Thomas Yeates (1768-1839), orientalist and historian, was born at Snow Hill, London, on 9 October 1768. He was apprenticed as a turner, but left this position to join All Souls College, Oxford, in 1802. Between about 1808 and 1815 he was employed by Claudius Buchanan to catalogue the oriental manuscripts he had collected in India. Thereafter, he was Secretary of the London Society of Literature, and, from 1823, an assistant in the Printed Book Department of the British Museum. He died on 7 October 1839.
Claudius Buchanan (1766-1815) was born on 12 March 1766 at Cambuslang, near Glasgow. He attended Glasgow University and Queens' College, Cambridge, before becoming a chaplain in India for the East India Company, 1796-1800. He was Professor and Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William, 1800-1807, before returning to England in 1808. Buchanan produced translations of the scriptures into oriental languages, and was an advocate of missionary work. He died on 9 February 1815 at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
From the guide to the Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, 1809, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
