Yates, Frederick Henry

1797

1842

Frederick Henry Yates was born on 4 February 1797, the son of Thomas Yates, a tobacco importer in Russell Square. He was educated at Charterhouse School, worked later in the commissariat department and was with Wellington in the Peninsula. Urged on by his friend, the comedian Charles Mathews, he turned to the stage. He appeared, it seems, for the first time in Boulogne, France, as Fustian in “Sylvester Daggerwood”. He was at Edinburgh in February 1818, playing Shylock, Iago, Richard III and Bolingbroke (in Kean’s Richard II). Announced as from Edinburgh, Yates made his debut at Covent Garden on 7 November 1818, as Iago. He remained at that theatre through 1824-25. Though he acted roles like Macduff, Buckingham, Casca and Glenalvon in “Douglas”, Yates made his reputation mainly as a comic actor, following the line of Mathews. Among his roles were Moses in “The School for Scandal”, Dick in “The Apprentice”, Boniface in “The Stratagem”, Mordecai in “Love à la Mode” and Flexible in “Love, Law and Physic”. He also presented entertainments in which he imitated other well-known actors. In March 1825 Yates and Daniel Terry purchased the Adelphi Theatre for £25,000. They opened it on 10 October 1825 and enjoyed a successful first season, highlighted by Fitzball’s “The Pilot” that played for 200 nights. When Terry soon retired from the partnership, Yates was joined by Mathews, and when the latter died in June 1835 Yates continued on at the Adelphi (also acting there and elsewhere in London) until 1842. Among his late roles were Robert Macaire in “L’Auberge des Adrets”, Fagin in “Oliver Twist”, Mr Gay in “Jack Sheppard” and Pickwick in “The Peregrinations of Pickwick”. He had also managed the Caledonian Theatre (renamed the Adelphi) with William Henry Murray in Edinburgh and, with Braham, the Coliseum in Regent’s Park Yates suffered a stroke in Dublin in 1842 and returned to London, where he died at No 4, Mornington Crescent on 21 June 1842 and was buried in the vaults of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He was an original member of the Garrick Club in 1831, but resigned in 1840. In 1823 he had married the actress Elizabeth Brunton (1799-1860), the sister of the more famous Anne Brunton (later Mrs Merry and noticed in the BDA as Mrs Thomas Wignell). Their son, the journalist and novelist Edmund Yates is noticed in the DNB. Yates, short in stature, was a sound and versatile actor and a resourceful manager. (DNB)