The Mead family of Great Linford Manor
Gravestone commemorating the Mead family of Great Linford.
The Meads are one of the more intriguing families to have taken up residence in the village, not only as regards their origins, but in terms of the impact they made on the fabric of village life, becoming involved all manner of good works and arguably becoming the de facto Lords of the Manor, especially as they occupied Great Linford manor house as tenants for over 20 years.
The head of the family was Charles Walter Mead, born October 18th, 1861, not in Great Linford, nor even in Buckinghamshire, but at Scarborough on Hudson, in New York State, USA. His father was Edward Nathaniel Mead, a minister with the Episcopal Church; a part of the Anglican communion, but considered as a more liberally inclined and inclusive branch. In 1839, Edward has been ordained rector of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church at Briarcliff Manor, a suburban village in Scarborough, Westchester County, New York. The church founder was William Creighton, whose daughter Jane became Edward’s Wife. Edward was rector of Saint Mary’s for several years, during which time he would have come to know some of the famous inhabitants of the area, including Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Commodore Matthew Perry, whose infamous “Black Ships” had opened up Japan to American trade at gunpoint. That Edward knew Washington Irving is not in doubt, as in a letter written on November 3rd 1847, Irving refers to “his friend the Rev Edward N Mead of New York”, whom he has tasked with delivering the letter. Edward’s friendship with Irving was clearly a long one, as in 1851 Edward had designed a granite built church at Scarborough for the Saint Mary’s congregation for which Irving had sourced the Ivy growing on the walls; he had taken a cutting from Abbotsford house on the Scottish borders, the home of Sir Walter Scott.
The letter Irving had Edward deliver makes reference to the fact that he and his family were setting off on a tour of Europe. Edward’s design for Saint Mary’s was based on the 14th-century Gothic St. Mary's parish church in Scarborough, England, which he and his wife would visit on their travels. The diocese archive in New York contains a number of documents indicating that a relationship was established between the two churches that endured for a considerable time. Edward and Jane were back in America in 1849 at the earliest, as in this year, their son and firstborn child Edward Schermerhorn Mead was born at Beechwood, Briarcliff Manor. They would go on to have 5 children in total, with Charles Walter Mead being the last in 1861.
Edward applied for a new passport in 1868, and in 1871 we find the whole family resident in the UK living at 96 Lansdowne Place in Hove, Sussex. They seem very well established as the household includes a Governess and 3 servants, though over time some of the family returned to the USA, with Edward himself dying at Scarborough on October 19th, 1877. What had brought the Meads to the UK is unclear, though a short obituary carried in a number of American newspaper notes that Edward had been travelling abroad for years. The same obituary reveals that he had being in ill-health for some years, and knowing his time was short had returned to the US to die. It seems surprising that his wife Jane did not go with him, but she continues to be visible in the UK census records for 1881 and 1891. Of their 5 children, their daughter Eleanor Jane died in Scarborough, USA in 1873, as did their son Edward, the same year as his father in 1877. Katharine Creighton Mead (born 1855 at Staten Island) remained in the UK and died unmarried on March 12th 1926 at Rathmore Lodge. Kensington, London. Her probate record names her brother Charles as executor, leaving a not unsubstantial legacy of nearly £10,000. Their youngest daughter Mary Louise married well, to the widowed Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, a fellow of the Royal Society and pioneer in the field of photography. Sir William pre-deceased her in 1920, with Charles Walter Mead again named as an executor. Mary died at Kennsington in 1926.
Charles had attended Oxford University, attaining his B.A in 1886, an M.A in 1888, and becoming a barrister that same year in London’s Middle Temple, one of the four “Inns of Court” to which barristers are called to serve. On the 1911 census we find him and his family residing at Great Linford Manor. It seems they had arrived that year, or just before, as Charles is to be found listed in the Post Office Directory for London in 1910, with offices at Lincoln’s Inn, another of the 4 inns of court. On the previous census conducted in 1901 Charles, then 39 years old, was living at 34 Ovington Square in Chelsea with his wife Dorothea, daughter Katharine Helena Joanna, infant son Edward Michael Koecher and 4 servants, including a cook and a nurse. He and Dorothea had married on April 18th. 1895 at the church of St John Chrysostom, Manchester. Dorothea was the daughter of a commissions merchant named John Michael Koecher and his wife Helene, both naturalised German citizens.
