Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/104

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\'IRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

a member of the V'irginia state debt com- mission ; he was reelected to the senate in 1891 and 1895 — two four-year terms ; in 1895 he was chairman of the Democratic conference of the senate, and chairman of the senate finance committee; in 1897 was elected president pro tem of the senate ; and was reelected to the senate in 1899 and 1903, his final term closing in 1907. His service in the legislature was conspicuously useful, and was principally in connection with the state debt, and its subsidiary questions in- volving the West Virginia separation. He had entered public life on this issue as a "debt payer," and consistently adhered to that policy. As chairman of the senate finance committee for many years, he had charge of the various tax bills and bills ap- propriating the public revenues of the state ; he was strictly conservative in his views, and his course was marked by strenuous effort to economize in expenditvires, and re- lieve the taxpayers as far as possible. He has ever been active in his effort to increase as far as practicable, within the means of the state, the appropriations for pensions for Confederate veterans, for Confederate me- morial associations, and for the educational institutions of the state. In politics he has held strongly to Democratic principles, but has not hesitated to hold an independent attitude when principle was at stake. Prior to the first Cleveland campaign, he had been a Republican on national issues, affiliating with the Conservative or Democratic party on state issues. He was always a supporter of Mr. Cleveland on the tariff issue and re- form measures in the public service, and was always with the whites on the race issue.

Mr. Wickham married, December 17.1885, Rlise Warwick Barksdale, and two children have been born to them.

Richard Hardaway Meade. David Meade, of Kentucky, who lived to over ninety years of age. uncle of liishop Meade, of Virginia, was a genealogist, and traced descent on maternal lines to Thomas Cromwell, a black- smith of Lutney, in Ireland, who was the father of Thomas Cromwell, servant of Car- dinal Wolsey and his successor in the favor of Henry VIII., but who forfeiting that was beheaded by his orders. Oliver Cromwell was his nephew. One branch of this family was the Everards of Essex from whom Rich- ard Kidder, bishop of Bath and Wells, de-

scended, and from him came the name Rich- ard Kidder, so frequent in the family and from the Everards came the also common family name Everard.

(I) In America the family sprung from Andrew Meade, born in Kerry, Ireland, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, a Roman Catholic. Tradition says he left his native land and for a time lived in London, then came to this country, landing in New York and there marrying Mary Latham, a member of the Society of Friends, living in Flushing. Long Island. About five years later they moved to Nansemond county, Virginia, at the head of navigation on the Nansemond river. He was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, judge of he court, senior colonel of militia, a man of education and influence. He is said to have been a man of great physical strength, of fine form, but rather hard featured. He died in 1745, leaving behind a stainless character and the title, Andrew Meade, "The Honest." His daughter, Priscilla, married William Curie, of Hampton. Virginia.

(II) David Meade, son of Andrew and Mary (Latham) Meade, with his sister, Pris- cilla, were the only children of Andrew Meade to survive him. David inherited the paternal estate, and about 1729 married Sus- annah, elder of the two daughters of Sir Richard Everard, baronet of Broomfield Hall, Much Waltham parish. Essex, Eng- land, and his wife, Susannah (Kidder) Ever- ard, eldest daughter of Dr. Richard Kidder, bishop of Bath and Wells. Sir Richard Everard was a captain in Queen Anne's army, and for a few years proprietary gov- ernor of North Carolina. At his death he left all his estate to his widow, who at her death left it to her two daughters, Susannah and Ann Everard. David Meade was a man of handsome person and purest life. He was the most affectionate of husbands, the tenderest of parents, the best of masters and an ingenuous sincere friend, just, generous and hospitable. He died in 1757, in his forty-seventh year. Children: i. David, born July 20. 1744; inherited the Nanse- mond estate previously owned by his father and grandfather ; he married Sarah Waters, daughter of William Waters, of Williams- burg, Virginia, then settled at Maycox. Prince George county, Virginia, then re- moved to Kentucky, devoting his time and fortune to the improvement of these two