# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bates, Cadwallader John

​BATES, CADWALLADER JOHN (1853–1902), antiquary, born on 14 Jan. 1853 at Kensington Gate, London, was eldest son of Thomas Bates, barrister and fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge (1834-49), by his first wife, Emily, daughter of John Batten of Thorn Falcon, Somerset. The Bates family had been established in Northumberland since the fourteenth century, but their connection with the Blayneys of Gregynog, Montgomeryshire, introduced a strain of Celtic blood, and Cadwallader himself was named after a cousin, the twelfth and last Lord Blayney (d. 1874). His great-uncle was Thomas Bates [q. v. Suppl. I], stockbreeder, whom he commemorated in an elaborate biography, entitled 'Thomas Bates and the Kirklevington Shorthorns' (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1897). Entering Eton in 1866, he left two years later owing to serious weakness of eyesight. In 1869 he proceeded to Jesus College, Cambridge; but the same cause compelled him to take an aegrotat degree in the moral science tripos of 1871. He proceeded M.A. in 1875. After leaving Cambridge, Bates, who was an accomplished linguist, travelled much in Poland and the Carpathians, paying frequent visits to his uncle, Edward Bates, who resided at Schloss Cloden, Brandenburg, Prussia. In 1882 he succeeded on his father's death to the family estates of Aydon White House, Heddon, Kirklevington, having already inherited his uncle's Prussian property. Although his interests were mainly antiquarian, he had practical knowledge of farming, and was partially successful in building up again the famous herd of Kirklevington shorthorns, which had been dispersed in 1850 [see Bates, Thomas, Suppl. I]. In 1882 he purchased from the Greenwich Hospital commissioners Langley Castle near Haydon Bridge, and spent large sums on its restoration. As a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant Bates took his full share of county business, and in 1890 served the office of high sheriff of Northumberland. In later years he developed a taste for hagiography, and in 1893, while on a visit to Austrian Poland, he was received into the Roman catholic church. His indefatigable historical labours told on his health. He died of heart failure at Langley Castle on 18 March 1902, and was buried in the castle grounds. On 3 Sept. 1895 he married Josephine, daughter of Francois d'Echarvine, of Talloires, Savoy, who survived him without issue. The representation of the family devolved on his eldest half-brother, Edward H. Bates, now Bates Harbin.
Bates was a recognised authority on the medieval history of Northumbria. In ​'Border Holds' (1891), a minute study of Northumbrian castles, he showed thoroughness of research and sedulous accuracy. His design of completing the work in a second volume was unfulfilled. His popular 'History of Northumberland' (1895) suffered somewhat from compression, but remains a standard work. Bates also assisted both as critic and contributor in the compilation of the first six volumes of a 'History of Northumberland' (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1893-1902), designed to complete the work of John Hodgson [q. v.]. He was a vice-president of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, and from 1880 a frequent contributor to 'Archæologia Æliana.' He left some unfinished studies on the lives of St. Patrick and St. Gildas, 'The Three Pentecosts of St. Colomb and Kille,' and 'The Early Paschal Cycle.' A collection of his letters, chiefly on antiquarian subjects, was published in 1906.
[The Times, 20 March 1902; Ushaw Mag., July 1902; Letters of C. J. Bates ed. Rev. Matthew Culley, Kendal, 1906; Archæologia Æliana, 1903, xxiv. 178 seq., memoir by Dr. Thomas Hodgkin; private information from the family.]
G. S. W.