Joseph Yates (judge)

During his time on the King's Bench he adjudicated at the famous trial of John Wilkes who was charged with sedition and obscenity, sentencing him to two years in jail.

[3] Descendants include Walter Baldwyn Yates C.B.E., Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the novelist Edward Heneage Dering.

"Sacred to the Memory of the Honorable Sir Joseph Yates, Knight, of Peel Hall in Lancashire, successively a Judge of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas; whose merit advanced him to the feat of Justice, which he filled with the most distinguished abilities and invincible integrity.

He died the 7th day of June 1770, in the 48th year of his age, leaving the world to lament the loss of an honest Man and able Judge, firm to assert and strenuous to support the laws and constitution of his Country.

"[4] In one of his opinions, Justice Yates once wrote, "It is certain that every man has a right to keep his own sentiments, if he pleases: he has certainly a right to judge whether he will make them public, or commit them only to the sight of his own friends.