Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/368

 and he died at Chelsea on 28 Jan. 1813. He married, in 1800, the daughter of Andrews, keeper of Dorchester Castle, and had four children.

In addition to the works above mentioned, he published a letter to John Frost (1750–1842) [q. v.] entitled ‘These are the Times that try Men's Souls,’ 1793; a report of his trial, 1795; ‘Thoughts on Civil Government,’ 1800; ‘Annals of Political Economy,’ 1803; ‘Letters from France,’ 1804; ‘The Political Review,’ 1805–11.

[Annual Register, xxxvii. 47, xl. 23, xli. 160, xlviii. 458; New Ann. Reg. 1795, p. 60; European Mag. December 1795 and December 1806; Gent. Mag. passim 1795–1813; Argus, Paris newspaper, 15 Nov. 1802; Moniteur, 26 Oct. 1802; Faulkner's Chelsea, i. 383; Howell's State Trials; Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. 1898.] 

YORKE, JAMES (fl. 1640), heraldic writer, appears to have been a blacksmith in the city of Lincoln, and was, says Fuller, ‘an excellent workman in his profession, insomuch that if Pegasus himself would wear shoes, this man alone is fit to make them.’ He is a servant, continues Fuller, ‘as well of Apollo as of Vulcan, turning his stiddy [stithy] into a studdy. And although there be some mistakes [in his Baronage], no hand so steady as always to hit the nail on the head, yet is it of singular use and industriously performed.’ His compilation appeared in folio (London, 1640) under the title ‘The Union of Honour. Containing the Armes, Matches, And Issues of the Kings, Dukes, Marquesses, and Earles of England from the Conquest until … 1640, with the Armes of the English Viscounts and Barons now being, and of the Gentry of Lincolnshire,’ with an engraved title-page inscribed to Charles I ‘by the lowest of his subjects,’ and dedicated to Henry Frederick, the son of Thomas Howard, second earl of Arundel. The heraldry and genealogy is based for the most part upon Milles, Guillim, Brooke, and Vincent, but the work has the great advantage of being arranged in alphabetical order of titles. From 1622 to 1640 Yorke claims the ‘creations and continuance of families’ as his own work. The historical details and the list of battles appended he derived from Speed and Stow. Prefixed to the volume are dedicatory verses by Richard Brathwaite [q. v.], Or. Elyot, Jo. Prujean, Sir George Buc [q. v.], T. Langford, Edward Bullingham, Percy Enderby, and Thomas Heywood, the actor. The ‘Union of Honour’ retains some interest as a link between Vincent and Dugdale. A portrait of the learned blacksmith, attributed to T. Rawlins, adorns the engraved title.

[Fuller's Worthies, 1811, ii. 24; Watkins's Worthies of Lincolnshire, 1885, p. 26; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 3019; Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, i. 471; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

YORKE, JOSEPH, (1724–1792), diplomatist, the third son of Philip Yorke, first earl of Hardwicke [q. v.], by his wife Margaret, was born on 24 June 1724. His brothers Charles [q. v.] and Philip [q. v.] are separately noticed. He was educated at Dr. Newcome's school at Hackney, and entered the army as an ensign in April 1741, was given a company in the first regiment of foot guards (Coldstreams) with the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1745, and served as aide-de-camp to Cumberland at the battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745. ‘My brother,’ wrote Philip Yorke to Horace Walpole, ‘who attended upon the duke, has, thank God! escaped without a hurt.’ He again served on the duke's staff throughout the campaign of the Scottish rebellion, and was present at the battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746. In 1747 he was aide-de-camp to the duke at the battle of Laffeldt, and in October 1749 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the king. After this he does not appear to have seen further active service, but his subsequent regimental appointments were as follows: on 18 March 1755 he was made colonel of the 9th foot, on 27 Nov. 1760 colonel of the 5th dragoons, on 4 April 1787 colonel of the 11th dragoons, and on 12 March 1789 colonel of the 1st life guards. In 1772 he was for a short time with his regiment, the 5th or royal Irish dragoons in Ireland, and was presented with the freedom of the city of Dublin. He was promoted major-general on 18 Jan. 1758, lieutenant-general on 11 Dec. 1760, and general on 6 Sept. 1777.

The diplomatic career of ‘Colonel Yorke’ commenced in 1749, when he preceded Lord Albemarle to Paris as secretary of the embassy. In May 1751 Chesterfield wrote to his son, ‘Mr. Yorke is by this time at Paris. Make your court to him, but not so as to disgust, in the least, Lord Albemarle, who may possibly dislike your considering Mr. Yorke as the man of business, and him only pour orner la scène.’ At Paris in September 1751 he asked for an explanation of the appointment of George Keith, tenth earl Marischal [q. v.], a notorious Jacobite, as Prussian ambassador, but received only a sharp answer from Berlin; the incident was long a cause of ill-feeling in London. At the close of 1751 Yorke was removed from Paris in order to act as British minister at The Hague. Thence, early in 1756, he was the first to communicate to Frederick