Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/319

 account to lend to Park. This copy was eventually bought for 9l. by Heber, who secured another imperfect copy and from the two made up a complete copy, which is now at Britwell. Corser also possessed two imperfect copies, and these were bought at the sale of his books in 1871 by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, who, however, was unable to make up a complete copy from them. No other copies are known to be extant. The poems included in the volume are distinguished more by their religious and moral tone than by any poetic excellence. Besides the extracts printed by Collier and in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1840, i. 385–7), others are given in the ‘Shakespearean Repository’ (ed. James Hamilton Fennell, January 1823), in ‘Select Poetry’ (Parker Soc. ii. 450–1), and in Corser's ‘Collectanea Anglo-Poetica’ (xi. 432–5).

[Besides the authorities quoted, see Hunter's Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24491, f. 472; Yeowell's Biogr. Collections in Brit. Mus.; Brydges's Censura Lit. ii. 11, iii. 175; Ritson's Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica; Drake's Shakespeare and his Times, i. 707; Arber's Stationers' Reg.; Hazlitt's Handbook, p. 682, and Collections, i. 471; Collier's Bibl. Account, ii. 551, and Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, ed. Bohn.]  YATES, JAMES (1789–1871), unitarian and antiquary, fourth son of John Yates (1755–1826) by his wife Elizabeth (1750–1819), youngest daughter of John Ashton of Liverpool, and widow of John Bostock the elder [q. v.], was born in Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on 30 April 1789. His father, minister (1777–1823) of the dissenting congregation in Kaye Street, Liverpool, which was removed to Paradise Street (1791), was a man of great pulpit power, public enterprise, and literary cultivation. Receiving his early training from William Shepherd [q. v.], he entered Glasgow University in 1805, and proceeded thence for his divinity course (1808) to Manchester College, then at York, under Charles Wellbeloved [q. v.] While still a student he acted (1809–10) as assistant classical tutor, in room of John Kenrick [q. v.], not yet entered on office. From York he went to Edinburgh University (1810), and thence to Glasgow University again (1811). Before graduating M.A., Glasgow (1812), he became the unordained minister (October 1811) of a unitarian congregation, for which a new chapel was opened (15 Nov. 1812) in Union Place. His discourses, solid and didactic, were delivered with formal enunciation and an unimpassioned manner; but his industry and earnestness, and the force of his character, enabled him to create a stable congregation out of previously discordant elements. In conjunction with Thomas Southwood Smith [q. v.], he founded (28 July 1813) the Scottish Unitarian Association. In 1814 Ralph Wardlaw [q. v.] delivered the series of pulpit addresses afterwards published as ‘Discourses on the Principal Points of the Socinian Controversy’ (1814). Yates had heard the discourses as delivered, and, on their appearance in print, published his ‘Vindication of Unitarianism,’ 1815, 8vo (4th edit. 1850, 8vo). On this, ‘Strictures’ (1814) were published by John Brown (1784–1858) [q. v.] Wardlaw replied in ‘Unitarianism incapable of Vindication,’ 1816, 8vo, to which Yates rejoined in ‘A Sequel,’ 1816, 8vo. His position was one of greater breadth than was usual with theologians of his school, his aim being to take common ground on which Arians and Socinians could unite. His biblical conservatism, from which he never receded, was criticised in the ‘Prospective Review,’ 1851, p. 50.

On 6 April 1817 he succeeded Joshua Toulmin [q. v.] as colleague to John Kentish [q. v.] at the new meeting, Birmingham, a post which he resigned at the end of 1825, and for a time left the ministry, and resided at Norton Hall, near Sheffield. In 1827 he spent a semester at the university of Berlin, as a student of classical philology. In 1819 he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society; in 1822 of the Linnean; in 1831 of the Royal Society; and in 1831 was appointed secretary to the council of the British Association. In the same year he was elected a trustee of Dr. Williams's foundations (resigned 26 June 1861). In 1832 he succeeded John Scott Porter [q. v.] as minister of Carter Lane Chapel, Doctors' Commons, London. He issued (1833) proposals for an organisation of the unitarian congregations of Great Britain on the presbyterian model; the plan was abortive, though it obtained the support of some weighty names, including John Relly Beard [q. v.], Joseph Hunter [q. v.], and John James Tayler [q. v.] In the course of the Hewley case [see ] Sir Lancelot Shadwell [q. v.] had severely condemned the ‘Improved Version’ of the New Testament, issued (1808) by unitarians. Yates wrote ‘A Letter to the Vice-chancellor,’ 1834, 8vo, defending the version, which produced a very able reply by Robert Halley [q. v.] His congregation was largely augmented by a secession (September 1834) from the ministry of William Johnson Fox [q. v.] at South Place, Finsbury. Regarding this as an unwelcome increase of