William Ames was an early English itinerant Quaker preacher and writer. He joined the Quakers in 1655 at Dublin, having been a Baptist minister in Somerset, and afterwards a Roundhead officer in the English Civil War. He settled at Amsterdam in 1657, where he was tolerated, though once confined for a short time as a lunatic. Ames zealously preached to the Collegiants, and although initially in accord, they later fell out. He traveled in Germany and was favorably received by Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. Ames returned to England in 1662, was sent to Bridewell prison for attending a Quaker meeting, and died before the end of the year.
- Occupation
- writer, theologian, preacher, cleric
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of England
- Died
- 1662
