Thomas (Maid) Mead (1754 - 1835)

Born 9 Apr 1754 in Frederick County, Virginia

Husband of Sarah (Davis) Mead — married 11 Nov 1781 in Pittsylvania, Virginia, USA

Descendants

Died 14 Jan 1835 at age 80 in Pike County, Indiana, USA

Biography

Private Thomas (Maid) Mead served with 8th Virginia Regiment (1777), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Thomas Mead (or Maid ^[1]) was born 1 Apr. 1754 at Frederick County, Virginia, and he had two younger half-brothers: George Maide Wright (who may have been a full brother, adopted by his step-father) and William T. Wright.^[2]

Thomas's presumed elder brother James Maid/Meade was living with William Wright in the 1770 Pittsylvania County, Virginia tithable list. At the time, Thomas was too young to appear on the list, but it seems reasonable to suppose that he was also living with William Wright.

Thomas Maid/Mead enlisted in the Virginia Line from Pittsylvania County in February 1776; he served in Virginia and North Carolina regiments for the next six years, becoming a wagon master and a "forage master" in charge of obtaining supplies for the army. He was in the battles of Briar Creek (1779) and Guilford Courthouse (1781).^[3]

Thomas married Sarah Davis 1 Nov 1781 at Pittsylvania Co., Va. ^[4] She was the daughter of William Davis of Pittsylvania County; her brother Benjamin Davis was listed as surety on the marriage bond. It appears that Sarah was close to 30 years old at the time of her marriage^[5], which would help explain her marriage to a man of lower social status.

Thomas appears in the Pittsylvania County personal tax lists (listed as "Made," "Meade," and "Mead") from 1782 through 1786. On these lists he was always shown as owning two horses, except for 1786 (the last year that he appears on the Pittsylvania lists until 1796) when he owned three horses and a slave.

Thomas Mead appears in the Montgomery County personal tax lists from 1787 through 1789. In 1787 the number of horses is overwritten with a "zero," which seems to indicate that he wasn't taxed, presumably because he had just moved to Montgomery County. He is shown with two horses in 1788 and 1789. He doesn’t appear in the Montgomery County lists in 1790 -- the year that Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County.

Thomas “Maide” was mentioned in the 1790 will of his father-in-law William Davis: “I give to my son in law Thomas Maide the Money he owes me by bond and desire that the bond be cancelled.”^[6]

On 18 Sept. 1792, one Esau Bradley received a patent for 70 acres in Wythe County adjoining land owned by Thomas Mead, John Wilson, Peter Spangler, Sr., George Baugh, and James Cameron.^[7]

Thomas Mead appears on the first available Wythe County personal tax list in 1793, and appears every year thereafter (except 1796) through 1814, always with between two and five horses.

It appears that Thomas Mead was absent from the Wythe County tax list in 1796 because he was temporarily back in Pittsylvania County:

On 1 Oct. 1795 Thomas Maide “of Pittsylvania County” bought a tract of land on Meadow Branch (on the south side of the Bannister River) from Henry Westbrook and wife Mary of Pittsylvania County for 50 pounds. The deed mentions neighboring landowners Burwell Voden (apparently the father-in-law of Thomas’s half-brother George Maid Wright); Joseph Echels, deceased; and Robert Adams, deceased (apparently the father-in-law of Thomas's brother James).^[8] The deed doesn’t mention how many acres the tract contained, and it doesn’t mention the Bannister River, but when Thomas sold the land in 1801 the deed shows that the tract contained 164 acres on the south side of the Bannister River.

On 30 July 1796 Thomas Maid and his brother George Wright of Pittsylvania County sold a 150-acre (“more or less”) tract of land to William Wright (the half-brother of Thomas?) of Pittsylvania County for 80 pounds. The land bordered land owned by George Myers (like Thomas Maid a son-in-law of William Davis) as well as “Tunstall,” John Hall, and Jessee Carter.^[9] Witnesses were Hamilton White, Thomas Davis (presumably Thomas Maid’s brother-in-law), and Thomas Murdock.

