Sir Nathaniel Mead (died 1760), of Goosehays, near Romford, Essex, was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1722.
Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located 14.1 miles (22.7 km) northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically Romford was a market town in the county of Essex and formed the administrative centre of the liberty of Havering, until it was dissolved in 1892. Good road links and the opening of the railway station in 1839 were key to the development of the town and the economic history of Romford is underpinned by a shift from agriculture to light industry and then to retail and commerce. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Romford significantly expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1937 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965 when it was transferred from Essex It now forms one of the largest commercial, retail, entertainment and leisure districts outside central London and has a developed night-time economy.
Essex is a county in the south-east of England, north-east of London. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and London to the south-west. The county town is Chelmsford, the only city in the county. For government statistical purposes Essex is placed in the East of England region.
Mead was the son of William Mead of Goosehays. He was admitted at Middle Temple in 1700 and was called to the bar in 1704. His first wife's identity is unrecorded, but his second wife was Martha Scawen, daughter of Sir Thomas Scawen. He became Serjeant-at-law in January 1715 and was knighted on 17 February 1715. By this time he was also under-steward of Havering-atte-Bower. [1]
William Mead (1628–1713) was a London merchant, and a prominent early Quaker, connected by marriage to George Fox.
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. It is located in the wider Temple area of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London.
Sir Thomas Scawen was a British merchant, financier and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1708 and 1722. He was Governor of the Bank of England from 1721 to 1723.
Mead stood unsuccessfully for Aylesbury at the 1713 general election. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury at the 1715 general election. He did not stand in 1722. [1]
Aylesbury is a constituency created in 1553 — created as a single-member seat in 1885 — represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 1992 by David Lidington, of the Conservative Party.
The 1713 British general election produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had led a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig Junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, but had increasingly struggled to deal with the extreme Tory backbenchers who were frustrated by the lack of support for anti-dissenter legislation. The government remained popular with the electorate, however, having helped to end the War of the Spanish Succession and agreeing on the Treaty of Utrecht. The Tories consequently made further gains against the Whigs, making Harley's job even more difficult. Contests were held in 94 constituencies in England and Wales, some 35 per cent of the total, reflecting a decline in partisan tension and the Whigs' belief that they were unlikely to win anyway.
The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. In October 1714, soon after George I had arrived in London after ascending to the throne, he dismissed the Tory cabinet and replaced it with one almost entirely composed of Whigs, as they were responsible for securing his succession. The election of 1715 saw the Whigs win an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and afterwards virtually all Tories in central or local government were purged, leading to a period of Whig ascendancy lasting almost fifty years during which Tories were almost entirely excluded from office.
Mead died on 15 April 1760. He had two sons from his first marriage and a son and a daughter from the second. [1]
