Life
1764-1827; physician and barrister; United Irishman; edler br. of Robert
Emmet; ed. TCD, BA 1783; MD Edinburgh, 1790; Leinster circuit; took United
Irishmen’s oath in court during trial of some United Irishmen in
1795; did not take part in the Rebellion; arrested Feb. 1798; gave honourable
evidence and went into exile after release from Fort William in 1802;
met Robert in Paris; later practised successfully at the new York bar
and distinguished himself by eloquent pleading for the liberty of slaves
taking refuge in New York. Buried St. Mark’s Broadway. DNB DIB
DIH FDA
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Works
Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert Memoirs of Thomas Addis and Robert
Emmet with Their Ancestors and Immediate Family, Vols. I & II
[facs. rep. 1915 1st Edn.] (Kildare: Warfield Press 2003), 654pp. [the
author being a grandson of the subject].
Notes
William Drennan characterised Thomas Addis Emmet as possessing
‘more energy than caution, more eloquence than action.’ (See
Roy Foster, Modern Ireland, 1988, p.265.)
Justin McCarthy, from ‘Ireland’s Cause in England’s Parliament’: ‘There is to this day a monument conspicuous on Broadway, in the city of New York, which testifies to the manner in which the citizens of that great community appreciated the public services of Thomas Addis Emmet, one of the refugees of ninety-eight.’ (In McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature, 1904, p.2,166.)
Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (1988), bio-data: b. Cork, ed. TCD, Edinburgh, and Continent; Bar, 1790; leading counsel for United Irishmen; sec. of Supreme Council, 1795, arrested and exiled, 1798-99; tried to interest Napoleon in Ireland, 1802, but regretted connection; entered USA, 1804; large practice; pleaded for slaves; characterised by Drennan as possessing ‘more energy than caution, more eloquence than action.’, p.265.
Dictionary of National Biography, held in Fort St. George, Scotland;
assisted MacSheehy in scheme for raising Irish battalion in French pay.
Belfast Public Library holds The Emmet Family (1898); Ireland under English Rule (1803); with others, Memoirs, or Detailed Statement of the Origin and Progress of the Irish Union (1802). NOTE, poss. two authors.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)