Charles Coates (c. 1746–1813) was an English cleric and antiquarian.

Life

The son of John Coates, a watchmaker in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, he was born at

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

in or about 1746. After nine years' schooling at

Reading grammar school Reading School is a grammar school for boys with academy status in the English town of Reading, the county of Berkshire. It traces its history back to the school of Reading Abbey and is, thus, one of the oldest schools in England. There are no ...

under the Rev. John Spicer, he was admitted, at age 16, as a sizar to

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, on 5 May 1762. He proceeded M.B. in 1767, and on 16 June of the same year was admitted "pensionarius major". Coates went into the church as his profession, and was for some years, between 1775 and 1797, curate to Charles Sturges, at that time vicar of

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

. In 1780 he also became vicar of

Preston, Dorset Preston is a coastal village and suburb of Weymouth in south Dorset, England. It is approximately north-east of Weymouth town centre and west of the village of Osmington. Preston contains two Haven campsites, Seaview and Weymouth Bay. It is ...

, a preferment he owed to Spicer; and early in 1788 he was presented to the neighbouring vicarage of

Osmington Osmington is a village and civil parish within Dorset, England, situated on the Jurassic Coast north-east of Weymouth. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the small settlements of Upton, Ringstead and Osmington Mills—had a popul ...

by Shute Barrington, Bishop of Salisbury. In the same year, he was created LL.B. by the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, and was then appointed chaplain to the

Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...

. He was elected a fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

on 18 April 1793. In the last years of his life, Coates suffered illness and domestic loss. He died at Osmington on 7 April 1813.

Works

In 1791 Coates issued proposals for ''The History and Antiquities of Reading''; it appeared in 1802, and was followed, seven years later, by a ''Supplement'' with corrections. He used in particular notes of John Loveday. He also collected material for a continuation of

John Le Neve John Le Neve (1679–1741) was an English antiquary, known for his '' Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ'' ("Feasts of the Anglican Church"), a work of English church biography which has been published in many subsequent editions. Origins He was born on 2 ...

's ''Lives of the Protestant Bishops'', which he presented to Alexander Chalmers for use in his '' General Biographical Dictionary''.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Charles Year of birth missing 1813 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests English antiquarians Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 1740s births Clergy from Reading, Berkshire People educated at Reading School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge