It would be a mistake to lay out information on the Amory families of Lincoln and
hope that our John Amory somehow fits in. His family could be from nearby
Yorkshire or Northumberland, even London. His father was likely a John, William or Isaac Amory. Until we can get the help of an English researcher, we cannot really be sure. The fact that the son of John Amory, the Reverend Isaac
Amory, returned to Lincolnshire, is helpful.
We know that the family of John Amory was living in Boston, Lincolnshire, in
1737. His grant by the Common Council on 5 October 1737 (giving him 150 acres in Georgia) refers to him as “John Amory of Boston in the County of Lincoln, yeoman” and another entry refers to “John Amory and Sarah his Wife
(now going to Georgia)”. This same entry notes that they have an estate in
Lincoln
that collects
L
50
yearly in rents.
A yeoman was a skilled laborer or a tradesman, below a “gentleman” or “esquire”
in social status but above a commoner, laborer or farmer. A later reference
shows that he had training in surveying, so perhaps that was his skill.
“Read a Grant and Enfoefment of One hundred and fifty Acres of Land to John Amory
of Boston in the County of Lincoln, Yeoman.” Palace Court Wed. October 5th , 1737
[Candler, Colonial Recs of GA, II, 212]
“Grant and Enfoeffment (with Livery and Seisin indorsed) made the 5th of October 1737
to John Amory of Boston in the County of Lincoln yeoman. . . . 150 acres in Georgia
of the same Tenor and as the Indenture to Joseph Wardrope Entd. in Page…As by a
Counterpart thereof remaining with the Trustees at large appears.
“5 October to John Amory of Boston in the County of Lincoln Yeoman 150 Acres to
take 3 Servants at 20 Acres each.”
[Coleman, Colonial Recs of GA, XXXII, 249,264]
The “servants” were indentured servants who could not pay their way to the
colonies but agreed to work in servitude for a number of years, after which they
would take an oath as freemen and be able to have property in their name. It
was hard to get enough men to go over as servants so there were sometimes
“bonuses”:
“Resolved: That to Each of the Servants Who are out of their time before
Christmas next fifty Acres of Land be granted (the Land to be set out in
Villages) on proper Certificates of their good Behaviour; And that a Cow
and a Sow be given to Each of them.”
[Candler, Colonial Recs of GA, II, 206]
John was allowed three indentured servants but took only two: his eldest sons
John (Robert) and William. Or John and Robert (a nephew).
The parish records and bishop’s transcripts (on which the International Genealogical Index, or IGI, is based) are well preserved in Lincoln. One person
made an informal estimate that 80 percent of the parish records are represented
in the IGI for Lincoln. Using an IGI-based model for our Amory family, however,
shatters some long-held assumptions. It gives William Emory a birth date of 1728
making Robert Emory a more likely father for Will Emory (b.1744) the Cherokee,
and Robert’s daughter Susannah (b.1744) would be a twin sister of Will. An
incidence of twinning does occur among Emory descendents. A more logical
scenario is that John Amory (d.1746) fathered Will Emory (b.1743/4) and “Old
John Emory” (b.c.1744) by two different Cherokee women.
Another long-held assumption is that William is a son of John Amory by a first
wife. The IGI neatly accounts for all of John’s children by Sarah Wilson, his
wife. (See below.) An anecdotal account of the William Johnson family (he
married Sarah Nightingale in Goose Creek, South Carolina, in 1769) has the
mother of Reverend Isaac Amory seeking a settlement from the estate of Thomas Amory and saying that Isaac Amory was her only son. But the Amory genealogy (by Meredith)rejects that anyone was seeking settlement at so late
a date and finds that Isaac Amory is not related to the Thomas Amory family.
We can likewise not put any stock in the statement that Isaac’s mother had only
one living son.
In a non-IGI based report (January 2001) I listed seven children for John Amory:
John, Robert, William, Sarah, Isaac, a daughter, and Elizabeth. Removing
Robert (who is not a son), I would match the IGI-based list: John, William, Sarah, Mary (died young), Elizabeth, and Isaac.
Since there is good agreement, there is no reason not to use the IGI data. To
search the IGI, go to http://www.familysearch.org/.
John Amory b.1698-1705 in England, buried 5 October 1746 Saint Philip’s
Parish, (Charleston) South Carolina. He m. SARAH WILSON 13 February
1726 at Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England. She was b.1704-1711 in
England and was buried 31 Mar 1765 at Saint Philip’s.
She m(2) William Elders 17 Aug 1747 at Saint Philip’s. He d.1748. She m(3)
Thomas Nightingale (b.1716 d.c.2 Nov 1769 buried at Saint Philip’s) on
30 Nov 1749 at Saint Philip’s.
Children of John Amory and Sarah Wilson:
i. John (Robert) Amory chr. 30 Oct 1727 Great Hale/Little Hale,
Lincoln; bur. 12 Oct 1740? or March 1790 at Saint Philip’s.
