FISHER AMES.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 1789-1797.*

NATHANIEL AMES, of Dedham, Mass., was a physician and the son of a physician. "He possessed a cheerful and amiable temper, and to his skill in his profession, added a knowledge of natural philosophy, astronomy and mathematics." He married the daughter of Jeremiah Fisher, a farmer in high esteem. Four sons and one daughter survived him.

Fisher Ames, youngest child of Nathaniel, was born in Dedham, April 9, 1758; died there July 4, 1808.

He graduated at Harvard College in 1774, studied law in the office of William Tudor, of Boston, and commenced practice at Dedham in the autumn of 1781.

He served in the State Legislature, and was Representative in Congress from 1789 to 1797. Leaving Congress, he practiced for a time his profession, and then gave his attention to farming.

The orations, essays and letters of Mr. Ames, are of the highest excellence in their several departments. As a speaker, his attitude was erect, his gestures were forcible; his articulation was distinct. Says Timothy Dwight: "After his speech on the necessity of making appropriations for carrying into effect the treaty with Great Britain, delivered April 28, 1776, one of his antagonists objected to taking the vote which was to decide the question at that time, because of the impression made by the fervor of his eloquence."

Mr. Ames often declared his persuasion of the Divinity of Christ.

"Memoir," by J. T. Kirkland, 1809; "N. A. Cyclopædia"; "Dwight's Travels"; Boston Recorder; Panoplist," 1809.

He remarked to a friend that he once read the Evangelists with the sole purpose of learning what the Saviour had said of himself.

He made a public profession of religion in the first Congregational Church in Dedham, and with this church he regularly communed. His life was irreproachable, yet he held humble views of himself. He was often observed to shed tears while speaking of his closet devotions and experiences.

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He recommended the teaching of the Assembly's Catechism, because it was a good thing on the whole; it had become venerable by age, our pious ancestors taught it to their children with happy effect, and he was unwilling to leave an experienced path for one new and uncertain."

He was an admirer of the common translation of the Bible. He acknowledged that a few phrases had become obsolete, and that a few passages might be obscurely translated, yet he should consider the adoption of any new translation as an evil. He lamented the disuse of the Bible in our schools. He thought it important that children should be early made acquainted with its contents. Besides its happy effects in impressing good sentiinents on their susceptible minds, he considered it an instrument of acquainting them with their own language in its purity.

Mr. Ames was married July 15, 1792, to Frances, third daughter of John Worthington, of Springfield. Seven children, six of whom were sons, survived him.

The Works of Fisher Ames were published in 1809, one volume; an edition in two volumes, edited by his son, Seth Ames, appeared in 1854.

JOHN APPLETON.

MEMBER OF GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL, MASSACHUSETTS, 1698–1723.*

JOHN APPLETON, of Ipswich, Mass, was born in 1652, died September 11, 1739.

He was Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1697, and from the year 1698 to 1723 inclusive, was a member of the Governor's Council. He was member of the committee to report measures for breaking up the intrigues of Jesuit Missionaries among the Indians. In military affairs, he was Colonel of a regiment.

"He had an early sense, not only of his Lord's Authority, but Excellency, Beauty and Amiableness. He always entertained. the highest regard and veneration for his Lord's Day and institutions, and attended them with a constancy, reverence and affection hardly to be paralleled. And his private devotions were as peculiar. And he was as just towards Men, as devout towards God."

He married November 23, 1631, Elizabeth, daughter of John Rogers, President of Harvard College. Their children were, Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Jabez Fitch; Margaret, wife of President Holyoke; Priscilla, first wife of Robert Ward, of Wenham; Nathaniel, Minister of Cambridge; and Daniel.

Felt's "History of Ipswich," 1834; "Discourse," by Rev. Nathaniel Rogers.

WILLIAM APPLETON.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 1851-1854, 1861.*

JOSEPH APPLETON, father of William, was born in Ipswich in 1751; graduated at Brown University in 1772; was ordained minister of the Second Church in Brookfield, now the First Congregational Church in North Brookfield, in 1776; and died in July, 1795. "He was a man of respectable abilities, approved scholarship, and exemplary Christian character." His mother was Mary, daughter of Jacob Hook, a farmer of Kingston, N. H. At the death of her husband, she removed to her native place with five young children,-two sons and three daughters, and occupied a farm which she had inherited from her father. In 1798 she was married to Maj. Daniel Gould, of Lyndeborough, N. H.; and, with her children, took up her abode in that town. She had a strong mind, sound judgment, and an unusual capacity for business. In a brief notice of her, written on the day of her death, her son says: "From the time my father died, she was very particular in giving her children religious instruction, and often prayed with them in her chamber. I have lost in her, not only the faithful guardian of my infancy, but the discreet monitor of my youth, and counsellor of my maturity."

William Appleton was born in Brookfield, Mass., November, 1786; died at Longwood, near Boston, February 15, 1862.

He attended school first at New Ipswich, afterwards successively at Francestown and Tyngsborough. When fifteen years of age he became a clerk in the store of Artemas Wheeler, at Temple, N. H. At the age of nineteen he was taken into partnership, and

Memoir," by Rev. Chandler Robbins, D. D., prepared agreeably to resolution of Massachusetts Historical Society.