Robert Reading
{{Short description|Irish politician and lighthouse builder}}
{{similar names|Robert Redding (disambiguation){{!}}Robert Redding}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use Irish English|date=November 2019}}
Sir Robert Reading, first and last Baronet Reading, (c. 1640 – c. March 1689) built several privately owned lighthouses in Ireland under letters patent from Charles II of England.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=79591&strquery=Mountrath 'Volume 91: 16 June – 19 October 1704', Calendar of Treasury Papers, Volume 3: 1702-1707 (1874), pp. 271-298.], british-history.ac.uk
He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, receiving a BA in 1658.
He was elected as an MP in the Irish House of Commons for Ratoath (1662–1666), but was attainted by the Irish Parliament of James II (1689).
He married Jane Coote, daughter of Sir Robert Hannay c. 1662. She was the Dowager Countess of Mountrath as the widow of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath. They had one child, Elizabeth (c. 1669–1754), who married James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn.{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|p=[https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo01coka/page/6 6, line 16]|ps=: "He [Abercorn] m. (Lic. at Fac. off 24 January 1683/4) Elizabeth (then aged about 15), only child of Robert Reading, of Dublin, Bart. (so created 1675) ..."}}
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1671.{{cite web|url=http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27Reading%27%29|title= Library and Archive catalogue|publisher= The Royal Society|accessdate= 4 October 2010}} He was made 1st Baronet Reading of Dublin on 27 August 1675.{{cite web|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/baronetage/baronetsR1.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501225200/http://www.leighrayment.com/baronetage/baronetsR1.htm|archive-date=1 May 2008|title= The Baronetage|publisher=peerage.com|url-status=usurped|accessdate= 4 October 2010}}
On his death, he was buried in Newark, Nottinghamshire.
Lighthouses
The lighthouses built by Robert Reading were at Howth Head, the Howth bar, the Old Head of Kinsale, Charles Fort (formerly Barry Oge's castle), Hook Head and the Isle of Magee near Carlingford, County Louth.[http://www.cil.ie/sh675x4523.html A Brief History of Irish Lights] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203021858/http://www.cil.ie/sh675x4523.html |date=2007-02-03 }}, The Commissioners of Irish Lights, retrieved 24 September 2009 The Howth bar and Isle of Magee lights did not last long, though the latter was re-established on the Lesser Copeland Island. These lighthouses all had coal fires on their roofs.
In 1704 the lighthouses were compulsorily transferred into public ownership.
References
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- {{citation|last=Cokayne |first=George Edward |author-link=George Cokayne |editor-last=Gibbs |editor-first=Vicary |editor-link=Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) |year=1910 |title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant |volume=1, Ab-Adam to Basing |edition=2 |publisher=St. Catherine Press |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo01coka/page/6}}
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Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Meath constituencies