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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
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