Wiliam Mease (abt. 1574 - abt. 1637)

Born about 1574 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Mayes — married 1605 (to 1615) in Essex or London, England

Husband of Margery (Unknown) Mayes — married 1620 (to 1634) in Jamestown, Virginia

Descendants

Died about 1637 at about age 63 in Virginia

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Biography

Biographical Information from Family History and Related Sources

According to a thoroughly researched family history by Edward Mayes^[1] -- a law professor and Chancellor at the University of Mississippi, later a probate judge, in the late 19th century -- William Mease (or Mays) was born in 1574 and became a minister of the Church of England. Dr. Mayes' research informs this entire profile.

One of 300 settlers from England arriving in the colony of Virginia four years after the first settlement in Jamestown, and more than eight years before the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth colony, Mease arrived in June of 1611. He had been appointed by the Bishop of London to lead the new parish at Kikotan (also called Kecoughtan), named after the Algonquian people who lived there. This party of colonists (which also brought cows and cattle) was led by Sir Thomas Gates, who previously abandoned the Jamestown settlers to return to England following the hard times and famine there, then back again to Virginia with the new colonists.

In a letter written in 1616 to King James I, John Rolfe -- the English explorer and colonist who married Pocahontas -- states that Mease served as the minister at Kikotan (which Rolfe called "Keqoughtan"). Here John Rolfe refers to Mease as "Mays," indicating the change in the ancestral name early on; later, this family line from which this writer is descended was called "Mayes."

Here Mease/Mays was part of a settlement of just twenty men and some women and children. Currently known as Hampton, part of a broad area of land and water called Hampton Roads, the community was 37 miles south of Jamestown.

The website for the current Episcopal Church in Hampton^[2] states that the Reverend Mease served the first parish church from 1610 (one year earlier than Dr. Mayes says he arrived) until 1620. A historic marker in current Hampton states:

"Near here on the first church creek stood the first church at Kecoughtan (later Hampton), built on the parish Glebe Farm about 1616, as the first church of the oldest continuous settlement of English origin in America. William Mease was the first known minister of the parish, from 1613 to about 1620."

By 1623, the settlement had re-established itself nearby, and three other parish sites existed from then to the present day. This is the oldest English-speaking parish in the United States today.

According to a thoroughly researched paper by the historian at Hampton Museum,^[3] written in 2018 and revised in 2019 (the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans enslaved by the colonists), it was to Point Comfort (now part of Hampton) at the tip of the peninsula, beside the Kikotan settlement, that these first African people were brought. Those that survived had endured unimaginable suffering of body, mind, and spirit: they were kidnapped by Portuguese from the Angola region of West Central Africa, then suffered brutal conditions on the White Lion and Treasurer ships, from which they were stolen by English pirates, then 32 or 33 of them were traded for food and supplies to Virginia's governor at Point Comfort.

Four named enslaved people likely from one or both of the Portuguese ships have been identified as living in Kikotan (now Hampton) in 1625. Others have been identified in Jamestown. Mease is not known to have enslaved anyone.

And so the earliest Mayes ancestor in colonial North America was present for the arrivals of the first African people there. He led the oldest English-speaking parish in the U.S. today, and lived in the oldest continuously occupied English speaking settlement in the U.S. (this because Jamestown had been abandoned briefly, twice).^[4]

After surviving an attack on the colonists in 1622 by native people, William Mease/Mays in 1623 with other colonists returned to England to testify on behalf of the private Virginia Company, because King James I "seized on the occasion of the massacre and other calamities"^[1] to assert his power over the Company. The Virginia Company was then dissolved, and Virginia became a colony of the Crown.

By 1638 Mease had returned to Virginia, when around that time "he purchased from one Ed Townstall ( or Tunstall ) a tract of 250 acres of land which had been patented to Townstall, lying on the south bank of the Appomattox river."^[1] In about 1650 he lived in "New Towne," a part of Jamestown.

He died at Henrico, VA, certain date unknown.

Other Biographical Information

William Mayes may have been born on January 1, 1574, the son of William Mayes and Isabell Tressam.^[5] However, because there were more than ten persons named William Mayes / Mays / May / Maies born in or nearby London around this time, this parental link cannot be regarded as certain without finding verifying references.

He is believed to have married in London or Essex, possibly to a woman named Elizabeth, and probably had children prior to departing with his family for the Virginia Colony in 1609. William had never taken holy orders, but appears to have been supported or sponsored on his mission by the Bishop of London. It seems likely that the couple had additional children in Virginia; and is believed that his first wife died there, probably around 1615.