(if John Robert) m. Catherine Grant (Cherokee) 1743 had 1? ch.
ii. William Amory chr. 20 Oct 1728 Alford, Lincoln and chr. again
15 Sep 1731 Great Hale/Little Hale, Lincoln
bur. 31 Jul 1770 at Saint Philip’s.
m(1) Mary Grant (Cherokee) c.1745 had 5-6 ch.
m(2) Sarah ( ) Irish Loocock Cantle 18 Nov 1768. She d. July
1770. (no ch)
iii. Sarah Amory chr. 8 Sep 1730 Great Hale/Little Hale, Lincoln
d. England? no ch?
m. Mungo Graham 18 Oct 1749 at Saint Philip’s
iv. Mary Amory chr. 11 Mar 1733 Wrangle, Lincoln
d. 19 Sep 1734 Lincoln
v. Elizabeth Amory chr. 8 Dec 1735 Boston, Lincoln
bur. 5 Apr 1744 at Saint Philip’s.
vi. (Rev.) Isaac Amory chr. 16 Mar 1736 Boston, Lincoln
d. 1789 Rockingham, England
m. Mary Wilson 24 Apr 1780 Carlton Scroop, Lincoln, England,
no children (she d.1833)
? Child of John Amory by unknown Cherokee woman:
vii. Will Emory b.1743/4 d.1788
m. unknown had 1-2 ch.
(may be son of William Emory chr.1728 above)
Child of John Amory and Mary Moore (Cherokee):
viii. John Emory (or Hembree) b.1744 d.1809
had many children
Notes for John (Robert?) Amory (b.1726/7) son of John Amory (d.1746)
The possibility that John and Robert are one and the same eliminates two
mysteries: the disappearance of John and the sudden appearance of Robert.
This is discussed in the separate section on Robert Emory.
Notes for William Amory (b.1727/8) son of John Amory (d.1746)
See the section on William Emory. The “double christening” shown for William
can be explained by conflicting bishop notes or, more likely, a local problem in
church politics, requiring William to be “rebaptized”. The Wilson family was quite
active in church controversy: see the excommunication of Anne Hutchinson in
Lincolnshire as an example.
Notes for Sarah Amory (b.1729/30) & Mungo Graham
On 18 October 1749 Mungo Graham and Miss Sarah Amory were married at
Saint Philip’s in Charleston by the Reverend Alexander Garden. Mungo Graham
was the son of Dr. Patrick Graham of Savannah, Georgia, another one of the
“clamorous malcontents” listed with John Amory.
Dr. Patrick Graham “of Crieff in the County of Perth in Scotland” received a
grant of 100 acres in the Georgia colony by the London board on 19 May 1736.
[Coleman, GA Col Recs, XXXII, 210] His land was on Pipe Makers Creek,
close to the land of John Amory.
Patrick Graham later acted as an Indian agent and helped to work out the
treaty with the Creek Indians. [Coleman, GA Col Recs, XXXI, 556; XXXIII, 365-7, 524-6]
Patrick got rid of the land on Pipe Makers Creek by leasing it on a yearly
basis perpetually to Mungo Graham “for the term of one whoe year paying the
rent of one peppercorn only.” [Beckemeyer, GA Absracts, 278]
In his will, dated 26 May 1755, Patrick gave to his sons David and Mungo
Graham lands which included a plantation called Redford. On 7 July 1758
Mungo leased the Redford Plantation to a ship’s captain named John
Robinson (of Philadelphia). At this time his father and brother were dead and
his wife “Sarah Graham” could not sign the document because “she is now in
Great Britain”.
[Beckemeyer, GA Absracts, 279]
In another mention in the colonial records of Georgia, Sarah Graham, wife of
Mungo, was said to be returning to England in 1755 with her mother [Sarah Amory Nightingale] to be followed by her husband but the death of Dr. Graham
in 1755 delayed the return. But the confirmation that she was back in England
in 1758 is important in helping to track the elusive William Emory (Sarah Graham’s brother), who we believe served in the British army (or navy?) for
seven years, returning in 1765. Being an Indian trader, William had no money
to return to England but, with the formal declaration of war against France
(pending in 1755, official in 1756), William was obliged by duty to report for
service to his country.
There is some indication that Mungo Graham did not return to England, but the
research on Mungo and Sarah is scant.
Notes for Mary & Elizabeth Amory daughters of John Amory (d.1746)
Another daughter, Susannah, born in Georgia and died young, is predicted by
a computer model that shows John Amory had a sister and aunt or grandmother
named Susannah Amory. (The IGI supports this.) Plus, both Robert and William
had Cherokee daughters named Susannah. (William even follows the exact
order: Mary, Elizabeth, Susannah.) That she died young is predicted because
the sister of William, Sarah, has no namesake among his daughters.
Notes for Isaac Amory (b.1734/5) son of John Amory (d.1746)
Isaac was sent back to England to study and there he entered the ministry.
He returned to South Carolina by 1764, perhaps hearing of his mother’s
illness. He remained in South Carolina less than two years, returning to
England shortly after being assaulted almost mortally.
