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Emmett Genealogy and Family History

1700s

to 1950s

compiled by Elaine Robertson

Francis EMMITT Senior - 1758-1838

Francis EMMITT, our 3XG grandfather, was born about 1758. This is an estimated date, taken from his death certificate, which shows him to be 80 years old in 1838. We have not been able to find out where he was born, but we know from the baptism entry for his second son that he was not born within the parish of All Saints (see below). There is some speculation that he may have come from the Bingley area of Yorkshire but this is unconfirmed.

He married Ann CALLUM at All Saints' Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 February 1794. The entry in the Parish Register reads as follows:-

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Francis and Ann had four children, three sons and a daughter. Their details are shown in the brief pedigree shown below. His second son, Francis, who was born in 1798, was our great great grandfather.

Francis the elder died on 22 November 1838 at Dent's Hole. He was described as a Mariner, cause of death is said to be 'old age' - he was 80 years old. The informant was his son, our ancestor, Francis EMMIT.

Francis EMMITT the second, our great great grandfather, was baptised at All Saints' on 27 January 1799 (he was born the previous year - see tree above). The entry reads as follows:-

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The name AMENT is presumably a mishearing of the correct name EMMETT or EMMITT by the clerk who made the entry. Francis was four months old when he was baptised. 'notc' means 'not of this chapelry', and 'ofc' means 'of this chapelry'. 'bhw' means by his wife.

Francis' elder brother John was born in about 1795. He was baptised on 16 July 1795 and we know there was a sister, Ann, born in about 1805 and another brother William born in about 1806. See brief family tree above.

Francis EMMETT (or Ament) Junior married Rosomund PACE at All Saints on 16 September 1819. The entry reads as follows:-

Francis and Rosomond EMMETT [formerly PACE] had several children, of whom our great grandfather Charles was (we believe) the fourth. The family tree is set out below:

Rosomond (Pace) Emmett died in 1831. She was buried at Ballast Hills Cemetary, not far from where she had lived at Dent's Hole. The entry in the register reads as follows:-

"CM" means Cholera Mortuis

Francis was a Waterman, and he lived at Dent's Hole. The 1841 Census entry about the family is as follows:-

Francis is shown as age 40 but he would have been about 42. His son Charles is our great grandfather.

The Census entry for 1851 reads as follows:-

Mary may have been the wife of one of Francis' sons, or Francis may have remarried.

Francis EMMITT, the second, died on 3 December 1853 at Gateshead Fell Lunatic Asylum. He was said to be 54 years old and had been suffering from 'General Paralysis for 1 year'.

Gateshead Fell Lunatic Asylum was on the site of the present Queen Elizabeth Hospital. To date we have not been able to locate the records of admissions, but obviously Francis was admitted after February 1851 (when the Census was taken).

Charles EMMETT

The entry of Charles's birth is as follows:-

DH is of course Dent's Hole and we note that his father, Francis Emmett the Younger, is said to be a brickmaker but by 1841 he is described in the Census as a Waterman. - [Perhaps he took over the fishery after his father - Francis the Elder - died in 1838? BSE]

Charles married Elizabeth MINTO in the Catholic Chapel, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne on 8 December 1853 (ie five days after the death of his father, Francis, in the 'Lunatic Asylum' on 3 December.

***Christopher was grandfather to the Emmetts of Mindrum Terrace generation.

By 1861 Charles and Elizabeth were living in the Blue Bell Inn, having taken over from Elizabeth's parents Robert and Dorothy Minto. For more information on the Blue Bell Inn see the relevant page.

Copied from 1861 census. Note the ten-year-old servant girl, whose surname is not recorded.

By 1871 they were living in Dent's Hole, the Blue Bell Inn having been demolished in 1863. The entry is as follows:-

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The last column shows the place of birth of the entrant, and we can perhaps conclude that the family had been moving around during the past few years but had moved back to Dent's Hole shortly before 1871, presumably returning to their roots: Robert EMMETT and his family lived in Dent's Hole as did William EMMETT and his family (both brothers of Charles).

Charles and Elizabeth had eight children, five sons and three daughters (see the family tree shown above ). Christopher, the fourth son, who was born on 13 August 1867 at 30 Hopper Street, Sunderland, was our grandfather.

Christopher and Ellen had two children, both boys, the eldest of whom was our father, Christopher Harrison Emmett.

This is the first time the name Christopher comes into our family. Our grandfather was a Waterman like his forebears, but he was employed on 'wherries' which were used to transport coal from the staithes to the larger deep water ships. He was a tall, well built man with a moustache of the type worn by Vikings. He looked like a Viking, having red or sandy hair. In this connection, it is interesting to speculate whether the EMMETTs had Viking blood. I learned recently that there are very few Viking names in Northumberland: two of those names are Byker and Walker. We know that the Vikings did make their incursions up the rivers and eventually colonised the north-east of England, settling down and founding families. Is it too fanciful to think that some of them may have come to that bend in the river that became Dent' s Hole and decided to stay there there?

Grandfather Christopher Emmett died on 16 May 1955 at the age of 87.

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