![Ames tavern](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Ames_tavern.JPG)
Nathaniel Ames (July 22, 1708 – July 11, 1764), a
colonial American
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. T ...
physician, published a popular series of annual
almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...
s. He was the son of Nathaniel Ames first (1677–1736) and the father of
Nathaniel
, nickname =
{{Plainlist,
* Nat
* Nate
, footnotes =
Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael.
People with the name Nathaniel
* Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player
* Nate A ...
and
Fisher Ames
Fisher Ames (; April 9, 1758 – July 4, 1808) was a Representative in the United States Congress from the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. He was an important leader of the Federalist Party in the House, and was noted for his o ...
. The family was descended from William Ames of
Bruton
Bruton ( ) is a market town, electoral ward, and civil parish in Somerset, England, on the River Brue and the A359 between Frome and Yeovil. It is 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, 10 ...
,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, England, whose son William emigrated to
and settled at
Braintree as early as 1640.
Early life
Captain Nathaniel Ames, father of this entry's subject, lived at
Bridgewater and there married Susannah Howard on December 2, 1702. Six children were born to them, of whom Nathaniel second was the eldest son. His father is said to have been learned in astronomy and mathematics, as well as practicing medicine. Nothing is known of his son's education, but he became a physician, probably without other medical training than instruction from his father, apprenticeship to some country doctor, and reading medical volumes.
Ames' almanac
In 1725, Ames published the first annual number of his almanac, which was to remain a popular New England almanac for a half-century. At this time, he was still living at home in Bridgewater, and although the almanac bears on the title-page "by Nathaniel Ames, Jr.," it may well be that the boy, then only seventeen years old, received some help from his mathematical parent. He is said to have moved to
Dedham in 1732 and his name is entered from that place on the list of subscribers to Prince's ''Chronology'', to which most of the subscriptions were made in 1728.
Second wife
On October 30, 1740, he married his second wife
Deborah Fisher
Deborah Fisher (October 30, 1723 – November 10, 1817), later Deborah Ames and Deborah Woodward, was a tavern owner in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Personal life
Born on October 30, 1723, Fisher was the youngest child of Jeremiah and Deborah () Fi ...
, daughter of Jeremiah Fisher, by whom he had six children, the eldest being
Nathaniel
, nickname =
{{Plainlist,
* Nat
* Nate
, footnotes =
Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael.
People with the name Nathaniel
* Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player
* Nate A ...
, and the third son being
Fisher Ames
Fisher Ames (; April 9, 1758 – July 4, 1808) was a Representative in the United States Congress from the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. He was an important leader of the Federalist Party in the House, and was noted for his o ...
. In that year, 1740, he was also one of the subscribers to the celebrated Land Bank. In addition to his duties as local doctor, as publisher of the almanacs, and as amateur astronomer, Ames for many years ran the well-known "Sun" tavern, which brought him an economically and politically strategic position; as taverns often doubled as courthouses, Ames was also a common lawyer, a business that aroused the anger of trained legal practitioners. The contemporary entry in John Whiting's Diary reads "Jan. 25, 1750, Dr. Ames began to keep tavern”, although Briggs and
Kittredge provide different dates for the commencement of this venture. He continued to live at Dedham until his death of fever in 1764. After Ames died, his widow continued to keep the tavern until she married Richard Woodward, when it became the Woodward Tavern, under which name it was known as the site where the
Suffolk Resolves
The Suffolk Resolves was a declaration made on September 9, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The declaration rejected the Massachusetts Government Act and resulted in a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the In ...
were drawn up in 1774. It was demolished in 1817 and is now the site of the
Norfolk County Registry of Deeds.
Life in Dedham
Ames moved to
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...
in 1732 and developed a reputation as the village eccentric. He frequently feuded with his next door neighbors, Rev.
Samuel Dexter
Samuel Dexter (May 14, 1761May 4, 1816) was an early American statesman who served both in Congress and in the Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Dexter was an 1881 graduate of Harvard ...
and then Rev.
Jason Haven Jason Haven (March 2, 1733 – May 17, 1803) was the longest serving minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham.
Personal life
Haven was born on March 2, 1733, in Framingham, Massachusetts. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1754. Whil ...
. When he died, his estate was valued at £1,561.4s.7d in real estate and £409.9s.6.25d in personal effects.
''Ames v. Gay''
On September 14, 1735, Ames married Mary, daughter of Capt.
Joshua Fisher of Dedham, by whom, on October 24, 1737, he had a son, Fisher Ames. Fisher died less than a year later, on September 17, 1738, surviving his mother, however, who had died on November 11, 1737.
