John Van Ness Yates (December 18, 1779 – January 10, 1839) was a New York lawyer, Democratic-Republican politician, and Secretary of State from 1818 to 1826.
[1] He was one of six children born to Jannette "Jane" Van Ness (1741–1818) and Robert Yates, a prominent Anti-Federalist attorney and jurist.
He was a captain of a light infantry company in 1806, master in chancery in 1808, recorder of the city 1809–1816, and New York Secretary of State 1818–1826.
[2] He co-authored History of the State of New-York: Including Its Aboriginal and Colonial Annals (1826).
[2] This book features a vision of the Erie Canal, then under construction, in a ruined state in some distant, postapocalyptic future.