Background
Yates was born on August 23, 1724 in Albany, New York, the ninth son of Christoffel Yates and Catelyntje Winne.
congressman lawyer pamphleteer patriot civil servant
Yates was born on August 23, 1724 in Albany, New York, the ninth son of Christoffel Yates and Catelyntje Winne.
A surveyor, lawyer, and land speculator, Yates has sometimes been called a financier. He served as sheriff of Albany from 1754 to 1759 and many terms on the Albany Common Council, 1754-1773. A radical Whig by conviction during the pre-revolutionary and war periods, he was an associator and an active member and chairman of the Albany committee of correspondence from 1774 to 1776. The county of Albany elected him to every one of the New York provincial congresses and conventions of 1775-1777; he was chairman of the committee of the convention (1776-1777) which drafted the first constitution of the state of New York, and of the committee of six for putting the new government into operation. His other services during the Revolution included membership in the committee on arrangements for the Continental regiments of New York, service as a state senator, 1777-1790, and service as one of the commissioners for loans authorized by Congress, 1777-1782. Like other members of the Yates family, particularly Robert Yates, Abraham was an ardent Antifederalist during the 1780's. An able pamphleteer, he wrote frequently and eloquently, sometimes under the pen names "Rough Hewer" and "Rough Hewer, Jr. ," in defense of the sovereignty of his state and in opposition to Congressional aggrandizement. His printed letters and pamphlets are perhaps the ablest exposition of the point of view of the agrarian democrats and Anti-federalist followers of Gov. George Clinton. Although he voted in 1781 for granting the impost to Congress, he fought it consistently in subsequent years, stressing the potential tyranny of federal tax collectors. He played the role of an Antifederalist in the Continental Congress, 1787-1788, and fought the proposed Federal Constitution from the state Senate. In 1792, however, he was chosen a presidential elector on a ticket pledged to Washington and Adams. From October 19, 1790, to his death in 1796, he was mayor of Albany, in which office he seems to have been capable and energetic.
Chairman of the Albany Committee of Correspondence (1774-1776), member of the New York Provincial Congress (1775-1777)
Yates married Antje De Ridder, who like himself attended the Dutch Reformed Church of Albany, and to them were born four children.
