Benjamin Edward Bates II (13 March 1716 – 12 May 1790) was a British physician,

art connoisseur Art Connoisseur (foaled 20 March 2006) is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire best known for his upset victory in the 2009 edition of the Golden Jubilee Stakes. He showed high-class form as a two-year-old in 2008, wi ...

, and

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

. Born into wealth, he was a prominent member of society and was selected to become a member of the Sir Francis Dashwood's

Hellfire Club Hellfire Club was a term used to describe several exclusive Club (organization), clubs for high-society Rake (character), rakes established in Great Britain and Ireland in the 18th Century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood, 11t ...

, ''The Monks of Medmenham''. He is the great-great-grandfather of Benjamin Bates IV, founder of

Bates College Bates College () is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian ...

.Hetherington 2014

Life and career

Details of Bates early life are sketchy. He was born around 12 May 1716, somewhere in the North of England and was to have studied medicine in Edinburgh, though Benedict Nicolson, states that there is no record of a Benjamin Bates graduating in medicine from

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

at that time. Bates lived in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

for a time, either as a child or after his studies. Around 1758 he bought a house at Rickford's Hill, in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, and set up as a general practitioner. He was married twice and had one daughter, Lydia. He may have worked as Sir Francis Dashwood's personal physician; he is referred to as such in ''Jemmy Twitcher'', George Martelli's book on

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, Privy Council of Great Britain, PC, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) was a British politician, statesman who succeeded his grandfather Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwic ...

, and certainly intended to accompany Dashwood in the role of physician on a tour of Europe. Sometime before 1774 Bates moved out to Little Missenden, though he kept his practice in Aylesbury. Bates lived a life of excess which included joining the Hellfire Club at Medmanham. Membership of the club can only be guessed at, as only patchy, pseudonymous records survive, but despite apparently having become a member in the "second wave", E. Beresford Chancellor places Bates in the ranks of the ''superiors'' in his 1925 ''The Lives of the Rakes: Volume IV, The Hell Fire Club'', alongside Sir Francis Dashwood, Sir Thomas Stapleton, Sir John Dashwood,

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English Radicalism (historical), radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlese ...

, Charles Churchill,

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, Robert Lloyd, George Bubb-Dodington, George Augustus Selwyn, Sir William Stanhope, the Earl of Sandwich and Sir John D'Aubrey. Long after scandal and ridicule had forced the club into abeyance Bates continued to defend it. Even after the club's suspension he continued to live a life of luxury often purchasing silk in massive volumes to line the interior of his house and other private properties. Bates was patron of the arts, buying important works by Joseph Wright of Derby (''Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight'' and '' An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump'') and by his close friend,

John Hamilton Mortimer John Hamilton Mortimer (17 September 1740 – 4 February 1779) was a British figure and landscape painter and printmaker, known for romantic paintings set in Italy, works depicting conversations, and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war s ...

(''St Paul Preaching to the Ancient Britons''). In 1781 he gave up his practice in order to accompany Sir Francis Dashwood (by this time Francis Lord le Despencer) on a tour of the continent. Unfortunately Dashwood died before the trip began and Bates did not receive the huge annuity promised him for his services. Nevertheless, he was still intent on visiting Europe, Rome in particular, and made a tour to Italy in 1787 accompanied by his daughter before his 1790 death.

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Works cited

* Hetherington, Michelle. 2014.
John Hamilton Mortimer and the discovery of Captain Cook
" ''National Library of Australia''. Online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Benjamin 1716 births 1790 deaths 18th-century English medical doctors People from Aylesbury Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Hellfire Club

Life and career

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Works cited