On Aug. 14, 1670, William Penn, Gent., and William Mead, linen draper, were arrested in London for preaching the Quaker faith and because they "unlawfully and tumultuously did assemble and congregate themselves together, to the disturbance of the peace of said lord the king."
Their trial was Sept. 3, 1970, in Old Bailey. The charge was "preaching to an unlawful, seditious and riotous assembly."
This case became a landmark in English and American jurisprudence, resulting in a decision in English law that jurors could return a verdict on the evidence in accordance with their oaths, without interference from judges or any other authority.
The trial was a farce. When they entered the courtroom, they removed their hats. The bailiff ordered them to put their hats back onto their heads -- so they could then be held in contempt of court for having their hats on. They were not allowed to read the indictment against them and were not even informed of the law they were charged with breaking. They were asked to incriminate themselves, to which William Mead replied, "It is a maxim in your own law, 'Nemo tenetur accusare seipsum,' which, if it be not true Latin, I am sure it is true English, 'That no man is bound to accuse himself.'"
The two men were finally removed from the courtroom to the bale-dock, where they could not hear the evidence against them or cross-examine the witnesses, and the jury was instructed to find them guilty as charged.
The jury, however, proved to be sympathetic. It found the two men not guilty of disturbing the peace. It was sent away to reconsider the verdict, and was locked up in Newgate Prison without food, water, tobacco or a chamber pot. Three more times, the jury went out and returned with the same verdict. Finally, it was locked up and each member was fined 40 marks.
Throughout the whole process, Penn and Mead remained in jail for contempt of court. Later, a writ of habeas corpus won freedom for the jurors. And, in the end, the King's Bench decided that a jury could not be punished for its verdict.
William Mead was from Buckinghamshire
William Mead was born in Soulbury, Buckinghamshire, and baptized there on Nov. 14, 1627, the son of Richard Mead and Joan. The Mead family had lived in Soulbury and neighboring villages at least since the beginning of the 16th century -- and probably "from that time of which no mind is."
In 1522, Richard Mead of Soulbury was listed in the Buckinghamshire muster rolls. In 1525, he was assessed for the lay subsidy on property worth four pounds. In 1558, William Mead of Bragenham, Soulbury, probably Richard's son, left a will in which he named his wife Elizabeth, sons Richard, Walter and Henry, and daughters Agnes and Alice.
Richard married Elizabeth Deverill in 1576 and their son, Richard, had another son named Richard, born about 1605. This Richard was the father of William Mead and his brothers -- Richard, Matthew, John, Thomas and Samuel.
William Mead married and lost his first wife, Mary Lawrence, in 1679. A child, Jonathan, died in 1680. In 1681, he married Sarah Fell, the fourth daughter of Judge Thomas Fell. Judge Fell had died in 1658, and Margaret, his widow, in 1669 married George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends. Mead, by his marriage with Sarah, thus became George Fox's son-in-law. Sarah was an eloquent preacher, a good Hebrew scholar and a correspondent of William Penn. George Fox was a frequent visitor, and in his journal frequently refers to "Mead".
William Mead, by his will, left to Nathaniel Mead, his "dear and only child," his estates in London, Middlesex, kent, Essex and Surrey, and many legacies to the poor among Quakers and others. He died at his manor of Goosehays, about three miles from Romford in Essex, on April 3, 1713, aged 86, and was buried in the Friends' Cemetary at Barking.
Still another William Mead
William Mead, a Quaker, is the immigrant ancestor of the Mead family of Loudoun County, Va. In the past, it has been that this William Mead was closely related to William Mead, the companion of William Penn. The most commonly suggested kinship is that he was the son of William's brother, Matthew Mead, a minister at the Congregational church at Stepney in the East End of London.
While it is possible William Mead of Virginia and William Mead of London were somehow related, it is safe to say that the former was not the son of Matthew Mead. It is true, Matthew had a son named William, baptized at Stepney in 1658, but William Mead was buried in the Temple churchyard in the Middle Temple on Thursday, June 19, 1729. There were, of course, many William Meads, but also buried in Temple churchyard were Samuel Mead, a member of the Middle Temple, on Easter Sunday, March 25, 1733; Richard Mead, the physician to King George II, on Saturday, Feb. 23, 1754; and James Mead, on Feb. 16. These last three are definitely the sons of Matthew Mead, so it seems quite certain the William Mead, buried with them, was there elder brother.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The motto across the top of the nameplate is one of the many popular sayings attributed to William Penn.)
'E' may be clue to your roots
Descendants of John Mead are most in number
By LEE MEADE
If you're a member of the extended Mead-e family in the United States, it may be quite easy to determine your American roots just by looking at the spelling of your surname.
"Mead" or "Meade"?
