Christopher Temple Emmet

Christopher Temple Emmet (1761 – February 1788) was an Irish barrister and poet. Early life Emmet was born at Cork in 1761. He was the eldest son of Elizabeth (née Mason) Emmet (1740–1803) and Robert Emmet, M.D. (1729–1802), a state physician and physician to the viceregal household. Among his siblings were brothers Thomas Addis Emmet, a close friend of Theobald Wolfe Tone, and Robert Emmet. His younger sister was Mary Anne Holmes, the wife of fellow barrister Robert Holmes. The Emmets were financially comfortable, members of the Protestant Ascendancy with a house at St Stephen's Green and a country residence near Milltown. He entered Trinity College Dublin in 1775, and obtained a scholarship there in 1778. Career He was called to the bar in Ireland in 1781. Emmet attained eminence as an advocate; he possessed a highly poetical imagination, remarkably retentive memory, and a vast amount of acquired knowledge of law, divinity, and literature. Under the chancellorship of Lord Lifford, Emmet was advanced to the rank of King's Counsel in 1787.