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Abraham Yates Jr.

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Abraham Yates Jr.
Mayor of Albany, New York
In office
1790 – June 30, 1796
Preceded byJohn Lansing Jr.
Succeeded byAbraham Ten Broeck
Member of theNew York State Senatefrom the Western District
In office
September 9, 1777 – June 30, 1790
Preceded byInaugural holder
Succeeded byStephen Van Rensselaer
Personal details
BornAugust 23, 1724(1724-08-23)
Albany,Province of New York,British America
DiedJune 30, 1796(1796-07-01)(aged 71)
Albany,New York,United States
Political partyAnti-Federalist
Spouse
Antje De Ridder
​
​
(m.1746; died 1765)​
RelationsRobert Yates(nephew)
Peter Waldron Yates(nephew)
Gerrit Y. Lansing(grandson)
Children5
OccupationLawyer, politician

Abraham Yates Jr.(August 23, 1724 – June 30, 1796) was an American lawyer, civil servant, and pamphleteer fromAlbany, New York.[1]

Early life[edit]

Yates was born on August 23, 1724, inAlbany, New York.[2]He was the ninth child born to Christoffel Yates, a prosperous farmer and blacksmith, and Catelyntje Winne.[3]His siblings included Joseph Yates, a merchant, and John G. Yates, a blacksmith.[4]

His paternal grandparents were Joseph Yates and Albany native Huybertie (néeMarselis) Yates.[5]His nephewRobert Yatesrepresented New York at thePhiladelphia Convention.[6]Another nephew wasContinental CongressmanPeter Waldron Yates.[1]

Career[edit]

After completing preparatory school, Yates was apprenticed to a shoemaker,[7]which later led his political foes to call him a "crude cobbler"[8]andPhilip Schuylerto deride him as the "late cobbler of laws and old shoes".[9]An ambitious man, he went on to become a surveyor, investing in land, and then studied law withPeter Silvester,setting up a successful law practice. Eventually, Yates was appointed theSheriff of Albany,serving from 1754 until 1759 under the agency ofRobert Livingston Jr.[3]

From 1754 until 1773, he was elected and served on the Albany City Council where he was closely associated with the populistGeorge Clinton(who eventually became theVice President of the United States).[8]Yates' election was notable as the council was generally made up of wealthy merchants and he was the sole lawyer among the group, and was known for his attacks against the patrician landowners of the era and support for small farmers.[8]He was also known to be a forceful opponent of British oppression.[8]

From 1774 to 1776, he was the chairman of the AlbanyCommittee of Correspondence.Yates was also a member of theNew York Provincial Congressfrom 1775 to 1777, serving aspresident pro temporeon November 2, 1775, August 10, 1776,[1]and was its chairman in 1776 and 1777.[10]

Yates was a delegate forNew Yorkto theCongress of the Confederationin 1787 and 1788,[1]and won a reputation as a "churlish delegate who often cast the only 'nay'" vote.[9]Yates was the solitary vote against the Northwest Ordinance for its gross violation of Native American rights. He argued against "the seizing on countries already peopled, and driving out or massacring the innocent and defenceless natives, merely because they differed from their invaders in language, religion, in customs, in government or in colour."[11]He was also a member of theCouncil of Appointmentin 1777–78 and again in 1784.[8]

New York State Senate[edit]

Commencing on September 9, 1777, Yates was a member of the1st New York State Legislature,having been elected to represent one of six seats for the Western District, which consisted ofAlbanyandTryoncounties.[12]He was re-elected several times and served thirteen consecutive sessions in the Senate until he declined re-election following his refusal to sign an oath to theU.S. Constitution.[13]He was succeeded byStephen Van Rensselaer.[12]By the end of his time in the Senate, the Western District consisted of Albany,Columbia[14]andMontgomerycounties.[12]

Yates, along with his fellowAnti-FederalistnephewRobert,with whom he shared the pen-name the "Rough Hewer", was a prolificpamphleteer.He was known for his strong Anti-Federalist writings around the encroachment of Federal powers over New York state affairs and his opposition to theratification of the Constitution.[15]Both Yates were prominent opponents of the nationalistFederalistAlexander Hamilton.[9]

Mayor of Albany[edit]

Following his retirement from the State Senate, Yates old friend and the then New York GovernorGeorge Clintonappointed him as the mayor of Albany in 1790, a role he served in until his death in 1796.[16]As mayor, Yates opposed and was a vocal critic of the FederalistJohn Jay(who succeeded Clinton as Governor and appointed Stephen Van Rensselaer as his Lt. Governor) following theJay Treaty,which was a 1795 treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain which purportedly averted war between the countries and resolved issues remaining since theTreaty of Paris of 1783(which ended theAmerican Revolutionary War). The opposition led to the formation of the anti-Treaty Democratic Republican party in New York.[8]During his term, oil street lamps were installed in Albany.[17]

Yates was apresidential electorin1792,and cast his votes forGeorge WashingtonandGeorge Clinton.In 1795, Yates was also a founding trustee ofUnion College.[18][19]

Personal life[edit]

