William Meade

The Right Reverend William Meade
III Bishop of Virginia
Bishop William Meade
Province	The Episcopal Church
Diocese	Virginia
Successor	John Johns
Orders
Consecration	May 30, 1878
Personal details
Born	November 11, 1789 Lucky Hit White Post, Virginia
Died	March 14, 1862(1862-03-14) (aged 72) Richmond, Virginia
Buried	Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia

William Meade (November 11, 1789 – March 14, 1862) was a United States Episcopal bishop, the third Bishop of Virginia.

His father, Colonel Richard Kidder Meade (1746–1805), one of George Washington's aides during the War of Independence, after the conflict ended sold his estate at Coggins Point on the James River near Henricus and bought 1000 acres and moved the family to the Shenandoah Valley. Thus, William Meade was born on November 11, 1789 at 'Meadea' near White Post, then grew up at Lucky Hit plantation in Frederick County but now Clarke County, Virginia. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The boy was home-schooled until he was ten, then sent to a school run by Rev. Wiley on the estate of Nathaniel Burwell. Rather than attend the College of William and Mary in Virginia, which some considered irreligious by the time, young Meade and his fellow student William H. Fitzhugh entered the college of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1806. Meade graduated with high honors and as valedictorian in 1808.

At the urging of his mother and his cousin Mrs. Custis, Meade studied theology privately under the Rev. Walter Addison near the newly established national capital, and lived for a time in Alexandria, Virginia across the Potomac River from Rev. Addison's parish. He was particularly impressed by Soame Jenyns Internal Evidence of Christianity and William Wilberforce's Practical View. Meade also returned to Princeton in 1809 to continue some graduate studies in divinity (since it had been organized by the Presbyterian Church), but caught a near-fatal fever, and so returned home to work on the farm as well as to build his own Shenandoah valley home at Mountain View (an estate which remains today, although no longer in Meade family ownership).