By, Bill Poole
Abner Mead was only 20 years old when he hurried onto Lexington Common on the morning of April 19, 1775 responding to the insistent beat of William Diamond’s drum, but his family had been in America for some six generations. There is still disagreement about the origin of Abner’s ancestor, Gabriel Mead, the first member of the family to come to Massachusetts. Some who have attempted to determine Gabriel’s English origins claim that he was born in Lydd, Kent, England in 1587, the son of either William or Richard Meades and they then trace the family back several generations in Kent, Cambridgeshire, Somerset or Hertfordshire to ancestors whose names hint at both Welsh and Norman French origins. Others place the family’s origins in Wedmore, Somerset, England.1
Others, whose findings we will present here in greater detail because of numerous source citations, have Gabriel originating in Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, England, the son of Thomas Meades who was born about 1550. Thomas was probably not born in Henley since there are no records of Meades listed in Henley or any of the surrounding parishes prior to that date. Thomas, a weaver, lived in a part of the town called Beggaridge where he was a member of Saint Mary’s Church. On May 25, 1578 he married Emlin Carter and they had four children.2
1. John, b. May 25, 1578,
2. Andrew b. about 1582,
3. Edward b. December 19, 1585, and
4. Gabriel born October 4, 1590.
Emlin Meades died in November of 1612 and was buried in Henley on November 15, 1612. A short time later, Thomas married Ellinor or Elianor Thomas on February 1612/13. Thomas died in 1629 and was buried in Henley on August 29 of that year. His will dated March 23, 1623/24 mentions his wife and four children. In it he bequeaths a messuage or tenement in “Beggaridge in the parish of Henley” to his son John Meades, with the stipulation that “Elianor my nowe wife” have a one-third share. Elianor also received various household items such as bedding, linen, a bedstead, an iron pot and “all my pewter and brasse”. To his second son, Andrew Meades, he left the sum of twelve pence and bequeathed to his “third sonne Edward Meades the somme of Twenty and ffower pounde the wch hee nowe oweth unto mee.” Thomas left the rest of his estate, including goods, money, cattle and chattels, “to Gabriell Meades my youngest sonne whome I make and ordaine my sole Executor.”3
On July 17, 1628 Gabriel married Joan Frewin in Henley. Their first child, Abell, born December 16, 1629 was buried just four days later on December 20th. Their daughter Sarah was born August 30, 1632, and thereafter there are no records of other children born in Henley to the couple.4 Gabriel Meades, sometimes referred to as Goodman Meades, immigrated to America around 1635-36 and settled in Dorchester where he was made a freeman of the town on May 2, 1638. Along the way the final “s” was dropped from the name. Gabriel then fathered five additional children.5 The names of his children were:
1. Sarah, b. Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, England August 30, 1632; m, Dorchester, MA Samuel Eddy of Watertown, on September 30, 1664.
