Mead, Richard, a distinguished English physi- cian, who was born at Stepney in 1673, and after stndyiug at the most eminent medical schddls ou the Continent, returned and settled in Eii-l.iiid. .tikI liecame one of the most celebrated practitioners dl' his time, wrote a treatise on the diseases mentioned in Scripture, entitled Medi- cina Sacra, seu de morbis iiisignioribus qui in Biblis vie- morantur (Lond. 1749, 8vo ; republished at Amsterdam, 1749, 8vo). A translation of this work was made by Dr. T. Stark, and was published with a memoir of the author (Lond. 1755, 8vo). Dr. Mead died in 1754. See Allibone, Diet. Brit, and A nier. Biog. s. v.
Mead, Stith, an early Methodist Episcopal minis- ter, was born in Bedford County, Va., Sept. 25, 1767; was converted in 1789, and feeling called of God to preach the Gospel, entered the itinerancy in 1793 ; was located in 1816; readmitted superannuate in 1827, and died in 1835. IMr. Jlead was eminently useful as a preacher, and particularly conspicuous in the great re- vivals of his time, yet remenibered in the Southern States. — Minutes of Conferences, ii, 347.
Mead, Zechariah, a clergyman of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, was born at Greenwich, Conn., some
time in the first half of our century (perhaps 1802), and
was educated at Yale College (class of 1825). He was
VI.— A
ordained priest at Norfolk, Va., May 22, 1831; became rector of Grace Church, Boston, Mass.; from 1837-1840 was editor of the Southern Churchman, published at Richmond, Va. ; and died Nov. 27, 1840. See General Catal. of till- T)irinit;i School of Yule College, p. 7.
Meade, \\'ii.i-iAjr, D.D., a noted prelate of the Prot- estant Ejii.scopal Cliurch, was born at Millwood, Clarke County, Nov. 11, 1789, his father being Col. Richard K. Meade, aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, and was connected both by birth and marriage with some of the oldest and best families in Virginia. His great-grand- father was an Irish Romanist, who came to this coun- try, married a Quakeress in Flushing, L. I., and removed to Virginia. His grandmother was a descendant of Richard Kidder, bishop of Bath and Wells. William was educated at Princeton College, N. J. (class of 1808) ; was ordained deacon by bishop Madison, Feb. 24, 1811, in Williamsburg, Va. ; and priest by bishop Claggett, in St. Paul's Church, Alexandria. He commenced his min- istry in his own native parish, Frederick (now Clarke) County, as assistant to the Rev. Alexander Balmaine ; in the fail of 1811 he took charge of Christ Church, Alex- andria, where he remained two years, when he returned to Millwood, and, on the death of Mr. Balmaine, became rector of that Church. In 1826 he was a candidate as assistant bishop in Pennsylvania, but failed by one vote of nomination by the clergy ; and in the following year the Rev. H. U. 6nderdc(nk,"D.D., was elected. In 1823 he was elected assistant bishop to bishop IMoore, and was consecrated Aug. 19, 1829, in St. James's Church, Phil- adelphia, by bishops White, Hobart, Griswold, JNIoore, Croes, Brownell, and H. U. Onderdonk. On the death of bishop Moore, Nov. 11, 1841, he became bishop of the diocese of Virginia. In this capacity he labored un- ceasingly, up to the hour of his death, March 14, 1862, for the good of evangelical Christianity. He advanced the interests of his blaster's cause not only in the pul- pit, but in many and various ways he labored for the good of humanity. Several educational and missionary societies owe their origin to him, and the Theological School of Virginia, lately at Alexandria, was largely in- debted to him for its existence (though the plan of a theological seminary in Virginia was not original with him). He gave to this school of the prophets his per- sonal care and labors, nearly to the close of his life. During the exciting days of 1861 bishop Meade made many fervent though futile efforts to save Virginia from the troubles of the impending civil ^yar. He steadfast- ly opposed -secession to the very last. Taken altogether, but few men in the nation have enjoyed the confidence of the people to a greater degree than did this honest ecclesiastic, who sought in more ways than one to serve his day and generation as a truly Christian man. For years before his death bishop Meade was the recognised "head of the evangelical branch of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in the United States. On bishop Meade's ecclesiastical position, the Church Review (July, 1862) thus comments : " The gross worldliness, and even the open immorality of many of the early clergy of Vir-
MEADOW 2
ginia ; the moral-essay style of preaching which char- acterized many of the missionaries; the French infidel- ity introduced during the Revolution, and the absence of that bitter opposition to Church principles which was, and even now is waged in the Northern States, led the bishop to regard as not only mainly, but only im- portant, the development of the subjective in religion. His 'extraordinary will,' as the Kpisropal Jiecurder \^ calls it. and his Calvinistic doctrines, led him to separate evangelical truth from apostolic order, and to make him, we doubt not an honest, but a most determined oppo- nent to any earnest presentation of the positive institu- tions of Christianity." Bishop Meade was buried from St. Paul's Church, Kichmond, :March 17. His principal published works are, FamUy Prayer {\»M):— Lectures on the I'mtordl Office, and Lectures to Students (1849) : — Old Churches and Families in ]'irf/iniu (Philad. 18.W, 2 vols. 8vo) -.— The Bible ami the Classics (ISGl, 12mo). Besides tlicse, he also published .'Ifemorials o/[his^ Two Beloved Wires, which the Church Reriew informs lis was suppressed. His controversial writings are immer- ous. See Life, by bishop Johns (Baltimore, 1808). (J. H. W.)