Sequestration of Stanford Rivers from Dr Meredith

It is possible to add a little more flesh to the account of Dr John Meredith given in the December 2021 Journal, though the printed sources are tantalisingly short of the details which would particularly interest us.

The Stanford Rivers rectory was in the gift of the sovereign and so, not surprisingly, was often a stepping stone to higher promotion. One example was Meredith’s immediate predecessor, Roger Mainwaring, who resigned Stanford Rivers on his elevation to the bishopric of St David’s in 1641. Meredith was not to enjoy Charles I’s appointment to the living for long as, in April 1643, the House of Commons passed an ordinance to sequestrate it to Matthew Elliston. This order was sent up to the House of Lords (not yet abolished at that date) but the Upper House was unwilling to rubber stamp the ordinance, and resolved to re-investigate the case, summoning Meredith to appear before the House. It is not clear if this stay of execution was because Meredith had influential friends, or whether it was simply part of the increasingly fractious relationship between the two Houses, particularly on religious matters.

Meredith failed to attend the hearing in the Lords in May 1643, perhaps not surprising as he would have had a hostile reception in London as a tainted Royalist who, for the last nine months, had been serving with the King’s army in Oxford. The Lords were provided with evidence that due notice had been served to Meredith’s lodgings, so he was ruled to be in contempt of the House, and both his sequestration and Elliston’s appointment were confirmed, However, it was agreed that Meredith was to receive the fruits of the living up to that date.

In view of his Royalist track record, it is surprising that Meredith’s next appointment was as the replacement of William Chillingworth, a controversialist and Royalist, who was ejected by Parliament as the master of Wigston’s Hospital in Leicester in January 1644. Three months later Parliament must have realised its mistake, and issued a further sequestration order to remove Meredith but – presumably due to the chaos of Civil War - failed to intrude its nominee until 1646.

Amongst these dry details, we find a curious hint about Meredith’s character. It was claimed that he only visited the hospital on one occasion, and that was when he attended to seal his appointment in front of the almsmen – one of whom deposed that ‘his seal was as large as his hand’. However his scant attention to his responsibilities can easily be explained by the surrender of the town of Leicester to the Parliamentary army not long after his appointment, and their attempts to discover his whereabout in Wales in order to apprehend him. In December 1645 Meredith was ejected from his fellowship at Eton College which he had held concurrently with these other posts, and for the next fifteen years he is absent from the records.

At the Restoration in 1660, he was reinstated to the Stanford Rivers living but resigned in 1661, probably due to his appointment as Warden of All Souls College, Oxford. At his death he was also provost of Eton College and clearly split his life between there and Oxford, as his will gave separate instructions depending on where he died. This event occurred in Oxford on 17 August 1665 and he was buried in the college chapel where he was commemorated with a black marble monument with ‘a large epitaph’. His will provided numerous bequests to the poor of various parishes, to various relatives and servants, and forgave Wigston Hospital for any debts that might still be owing to him. No wife or children are mentioned, and there were no bequests to Stanford Rivers – perhaps too long had elapsed, or maybe his memories of that period of his life were not good ones!