0024. Joseph Meader (c.1730 – 1784)

Joseph Meader, son of Daniel Meader (1698-1751) [0010] and Elizabeth Allen (b.1709), was probably born in Durham about 1730 and died December 15, 1784.

He seems to have been in Madbury, Stratford, NH in 1753 [History of Durham, I, 28]. He was a Selectman in Lee from 1765 to 1769, and he signed a petition in Lee in 1765 [Ibid., I, 24]. He was apparently still in Lee in 1775, when he is recorded as having refused to sign the Loyalty Test there which registered opposition to the British forces, on the grounds that he was a Friend. Cartlands, Jenkinses and Bunkers also refused to sign [Ibid., I, 126].

He married:
1)     Lydia Hoag, probably about 1753.
The child of Joseph Meader and Lydia Hoag was:
0068 i. Paul Meader, born in 1765 and died in 1842.
2)     Abigail Varney Frye at Kittery, Maine on June 21, 1767. She was born January 26, 1741, the daughter of William Frye and Abigail Varney of Kittery. She died December 15, 1784. Their children were probably not born in this order.
The children of Joseph Meader and Abigail Frye were:
1337 ii. Lydia Meader, who died at the age of 18 years.
1338 iii. Joseph Meader.
0069 iv. John Frye Meader, born on January 8, 1782 and died in 1825.
1339 v. Abigail Meader. She married Jonathan Spalding.
1340 vi. Eunice Meader, born in 1749.
– NEHGR, 5:213
– AAMeader, #17