Thomas Amory was born in May, 1682 in Limerick, Ireland. His grandfather was a member of the "Merchant Venturers" of Bristol; his father Jonathan Amory, married to Rebecca Houston, was a merchant of Dublin.
Thomas was taken as an infant to the West Indies and in 1786 to Charleston, South Carolina, where his father became a landowner, speaker of the colonial assembly, advocate general and "Receiver for the Public Treasury. "
In 1694 Amory was sent to relatives in London to be educated; but the statement that he attended Westminster School cannot be substantiated. Five years later he was bound out as an apprentice to a French merchant of London, Nicolas Oursel.
In 1706, a French merchant of London, Nicolas Oursel, sent Amory to Terceira in the Azores. There he established himself as a merchant trading with Portugal, England, Holland, and America. His precise letter books, written in French, English, and Portuguese, contain the records of his transactions.
In 1712, in company with Andrew White and with William Fisher, the richest merchant of the island, he purchased a French prize ship and went to Europe to dispose of her. He had intended to wind up his affairs in the Azores and remove to Charleston, South Carolina, but the loss of part of the cargo, poor markets, and the cost of repairing the vessel at Amsterdam, forced him to return to the islands to make up his losses. The confidence that he inspired, notwithstanding the failure of this venture, is shown by the willingness of his partner to join in fresh ventures, and by his appointment as consul by the Dutch, French, and English governments. In 1719 he resigned these offices, sailed for Boston and thence to Charleston.
In the spring of 1720 he visited Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York in search of an opening for trade, but decided to settle in Boston, where he purchased land and built a wharf and still-house.
Amory was a man of prodigious activity, scrupulous in the protection of his business reputation, yet not above evading the Acts of Trade.
In 1719 Amory intended to marry Sarah, the daughter of Mrs. William Rhett, administratrix of his property since the death of his father in 1699. But he found that the daughter was promised to another, and that Mrs. Rhett was unwilling to relinquish the property except as the result of prolonged but finally successful litigation.
On May 9, 1721, he married Rebecca Holmes, the daughter of Francis Holmes, who owned the "Bunch of Grapes" tavern in Boston, although, as he writes, "Her fortune in it is but £500. " After his death, caused by falling into the cistern of his stillhouse, Mrs. Amory carried on the importing business and supervised the management of the distillery for nearly fifteen years.