Charles served in the Inns of Court Territorials during the first world war and commanded a labour battalion, rising to the rank of Major. The 1921 census lists the Major and his wife, plus three servants. As is typical for entries for the village, the census does not provide an explicit address in Great Linford, but it is easy to imagine “the major” as the quintessential country squire, and indeed he appears to have kept himself busy, described in an obituaries as a general commissioner of land and income tax for the Newport district as well as president of the New Bradwell branch of the British legion and an enthusiastic member of the Bucks Otter Hunt, which was based in the grounds of Great Linford Manor Park. The census also gives us an address for his place of work, 21 Old Street at Lincoln's Inn, confirming he was continuing to work as a barrister at law.
There was some tragedy in Edward and Dorothea’s life. While still living in London, the couple had their only two children, a boy and a girl. Their daughter Katharine Helena Joanna had been born on May 21st, 1896, but by the mid-1920s her health was in decline and aged 26, she and her parents had departed Great Linford for Switzerland with the thought that a continental holiday would be a restorative experience. Unfortunately at Folkstone Katharine contracted Influenza and upon reaching Calais her condition deteriorated. She passed away there on February 11th, 1923.
As reported in the Northampton Mercury of Friday February 23rd, there was a considerable outpouring of sympathy in the village; Katherine was reportedly a popular person and had been an active participant in a number of local organisations, but also had done goods works wider afield, principally as a nurse during WW1 based in a hospital at Ashridge, Berkhamsted. Her record card can still be accessed at the British Red Cross archive and reveals that by the end of her service, she had completed an impressive 4,874 hours work, though she was not the only member of the family to serve in this capacity; her mother is also recorded as having completed 1,527 hours nursing duty at the same hospital, plus some additional hours at Tickford Abbey, Newport Pagnell. It is likely that she her mother were recruited under the auspices of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, an organisation founded by the British Red Cross and the Order of St John to recruit additional nursing resources to help at times of war. The recruits often came from the middle and upper classes, resulting in some friction between the VAD’s and the professional trained nursing staff. Katherine had achieved the rank of Commandant, which commonly meant that beneath her would be a Medical Officer, a Quartermaster, and twenty-two women, two of whom were to be trained nurses.
Closer to home, Katherine had been county secretary to the Girls' Diocesan Association, (an association of women of leisure for prayer, study and service), the Captain of the Village Girl Guides troop, (which had been formed at her urging) a strong supporter of the Great Linford Women’s Institute branch and was heavily involved in the Sunday School and, “the religious advancement of the village.” She was buried on Thursday February 22nd. Companies of Girl Guides from Great Linford and Newport Pagnell, as well as Brownies from Wolverton lined the path to the church and a large congregation filled the church for the funeral service.
There was happier news for the Meads in 1933. Their son Edward Michael Koecher Mead married Lesley Louise Haddon Beynon at Great Linford on Saturday December 2nd; after the wedding the groom’s parents hosted 150 guests for dinner at the Manor. Edward’s bride was born in South Africa, and the couple were expected the following year to leave for Hong Kong for an extended stay, where Edward had interests in an engineering firm.
Charles Walter Mead died unexpectedly and suddenly on Sunday July 8th, 1934. He had been preparing to go to church in his capacity as church warden, but had become faint and collapsing into a chair had died shortly afterward. The funeral was widely reported, with a front page story in the Northampton Mercury of Friday July 20th listing the mourners including representatives from the British Legion, the Inns of Court volunteer mounted infantry and the Girl Guides. The flag at the church was lowered to half-mast and the bells rang a muffled peel. His widow would leave Great Linford in due course, with her final place of abode being 90 Wolverton Road in Newport Pagnell. Sadly, her passing seems to have gone unremarked upon in the local press.
