Daniel and Susannah were thrifty New England Puritans, leading members of the Baptist denomination and parishioners of the widely known Elder Leland.

The cooking for Sunday always was done on Saturday, and the greater part of every Sunday, regardless of weather, was spent at church.

They and their children sat through a service of two hours in the morning, ate a generous lunch at the noon intermission, and were ready for another two hours' sermon in the afternoon, through all the heat of summer and the terrible cold of New England winter.
Susannah Read remained always a devout and consistent Baptist, but Daniel became, in later years, a thorough Universalist.

Murray, the founder of this church in England, had come to the Colonies before the Revolutionary War, and by the close of the century the Universalists were organized as a sect, holding general conventions and sending itinerants among the people in the villages and country.

Some of these doubtless had penetrated to Adams and converted Daniel Read, who was always liberal in his belief.