JAMES MEREDITH,

 CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT OF MARINES, 24TH (PLYMOUTH) COMPANY

Available records indicate that James Meredith was born in 1754. The 1841 census shows that in retirement in Monmouthshire he was living with his son James Henry, born 17.7.1793, an officer in the Royal Navy.  James senior was not born in that county.

His military service records suggest that he himself may have come from a family similarly employed.  At 22, in April 1777 he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of Marines in the 8th (Portsmouth) Company while stationed at Halifax Nova Scotia and the following year he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant after serving on HMS Magnificent in the West Indies and Canadian waters.  His promotion to Captain Lieutenant came in September 1782 after which he was Marine Captain on the Plymouth guard ship, Culloden.

In 1786 he volunteered for the venture to Botany Bay and married Elizabeth Baker Harvey at East Stone House, Devon in November of that year, six months before setting sail on the Friendship, the smallest vessel of the First Fleet, on 13.05.1787.  He was already at sea when his first daughter, Eliza, was baptised in the November of that year.

He was befriended by Ralph Clark during the voyage, agreeing with Clark on the use of severity towards convicts, who should be ‘put in irons on the smallest fault’.  Clark, despite the friendship, tended to be critical of many of his fellow officers, commenting that James had declined to meet the Spanish Governor at Teneriffe and that he was considered one of the more ‘hard drinkers’ among the marines.

Ralph Clark’s diary is the main source of anecdotes relating to the James Meredith during his nearly four years in the Sydney Cove settlement.  James Meredith seemed quite adventurous and was often ‘up river’ hunting with marine officer friends.  Even before the fleet left Botany Bay, Meredith is recorded by several diarists as keen on fishing, how long he stayed out and with whom he was accompanied.

For Parramatta River excursions in early autumn 1788, his usual friends were Clark, Captain Tench and (surgeon) Arndell, the latter having been with him when the two of them lost their way in the bush, were out all night but not found by a search party and finally returned to the boat the next morning ‘very fatigued’.  On another occasion an indigenous spear man attempted to attack Meredith just after he left a short ‘gift-exchange’ to return to his boat.  He apparently responded by firing his musket into a group of trees where his would-be assassin was hiding.

Several times during 1778-9 James Meredith was called by Arthur Phillip and David Collins for duty at the Criminal Court, while on other occasions it was Meredith himself who was wanted for various minor misdemeanours.  The complainant in most cases was actually his supervisor Major Ross, who seemed to regard Captain Meredith’s activities as often bordering on illegality.  One time it was an accusation of stealing public garden pumpkins at Rose Hill where he and a party of marines were on duty and on another occasion, back at Sydney Town, he was accused of ‘disturbing’ Sarah Bellamy in her hut.  The latter ‘charge’ was followed by a more serious incident that involved Major Ross’s convict secretary, Herbert Keeling in October 1789.  The angry Ross suspended Meredith as ‘unfit for duty’ and the matter was blown up in a court martial on his return to England where he hoped to successfully defend himself against his accusers.

   The action was officially confirmed by the Governor himself in April 1790 when his letter to Admiralty Secretary   Philip Stephens, referred to the death of Marine Captain Shea and the suspension of Captain Meredith.  With Arthur Phillip’s letter was a Return of Marines that had been compiled by Captain Campbell and a list of the officers and Marines who wished to remain in the colony at the end of their tour of duty.  Phillip himself made note that Captain Meredith had requested a court martial as he ‘deemed his conduct to have been such as he could justify’.

Naturally enough, James Meredith’s activities in relation to his work as a marine garner much more official comment than anything referring to his ‘private life’.  Despite his wife Elizabeth and Eliza both being ‘alive and well’ in Devon, Meredith lived with a common-law convict partner in Sydney, Mary Hughes (AKA Mary Johnson) from October 1789.  Their son James was baptised on 9 May 1790, on the same day as another Meredith, Frederick, a sailor, had his daughter by the convict Mary Allein baptised.

