Richard Yates, born in Bury St. Edmunds, England, was an English cleric and antiquary. In 1789 he was a teacher at Chelmsford grammar school, and in 1792 at a school in Hammersmith. In 1793 Yates had matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge. In September 1796 he was ordained deacon, in January 1797 he was ordained priest, and in March 1798 he was appointed one of the chaplains of the Chelsea Hospital (with which he remained connected until his death), where he acquired a reputation as a popular preacher. In May 1804 he was appointed to the rectory of Ashen, Essex. In 1805, he took the degree of B.D., and subsequently (1818) was D.D. at Cambridge. Yates lived mainly in London, where he was in demand as a preacher at the fashionable chapels. He interested himself in the conduct and management of public charities, and acted as secretary of the asylum for the deaf and dumb. In 1805 he was elected one of the treasurers of the Literary Fund, a post he held until his death nearly thirty years later. Yates was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Richard Yates' father, Richard Yates the elder, died at Bury St. Edmunds, having lived within the walls of the abbey ruins for 37 years, of which he was custodian. He had drawings and notes on the history of the abbey which Richard Yates the younger edited and published in 1805 as *Monastic Remains of the Town and Abbey of St. Edmunds Bury*. It gave a chronological history of the abbey. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Yates_(antiquary)