William Yates

William Yates (15 November 1792 - 3 July 1845) was an English Baptist missionary and orientalist. He created a Bible translation into Bengali.

Life Yates was born in Loughborough, he was the second son and third child of William Yates, a shoemaker, and his wife Ann, ardent members of the Baptist communion. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, where he showed an aptitude for Latin and Greek. In 1812 he went to Bristol Baptist college where he decided to become a missionary. The pivotal case was the translation of the Bible from Greek into Bengali made by Yates and Carey after a decade of study.

On 13 January 1816, he married Catherine Grant, the daughter of a deceased missionary.

In 1827 he returned to England via America but soon returned to India.

Brown University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on 4 September 1839. Catherine died in 1838. In 1841 Yates married Martha Pearce, the widow of a colleague, William Hopkins Pearce.

He set sail for England in 1845, but died en voyage, three days from Suez.