The head of the family was Charles Walter Mead, born October 18th, 1861, not in Great Linford, nor even in Buckinghamshire, but at Scarborough on Hudson, in New York State, USA. His father was Edward Nathaniel Mead, a minister with the Episcopal Church; a part of the Anglican communion, but considered as a more liberally inclined and inclusive branch. In 1839, Edward has been ordained rector of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church at Briarcliff Manor, a suburban village in Scarborough, Westchester County, New York. The church founder was William Creighton, whose daughter Jane became Edward’s Wife. Edward was rector of Saint Mary’s for several years, during which time he would have come to know some of the famous inhabitants of the area, including Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Commodore Matthew Perry, whose infamous “Black Ships” had opened up Japan to American trade at gunpoint. That Edward knew Washington Irving is not in doubt, as in a letter written on November 3rd 1847, Irving refers to “his friend the Rev Edward N Mead of New York”, whom he has tasked with delivering the letter. Edward’s friendship with Irving was clearly a long one, as in 1851 Edward had designed a granite built church at Scarborough for the Saint Mary’s congregation for which Irving had sourced the Ivy growing on the walls; he had taken a cutting from Abbotsford house on the Scottish borders, the home of Sir Walter Scott.
The letter Irving had Edward deliver makes reference to the fact that he and his family were setting off on a tour of Europe. Edward’s design for Saint Mary’s was based on the 14th-century Gothic St. Mary's parish church in Scarborough, England, which he and his wife would visit on their travels. The diocese archive in New York contains a number of documents indicating that a relationship was established between the two churches that endured for a considerable time. Edward and Jane were back in America in 1849 at the earliest, as in this year, their son and firstborn child Edward Schermerhorn Mead was born at Beechwood, Briarcliff Manor. They would go on to have 5 children in total, with Charles Walter Mead being the last in 1861.
Edward applied for a new passport in 1868, and in 1871 we find the whole family resident in the UK living at 96 Lansdowne Place in Hove, Sussex. They seem very well established as the household includes a Governess and 3 servants, though over time some of the family returned to the USA, with Edward himself dying at Scarborough on October 19th, 1877. What had brought the Meads to the UK is unclear, though a short obituary carried in a number of American newspaper notes that Edward had been travelling abroad for years. The same obituary reveals that he had being in ill-health for some years, and knowing his time was short had returned to the US to die. It seems surprising that his wife Jane did not go with him, but she continues to be visible in the UK census records for 1881 and 1891. Of their 5 children, their daughter Eleanor Jane died in Scarborough, USA in 1873, as did their son Edward, the same year as his father in 1877. Katharine Creighton Mead (born 1855 at Staten Island) remained in the UK and died unmarried on March 12th 1926 at Rathmore Lodge. Kensington, London. Her probate record names her brother Charles as executor, leaving a not unsubstantial legacy of nearly £10,000. Their youngest daughter Mary Louise married well, to the widowed Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, a fellow of the Royal Society and pioneer in the field of photography. Sir William pre-deceased her in 1920, with Charles Walter Mead again named as an executor. Mary died at Kennsington in 1926.
Charles had attended Oxford University, attaining his B.A in 1886, an M.A in 1888, and becoming a barrister that same year in London’s Middle Temple, one of the four “Inns of Court” to which barristers are called to serve. On the 1911 census we find him and his family residing at Great Linford Manor. It seems they had arrived that year, or just before, as Charles is to be found listed in the Post Office Directory for London in 1910, with offices at Lincoln’s Inn, another of the 4 inns of court. On the previous census conducted in 1901 Charles, then 39 years old, was living at 34 Ovington Square in Chelsea with his wife Dorothea, daughter Katharine Helena Joanna, infant son Edward Michael Koecher and 4 servants, including a cook and a nurse. He and Dorothea had married on April 18th. 1895 at the church of St John Chrysostom, Manchester. Dorothea was the daughter of a commissions merchant named John Michael Koecher and his wife Helene, both naturalised German citizens.
