Joseph Christopher Yates (November 9, 1768 – March 19, 1837) was an American lawyer, politician, statesman, and founding trustee of Union College. He served as the seventh governor of New York, from January 1, 1823 – December 31, 1824.
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History
Born in 1768 in Schenectady in the Province of New York in the colonial era to Colonel Christopher P. Yates and Jannetje Bradt, Yates rose during the early Federal period after the United States gained independence in the American Revolutionary War. He read the law with an established firm and passed the bar.
He served as the mayor of Schenectady (beginning in 1798), being appointed successively to twelve one-year terms. In 1805 he was elected as a state senator, in 1808 as a State Supreme Court justice, and in 1823 as the seventh governor of New York (1823–1824). Yates is the only Governor of New York to have been born in Schenectady County, which was settled in the early Dutch colonial period.
In his public life, Yates served also as a founding Trustee of Union College, established in 1795 in Schenectady. The private college became well known. Yates also served as President of the Schenectady Savings Bank. Yates was selected as a presidential elector in 1828.
His residence in Schenectady, during the period when he served as governor, survives on Front Street near the Mohawk River. It is a contributing property in the city's listed Stockade Historic District.