sect of apostates from Mahometan- Bates, William, D.D., an eminent Nonconformist divine, born in November 1625. He was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and thence removed to King's College in 1644. He was one of the commissioners at the conference in the Savoy, for reviewing the public liturgy, and was concerned in drawing up the exceptions against the Common Prayer; notwithstanding which, he was appointed chaplain to King Charles II. soon after the Restoration, and became minister of St Dunstan's in the West; but he was afterwards deprived of his benefice for nonconformity. Dr Bates bore a good and amiable character; and was honoured with the friendship of the Lord-keeper Bridgeman, the Lord-chancellor Finch, the Earl of Nottingham, and Archbishop Tillotson. He published Select Lives of Illustrious and Pious Persons, in Latin; and after his death, all his works, except his Select Lives, were printed in one vol. fol.; again in 1723; and in 4 vols. Svo, in 1815. He died in July 1699, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.