Jeremiah Yates
YATES DEATH & OBITUARYStaffordshire Advertiser (Saturday, 16th October 1852) contained the following obituary:
"Jeremiah Yates. On Monday morning last (October 11 1852) after a short illness, aged 42, Mr. Jeremiah Yates Assistant Surveyor of Highways for the Township of Shelton a situation which he had filled for several years. The deceased was an early advocate of the total abstinence cause, and afterwards became a prominent actor in the Chartist agitation".
The People's Paper of London (with the sub-title 'The Champion of Political Justice and Human Rights') of Saturday Oct 16 announced:
DEATH. On Monday morning last, awfully sudden, to the inexpressible grief of his family and friends, died Mr. Jeremiah Yates of the Temperance Hotel, Crown Bank, Hanley, Staffordshire Potteries, in the 42nd year of his age, leaving a wife and three children unprovided for. Mr. Yates was for many years a firm and consistent advocate of the Rights of Man, ever at his post, in season and out of season, mild and conciliating in his language, yet never yielding his principles.
His kindness and charity were proverbial, and he never withheld his mite from the indigent stranger or the poverty stricken workman in his own locality.
His loss will be deeply felt in this neighbourhood leaving a vacancy that cannot easily be filled up.
On the announcement of his death not a dry eye was to be seen - such a scene of grief and sorrow was never before witnessed in this neighbourhood.
It is the intention of the friends of the deceased, to adopt means to continue the bereaved widow in her present residence and that the house shall be conducted for her benefit, the same as during the lifetime of her lamented husband.
The Star of Freedom of London (successor to the Northern Star and with the sub title "Journal of Political Progress.. " ) of Oct 16th 1852 carried an almost identical obituary under the heading:"Death of a Democrat"
Staffs Potteries Telegraph 16 Oct 1852:
The late Mr. Jeremiah Yates
It is our painful task to record the demise of Mr. Yates, surveyor of Highways for Shelton which took place in an alarming sudden manner on Monday Morning, 11th October. He was occasionally
the subject of epileptic fits and on Monday morning at about two o'clock he was seized with one of them, which terminated fatally about eight o'clock the same morning.
The melancholy event caused a great sensation and crowds of anxious enquirers thronged about his dwelling. In private life he exhibited many excellent qualities and was often generous even to a fault. In his official character, which he sustained for seven years consecutively, his urbanity gained him the respect of the inhabitants generally.
His death appears to be deeply lamented by his many friends who have arranged for a public funeral to take place tomorrow. He was forty two years of age and has left a widow and three children to deplore his loss.
The death certificate issued the following day, gave his occupation still as "Potter" His son also described his late father in 1871 as "Potter". The cause of death was given as 'epilepsy' but this has never since been heard of in the family.
NOTE:
# Salme Dutt: The Chartist Movement.