On 7 Aug. 1796 Thomas Maide and George Wright of Pittsylvania County sold 50 acres (“more or less”) to John Hall, adjoining Hall’s own land, for 15 pounds. Witnesses were Richard Johnson, William Wright (presumably Thomas Maide’s half-brother who bought the land in the previously-mentioned deed), and Thomas Davis (presumably Thomas Maide’s brother-in-law).^[10]

From 1797 through 1801, Thomas Mead appears in the personal property tax lists in both Pittsylvania County and Wythe County. Thomas received a land patent in Wythe County in 1800 as shown by the following:

On 17 Nov. 1800 “THOMAS MEAD withdraws his entry of 40 acres made October 17, 1800; and as assignee of James McCampbell on a treasury warrant, enters 100 acres in company with John Spangler, John Sluss and Frederick Sluss adjoining an entry of 50 acres made October 27, 1800, joining Spangler, and James Wilson at the big spring.”[11] ^[11]

Thomas Mead appears one last time in the Pittsylvania land records, in 1801, when he sold the land that he had bought from Henry Westbrook in 1795. The deed shows that his wife Sarah (Sally) was also in Pittsylvania County at the time:

On 1 June 1801 Thomas Meade and wife Sally sold 164 acres (bought from Henry Westbrook) on the south side of the Bannister River to William Tunstall for 50 pounds. The land adjoined that of Elijah Adams, William Williams, and Burwell Vadin.^[12]

Thomas Mead’s eldest son William married Elizabeth Bates 28 Apr. 1807 in Wythe County.^[13]

Thomas's daughter “Caty Meede” married Jonathan White 16 Feb. 1809 in Wythe County.^[14] The marriage bond shows that Thomas Meade, identified as Catherine's father, entered into the surety bond with the groom.^[15]

Thomas "Mede" appears in the 1810 census in Wythe Co., Virginia; his family included 1 male under 10 (son Thomas, Jr.), 1 male 10-15 (son Robert C.), 1 male 15-26 (son Graves), 1 male over 45 (Thomas), 1 female under 10, 1 female 10-15, and 1 female over 45 (Sarah).

Listed below Thomas in the 1810 census was William "Mede," presumably Thomas's eldest son, with 1 male under 10 (son Adam?), 1 male 15-26 (William), and 1 female 15-26 (Elizabeth).

This son William Mead appears in the Wythe County tax lists every year from 1810 through 1828, always with either two or three horses, except for the last year, when he had four.^[16] He was in Hendrick Co., Indiana by 1831 and died there in 1842.

Thomas Mead appears in the 1793 Wythe County tax list, and for every year thereafter through 1814 except 1796.

There are other Meads in the Wythe County tax lists:

--Ebenezer Mead appears in 1809 and 1810 only.

--Joseph Mead appears in 1814, 1816, 1819, 1820, 1823, and 1826, usually with one horse.

--John Mead appears from 1824 through 1828, each year with one horse. He disappears from the tax lists in the same year that William Mead disappears. If he first appears in 1824 at the age of 21, then he was born about 1803.

--Thomas appears again from 1816 through 1822, each year with between two and four horses. It appears that, like his joint residence earlier in Pittsylvania and Wythe Counties, he was now maintaining homes in both Wythe County and Pike County, Indiana.

Thomas's pension application states that he lived in Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana after the end of his Revolutionary service. Thomas's presumed son Robert married Rebecca Duncan 18 Aug. 1815 in Mercer County, Kentucky.^[17]

In 1816 Thomas Mead was one of the early settlers of Pike County, Indiana, where he was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1818. ^[18]

The Pike County, Indiana General Index of Deeds shows Graves Mead, Davis Mead, and Robert C. Mead, and James M. Mead buying land in Petersburg between 1817 and 1819.^[19]

Thomas Mead appears in the 1820 census in Washington twp., Pike County, Indiana with one male 16-18 (son Thomas, Jr.), 1 male over 45 (Thomas); 1 female 16-26; and 1 female over 45 (Sarah).

