Christopher Yeats
Mayor of Oxford 1792/3 and 1807/8
Christopher Yeats (1740–1810) was awarded his freedom in May 1774. In September that year he was nominated as Mayor’s Child by Samuel Culley and immediately took up his Chamberlain’s place.
Yeats was elected Senior Bailiff in September 1782.
Yeats was a wine merchant in Cornmarket, in St Michael’s parish. Bailey’s Western & Midland Directory of 1783 lists him as “Yeates, Christopher, Wine and Brandy Merchant”.
and one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants in October 1791. In 1792 he was elected Mayor for the first time (for 1892/38), choosing Thomas Bricknell as his Child.
In 1798 Yeats was appointed a Barge Commissioner and in March 1800 was made an Alderman, “paying a jacobus piece of gold to the macebearer, and £10 according to custom”.
In 1807 Yeats was elected for a second term as Mayor (for 1807/8).
Yeats died on 10 April 1810 (at the age of 69 according to his memorial plaque, but at 70 according to the entry in the parish register). He was buried inside the church of St Michael-at-the-Northgate on 18 April 1810.
His memorial (left) on the wall of St Michael’s Church reads:
Near this Place
rest the remains of
Christopher Yeats Esqr
Alderman, and twice Mayor
of this City.
In Office an upright Magistrate:
Through Life a sincere Friend
And benevolent Man
He died
the 10th day of April 1810,
Aged 69 years
The benevolence of Yeats is demonstrated in his will dated 1807, by which he gave:
- The vast sum of £10,000 to the Radcliffe Infirmary
- The reversion of £1,000 stock, the dividends to be divided annually between three freemen and three widows of freemen over 60, with preference to be given to one freeman and one widow of St Michael’s parish
- The reversion of another £1,000 stock, the income, each time it amounted to £30, to be loaned to a poor freeman for seven years
(Yeats’s legacy to the poor of St Michael’s parish became a problem for the city council in 1881, as the poor moved into the parish to become eligible for it.)
It appears that Yeats lived alone at the time of his death, as a notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 12 May 1810 advertising the sale of his house by auction told people that they could view it on application to the servants. His property was described thus:
All that valuable freehold estate, situate in the Corn Market, Oxford, the residence of Mr. Alderman Yeats, deceased; consisting of a breakfast parlour, dining parlour, capital drawing room, two good kitchens, laundry, larder, china and water closets, nine bed rooms, two dressing rooms, extensive cellars, large paved court, and good garden.
Another auction for the contents of Yeats’s house, to take place six days after the auction of the house, included the following:
Mahogany four-post and other bedsteads; prime bordered goose feather beds, blankets and counterpanes, Turkey and other carpets, large pier and other glasses, mahogany side-board, dining, card, and other tables, chairs, &c. also an excellent assortment of kitchen requisites; a very large and valuable collection of prints, by Hogarth and other artists of eminence; paintings, books, and china; also a large quantity of very prime old wines, spirits, &c.
Yeats left a legacy to his niece, Elizabeth Mush, but she could not be found, and an advertisement for her to come forward was inserted in Jackson’s Oxford Journal.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 14 April 1810 (death notice)
- List of legacies on the wall outside the Board Room of the Radcliffe Infirmary
- PCC Will PROB 11/1511 (Will of Christopher Yeats, Alderman of Oxford, proved 2 May 1810)