Over the years, Emily’s great-grandfather found himself in the Court of Chancery in Dublin. The court was set up for plaintiffs and defendants from all over Ireland to settle disputes with debtors and creditors. All members of the public could find themselves as either plaintiffs or defendants in court, depending on whether they owed or were owed money. As a printer and businessman, Daniel Graisberry had a better than average chance of having to attend the chancery court. In June 1817, his name appeared in the Book of Chancery for that year. It is not clear whether he was a plaintiff or a defendant, but it is possible he could have been either. Other than his name, there were no other details. His name appeared the previous year too, because he could not pay his creditors. At that time, the book and print business was not nearly as lucrative as it had been during the previous century.

Below is an example from the Saunders’s News-Letter from June 1817 of a case in the Chancery Court.

Below is a ‘lighter’ example of a Chancery Court case from 1911.

Sources

“Ireland, Court of Chancery Bill Books, 1627-1884”, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6J3N-VKPZ : 23 September 2022), Daniel Graisberry, 1817.

https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=IRE%2FCOURT%2FCHANCERY%2F007635216%2F00192&parentid=IRE%2FCOURT%2FCHANCERY%2F0001173024

Birmingham Mail 29 November 1911

Saunders’s News-Letter 27 June 1817

In June 1825, Emily’s great aunt, whom she was called after, got married. Emily Graisberry, according to her baptism record from July 1807, was not quite eighteen at the time. The marriage was most likely arranged by her mother, Ruth, who had five single daughters and a blind or deaf elderly mother to support. Ruth had been widowed in 1822 and, in spite of her difficult situation, managed to not just survive but thrive. At a time when women lost their husbands and did not have a son to take over as head of the household, they could end up living in poverty. Not Ruth Graisberry. When Daniel Graisberry died in 1822, she petitioned the powers that be at Trinity College to allow her to retain the position of chief printer. They did not object, and she partnered up with Campbell Printers under R. Graisberry and Campbell.

Emily was the second of the Graisberry girls to marry; her older sister, Abigail, married Rev. Henry Revell the previous year. In the years that followed, four of the five Graisberry girls found husbands, with Charlotte marrying a second time after she was widowed. Only Sophia remained single, staying with her mother Ruth to help run the family print works.

Sources

https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-277-1-4-050

Saunders’s News-Letter 15 June 1825

Irish Booklore: A Galley of Pie: Women in the Irish Book Trades Author(s): Vincent InaneThe Linen Hall Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13 Published by: Linen Hall Library. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534214. Retrieved 07-05-2015

https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=IRE%2FIET0090%2FB_0426&parentid=IRE%2FIET0090%2FB_0426%2F024