Early Life in Ireland
Born at Ardtrea House, County Tyrone, October 7, 1817. He was the fourth son of Rev. Thomas Meredith and Elizabeth Maria Graves (1791–1855), the eldest daughter of Richard Graves, Dean of Ardagh. He was named after his aunt's (Martha Meredith's) husband, "that eccentric genius, the late truly learned and honest" (Christopher) Edmund Allen (1776–1826) LL.D, formerly the Regius Professor of Common Law at Trinity College, Dublin, of the Allens of the Manor of Highgate, County Fermanagh. He was a brother of Sir William Collis Meredith and first cousins with Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Francis Brinkley, Admiral Richard Charles Mayne, John Dawson Mayne, Major-General Arthur Robert MacDonnell, Sir James Creed Meredith and John Walsingham Cooke Meredith. The last named was the father of The Eight London Merediths, who included among them Sir William Ralph Meredith, one of the Pall-bearers at his funeral. Meredith was the uncle and godfather to Sir Augustus Meredith Nanton, pioneer of the Canadian West.
Meredith's father died suddenly and mysteriously in 1819 and his mother's second marriage led her to Lower Canada from 1824 until 1832. She took four of her children, but left the other three, including Meredith, in Ireland. He was left in the care of his celebrated uncle, Robert James Graves and his third wife Anna Grogan. Predominantly brought up by Graves' elderly housekeeper, in 1827 he was sent to Castleknock, a boarding school outside of Dublin. In 1833, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, winning a classical scholarship in his second year and prizes in political economy and science. After graduating (B.A. and M.A. degree) he entered King's Inns, Dublin to study law (becoming a Doctor of Laws).
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