Joseph Brooks Yates FSA (1780–1855) was an English antiquary, merchant and slave trader.

[1] On leaving Eton, around 1796, Yates entered the house of a West India merchant, in which he became a partner; he continued in it until a year or two before he died.

In February 1812 he joined with Thomas Stewart Traill in founding the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, of which he was president during four triennial periods, and a frequent reader of papers at its meetings.

[3] He collected pictures and a library containing some fine manuscripts and emblem books, and was an occasional contributor to literary and other journals.

[1] Yates died in Dingle, Liverpool, on 12 December 1855, and was buried in the graveyard of the old Unitarian chapel, Toxteth Park.