Both lines originate in England, and both probably come down from progenitors William and Goodman Mead, believed to be the forefathers of the Meads of Connecticut and the Meads of Massachusetts, respectively.
For nearly 400 years, it has been thought William and Goodman, or Gabriel, as he has been known, were brothers and came to the American colonies together as passengers on the British ship, Elizabeth, under Capt. Stagg about May 1635.
That theory, put forth by Dr. Spencer Mead, the foremost genealogist of the Mead family, when he published his book, The History of the Mead Family in America, in 1901, held up until just recently. It was accepted as a basis for the Mead family tree by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and has been the foundation on which many genealogical records for Meads across the world has been built.
Then, Gordon L. Remington wrote in The American Genealogist in 1998 his findings that the two Meads were not brothers, probably were not related at all and did not come from Lydd, County Kent. William was born on Dec. 27, 1592, in Watford, Hertfordshire, the son of Priscilla Mead (masculine name) and Dorothy Grey. Remington did not trace Gabriel's birth, but he was not a member of the same family as William, and, in fact, spelled his surname Meades. Gabriel is believed to have been born in 1588 in Wisbeach near London.
A further source of contradiction is the name of either William or Gabriel fails to appear on an inconclusive list of 85 passengers who were among those who sailed from Lydd aboard the Elizabeth.
The earliest recorded mentions of the two Meads were when Gabriel was named a "freeman" on May 2, 1638, in Dorchester and William was granted "a homelot and five acres of land" on Dec. 7, 1641, as one of the early founders of the Town of Stamford, Ct.
How they got to the American colonies with their families remains an unanswered question for today's genealogists to solve. But, Gabriel and William seem to be the starting point for all of the Meads or Meades in the U.S.
Gabriel's descendants mostly stayed in Massachusetts, although some settled in New Hampshire and Maine. William's children and grandchildren moved from Connecticut to New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and into the Midwest.
In time, there were other Meades in Philadelphia, including the ancestors of Gen. George Gordon Meade, and Meades in Virginia, where Col. Richard Kidder Meade, a member of Gen. George Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War, settled. There was also a William Meade, no relation to the Connecticut line, in Virginia. He was a prominent bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
It is believed both the Philadelphia Meades and the Virginia Meades originally came from Kerry County in Ireland. They had spelled their name Meagh, but changed it when they arrived in America.
So, what about the final "e"? It was added spontaneously by Joseph, William's great grandson. Then, after being dropped for a generation, it was picked up again and carried in the migration across Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
If your surname is Mead, it is likely you begin your pedigree in America: William (1), John (2). If you spell it Meade, the line probably runs: William (1), Joseph (2).
John Mead and his wife, Hannah Potter, gave the line a prodigious beginning by parenting 11 children -- eight of them boys to carry on tyhe family name. They were John II, Joseph, Ebenezer, Jonathan, David, Benjamin, Nathaniel and Samuel. The three girls were Hannah, Abigail and Mary.
Their children and their grand-children led the family's move to Nine Partners in Dutchess County, N.Y.; to Rutland, Vt., and into western Pennsylvania where they founded the town of Meadville.
Joseph Mead's descendants, who began the use of the final "e" in their name, moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York state and settled near Auburn.
Timothy, the fourth son of Jonathan Mead, took his family from Connecticut to Nine Partners, so-called because there were nine families in number. One of his sons, James, then struck out for Vermont, settling near Rutland.
They are said to have been the first white people in Vermont and their son, William, born Sept. 24, 1770, is believed to have been the first-born in the state.
After he grew up, William told a story of clinging to his mother's back as they rode on horseback to safety during the Battleton of Bennington. With Indians in pursuit, she clutched a younger son to her bosom. The family moved from Vermont into Ohio, further spreading the migration of the Meads across the nation.
David Mead was a grandson of Darius and had also lived in Nine Partners. He led the exploration of western Pennsylvania and was instrumental in the founding of Meadville.
A book, David Mead, Pennsylvania's Last Frontiersman by Robert D. Ilisevich, is a biography of his agonizing and troubled life as he challenged the savage wilderness to establish a pioneer civilization.
Gen. George Gordon Meade remains one of the most heralded members of the family. He was the commander of the Union forces in the historic Battle of Gettysburg, generally considered to be the turning point in the Civil War. Although Meade remained in charge of the Union army until the end of the war, Gen. Ulysses Grant took over operations following Gettysburg and pursued Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to his eventual surrender at Appomatox, Va.
Meade's was born in Cadiz, Spain, where his father was a U.S. naval agent. His grandparents has come to the American colonies from Ireland.
