Constituency : Gainsborough 1895-1900
Emerson took over from Joseph Bennett at Gainsborough.
Emerson was born in Newcastle to a well-to-do grocer. He was educated at Durham University. He served an apprenticeship as a mining engineer but soon became a manager under the Duke of Norfolk. In 1874 he formed a limited company in which he had the controlling interest. in 1889 he obtained a lease from the Duke of Portland to exploit coalfields in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and formed the Bolsover Colliery Company for this purpose. He also held directorships in a number of railway companies. He was a noted philanthropist , developing the New Bolsover model village , an orphanage in Sheffield and the Sheffield YMCA. He hoped the amenities in the model villages would put an end to drunkenness, gambling and bad language.
Emerson supported the development of light railways in Lancashire. He visited Japan in 1898. That same year he drove the fraudster Ernest Hooley into liquidation with a demand for £80,000.
Emerson was defeated in 1900. He accused his opponent of slandering him.
Emerson was a fine shot and owned a large deer forest in Scotland. In 1905 he built a villa in France but rarely used it.
He died in 1911 aged 65.
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