The Rt. Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith PC, QC (18 November 1855 – 26 January 1916), was the

Master of the Rolls in Ireland The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respons ...

, a Privy Councillor and Judicial Commissioner of the

Irish Land Commission The Irish Land Commission was created by the British crown in 1843 to 'inquire into the occupation of the land in Ireland. The office of the commission was in Dublin Castle, and the records were, on its conclusion, deposited in the records tower t ...

Career

Born at Summerhill,

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

, Meredith was the son of Isabella Agnes Standish, of

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

, and William Rice Meredith (1814-1888), a prominent

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

solicitor and sometime President of the

Law Society of Ireland The Law Society of Ireland ( ga, Dlí-Chumann na hÉireann) is a professional body established on 24 June 1830 and is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in Ireland. As of 2020, the Law Society had ...

, who took his middle name from his ancestors, the Rices of Aghare. Richard Meredith was a brother of Frederick Walsingham Meredith (1860-1924), also President of the

, and a nephew of

John Walsingham Cooke Meredith * * John Walsingham Cooke Meredith (1809–1881) was an Irish–Canadian office holder and businessman, best remembered as the father of the ''Eight London Merediths''. He previously practised as a barrister and was a member of the first Eccentr ...

, the father of his notable cousins in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. His Irish cousins included the brothers Judge

James Creed Meredith James Creed Meredith, KC (28 November 1875 – 14 August 1942) was an Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1942 and a Judge of the High Court from 1924 to 1937. He was best known as a nationalist of the early ...

and the Ven.

Ralph Creed Meredith Ralph Creed Meredith, M.A., (7 October 1887 – 10 January 1970) was an Anglican cleric who succeeded Edward Keble Talbot as Chaplain to His Majesty, King George VI and afterwards Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In New Zealand he was president ...

. He was an uncle of the poet Monk Gibbon, the mathematician Carew Arthur Meredith and the Chief Justice of the

Patna High Court The Patna High Court is the High Court of the state of Bihar. It was established on 9 February 1916 and later affiliated under the Government of India Act 1915. The court is based in Patna, the administrative capital of the state of Bihar, ...

, Sir Herbert Ribton Meredith (1890-1959). Educated at Galway College, Queen's University of Ireland and

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. Meredith entered

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1876 and was called to the Irish bar in 1879. He rapidly acquired an extensive practice, becoming a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

(Q.C.) in 1892, only thirteen years later, when the average time before taking silk was twenty years. He enjoyed an immense practice as a barrister, and was considered as an equity lawyer of the first rank. In 1894, he was admitted as a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of King's Inns,

, where he was for a long time the youngest member of that body by a considerable number of years. In 1896, he was appointed a Judge of the

High Court of Justice in Ireland The High Court of Justice in Ireland was the court created by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 to replace the existing court structure in Ireland. Its creation mirrored the reform of the courts of England and Wales five years e ...

and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. In 1898, he was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the

, in which capacity he made his fame. In 1906, he was appointed

, a popular choice as he had never associated himself with party politics. He retired due to ill health in 1912 and died in the North of England, on 26 January 1916. On Meredith's death ''The Irish Times'' reported, At

in 1880, he married Anne, daughter of John Pollock of Harcourt Street,

, by his wife and cousin Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Nicholas Purdon-Stoute of Newtown House, near

Youghal Youghal ( ; ) is a seaside resort town in County Cork, Ireland. Located on the estuary of the River Blackwater, the town is a former military and economic centre. Located on the edge of a steep riverbank, the town has a long and narrow layout. ...

in County Waterford, whose father (John Stoute Purdon-Stoute) had taken the name of Stoute on inheriting Newtown. The Pollocks were associated wit
Brooklodge, Co. Cork
and Springmount, Co. Waterford. The Merediths were the parents of five children and lived at 31

Fitzwilliam Square Fitzwilliam Square ( ga, Cearnóg Mhic Liam) is a Georgian garden square in the south of central Dublin, Ireland. It was the last of the five Georgian squares in Dublin to be built, and is the smallest. The middle of the square is composed of a ...

, Dublin. Their eldest son, Lt.-Colonel William Rice Meredith (1882-1964)

C.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

, D.S.O., was a Gold Staff Officer at the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meredith, Richard Edmund 1855 births 1916 deaths Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Irish Anglicans Masters of the Rolls in Ireland Judges of the High Court of Justice in Ireland