189 



AMES, FISHER. 



AMIGONI, JACOPO. 



190 



own time, rather more than a hundred years ago. All three became 

 not only excellent scholars, for which we have the testimony of Eras- 

 mus, but so enthusiastic iu favour of Jerome, that they spared neither 

 their wealth nor their health for his sake. The good old man, at his 

 decease in 1515, recommended the edition to their care, with an injunc- 

 tion to apply what property he left towards it. The edition was issued 

 in the course of the ten years from 1516 to 1526, from the press of 

 Froben, whom Amerbach had first invited to Basle. 



(Letter on Basil by Boniface Amerbach in Munsterus, Cosmographia 

 Unncnalu, lib. vi. ; Erasmus, Opera Oinnia, edition of Le Clerc, iii. 

 1249, &c. ; Maittaire, Annala Typographies, torn. i. pars! 37-42, where 

 all the original authorities are referred to.) 



AMES, FISHER, was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, on the 9th 

 of April 1758. At the age of seven he lost his father, whose widow 

 was left with a large family iu straitened circumstances. Fisher, the 

 youngest son, was sent to Harvard College at the Rge of twelve; and 

 after remaining there four years, during which he studied hard, he 

 took his degree, and quitted college with a high reputation for his 

 attainments. His wish was to enter the legal profession, but for 

 several years the urgent necessity of providing for his maintenance 

 compelled him to act as teacher in a school. At length, in 1781, he 

 was enabled to enter on the practice of the law. The display of 

 his ability as a speaker, and the notice he attracted by political con- 

 tributions to the public journals, combined to procure for him, in 

 1788, a seat in the Massachusetts Convention for ratifying the con- 

 stitution. In due course he became a member of the House of 

 Representatives in the State Legislature. In this position his talents 

 were soon so widely known, that he was gent from the district of 

 Suffolk a* their first representative to the Congress of the United 

 States. In this situation he remained for eight years, the wholo period 

 of the presidency of Washington, of whose measures he was an ardent 

 supporter. As a speaker he was soon acknowledged as second to none 

 in the Congress, and as a practical man of business his services were 

 moat valuable. He was always a thorough advocate for British con- 

 nection, and entertained the utmost horror of the excesses of the 

 French Revolution. 



On Washington's retirement Fisher Ames also quitted public life, 

 and retired to Dedham, where he both occupied a farm and practised 

 his profession until increasing debility obliged him to give it up. In 

 1804 he was elected president of Harvard College, but declined the 

 honour on account of ill health. He continued in an increasing state 

 of debility until the 4th of July 1803, when he died, completely worn 

 out. His remains were carried to Boston, and honoured with a public 

 funeral. 



In 1809 The Works of Fisher Ames ' were published. They con- 

 sist entirely of his speeches and letters, collected from the journals of 

 the day. 



AMES, JOSEPH, was the son of Mr. John Ames of Yarmouth, 

 where he was born on the 23rd of January 1689. His father appears 

 to have afterwards settled iu London, where he died when his son was 

 in his twelfth year. At this time he was at a little school in Wapping. 

 When fifteen he was put apprentice to a plane-maker, near Guildhall, 

 in the city of London. Having served out his time, he then settled 

 in Wappiug, Horace Walpole says, as a ship-chandler ; but according 

 to other accounts, as an ironmonger. Whatever was his liuiiue-*, Le 

 seems to have pursued it with success, and to have attained by it, if 

 not wealth, at least a competency. He also found time to supply the 

 defects of his early education by reading ; and this led at length to 

 authorship. The study to which he was most attached was that of 

 antiquities, and particularly those of his own country. He had formed 

 on acquaintance with the Reverend John Lewis ; and it is this gentle- 

 man who is said to have first suggested to him, about the year 1730, 

 the preparation of a history of English printing, the execution of 

 which became the object of his life. The work, in a quarto volume 

 of above 600 pages, appeared in 1749, under the title of ' Typo- 

 graphical Antiquities; being an Historical Account of Printing in 

 Kngland, with some Memoirs of our Ancient Printers, an 1 a Register 

 of the Books printed by them, from the year 1471 to 1000; with an 

 Appendix concerning Printing in Scotland and Ireland in the same 

 Time.' This is Ames's principal work, and still indeed serves as the 

 basis of the only elaborate history we have of English printing. It 

 has probably preserved a good many title-pages, and other facts con- 

 nected with its subject, that would have been lost had the recording 

 of them been longer deferred ; and it is, upon the whole, creditable 

 to the industry of its compiler. But the task, to be well performed, 

 required much more learning than Ames possessed. The most valuable 

 part of his book hag been added to it by its subsequent editors, and 

 especially by Mr. Herbert, whose edition, extended to three volumes 

 quarto, appeared in 1785, 1786, and 1790. A still more augmented, 

 and much more splendid, edition was published by the Reverend Dr. 

 Dibdin, in 4 vols., 4to., 1810-12. Ames's next most considerable work 

 is that entitled ' Parentalia; or, Memoirs of the Family of Wren,' 

 folio, 1760. The book professes to be ' by Stephen Wren, Esq.' (the 

 grandson of Sir Christopher), ' with the care of Joseph Ames ; ' but 

 Ames is understood to have been really the writer. He is also the 

 author of a ' Catalogue of English Heads,' 8vo., 1748 ; of a ' Catalogue 

 of Kngliah Printers,' in two loaves quarto, and of an ' Index' to the 

 Catalogue of Lord Pembroke's Coins, printed, but not published. 