2. Israel, b. Dorchester in 1637; d. Lexington, August 16, 1711.
3. Lydia, b. ? m. James Burgess of Boston, October 19, 1652.
4. Experience, b. Dorchester, November 23, 1641; m. at Dorchester, December 4, 1663 Jabez Eaton.
5. Patience, b. Dorchester, January 29, 1646; m. at Dorchester, Matthew Evans February 28, 1669.
6. David, b. Cambridge, May 7, 1650; m. at Cambridge, Hannah Warren September 24, 1675; d. Woburn, October 1727.
Gabriel owned land in Dorchester “near the burrying place and the church” and was the custodian of the meetinghouse responsible among other duties for its cleaning and the ringing of the bells. The pay he received, as recorded in 1662, was 3£ per year barely enough to live on and it may have been that since he was over seventy in that year the position was a sinecure granted to him in his old age. Perhaps as additional evidence of this charitable gesture, his widow also was paid “three pounds to ring the bell in the meetinghouse.”6 Gabriel died March 12, 1666 and his will written in 1654 reads as follows:
I Gabriel Mead, of Dorchester, being aged & infirm in body, yet of perfect remembrance, doe make this my last will & testament. My will is that Joanna my wife be my sole executor & have y’ full dispose of all my estate for her own comfort & help to bring up my children while shee lives, & after her desease my will is y’ my sonne, Israel, shall have y’ house I now dwell in, with y’ orchard & apurtenance thereunto belonging. I give unto my sonne David, my old house and that orchard or garden thereunto adjoining, & also my plot of land being in ye field neer the burial place. I give unto my dau. Lydia, 30 pounds, to be paid as my wife shal be able, within two yeres after my desease. I give unto mu daus. Experience, Sarah and Patience, 30 pounds apiece. To be paid to them within one year after they shall be married, if they live soe to bee; and it is my mind that if either of my sons dye before they come to enjoy that before given them, or either of them, that then y’ same to be equally divided after my wifes desease to y’ rest of my children; also it is my mind & will, that if my wife shall by nessesity be forced to sell either part of y’ whole for maintnants of her selfe or children, while shee is a widow, y’ she shall power soe to doe with y’ advise off my friends after named; and in case shee should marry, then my mind is that my sons shall enjoy y’ former gifts when they shall attaine the age of one & twenye years. I intreat my loving Friends, Deacon Clap & ensigne Foster, to be overseers and to assist and advise my wife & children as need may require. January 15, 1654.7
Gabriel’s eldest son, Israel, moved to Watertown, but then returned to Dorchester where he joined the church on July 16, 1674. Not much more is known of him, but Charles Hudson in his History of Lexington suggests that he had a son also named Israel who was the individual who moved to that portion of Cambridge later called Cambridge Farms.8 This Israel was the direct ancestor of Abner Mead, the subject of this biography. The north precinct of Cambridge was organized as Cambridge Farms in 1691 and by the following year Israel’s name appeared on the tax bill for the payment of Minister Benjamin Estabrook’s salary from May 1, 1692 to May 1. 1693.9
Israel was listed as one of the original members of the new parish when it was formally established in 1696, and in 1700 he was also listed on the committee “to seat the meetinghouse gallery.” He died August 6, 1714. His will dated April 2, 1713 and proved September 20, 1714 mentioned his six surviving children and four grandchildren. He also remembered his spiritual advisor. “I do give unto Mr. John Hancock the Revd: Pastor of the Church of Christ In Lexington aforesd: twenty shillings mony.”10
Israel had married Mary Hall of Cambridge on February 26, 1669, and they had eight children.11
1. Thomas b. August 16, 1670.
2. John, b. about 1672.
3. Hannah, b. about 1674; d. Lexington, May 28, 1702
4. Margaret, b. February 20, 1676/77; m. Joseph Locke as his second wife; d. Lexington May 25, 1752
5. Stephen, b. about 1679; lived and died at Concord. In 1717 Thomas Mead was appointed guardian of Joseph, the only child of his brother Stephen. Who settled with his late guardian, his uncle Thomas, in 1734
6. Mary, b. February 10, 1682.
7. Ruth, b. August 10, 1684; d. unmarried October 3, 1726.
8. Ebenezer, b. May 10, 1686.
Thomas, the eldest son of Israel, married Hannah Smith of Cambridge January 31, 1695. She was born in Cambridge December 27, 1671 and was probably the Hannah Meade who died in Lexington, October 4, 1723 Thomas and his wife were admitted to the church in 1699 where they were assigned seats in 1700. He was one of the committee chosen to site the new meeting house, and he served as constable in 1704 and 1714. At this time it is not known when Thomas died. Their nine children were all born and baptized in Cambridge Farms/Lexington.12
1. Hannah, baptized May8, 1699; d. October 4, 1723.
2. Sarah, baptized May 8, 1699; d. unmarried June 22, 1745.
3. Thomas, baptized September 1700; probably went to Littleton.
4. Jonathan, baptized September 6, 1702
5. Israel, baptized April 16, 1704.
6. Samuel, baptized March 3, 1706; admitted to the church July 14, 1742, dismissed to the church at Harvard July 1, 1744. He resided there and had a family.
7. Mary, baptized October 16, 1709.
8. James, baptized April 8, 1711.
9. Cornelius, baptized January 3, 1713-14.
Cornelius, the youngest child of Thomas and Hasaniah, married Hannah Hadley on October 15, 1751. He and Hannah had four children including their oldest son, Abner, who would stand on Lexington Common on April 19, 1775.13 Cornelius died about 1759.
