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James Yeo was baptised at Kilkhampton in 1790. He worked as a carrier and had three children with his first wife Mary Francis. After Mary’s death he married Damaris Sargent; they emigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1826 and had seven children together. James died there in 1868.
James developed a talent for business and, ably aided by Damaris, recognised and developed the potential for the use of the timber resources on the island for shipbuilding. He bought a small shipyard and expanded it. Ships built there include the Josepha and the William Yeo. Other ships built at this yard were sailed in an unfinished state across the Atlantic to Appledore, where they were completed at Richmond Dock, a shipyard established by James’s eldest son William Yeo. James was later a JP and a politician.
Photograph by Martyn Yeo, May 2024.
James later represented Prince Edward Island in the Canadian Senate. He died in 1868 and was buried at the St James Anglican Cemetery at Port Hill.
So why is James Yeo’s parentage uncertain? Many of his descendants have tried to establish this information, though without any convincing success. Sheila Yeo also failed to identify his parents. It might be that they were James Yeo and Ann Osborn – but there is no firm evidence. James Yeo appears to have been a shoemaker in Kikhampton before working as a carrier. There were Yeo shoemakers in nearby Stratton for many years, which might also be a clue to James’s line of descent.
James Yeo married twice. From his marriage to Mary Francis had had three children:
– William Yeo (see below)
– James Yeo (1815–1817)
– Nancy Yeo (1817–1866, married Thomas Charles Broad and Charles Gree).
Mary died in 1818; the following year James married Damaris Sargent. They had a daughter:
– Susannah Sergeant Yeo (1824–1901, married William Richards)
before emigrating to Prince Edward Island and settling at Port Hill; he and Damaris had six further children:
– Mary Jane Yeo (1826–1898, married John Ings)
– James Yeo (1827–1903, married Mary Folland and Sarah Jane Glover, eleven children)
– Isabella Yeo (1830–1901, married Joseph Robert Sanders)
– Caroline Yeo (1832–1834)
– John Yeo (1837–1934) [note 1]
– Caroline Alice Yeo (1838–1897, married Daniel Hocking and John Maynard).
William Yeo (1813–1872, son of James Yeo and Mary Francis) was baptised at Kilkhampton and married Elizabeth Allen Williams at Northam in 1843. He remained in Devon to run part of the family shipbuilding business from Richmond Dock at Appledore. William and Elizabeth had six children [note 2]:
– Elizabeth Anne Yeo (1847–1908, married John Farnell Walton and Sir Francis George Thomas Conynghame)
– Mary Williams Yeo (born 1848, married Charles Henry Fussell)
– Fanny Louisa Yeo (1850–1919, married Nynian Holman Lower) [note 3]
– Isabel Susanna Yeo (1853–1936, married George Henry Dean)
– Amelia Augusta Yeo (1859–1953, married Clifford Luxmoore Drew)
– William Yeo (1861–1869).
Please Contact Us if you can add to or correct the information shown. See also Yeos in Prince Edward Island.
Notes
1. John was a member of the Canadian Parliament for 33 years.
2. The 1871 census for Appledore records William at Richmond House with four daughters – Elizabeth A. (age 24), Mary W. (22), Isabel S. (18) and Amelia A. (12) – as well as a governess and two servants. William’s wife Elizabeth is not listed; she died two years later.
3. Son Nynian Yeo Lower (1872–1926, married Ruby Frances Warner).