Edward Weddall received his Master’s Certificate from the Board of Trade in July 1870. At the young age of 26, he was included in the Lloyd’s of London Captains’ Register after serving eleven years at sea.
Sources
Lloyd’s List 19 July 1870
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14086888
The Tatler 5 August 1908
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
Two hundred years ago Daniel Graisberry’s obituary appeared in the London News. Daniel Graisberry was well respected and liked in the print trade and in his personal life. He often sat on committees and was a member of the City of Dublin Grand Jury.
Daniel Graisberry died at the relatively young age of forty three or four, leaving a wife and five daughters behind. Although his ancestors did well during the golden age of printing in the previous century the family fortune had waned over the years. After his death his wife, Ruth was thrown into turmoil over how to support her family. As mother of five yet to be married daughters, it was left to her to provide for them. But Ruth Graisberry was a resourceful woman. Wasting no time she petitioned Trinity College, where her late husband was official printer, to allow her to take up where he had left off. Her case was helped greatly by the backing of some of the well respected printers of the city, resulting in the college keeping her on as their chief printer. She took on an apprentice, Michael Gill, who eventually became her printing partner.
In the years that followed the five Graisberry sisters married. Mary her eldest married bookseller, Richard McArthur, whom were parents to Richard junior and Emily, Emily’s mother.
Sources
The News (London) 10 March 1822
Saunders’s News-Letter 30 April 1821
https://www.dib.ie/biography/graisberry-daniel-a3568
15 June 1825 – Saunders’s News-Letter – Dublin, Dublin,
In the early summer of 1921 the Anglo Irish War was hurtling to an end, with the IRA depleted in ammunition and many of them in jail. The Crown forces could not quite call victory either as the IRA members still on the streets continued their guerrilla campaign will marginal success. There was no real end in sight until a truce was called at the beginning of July. Emily remained on active service with Cumman na mBan, still willing to fight for her country till the bitter end.
One hundred years earlier Emily’s great grandfather, Daniel Graisberry, Freeman of Dublin took his place on the city’s Grand Jury. Back in 1821 Daniel Graisberry, who did well out of the establishment of the time, could not have imagined that one of his female descendants would try to dismantle it.
Sources
Saunders’s News-Letter 30 April 182
The Irish War of Independence – A Brief Overview
The Sphere 04 June 1921