“He who drinks a fifth on the fourth, does not go forth on the fifth,” was one of my father’s favorite jokes. The 4th of July always reminds me of my father, but this year, I am thinking of his family, going back generations. My nostalgia may be because the 4th of July is such an old-fashioned holiday, the ultimate American one, and for me, both describe my father’s family. The joke also contains the word used to describe a defunct liquor bottle volume: a fifth of a U.S. gallon. The word used in that way also reminds me of the family.
Tales of the bond boy
As a child, I was much closer to my mother’s family than my father’s. Besides my father, the only one in his family whom I knew well was the younger of his two sisters, Kate. Aunt Kate made herself a constant in my life. She told me that the first Emmett to arrive on these shores was a bond boy—an indentured servant—sailing from England to Philadelphia in the 18th century.
Daughters of the American Revolution, here I come
I tucked that nugget away for many years before pursuing it. Aunt Kate also told me that someone in the family fought in the American Revolution, which seemed more interesting to me at the time, not to mention more seemly to my snobbish little self.
An interest shared
When my father was well entrenched in his long, last illness, I researched both sides of his family. We corresponded about them: I asked if so-and-so could be part of the family, he replied with the information he remembered. I wrote by email via my techie mother, he wrote letters. The reward was much easier communication than we’d shared in my life. After years peppered with silence and anger, we were talking easily at last, even though he could no longer actually talk.
The bond boy found
I found the bond boy on a ship’s manifest: one Henry Emmett. Captured in The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1751-1776, by Peter Wilson Coldham is the description of Henry’s indentured state, the voyage, his name, origin, age, and occupation. The bibliography is as follows: “A comprehensive listing compiled from English public records of those who took ship to the Americas for political, religious, and economic reasons; of those who were deported for vagrancy, roguery, or non-conformity; and of those who were sold to labour in the new colonies (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993).”
A miserable trip
From February 27-6 March 1775, Henry Emmett was on board a ship sailing from Bristol, England to Philadelphia—the HMS Salty—to fulfill a binding contract owned by a Mr. James Russel. Henry is listed as hailing from Bath, England, aged 32, and a saw maker. Several other indentured fellows sailed with him, and their names and occupations are listed. Sharing the frigid voyage was an indentured woman, listed as “A woman.”
The 4th of July, 1776
Henry Emmett arrived in colonial Philadelphia in March, 1775. On the 4th of July, 1776, he stood on the streets of a new nation. He was an ordinary person, probably with little education. What did it mean to him? Was he able to escape the bond that brought him across the ocean? Did he wish to return to England, or was did he want to stay?
My ancestor?
Other than his surname, what evidence do I have that Henry was my ancestor? He was a saw maker: an occupation carried down the generations to my own Grandfather Emmett. By the taking of the 1790 census under President George Washington, Henry was still living in Philadelphia with his wife and children. Henry was “the head of the household.” The male children were described as “free white males.” The women and girls were not described other than their number.
Same job, same neighborhood
In addition to the generations of men in my family who worked as saw makers, from Henry’s time the Emmett family continued to live in the same neighborhood of Philadelphia: Kensington, where my father and his sisters grew up.
Why indentured?
Why was Henry Emmett indentured? He had an occupation, so I assume that he was not a vagrant. Was he a rogue? a non-conformist? Did he sail for political, or religious, or economic reasons? Even though he might have been a rogue in England (and that has a certain appeal for me), my money is on economic reasons: he carried debt he could not pay.
One and the same person?
Whatever he was in England, once free from his bond here, he settled into colonial Philadelphian life. After the American Revolution, he maintained his life in Philadelphia as a family man. In between, did he serve in the American Revolution? Was Henry both the bond boy and the soldier in the American Revolution of Aunt Kate’s tales?
Fodder for the fiction writer
My research will continue by studying indentured servitude, Mr. Coldham’s compendium, and the rolls of Pennsylvanians who served in the American Revolution. I’ll pour through the census pages from Henry Emmett’s time until I see the link between us. I’ll take it up again because I write historical fiction, and I have an idea about how to use this research: this story is fodder for a fiction writer.
Rare merriment
There’s nobody in my Emmett family to share this information with now: I’m an only child with no children, my father’s sisters had no children, and my father has not been alive to celebrate the 4th of July for fifteen years. Still, I can hear and see him declaiming the cautionary joke about drinking a fifth on the fourth with a rare look of merriment.