[Father] Mead

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Husband [Father] Mead

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Wife

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Children

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1 M William Mead ¹

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           Born: Abt 1600 - ? England
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           Died: Abt 1663 - Stamford, Fairfield Co, CT
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         Spouse: Ruth Hardy (      -1657) 1
           Marr: Abt 1625

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2 M John Mead ¹

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3 M Gabriel Mead ²

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General Notes: Husband - [Father] Mead

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The Mead family came originally from Devonshire to the County of Essex, England, during the reign of Henry VI., A. D. 1422, and first settled in Elmdon. There appears to have been eight distinguished fami-lies of the name in England, known by their respective coats-of-arms, four bearing the pelican and four the trefoil as their heraldic designs. Of the distinguished individuals who appeared among these English families were Rev. Matthew Mead, a celebrated divine in the reign of Charles I., and his son, Dr. Richard Mead, who was appointed Physician in Ordinary by King George II., and who first practiced inocculation in England. The name is spelled with and without the final "e." The descendants of the Irish branch of the family, from whom the Meads of Virginia are derived, always used the final "e." The first record of any of the name in this country is the following, among the Stamford, Connecticut, town records: "December 7th, 1641, William Mayd received from the town of Stamford a house lot and five acres of land."

The earliest traces of the Mead family are to be found in a history of "The Norman people and their existing de-scendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America," published in Lon-don, England, 1874. From this volume it ap-pears that the name Mead is the English form of the Norman "De Poato" which translated into English is Mead, Meade, Mede and Meads. In 1635 there arrived in Massachu-setts many ships from England, and among these arrivals is found the name of "Good-man" Mead (called Gabriel Mead). He is the ancestor of the Massachusetts family. The most recent discoveries strongly indicate that he was accompanied by his brother, William Mead, ancestor of the Greenwich, Connecticut, Meads from whom the family in Franklin, Pennsylvania, descend.
William and "Goodman" Mead sailed from Lydd, county of Kent, England, in the ship "Elizabeth" in April, 1635. The Mead coat--of-arms to which it is believed they were en-titled is thus described: Sable a chevron be-tween three pelicans, or vuln gules. Crest: An eagle displayed. Motto: Semper paratus. Always ready. "Goodman" Mead remained in Massachusetts but William followed the tide of emigration which at that time was toward the Connecticut Valley. The first English set-tlement was made at Windsor in 1633 and an-other settlement was made at about the same time at Wethersfield where William Mead set-tled first. In 1641 he removed with others from Weathersfield to Stamford. On Decem-ber 7, 1641, "William Mayd (Mead) received from the town of Stamford a home lot and five acres of land." This William is the ancestor of the Fairfield county, Connecticut, family, although family tradition declares that John Mead was also one of those whose descend-ants settled in eastern New York, western Ver-mont and Meadville, Pennsylvania. [GPHAV, 441]

1 Samuel P. Bates, LL.D., Our County and Its People, A Historical and Memorial Record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (W. A. Fergusson & Co., 1899), Pg 135.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 723.