Ames Tavern

The Ames Tavern was a tavern in Dedham, Massachusetts. Founded as Fisher's Tavern in 1649 by Joshua Fisher, it eventually passed into the hands of Nathaniel Ames through a complicated lawsuit based on colonial laws of inheritance. It was eventually owned by Richard Woodward, who renamed it the Woodward Tavern by the time the convention that adopted the Suffolk Resolves met there.

After Michael Powell left Dedham for Boston in 1649, it left the town without a tavern keeper. Joshua Fisher then opened Fisher's Tavern in what is present day Dedham Square, at the corner of Ames and High Streets, near "the keye where the first settlers' landed." Just across the street was a piece of unoccupied land including that on which the Norfolk County Courthouse now stands.

Fisher brewed his own malt liquor and had a tap room at his house and a drinking room at the brew house. Given the distance from Boston, the General Court agreed on May 9, 1649, to free Dedham from the tax levied on wine. They also granted Fisher the right to serve "strong waters." Should anyone get drunk at his establishment, though, he would be fined 10 shillings. A colony law also required him to close down during the time church services were held.

His tavern was passed down to his son, Joshua. About this time the old tavern was raised six inches higher, the walk filled with bricks, it was fitted with closets, and was completely furnished. After his death in 1730, it was passed down to his son, also named Joshua.

After Joshua Fisher died in 1730, he left a life estate to his wife, Hannah, with residual rights to his daughters. Nathaniel Ames moved to Dedham, and into the Tavern, in 1732. He married Joshua and Hannah's daughter Mary in 1735 and the two took up residence in the Tavern. Ames then, presumably with the approval of his mother-in-law, began running the tavern himself.

Mary and Nathaniel Ames had a son, Fisher Ames, in October 1737. Mary died a month later, however, leaving her rights in the tavern to baby Fisher. Fisher Ames died the following September. Nathaniel Ames continued to run the tavern, though he moved out in 1740 when he married Mary's cousin, Deborah Fisher.

Hannah did not die until 1744, at which point Joshua Fisher's other daughters and their husbands declared that they should inherit the very profitable tavern. Nathaniel Ames, who was litigious by nature, objected and filed a brief in probate court. He said that while under common law inheritances could only descend, a provincial law passed in 1692 allowed for inheritances to ascend. In this case, he claimed, the rights to the tavern flowed from Joshua Fisher to his widow, Hannah Fisher (who only had a life estate), to her daughter Mary Ames, to her son Fisher Ames, and then up to Nathaniel Ames.

Mary's sister, Hannah, and her husband, Benjamin Gay, her sister Judith, and her husband, John Simpson, and Samuel Richards, the widower of Mary's sister Rebecca, all opposed Nathaniel Ames with an appeal to common law. Nathaniel Ames won, but Benjamin Gay took physical possession of the property. When Ames took him to the Inferior Court of Judicature to evict him, Gay prevailed and the courts assessed Ames with court fees. Ames appealed to the Superior Court of Judicature, but lost again. Ames went back again to the Superior Court, this time getting a hearing before the full court and a jury. This time he won on a 5–2 vote.