Great x4 Grandfather John Emberry

My Great x4 Grandfather John (1796 - late 1830's) was a cordwainer (shoemaker) and father of four.

John was born around 1796 in Cadbury, Devon, to Thomas Embrey (about 42) and Ann Embrey.

John was baptised on 15th May 1796 in Cadbury.

John was the youngest of three children (two daughters and one son):

• Jenny  1787 -
• Ann  1793 -
• John  1796 -

All three were baptised in Cadbury. The three children's baptisms and well as their father Thomas' baptism spell their surname as Embrey rather than the latter used Emberry. John himself spells it Emberry on his 1817 record of marriage.

Signature of John Emberry, 1817

On 17th August 1817, John (about 21), a cordwainer, married Mary Arscott (about 24), a weaver and latter a laundress, in Holy Trinity, Exeter. Both are described as residents of that parish.

Sometime after their marriage, John and Mary moved out from Exeter, about eight miles north, to begin their family live in her native Silverton, which is but a few miles from his native Cadbury.

John and Mary had at least four children:

• John  1827 - 1828 (fifteen months old)
• Sarah  1829 -
• Mary Ann  1831 -
• Thomas  1834 - 

Whilst daughters Sarah and Mary Ann were baptised in Silverton, their youngest son Thomas was baptised in Brampford Speke, some four miles south-west of Silverton, implying the family may have moved in the early 1830's, but only locally.

It is possible John and Mary had more elder children, who were not baptised (John for example was not baptised, though we have record of his burial) or who did not survive, as the couple married a decade before the birth of their first known child John.

Though I cannot find record of his death, it seems John passed away sometime in the late 1830's, likely in his early forties, as he can not longer be found with his wife and young children come the 1841 census, and Mary is described as a widow come the more detailed 1851 census.