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Robert
Yates
Although Robert Yates was baptized in the Schenectady Dutch church in 1738, his family roots were in Albany. He was the eldest of the twelve children of Albany-born Schenectady merchant Joseph Yates and Maria Dunbar - the daughter of a garrison soldier who became a Schenectady vintner.
Early
on, he learned the craft of the surveyor and then
decided to pursue a career in law. After clerking
for William Livingston in New York City, in 1760
he was licensed to practice on his own. In 1765,
he married Jannetje Van Ness and settled in Albany.
Their first home was on the hillside in the Second
Ward where he had inherited property from his grandfather
and namesake - Robert Yates of Schenectady. Their
six children were baptized at the Albany Dutch Church
between 1767 and 1783 where both parents would become
lifetime members.
Surveying
supplemented an insurgent attorney's income as he
made a number of important land maps during the 1760s.
He drew the first civilian map of Albany in 1770.
He also relied on patronage from the Albany Corporation
through his uncle, alderman Abraham Yates, Jr. In
1771, he was elected to the Common Council as an
alderman for the second ward. In those years he served
on a number of committees, provided legal advice,
and stepped forward to compile and issue the first
published version of the Laws and Ordinances of the
City of Albany in 1773. Enjoying a growing legal
practice and gaining repute as an attorney, Robert
Yates prospered.
From
the beginning of the struggle for American liberties
he stood in the front ranks of Albany's Patriot leaders.
Although he did not sign the Albany Sons of Liberty
constitution of 1766, he was prominent in the local
resistance to the Stamp Act. By 1774, he had joined
the Albany Committee of Correspondence and stood
among its first members when the commmittee's activities
became public in 1775. At that time, he was still
a member of the Albany common council - although
its activities were being replaced by the extra-legal
Committee of Correspondence, Safety, and Protection. He represented the second ward on the committee and was in close contact with it from his subsequent offices until it ceased operations in 1778. At the same time, he also served as secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners - a post that required him to travel to the frontier.
Robert
Yates was an exceptional Albany resident called to
service beyond the local level. Beginning in the
spring of 1775, he was elected to represent Albany
in each of the four New York Provincial Congresses.
The first three met in New York while the last one,
convened after the Declaration of Independence, met
under duress in locations throughout the Hudson Valley.
In 1776-77, he served on the committee that drafted
the first New York State Constitution and also was
a member of the "Secret Committee for Obstructing Navigation of the Hudson."
 In
October 1777, Yates was appointed to the New York
State Supreme Court. Through the darkest days of
the struggle, Yates travelled the state - sitting
on the court and otherwise aiding the American cause.
Although he often was away from Albany, his family
continued to grow as two sons were born during the
war years.
With
the end of the war, Robert Yates's family settled
into a new home on upper State Street. Although principally
an associate justice of the state Supreme Court,
Yates maintained a modest legal practice and continued
surveying as well. During the 1780s, his political
star continued to rise in the "party" of Governor George Clinton as he spoke in oppostion to the expansion of the scope of a national government. In 1787, he was appointed with John Lansing, Jr. and Alexander Hamilton to represent New York at the Philadelphia convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. Arriving in Philadelphia, Yates and Lansing felt the mood of the convention to produce an entirely new form of government was beyond their authority. After sending a letter to Governor Clinton urging oppostion to the new Constitution, they returned home. Yates is thought to have written a number of published essays in oppostion to its adoption.His personal notes from the Philadelphia convention were published in 1821.
In
1788, Robert Yates was elected as an antifederalist
delegate to the New York State ratifying convention
and worked against adoption of the Constitution.
But, after its acceptance, he pledged his support
as a matter of patriotic duty.
In
1789, he ran for governor against George Clinton
with the support of the New York Federalists - who
viewed him as a reasonable, potentially kindred spirit
who was not from a wealthy family. He was defeated
by Governor Clinton. Approached by the Federalists
again in 1792, Yates refused to run citing the financial
drain caused by past politicking. In the gubernatorial
campaign of 1795, considerable sentiment existed
for Yates's candidacy as he was firmly established
in the center of the former antifederal party. John
Jay defeated him in a close election ending Yates's
political career. By then, he already had devoted
himself to the law.
In
September 1790, Robert Yates was chosen Chief Justice
of the New York State Supreme Court. He served until
the mandatory retirement age of sixty in 1798. Unlike
many "new men of the Revolution," he did not attain great wealth and retired to his modest Albany home.
Revolutionary
leader, Robert Yates enjoyed a distinguished career
in the law and in public service. Enjoying great
stature during his lifetime, he was widely regarded
as the most moderate of the Antifederalists. He died
in 1801 at the age of sixty three. His widow died
in 1818. Their son, jurist John Van Ness Yates, succeeded
to Robert Yates's legal practice and lived in the
State Street home.
~ ~ ~
Notes: Autograph
of Robert Yates as reproduced in the Johnson Papers.
Information
on Yates's clerkship comes from Alfred F. Young,
The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins,
1763-1797 (Chapel Hill, 1967). Young's seminal study
is also the source of the best insights on Robert
Yates and his career.
Yates
drew a number of maps in newly formed Tryon County.
In 1773, he surveyed the Westenhook Patent and later,
with John R. Bleecker, the city's lands at Schaghticoke.
His 1770 map of Albany was submitted along with a
written report on the city's boundary lines. In 1786,
he was appointed to the commission that finally fixed
the boundary between New York and Massachusetts.
The
Yates house at 110 State Street stood until 1855.
His observations published under the title Secret
Proceedings and Debates of the Convention Assembled . . . for the
Purpose of Forming the Constitution of the United
States provide important insights on the process
that led to the development of the constitution.
This exciting period (1795) in Yates's political life is more fully
covered in Young, The
Democratic Republicans, pp.
429-42.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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