On the same page in 1820 in Pike County, Indiana, next to each other appear Thomas’s sons Robert C. Mead and Graves Mead.

Thomas Mead was sued for slander by William Wright (presumably his half-brother), demanding $10,000 in damages, sometime in the 1820s. Wright lost the suit.^[20]

In the 1830 census in Pike County, Indiana appears Rebecca Mead, widow of Thomas’s son Robert. Thomas Mead doesn't appear in the 1830 census, but there is a male 70-80 and a female 60-70 in the household of Robert Johnson, Sr.; and the same pattern in the house of John Coonrad, Jr. Could one of these be Thomas and Sarah Mead living with a daughter's family?)

David, Thomas, and Stephen Mead, assignees of Hugh Sportsman, patented 160 acres of land in Pike county on 1 Oct. 1831. ^[21] Could this be Thomas Mead purchasing land in the names of his grandsons? Or is this an unrelated Mead family??

Thomas died 14 Jan. 1835 and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery in Petersburg, Pike County, Indiana. On 28 Jan. 1835 William "I." [should read "T."] Wright (Thomas's younger half-brother) was appointed administrator of Thomas's estate.^[22]

On 2 Feb. 1835 the Pike County Board of Commissioners duly noted Sally Mead’s testimony that Thomas Mead, revolutionary pensioner, died on January 14, and that Sally was his widow.^[23]

It appears that Sarah was living with her son Graves in 1840; his census listing that year shows Graves Meaid: 1 male 5-9; 1 male 20-29; 1 male 50-59 (Graves); 1 female under 5; 2 females 5-9; 1 female 15-19; 1 female 80-89 (mother Sarah).

This census record doesn’t show a wife for Graves, but it seems clear that Graves’ wife was the Polly Meade, daughter-in-law of Sarah, who on 27 Aug. 1842 testified on behalf of Sarah’s widow’s pension application. Polly testified that her husband had died 1 Oct. 1841.

Sarah was issued a certificate of pension in December 1843; it appears that all of her children in Pike County had predeceased her.^[24] It is claimed that she was buried in the same cemetery as her husband, in an unmarked grave. ^[25]

