THOMAS AMORY.
Hugh Amory was living in the year 1605 at Wrington in Somersetshire, under the northern side of Mendip Hills, this town and Shepton Mallett was noted at this time for its broad cloth manufactures which, within fifty years had transformed England's industry and commerce in Somerset and Devon. Hugh and one of his sons was a merchant the other was a woolen-draper, the latter, Thomas Amory, was the ancestor of the American branch of the family, his career was the troubled one of a Bristol merchant in the middle of the seventeenth century, when the city was besieged and taken by both the Parliamentary and the King's army. His son Jonathan was born in the county of Somerset in the year 1654, his father owned the estate of St. Anne and other lands in the county which in the next century went to his descendants in this country, but too heavily encumbered to be of any value. Jonathan was brought up under the care of his elder brother Thomas, who married Elizabeth Fitzmaurice a daughter of the 19th Lord of Kerry, ancestor of the present Marquis of Landsdowne. In consequence of this connection he removed to Ireland, taking his younger brother Jonathan with him, who in time became a merchant at Dublin, where he is recorded in 1675 as the purchaser from the city of the north bank of the Liffy. Dublin, hitherto, had lain wholly on the south side of the river. As late as 1816, £2, 10s. annual rent for it from "Jonathan Armory" still formed an item of the city's income. It is now as other crowded city districts, which have wharves at one end and a railway station at the other, with streets of age-blackened tenements and workshops between.
Jonathan Amory married Rebecca Houston in 1677, he went to the West Indies with his brother Robert in 1682, and his wife died at Barbados in 1685. Jonathan Amory then went to South Carolina taking with him his infant son Thomas. He married again, and invested largely in lands and houses. He was elected speaker of the Colonial Legislature, and subsequently treasurer of the Province. He died in the fall of 1699 of yellow fever.
Thomas Amory, son of the former, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1682 and accompanied his father to South Carolina. In the year 1696 he was sent with his sister Anne to their relatives in England to be educated. He was placed under the care of his cousin, Counsellor Amory, and was sent to the Westminster school. After his father's death he entered the counting-house of Mr. Ozell, a French merchant in London who in the year 1709 sent him to the Azores as supercargo. Here he established himself as a merchant and was appointed Dutch and English consul, and making only an occasional visit to Europe. Here he remained many years. About 1719 he embarked for Boston, and spent the following winter with his sister in Carolina. Returning to Boston he met Rebecca Holmes, daughter of Frances Holmes, and married her in May, 1721.
Thomas Amory bought lands at the South end of Boston, built a house and wharves, hired a counting-house of his friend, Governor Belcher, on the Long wharf and engaged in commerce with England, the Azores and Carolinas. He died in 1728, but his widow long survived him, dying in Boston in 1770 at the age of seventy. He left three sons and two daughters.
Thomas Amory, son of the former, was born in Boston April 23, 1722, and entered the Latin school in 1735, and graduated at Harvard College in 1741. He studied Divinity, but never took orders. As eldest son he inherited a double share of his father's estate. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of William Coffin and by her had Rebecca, afterwards the wife of Dr. Aron Dexter. He purchased the house built by Governor Belcher at the corner of Harvard and Washington streets, the gardens of which extended to the water, and this was his principal residence for the rest of his life. Thomas Amory was one of the Addressers of Gage but he did not take an active part in controversies preceding the revolution. He is described in a deed in 1769 as "Thomas Amory gentleman" in 1772 as "Distiller" and at other times as merchant. It was said that as the Revolution drew near he and his brother John planned to withdraw to England, leaving in the care of their brother Jonathan, who was childless, their combined families, to the number of twenty-three. He was on terms of friendship with the British officers and when the troops garrisoned the town, his house was attacked by the mob. He was entertaining some of the officers at his home, when bricks were thrown at his windows. One of these missiles waked his little daughter, by smashing the pane and falling on her bed. He spoke to the mob from the porch and it dispersed, but he had first hastily sent his guests by the garden way, to his boat, by which they were enabled to get to their quarters. His wife's family, the Coffins, were all Loyalists, and Thomas Amory therefore was regarded with some suspicion, especially as he was an "Addresser" of Gen. Gage.
