In the negotiations for the restoration of Charles II, Bates took part. Royal favour came to him, and he was appointed one of the royal chaplains. In 1660 he acted as one of the commissioners of the abortive Savoy conference. In 1661 his own university (of Cambridge) conferred on him the degree of D.D. by royal mandate. At the same time he was urged to accept the deanery of Lichfield and Coventry, but like Baxter, Calamy, Manton, and others, he declined office of the kind. Later, Bates conducted the discussion between the nonconformists and Bishops Pearson, Gunning, and Sparrow. In 1665 Bates took the oath imposed by the parliament which met at Oxford 'that he would not at any time endeavour an alteration in the government of church or state.' In this he was supported by John Howe and Matthew Poole, although Richard Baxter refused it.
In 1668 some of the more moderate churchmen endeavoured to work out a scheme of comprehension. In this Bates, Baxter, and Manton co-operated. But the bishops marred all by their uncompromising attitude. A little later he joined in the presentation of a petition to the king for 'relief of nonconformists.' His majesty received him graciously, but nothing came of it. Again in 1674, under the conduct of Tillotson and Stillingfleet, a fresh effort was made towards comprehension through Bates, but once more the bishops violently opposed it. After the accession of James II, the disabilities and sufferings of the nonconformists increased. Bates was at Baxter's side when Jeffreys browbeat and insulted Baxter and his associates.
Of his private influence in 'high places' one evidence remains in his successful intercession with the archbishop (Tillotson) in behalf of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, bishop of Durham, who had been excepted from the act of indemnity of 1690.
On the accession of William III and Mary, Bates delivered two speeches to their majesties in behalf of the dissenters. In the last years of his life he was pastor of the presbyterian church of Hackney. He died there 14 July 1699, aged seventy-four, having outlived and preached the funeral sermons of Baxter, Manton, Jacomb, and Clarkson.
His works issued 'occasionally' were first collected into a folio in 1700; the modern edition is in 4 vols. 8vo. They all treat theology practically. The chief of them are: 1. 'Harmony of the Divine Attributes' (1697). 2. 'Considerations on the Existence of God and Immortality of the Soul' (1676). 3. 'Four Last Things–Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell' (1691). 4. 'Spiritual Perfection' (1699). 5. 'Vitæ Selectorum aliquot Virorum' (London, 1681). As a preacher he was held to be the 'politest' of all the nonconformists. John Howe's funeral sermon to Bates's memory, printed with Bates's works, remains his most durable monument.
[Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, i. 115-20; Kippis's Biogr. Britannica; Wilson's History of Dissenting Churches; Cunningham's Englishmen, iv. 191-4; Williams's Library MSS.]
BATESFORD, JOHN de (d. 1319), judge, was sent with William Haward as justice of assize into the counties of York, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Lancaster, Nottingham, and Derby in 1293. The commission of justice of assize was a temporary expedient intended to relieve the pressure of business, which began to weigh heavily upon the regular justices itinerant at the close of the reign of Henry III. The first commission was issued by Edward I in 1274, and was succeeded by others at irregular intervals until 1311, when the last of these special commissions was issued. The commission was in force for a year. In 1301 Batesford was sent by the king into the counties of Southampton, Surrey, and Sussex with a special mandate empowering him to treat with the knights, 'probi homines,' and 'communitates' of these counties for a supply of grain required by the king. In 1307 he was put on the commission of Trailbaston, a special commission issued for the trial of a peculiar class of criminals who went about in gangs armed with clubs (baston, bâton), 'beating, wounding, maltreating, and killing many in the kingdom' for hire. In 1308 he was summoned with the rest of the justices to attend the king's coronation. In 1310 he was placed on the commission of oyer and terminer for the counties of Warwick and Leicester, for the trial of offenders indicted before the conservators of the peace. In 1311 he was sent as a justice of assize into Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Cornwall, and Devon, and in the same year, having quitted parliament without obtaining permission from the king, he was peremptorily recalled, and ordered not to absent himself in future without the king's license. Between 1295 and 1318 he was regularly summoned to parliament, and from the fact that his name does not occur in the writ issued to summon the parliament of 1319, it may be inferred that he was then dead. In 1320 his executors were ordered to cause the records of the proceedings before him as justice of
