Thomas Addis Emmet

Thomas Addis Emmet was born in the Hammond's Marsh area of Cork City on 24 April 1764. He was a son of Dr. Robert Emmet from Tipperary (later to become State Physician of Ireland) and Elizabeth Mason of Kerry, both of whose portraits are today displayed at Cork's Crawford Art Gallery. He was the elder brother of Robert Emmet, who was himself executed for leading the Irish Rebellion of 1803, becoming one of Ireland's most famous Republican martyrs. His sister, Mary Anne Holmes, held similar political beliefs.

Emmet was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was a member of the committee of the College Historical Society. He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and was a pupil of Dugald Stewart in philosophy. After visiting the chief medical schools on the continent, he returned to Ireland in 1788; but the sudden death of his elder brother, Christopher Temple Emmet (1761–1788), a student of great distinction,[1] induced him to follow the advice of Sir James Mackintosh to forsake medicine for the law as a profession.[2]

Emmet was a man of liberal political sympathies and became involved with campaign to extend the democratic franchise for the Irish Parliament and to end discrimination against Catholics. He was called to the Irish bar in 1790 and quickly obtained a practice, principally as counsel for prisoners charged with political offenses. He also became the legal adviser of the Society of the United Irishmen.[2]

When the Dublin Corporation issued a declaration of support of the Protestant Ascendancy in 1792, the response of the United Irishmen was their non-sectarian manifesto which was largely drawn up by Emmet. In 1795 he formally took the oath of the United Irishmen, becoming secretary in the same year and a member of the executive in 1797.[2] As by this time the United Irishmen had been declared illegal and driven underground, any efforts at peaceful reform of government and Catholic emancipation in Ireland were abandoned as futile, and their goal was now the creation of a non-sectarian Irish republic, independent from Britain and to be achieved by armed rebellion. Although Emmet supported this policy, he believed that the rebellion should not commence until French aid had arrived, differing from more radical members such as Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

Grave of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. The cross was sculpted by James and Willie Pearse, father and brother of Patrick Pearse

He married Jane Patten (1771–1846), a daughter of John Patten and Jane (née Colville) Patten, in 1791.[4] Together, they were the parents of:[5]

• Robert Emmet, who was born in Dublin and became prominent a New York jurist and Irish American activist.[4]
• Elizabeth Emmet (1794–1878), who married William Henry LeRoy (1795–1888), a brother-in-law of Daniel Webster.[4]
• Margaret Emmet (1794–1883), who did not marry.[4]
• John Patten Emmet (1795–1842), who married Mary Byrd Tucker (1805–1860) in 1827; their daughter, Jane Emmet, married merchant John Noble Alsop Griswold.[4]
• Thomas Addis Emmet (1797–1863), who married Anna Riker Thom (1805–1886), daughter of John Thom and Jane Margaret Riker.[4]
• Jane Erin Emmet (1802–1890), who married Bache McEvers in 1825.[6] Their daughter Mary Bache McEvers married Sir Edward Cunard, 2nd Baronet (son of Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet, founder of the Cunard Line).[7]

Samuel F. B. Morse painted a famous portrait of Emmet that Maxwell kept.[8] Upon Maxwell's death in 1873, he left the painting to the New York Law Institute,[8] which was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery and was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2010.[8]

Emmet died on 14 November 1827 while conducting a case in court regarding the estate of Robert Richard Randall, the founder of Sailors' Snug Harbor, a home for needy seamen in Staten Island, New York.[9] He was initially buried in St Mark's-in-the-Bowery Churchyard in the East Village, New York City.[10][11]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Emmet, Thomas Addis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 343.
• See references under Robert Emmet
• Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1878)
• C. S. Haynes, Memoirs of Thomas Addis Emmet (London, 1829)
• Theobald Wolfe Tone, Memoirs, edited by W. T. ~V. Tone (2 vols., London, 1827)
• W. E. H. Lecky, Hist. of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. (Cabinet edition, 5 vols., London, 1892). (R. J. lvi.)