Sir Joseph Yates of Blackburn, Lancashire (1722 – June 7, 1770) was an eminent English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

. He was appointed to the King's Bench

King's Bench

The Queen's Bench is the superior court in a number of jurisdictions within some of the Commonwealth realms...

 in 1763, and transferred to the Common Pleas

Court of Common Pleas (England)

The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...

 in 1770, but held the latter appointment little more than a month when he died.

He was buried at Cheam, in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, where there is a monument to his memory.

Monument inscription

"Sacred to the Memory

of the Honorable

Sir Joseph Yates, Knight,

of Peel Hall in Lancashire,

successively a Judge of the Courts

of King's Bench and Common Pleas;

whose merit advanced him to the

feat of Justice, which he filled with the most

distinguished abilities and invincible integrity.

He died the 7th day of June 1770,

in the 48th year of his age,

leaving the world to lament the loss

of an honest Man and able Judge,

firm to assert

and strenuous to support

the laws and constitution

of his Country."

On privacy

In one of his opinions, Judge Yates once wrote, "It is certain that every man has a right to keep his own sentiments, if he pleases: he has certainly a right to judge whether he will make them public, or commit them only to the sight of his own friends. In that state the manuscript is, in every sense his peculiar property; and no man can take it from him or make any use of it which he has not authorized, without being guilty of a violation of his property."

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