Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coates, Charles
COATES, CHARLES (1746?–1813), antiquary, son of John Coates, watchmaker, of the city of London, was born at Reading in or about 1746. After nine years' schooling at the free grammar school of Reading under the Rev. John Spicer, he was admitted, at the age of sixteen, as a sizar to Caius College, Cambridge, on 5 May 1762, proceeded M.B. in 1767, and on 16 June of the same year was admitted ‘pensionarius major’ (College Matriculation Book). He ultimately selected the church as his profession, and was for some years, between 1775 and 1797, curate to the Rev. Charles Sturges, at that time vicar of Ealing (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 110). Meanwhile, in 1780, he had become vicar of Preston, Dorsetshire, a preferment which he owed to his old schoolmaster, the Rev. John Spicer, and early in 1788 he was presented to the neighbouring vicarage of Osmington by the Bishop of Salisbury (Hutchins, Dorsetshire, 3rd ed. ii. 510, 838). In the last-named year he was created LL.B. by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and was afterwards appointed chaplain to the prince regent. The last years of his life were clouded by illness and domestic loss; he died at Osmington 7 April 1813.
In 1791 Coates issued proposals for ‘The History and Antiquities of Reading’ (Gent. Mag. vol. lxi. pt. ii. p. 1088), which appeared in 1802 (ib. vol. lxxii. pt. ii. p. 620), and was followed, seven years later, by ‘A Supplement … with Corrections and Additions by the Author.’ Both works are of permanent value, but their general utility is diminished by the absence of indexes. Coates meditated other literary work. An enlarged edition of Ashmole's ‘Antiquities of Berkshire’ is mentioned, and he also made collections for a continuation of Le Neve's ‘Lives of the Protestant Bishops,’ which he afterwards presented to Alexander Chalmers for insertion in the new edition of the ‘General Biographical Dictionary.’ He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 18 April 1793.
[Gent. Mag. lxxxiii. i. 83, ii. 88-9; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 128; Cooper's Biog. Dict.]