Author: Scales, William
Biography:
SCALES, William (1741-1807: ESTC)
The title-page of Scales's last publication, The Quintessence of Universal History (1806) identifies the author as "A.M., LL.D., F.R.S." Only the first is true. Scales was born in Georgetown ME, the only son of William and Mary (Ingersoll) Scales. As a youth he joined the local Congregational church and became extremely pious. He entered Harvard as a charity scholar in 1767 and earned his way waiting on tables; he later described the College as a "seminary of sophistry, falsehood, and folly" (Quintessence). After graduating in 1771--ranking 55th in a class of 56--he was for a time an itinerant preacher in Maine. In 1782 or 1783 he became a convert to the new Shaker sect and for some years was a zealous and probably influential advocate for them, but he fell out with them in 1787. He then published an attack on them in the Boston Gazette. Thereafter he returned to street preaching, denouncing the wrongs that had been done him, until he seemed to observers to be completely deranged. In 1801 he wrote to Thomas Jefferson, haranguing him about religion and seeking access to "the liberty of the press" which he claimed had been taken away from him. He is said to have spent his last winter in Cambridge MA, addressing anyone who would listen to him in Harvard Yard. In the spring he travelled to his sister's house in Dresden, Maine, where he died. (David D. Newell, "William Scales' 1789 'Mystery of the People Called Shakers': Introduction," American Communal Societies Quarterly 0:1 [2006] 6-13; Christian Goodwillie, Writings of Shaker Apostates and Anti-Shakers, 1782-1850 [2017] 1: 119-21; "To Thomas Jefferson from William Scales," Founders Online 2 Sept. 2020) HJ