Captain James Meredith left the colony for England on board the Gorgon on 18th December 1791, taking 18 month old James junior with him.  Mary Hughes remained in the colony with her daughter Mary who was born 3 months after her father’s departure.  Gorgon reached Portsmouth on 21st June 1792, the Plymouth marines being then transferred to their home base Plymouth on board HM Juno.  Captain Meredith of course was part of this transfer and once on home soil, his rank of Captain conferred on him at Sydney after the death of Captain Shea was confirmed.

The Meredith family, in its two locations during 1792 and 1793 suffered considerable sadness.  James junior died first in Portsmouth in October 1792, four months into his time in England.  His full sister back in Sydney, Mary, died exactly 12 months later.  She too, as did her brother, had received a full baptism in St Philips church the previous year.  All was not lost, however for the family’s future, because on 17thJuly, 1793, James and Elizabeth together again, welcomed their son James Henry into the family.

James Henry’s birth was registered in the parish of Old Lakenham, near Norwich, where his parents must have been domiciled at the time.  It is not yet known what took them there so soon after James’s return to England.  Perhaps there was a family connection to the area, or even a marine service appointment.

His impressive career in the marines continued without interruptions for the rest of his life, after his requested court martial in Plymouth in September 1792 was found in his favour.  His name was cleared and the charge made by Major Ross those years earlier was declared ‘groundless and malicious’.

In March 1794 he was promoted to brevet Major and in December of that year he embarked on Hannibal as Major of Marines.  He served on her until the end of September 1800, mainly in the West Indies.  During that six year period he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Hart’s Army List for 1841, the year of James Meredith’s death, indicates further progress through the ranks of the Royal Marines : Colonel in April 1808, Major-General in June 1811, Lieutenant General in July 1821 and General in June 1838.

His death at his residence in Monk St, Monmouth on 9th July 1841 was recorded in the Monmouthshire press ‘at the patriarchal age of 88’.  His wife, Elizabeth had pre-deceased him by seven years.  Her death notice in The Merlin of 9th August 1831 reads ‘Died, on Tuesday night, aged 73, Elizabeth, the wife of General Meredith of this town.  The demise of this esteemed lady, which was awfully sudden, is much lamented in the circle of her acquaintance.’

The couple are buried in their nearby village church, St Mary the Virgin, Welsh Newton, in Herefordshire, where they are honoured in a marble plaque on the interior wall of the historic 13th Century church.  The plaque reads as follows:

NEAR THIS SPOT ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF

JAMES MEREDITH ESQ

A GENERAL IN THE ARMY AND A COLONEL OF ROYAL MARINES

WHO DIED AT MONMOUTH JULY 9TH 1841

IN THE 88TH YEAR OF HIS AGE

HAVING HELD A COMMISSION IN HIS COUNTRY’S SERVICE 70 YEARS, 50 OF WHICH HE WAS IN ACTIVE EMPLOYMENT

IN ALMOST EVERY PART OF THE GLOBE

DURING THE MOST EVENTFUL PERIOD OF ITS HISTORY

ALSO OF ELIZABETH HIS WIFE
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AUGUST 5TH 1834

IN THE 75TH YEAR OF HER AGE

BELOVED IN LIFE AND LAMENTED IN DEATH

 

The esteem shown by the local community for this couple can be gauged by the fact that they are buried in the church itself. The rolled back central aisle carpet reveals the inscribed flagstone showing their initials and dates of death.

References:

Founders of Australia, Mollie Gillen, Library of Australian History 1989

Sydney Cove 1788, John Cobley, Hodder & Stoughton

Sydney Cove 1789-1790, John Cobley, Angus & Robertson.

Remarks on A Passage to Botany Bay 1787-1792, Trustees Public Library of NSW, in Association with Angus & Robertson.

An Account of The English Colony in NSW Vol 1, David Collins, Edited by Brian Fletcher (RAHS) A H & W Reed

The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787-1792, Edited by Paul Fidlon& R J Ryan, Library of Australian History

Journal of a Voyage to NSW, John White, Edited by Alec H Chisholm (RAHS) Angus & Robertson

 

 

Copyright Fellowship of First Fleeters