BONNEY DIARY 15.10.1794 Hague wrote to Howard Coates Osborne
As Bonney's clerk, Hague may have written letters for him, especially if Bonney had no access to ink, pen & paper. Coates was not in Law Lists except for two country attorneys. Though unlikely to have been him (a letter to a crown witness would have been dangerous evidence), it's worth mentioning that one of the long list of Crown witnesses in the 1794 Treason Trials was John Coates "a boy", a soldier in the Birmingham Volunteers, late of China Walk Lambeth apprentice to John Philip Francklow, taylor, now residing with his father Christopher Coates, Little College St, Westminster. Franklow was the host of the Lambeth Loyal Association, who were said to wear uniforms, drill with pikes, and were planning to get guns. John Francklow, taylor Lambeth took appr Jno Coates 28.11.1793 for 7 yrs premium £10. He was probably the John son of Christopher & Sophia Coates bapt St Geo Han Sq 1780, his father was probably the Christopher Coates, SunFire 1787 stable keeper & coachmaster in the Running Horse Yard, David St (i.e.Davies St, Berkeley Sq). He married Ann Susan Gleaves at St Martin i t Fields 8.3.1799, they had a daughter Sophia bapt 1803 St Geo Han Sq, they were in 1841 census in Kensington and he was in 1851 and 1861 censuses in Derby and Sheffield living with his sister Harriet Cholerton, his profession given as retired superintendent Civil Service.