Jasper Yeates (1745–1817) was an American lawyer and judge from Pennsylvania, a justice of the state Supreme Court from 1791 to 1817. Jasper Yeates House

Early life and education

Jasper Yeates was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on April 9, 1745 to John and Elizabeth Sidebotham Yeates. He graduated from the College of Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1758 and later received a Master of Arts degree. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar of Philadelphia in 1765. He traveled to England to study at the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

for his legal training, as was typical of other colonial aspiring families. His career began in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

, west of Philadelphia where he became a prominent member of the bar. On December 30, 1767 he married Sarah Burd, eldest daughter of Colonel

James Burd James Burd (March 10, 1725 – October 5, 1793) was a colonial American soldier in the French and Indian War, during which he played an important role in fortifying the Pennsylvania frontier. Early life Born in Ormiston, near Edinburgh, Scotland, ...

and his wife Sarah Shippen. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, he sided with the

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cause. In 1776, he served as a commissioner to investigate Native American affairs in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

.Reuben G. Thwaites and Louise P. Kellogg, eds., ''The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775–1777'' (Originally published 1908, Kennikat reprint, Port Washington, NY 1970), p. 191. Yeates was a prominent lawyer in Lancaster and during his career he built a fine library of legal books in several languages totaling 1,043 volumes in all. Most were purchased in Dublin and London. The library today is housed in its entirety in the library of LancasterHistory.org in Lancaster, Pa. where it is available for scholarly research. After the Revolution, Yeates was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the

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in 1787. Appointed as a justice of the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme J ...

in 1791, he served until his death in 1817. A

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, he was appointed by the

Washington administration The presidency of George Washington began on April 30, 1789, when Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1797. Washington took office after the 1788–1789 presidential election, the na ...

in 1794 to serve on a commission sent to negotiate an end to the

Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...

.Philip S. Klein and Ari Hoogenboom, ''A History of Pennsylvania'' (Penn State Press, 1973), p. 117. Yeates died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on March 14, 1817 and is buried in St. James Episcopal Church cemetery along with his wife Sarah, who died October 25, 1829.

Legacy and honors

*The

Jasper Yeates House Jasper Yeates House, also known as the home of WRKY Radio, is a historic home located at Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1765–1766, and is a four-story, four bay brick townhouse, in the Georgian style. In 1882, it ...

was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

References

External links

* Th
Jasper Yeates papers
which span his lifetime and contain Yeates's personal correspondence, accounts, and notes on trials and other legal papers, are available for research at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

. * The Jasper Yeates Collection can be found at LancasterHistory.org http://www.lancasterhistory.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=893:yeates-lancaster-county-historical-society-collection-1699-1934&catid=37:manuscript-groups&Itemid=57 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeates, Jasper 1745 births 1817 deaths Pennsylvania Federalists People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution Politicians from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Lawyers from Philadelphia People of colonial Pennsylvania Burials in Pennsylvania 19th-century American lawyers