of David
Meade, Richard Kidder Meade was aide-de-camp to General Washington;
Everard Meade aide to General Lincoln. Richard Kidder, Everard, together
with an older brother, David, were educated at Harrow, England, under
the care of Dr. Thackeray. Sir William Jones, Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr.
Parr, were at the same time scholars there.

In June, 1778, Colonel Arthur Campbell wrote to the Rev. Charles
Cummings, of Washington County: "Yesterday I returned home, the assembly
having adjourned until the first Monday in October. The acts passed, and
a list of their titles, I here enclose, together with an address of
congress to the people of America, for you to publish, agreeable to the
resolve. I wish you could make it convenient to preach at the lower
meeting-house in this county, if it was but a week-day, as the contents
of the address are of the most interesting nature, both as to the moral
and political conduct of the good people of America. Providence is daily
working out strange deliverances for us. The treaty with France is much
more advantageous than the wisest men in this country expected. The
Indians the other day were unexpectedly discomfited on Greenbrier. I
think the overthrow was something similar to what happened in this
county about two years ago. I must give you the intelligence at full
length, as the most hardened mind must see and admire the Divine
goodness in such an interposition."

The Rev. Charles Cummings, by birth an Irishman, resided for some time
in the congregation of the Rev. James Waddell, in Lancaster, and
probably studied theology under his care. Mr. Cummings married Miss
Milly, daughter of John Carter, of Lancaster, and in 1773 settled near
where Abingdon now stands. His meeting-house was of unhewn logs, from
eighty to a hundred feet long and forty wide. Mr. Cummings was of middle
stature, well formed, of great firmness and dignity. His voice was of
great compass, and his articulation distinct. At this time the
inhabitants, during the summer months, were compelled to take shelter in
forts for protection against the Indians. The men went to church armed,
taking their families with them. The armed congregation, seated in the
log meeting-house, presented a singular spectacle of frontier life. Mr.
Cummings, when he ascended the steps of the pulpit, deposited his rifle
in a corner and laid aside his shot-pouch. He was a zealous whig, and
was chairman of the committee of safety of Washington County