Joseph Mead

          The best link of the Mead Family to England may lie with the oldest son of William Mead, Joseph.  By his own testimony in court in New haven, Joseph has indicated he was born in England in the year 1630.  He was the quiet one beside his controversial sister, Martha, and his strong-minded younger brother John.  In fact, it appears he spent much of his adult life looking after them and representing them before the colonial magistrates in one case after another. 

          There is nothing to indicate Joseph was a barrister or had any legal training as an attorney, but the seems to have taken on that role and was a public servant in Hempstead, Long Island, and Greenwich, Connecticut.

          He represented Martha in her controversial rape trial in the mid-1650s and he appeared as an attorney for John on more than one occasion.  He also was frequently consulted by neighbors in the Stamford area to arbitrate disputes.

          After Martha lost her case, the family split up.  Martha and her first husband, John Richardson, moved to nearby Westchester County, New York, while Joseph and John, with their families, moved to Long Island where a group of Stamford citizens had earlier established the town of Hempstead.  William and his wife remained in Stamford.

          Joseph was an “assistant justice of Hempstead: in 1658 and town records indicate he paid taxes of “3 milch cows, taxes 41 proportion” in Hempstead that same year.

          However the Mead boys apparently preferred Connecticut and they returned to Stamford as early as the end of 1658 or early 1659.  their mother passed away from malaria in 1657 and Joseph may have gone back to care for his aging father.  At any rate, records indicate the Town of Hempstead paid Joseph nine shillings in 1659 to make a trip “from Stamford to Fairfield” to find a minister for Hempstead.  On the trip, he contacted a Rev. Wakeman, but there is nothing to indicate whether his efforts were successful.  The trip seems to support the belief Joseph had returned to Connecticut from Long Island.  Had he still been living in Hempstead, the expenses would have been “from Hempstead to Fairfield.”  Also in Stamford, since their father’s home was there, Joseph and his family would had had a house in which to live.

          Court records in 1659 and 1660 again indicate Joseph appeared before the magistrates in New Haven.  In the first instance, he testified he born in 1630.  On October 17, 1660, he appeared in court as “attorney” for Abraham Frost.

          The Meads remained somewhat estranged from the people of Stamford, possibly because of Martha’s highly publicized trial, and seemed to be looking for greener grass.  They found it just west of town in an area known as Horseneck.  It eventually would be renamed Greenwich.

          John was probably the better businessman of the two brothers and had access to more money than Joseph as a result of his marriage to Hannah Potter, the daughter of a wealthy pioneer settler in Stamford.  At one time, Potter owned much of Shippan Point, today a prime piece of Stamford real estate.  John purchased the land of Richard Crabb on October 26, 1660, and established the new settlement.  In the agreement, John listed his residence as Hempstead, so it is probably only Joseph had returned to Stamford earlier.  But shortly after John’s acquisition, Joseph left Stamford and moved his father to horseneck.

          The Meads were very active in the development of Greenwich.  In 1662, Joseph was among a small group declared to be “a freeman of the Colony of the Connecticut by the Assembly.”  A Mr. Gould was authorized “to give them ye oath of freedom, at ye next court of Fairfield.” 

          Joseph was a representative from Greenwich to the Colonial Assembly from 1669 – 1671.  In Greenwich Town Records in 1672, he is listed among the first 27 proprietors of Horseneck (Greenwich). 

          Joseph died on May 3, 1690, at the age of 60.  A “Petition of ye widow and children of Joseph Mead, of Greenwich, who died without will May 3, 1690” was filed “by ye advise of our louving Unckle, John Mead, Sr.”  The petition was signed by Joseph Mead, Daniel Mead, Elisha Mead, and Mary Mead (her mark).  In addition to the children who sighed the will, Joseph also had Zachariah, Richard, and Mary.  It is not certain whether the petition was signed by Mary his daughter, or Mary his wife.  But since it refers to the “advice of our louving Unckle,” it probably was the daughter.  Transcriber’s Note:  Unclear.  Did Lee Meade mean to refer to John and his wife Mary, rather than Joseph?  Joseph was married to Hannah.  Did he have two wives?

          Joseph’s oldest son, Zachariah, died single.  Good records are available for the second son, Joseph II, continuing to the present day and including Lee L. Meade Sr., editor and publisher of the Mead-e Family Tree newsletter.  Sons Daniel and Richard may have lived near Lake Waccabuc in Westchester County, N.Y., and are believed to be the ancestors of many of the Meads of Westchester County.    The descendants of the fourth child, Elisha, also had been unknown until recently when a line traced his family to Gibson County in Indiana, where a fifth generation son, Stephen, received a grant of land for service in the War of 1812.  The line has been extended to present-day.