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Richard Piper Yeo was baptised at the parish church of St Andrew, Plymouth. His father Richard Yeo is shown in the baptism record as a merchant’s clerk and his mother is recorded as Mary.
Richard Piper Yeo (1813–1899, son of Richard Yeo and Mary Besley) and Harriet Chambers [notes 1, 2] had six children:
– Mary Jane Yeo (1845–1870)
– Emily Ann Yeo (1847–1932)
– Ellen Louisa Yeo (1848–1931)
– Richard Edward Yeo (1849–1939, married Elizabeth Jane Spencer, two children)
– Henry Robert Yeo
– Helena Yeo (1854–1931, married William Augustus Ellis).
Richard Piper Yeo trained as an artist and specialised in miniature portraits; he later became a photographer, with premises at 89 Union Street, Devonport [note 13].
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Notes
1. Harriet was baptised at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight in 1820 to parents John and Harrriet Chambers. It is possible that she was married when she met Richard, which might explain why there is no record of Richard and Harriet marrying.
2. The 1851 census records Richard in Lewes, Sussex. He is 38, occupation ‘miniature painter and profilist’. Harriet Yeo is 30, birthplace Freshwater. Listed with them are children Mary J. (age 6), Emily (4), Ellen L. (2), Richard E. (1), also Richard’s sister-in-law Fanny Mitchell (age 22) and niece Alice Mitchell (5 months). Alice’s birth was registered at Portsea in the fourth quarter of 1850, mother’s birth surname Chambers.
3. The 1881 census records Richard at 161 Union Street, Plymouth. He is 60, occupation ‘artist & photographer’. Harriet Yeo is 63, birthplace Isle of Wight. Also listed are Richard’s three daughters Emily A. Yeo (age 32, housekeeper born Dawlish, Devon), Ellen L. Yeo (shop assistant, born Ilfracombe, Devon) and Helena Yeo (age 23, schoolmistress born Maidstone, Kent), two boarders and a domestic servant.