Joseph Meader, son of John Meader (1660-1736) [0002] and Sarah Follett (1654-1725), was born at Oyster River April 10 [Nantucket records say he was born February 10], 1681 and died in 1759, aged 78 years. He was a farmer and probably a housewright. He went to Nantucket when quite a young man, possibly to escape the depredations of the Indians, according to one source. However, many of the early settlers went to Nantucket in order to practice their religion in freedom.

He married Charity Nason, who was born September 17, 1682 the daughter of Joseph Nason and Mary Swain of Nantucket, in Nantucket December 29, 1703. They had a numerous family. Joseph Meader afterward returned to New Hampshire, leaving his son John and some of his daughters on the island.

On his return to New Hampshire he lived at a place between Portsmouth and Dover then called Piscataqua or Back River, doubtless the same place where his father and grandfather had lived. One account says that Joseph's sons Moses and Joseph returned with him to New Hampshire. However, Agnes Clark Meader, widow of John Meader [0002], on April 21, 1737 quit claimed property to him as "Joseph Meader of Nantucket."

He evidently had a grant of land before he moved to Nantucket, for in 1719 he gave a power of attorney to John Hanson of Piscataqua, who was probably his sister Elizabeth's [0008] husband, to dispose of all his property in the Province of New Hampshire. However that may have worked out, in 1737 he and his brother Nicholas executed an indenture agreeing to a division of land. [In giving the dates of birth and death here, the Nantucket vital records are used. The History of Durham lists each birth two months earlier to the day.]