some manufactories of cotton goods and black lace. It formerly returned two members to parliament. The population in 1851 amounted to 2093. It has a free grammar school, with three exhibitions at Oxford.

Fisher, an eminent American statesman and writer, son of Nathaniel Ames, a physician, was born at Dedham, in Massachusetts, on 9th April 1785. After practising the law for some little time, he abandoned that profession for the more congenial pursuit of politics, and in 1788 became a member of the Massachusetts convention for ratifying the constitution. In this assembly he bore a conspicuous part, and in the next year, having passed to the house of representatives in the state legislature, he distinguished himself greatly by his eloquence and forensic talents. During the eight years of Washington's administration he took a prominent part in the national councils; and on the retirement of that eminent man from office, he returned to his residence at Dedham to resume the practice of the law, which the state of his health, after a few years, obliged him to relinquish. But Ames was not idle: he continued his literary labours, and published numerous essays, chiefly in relation to the contest between Great Britain and revolutionary France, as it might affect the liberty and prosperity of America. Four years before his death, he was chosen president of Harvard College, a honour which his broken state of health obliged him to decline. After suffering for two years from extreme debility, he expired on the 4th July 1808, having acquired the admiration and respect of his countrymen by the brilliancy of his talents and his private virtues. His writings were collected and published, with a memoir of the author, in 1809, by the Rev. Dr Kirkland, in one large octavo volume.

Joseph, author of a valuable work on the progress of printing in England, called Typographical Antiquities, which is often quoted by bibliographers. He was born in 1689, and died in 1759. The best editions of his work are those published with the additions of Herbert and of Dibdin.

William, D.D., a learned Independent divine, was born in 1756, and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. In the reign of King James I, he left the university, in order to avoid expulsion for nonconformity, and retired to the Hague, where he had not been long before he was invited to accept of the divinity chair in the university of Franeker, in Friesland, which he filled with great ability for above twelve years. He removed from thence to Rotterdam on account of his health; and there he continued during the remainder of his life. His controversial writings, which compose the greater part of his works, are chiefly against Bellarmine and the Arminians. He also wrote, 1. A fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies in God's Worship; 2. Lectures in Psalms Davidis; 3. Medulla Theologiae; and several pieces relative to the sciences. He died of an asthma, at Rotterdam, in November 1633.