Barbados is an eastern Caribbean island. It was there that John Emptage married Elizabeth Stafford in 1764 and thus began the Emptage family in Barbados. Over the years, the ‘p’ was often omitted from the spelling and the name became Emtage.
Emptages in 1841 and before
We can trace the origins of all the Emptages in the UK at the time of the census in 1841 back to three places in Kent: the Isle of Thanet, the Isle of Sheppey or Dover.
But between 1560 and 1840 there were many baptisms elsewhere, both in the wider Kent county and outside of Kent including the London/Surrey/Middlesex areas. What happened to those children and to their descendants?
John Emptage – Citizen and Joyner of London c1682 – 1755
John Emptage of Watling Street in the City of London, Joyner and Cabinetmaker, first came to my attention in the City of London Sessions Papers dated 10 October 1737, which provided a fantastic insight into a family that could not only be traced in London and Kent, but also the West Indies and India.