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 Davis, 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 daughters Alethea, Mary and Jane, who were baptised at Portsmouth. They then had a son George Cosby Yeo who, like his half brother, also joined the Navy.
There appears to be no record in England of the death of James Yeo senior, nor of the deaths of either of his wives, nor of the baptism of his son George. Perhaps these events took place abroad – do you have any information? If you do, please let us know via the Contact Us page.
Please also let us know if you know anything of the line of descent of James Lucas Yeo’s father James Yeo, 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.