When the average life span for an adult male born in the early 1800s was not much above 50 years, James Robert Emptage defied all the odds and lived to be 101.
Was his great age attributable to his genes or to something else?
George William Stone Emptage
Throughout his short life George William Emptage suffered from what we would now describe as learning difficulties, however this didn’t prevent him from enlisting for what turned out to be a very brief military career.
Elizabeth Emptage
Five years after her husband, Thomas Hepburn, had been convicted for his part in the Swing Riots of 1830 and had been transported to Australia, Elizabeth took advantage of the British government scheme to send wives and children to join their husbands once the convict had served his sentence.
Alfred James Emptage
Alfred was born into a long line of mariners but, perhaps realising not only that it was a difficult life but also a dangerous one, he and his four brothers turned their back on the sea and sought other means of making a living.
An assurance agent in Margate, Thanet, Alfred rose to the position of a Vice President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (pictured) in New York.
Daniel Clark Emptage
When Daniel’s parents and siblings emigrated to the USA, he chose to remain. Descended from an agricultural branch of the family, Daniel became a fisherman and an oyster seller in Ramsgate. He married Caroline in 1838 when he was twenty one and raised a family. In 1861 a nightmare began for Daniel, one which would ultimately end in his death.
Obadiah Emptage and his crime of torture
In January 1756, the court in Nottingham heard how a young female apprentice received nothing but cruelty and barbarity from her master, Obadiah Emptage.