Mead is a meadow or a tract of low land, the sense is of an extended or flat, depressed land. The original name is de Piato, a Norman who ?angelized? his name. The first recorded in England was Hervey de Piato in 1200. The other version of the origin the family is they are of Saxon descent and had been settled since very early times in Somersetshire, but moved to Essex in the reign of Henry VI, early in the fifteenth century. Now possibly there is a tie in between de Piato and the Saxon family, like a daughter de Piato married a Saxon son, I haven?t learned that yet.
William Mead
