Person:Ambrose Meador (3)

Ambrose Meador's Birth and Parents

Potential parents for Ambrose Meador, along with supposed birth dates and places, abound on the internet, almost totally without documentation or reference to any credible source(s) (an original source or one that references original sources). Among the suggested parents are:

Daniel and Elizabeth Ansty Meadows, Daniel and Elizabeth Lee Medowe (or Daniel and Elizabeth Lee Smith Medowe), and William Mead ^[5], as well as Daniel Medowe and Elizabeth Lee (Elizabeth Ansty has also been suggested, without documentation, as Ambrose's wife).^[6]

Among the early dates and places suggested for Ambrose's birth are:

1 Sep 1580, Hampshire, England; 1 Sep 1580 in Warwickshire, England; 1582 Avon, Hampshire; 1 Sep 1583, St. Marys, Watford, Hertford, England; 1 Septermber 1583, Warwickshire, England; bef 1592, Suffolk, England; and about 1594, Avon, Hampshire;^[6][7][8] as well as abt 1580, Avon, England

Of the above, only one date and place has a source, the christening (not birth) on 1 Sep 1583 at St. Marys, Watford, Hertford, England,^[9] apparently extracted from original Parish Records and reported in the IGI. It lists William Mead as the father of Ambrose Mead. Despite the similarity in names, however, this is apparently the christening record for a different Ambrose Mead(or). As at least one other researcher has noted, the Ambrose Mead, son of William, who was christened in 1583, died and was buried in Watford on 19 December 1592.^[10] He could not, therefore, be the Ambrose Meador who came to Virginia around 1630.

Most of those who give Ambrose an early birth date assume that Thomas Meads is his son. If that were true, then Ambrose would, of necessity, have to be born in the 1580s or early 1590s. However, there is no support for assuming such a relationship.

Ambrose did have a son named Thomas, but he was born about 1634-6 and cannot be the same person as Thomas Meads.^[1] Instead, Thomas Meads is more likely a brother, or perhaps a cousin, of Ambrose. Both Thomas the known son of Ambrose and his older brother John are generally left out of reports giving Ambose an early birth date. If Ambrose's known sons are recognized, and the unsupported and unverified assumption that Thomas Meads is Ambrose's son is dropped, then there is no need to postulate an early birth date for Ambrose.

Turning to what is documented about Ambrose Meador, he and his wife apparently arrived in Virginia sometime after 1622 and before 1633. They came without children, and their oldest son, John, was born in Virginia about 1633.^[1] If Ambrose had been born in the 1580s, he would have been in his 50s upon his arrival in Virginia, a rather advanced age to be starting a new life and a new family in a new land where living conditions were still difficult and potentially dangerous. With no other reliable sources of information (Meador's work is based on a meticulous examination of original sources), it seems more reasonable to give Ambrose Meador an estimated birth date of around 1600. He would then have been in his early 30s at the time of his arrival in Virginia and starting a new family. Presumably this is why Meador (p. 18) has given Ambrose a birth date of 1600-1610. Many other researchers also give Ambrose a birth date in the same range, although usually without a source citation or explanation.^[11] Giving Ambrose an estimated birth date of about 1600 would also put him in the same generational time frame as his possible brother (or cousin), Thomas Meads.

Descendants

Ambrose has no known descendants bearing his surname after the early death of his grandson John Meador about 1717-1720.^[1][2]

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} Meador, Victor P. (Victor Paul), and Bernal M. Meador. Our Meador families in colonial America: as found in the records of Isle of Wight, Lancaster, (old) Rappahannock, Richmond, Essex and Caroline Counties, Virginia. (Independence, Missouri: V.P. Meador, 1983)
   3.

