William Yates (15 November 1792 - 3 July 1845) was an English Baptist missionary and orientalist.

[1] Yates set sail as a missionary on the Earl Moira on 24 October 1814 and landed at Calcutta on 16 April 1815.

[1] Yates became the centre of a controversy that helped to found the Bible Translation Society charity.

[1] The pivotal case was the translation of the Bible from Greek into Bengali made by Yates and Carey after a decade of study.

Brown University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on 4 September 1839.