Charles served in the Inns of Court Territorials during the first world war and commanded a labour battalion, rising to the rank of Major. The 1921 census lists the Major and his wife, plus three servants. As is typical for entries for the village, the census does not provide an explicit address in Great Linford, but it is easy to imagine “the major” as the quintessential country squire, and indeed he appears to have kept himself busy, described in an obituaries as a general commissioner of land and income tax for the Newport district as well as president of the New Bradwell branch of the British legion and an enthusiastic member of the Bucks Otter Hunt, which was based in the grounds of Great Linford Manor Park. The census also gives us an address for his place of work, 21 Old Street at Lincoln's Inn, confirming he was continuing to work as a barrister at law.
There was some tragedy in Edward and Dorothea’s life. While still living in London, the couple had their only two children, a boy and a girl. Their daughter Katharine Helena Joanna had been born on May 21st, 1896, but by the mid-1920s her health was in decline and aged 26, she and her parents had departed Great Linford for Switzerland with the thought that a continental holiday would be a restorative experience. Unfortunately at Folkstone Katharine contracted Influenza and upon reaching Calais her condition deteriorated. She passed away there on February 11th, 1923.
As reported in the Northampton Mercury of Friday February 23rd, there was a considerable outpouring of sympathy in the village; Katherine was reportedly a popular person and had been an active participant in a number of local organisations, but also had done goods works wider afield, principally as a nurse during WW1 based in a hospital at Ashridge, Berkhamsted. Her record card can still be accessed at the British Red Cross archive and reveals that by the end of her service, she had completed an impressive 4,874 hours work, though she was not the only member of the family to serve in this capacity; her mother is also recorded as having completed 1,527 hours nursing duty at the same hospital, plus some additional hours at Tickford Abbey, Newport Pagnell. It is likely that she her mother were recruited under the auspices of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, an organisation founded by the British Red Cross and the Order of St John to recruit additional nursing resources to help at times of war. The recruits often came from the middle and upper classes, resulting in some friction between the VAD’s and the professional trained nursing staff. Katherine had achieved the rank of Commandant, which commonly meant that beneath her would be a Medical Officer, a Quartermaster, and twenty-two women, two of whom were to be trained nurses.
Closer to home, Katherine had been county secretary to the Girls' Diocesan Association, (an association of women of leisure for prayer, study and service), the Captain of the Village Girl Guides troop, (which had been formed at her urging) a strong supporter of the Great Linford Women’s Institute branch and was heavily involved in the Sunday School and, “the religious advancement of the village.” She was buried on Thursday February 22nd. Companies of Girl Guides from Great Linford and Newport Pagnell, as well as Brownies from Wolverton lined the path to the church and a large congregation filled the church for the funeral service.
There was happier news for the Meads in 1933. Their son Edward Michael Koecher Mead married Lesley Louise Haddon Beynon at Great Linford on Saturday December 2nd; after the wedding the groom’s parents hosted 150 guests for dinner at the Manor. Edward’s bride was born in South Africa, and the couple were expected the following year to leave for Hong Kong for an extended stay, where Edward had interests in an engineering firm.
Charles Walter Mead died unexpectedly and suddenly on Sunday July 8th, 1934. He had been preparing to go to church in his capacity as church warden, but had become faint and collapsing into a chair had died shortly afterward. The funeral was widely reported, with a front page story in the Northampton Mercury of Friday July 20th listing the mourners including representatives from the British Legion, the Inns of Court volunteer mounted infantry and the Girl Guides. The flag at the church was lowered to half-mast and the bells rang a muffled peel. His widow would leave Great Linford in due course, with her final place of abode being 90 Wolverton Road in Newport Pagnell. Sadly, her passing seems to have gone unremarked upon in the local press.
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