criminal libel (2 April 1884), and, after the failure of an appeal, was in January 1885 sentenced to four months' imprisonment. He was released after seven weeks, but the incident left a permanent mark upon him. Up to the last, however, he wielded his pen with his old facility. Entirely free from the acerbity and doubtful taste which may be detected in some of his journalistic work was his delightful ‘Edmund Yates: his Recollections and Experiences’ (1884, 2 vols. 8vo; 4th edit. 1885, 1 vol.), a book full of interesting memories, but especially entertaining as regards London in the forties, Charles Dickens, Sir Rowland Hill, Anthony Trollope, and the early writers for ‘Punch’ or its ‘comic’ rivals.
Yates had a long illness in the winter of 1893–4; he returned from the continent improved in health in April, but relapsed, and died rather suddenly at the Savoy Hotel on 20 May 1894, aged 62. A funeral service was held in the Savoy Chapel on 24 May, after which the remains were removed to Woking to be cremated (Times, 25 May 1894). Yates married in 1853 Louisa Katharine, daughter of James Wilkinson the sword maker, of 27 Pall Mall, and had four sons. His widow died at the Carlton Hotel on 27 Jan. 1900.
An energetic man of considerable versatility, it was as a journalist that Yates excelled, and he had a great gift of saying what he had to say in a readable style. ‘He was a most genial and witty man, an entertaining conversationalist, and an exceptionally good after-dinner speaker’ (Truth, 24 May 1894).
Yates's separately published works include: 1. ‘After Office Hours,’ 1861 and 1862. 2. ‘Broken to Harness,’ 1864, 1865, and 1867 (6th edit.); several American editions, and a version for the ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ 1866 (cf. Athenæum, 26 Nov. 1864). 3. ‘Pages in Waiting,’ 1865. 4. ‘The Business of Pleasure,’ 1865. 5. ‘Land at Last,’ 1866, 1867, and 1869; a French version as ‘Un Drame de la Rue,’ 1881. 6. ‘Running the Gauntlet,’ 1866 and 1867. 7. ‘Kissing the Rod,’ 1866 and 1867. 8. ‘The Forlorn Hope,’ 1867. 9. ‘The Black Sheep,’ 1867 and 1868; several American editions. It was dramatised by the author and J. P. Simpson, and printed in vol. lxxxi. of Lacy's ‘Acting Plays.’ 10. ‘The Rock Ahead,’ 1868. 11. ‘Wrecked in Port,’ 1869. 12. ‘A Righted Wrong,’ 1870. 13. ‘Dr. Wainwright's Patient,’ 1871. 14. ‘Nobody's Fortune,’ 1871. 15. ‘Castaway,’ 1872. 16. ‘A Waiting Race,’ 1872. 17. ‘The Yellow Flag,’ 1872. 18. ‘Two by Tricks,’ 1874. 19. ‘The Impending Sword,’ 1874. 20. ‘The Silent Witness,’ 1875. He condensed into one volume Mrs. Mathews's prolix ‘Life of Charles Mathews’ (1860), and edited Smedley's ‘Gathered Leaves,’ with a memorial preface (1865), and Mortimer Collins's ‘Thoughts in my Garden,’ 1880.
[Yates's Recollections and Experiences (with portrait); Vizetelly's Glances back through Seventy Years, 1893, chap. xxii.; Fox-Bourne's English Newspapers; Hatton's Journalistic London, 1882, pp. 85 sq. (with portrait); Spielmann's Hist. of Punch, 1895, pp. 19, 144, 173, 265, 281, 313, 390; Sala's Life and Adventures, 1895, passim; Athenæum, 26 May 1894; Times, 22 May 1894 and 29 Jan. 1900; Illustrated London News, 26 May 1894 (with portrait); Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
YATES, Mrs. ELIZABETH (1799–1860), actress, born at Norwich on 21 Jan. 1799, came of a theatrical family. Her grandfather, John Brunton, acted at Covent Garden in 1774; her father, also John Brunton, born in 1775, went on the stage in 1795, and, as Brunton jun. from Norwich, appeared at Covent Garden on 22 Sept. 1800 as Frederick in ‘Louisa's Vows,’ and managed at different periods theatres in Brighton, Birmingham, Lynn, and other places. Elizabeth's aunt, Anne Brunton, first appeared as Miss Brunton at Bath on 17 Feb. 1785 in the part of Euphrasia in the ‘Grecian Daughter,’ and by that name or as Mrs. Merry was, at Covent Garden, the original Amanthis in the ‘Child of Nature,’ and played a complete round of parts in comedy and tragedy; while a second aunt was Louisa Brunton (1782–1860), who married on 12 Dec. 1807 William Craven, first earl of Craven [see Craven, Louisa, Countess of].
On 15 March 1815, in her father's theatre at Lynn, Elizabeth Brunton made, as Desdemona to the Othello of Charles Kemble, her first appearance on the stage. Her father thought her talents more suited to comedy than tragedy, and she next played Letitia Hardy in the ‘Belle's Stratagem’ to the Doricourt of Robert William Elliston, who engaged her for his theatre at Birmingham. She played also in Worcester, Shrewsbury, and Leicester. Harris then engaged her for Covent Garden, where on 12 Sept. 1817, as Miss Brunton, she made her ‘first appearance in London’ in the part of Letitia Hardy. She repeated the part on the 15th and 17th, and on the 19th was Rosalind in ‘As you like it.’ The ‘Theatrical Inquisitor’ gave some praise to her Letitia, but pronounced her Rosalind a failure. Violante in the ‘Wonder,’ Miss Hardcastle in