Mr. Ames was a Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and 

 secretary to the latter from 1741 till his death. He died suddenly, on 

 the 7th of October, 1759. 



(Life of Ames, by Mr. Gough, prefixed to Herbert's edition of tha 

 Typographical Antiquities, and since republished with additional notes 

 iu that of Dr. Dibdin.) 



AMHERST, JEFFERY, BARON, a distinguished British military 

 commander, was the son of Jeffery Amherst of Riverhead, iu Kent, 

 Esq., and was born on the 29th of January 1717. He received his 

 ensign's commission iu 1731, and having some years after gone to 

 Germany as aide-de-camp to General Ligouier, was present at the 

 battles of Dettingeu and Fontenoy. In 1756, while still abroad, he 

 received the colonelcy of the 15th Regiment of Foot. Two years after 

 he was recalled from the continent and sent to America as major- 

 general of the troops destined for the siege of Louisburg iu Cape 

 Breton. After the reduction of Canada in 1760, to which he had 

 materially contributed, he received the thanks of the House of Com- 

 mons, and was made a Knight of the Bath. Soon after he was appointed 

 commander-in-chief of all the forces in America. On the peace in 1763 

 he returned to England, when he received from the king the governor- 

 ship of Virginia. A misunderstanding with his majesty iu 1768 occa- 

 sioned his sudden dismissal from the army ; but the matter having 

 been cleared up, he was in a few months reinstated both in his former 

 rank and in the royal favour. In 1770 he was made governor of 

 Guernsey, and, two years later, lieutenant-general of the ordnance and 

 commander-in-chief of the forces in England. In 1776 he was created 

 Baron Amhent of Holmesdale in the county of Kent. He retained 

 his appointment of commander-in-chief till the breaking up of the 

 North administration in 1782, when, on his resigning it, the king gave 

 him the office of gold stick iu waiting. In 1787 he received a second 

 patent of nobility, with the title of Baron Amherst of Montreal iu 

 Canada, and with remainder to his nephew. On the 22nd of January 

 1793 he was again appointed to the command of the army, which he 

 held till the 10th of February 1795, when he was succeeded by the 

 Duke of York. On this occasion it is understood that an earldom and 

 the dignity of field-marshal were offered to him, both of which honours 

 he declined at the time, though the following year ho accepted the 

 field-marshal's baton. Lord Amherst died at his seat at Montreal 

 near Sevenoaks, Kent, on the 3rd of August 1797, in the eighty-first 

 year of his age. 



(Gentleman'* Magazine for 1797, p. 800; and Chalmers, Biographical 

 Dictionary.) 



AMHURST, NICHOLAS, was a native of Marden, in Kent. Tho 

 date of his birth is not recorded, but he became a pupil at Merchant 

 Taylor's School, in London, in 1713, and was elected from it to St. 

 John's College, Oxford, in June 1716. While at college Amhurst 

 published several poems and tracts, and displayed his enmity to the 

 high church clergy in a poem entitled ' Protestant Popery ; or, the 

 Convocation," in five cantos, which is a satire directed against all the 

 writers who had opposed Bishop Hoadley iu the Bangorian contro- 

 versy. He subsequently discovered this temper more fully iu ' A 

 Congratulatory Epistle from His Holiness the Pope to the Rev. Dr. 

 Snape, faithfully Translated from the Latin Original into English 

 Verse." In June 1719 Amhurst was expelled from college, apparently 

 upon a charge of libertinism, irregularity, and insulting behaviour to 

 the president ; but, according to his own account, because of the libe- 

 rality of his sentiments on religious and political subjects. 



Amhurst's resentment was violent and lasting. In 1721 he displayed 

 it by the publication, iu fifty semi-weekly numbers, of a periodical 

 intended to satirise the learning and discipline of the University of 

 Oxford, and to libel the characters of some of its principal members. 

 The title of this work was ' Terra) Filius.' 



After leaving Oxford, Amhurst settled in London, and became a 

 writer by profession. His principal literary undertaking was the politi- 

 cal paper called ' The Craftsman." He conducted it for several years, 

 during which it was mor : read than any other publication of the kind. 

 It reachec' a sale of ten or twelve thousand copies, and had a consider- 

 able effect in rousing the popular indignation against Walpole's 

 administration. 



The political services of Amhurat were overlooked by the party to 

 which he had devoted himself, when, early in the year 1742, they came 

 into office ; and his early death, which took place at Twickenham, on 

 the 27th of April in that year, is attributed in a great measure to the 

 effect of this neglect. 



(Biographical Dictionary of Useful Knowledge Society.) 



AMIGO'NI, JA'COPO, one of those painters who, by some chance 

 not quite apparout, obtained a popularity in his lifetime immeasurably 

 beyond his deserts, according to more modern critics. He was born 

 at Venice in 1675. After he had acquired some reputation iu Venice, 

 he added considerably to it in the service of $he elector of Bavaria by 

 some works he executed in Munich, and particularly some fresco 

 ceilings at Schleissheim. He met with equal success in London, 

 where he came in 1729, and painted a few staircases iu fresco, and 

 many portraits in oil. He painted also Shakspere and the Muses 

 over the orchestra of the then new theatre at Coveut Garden. He 

 returned to Venice in 1739, having saved 5000/. during his ten years' 

 stay in London. In 1747 he went to Madrid, with the appointment 

 of painter to tho king, Ferdinand VI. He died at Madrid in 1752. 



