0036. Robert Meader (1743 – 1815)

Robert Meader, son of Nicholas Meader (1716-1755) [0013] and Ruth Wyer (  –  ), was born on Nantucket in June, 1743. He died in Easton, Washington, New York January 7, 1815 in his 72nd year.

He became captain of the Warren, one of the oldest of the Nantucket ships. He took part in the earliest voyage of a group of Nantucket vessels into the Pacific for whales. The voyage lasted two years, from 1791 to 1793. With the small vessels of the fleet weighing less than 250 tons and about 50 feet in length, with a crew of less than 30 men, it was indeed a hardy undertaking. On the return of the fleet the New Bedford Standard wrote:

“In this most perilous expedition the captains, officers and crews were selected as the bravest and most resolute. A station on board the fleet was considered a mark of great bravery, and to double the Horn was thought to be very dangerous to life and property besides being so far from home.”

The article added that all ships returned loaded with whale and sperm oil.

Robert Meader arrived back in Nantucket in May, 1793 and before 1794 he was in Easton, New York, where at least 11 other whaling captains, mostly Quakers, had settled. The profits from whaling were decreasing, due to the loss of English markets and the seizure of ships on the high seas by both English and French.

He purchased the farm owned in 1966 by Albert Wilbur on the Cheese Factory Road north of North Easton and west of Henry Fryer's Meadow View Hatchery, He may have been in Easton before 1794, for there is a tradition that his wife’s brother-in-law, Burton Hathaway, was to settle with the Meader family there. Burton died in 1787, but his wife, Mary (Coker) Hathaway, a sister or half-sister of Robert's wife, Deborah Coker, came to Easton with them. On the other hand, the 1790 U.S. Census shows Robert still living in Nantucket with a family of one adult male (himself), 3 males under 16, and two females.

Family tradition states that Robert Meader was never satisfied on his Easton land and always longed for the sea. His will is on file in Salem, Washington, New York. He left everything, with no details specified, to his wife, Deborah.

He married:
1)     Jedida Coffin, daughter of Micah Coffin and Dorcas Coleman, on January 11, 1770. She died October 25, 1770, a week after the birth of their child.
The child of Robert Meader and Jedida Coffin was:
1360 i. Jedida Meader, born on Nantucket October 17, 1770 and died September 29, 1854.
2)     Deborah Coker on December 19, 1772. She was born in February, 1746, the daughter of William Coker and Susanna Cartwright, and died at Glens Falls, Warren, New York on March 30, 1826, in her 81st year. She and her husband were probably buried in the old Quaker Cemetery at the South Meeting House in Easton.
The children of Robert Meader and Deborah Coker were:
1361 ii. Robert Meader, born in 1774 and died November 1, 1774.
1362 iii. Elizabeth Meader, born in 1778 and died May 2, 1778.
0096 iv. James Meader, born on Nantucket August 8, 1779 and died in North Easton in 1829.
0097 v. Robert Meader, born on Nantucket in 1781 and died in the West Plattsburgh area in 1844.
0098 vi. George Franklyn Meader, born on Nantucket in 1783 and was living in Easton at the time of the 1865 Census.