A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Bates (Thomas)
BATES (THOMAS), bookseller in London, (1) Maidenhead on Snow Hill, Holborn Conduit, 1645; (2) Old Bailey. 1640-47. May probably be identified with the person of that name whose address is given in a contemporary pamphlet as Bishop's Court, in the Old Bailey, and at whose house, in 1641, there was a dispute between Henry Walker the ironmonger and a Jesuit. He was the publisher of much popular literature, broadsides, ballads, and lampoons, as well as many political pamphlets. On December 13th, 1641, he, in company with John Wright, sen., published the Diurnal or the Heads of all the Proceedings in Parliament. Another news-sheet which they produced was Mercurius Civicus, probably the first illustrated newspaper, its front page having every week a portrait of some celebrity. It began on May 4th, 1643, and ended on December 10th, 1646, quite a long life for a news-sheet Bates and Wright were also the publishers of The True Informer, and Bates was also associated with F. Coles, q,v., in the issue of the Diurnall Occurrences in 1642. In connection with this he was imprisoned for a short time in the year 1642 for publishing false reports on the Army. [Library, N.S., April, 1905, pp. 184 et seq.; Commons Journals, June 8th, 1642.]