James Creed Meredith

: "This article relates to James Creed Meredith, Irish judge. For James Meredith, first African-American student at the University of Mississippi see James Meredith

The Hon. Mr Justice James Creed Meredith (28 November 1875 - 14 August 1942) K.C., was an Irish nationalist of the early 20th century. He served as President of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic, Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland and was a philosopher, noted scholar and translator of Kant.

Family

James Creed Meredith was the son of Sir James Creed Meredith (1842-1912), Deputy Grand Master of the Freemasons of Ireland. His mother, Ellen Graves Meredith (1848-1919), was his father's third wife and the daughter of his first cousin, The Rev. Richard Graves Meredith (1810-1871), Rector of Timoleague and Knockavilly, Co. Cork, by his wife Ellen (1822-1873), daughter of James Randal Howe of Glanavirane House, Co. Cork. Both James and his father were named after James Creed of Kilmallock, Uregare, Co. Limerick, whose second daughter, Adelaide (Meredith's grandmother), married Major Richard Martin Meredith (1792-1869), the youngest brother of Thomas Meredith. To add to the mix of Merediths, James Creed's other daughter, Eliza, married Sir Edward Newenham Meredith (1776-1865) 9th Bt., of Greenhill, Co. Kildare.

Meredith's father was a first cousin of Sir William Collis Meredith of Quebec and John Walsingham Cooke Meredith (1809-1881) J.P., of London, Upper Canada, who was the father of the 'Eight London Merediths' with whom Meredith was associated with. They included Sir Vincent Meredith, Charles Meredith and Sir William Ralph Meredith.

Jemmy (as he was familiarly known) Meredith was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, from where he graduated with a Masters degree. Whilst a student there he became the British Quarter Mile Champion in 1896. After Trintity he embarked upon a legal career, becoming a barrister.

Marriage

In 1908 at St. George's Church, Montreal, James Creed Meredith married Lorraine Seymour Percy, the daughter of Charles Percy (1852-1918) of Weredale Park, Montreal. Charles was described as ‘a great family man, devoted to cultivated society and an admirier of fine arts, particularly music, and a lover of nature and his family fireside.’ He came from England to Canada in 1876. For many years he was the Treasurer of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railroad Company and a director of the Central Vermont Railroad. Lorraine's mother, Annie Redmond Meredith (1849-1930), was a talented artist in her own right. She was described as ‘a woman of rare culture and charm, artistic in taste, and noted for her charitable works and activities associated with the Church of England, of which she was a communicant since childhood’. Annie was the daughter of Henry Howard Meredith (1815-1892) of Rosebank House, Port Hope, Ontario, a first cousin on different sides of both James's mother and father.

* Portrait of Lorraine Seymour (Percy) Meredith [http://www.whytes.ie/4ImageDisplay.asp?AUCTION=20070917&
]

Lorraine herself was a great patron of various Irish artists and poets. They left two daughters, Moira and Brenda.
Moira's son Rowan Gillespie, is the Irish bronze casting sculptor, whose latest work "Proclamation" is a memorial to the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and, according to his biographer Roger Kohn, to his Grandfather's dream of a Utopian society.

Career

In 1914, James Creed Meredith had approached Sir Thomas Myles to use his yacht, the "Chotah", to land guns for the Irish Volunteers at Kilcoole. Meredith himself helped out aboard the "Chotah" during the operation.James was unusual amongst Protestants and graduates of Trinity College Dublin of his era, in that he was an active supporter of Sinn Féin and the revolutionary Dáil government between 1919 and 1922. He served as the President of the Dáil Supreme Court from 1920-22.

When the War of Independence was over some Dáil deputies argued that elements of the Brehon law should be incorporated into the legal system of the new State. Meredith was among those who supported this view. In 1919 he was appointed by the Dáil to the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic. By reason of his being a King's Council and therefore more senior to Arthur Clery ,the other member so appointed, he assumed the role of President of the court. [Kotsonouris (a) 35] In this capacity he gave a judgement in 1920 citing Brehon law which might have had far reaching implications for women's rights in Ireland. However, Laurence Ginnell and most of the judiciary who supported this initiative of reviving aspects of Brehon Law took the Republican side in the subsequent Civil War (1922-23), and so the project came to nothing. The new Irish State re-accepted English Statute and Common Law while suppressing the nascent Irish system. James was appointed to be Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland August 14, 1923.He served on the High Court from 1924 to 1937 and then on the Supreme Court of Ireland of Ireland until his death. He was Vice-President of the Supreme Saar Plebiscite Tribunal 1934-1935.

Retirement

There is no doubt that Meredith was an activist. A kind, intelligent and philosophical man, he wrote five books, most notable of which was his 1911 translation of 'Kant's Critique of Aesthetic Judgement'. It is still widely used today by English speaking scholars of Immanuel Kant. In the analytical index of his famous translation, Meredith asked a pertinent question concerning Irish history and society, "What do you call a pretty girl in Ireland?", furnishing his own characteristic response: "A tourist.""

The Meredith's Dublin house, Hopeton, was a centre for well known poets, writers and artists of the time, and they also kept a country residence, Albert House, at Dalkey.

Never one to escape controversy, The Hon. Mr Justice James Creed Meredith became a Quaker in later life and after his death on 14th August, 1942, was buried at the Friend's Temple Hill Cemetery, Blackrock, Dublin. He was one of a distinguished group of cousins both in Ireland and Canada, and his brother, The Ven. Ralph Creed Meredith (1887-1970), Dean of Windsor, had served as chaplain to both George VI and Elizabeth II.

Notes

Author Of :

* [http://www.archive.org/details/critiquekantaest00kantuoft "Kant's Critique of aesthetic judgement / translated with seven introductory essays, notes, and analytical index" :Oxford: 1911] at Internet Archive
* [http://www.archive.org/details/proportionalrepr00mere "Proportional representation in Ireland": Dublin and London: 1913] at Internet Archive
* (with Hector Hughes) "The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1920" :Dublin: 1920
* "The rainbow in the valley" :Dublin: 1939: (science fiction)
* "Nell Nelligan:-A romance of the Irish volunteers" : Dublin: 1940: (novel)

Bibliography

* Ferguson, Kenneth (ed): "King's Inns Barristers 1868-2004" :Dublin: 2005: pp253-54
* Kotsonouris, Mary: "Retreat from Revolution- The Dáil Courts, 1920-24":Dublin: 1994
* Kotsonouris, Mary "The Winding-up of the Dáil Courts, 1922-1925 - An obvious duty" :Dublin: 2004

References

Other Sources

* External site dedicated to Sister Fidelma, scroll to 'THE LAST JUDGE OF THE BREHON LAWS' [http://www.sisterfidelma.com/FAQS.htm#world] for brief bio. of Meredith