Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for Cos. Louth, 1834-1836, and Kildare, 1836-1865. John Yeats, second son of the Rev. John Yeats, rector of Drumcliff, Co. Sligo, by his wife Jane, née Taylor, was born in January 1808. He served a five-year pupilage with RICHARD GRIFFITH RICHARD GRIFFITH , working in the Boundary Survey Office. In 1834 he was employed by the Board of Works to work under WILLIAM BALD  WILLIAM BALD on surveys of the Boyne navigation. In May 1834 he was appointed county surveyor for Co. Louth, but appears to have had an unsatisfactory relationship with the Grand Jury.(1) Two and a half years later, in October 1836, he was transferred to Co. Kildare, in succession to CHARLES LANYON.& CHARLES LANYON.& #160; His place in Co. Louth was filled by FRANCIS DUBOURDIEU.  FRANCIS DUBOURDIEU.

Yeats remained in the Co. Kildare surveyorship, based in Monasterevin, for the rest of his life. In 1842 he married his first cousin Ellen Sophia (née Terry), by whom he had a large family.(2) He died, according to the obituary in the Irish Builder 'after a painful and lingering illness' on 29 July 1865, survived by his wife The last two years of his life, as O'Donoghue recounts, were clouded by problems connected with the construction of a new bridge over the Liffey near Clane. Recalling 'a character of singular amiability and kindness of heart, and…unswerving integrity in the discharge of his duty', his obituarist in the Irish Builder expressed the fear 'that death in his case was accelerated by the effects of severe work on a naturally weak constitution and by anxiety about the affairs of his office'.

ICEI: Founder member, 1835.(3)

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary in DB 7, 15 Aug 1865, 201, Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), 1234, and Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 331-2, which see for the fullest account of Yeats's career.

(1) Dublin Evening Post, 20 May 1834;  Peter Geraghty, 'P.J. Lynam, the last County Surveyor for Louth Grand Jury (1886-1912)', County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal 27, No. 2 (2010), 287.
(5) Thom's Directory (1863), 1105.
(2) The obituary states that he was survied by ten children, but Burke lists only six.
(3) List of members in TICEI 3 (1847-1849).
(3) Photocopy of transcript of minutes of first meeting of Engineers' Society of Ireland, 6 Aug 1835, in IAA, Jones File F73.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for YEATS, JOHN


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Building: CO. KILDARE, CLANE (NEAR), ALEXANDRA BRIDGE
Date: 1864
Nature: Bridge over River Liffey south of Clane on raod to Sallins & Naas. Contractor: Wardrop & Son.
Refs: Plaque on bridge; Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 331-2