George Meade (February 27, 1741 – November 9, 1808) was an American merchant from Philadelphia, known for being the grandfather of Civil War general

George Gordon Meade George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer best known for decisively defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. He ...

. In partnership with

Thomas Fitzsimons Thomas Fitzsimons (October 1741August 26, 1811) was an Irish-born American Founding Father, merchant, banker, and politician. A resident of Philadelphia, Fitzsimons represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress, was a delegate to Consti ...

, his firm was among the largest provision merchants during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and helped finance the

Bank of Pennsylvania The Bank of Pennsylvania was established on July 17, 1780, by Philadelphia merchants to provide funds for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Its investors included George Meade & Co., with a £2,000 payment. Within a yea ...

and

Bank of North America The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first ''de facto'' central bank. Chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 17 ...

during the conflict—while it profited from British goods as well. Meade's business went bankrupt by 1801 due to investments in the

Yazoo land scandal The Yazoo land scandal, Yazoo fraud, Yazoo land fraud, or Yazoo land controversy was a massive real-estate fraud perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by Georgia governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia politicians sold large ...

, and was continued by his son Richard W. Meade. Meade held minor city offices and was active in religious and civic life, among others serving as a trustee at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church and founding the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. Descendants amplified these accomplishments into a legendary patriotism, though his influence has been assessed more modestly by recent biographers.

Early life

George Meade was born in Philadelphia, the youngest child of Mary Stretch (or Stritch) and Robert Meade. Mary was from a Barbadian and Philadelphian merchant family; Robert was an Irish immigrant from

County Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Ireland, Province , subd ...

who moved to Philadelphia around 1732. He had lived in either the Bahamas or Barbados, and was a provision merchant who traded with the British Caribbean. He also donated to the establishment of St. Joseph's, the first Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. After becoming sick on St. Croix in July 1754, Robert died between August 13 and 26 at Philadelphia, leaving an estate of £79 11s d. George and his siblings Garrett and Catherine were educated on Barbados by their uncle George Stretch, before returning to their native city.

Philadelphia merchant

Garrett and George Meade went into business together importing rum, sugar and slaves.Klepp, "Meade, George". They joined the nonimportation agreement against the Stamp Act of 1765—a symbolic move because it did not significantly affect their business, unlike the opposition to the

Townshend Acts The Townshend Acts () or Townshend Duties, were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the ...

which they abstained from. Catherine married

; he and George were founders of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and Fitzsimons joined the firm after Garrett left. Meade & Company invested in western

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

land as well as the British Caribbean. In April 1775 George joined the Third Battalion of Associators, and in the prelude to

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

he served on the

Continental Association The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the American colonies adopted by the First Continental Congress on October 20, 1774. It called for a trade boycott against ...

as well as the Committee on Inspection and Observation. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

—after the Meade family briefly fled to

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee Chester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, th ...

during the

British occupation of Philadelphia The Philadelphia campaign (1777–1778) was a British effort in the American Revolutionary War to gain control of Philadelphia, which was then the seat of the Second Continental Congress. British General William Howe, after failing to draw ...

—Meade & Company invested £2,000 in the

to help fund the Continental Army in 1780, and likewise invested in the

. However, the firm also speculated on British stocks and imported British goods via

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

, thus profiting from both sides of the war; Meade did not serve in any battles. After the war the firm suffered from the recession of 1783–1784, and particularly from failed European investments and western land speculation. Fitzsimons left the partnership, which had accumulated a debt of £30,000. Meade saved his business and reputation with a £10,000 loan from Londoner John Barclay, which helped him settle all his debts. In Philadelphia newspapers from 1784 to 1788 he advertised Spanish wines and Caribbean spirits as well as coffee, tea, sugar, molasses, sheet copper and German textiles.Chandler, "Catholic Merchants", p. 100. A Federalist like the influential Fitzsimons, he marched in the

Grand Federal Procession The Federal Processions of 1788 (also called the "Grand Federal Processions") were large municipal celebrations of the ratification of the United States Constitution that took place in Philadelphia and New York City, though other types of celebratio ...

and served in minor political offices: on the Philadelphia Common Council 1789 to 1792 and as chairman of the Board of Management for the Inspectors of the Prisons in 1792. Meade's temperament, described by descendants as "eccentric", as well as "testy" and prone to profanity, may have limited his opportunities. In religious and civic associations he was more active, serving as a trustee for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church and donating $50 to the construction of St. Augustine's, what would become

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and (having freed his slaves) he also donated outside his faith to the African Church. In 1763 he had helped found the Fishing Company of Fort St. David. He was a manager of the Philadelphia Dancing Assembly and the Philadelphia Dispensary, in 1790 a founder of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland and in 1792 vice-president of the Sunday Schools. During the

yellow fever epidemic of 1793 During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the official register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 ...

, he remained in Philadelphia to aid the sick, occasionally supporting physician

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educa ...

. His business definitively failed during the

Panic of 1796–1797 The Panic of 1796–1797 was a series of downturns in credit markets in both Great Britain and the newly established United States in 1796 that led to broader commercial downturns. In the United States, problems first emerged when a land speculati ...

due to investments in the

; he had purchased over 230,000 acres of Georgia land between 1794 and 1796. By 1801 he was bankrupt, with his son Richard W. Meade managing his estate, and in 1804 he quit business life altogether.

Personal life and death

George Meade married Henrietta Constantia Worsam, the daughter of Barbados planter Richard Worsam, on May 5, 1768. She was Anglican although George was Catholic, a pattern repeated in several generations of the Meade family. They had five sons and five daughters, who were baptized Catholic, though all but two predeceased their father—and many were buried in Protestant churchyards. He died in Philadelphia on November 9, 1808, at age 67, and was buried at St. Mary's. His daughter Elizabeth then followed Henrietta to England, while his son Richard continued the family business.

Legacy

Meade was not particularly well known in his day, and no collection of his papers survives, but he achieved fame as the grandfather of

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

general

. For his role in the American Revolution his profile was sculpted on the Catholic Total Abstinence Union Fountain at the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

. Richard W. Meade III wrote the article "George Meade, a Patriot of the Revolutionary Era" in 1891, which was used uncritically by late 19th and early 20th-century sources.Compare Frederick with Klepp. According to his entry in ''

American National Biography The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...

'', "Meade has been included among several founders of elite Philadelphia families who supposedly formed a cohesive, long-lasting national upper class, but little actual evidence supports this claim of inherited greatness. ... ter biographers considered isquiet virtues insufficiently heroic for the grandfather of a famous general."

Notes

Bibliography