Sources

1. ↑ He used “Maid” early in life and “Mead(e) later in life. His 1833 pension application pointedly gives both spellings repeatedly.
2. ↑ Per pension application, including affidavits by George Maide Wright and William T. Wright.
3. ↑ Per 1833 pension application; scanned images of the entire file are available at ancestry.com and at fold3.com. The published version of Thomas's affidavit on pp. 317-18 of the History of Pike and Dubois Counties, Indiana is abridged and badly garbled.
4. ↑ Per marriage bond in Pittsylvania Courthouse marriage records, with matching copy of marriage license in Thomas and Sarah Mead’s pension file.
5. ↑ Per Sarah’s 1842 widow's pension application which gave her age as 90; the following year her age was given as 91.
6. ↑ A transcription of William Davis’s will is online at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapittsy/Davisgen.html , citing Pittsylvania County Deed and Will Book 11, p. 216.
7. ↑ Abstracts of Land Entries of Wythe Co., Virginia: entry books 1 and 2, July 27, 1790-December 27, 1803 (huge file), by Mary B. Kegley, p. 20.
8. ↑ Pittsylvania County Deed Book 10, p. 532. The description of the land is as follows: "beginning on the Meadow Branch on a Post Oak in Burwell Voden's line thence his line to Robert Adams's dec'd line thence his line to Joseph Echels dec'd line, thence his line to a red oak on the top of the white oak Mountain, thence a straight line to the Spring which the said Westbook at present uses, then down the Spring branch to the Meadow Branch and thence down the same to the beginning."
9. ↑ Pittsylvania County Land Records, Book 10, p. 441, abstracted at Carol Stephens' family tree .
10. ↑ Pittsylvania County Land Records, Book 10, p. 441, abstracted at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/t/e/Carol-V-Stephens/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0001.html . A transcript of the deed was sent by Robert N. Grant; the land’s boundaries are given as follows: “Beginning on said John Hall's line on a white oak, thence running on East course to Corner Post Oak, thence North to a Post Oak, thence West to a Corner black Oak, thence South to the beginning”
11. ↑ Kegley, Abstracts of Land Entries of Wythe Co., Virginia: entry books 1 and 2, July 27, 1790-December 27, 1803, p. 92; online (huge file) at https://dcms.lds.org/view/action/ieViewer.do?from_proxy=true&dps_pid=IE65774&dps_dvs=1321416518471~257&dps_pid=IE65774&change_lng=en
12. ↑ Pittsylvania County Deed Book 12, p. 372, abstracted at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/t/e/Carol-V-Stephens/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0001.html . The abstractor notes: “Sally unable to travel to court, witnesses went to her so she could relinquish her dower.” Witnesses were “Jn. White, W. Myers, Wm. Wimbish, Robt. Turnbull, Jr., Wm. White, Joseph Wright, J. Landsdown.”
13. ↑ Per Virginia Marriages 1740-1850 at ancestry.com
14. ↑ Per Virginia Marriages 1740-1850 at ancestry.com
15. ↑ A copy of the marriage bond has been passed down in the family of Kathy Penniston-Smith, who transcribed it.
16. ↑ Wythe County tax lists are at the subscription website http://www.binnsgenealogy.com/
17. ↑ Per Kentucky Marriages 1802-1850 at ancestry.com)
18. ↑ History of Pike and DuBois County, Indiana, p. 251, p. 289.
19. ↑ James M. Mead was a son of Robert C. Mead and therefore just a baby when land was bought in his name in 1820. Davis Mead appears in the Pike County grantee index in 1818 and 1832, but he doesn’t appear in the 1820 or 1830 census, but there was a Davis Mead in Howard County, Missouri in the 1830 census. Davis Mead was presumably the eldest son of Graves Mead, who bought land in Davis’s name.
20. ↑ [http://www.archive.org/details/historyofpikedub00good History of Pike and DuBois County, Indiana (1885), p. 303.
21. ↑ Per http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=0087-510&docClass=CV&sid=pfqsp2en.bnz#patentDetailsTabIndex=1
22. ↑ Pike County, Indiana Will Abstracts 1817-1895, p. 13. Sharon Woods of the Pike County Public Library visited the courthouse and discovered that all documents related to Thomas Mead's estate were missing at the time the estate files were microfilmed.
23. ↑ Pike County, Indiana Commissioners' Record, vol. 2 1825-1839, p. 91, photocopy sent by Sharon Woods of the Pike County Public Library.
24. ↑ Per widow's pension application; the only witnesses available to support her affidavit were her daughter-in-law Polly and her brother-in-law William Wright, who testified to the deaths of her children.
25. ↑ Pike County History Bicentennial Year 1776-1976, by Ruth McClellan, p. 163, which misidentifies her as "Lucy."

• "United States Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1818-1872," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WB-9G64?cc=2069831&wc=MXMQ-56D%3A355664601 : 22 September 2016), 7-vol G Revolutionary War pensioners > image 379 of 466; citing NARA microfilm publication T718 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1962).

• Service Record of Thomas Mead, shared by Fold3.com

Acknowledgments

Maid-5 was created by John Schmeeckle through the import of Mead White.ged on Jul 31, 2014.

WikiTree profile Mead-1047 created through the import of Erin Dunshee_s Family Tree.ged on Sep 23, 2012 by Erin Stover.