William George Meredith

William George Meredith (1804–1831) was an English historian. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1830.

Life

He was the son of George Meredith (1762–1831) of London; his father was an architect.[1][2][3] The Meredith family were neighbours in Bloomsbury of the family of Isaac D'Israeli, and William was a close friend of the young Benjamin Disraeli.[4]

Meredith matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1821, aged 17, graduating B.A. in 1824, and M.A.in 1829.[1] While at Oxford, he had come to an unofficial understanding of engagement with Disraeli's sister Sarah; it became official in mid-1830, as he and Disraeli set off on a tour of the eastern Mediterranean, but was cut short by Meredith's death.[5]

In 1828 Meredith undertook a journey to Scandinavia. In 1830 he attended a scientific lecture at the Royal Institution, which he found puzzling; and asked Sir Anthony Carlisle for support for election to the Royal Society. Later in the year, he was successful in standing there.[6]

Meredith's last journey, with Disraeli, began in May 1830. They spent time in Spain. At Malta, which they reached at the end of August they met James Clay, with whom they were both acquainted, Meredith from Balliol. They sailed east in Clay's yacht to Corfu, at the end of September, called in at Yanina, and cruised in the Ionian Sea, reaching Athens on 24 November. At the end of December Meredith left the others in Constantinople to travel in Asia Minor. They joined up again in Alexandria, where Clay and Disraeli arrived on 12 March 1831.[7]

As a return to England was planned at the end of June, in Cairo, Meredith fell ill with smallpox. He died there on 19 July 1831.[8]

Works

In 1829, Meredith published Memorials of Charles John, King of Sweden and Norway.[9] He wrote also, with Benjamin Disraeli, a version of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, a verse melodrama under the title Rumpel Stilts Kin.[10]

An account of a tour in 1824 with Isaac D'Israeli and Benjamin on the River Rhine was published privately by Meredith, as A Tour on the Rhine.[11] He left two commonplace books, for 1828 and 1829–30. The latter contains anecdotes and encounters, such as with George Cumberland, and shows the role in Meredith's life of the house of his wealthy uncle W. G. Meredith the elder.[12] He left also a manuscript journal of his 1830–1 travels in Spain and eastwards with Disraeli, ex libris of Sir Philip Rose, 1st Baronet, together with copies of letters he had sent to his sister Georgiana Meredith.[13]

Notes
  1. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Meredith, William George" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  2. Howard Colvin (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. John Murray. p. 547. ISBN 0-7195-3328-7.
  3. King, James; Jones, T. Herbert (1973). "General Notes". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 121 (5201): 326. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41371286.
  4. Jerman, B. R. Young Disraeli. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-4008-7953-3.
  5. Blake, Robert (1969). Disraeli. Methuen. pp. 21 and 60. ISBN 978-0-416-29870-3.
  6. King, James; Jones, T. Herbert (1973). "General Notes". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 121 (5201): 327. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41371286.
  7. Blake, Robert (1969). Disraeli. Methuen. pp. 60–67. ISBN 978-0-416-29870-3.
  8. Blake, Robert (1969). Disraeli. Methuen. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-416-29870-3.
  9. Meredith, William George (1829). Memorials of Charles John, King of Sweden and Norway. With a discourse on the political character of Sweden. London: Henry Coulburn.
  10. Hibbert, Christopher (2004). Disraeli: A Personal History. HarperCollins. p. 16.
  11. Disraeli, Benjamin; Gunn, John Alexander Wilson; Wiebe, Melvin George (1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1815-1834. University of Toronto Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8020-5523-1.
  12. King, James (1972). "The Meredith Family, Thomas Taylor, and William Blake". Studies in Romanticism. 11 (2): 153–157. doi:10.2307/25599841. ISSN 0039-3762. JSTOR 25599841.
  13. "Extracts from the journal of William George Meredith during a trip to Spain and the East in the years 1830-1831 accompanied by Benjamin Disraeli, together with associated correspondence. - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
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