Links are in the margin to the right.
Both his parents died, and William was taken in by his uncle, Robert Snelling of Oxford, who took William into his home, and with understanding and generosity saw to his needs and education. Ames chose the center of Puritan learning, Cambridge University, over Oxford for his higher education. He was even in the running for the mastership of the college as a successor to Edmund Barwell in 1609. But higher authorities in state and established church interfered to prevent the election of such a strong nonconformist candidate. Ames refused to wear vestments, and he spoke out against the sign of the cross administered during baptism and other ceremonies.