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- YATES, CHRISTOPHER Ancestor #: A129419 Service: NEW YORK Rank(s): DEPUTY, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL Birth: 7-8-1737 ALPLAUS ALBANY CO NEW YORK Death: 9-1-1785 SCHENECTADY ALBANY CO NEW YORK Service Description: 1) GEN SCHUYLER,ALBANY MIL.
YATES, CHRISTOPHER - Born July 8, 1737, at the old homestead in Alplaus; died September 1, 1785; Buried in Vale Cemetery. During the Revolution he lived in the house built by himself now No. 26 Front Street. In this house was born his son, Joseph C., first mayor of Schenectady (1798) and governor of New York State (1823-1824).
Christopher Yates was a surveyor by profession and "one of the best informed and most efficient patriots in the Mohawk Valley." On May 6, 1775, he was elected a member of the first Committee of Safety and at the first meeting on the ninth was chosen chairman of the Board. On May 24 he was appointed one of a committee to go to Guy Park to deliver an answer to a speech made by the Mohawk Indians. On June 30 he was appointed by the Provincial Congress one of a committee to determine the ranks of the various officers serving in the New York regiments. On July 26 a letter was addressed to him by the Committee asking whether or not he had resigned from the Board, and on August 9 he tendered his resignation. On November 7 he was elected a member of the second Committee of Safety, and on December 29, was appointed deputy clerk of the Board.
On January 13, 1776, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 2d Albany County Militia, and on March 5 Henry Glen was instructed to apply to Congress for his commission. On May 7, 1776, he was elected a member of the third Committee of Safety. From the fall of 1776 to July 8, 1777, he was in command when detachments of the regiment were on duty at Fort Ann. It is claimed that about this time Yates served on the staff of General Schuyler as a deputy quartermaster-general and that he was afterwards promoted to the rank of colonel. The evidence to support this claim is contained in letters from General Schuyler, Benedict Arnold, Governor Morgan Lewis, etc., which were at one time in the possession of Judge A. A. Yates of this city. No evidence of this detail and appointment is to be found on the regimental rolls. After the evacuation of Fort Ann (July 8) he had command of a body of Schenectady militia engaged in felling trees to stop the progress of General Burgoyne's army.
He served throughout the campaign and with General Arnold selected the American position at Bemis Heights. On October 19 he was appointed by the State Committee of Safety one of a committee to repair to Albany to confer with General Philip Schuyler regarding means for checking the advance of the enemy on the northern and western frontiers. He served during the rest of the war in the Quartermaster's Department as a deputy, for the most part of the time stationed at Saratoga. In June, 1779, he was engaged in forwarding the baggage of General Clinton's brigade.
Source: A History of Schenectady During the Revolution by Willis T. Hanson, Jr. Brattleboro, VT: E. L. Hildreth & Co., 1916
Christopher Yates, second, son of Joseph, second, and great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the well-to-do residents of Schenectady in his day. While serving as a Lieutenant in the Provincial army, he was wounded at the siege of Ticonderoga in the French War. He served as a Captain under Sir William Johnson in the engagement at Fort Niagara, and received from King George III. a land grant of nine thousand acres. His term of service as member of the first Provincial Congress expired just six days prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Entering the Continental army as a Colonel, he served as Assistant Department Quartermaster under General Philip Schuyler, and participated in the battle of Saratoga. He reared five sons, each of whom performed some notable achievement.
Joseph C. Yates, the eldest son, was one of the founders of Union College and Governor of New York, 1823-25; John B. served as Colonel of a cavalry regiment in the War of 1812, was member of Congress from Madison County, and built the Welland Canal; Henry was a State Senator from Albany; Christopher was the founder of St. George's Lodge, F. & A. M., Schenectady; and Andrew, Judge Yates's grandfather, known as the Rev. Andrew Yates, D. D., was one of the first professors at Union College.
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Yates and Others
1737 - 1785 (48 years)
