Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c 1808] (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 vol.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Thomas Yeates was born in London on 9 October 1768, son of John Yeates, woodturner. Proving more adept at Latin and Hebrew than woodturning, he was allowed to pursue his studies after a short apprenticeship to his father. Having professed a desire to translate the New Testament into Hebrew, Yeates was awarded a Bible clerkship at All Soul's Oxford under the tutelage of Joseph White. Yeates matriculated but never graduated.
Between 1808 and 1815 Yeates worked in Cambridge cataloguing Claudius Buchanan's oriental manuscripts. Here he also acquired work from the Bible society, editing their psalter and Syriac New Testament. From 1823 to 1839 he was assistant in the printed books department of the British Museum.
As well as translating biblical works, Yeates was interested in biblical and church history, writing, inter alia, on the antiquity of the pyramids and the Church in India. He also wrote on aids to navigation at sea. Yeates died in 1839.
Repository
Archival history
Previously owned by Thomas Phillipps. It is thought that this volume, together with other Yeates material, was purchased by William Aldis Wright.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of William Aldis Wright.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
One of thirty-five volumes of Thomas Yeates's MS writings on a variety of subjects, including biblical and church history, translations of books of the Old and New Testaments, astronomy, and aids to navigation at sea. The papers comprise a series within the Additional Manuscripts and are catalogued as Add.Ms.b.123-157.