Joseph Brooks Yates


Joseph Brooks Yates was an English slave trader.

Life

Born at Liverpool on 21 January 1780, he was the eldest son of John Yates, minister of the Paradise Street Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool. His brothers were John Ashton Yates, M.P. for Carlow and author of pamphlets on trade and slavery; Richard Vaughan Yates, founder of Prince's Park, Liverpool; James Yates; and Pemberton Heywood Yates. He was educated by William Shepherd and at Eton College.
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. He had numerous holdings in slave-run estates in Jamaica.
Yates died at West Dingle, near Liverpool, on 12 December 1855, and was buried in the graveyard of the old Unitarian chapel, Toxteth Park.

Interests

Yates was one of the leading reformers of Liverpool, and a supporter of its literary and scientific institutions. 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. He was also one of the founders of the Southern and Toxteth Hospital in Liverpool. In 1854 he acted as local vice-president of the British Association at the Liverpool meeting.
Yates was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 18 April 1852, and was also Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was a Member of Council of the Chetham Society from 1852 to 1855, and an original Member of the Philological Society. He collected pictures and a library containing some fine manuscripts and emblem books, and was an occasional contributor to literary and other journals.

Works

Yates's writings include:
Yates married, on 22 July 1813, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Taylor of Blackley, near Manchester, and left children. His eldest daughter married S. H. Thompson, banker, Liverpool; and two of her sons were Henry Yates Thompson and the Rev. Samuel Ashton Thompson Yates. His daughter Anna Maria married Robert Needham Philips; they were grandparents of G.M. Trevelyan & Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet through their daughter Caroline, who married George Otto Trevelyan.