John Mead

John Mead, 1628-1699

John Mead was the second son of William Mead and Philippa. He was born in about 1628, but it is not known where. His older brother, Joseph, was christened on April 24, 1624, in Watford, Hertfordshire, but there is no record of John's baptism. In November 1626, "An infant of William Meades" was buried in Watford. This was probably "Mary Daughter of Willia Mede & Philippe his wife" who was born in March 1621/2.

After 1626, nothing else is definitely known of John Mead and his family until 1641, when William Mead was granted land in Stamford, Connecticut. Before that, sometime in the mid to late 1630s, the family - William and Philippa, and their children Joseph, John and Martha - sailed to America, probably landing at Boston. They may have stayed in the Boston area for a few years, before moving to Stamford. This is where we find the first definite record of them.

The town of Stamford was founded in the summer of 1641 by 28 men and their families from Wethersfield, who came under the leadership of Reverend Richard Denton. On December 7, 1641, a house lot and five acres of land, together with woodland, was granted to Willam Mayd (Mead). There is no record of the route William and his family took to Stamford, but they probably went the same way as the other early settlers, from Boston going west to the Connecticut River and south along the river by way of Wethersfield to Stamford.

John Mead grew up in Stamford, where there are a few records of him as a young man. On May 26, 1656, John Mead, of Stamford, entered an action in a case against Richard Law of Stamford. On the same day Richard Law and John Waterbury complained of John. On March 27, 1657, John Mead presented a petition asking the court to remit a fine of ten pounds laid upon him the previous year.

In the spring of 1657, John moved to Hempstead, Long Island, which had been founded by some families from Stamford in 1644. In a tax record of 1658 in Hempstead, John had two milch cows.

In about 1657, John married Hannah Potter, the daughter of William Potter of Stamford. Hannah's father later owned Shippan Point in Stamford, and through her John received a considerable amount of property.

In the fall of 1660, John moved back across Long Island Sound to Old Greenwich, now known as Sound Beach. On October 26, 1660, he purchased some houses and land from Richard Crab of Greenwich. The property consisted of the house that Richard Crab lived in, a house that Thomas Studwell lived in, a barn, the home lot and eighteen acres in Elizabeth Neck. In the same transaction John also bought 14 acres of meadow in Elizabeth Neck and Mianus Neck. The deed was witnessed by Adam Mott and Robert Williams.

John Mead made another purchase on December 21, 1661, when he bought a parcel of land from Thomas Studwell. And on December 30, 1670, he was granted part of the lowermost meadows lying south of the Westchester Path.

Greenwich was incorporated as a township in 1665 at a session of the General Court held at Hartford. John Mead was one of the original proprietors

The first settlement of Old Greenwich had been at Elizabeth Neck. In May 1669, a committee including John Mead was appointed to survey Horseneck to the west to see if it would be a suitable place for settlement. In 1670 another committee, with John Mead again on it, was appointed to "lay out a township upon the land lying near Horseneck brook to the number of 30 lots, four acres to a home lot, if the tract will bear it, and be mindful for a piece of land for a common where it is most meet." They then obtained title to the land from the Indians.

The original owners of Horseneck, today the center of Greenwich, were called the "27 Proprietors of 1672". Among the 27 proprietors were John Mead and his brother Joseph.

In 1670 John Mead was made a freeman of Greenwich by the assembly. He was a member of the assembly in 1679, 1680 and 1686.

In 1691 the town voted to build a new meeting house, and John Mead and his son John were amongst those chosen to procure materials and build the house. It was built on a small rise northwest of the old burying ground at Old Greenwich, near where the present First Congregational Church now stands.

John Mead died on February 5, 1698/9. In his will, written on the 16^th of March, 1695/6, he left considerable amounts of land to his surviving sons Joseph, Ebenezer, Jonathan, David, Benjamin, Nathaniel and Samuel, and to his grandson John, the son of his son John. He also left five shillings to each of his children. The overseers of his will were his sons Joseph, Ebenezer and Benjamin.

A story is told about John Mead that shows something about his character. I'm not exactly sure what it shows, but I will repeat the anecdote and leave it to you to decide. One day, when John was quite an old man of almost 70, he was riding on horseback to the mill at Dumpling Pond to fetch his grist. Before he reached the Mianus River, he overtook an elderly Quaker man walking slowly, loaded down with a heavy pack. In a spirit of kindness he offered to take the Quaker's load on his horse. "No," said the Quaker, "thou cannot have my bundle, for I can read men's minds. Thou want my bundle and then thou shalt run off with it."

"Very well," John replied and they went on together. Soon they came to the bank of the Mianus River. Here the Quaker was in trouble, since it would be very hard for him to cross the waist-deep river with his heavy bundle. Again John offered his assistance, and this time the Quaker accepted. He climbed on behind, and they put his bundle on the horse's neck in front of John. When they reached the middle of the river, John reached down, pretending to adjust the stirrup. He grabbed the Quaker by the heel and threw him into the river.

The Quaker man was extremely angry at this treatment. With stones in his hands, he threatened revenge - except that John threatened to throw his bundle into the water as well. John now informed the man that he had done it for his own good. He said that he hoped the man would never again claim to be able to read men's thoughts. "I asked you to ride, kindly in the first place," he said. "But you refused. But the second time I asked, I really intended to do as I have done." With that he tossed the bundle to the man and rode away.

It is supposed that John Mead is buried in the old burying ground on Greenwich Point, but all traces of this burial place have long since disappeared.