Joseph Bates (1792-1872) a New England Christian sea captain, who, after retiring from the sea, became active in every good work, including the temperance and anti-slavery movements. Becoming interested, in 1839, in the doctrine of the second advent of our Lord, he participated in the 1843-44 Advent Movement under William Miller, and was later one of the first to acept the light on the sanctuary and Sabbath quetions as brought out at that time. He became an able advocate of the views he had espoused, and was for a quarter of a centory or more an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister and writer.