(1738-1801)
Robert Yates was born and educated in New York.
He became a lawyer and set up practice in Albany.
Yates served eight years as chief justice of the New York Supreme Court.
Yates left the Philadelphia Convention because he believed it had exceeded its authority.
A strong Anti-Federalist, he worked against ratification, writing several essays attacking the Constitution.
Yates kept notes of the convention that have been useful to historians.