Edmund Allen Meredith
Edmund Allen Meredith CMG | |
---|---|
Under Secretary of State for Canada | |
In office 1847–1867 | |
Preceded by | Christopher Dunkin |
Succeeded by | John Stoughton Dennis |
Principal of McGill University | |
In office 1846–1853 | |
Preceded by | John Bethune |
Succeeded by | Charles Dewey Day |
Personal details | |
Born | Ardtrea, Trinity College, Dublin | 7 October 1817
Edmund Allen Meredith
Early life in Ireland
Born at Ardtrea House,
Meredith's father died suddenly and mysteriously in 1819, and his mother's second marriage led her to
Canada
While still at King's Inns, he was interested to see how his estranged brothers and sisters lived in
In his first diary entry of that year, Meredith talks of his decision to leave Ireland for Canada, revealing his personal angst over the upheaval: "It now seems strange to me that I could have dreamed, even for an instant, of banishing myself from the society of my brother (Richard - Secretary of the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland), and setting up on my own account among complete strangers."[2]
In
(Meredith) was tall (five foot eleven), very slim (one hundred and sixty-five pounds), and distinguished in appearance - his hazel eyes were most expressive, and his jet black hair set off his charming face. His manner was easy and courteous, his voice one to coax the birds off the bough, and his dark blue suit of
St. Lawrence... More significantly for his career, he also developed a notable flair for administration and quiet diplomacy.[4]
While at McGill, Edmund Meredith played in one of the earliest games of ice hockey to have been described. It took place in the 1850s and thirty years later was written up in the Montreal Star:
Strange as it may appear to McGill men and others, there was a great hockey match played in Quebec in the early fifties, when the first principal Dr Edmund Meredith (in fact he was the third principal of McGill University), brother of the late Chief Justice Sir Wm. Meredith of Quebec, who was a very fast skater, might have been called a forward, as might have been his old chum, the late E.H. Steel, while the late Grant Powell (a cousin of Edmund’s wife, Frances Jarvis) was the captain. Their opponents were the Civil Service Club, of Quebec. The hockey sticks were cut from the Gorna Bush; the puck was a piece of oak, and the goals were a mile and a half apart on clear ice, not often found between Quebec and the Island of Orleans. The Quebec Chronicle of that day had a good account of the match.
— Montreal Star, "Thirty Years Ago Today" [citation needed]
Career
During his tenure at
Meredith is best remembered for his role in prison reform, of which he was an active exponent. Following the British North America Act, in 1867 he was appointed the Inspector then Chairman of the Board of Inspectors of Asylums and Prisons etc. Concerning his work on Prison Reform, the
Mr Meredith deserves thanks that in this as in other directions he is labouring to promote social and educational reforms. We are happy in having men in the public service whose hearts are so thoroughly in their work as he has shown his is in the giant task of the amendment of our disgraceful prison life and prison discipline, and in cognate subjects.
He founded the Ottawa Art Association, served as president of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, the Park Lawn Tennis Club (Toronto), the Civil Service Board, the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society, and Vice-President of the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto, and finally the part-time position in retirement as Vice-President of the Toronto Loans and Assurance Company (a.k.a. Toronto General Trusts). However, Meredith's capacity for involving his own money in costly speculative ventures (that included organising a trip to Mexico in search of lost treasure) would have been something of a family joke if it hadn't proved to be so expensive for them!
He wrote and published numerous articles and pamphlets, including "An Essay on the
Meredith was awarded an honorary M.A., from Bishop's University, and that of LL.D., from McGill University. He was an honorary member of the American Association for the Promotion of Social Science. In 1854, he spent several weeks making use of the Leviathan of Parsonstown as the guest of his friend William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, at Birr Castle.
Family
At Rosedale, July 17, 1851 ("the sun shone in unclouded majesty and we had the most delightful breeze"), Meredith married Anne Frances (Fanny) Jarvis (1830–1919), the eldest and favourite daughter of William Botsford Jarvis of Rosedale by his wife, the granddaughter of William Dummer Powell, Mary Boyles Powell. Rosedale, Toronto, previously the Jarvis' 120-acre (0.49 km2) estate is now Toronto's wealthiest residential district. After living in Quebec City and Ottawa, Meredith was finally able to retire to Toronto after a long-awaited 'handsome inheritance' from his Aunt Bella came through from Ireland in 1879. On what had been the apple orchard of the original Rosedale they made their new home, 'a spacious, white-brick house of twenty two rooms', where he died January 12, 1899. Meredith Crescent in Rosedale, Toronto is named for him. The Merediths were the parents of eight children:
- Mary Meredith (b.1856), lived to old age but died unmarried.
- Alice Louisa Meredith (b.1858), married Archibald Duncan McLean, grandson of her maternal grandfather's old friend, Chief Justice Archibald McLean.
- Maude Meredith (1860–62), died an infant.
