William Mead (merchant)

William Mead (1628–1713) was a London merchant, and a prominent early Quaker, connected by marriage to George Fox.

Mead became a wealthy linen draper of Fenchurch Street in the City of London, and member of the Company of Merchant Taylors.

On 14 August of that year he was present at a crowded meeting in Gracechurch Street, at which William Penn was the preacher; both were arrested and committed to Newgate Gaol.

Edward Bushel(l), one of a group of four jurors who disputed their treatment, successfully applied to the Court of Common Pleas for a writ of habeas corpus, and they were released, following a ruling by Sir John Vaughan.

Sarah Fell was a preacher, Hebrew scholar, manager of the large household at Swarthmoor, and a correspondent of William Penn and Robert Barclay.

She had been sought in marriage by Richard Lower, court physician, whose brother Thomas married her sister Mary.

[1] Sarah Fell obtained from the king in 1670 the order for the release of her mother (then Mrs. Fox) from prison, which she herself conveyed to Lancaster.