James Yates (minister)

Receiving early training from William Shepherd, he entered Glasgow University in 1805, and went on for his divinity course (1808) to Manchester College, then at York, under Charles Wellbeloved.

at Glasgow (1812), he became unordained minister (October 1811) of a Unitarian congregation, for which a new chapel was opened (15 November 1812) in Union Place; he create a stable church out of previously discordant elements.

His congregation was increased by a secession (September 1834) from the ministry of William Johnson Fox at South Place Chapel, Finsbury.

He was probably the first to see the antiquarian value of the book Sketches at Carnac (Brittany) in 1834[1] authored by his friend Alexander Blair and Francis Ronalds and ensured it was preserved in the Royal Archaeological Institute's collection.

[2] He also helped examine the important fossil Cycadeoidea gibsoniana found by Ronalds’ cousin Thomas Field Gibson.

His will left benefactions including endowments for chairs in University College, London, but his property did not realise the estimated amount.

Apart from Leonhard Schmitz, Yates was the largest contributor to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1842, edited by William Smith; he furnished drawings for one half of the woodcuts, and wrote one-eighth of the text.

Papers on archæological subjects were contributed by him to the learned societies of London and Liverpool; among reprints of these are papers on The Use of the terms Acanthus, Acanthion, 1845 (from the Classical Museum); Account of a Roman Sepulchre at Geldestone, 1849; The Use of Bronze Celts, 1849; and Observations on the Bulla worn by Roman Boys, 1851, (from the Archæological Journal); Some Account of a Volume containing Portions of "Ptolemy's Geography," 1864 (from Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature).