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 Hall. With respect to this library, Bates remarks in one of his letters to the mayor of Boston, that his own experience as a poor boy convinced him of the great advantages of such an institution. He says: ‘Having no money to spend and no place to go to, and not being able to pay for a fire or light in my own room, I could not pay for books, and the best way I could pass my evenings was to sit in a book store and read, as I was kindly permitted to do.’

Bates married, in 1813, a member of the Sturgis family of Boston. An only son was accidentally killed when out shooting. His only daughter married M. Sylvan Van de Weyer, long the Belgian minister in London, and survived her father. He died 24 Sept. 1864, at the age of seventy-six.

[American Journal of Education, vol. ii. and vol. vii.; Article by G. Ticknor in North American Review, vol. xciii.; Lippincott's Magazine, vol. iii.; Boston Town Council Memorial to Bates.]  BATES, SARAH (d. 1811), wife of Joah Bates [see, 1741–1799], was born in an obscure place in Lancashire, of humble parents named Harrop. She was educated in Halifax, the birthplace of her husband, and worked for some time in a factory in that town. On one occasion she sang in public there, and was heard by Dr. Howard, of Leicester, who prophesied that ‘she would one day throw all the English, nay even the Italian, female singers far behind her.’ While she resumed her ordinary occupations, Dr. Howard sounded her praises in London, until at last the Sandwich Catch Club deputed him to bring her to London, where she met with very great success. Here she studied Italian music under Sacchini, and the compositions of Handel and the older masters under her future husband. She was a successful concert singer, both before and after her marriage with Joah Bates, which took place in 1780. Her chief success was made in sacred music, which she delivered with much impressiveness. Among her secular songs the most famous was Purcell's ‘Mad Bess.’ She is said to have brought her husband 6,000l. or 7,000l. as a marriage portion, the tangible results of her popularity as an artist. Her success, it is said, gave a great impetus to the cultivation of music among the factory girls in the north of England. Mrs. Bates died at Foley Place on 11 Dec. 1811.

[Authorities as given under BATES, JOAH; Dibdin's Musical Tour; Cambridge Chronicle for 6 Oct. 1781; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxxi. part ii. p. 597.]  BATES, THOMAS (fl. 1704–1719), surgeon, appears from the preface to his ‘Enchiridion of Fevers common to Seamen in the Mediterranean,’ 12mo, published in London in 1709, to have served for five years as a naval surgeon in that part of the world. Subsequently he practised in London, and distinguished himself by his patriotic and enlightened efforts during the cattle plague of 1714. This epidemic, which is said to have destroyed a million and a half of cattle in western Europe in 1711–14, had made its appearance in England, where it had been unknown for centuries, and had reached the Islington cowyards. The energetic measures adopted by the privy council on Bates's suggestions proved so effectual that, at a sacrifice of six thousand head of cattle, it was stamped out within three months, to the astonishment of continental nations (, Animal Plagues, vol. i.) The reports are preserved among the Treasury Papers; and a ‘Brief Account of the Contagious Distemper among Cows in 1714,’ by Thomas Bates, appears in ‘Phil. Trans.’ 1718 (abrd. ed. vi. 375). Bates was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in December 1718, and was admitted into the society 8 Jan. 1719. The date of his death is uncertain.

[Preface to Bates's Enchiridion, 12mo (London, 1709); Calendar of State Papers, Treasury, 1709–16; Fleming's Hist. Animal Plagues, vol. i. (London, 1870), pp. 257–324; Dict. Usuel de Méd. et Chirurg. Vétérinaire (Paris, 1859), p. 362; Books of Royal Society at Burlington House.]  BATES, WILLIAM, D.D. (1625-1699), who has been called the 'silver-tongued' divine, was born in London in November 1625. All the authorities state that he was the son of a distinguished physician, author among other things of 'Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Anglia simul ac Juris Regii et Parliamentarii brevis Narratio' (Paris, 1649; Frankfort, 1650). But the 'Elenchus' is by George Bate [q. v.]. Hence this paternity must be dismissed. Bates was educated at Cambridge, and was of Emmanuel College originally and of King's College later (1644). In 1647 he proceeded B.A. He was a presbyterian. His first living was St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, one of the richest in the church. Here he remained as vicar until the Act of Uniformity was passed, when he threw in his lot with the 'two thousand' of 1662.

Contemporaneously with his ministry at St. Dunstan's, he united with certain of the 'evangelical' clergy in carrying on a lecture in Cripplegate church under the name of 'Morning Exercise.’