Member of North Carolina Senate, 1788, 1789; representing Hawkins County (then North Carolina, now Tennessee). Born in Middlesex County, Virginia, on January 1, 1744; son of John and Mary (Dillard) Amis. Married (1st) in Northampton County, North Carolina, on January 26, 1763, to Alice Gale, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Griffith) Gale. Eleven children–Tabitha (Mrs. John Cox), Frances (Mrs. Richard Grantham), Mary (Mrs. Joseph Rogers), Elizabeth, John Rachel (Mrs. James Hagan), Willis, Lincoln, Alice Gale (Mrs. John Gordon), Thomas Gale and Penelope Amis. He was married (2nd) on March 26, 1787, to Lucy Haynes, daughter of Francis and Ann (Smith) Haynes; four children — Haynes, William, James, and Nancy Amis (Mrs. Jesse Howell). Amis went to what is now Hawkins County c. 1781, erected a stone house three miles above Rogersville, around which he built a fort for protection against the Indians; shortly thereafter added a store, blacksmith ship, distillery, grust and saw mills, a tavern, school, forge, and post office. Amis had previously been a member of the Provincial Congress, 1776; a justice of the peace; served as superintendent of commissary, with the rank of captain in the 3rd Regiment of Continental troops. Member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Died at his home on Big Creek in Hawkins County on November 18, 1797; buried at that place. Father of James Amis; grandfather of John A. Rogers, sometime members Tennessee General Assembly.

Sources: Williams, Lost State of Franklin, 315-16; Rosters and Soldiers, 196; Acklen, Tombstone Inscriptions, 188; Ray, Tennessee Cousins. 85; Hawkins County Miscellaneous Records, pp. 1-8, 27; Hawkins County Will Book I, 1797-1886, p. 1; information supplied by Prentiss Price, Rogersville.

From Biographical Directory: Tennessee General Assembly, 1796-1967, Issue 3