Background
Thomas Addis Emmet was born in the Hammond's Marsh area of Cork City in 1764 to Dr. Robert Emmet from Tipperary (later to become State Physician of Ireland) and Elizabeth Mason of Kerry, both of whose portraits are today displayed at Cork's Crawford Art Gallery. He was the elder brother of Robert Emmet who was himself executed for leading the Irish Rebellion of 1803, becoming one of Ireland's most famous Republican martyrs. Thomas Addis Emmet was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was a member of the committee of the College Historical Society. He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and was a pupil of Dugald Stewart in philosophy. After visiting the chief medical schools on the continent, he returned to Ireland in 1788; but the sudden death of his elder brother, Christopher Temple Emmet (1761–1788), a student of great distinction, induced him to follow the advice of Sir James Mackintosh to forsake medicine for the law as a profession. He married Jane Patten in 1791.
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