John Walsingham Cooke Meredith - The Eight London Merediths

The Eight London Merediths

John and Sarah's daughters were said to be 'remarkable for their beauty', but all four of them died unmarried. One son, Albert Allen Meredith (1858–1863), died at a young age, but the others grew up to be collectively remembered as the Eight London Merediths, remarkable for the success they individually earned in legal, official and financial roles in London, Ontario; Toronto and Montreal.

The youngest son, Llewellyn Meredith (1860–1933) J.P., of London, Ontario, was of a more retiring disposition than his seven elder brothers, but no less distinguished in his own field. He continued his father's successful business in loans and insurance, and like him also became a Justice of the Peace. He imported horses from England and Ireland (one of his first cousins there was married to a niece of the famous Irish trainer Henry Eyre Linde J.P., of Eyrefield Lodge, on the Curragh, who Llewellyn had known well) and bred them on his farm 'Ardaven', outside of London. He achieved international acclaim as a judge of thoroughbreds and twice represented Canada at the Olympia Horse Show in London, England. He was also a trustee of the Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario.

Law

Four of the eight sons had careers in law, and all four of them not only took silk, but were all offered elevation to the Bench. Two of them - Sir William Ralph Meredith and Richard Martin Meredith - went on to become chief justices for the province of Ontario. The other two - Edmund Meredith (1845–1921) and Thomas Graves Meredith - remained as Queen's Counsel's, the latter serving as City solicitor for London, Ontario. Chief Justice Sir William Collis Meredith of Quebec (father of the prominent Montreal lawyer, Frederick Edmund Meredith), was a first cousin of the brothers' father.

Another of their father's first cousins, Sir James Creed Meredith of Dublin, was the father of Judge James Creed Meredith. Their uncle, William Rice Meredith (1814–1888), was President of the Law Society of Ireland, and his sons (their first cousins) included: Richard Edmund Meredith, Master of the Rolls in Ireland; Llewellyn Meredith, a judge in New Zealand; and Frederick Walsingham Meredith (1859–1924), also President of the Law Society of Ireland and the father of Sir Herbert Ribton Meredith, Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.

Finance

The remaining three brothers entered the financial world, the most prominent of whom was Sir Vincent Meredith, President of the Bank of Montreal. John Stanley Meredith (1843–1920) was the number two in command (General Manager) at Canada's second largest Commercial bank, Sir Hugh Allans Merchant's Bank of Canada. The third brother directly involved in finance was Charles Meredith, President of the Montreal Stock Exchange. Another brother, Thomas Graves Meredith, though a lawyer, was also President of Canada Life Assurance. The brother's cousins, Frederick Edmund Meredith and his elder brother, William, both served as directors of the Bank of Montreal. In Ireland, their father's uncles, Walter and John Redmond (1770–1822), founded Redmond's Bank in Wexford which was described as "one of the very few provincial private banks that attained a conspicuous position, had a long and successful career, and ceased, leaving a sweet savour of solvency and honourable dealing".

Education

Richard Martin Meredith was a founder, Chancellor and the first chairman of the board of governors for the University of Western Ontario, where he endorsed the R.M. Meredith Society. Sir William Ralph Meredith was Chancellor of the University of Toronto and Sir Vincent Meredith was a Governor of McGill University. Their father's first cousin, Edmund Allen Meredith, was the 3rd Principal of McGill University in the 1840s, and a nephew of the 29th Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, Richard MacDonnell. Their cousin, Frederick Edmund Meredith, was Chancellor of Bishop's University, and his son, William Campbell James Meredith, was Dean of the Faculty of Law at McGill University.

Politics

Unlike their father's first cousin John Edward Redmond (1806–1865) and his family, in politics the London Merediths, as a group, did not feature as prominently. Sir William Ralph Meredith was a Member of Parliament and leader of the Ontario Conservative Party. He was honorably retired after a series of electoral defeats, but later declined the invitation of Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper to join his Cabinet. Edmund Meredith (1845–1921) was both an Alderman and Mayor of London, Ontario, but as a conservative he unsuccessfully contested for the seat of North Middlesex, Ontario. The Meredith family as a whole had a general distaste of politics and though many were encouraged to enter the political world, except for the two already mentioned, the rest declined.

Legacy

Only five of the eight Meredith brothers married. Adding to the family's wealth and influence in Canadian society, Sir Vincent Meredith married a daughter of Andrew Allan, Chairman of the Allan Line and the Merchant's Bank etc. Charles Meredith married a daughter of Richard B. Angus, co-founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and President of the Bank of Montreal etc., and Thomas Graves Meredith married a daughter of The Hon. Sir John Carling P.C., President of the Carling Brewery etc. But, of the five brothers who married, only three of them had children, and within only one generation of the eight brothers, all of the male descendants of this family were dead. In 1916, Sir Vincent Meredith had been created the 1st Baronet of Montreal for his wartime services to Canada, but as one of the five who died without children this title became extinct on his death. The remarkable family of John Walsingham Cooke Meredith is survived today through the female descendants of Sir William Ralph Meredith.