OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. 



James Yates was bora April 30th, 1789, at his father's pleasant 

 residence in the extra-parochial place of Toxteth Park, adjoining the 

 borough of Liverpool. His father, John Yates, was the eloquent and 

 highly respected minister of a Presbyterian congregation of ancient date, 

 which included many of the most opulent and influential families of the 

 town. His mother was a member of one of these families ; she was the 

 daughter of John Ashton, who had coal-mines near St. Helen's and salt- 

 works on the Mersey, and wishing to obtain a cheap and easy mode of 

 conveying his coal to the salt-works, projected the first canal in this 

 country. 



The subject of this notice was educated in classics under the Rev. Wm. 

 Shepherd, minister of the Presbyterian chapel at Gateacre. In October 

 1805, James went to Glasgow University, in company with Henry Holland 

 (the present Sir Henry Holland, Bart.), who introduced him as a student. 

 He passed three sessions at Glasgow and one at Edinburgh, and took his 

 M.A. degree in 1812. He had already studied biblical criticism and 

 ecclesiastical history under the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, tutor of a 

 dissenting college at York. He now became minister of a newly formed 

 congregation in Glasgow, and declared himself a supporter of Unitarian 

 Christianity. This led to a controversy with the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, 

 the pastor of a large society of Independents. His discourses on the 

 chief points of the Socinian Controversy,' and Mr. Yates's ' Vindication of 

 Unitarianism,' excited a good deal of attention. Mr. Yates at this time 

 also took up the subject of "total abstinence," in consequence of the 

 many excesses witnessed by him in Glasgow, He published some dis- 

 courses on the question, which helped to lead the way to what has been 

 called the "temperance movement;" but he had some doubt whether 

 the taking of pledges of total abstinence is to be recommended. He 

 thought a teetotaller better than a drunkard, but a temperate man better 

 than either. 



In 1817, Mr. Yates became minister of the new meeting-house which 

 was built on the ruins of Dr. Priestley's chapel at Birmingham, and 

 there remained until 1825. On the 24th of February, 1824, he married 

 Dorothea, daughter of John William Crompton, a Brazil merchant, who 

 survives him. Accompanied by her he, in January 1827, visited Munich, 

 and afterwards Berlin, Mr. Yates being anxious to study under some of the 

 most renowned German professors. He attended the lectures of Thiersch 

 on Greek antiquities, of Ritter on geography, of Bopp on Sanscrit, and 

 some others. He returned to England in April or May 1828, and took 

 a house in Upper Bedford Place, in order to be near his half-brother, 

 Dr. John Bostock, F.R.S., to whom he was tenderly attached. In 18,') I 

 Mr. Yates had the charge of a congregation in Little Carter Lane, Doctors' 



VOL. XX. b 