Ames’ wife had owned a tavern, and the situation gave rise to ''Ames v. Gay'', one of the famous lawsuits of New England. Ames (a compulsively litigious man) claimed inheritance to her estate according to the
Province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
law through their son Fisher against his mother-in-law Hannah, who claimed the rights to it under the
Common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
, a struggle continued by her family after she died in December 1744. In August 1749 Ames won the case, and thus established an exception to the rule of inheritance in Massachusetts. However, two of the eleven
Superior Court of Judicature
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...
justices were against him, leading the normally amiable Ames to an especially vituperative stance against lawyers for the rest of his career. He took down his tavern sign and replaced it with a cartoon of the judges, all easily identifiable. Each was shown studying the Province laws, except the two dissenters, who had their backs turned to the law books. Chief Justice
Paul Dudley, one of the dissenters, sent the sheriff to arrest Ames and confiscate the libelous portrait. Ames was warned and quickly substituted
Matt. 16:4: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it.”
Death and tomb
Ames died on July 11, 1764.
In 1775, during the
Siege of Boston
The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town ...
, Jabez Fitch, a young officer in the Colonial Army, visited Ames' tomb in the
Old Village Cemetery
The Old Village Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts.
History
The first portion of the cemetery was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18, 1636, with land taken from Nicholas Phillips a ...
in Dedham.
[ Finding the tomb open, he entered, opened the casket, and examined the decomposing body.][
]Faith Huntington Faith () Huntington (January 25, 1742 - November 24, 1775) was an early American woman.
Early and personal life
Huntington was born in 1743 in Lebanon, Connecticut, the daughter of Governor Jonathan Trumbull and his wife, Faith . She was the sist ...
was buried in his tomb on November 28, 1775, after which mourners went back to the Ames Tavern.
Legacy
His chief importance is as founder and editor of his almanacs, the publishing of which his son, Nathaniel third (a Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
graduate and physician), continued for ten years after his father's death. The father issued the first number in 1725, three years before James Franklin started his in Rhode Island and eight years before Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
inaugurated ''Poor Richard's Almanack
''Poor Richard's Almanack'' (sometimes ''Almanac'') was a yearly almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes inform ...
''. Ames must have been a household word throughout New England, for it is said that the circulation of his almanac, with its sharp-tongued commentary on Massachusetts politics, religion, and social life ran to 60,000 copies. Moses Coit Tyler considered it as superior to Franklin's, which it resembled in many ways. Besides the astronomical observations, Ames published short articles, extracts from the English poets, such as Milton
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
and Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
, and used the same pithy and witty maxims as made the reputation of Franklin, such as: "All men are created equal, but differ greatly in the sequel."
He had taste for good literature and considerable wit, though some of it seems a trifle forced today, and the quality rather improved when the almanac was continued by his somewhat abler son, who nevertheless was not the genial gentleman his father was, genuinely liking only farmers and despising printers. Ames, however, undoubtedly did much to bring, if only in brief allusions and extracts, some knowledge of the better English authors to innumerable New England farmhouses.[''DAB''.]
Ames gave rise to an entire industry, and he had many imitators. Among those who followed in his footsteps was Dudley Leavitt
Dudley Leavitt (August 31, 1830 – October 15, 1908) was an early Patriarch (Latter Day Saints), patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a Mormon pioneer and an early settler in southern Utah.
Biography
Leavi ...
of Meredith, New Hampshire
Meredith is a New England town, town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,662 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Meredith is situated in the state's Lakes Region (New Hamp ...
, a teacher, newspaper publisher and polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
who published his first Leavitt's Farmers Almanack in 1797.
See also
* Ames family
The Ames family is one of the oldest and most illustrious families of the United States. The family's branches are descended from John Ames, the son of a 17th-century settler of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and numerous public and private wo ...
Notes
References
*"Nathaniel Ames", ''Dictionary of American Biography''. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.
* Stowell, Marion Barber. ''Early American Almanacs: the Colonial Weekday Bible''. Ayer Publishing, 1977, .
Works cited
*
*
External links
"Nearest a Kin to Fisher"
by Martha J. McNamara, with more complete details of ''Ames v. Gay''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Nathaniel
1708 births
1764 deaths
American publishers (people)
18th-century American physicians
People from colonial Dedham, Massachusetts
Writers from Dedham, Massachusetts
People from Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Almanac compilers
Businesspeople from Dedham, Massachusetts