| Office: | Secretary of State of New York |
| Term Start: | April 24, 1818 |
| Term End: | February 14, 1826 |
| Governor: | Joseph C. Yates DeWitt Clinton |
| Successor: | Azariah Cutting Flagg |
| Birth Date: | 18 December 1779 |
| Birth Place: | Albany, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Albany, New York, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic-Republican |
| Parents: | Robert Yates Jane Van Ness Yates |
| Spouse: | Eliza Ross Cunningham |
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.
He was born in Albany on December 18, 1779.[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.[2] His maternal uncle was Judge Peter Van Ness of Kinderhook and his cousins included John Peter Van Ness, William P. Van Ness, and Cornelius P. Van Ness.[3]
He became a lawyer after clerking in the office of John Vernon Henry. He held a number of offices in Albany, and was one of the first trustees of the Albany United Presbyterian Church. 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.
He co-authored History of the State of New-York: Including Its Aboriginal and Colonial Annals (1826). This book features a vision of the Erie Canal, then under construction, in a ruined state in some distant, postapocalyptic future.
Yates was married to Eliza Ross Cunningham (1789–1847), who was from Kilbarchan, Scotland. Together, they were the parents of John Van Ness Yates Jr. (1834–1837). After his death on January 10, 1839, in Albany, he was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery.[4]