In Virginia, the history of the Meade family is just as colorful. Indian princess Pocahontas was related to the Virginia Meades through marriage. As near as can be established, there are no direct lines connecting the Virginia Meades with the Connecticut or Massachusetts Meads, although a few of John Meads family lived in the southern states.
Living under 'Capitall Lawes' of 1642 Connecticut was tough
If you don't believe life was tough in the early New England colonies, consider these "Capitall Lawes" established by the General Court of Connecticut in December 1642:
1. Yf any man after legall conuiction shall hauve or worship any other God but the Lord God, he shall be put to death. Deu: 13-6, and 17.2; Ex: 22.20.
2. Yf any man or woman be a witch (that is) hath or consulteth wth a familliar spirit, they shall be put to death. Ex: 22.18; Lev: 20.27; Deu: 18-10, 11.
3. Yf any person shall blaspheme the name of God the Father, Son or Holy Goste, with direct, express, prsumptuous, or highhanded blasphemy, or shall curse God in the like manner, he shall be put to death. Leu: 24.15, 16.
4. Yf any prson shall comitt any willfull murther, wch is manslaughter comitted vppon malice, hatred or cruelty, not in a mans necessary and just defence, nor by mere casualty against his will, he shall be put to death. Ex: 21-12, 13, 14; Num: 35.30, 31.
5. Yf any person shall slay another through guile, ether by poysonings or other such divillishe practice, he shall be put to death. Ex: 21.14.
6. Yf any man or woman shall ly with any beast or bruit creature, by carnall copulation, they shall surely be put to death, and the beast shall be slayne and buried. Leu: 20.15, 16.
7. Yf any man lye with mankynd as he lyeth wth a woman both of them haue comitted abomination, they both shall surely be put to death. Leu: 20, 13.
8. Yf any prson comitteth adultery wth a married or espoused wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. Deu: 22.25.
9. Yf any man shall forceably and without consent rauishe any mayd or woman that is lawfully married or contracted, he shall be put to death. Deu: 22.25.
10. Yf any man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall be put to death. Ex: 21.16.
11. Yf any man rise vp by false witness, wittingly and of purpose to take away any mans life, he shall be putt to death. Deu: 19, 16, 18, 19.
12. Yf any man shall conspire or attempte any inussion, insurrection or rebellion against the Common Welth, he shall be put to death.
... this and that
"THANK YOU" for your response to our first issue of the mead-e family tree. For us, it represents an opportunity for us to share our research with each of you. For you, it is one more vehicle for you to use in seeking answers to questions that have popped up during your own quest for the interesting information that lays locked in your own family's past.
We're still experimenting with the concept of publishing an electronic newsletter. We hope we'll be able to find more contributors to our editorial material on topics that catch your curiosity. If you have ideas for stories, please let us know. Or, if you are a budding author and have an article to submit for publication, let us hear from you. Send your suggestions to me at: leemeade@meadnewsletter .
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COMING UP
THE NEXT NEWSLETTER is scheduled to be online in October 2003. By then, I will have had the time to walk a few cemeteries and attend a couple of family reunions in Minnesota and South Dakota. Vance Mead will have completed his annual genealogical pilgrimage to England and, more than likely will have some new gleanings about the lives of Mead and Meade ancestors in the 15th and 16th centuries.
A couple of this issue's articles were updated from our printed newsletter of the mid-1990s. We have another in mind that explores the early wanderings of William Mead's two sons -- Joseph and John -- when they lent a helping hand to the establishment of Hempstead, Long Island, and struck out on their own to become founders of Greenwich, Conn.
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SOME OF THIS, SOME OF THAT
WE'RE STILL LOOKING for some help in locating that rumored Company of Meads from the Revolutionary War ... Reportedly, it was organized in Vermont and headed by Capt. David Mead, who went on to become a general in the Pennsylvania state militia ... It may have had ties to Royal Mead of Janesville, Wis. ... If you have information, please contact the editor at Mead-efamilytree@meadnewsletter.com ... I don't know about you, but, personally, I'm glad to see more and more Mead/Meade researchers correcting their family trees to show our progenitor, William, came from Watford in County Hertfordshire and not Lydd, Kent, as had been speculated for the past 100 years ... Philippa Kilvey is becoming the choice as William's wife, also, although her mention in the records remains scarce ...
HOW ABOUT the 19th Century? ... As our roots spread out, it is just as difficult to keep track of the growth of 19th Century families as it is to dig deeper into the reaches of the earlier years ... We'd like to have some reports on the Mead-e migration into the Northeast, the Midwest and the South, if you would share your findings and research with us ... The e-mail address above will reach us for queries, suggestions or stories about the branches on your tree ...
E-MAIL US AT: www.meadnewsletter.com WRITE US AT: Lee Meade, PO Box 7974, Horseshoe Bay, TX 78657-7974