William's second wife Margery was born in England around 1597. Some secondary sources cite that she was a daughter of Bartholomew Partridge and his wife Parnell Green, both born in Navestock, Essex; however verifiable sources have yet to be located to confirm that view. Margery had been selected as one of the total of 147 "Maids for Virginia" shipped out to the new Virginia colony at Jamestown, as evidenced by the following source: Interestingly, William's own marriage to Margry was a curious one, particularly given his puritan preaching. She had arrived in Virginia in May of 1620 among the 'maids for Virginia"............ Margry and others were housed and sponsored by John Pountis, a Virginia cattle farmer and Council member. Not long after her arrival, Pountis gave Margry in marriage to William Mease. As arranged by the program, Mease repaid all costs to Pountis upon marriage to Margry. William's obligation was described as 'one hundred and fiftie (pounds) of the best leafe tobacco'.^[6]

Despite his lack of holy orders, William was an ardent puritan minister, and founded the congregation and church at Kecoughtan, some 40 miles from Jamestown.^[7]He and his second wife Margery escaped the Indian Massacre of 1622.

According to Neill: "William Mease came about the time of Glover and Buck (i.e. 1610), remained ten years in Virginia, and in 1623 was living (back) in England."^[8]

Upon return to England, both William and Margery were called as witnesses at the 1623 trial of the Virginia Corporation; indeed that may have been one of the reasons for their return. Thereafter, the couple lived in the Parish of All Hallows, London where William became a school teacher, and they had three sons: Edward (baptised 30 Nov 1623 at St. Andrew Unterschaft); John (baptised 10 Aug 1626 at St. Andrew Unterschaft) and Francis (baptised 16 Jan 1634 at All Hallows Church, London). Margery died in 1636, and William followed in 1637. Hence, there appears no evidence that after 1623, either William or his second wife Margery ever returned to Virginia; although it is believed some of their children did. Further research is underway.

Research Notes

There exists, on multiple genealogy websites and within multiple family trees, much speculative information on William Mayes / Mease, his possible wives and children, which appears in many cases to have been poorly sourced and lacking verifiable references. Much cross-fertilisation of this spurious data has occured. Please - if you make additions or alterations to this biography or record - make best efforts to ensure that such data is verified by reliable primary sources and references, and include such citations.

The record of death for a William Maies in Virginia in October 1650 is not attributable to William Mayes / Mease himself. It appears more likely to refer either to William's probable son William, who is believed to have returned to Virginia to live; or to a possible son William of a Cornelius Maye who arrived in Virginia in 1616 on the "Providence". Therefore, it is believed that William Mayes / Mease lived only 57 or 58 years, and not 76 years as some reports have suggested.

This profile was created on this date from by merging two profiles. The biography needs to be cleaned up by one more familiar with the information that is being included.Harris-13251 16:43, 13 March 2024 (UTC).

Note that the new first section in the Biography above -- entitled "Biographical Information from Family History and Related Sources" -- may stand alone as accurate, based on research and sourcing. The research note immediately above, and the other research notes, apply only to the second section of William Mease's Biography entitled "Other Biographical Information."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Edward Mayes, Genealogical Notes on a Branch of the Family of Mayes and on the Related Families of Chappell, Bannister, Jones, Peterson, Lock, Hardaway, Thweatt and Others, privately printed by Hederman Brothers, Jackson, MS, 1906. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067449421&seq=1
2. ↑ Website of St. John's Episcopal Church, Hampton, Virginia, retrieved March 2024, http://www.stjohnshampton.org/history.shtml
3. ↑ Beth Austin, Registrar and Historian, Hampton History Museum, 1619: Virginia's First Africans, December 2018, revised December 2019. https://hampton.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24075/1619-Virginias-First-Africans?bidId=
4. ↑ "Death at Jamestown". Secrets of the Dead. PBS. 28 May 2014, cited on Kecoughtan, VA page of Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecoughtan,_Virginia#cite_note-3
5. ↑ The genealogies of some of the early families who made history in the founding and development of Bedford County, Vol. V Cite your source
6. ↑ p.28 of "Sherrod's Legacy: Reflections of Sherrod Mayes and his Descendants" by Ron Mayes, Ed.D.; 186pp. publ. CreateSpace IPP, 2014; ISBN-10: 149505241;
7. ↑ Early Virginia Families Along the James River: Their Deep Roots and Tangled Branches. Vol. 1;
8. ↑ Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy by Edward Duffield Neill, printed 1877 Philadelphia; Chapter 1, p.7; the very brief passage in this volume devoted to William by Mr. Neill may be because William did not receive holy orders, but was a civilian appointee sent or sponsored by the Bishop of London;

• American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
• The colonial church in Virginia : with biographical sketches of the first six bishops of the diocese of Virginia Free link Colonial Church in Virginia;