Jeremiah Yates
YATES FUNERALThe funeral was described in the next week's issues.
The Staffordshire Advertiser 23 October 1852:
"Hanley: Funeral of the late Mr. Jeremiah Yates In our obituary of last week we noticed the death of Mr Yates, the assistant surveyor of highways for Shelton. His remains were interred in the burial ground of Shelton Church on Sunday afternoon, and were followed to the grave by a very large number of his friends who walked in procession. The road from Crown Bank (his place of residence) to the church was lined with spectators and a dense crowd surrounded the burial ground".
and in the Peoples Paper 23 Oct 1852:
FUNERAL OF MR JEREMIAH YATES
"This respected patriot was buried with well-merited honours. An invitation had been issued to the public to attend in procession from his late residence to Shelton Church. The result was that about 500 people formed themselves in procession. It was calculated there was ten thousand spectators forming a complete line for three parts of a mile. Indeed, so dense was the crowd part of the way, that the line of the procession could scarcely pass between. The procession moved at half past three and arrived at the church at four o'clock.
After the service had been read Mr. Peploin of Stafford (the good Samaritan to the prisoners for the unfortunate riots of '42) delivered a short address to his friends in which he said we could not share in the idea that our friend's death was altogether sudden but that suffering, persecution and reproach for the great principles which he advocated and advanced, by his good conduct had largely contributed to its cause. He exhorted all to follow his example in maintaining sound principles and acting uprightly.
Indeed the whole manifestation on that day was a complete demonstration of the triumph of our principle in the minds of the people, and also a proof that if their minds were not misled by Sophism and deceit and if they were not led astray by the delusions of interested knavery, their labours would soon tend to the realisation of those political and social principles that would place them in a better, freer and happier condition.Mr & Mrs Linney # from Bilston attended the funeral and also numbers of friends from distant parts.
He sleeps - but unforgotten - for his name
Is linked with goodness - memory's noblest claim.
Toil, peaceful soldier - misery's constant friend,
Want weeps his loss and labour mourns his end.
No pompous watcher come with nodding plume,
To wave black farewells o'er the patriots tomb,
But tearful eye and throbbing heart relates,
That all who knew him miss a friend in YATES."
The "Peoples Paper" of 30 Oct 1852 had a letter from R.C. Gammage describing a speaking tour to N. Wales including:
"Travelling by rail as far as Hanley, I made my way to the house of our late and much lamented brother, Jeremiah Yates, where I shared that generous hospitality to which so just a tribute has been paid in the columns of your journal. During my short stay our late friend was unusually animated in his conversation and I do not know that I ever spent a few minutes better or happier in my life.
You may judge then of the shock I received when a few days subsequently I read in your paper the account of his sudden decease. Alas, I thought, 'how uncertain is human life; how many whose countenance are at this moment beaming with hope, may in less then an hour, be snatched away by the icy hand of death, and all their earthly hopes and aspirations be buried with them in the stilly silence of the tomb'. Should not the thought of this spur us to useful exertion for the short time before the lamp of life is extinguished?....."
A Large memorial was later erected in the Shelton churchyard (St. Marks) some three quarters of a mile from Crown Bank. It was still standing in 1935 but during by the end of the1939/45 war the memorial and other gravestones had been cleared away.
NOTE:
# Linney had been a fellow Chartist prisoner.