When General Washington entrenched Dorchester Heights, March 1776, in order to command Boston with his guns, the inhabitants saw danger from both sides. Washington's assault would do great damage and the British troops as they withdrew might fire the town. On March 8th Deacon Newhall, chairman of the selectmen, requested Thomas and Jonathan Amory, and their friend, Peter Johonnot, to carry to General Washington a paper prepared by four Selectmen, proposing that the British troops should be allowed to retire unmolested, on condition of doing no harm. The offer was really authorized by General Robertson, acting for General Howe, but this could not be put in writing, nor was the person named to whom the paper was addressed. The messengers, however, delivered it to General Washington, whereupon Colonel Learned on his behalf wrote them an answer to the effect that no notice could be taken of a letter neither addressed to himself, nor authenticated by General Howe. Nevertheless the agreement was kept, as if it had been formally made. Ministers were therefore able to deny to an angry opposition in Parliament that there had been any compromise, or stipulation between General Howe and the rebels, although the Duke of Manchester affirmed that he had private information of it.[223]
On the evacuation Thomas Amory withdrew to Watertown, where he lived some years. He died shortly after the peace in 1784. His widow survived until 1823. He left nine children, seven of whom were married and resided in Boston. It is interesting to consider how the blood of the loyal and the disloyal afterwards became mixed. At the battle of Bunker Hill June 17, 1776, Captain Linzee of the Kings ship-of-war Falcon cannonaded the works which Prescott the "rebel" defended, but the granddaughter of Linzee was the wife of Prescott the historian who was a grandson of the rebel, and this lady is a daughter of Thomas C. Amory, the eldest son of this notice. Jonathan, the second son of our Loyalist, married Hettie, daughter of James Sullivan, governor of Massachusetts, while the wife of John Amory, another son, was near of kin to Henry Gardner, the "rebel" who succeeded Harrison Gray, the last royal treasurer of the same state. Again Nathaniel, another son, married a niece of Commodore Preble, and her sister was the wife of Admiral Wormley of the Royal Navy. Once more, William, a fifth son, born in 1774, was an officer in the British navy and after the war entered the U. S. navy and distinguished himself in the war with Tripoli, being one of the party that burnt the Philadelphia. He also distinguished himself in an attack under Hull on a fort in South America during the French war. But "loyalty" as understood in olden time, is still represented in the family by the union of Mr. Amory's grandson Charles with Martha Greene and of his grandson, James Sullivan, with Mary Greene, nieces of the late Lord Lyndhurst. Mr. Amory's grandson, Thomas C., married Esther Sargent, and William of the same degree of consanguinity married Anna, daughter of David Sears of Boston. Of the sons here mentioned, Thomas C. Amory, was a successful merchant and died in 1812. Thomas C., Jr., also a descendant, is the author of the Life of Governor Sullivan, his grandfather on his mother's side.[224]
Jonathan Amory, brother to Thomas, was born in Boston December 19, 1726. He married Abigail Taylor, and resided on what is now the opening of Temple Place into Washington street. His garden is said to have extended two or three hundred feet in either direction, joining his brother John's home which formerly had been Rufus Greene's in Newbury street, at the corner of West street.
Jonathan Amory died in 1797, leaving a large estate to his brother John and John's children.
John Amory, another brother of Thomas, was born in Boston in 1728. He married Catherine, daughter of Rufus Greene. He was the father of nine children who grew up and settled in his native town. He built a house at the corner of Beacon and Tremont streets, opposite King's chapel, and lived there, and in Washington street on the site where Amory hall afterwards stood. He engaged in commerce with his younger brother. The letters of this business house from 1760 during the Stamp Act excitement and the Tea troubles give many interesting particulars of that period. Parts of this correspondence were published in English papers and to one letter a member of Parliament ascribed influence in the repeal of the Stamp act. In 1757 the store of Jonathan and John Amory was "the sign of the Horse at the head of Dock Square," they afterwards (before 1762) removed into King street "just below the town house." Their store was probably the last of the "old stores" in State street. The house, distill-house stores and wharf were Thomas Amory's share of his father's property. Amory's wharf was at the east end of Castle street, on which in 1777 he had a still-house.
In 1774 John Amory left with his family for England. It was necessary that one of the partners should go on business. At the beginning of hostilities his house owed their English creditors £23,000 sterling which they remitted without delay, while their countrymen who owed them, from inability, or taking advantage of the times paid, if at all, in a depreciated currency.
The illness of his wife, which terminated in her death in 1778, prevented his return to Boston. Shortly before the peace he embarked for America and landing at New York he took the oath of allegiance to the Crown. He was not permitted to live in Boston in consequence of the "Banishment Act." His name had been placed upon the list of the proscribed, and preliminary measures were taken to confiscate his property. His brother wrote him should this be done he would always share what he had with him. He resided in Providence till 1783, some of his family being with him then through the influence of his friends in Boston, and upon his petition to the Legislature, declaring his allegiance to the new government, he was allowed to return to Boston. He died in 1805, leaving six sons and four daughters. One of his daughters married John Lovell, widely known as a political writer, and another was the wife of John McLean, who liberally endowed the Massachusetts General hospital.