William Yates

Who was William Yates?

William Yates was an English Baptist missionary and orientalist.

Born in Loughborough, he was the second son and third child of William Yates, a shoemaker, and his wife Ann, ardent members of the Baptist communion. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School in the town, where he showed an aptitude for languages.

Yates set sail on the Earl Moira on 24 October 1814 and landed at Calcutta on 16 April 1815. There he worked with William Carey on translations of The Bible into Bengali and various other languages.

In 13 January 1816 he married Catherine Grant, the daughter of a deceased missionary.

In 1827 he returned to England via America, but soon returned to India.

Brown University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on 4 September 1839. Catherine died in 1838. In 1841 Yates married Martha Pearce, the widow of a colleague, William Hopkins Pearce. He set sail for England in 1845, but died en voyage, 3 days from Suez.