- Arthur Jarvis Meredith (1862-1895), went out to Edmonton, Alberta with his first cousin, Sir Augustus Meredith Nanton, where he died. He married Isabella Osler, niece of Sir William Osler and Sir Edmund Osler. After her husband died, she and their children (who included Allen Osler Meredith) lived with her uncle, Edmund at Toronto.
- Ethel Colborne Meredith (1865—1922), married a distant cousin, Ernest Frederick Jarvis.
- Clarence Meredith, died an infant in 1868.
- Morna Irvine Meredith (b.1871), married Rev. Alfred Reid. They were the parents of C.C.
- Lt.-Colonel Ottawa Improvement Commission; President of the Ontario Architects Association;, and Councillor of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He designed many of the principal buildings and residences in Ottawa, including the Château Laurier Hotel, as well as a number of schools and convents throughout Canada. From 1925 to 1934 Colborne Meredith served as General-Secretary to the League of Nations Society of Canada. He married Emily Griffin of Ottawa. They are the great-grandparents of Anna Meredith.
Meredith's wife had enjoyed "a blessed childhood, with love on all sides", though she was undoubtedly spoilt as the eldest and prettiest daughter. In 1835, to celebrate her fifth birthday, her mother planted a sapling which has since grown into the famous Rosedale Elm. When she was seven she crept out of bed to witness "a magnificent masquerade ball (at Rosedale) that a whole generation of Toronto party-goers would hold benchmark the rest of their lives." She loved horses, keeping two for her carriage and another for cross country adventures, when she would sport a low-crowned beaver hat with a green veil. Her summers were filled with constant riding parties and picnics, including 'a never-to-be-forgotten adventure: Bark canoes paddled by Indians through five miles (8 km) of rapids', whilst on a visit to cousins at Hawkesbury, Ontario on the Ottawa River. She spent two years at finishing school in Paris (where she was delighted to witness the barricades being flung up in the streets during the French Revolution of 1848) before returning to Canada to spend the winter of 1848/49 in Montreal with the family of Edmund's brother, Sir William Collis Meredith, beginning her courtship with Meredith.
Of all the faces of Edmund Meredith to be found in the family papers, by far the most beguiling is Meredith the paterfamilias. Unlike Fanny, who was sadly self-centred and who also had a lamentable tendency to be fussily over-pretective, Edmund was a relaxed, confident parent, never happier than when horsing around 'having a capital time with my chicks' (as when playing battledore and shuttlecocks down the length of the dining room with his seven-year-old son, in his seventies)... His son Coly remembered 'Unlike the typical Victorian father he never ordered me to do anything, when he wanted something done, one knew that it should be done... At times the confusion made by small children must have been trying, but he never lost his temper or showed irritation. When one considers his own very lonely life as a child, one marvels at his being able to become such a perfect father.
— Sandra Gwynn, The Private Capital
Writings
- Glance at the Present State of the Common Gaols of Canada, 1864
- Earth Sewage versus Water Sewage, 1868
References
- ^ New Monthly Magazine, Volume 31. 1831
- ^ Diaries of Edmund Allen Meredith at the National Archives of Canada
- ^ "Musée McCord Museum - the Shakspeare Club, Montreal, 1847".
- ^ Extract from Mrs Meredith's diaries in The Private Capital (1985) by Sandra Gwyn
- ^ http://collectionscanada.gc.ca
- Laid Beside His Son - Funeral of the late Dr Meredith, Daily Mail and Empire, January 17, 1899
- Member of U.E.L. Family - Mrs Edmund Meredith, Widow of Former McGill Principal, Dead, Montreal Gazette, October 4, 1919
- "Recollections" Written at Age of Eighty-Two, Ottawa Citizen, April 11, 1959
- Not much Ceremony Then, Ottawa Citizen, April 29, 1959
- The Inescapable Stink of Early Ottawa, Ottawa Citizen, October 29, 1984
- Pioneer Mandarin's Life - $3,600 A Year and Discreet Perks, Ottawa Citizen, October 30, 1984
- Dazzling Kaleidoscope at the Governor-General's Ball, Ottawa Citizen, October 31, 1984
- Too Much a Canadian For Own Good, Ottawa Citizen, January 2, 1954
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Meredith Family
Further reading
- The book The Private Capital by Sandra Gwyn provides insight to his life and Canadian politics of the time based on the diary (held at the National Archives in Ottawa) he kept every day from 1844 until his death. The book was made into a television series shown on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Photographs
- The Gate Lodge to Ardtrea House, Co. Tyrone
- Edmund Allen Meredith with his family at their home in Toronto c.1890
- Frances Anne (Jarvis) Meredith in 1865
- Daughter Mary Meredith (1856-1924) in fancy dress, 1876
- William Botsford Jarvis's cousin, William Jarvis (1756-1817) with his family
- Edmund Allen Meredith, 1863
- Edmund Allen Meredith, 1869
- Edmund Allen Meredith, 1868