John William Emery

John William Emery
Occupation	Publican
Years active	1855 - 1875
Known for	United States Hotel Washington Hotel Emery's Hotel Criterion Hotel Washington Hotel Horse and Jockey Hotel American Hotel
Home town	Ballarat

John William Emery was a publican in Ballarat, Victoria, <1855-1875>.

History

In 1855, Emery was the part owner of the United States Hotel in Main Road, which was destroyed in a fire in December 1855. Three people, including Emery's business partner Albion H. Nicholls, were killed in the fire. Emery was a witness at the inquest into their deaths:

John William Emery sworn-I was part proprietor of the United States Hotel. I had the sole management of the establishment. I was getting into bed between twelve and one o'clock, when some one cried out " Emery, there is a fire." I jumped up and ran to the down I found one side of the bar all in flames, I saw no one in the bar at that time. I afterwards met two of the females of the hotel coming out, they exclaimed " My God ! Emery, we are burnt. I then went to the Arcade Hotel and got a coat, hat, and a pair of shoes. I came back again. I believe the fire commenced in the hotel. I think in some of the girls' rooms, or in No. 11.

Emery was the publican of the Washington Hotel in Skipton Street, Ballarat, from <1858> and again <1864>. The hotel was described as being a 10 room brick and wooden building.

In 1858 he was charged for having an unlicensed bagatelle table, but Emery said he had sold the business to a person named Stirling who should have renewed the license.

In January 1859, Emery announced his new hotel venture, Emery's Hotel, in Main Road:

EMERY'S HOTEL, MAIN ROAD, BALLARAT, (Nearly opposite the Colonial Bank.) JOHN WILLIAM EMERY respectfully informs his friends, the diggers, merchants, and inhabitants of Ballarat, that he has once more come into the field, and has opened the splendid premises (named above) in his usual fashion of combining pleasure with comfort. Yet without boasting of any extraordinary efforts to induce the people to visit his establishment, he respectfully asks his old and well tried friends to grant him the same welcome they have ever met with.

In June 1859 Emery had his license renewed for the Criterion Hotel in Main Road. (Is this Emery's Hotel?).

In June 1862 he held the license for the Horse and Jockey Hotel in Sebastopol Road (Skipton Street).

In March 1873, Emery is described in a newspaper report as being the publican of the Washington Hotel in Main Road. He took his family and friends on an ill-fated trip to Elaine, and the carriage had two accidents, one on the way, and the other on the return trip:

An accident, which fortunately was unattended by fatal results, occurred shortly before, nine o’clock on Tuesday night, a few yards from the Half-way House hotel, on the Buninyong road. Mr J. W. Emery, landlord of the Washington hotel, in the Main road, with his wife, his son William, a boy twelve years of age, and Mr and Mrs Parton, residents of Geelong on a visit to Ballarat, had been to Elaine, and were returning in a buggy. Mrs Emery was driving, and after passing the hotel in question the horse drawing the buggy became fractious just by the embankment, at a place known as One-eye Gully, where a party of Chinamen are working alongside and under the Buninyong road. The horse plunged about, and Mrs Emery was unable to control it. There were no lights to the vehicle and the embankment, which is unprotected by fence or anything else, was not discernible, the night being dark and wet. Over the south side of this embankment the buggy occupants (excepting Mr and Mrs Parton) and horse fell, a depth of fifteen feet. Mr and Mrs Parton afraid of the horse, threw themselves out of the buggy on to the road, and escaped injury, but the buggy with the Emery family went over with a crash. Assistance was immediately procured Mr and Mrs Emery and son, who were speedily removed to the Telegraph hotel, and afterwards brought to the Washington hotel, where it was found that three of Mrs Emery’s ribs on the right-side were broken, as was also her collar bone. The boy sustained a severe scalp wound, and Mr Emery had sustained internal injuries of a painful character. It was feared at first, that the latter had several of his ribs broken. Dr Clendinning was at once sent for and is doing everything in his power for the sufferers.
It may be mentioned that when going along the side of a hill approaching Burnt bridge, five miles from Elaine, at half-past nine on Tuesday morning, Mr Emery and his family met with a nasty accident. The horse stumbled and fell, breaking one of the shafts of the buggy and pitching the occupants out, the boy ’s thigh on that occasion was run over by one of the wheels of the vehicle, and Mrs Parton was thrown on her head. The shaft having been mended the party proceeded to Elaine, where the day was spent, and in returning home the second accident as described took place.

In 1875 he is the publican of the American Hotel in Skipton Street.

See also

• Albion H. Nicholls