Congregational minister at Warminster (1871) and a secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He was killed by a fall in Switzerland. Sir Charles Reed’s third son, Talbot Baines Reed (1852–1893), educated at the City of London School, became managing director of his father’s firm, and was one of the founders and secretary of the Bibliographical Society. He is best known as the author of popular boys' books.