William Collis Meredith - Family

Family

William Collis Meredith was married at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, May 20, 1847, to Sophia Naters Holmes (1820–1898). She was the eldest daughter of 'the well-known and popular' William Edward Holmes (1796–1825), a Quebec surgeon (son of William Holmes) and a brother-in-law of Sydney Robert Bellingham. Mrs Meredith's mother, Ann Johnston (1788–1865), was the daughter of Lt.-Colonel James Johnston and his wife Margaret, sister of John MacNider. Mrs Meredith was one of seven siblings and half-siblings, but other than her only two were married: Her brother, William Holmes, married a daughter of Colonel Bartholomew Gugy, and their half-sister, Eliza Paul, married Major Stephen Heward (1776–1828), brother-in-law of Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto. The Merediths were the parents of ten children:

• Sophia Elizabeth Meredith (1848–1927), married Henry Nicholas (Monck) Middleton (1845–1928) J.P., D.L., of Dissington Hall, Northumberland, and later Lowood House, near Melrose, Scotland. He was a brother of Sir Arthur Middleton, 7th Baronet, and their son married a daughter of Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey.
• William Henry Meredith (1849–1895), director of the Bank of Montreal, died unmarried at his apartments at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal.

• Matilda Anne Meredith (1851–1875), died unmarried at Cannes, France.
• Edward Graves Meredith (1852–1938) N.P., of Quebec, married Isabella Agnes Housman (1858–1949), daughter of The Rev. George Vernon Housman (1820–1887), for 25 years Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, Quebec City, by his wife Eliza Izza Maria Reeves (1823–1865) of Hanover Square, London. Housman was the uncle of Alfred Edward Housman and the grandson of Thomas Shrawley Vernon of Hanbury Hall.

• Harriett Meredith (1854–1941), married Harry Stanley Smith (1850–1916), formerly a Quebec merchant from Seaforth near Liverpool, who retired to Addington House, Wimbledon. They were the grandparents of Berkeley Smith.

• Hylda Graves Meredith (1856–1931), married George Hamilton Thomson (1857–1929) of Quebec, grandson of George Hamilton.
• Richard Holmes Meredith (1858–1868), died young.

• Louisa Meredith (1860–1938), married her half first cousin Lt.-Colonel Edward Hampden Turner Heward (1852–1930). Heward's brother married the sister of Lord Atholstan.

• Frederick Edmund Meredith (1862–1941) K.C., D.C.L., of Montreal, married Anne Madeleine VanKoughnet (1863–1945), grand-daughter of Colonel Philip VanKoughnet. They were the parents of William Campbell James Meredith.

• Evaline Bertha Meredith (1863–1868), died young.

Meredith frequently returned to Europe, either touring the continent with members of his family or visiting his relatives in Ireland, notably members of the Allen, Bellingham, Collis, Drought, Eustace, Graves, MacDonnell, Mayne and Meredith families. Rather than their stepfather, he and the rest of his siblings regarded their uncle, The Rev. Richard MacDonnell, as a second father. In 1853, when visiting relatives in Ireland, Edmund Allen Meredith's wrote in his diary that ‘the doctor (as they referred to MacDonnell) spoke much of the splendid apples and cider William had sent him’. In return ‘the doctor’ insisted on opening bottle after bottle of claret for Edmund, ‘to prove to William that it is now possible to find good claret in Ireland!’