Ralph Waldo Emerson — essayist, poet, lecturer, philosopher, Unitarian minister, and central figure among the American Transcendentalists — was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803. He was the fourth of eight children born to the Reverend William Emerson (1769–1811), pastor of the First Church in Boston, and Ruth Haskins Emerson (1768–1853). Emerson's roots in both Concord and in the ministry were deep. On his father's side, his ancestry extended back to early colonial Massachusetts, to the Reverend Peter Bulkeley (1583–1659), a Puritan who had come from England and, in 1635, became a founder and the first minister of Concord. Bulkeley's granddaughter had married the Reverend Joseph Emerson, son of Thomas, a settler in coastal Ipswich, Massachusetts. Joseph's grandson Joseph, also a minister, was the father of William Emerson, Ralph Waldo's grandfather. William Emerson (1743–1776), minister of the First Parish in Concord, had gone to Fort Ticonderoga in New York to serve as chaplain of the Revolutionary army, became ill, and died before he could return to Concord. Ralph Waldo Emerson's maternal grandfather was successful Boston merchant John Haskins (1729–1814), a cooper and distiller.
William Emerson and Ruth Haskins were married on October 25, 1796. Their eight children were: Phebe Ripley (1798–1800); John Clarke (1799–1807); William (1801–1868); Ralph Waldo (1803–1882); Edward Bliss (1805–1834); Robert Bulkeley (1807–1859); Charles Chauncy (1808–1836); and Mary Caroline (1811–1814). William and Ruth Emerson paid careful attention to both the religious and the intellectual development of their children, and provided a stable early home life for them. William, a liberal minister with a taste for literary activity, encouraged scholarship as well as religious devotion in his sons. He was a sociable man, well-respected in the community. His public position brought frequent visitors to the Emerson home. Ruth Haskins was a pious woman who met the various demands placed upon her as the wife of a prominent man and as a mother. The Emersons lost their first child, Phebe Ripley, in 1800. Their second child, John Clarke, died in 1807 from tuberculosis — a constant, looming threat in the nineteenth century, and one that repeatedly touched Ralph Waldo Emerson's life. From childhood, Emerson was close to his brothers William, Edward Bliss, and Charles Chauncy. Robert Bulkeley (called Bulkeley) was mentally retarded. His condition and care concerned his brothers until his death, in 1859.
