(c.1736 - 1828) of Little Missenden, Bucks; phys. at Aylesbury c.1758 - ; member of the Hell-Fire Club.
1787 - 90 Turin, Milan, Piacenza, Parma, Bologna, Florence (8 Nov. 1787 - ), Rome (Dec. 1787 - spring 1790)
A particular friend of the painters Thomas Jones and J.H. Mortimer, Dr Bates travelled to Italy in 1787 with his daughter Lydia (c.1772 - 1850), an amateur artist who had made etchings after Mortimer's works. 'Dr Bates and his charming little girl' left Lyons on 12 October with John Flaxman and his wife, and they were all together in Florence on 8 November.1 In December (apparently before the Flaxmans) they were in Rome and by March 1788 Lydia was studying painting while her father had 'got into high practice among the English gentry'.2 In August 1788 they were living close by the Flaxmans in the Piazza Mignanelli,3 and in October T.C. Porter breakfasted with Bates and Mr Gordon, 'a leading merchant'.4 By July 1790 Bates and his daughter were 'on the road home' from Rome,5 having both been made Honorary members of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna on 14 June.6
In April 1791 John Flaxman told his parents that Dr Bates had been a difficult neighbour (it was also said that Lydia Bates and Flaxman had had an unsatisfactory affair in Rome).7 Flaxman wrote that the doctor had 'behaved himself in such a manner here [in Rome] that when he went away he had not one friend, those who were most intimate with him were most embroiled by his caprice and vanity & everyone was glad when he was gone'; Mrs Flaxman added that she neither expected nor desired to hear from Lydia again.8
1. Add.39780, f.164 (Mrs Flaxman, 8 Nov. 1787). 2. Ibid., f.41 (2 Apr. 1788). 3. Ibid., f.185 (29 Aug. 1788). 4. Porter MSS (22, 30 Oct.). 5. Add.39780, f.51 (Mrs Flaxman, 9 Jul. 1790). 6. Note by Dr S. Zamboni. 7. See B. Nicolson, J.H. Mortimer, exh. cat., [1968], no.97. 8. Add.39780, f.53 (24 Apr. 1791).