Surname Saturday – Mead

MEAD

I haven’t been able to find origins or parents for Nicholas Mead, who died after 1720 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  He is first recorded in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1680.  A census in Bristol 1688/9 shows 6 children.    Nicholas Mead shows up in Greenland, New Hampshire in 1699 leasing a farm.  He was a tanner, and in 1701 his tanning yard was taxed in Portsmouth.   He bought a tannery in Berwick, Maine in 1713.  By 1716 he was in prison for debt, and again in 1717 in Berwick.  Three more children were baptized in Portsmouth.   I don’t know his wife’s maiden name.

In the second generation, Thomas Mead, my 6x great grandfather, left a will proved in 1759 that names his Wilkinson grandchildren.  This was a brickwall breaker for me, and helped to prove my Mead lineage.  Thomas’s wife, Hannah Stilson alias Anne Marie , was born and baptized in Quebec, Canada to two famous captives taken from New Hampshire in 1703.  Much was written about the Stilson family, which helped me to piece together this line. I'll write more about that soon when I do the Stilson family on another Surname Saturday post. 

Generation 1.  Nicholas Mead, died after 1720; married to Elizabeth, maiden name unknown.  Nine children:

            1. Joseph; m. Mary Deverson 25 February 1714; m. Ruth Moses about 1748

            2. Thomas, see below

            3. Susanna, b. 5 September 1679 Charlestown, Rhode Island

            4. Elizabeth, b. 14 August 1681, Charlestown; m. Joseph Dennett 1703; m. Samuel Hewey 1718

            5. Ebenezer, b. 22 March 1686, Bristol, Rhode Island

            6. Katherine, bap. 10 July 1687, Bristol

            7. John, bap 13 May 1688, Bristol; m. Hannah Cotton 1708

            8. Benjamin, b. 9 Jan 1693 Kittery, Maine; m. Judith Lord 1717

            9. Nicholas, b. before 1699

Generation 2.  Thomas Mead, died between 13 June and 26 September 1759 when his will was proved, probably in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; married on 2 May 1725 in New Castle, New Hampshire to Hannah Stilson, daughter of James Stilson and Hannah Anne Odiorne, born 2 August 1706 in Quebec, Canada, died 1776 in New Castle.  Five children:

            1. Margaret,

            2. James, born about 1728

            3. Joseph, born about 1728, died 1810 Pigwacket, now Fryeburg, Maine

            4. Hannah, see below

            5. Anna, born about 1745

Generation 3. Hannah Mead, born 9 August 1730 in Wakefield, New Hampshire, died before 1759; married about 1753 to James Wilkinson, son of Thomas Wilkinson and Elizabeth Caverly, born about 1730 in Berwick, Maine, died between 1796 and 1805 in Berwick. Seven children.

Generation 4. William Wilkinson and Mercy Nason

Generation 5. Aaron Wilkinson and Mercy F. Wilson

Generation 6. Robert Wilson Wilkinson and Phebe Cross Munroe

Generation 7. Albert Munroe Wilkinson and Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 8. Donald Munroe Wilkinson and Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

There has been no book written up on the Mead family of New Hampshire, nor any major articles in genealogical journals.  Most of the information I have found was gleaned from vital records, the New Hampshire State Papers, or probate.   There is a website for Stilson family information at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~stilsongeneology/stilsonbk5.html and a book for the Odiorne family Genealogy of the Odiorne Family in America, by John Creighton, 1875 revised by David Walter Odiorne in 1975.

See my blog post about the Wilkinson line at this link http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/surname-saturday-wilkinson.html  

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To Cite/Link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday – Mead", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 8, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/10/surname-saturday-mead.html: accessed [access date]).