AMES, JAMES BARR (1846-1910), American educator and legal scholar, was born in Boston, Mass., on June 22, 1846. He graduated from Harvard university in 1868 and from its law school in 1872. Entering the faculty of Harvard as instructor in history, he was made associate professor of law in 1873 and pro fessor of law in 1877. In 1895 he was appointed dean of Harvard law school, a post which he occupied with distinction until his death 15 years later. Because of his profound learning and rare power as a teacher he exercised marked influence both upon the development of law and upon legal instruction. He grasped the relation of law and morals at a time when current legal thinking insisted upon contrasting them or upon absolutely divorcing them. In consequence, his ideas as to what ought to be the law have prevailed rather than those of his contemporaries who cpnceived that it was unnecessary to look outside of the positive legal mate rials. For the use of students he published valuable case books on the law of torts, equity jurisdiction, negotiable paper, suretyship, admiralty, pleading at common law and other divisions of law. His Essays in Legal History (1912), collected and published after his death, constitute an enduring contribution to historical juris prudence. He died at Wilton, N.H., on Jan. 8, 1910.
See Charles W. Eliot, "Tames Barr Ames," Harvard Law Review, vol. xxiii., p. 321-324 (191o) ; and Joseph H. Beale, "James Barr Ames: His Life and Character," ibid., p.