Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/194

 1650, 4to; pt. iv. 1652, 4to, with ‘Epistles’ and ‘Short View of the Author's Life.’ 10. ‘Opuscula Latina,’ &c., 1652, 4to. 11. ‘Dissertationum Ecclesiasticarum Triga,’ 1653, 4to. His ‘Works’ were first collected 1648, 4to, 2 parts; enlarged edit. by John Worthington, D.D., 1663–4, fol. 2 vols.; further enlarged by Worthington, with anonymous ‘Life,’ 1672, fol.; reprinted 1677, fol. Two volumes of his autograph letters, principally to Sir Martin Stutevile, are in Harl. MSS. 389, 390.

 MEAD or MEADE, MATTHEW (1630?–1699), independent divine, second son of Richard Mead of Mursley, Buckinghamshire, by his wife Joane, was born about 1630 at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. His epitaph accordingly speaks of him as ‘honesta apud Cattieuclanos familia ortus.’ In 1648 he was elected scholar, and on 6 Aug. 1649 admitted a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He resigned on 6 June 1651, Cole says, to avoid expulsion, owing, probably, to refusal of the engagement; but he had gained ill-will by urging the expulsion of Richard Johnson and others. Francis Charlett, rector of Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, died in 1653; Mead hoped to succeed him, but the patron, John Duncombe, presented Thomas Clutterbuck. Mead, on the ground that the patron's right had lapsed, obtained a presentation under the great seal. Duncombe appealed to the law, and a verdict for Clutterbuck was given at the Aylesbury assizes. Mead began another suit on the plea of Duncombe's malignancy. Clutterbuck resigned his title, and Duncombe, in July 1655, presented Robert Hocknell, whom the ‘commissioners for approbation’ (triers) rejected, putting in Mead by aid of a troop of horse. After some violent proceedings, the matter was compromised by Duncombe's agreeing to present William Peirce, a nephew of Hugh Peters [q. v.] Mead now became morning lecturer at Stepney Church (St. Dunstan's), the afternoon lecturer being William Greenhill [q. v.], who held the vicarage. He resided in Gracechurch Street, and was admitted a member, on 28 Dec. 1656, of the congregational church formed at Stepney by Greenhill in 1644. On 22 Jan. 1658 he was appointed by Cromwell to the ‘new chapel’ at Shadwell (St. Paul's). From Shadwell, as well as from his lectureship, he was displaced at the Restoration, but obtained a lectureship at St. Sepulchre's, Holborn, from which he was ejected by the uniformity act of 1662.

In 1663 he was living at Worcester House, Stepney. Either the Conventicle Act (1664) or the Five Miles Act, which came into operation in 1666, drove him to Holland. He seems to have been in London during the great plague of 1665. On 31 Jan. 1669 he was called to ‘exercise his guifts’ as assistant to Greenhill at Stepney. He accepted the call on 21 Feb. Shortly after Greenhill's death he was called (13 Oct. 1671) to succeed him as pastor, and was ordained on 14 Dec. 1671 by John Owen, D.D. [q. v.], Joseph Caryl [q. v.], and two others. In 1674 a meeting-house (opened 13 Sept.) was built for him at Stepney; its roof was upheld by four round pine pillars, ‘presented to him by the States of Holland;’ above the ceiling was an attic with concealed entrance, a hiding-place for the congregation in troubled times. His congregation was the largest in London, and his preaching was much sought after. On 1 May 1674 he instituted a Mayday sermon to the young, which is still continued; he always held a Good Friday service. About 1680 he became the guardian of James Peirce [q. v.], the Exeter heretic, who lived in his house for some years. In December 1682 Sir William Smith with a strong guard invaded his meeting-house, pulled down the pulpit, and broke up the forms. In June 1683 Mead was apprehended on suspicion of complicity in the Rye House plot, and brought before the privy council, when his answers were so satisfactory that the king at once ordered his discharge. He succeeded John Owen in September 1683 as one of the Tuesday morning lecturers (presbyterian and congregational) at the merchants' lecture in Pinners' Hall. Pleading there on one occasion on behalf of poor ministers, he got a collection of 300l., ladies putting their rings and watches into the plates. In 1686 he was again in Holland, preaching at Utrecht; he returned on the issue of James's declaration for liberty of conscience in 1687.

After the revolution galleries were built (25 March 1689) in his meeting-house, and