In my January 2001 paper on the Amory family, I wrote that Reverend Isaac
Amory was killed in 1765/66. Here is my source for that mistaken impression:
A Letter to the Bishop of London Charlestown Oct. 19, 1766
. . . Not a House could I set foot in but found some sick, some dead so that [I]
have had a melancholy Progress. . . .But I have a wide field before Me! My
District is 150 Miles in breadth and 300 Length: And as this Country ever was
the Grave of the Clergy, it has been bitterly so this Summer.
For, In May, landed Mr. Lonsdale his Wife, 5 Children and Servants who went
to Prince William Parish, where they were soon cut off by the Endemic Fever that
rages here, and not one now left.
Mr. Tonge of St. Pauls and his Wife were taken in July –She is since dead – His
Recovery is doubted. . . .
Mr. Amory of Purrysburgh, and Mr. Drake of Christ Church are returned home.
[The Carolina Backcountry, p.84-85]
The journal of the same clergyman also notes:
. . . A most pious and devout Young Man, and yet he could not escape the Censure of
these flighty, Proud, Illprincipled Carolinians. They are enough to make any Person
run Mad – And they crack’d the Brain of one Young Man Mr. Amory the Year before.
We have two now in the same Condition—And others, whose Situation is so uneasy,
that Life is a Burden to them—I would not wish my worst Enemy to come to this
Country . . . to combat perpetually with Papists, Sectaries, Atheists and Infidels – who
would rather see the Poor People remain Heathens and Ignorants, than to be brought
over to the Church. Such Enemies to Christ and his Cross, are these vile Presbyterians.
[The Carolina Backcountry, p.62]
A footnote in that source comments on Rev. Amory:
The Rev. Isaac Amory, A.M., became rector of St. John’s Church on John’s Island in
November, 1764. The particular attention he paid to some Negroes in his parish brought
remonstrances from his congregation and led, finally, to his resignation in September, 1765.
“Minutes of Vestry of St. John’s Colleton, 1734-1817”, 1, 75, typescript in S.C. Hist. Soc.;
Dalcho, An Hist. Account of the P.E. Church in S.C.,361-2
The language that Amory “returned home”, I assumed was like the language “carried him off” describing the death of another minister and was part of a list
of people who had died. Amory, though, returned to England.
The baptism of an illegitimate child is noted twice in the register of Saint Philip’s:
9 June 1765 Elizabeth Hall, dau of Geo. Abbot & Lois Hall bapt. at Johns Island
by the Revd. Mr. Isaac Amory. (page 100 in original)
9 June 1765 Elizabeth Hall, dau of Geo. Abbot & Louisa Hall bapt. by the Revd.
Mr. Isaac Amory at St. Johns Colliton County. (page 114 in original)
We are also sure that he baptized some of the half-breeds that called him
uncle and impressed upon them the sense of being English and Christian in
a society that scarcely considered them human beings. Oral family history has a
“revered uncle” taking care of my ancestor, John Emory/Hembree (b.1744). This
refers to Thomas Nightingale rather than Rev. Amory.
The “Memoir of the Family of Amory” in the New England Historical & Genealogical Register of January 1856 (Vol X, pp.59-65) mistakenly calls Isaac
a “grandson of the Treasurer” (Jonathan Amory) but provides this important
data: Isaac returned to England and obtained a rectorship near Newark upon
Trent in Lincolnshire. He married Mary Wilson. He had no children. He died at
Rockingham in 1789, and his widow lived until 1833.
Gertrude Euphemia Meredith’s The Descendants of Hugh Amory 1605-1805,
(London: Cheswick Press, 1901) examines the connection between Jonathan
Amory and Reverend Isaac Amory and “regrets” that there is no relationship (p.98).
An Isaac Emmery had his estate inventoried on 19 October 1764 in Newberry
County, South Carolina, but this is Isaac Embree of the Quaker Embrees.
Notes for Will Emory (b.1743/4) and John Emory (b.1744)
Using the IGI data to construct the family makes the father of Will Emory to be
John Amory (d.1746) rather than one of his sons. Under normal, English,
circumstances, this would probably be true. The idea that Sarah Amory would
allow her 17-year-old son to run off and marry a Cherokee girl does not seem
likely under normal conditions. But she probably was not aware of the “marriage” until years later. English boys as young as ten were sent off to make a living, so
going into the Indian trade at 17 is not hard to believe. So Will Emory is shown
here as a possible son of John Amory but there is every reason to continue to
believe that William Emory is his father. (For one thing, they both went by “Will”.)
John Emory/Hembree, though, is certainly the son of John Amory (and, trust me,
Sarah did not know or approve of her husband’s Cherokee wife). A family member asks if John Amory would name another son John if his white son John
were still alive in 1744. Yes – if that were John’s father’s name. But remember
that the Cherokee tradition is for the mother to name the child and she normally
would name it after the father. So, yes, naming a son John would not imply that
there were no other sons named John since the “Cherokee John” was named by
his Cherokee mother.