Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/370

 York on 14 Nov. 1827, and he was buried in the churchyard of St. Mark's, Broadway, in that city.

[Haynes's Memoirs of Thomas Addis Emmett, 1829; Madden's United Irishmen, 3rd ser. vol. iii.; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography.] 

EMMETT, ANTHONY (1790–1872), major-general royal engineers, after passing through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, received his commission as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 16 Feb. 1808. He joined the army in the Peninsula early in 1809, and remained with it until the summer of 1812, when he was sent to England for recovery from the effects of a very severe wound received while leading on one of the columns to the assault of Badajoz in April 1812. He returned to the army in October of the following year at his own request, and remained with it to the close of the war. During his service in the Peninsula he was constantly before the enemy. First, in Abrantes and skirmishes near it, while the French were in front of the lines of Lisbon; secondly, at both the sieges of Badajoz in 1811, at the cavalry affair of Elboden, and in the trenches before Ciudad Rodrigo; and thirdly, at the siege of Badajoz in 1812, when he led on the Portuguese column of the 4th division to the assault of the breach of the curtain, and was severely wounded. He was shortly after sent to England for the restoration of his health. Prior to the siege he was occupied in improving the navigation of the Upper Douro to facilitate the transfer of supplies for the operations in Badajoz. On rejoining the army as a captain in 1813 he was employed in the examination of the fords of the Nive, held by the enemy's posts prior to the successful passage of that river. During the following campaign he was attached to the 2nd division, and was present at the battle of St. Pierre, near Bayonne, at the attack on the heights of Garres St.-Palais at Tarbes, and at the battles of Orthes and Toulouse. Soon after his return to England he was sent, in 1815, with General Keane, on the expedition against New Orleans, landed with the advance, and was present in the attack of the Americans, also at the assault made on the enemy's lines and at the siege of Fort Bowyer.

He was next appointed commanding royal engineer at St. Helena, whither he went with Sir Hudson Lowe, and held the command until after the death of Napoleon. He held various commands at home, at Bermuda, and in the Mediterranean, until he was compelled in May 1855 to retire as a major-general on account of bad health brought on by the wounds he received in the Peninsula. He was awarded the war medal and four clasps. He died at Brighton on 27 March 1872.

[Official Records; Corps Papers.] 

EMPSON or EMSON, RICHARD (d. 1510), statesman and lawyer, was son of Peter Empson of Towcester, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth, his wife. The father, who died in 1473, is invariably described as a sievemaker in order to emphasise the son's humble origin; but Peter Empson was clearly a person of wealth and influence in Towcester, whatever his occupation. Richard was educated for the bar and rapidly distinguished himself as a common lawyer. As early as 1476 he purchased estates in Northamptonshire. He not only represented his county in the parliament that met 17 Oct. 1491, but was chosen speaker and served the office till the dissolution in the following March. His name appears among the collectors of the subsidy of 1491 for Lindsey, Lincolnshire (, Fœdera, xii. 448). He was recorder of Coventry, was knighted 18 Feb. 1503–4, and in 1504 was nominated high steward of Cambridge University and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. On 5 Aug. 1507 he was granted land and tenements in the parish of St. Bride in Fleet Street (, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 13). From the opening of the reign of Henry VII Empson was associated with Edmund Dudley [q. v.] in the exaction of taxes and penalties due from offenders to the crown, and his zeal and rigour raised up a host of enemies. Henry VII always treated him with special favour, and made him an executor under his will; but the death of Henry VII left him without a protector, and Henry VIII, yielding to popular clamour, committed him and Dudley to the Tower. First brought before the council and charged with tyrannising over the king's subjects as collector of taxes and fines, Empson defended himself in a temperate speech, insisting that his conduct was legal throughout. A charge of constructive treason was subsequently drawn up against him and Dudley. It was asserted that they had compassed Henry VIII's death, because their friends had been under arms during Henry VII's illness. Empson was tried and convicted at Northampton 1 Oct. 1509; was attainted by parliament 21 Jan. 1509–10, and was executed with Dudley on Tower Hill 17 Aug. 1510. He was buried in the church of Whitefriars. Bacon describes Empson as brutal in his manners. Camden tells the story that Empson, while chaffing a blind man, reputed to be a sure prognosticator of changes of weather, asked ‘When doth the