Eldest of the seven children of Jonathan and Ann Beel Emerson, was born August 4, 1795, near Dover, Kent County, Delaware.

Through his mother's ambition he began to study medicine when he was sixteen, under one of her cousins, Dr. James Sykes, a surgeon of some note in Dover and former governor of Delaware.

In 1816, owing to poor health, Emerson moved to and practiced near Montrose, Pennsylvania, but after two years accepted an appointment as surgeon on a merchant ship bound for China.

[1] Dr. Emerson made some contributions to the improvement of the agriculture of his native place, editing the Farmer's Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Rural Affairs.

He definitely gave up his large practice in 1857 and occupied himself with questions of political economy and social science for the remaining years of his life.