1. Sarah, b. September 20, 1753; baptized March, 1754; married November 11, 1779 Thomas Jones of Concord.
2. Abner, b. December 15, 1754.
3. Benoni, b. May 1, 1756; baptized January 31, 1757; died August 4, 1766.
4. Susannah, b. January 26, 1758; baptized April 30, 1758.
With the death of Cornelius, Hannah was left with four young children and possibly may have remarried but the vital records of Lexington are silent with respect to that possibility. Abner was fifteen when his father died and might have apprenticed to someone in town. His nearest Meade relatives was his second cousin Matthew. Matthew’s two sons Levi and Josiah who would both serve during the Revolutionary War would have been Abner’s third cousins. According to the 1774 Tax Assessment, Matthew was at the bottom of the top third of the Lexingtonians assessed, but with four children of his own probably would not have been able to provide much assistance to Hannah and her children. Perhaps additional research might reveal more about this period of Abner’s life.
Abner fortunately escaped injury during the engagement of April 19th and six days later, on April 25th, he was among those who swore depositions as to what had occurred on Lexington Common. Three days later on April 28, 1775 he joined Captain Benjamin Walker’s Company of Colonel Ebenezer Bridge’s 27th Massachusetts Regiment. He served in the regiment during the siege of Boston through December, 1775, and then immediately enlisted in Colonel Loammi Baldwin’s 26th Regiment of the newly organized Continental Army. Following the British Army’s evacuation of Boston in March of 1776, the 26th was transferred to New York where it became part of Major Israel Putnam’s division. The 26th was joined with three other Massachusetts Regiments to form a brigade commanded Brigadier General James
Clinton but in his absence by Colonel Joseph Read. It was composed of, the 26th, the 3rd Continentals under Colonel Ebenezer Learned, the 13th Continentals, Colonel Read’s own regiment, and the 23rd Continentals under the command of Colonel John Bailey.14
As a member of the 26th, Abner would may have been stationed on Long Island at the time of the battle there August 27 through 29, 1776, but he probably did not see any action. However, he would have been involved in the amphibious evacuation of Washington’s army from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan, carried out by Colonel John Glover’s regiment of Marblehead and Salem seamen on the night of August 29-30. General Putnam’s division then remained in New York City guarding the East River up as far as Fifteenth Street.15 When the British launched an attack at Kip’s Bay flanking Putnam’s position, the division was forced into a precipitous retreat abandoning all its equipment. Abner’s name appears on an account dated September 14, 1776 “for articles lost at the evacuation of New York.”16
Thereafter, we are unsure of Abner’s further military service. The pay abstract that allowed for travel and expenses for members of the 26th Regiment for the year 1776 simply lists Abner “as reported deceased” with the money due to him receipted by his commanding officer, Captain John Wood.17 Thus, sometime before the end of 1776 it appears that Abner died in service to both his town and to the newly established nation to which he had sworn allegiance only a few months before.
Footnotes
1For example, see at Ancestry.com Hovey Family Tree; Vicky May Barnes Family Tree; Matisso-Moores and Related Families, and the Russell Family Tree. Also see http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mead-96; and https://www.google.com/#q=William+Meade+Lydd%2C+Kent;Friday.
2Meade Family History at https://sites.google.com/site/meadfamilyhistory/home/family/gabriel-meades.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5 Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Provo, Utah, Ancestry.com
6Dorchester Historical and Antiquarian Society, History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Boston, Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., 1859, pp. 130, 193 and 207..
7Meade Family History.
8History of the Town of Dorchester, p. 130; Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts from Its First Settlement to 1868, Revised and Continued to 1912, Two Volumes, Lexington Historical Society, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1913. Volume II, Genealogies, p. 414.
9Hudson, p. 414.
10Ibid.
11Ibid., pp. 414-15.
12Ibid., p.415.
13Ibid., p. 416.
14 Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, A Compilation from the Archives, Seventeen volumes, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston, 1896,, Vol. X, pp. 578, 583; Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn. Including a New and Circumstantial Account of the battle of Long Island and the Loss of New York, with a Review of Events to the Close of the War, Containing Maps, Portraits and Documents, Brooklyn Historical society, Brooklyn, NY, 1878, p. 127.
15The Campaign of 1776, p. 228.
16Soldiers and Sailors, Volume X, p. 599.
17Ibid., p. 578