"My father, David Meade, some time before his marriage, made an acquaintance
with the family of Sir Richard Everard, who resided at Edenton, the then seat
of government of North Carolina, where an attachment, perfectly romantic, was
mutually formed between my father and the eldest daughter of Sir Richard.
'A century ago, Hampton Roads was the receptacle of nearly all the ships which
loaded within the water of Chesapeake Bay, and the chief part of the trade
from North Carolina with England was through Hampton Roads. Having
relinquished his government, Sir Richard Everard and his lady and two
daughters became the guests of my grandfather, Meade, he living convenient to
Hampton Roads, where the ship lay in which they had taken their passage to
England. From some cause or other, the ship was delayed longer than was
expected, which delay proved favorable to my father's views, who had but
little expectation of obtaining the parent's consent to his marriage with
their daughter in Virginia, and he was preparing to accompany the family to
England, when the earnest entreaties of his father, who was distressed at the
thought of being so long and so widely separated from his only son, prevailed
upon the parents of my mother to consent to an immediate marriage. They, with
the most entire confidence in his honor and affection, put their daughter
under the protection of ther enraptured lover. No pair ever enjoyed more
happiness in the hymeneal state than they did. They were both of them very
young when they came together, and with very little experience in mankind,
brought up under the eyes of fond and virtuous parents.
'My father was of handsome person and fine stature. He lived a monotonous and
tranquil life. The purity of his heart corresponded with the symmetry of his
person. He was the most affectionate of husbands, the tenderest of parents,
and the best of masters, and an ingenuous and sincere friend. Brought up in
his father's house, with such a pattern, he could not be but just, generous
and hospitable. If it were thought to detract anything from his merits, it
would not be here recorded that he had never studied human nature. Ever
disposed to believe men to be what they should be, if he detected an
individual deviating from strict probity, he considered him a monster. Venial
faults excited in him astonishment, and crime horror. In fine, he was a
truly virtuous man, but no philosopher. He deceased in the year 1757, being
then in his 47th year. ' "
This may be a proper place here in the family record to notice the other
brothers of David Meade, the primary subject of it. Everard Meade, the third
son of his father, as well as the two older, spent a considerable part of his
minority at school in England, and returned to Virginia about the year 1764.
When not quite eighteen years of age he clandestinely formed a hymeneal
connection with Mary Thornton, abou this own age, the daughter of a gentleman
who was a member of a numerous and very respectable family, by which wife he
had tow sons and a daughter, who died before him. He afterwards married the
widow of Benjamin Ward, by who he had two sons, and deceased. His widow is
yet living, January 7, 1820. Andrew the fourth brother, died, leaving a
widow, a most estimable woman, the daughter of Buckner Stith of Brownswick,
with two sons and three daughters. John, the fifth son, deceased a minor,
being about seventeen years old, 1772.