   - Ambrose Meador's place of birth is unknown, but probably in England. Also unknown is whether or not he went to Holland before coming to the American colonies is unknown. His known associates were all people Ambrose associated with were Puritans and Separatists.
   - Ambrose immigrated to Virginia before 1 June 1636when he surrendered to a Peter Johnson in Warrisquicke County (later Isle of Wight county) 150 acres of headlight land due to the immigration of himself, his wife and a servant; but after the 1622 Indian massacre that left only 33 European settlers in Warrisqicke County.
   - Soon after the recording of the headlight, Ambrose, in partnership with John White, purchased 50 acres of land from Thomas Davis on the south side of the Pagan River.
   - In 1649, Ambrose Meador bought 300 acres (and other land) on the south side of the Pagan River, Isle of Wight County, south of the James River. His neighbors included Ambrose Bennett and Richard Bennett. During the 1640s, officials in Jamestown began to try to force the Puritans to conform to the official doctrines of the Church of England, and emigration began to the lands between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The last record of Ambrose Meador in Isle of Wight County is 1649, mentioned as a neighbor of Amrose Bennett in a sale of the latter's land.
   - Ambrose Meador is listed a tither in Lancaster County on the Rappahannock River on 24 October 1653. On 3 September 1656 he purchased 1000 acres of land from James Williamson on Willing (Totuskey) Creek, on the northeast side of the Rappahannock River. Ambrose Meador sold some of this land, including 300 acres to his son Thomas Meador, and named the remainder "Accokeek".
   - The last reference to Ambrose Meador in records is on 24 December 1661 in a shared purchase of land with his son Thomas.
   - Ambrose was likely dead by 3 May 1663, as his son John traded land he had inherited at that time.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Meador, Victor P. (Victor Paul). Meador families of Virginia : and points west. (Independence, Missouri: V.P. Meador, c1989)
   7, ff.

   Thomas Meador and a possible brother, Ambrose, came to Jamestown Colony, VA, in early 1630s, their passages paid by others. Ambrose (and possibly Thomas) settled in Isle of Wight County on south side of Pagan River, an area colonized about 1610 by member of the Puritan belief. Ambrose lived nearby when St. Luke's Church was constructed in 1632.
   Around 1650, Thomas Meador and Ambrose Meador moved to northeast shore of Rappahannock River (in present Richmond Co.) Ambrose bought 1000 acres, named it Accokeek

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} County Records abstracted by Eliza Timberlake Davis, in Boddie, John Bennett, and Eliza Timberlake Davis. Seventeenth century Isle of Wight County, Virginia: a history of the county of Isle of Wight, Virginia, during the seventeenth century, including abstracts of the county records. (Chicago [Illinois]: Chicago Law Printing Company, c1938).

   p. 658
   16 June 1636 - Surrendered 150 acres to PETER JOHNSON for per. adv. of himself, wife and one servant
   
   p. 446
   18 July 1638 - THOMAS DAVIS of Warwicksquacyk to AMBROSE MEADOR and JOHN WHITE of the Pagan Shore, 50 acres of land lying in Warwicksquacyk, beginning at upper Red Point and extending easterly down the said creek; was given to Davis by patent 6 March 1633, the land abutting northerly on the said creek and southerly into the main woods, 18 July 1636. Thomas Holt and Richard Lee
   
   p. 665
   2 March 1638 – Isle of Wight County
   Richard Bennett received 150 acres abutting on the bay behind AMBROSE MEADORS POINT
   
   p. 531
   9 April 1649
   AMBROSE (A) BENNETT sells AMBROSE MEADOR 300 acres of same patent, [located] between [Ralph] Warriner and Christopher Reynolds. [“same patent” = a patent of 1100 acres date 23 June 1641 [located] between Ambrose Meador and John Motley and Thomas Turner on the other.]

4. ↑ Alternate family names for Ambrose in contemporary records include: Meader, Meather, and Meathes. Meadows is a later variant of the same name, not found in early records.
5. ↑ Family Tree on Family Search, Ambrose Meador 2MR4-Z2D, as of 11 Oct 2014; a similar list of parents, with some variations, can also be found on Ancestry.com
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Family Tree on Family Search, Ambrose Meador 2MR4-Z2D, as of 11 Oct 2014
7. ↑ Ancestry Public Member Trees, as of 11 Oct 2014
8. ↑ Various submissions in Ancestral File and on WorldConnect
9. ↑ Ancestral File No. 57T8-SQ1, Source Extracted birth Record for St. Marys, Watford, Herdford County, England
10. ↑ Meador, Ambrose in My Family Tree, referencing Harold Henderson's citation of "The English Origin of William Mead of Stamford, Connecticut," The American Genealogist 73(1):1-10, January 1998 by Gordon L. Remington, FUGA. (accessed 12 Oct 2014; the Harold Henderson link is non-functional)
11. ↑ Like the earlier dates of birth, these can be found in Ancestry.com Family Trees, WorldConnect, andAncestral File.