Period 1775–83.
The patriot progeny of the above-named who made their mark in the War of Independence were four brothers (sons of Admiral Meade’s maternal great-great-grandfather, Return Meigs, of Middletown, Conn., born 1708, died 1770) as follows:
1) Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, of the 6th Connecticut line, born 1740, died 1823. He was with Montgomery at Quebec, having crossed the wilderness with Arnold, and he commanded the expedition against Sag Harbor, May 21, 1777, which destroyed the British vessels’ defenses and stores. He was one of the four colonels that led the forlorn hope at the storming of Stony Point, July 15, 1779, under General Wayne. He figures as one of the best and most reliable soldiers of the Revolution.
2) Maj. Giles Meigs.
3) Capt. John Meigs.
4) Josiah Meigs, of Yale College. (Eighteen years of age when Revolution broke out.)
2. The Society of Colonial Wars, 1607–1775.
Admiral Meade was the Deputy-Governor of the District of Columbia Society.
Ancestors. 1) Maj. Simon Willard, born 1605, died 1676. (Son of Richard Willard, of Horsemonden, Kent, Esquire.)
Simon Willard emigrated from England to America in 1634, and in 1635 was one of the founders of Concord in the colony of Massachusetts Bay; deputy to the General Court, 1636–54; assistant to governor and a councillor from 1654–76; commander-in-chief of the expedition of the United Colonies against Ninigret, Sachem of the Nyantics, 1655; led the heroic relief against the Indians at the battle of Brookfield; commanded the Middlesex Regiment of Massachusetts troops in King Philip’s War; a magistrate of Salem.