15 Facts About Nathaniel Ames

Nathaniel Ames was a colonial American physician who published a popular series of annual almanacs.

Nathaniel Ames was the son of Nathaniel Ames first and the father of Nathaniel and Fisher Ames.

Six children were born to them, of whom Nathaniel Ames second was the eldest son.

Nathaniel Ames's father is said to have been learned in astronomy and mathematics, as well as practicing medicine.

In 1725, Nathaniel Ames published the first annual number of his almanac, which was to remain a popular New England almanac for a half-century.

Nathaniel Ames 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.

Nathaniel Ames moved to Dedham, Massachusetts in 1732 and developed a reputation as the village eccentric.

Nathaniel Ames frequently feuded with his next door neighbors, Rev Samuel Dexter and then Rev Jason Haven.

Nathaniel Ames took down his tavern sign and replaced it with a cartoon of the judges, all easily identifiable.

Chief Justice Paul Dudley, one of the dissenters, sent the sheriff to arrest Nathaniel Ames and confiscate the libelous portrait.

Nathaniel Ames continued to live at Dedham until his death of fever in 1764.

Nathaniel 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.

Nathaniel Ames 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.

Nathaniel Ames undoubtedly did much to bring, if only in brief allusions and extracts, some knowledge of the better English authors to innumerable New England farmhouses.

Nathaniel Ames gave rise to an entire industry, and he had many imitators.