498 have made him known as the “gentlemanly old gentleman," and one of the grand old men of the province. He displays remark- able physical and mental vigor and this spring undertook a trip to England in con- nection with the building of the new steamer “Empress.”

In religion Mr. Richards is an Episco- palian. In 1849 he married Susan, daughter of the late Hon. James Yeo, a prominent merchant and ship owner of Port Hill, for-

merly of Cornwall, England. His family consists of two sons and one daughter, viz: Hon. James Richards, M. L. A., of Bide- ford, John. Richards, of Bideford, and Isa- bel M. now Mrs. W. McLea Walbank, of

Montreal. ,

Ho'N. JOHN ,YEo, asuccessful farmer, prosperous merchant and highly esteemed citizen of Port Hill, is a son of HOn. James Yeo, who came .to Prince Edward Island in his young manhood from Kilhampton, Com- ' wall county, England, and was located in Lot 13, Prince county, where he engaged in general business and shipbuilding on a large scale. He owned the vessels he built and sent them to sea in the fOreign and coast trade. His son William, 'who resided in Appledore, County Devon, England, man- aged the shipping and importing business there. James Yeo acquired large land hold- ings in Lot I 3, comprising some twenty thousand acres, from Sir George Seymour, the original proprietor. He brought in settlers and they leased the land, which sub- sequently was bought by the Provincial Gov- ernment and re—sold to the tenants. Mr. Yeo retained for his own purpose several thousand acres and farmed these on a large scale. He was a Conservative in politics,

FAST AND PRESENT OF

was elected a member of House of Assem- bly and appointed a member of the Execu- tive Council, without portfolio, and after- wards elected .a member of the Legislative Council. He died in 1868, at the age of eighty-one. He married in England and became the father of two children, William, now deceased, who resided in Appledore, County Devon, England, and Ann. After the death of his first wife, James Yeo mar- ried a Miss Sargent, of County Devon, Eng- land, and their children were as follows: Susan, the wife of William Richards. of Lot 13; Mary Jane, the wife of John Ings, of Charlottetown; Isabel, the wife’of the late Joseph Saunders, of Gloucester, England; James Yeo, Jr., who was a member of the Dominion Parliament for Prince county from 1876 to 1891 as a Liberal; Caroline, who died in youth; Hon. John, the subject of this sketch: Alice, the wife of John May- nard, Port Hill.

Hon. John Yeo, Senator, is now the only member of his family living and since his father’s death he has carried on the exten- sive mercantile and farming interests inaug- urated by the firm. He was born at Port Hill and educated in England, returning to the Island when quite a young man. Since then he has been actively engaged in busi- ness and politics, and occupies one of the most prominent positions in the commercial and political life of the province. For forty- seven years he has seen continuous service as a legislator in the Provincial Legislature, the Dominion House of Commons and in the Dominion Senate, being now a member of the last mentioned body.

He entered political life in 1859, when he was elected for the second district of Prince county as a member of the Provincial House of Assembly. Hewas returned at