MEREDITH, William (c.1620-65), of Kilcullen, co. Kildare.

William Meredith was the son and heir of the chancellor of the Irish exchequer, Sir Robert Meredith. Sir Robert had sided with the parliamentarians during the early 1640s, and, as a result of opposing the cessation of arms agreed with the Confederate Catholics in September 1643, was imprisoned by James Butler, marquess of Ormond. In 1646 Sir Robert was one of the commissioners chosen by Parliament to treat with Ormond for the surrender of Dublin, and was named as privy councillor to the new lord lieutenant, Philip Sidney, viscount Lisle, in January 1647. William owed his first military commission to his father’s political connections. When Lisle took his forces across to Munster in February 1647, Sir Robert arranged for William to accompany him, as captain in his regiment of foot; and when Lisle’s commission expired in the following April, he was listed among those who returned to England in disgrace.1CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 625; A True and Brief Relation of the Lord Lisle’s departure from his command in Ireland (1647), 5 (E.385.13). This brief foray was followed by a more stable position, as captain in the horse regiment raised by Colonel Michael Jones, Parliament’s commander in Dublin from the summer of 1647. Meredith had joined Jones’s regiment by September 1647, was based in Dublin during 1648, and presumably fought at the battle of Rathmines in August 1649.2HMC Egmont, i. 467; TCD, MS 844, f. 52. Meredith’s own account of his activities during the Cromwellian conquest can be summarised as follows. After Rathmines, the regiment served under Oliver Cromwell* at the siege of Drogheda, and then left the main army, pushing northwards against Dundalk, Lisburn and Belfast (which fell in November) before returning to Dublin. Thereafter, he rejoined Cromwell in the south, and, under the command of Sir Theophilus Jones (who succeeded his brother as colonel in December 1649), was involved in the suppression of resistance in Limerick, Kerry, King’s County and Cavan from 1650 until the end of 1652.3HMC 8th Rep. 599-602. Meredith was a courageous soldier, winning the day (and being wounded) at the battle of Glascarrig, co. Wexford, in November 1649, and leading daring raids against superior forces at Kilmallock and Clonetway, co. Limerick, in the spring of 1650.4HMC 8th Rep. 601. He was again wounded near Belturbet, co. Cavan, in June 1652, and was praised for his bravery ‘in the middle of the enemy’.5Mercurius Politicus no. 109 (1-8 July 1652), 1710, 1715 (E.669.16). When Jones’s regiment was reduced in August 1653, Meredith’s troop was reassigned to that of Edmund Ludlowe II, and remained part of the field army until the further round of disbanding in 1655, when Meredith lost his command.6Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 601.

Meredith’s political career was influenced not by his colleagues in the army, but by his Old Protestant background. Through his father (who owned substantial estates in co. Kildare) Meredith enjoyed a wide-range of connections with the landowners of the Irish midlands: he was related to the Coote and Ussher families, and through the Usshers to the Joneses. His election for cos. Kildare and Wicklow, which took place on 2 August 1654, became a trial of strength by the Old Protestants against the Dublin government and the radical army officers. Meredith stood alongside a moderate army officer, Anthony Morgan*, who was also supported the Old Protestant community. Against them were ranged four other candidates, Oliver St John* and Richard Salwey* (backed by the government and the Dublin corporation), Edmund Ludlowe and Adjutant William Allen (supported by the army radicals). In the ensuing contest, Meredith and Morgan received nearly twice as many votes as St John and Salwey, ‘and the other two found all negatives’.7HMC Egmont, i. 553. The election indenture suggests that Meredith received considerable support from the Old Protestant landowners, with his father heading the list of named electors, followed by Sir John Hoey of co. Wicklow, and Sir Theophilus Jones.8C219/44, unfol. Once in the Commons, Meredith’s activity was less dramatic. His sole appointment was to the committee to consider the future of the armed forces (26 Sept.), although the fact that the others named included nine other Irish MPs may suggest that he was once again working with the Old Protestant interest.9CJ vii. 370b. On his return to Ireland in 1655, Meredith reinforced his connections by his marriage to a daughter of Sir Robert King – one of the most important politicians in Ireland. In 1656 Meredith produced his account of his military service at the behest of Dr Henry Jones (brother of Michael and Sir Theophilus), who was collecting evidence for a history of the wars.10TCD, MS 844, f. 144. He rejoined the army in the late 1650s, as captain in the horse regiment of the lord deputy, Henry Cromwell*.11Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 246; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 121.

After the fall of the Cromwellian protectorate, Meredith continued to serve with his regiment, now under the command of its former major, Peter Wallis.12CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 700; Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 250. In August he was sent to England with the Irish brigade deployed to assist the suppression of the royalist rising led by Sir George Boothe*.13CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 686. By December Meredith was back in Dublin, where he joined Sir Charles Coote*, Sir Theophilus Jones and other officers in taking control of the city and refusing the request of Ludlowe, the newly-appointed commander-in-chief, to land there.14CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 695; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 121. After the Restoration, Meredith shared the improved fortunes of his fellow Old Protestants. He retained his captain’s commission in 1660, and served in the royal army for the next two years.15CSP Ire. 1669-70, p. 384; HMC Ormonde, o.s. i. 253. In November 1660 he was made a baronet.16CB. In January 1661 he was recommended for a pardon by Sir Charles Coote (now earl of Mountrath), and in the act of settlement of 1662 a proviso was included ensuring that the lands of ‘Sir Robert Meredith and his son Sir William Meredith [are] not to be prejudiced’.17CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 188; TCD, MS 808, f. 179. Yet Meredith would not enjoy such favours for long. He fell ill in the summer of 1664 and died early the next year, being buried at St Patrick’s Cathedral on 14 February 1665. Although his brief will mentions no children, and leaves all his possessions to his wife, he appears to have had one son, Richard, who was born in 1657, and later claimed the baronetcy.18PROB11/316/367. This Richard served as MP for Athy in the Irish Parliaments of 1703-13. Meredith’s widow remarried William Feilding, 2nd earl of Desmond (and later 3rd earl of Denbigh) in 1666, and died three years later. William’s father, Sir Robert Meredith, died in 1668, and the bulk of the estate descended to his younger son, Charles.19CB.