In 1746, Yates was married to Antje De Ridder (1726–1795), the daughter of Cornelis De Ridder and Susanna (née Vandenbergh) De Ridder. Together, they were the parents of five children, Christoffel, another Christoffel, Tanneke, Cornelis, only one of whom survived to adulthood:[6]

Yates died in Albany on June 30, 1796,[20]and was buried atAlbany Rural Cemetery.[1]

Descendants[edit]

Through his only surviving child Susanna, he was the grandfather of fourteen, including:[21]Jannetje, who died unmarried;[21]Abraham, who died young;[21]Gerrit Yates,a member of theU.S. House of Representativeswho married Helen Ten Eyck (daughter ofAbraham Ten Eyck);[21]Cornelius De Ridder;[21]John, who died unmarried;[21]Antje, who died young;[21]Sanders Jr., who married Angelica Schuyler;[21]Christopher Yates, who married Caroline Mary Thomas;[22]Anna, who married Rev. Walter Monteath;[21]Sarah B., who died unmarried;[21]Susan, who marriedPeter Gansevoort;[21]Barent Bleecker, who married Philanda Orcutt;[21]George, married Harriet Schermerhorn (daughter ofCornelius K. Schermerhorn b. 1779 d. bef. 1850).[23]and Abraham Yates, who married Eliza Van Alstyne.[21]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcde"Yates, Abraham – Biographical Information".bioguide.congress.gov.Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  2. ^Dodge, Andrew R.; Koed, Betty K.; et al. (United States Congress) (2005).Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005.Government Printing Office. p. 2208.ISBN978-0160731761.
  3. ^abShorto, Russell (Summer 2016)."The Sheriff of Albany County | With a lively resentment toward authority, Abraham Yates Jr. was Colonial Albany's everyman"(PDF).New York Archives:12–15. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 3, 2018.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  4. ^"Avalon Project – Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787, Taken by the Late Hon Robert Yates, Chief Justice of the State of New York, and One of the Delegates from That State to the Said Convention".avalon.law.yale.edu.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  5. ^Bielinski, Stefan."Christoffel Yates".exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov.New York State Museum.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  6. ^abcBielinski, Stefan."Abraham Yates Jr".exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov.New York State Museum.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  7. ^Gordon S. Wood,Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 17
  8. ^abcdefWakelyn, Jon L. (2004).Birth of the Bill of Rights: Biographies.Greenwood Publishing Group.p. 237.ISBN978-0313331947.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  9. ^abcYoung, Alfred F. (2012).The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797.UNC Press Books.p. 44.ISBN978-0807838204.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  10. ^"Abraham Yates Jr. papers".archives.nypl.org.Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.Archived fromthe originalon July 25, 2018.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  11. ^Alexander, Robert (2017).The Northwest Ordinance: Constitutional Politics and the Theft of Native Land.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 148.ISBN978-1476627618.
  12. ^abcHough, Franklin Benjamin (1858).The New York Civil List: Containing the names and origin of the civil divisions, and the names and dates of election or appointment of the principal state and county officers from the Revolution to the present time.Weed, Parsons and Co. pp.48–52, 108, 110, 114.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  13. ^Siemers, David J. (2004).Ratifying the Republic: Antifederalists and Federalists in Constitutional Time.Stanford University Press.pp. 37–38.ISBN978-0804751032.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  14. ^TheCivil Listof 1858 places Columbia Co. in the Eastern D. but this is contradicted by Schechter (p. 181). Columbia was partitioned from Albany, and no senatorial re-apportionment being made must have remained in the Western D., it was transferred to the Eastern D. only in 1791.
  15. ^Kauffman, Bill (2014).Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Martin Luther.Open Road Media. p. 28.ISBN978-1497635753.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  16. ^Young, Alfred F. (2012).The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797.UNC Press Books.p. 166.ISBN9780807838204.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  17. ^Reynolds, Cuyler (1906).Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time; Illustrated with Many Historical Pictures of Rarity and Reproductions of the Robert C. Pruyn Collection of the Mayors of Albany, Owned by the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society.J. B. Lyon Company, printers. p.269.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  18. ^Union College (Schenectady, NY); Pearson, Jonathan (1854).A General Catalogue of the Officers, Graduates and Students of Union College from 1795 to 1854.S. S. Riggs. p. 6.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  19. ^Howell, George Rogers (1886).Bi-Centennial History of Albany: History of the County of Albany, N.Y., from 1609 to 1886.W. W. Munsell & Company. p. 679.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  20. ^Bielinski, Stefan."Abraham Yates Jr".www.nysm.nysed.gov.New York State Museum.Archived fromthe originalon March 3, 2016.RetrievedAugust 2,2018.
  21. ^abcdefghijklmReynolds, Cuyler; Sullivan, Robert G. (1911).Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs | Vol. I | Lansing.New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 72–74.RetrievedSeptember 6,2017.
  22. ^Talcott, Sebastian V. (2001).Genealogical Notes Of New York And New England Families.Heritage Books.ISBN978-0788419560.RetrievedSeptember 6,2017.
  23. ^Cite error: The named referencePersonal Family Historywas invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).

External links[edit]

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