John Ashton Yates

John Ashton Yates (21 June 1781 – 1 November 1863) was a British Whig politician and railroad investor.

Early life He was a son of Elizabeth (née Ashton) Bostock Yates and John Yates, a prominent Unitarian minister who served at Kaye Street Chapel in Liverpool, later known as Paradise Street Chapel. Among his siblings were brothers Joseph Brooks Yates, a merchant, and James Yates, a minister and scholar; both brothers were prominent antiquaries.

His father was the only child of John Yates, a schoolmaster, and his mother was the youngest daughter of merchant John Brooks Ashton of Woolton Hall near Liverpool, and the widow of physician John Bostock. From his mother's first marriage, he had an elder half-brother, John Bostock, who was also a physician. William James, who was also an MP, was his cousin. He was particularly close to Dalton, who had previously taught his father at the Academy and with whom he went on a walking tour.

Career He was apprenticed to the firm run by the William Rathbone family. Efn|Another contemporary apprentice at the Rathbone firm with whom Yates remained friends was Thomas Bolton, who later became mayor of Liverpool. was a partnership with his brothers, Richard Vaughan Yates, who established Prince's Park, Liverpool, and Pemberton Heywood Yates. In 1830, he was one of the initial proprietors of the Wigan Branch Railway, the Manchester and Leeds Railway and in 1836 the Blackwall Railway.

Yates stood unsuccessfully for the Bolton seat in Lancashire at the 1832 general election. He was the Whig Party Member of Parliament (MP) for County Carlow, Ireland, between 1837 and 1841, but lost his Carlow seat in the 1841 contest.

Interests In 1820, Yates was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,

Probably a member of Renshaw Street Chapel in Liverpool, Yates served as president of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association in 1841 and 1856. Together, they lived at Dingle Head, Toxteth Park, and were the parents of five daughters:

Frances Mary Yates (d. 1895), who married Sir Richard Musgrave, 4th Baronet of Tourin, a son of Sir Richard Musgrave, Bt, in 1845. Ellen-Mellissina Yates, who died young.

Yates died at Philips' house in Manchester on 1 November 1863, having suffered from a declining memory for the previous two years.