Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo, knighted in 1810, was a skilled and inspirational seaman, and his career in the Royal Navy has been extensively documented. His exploits in the 1812 war against the United States, during which he captained HMS Wolfe on Lake Ontario, led to the naming in his honour some years later of the Yeo Hall at the Royal Military College of Canada. He was buried at Portsmouth in 1818.
Several researchers have tried to place him in one of the known Yeo lines, but have managed to identify only his parents, James Yeo and Sophia Davies, who married in 1778. James Lucas Yeo was their only child. He was over a year old – perhaps nearly three – at the time of his baptism in London in 1784 at St George, Hanover Square, and his mother died soon afterwards.
James Yeo senior then married Mary Gordon in 1785 at St Clement Danes, Westminster. They moved to Portsmouth, which may have been connected with James’s work as a supplier of provisions to the Navy. He and Mary had three daughters and a son:
– Alethea Roddam Eliza Yeo (1789–1818) [note 1]
– Mary Harwood Yeo (1791–1850)
– Jane Innes Yeo (1797–1849)
– George Cosby Yeo (c1798–1819) [note 2].
James died in 1825 [note 3], surviving his second wife Mary [note 4] and both his sons.
There appears to be no record of the baptism of George Cosby Yeo – if you can help with this, please use the Contact Us page. Please also let us know if you can add anything about James Yeo senior, who appears not to have had any close connection with south west England.
For more information about James Lucas Yeo see the three-part article at The Dawlish Chronicles.
Notes
1. Alethea married Richard Bunworth. She died in Edinburgh in 1818, soon after having a daughter Alethea Mary Yeo Bunworth (1817–1821).
2. George Cosby Yeo joined the Royal Navy and reached the rank of Lieutenant. He died at sea on HMS Newcastle at the age of 21, and is commemorated on the headstone of his half brother Sir James Lucas Yeo in Portsmouth.
3. Buried in Kent, age recorded as 70.
4. Buried at Boulogne in 1822.