The Earl Amherst | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William | |
| In office 1 August 1823 – 13 March 1828 | |
| Monarch | George IV |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | John Adam (Acting Governor-General) |
| Succeeded by | William Butterworth Bayley (Acting Governor-General) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1773-01-14)14 January 1773 |
| Died | 13 March 1857(1857-03-13) (aged 84) Knole House, Kent |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, includingSarah andWilliam |
| Parents |
|
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl AmherstGCH PC (14 January 1773 – 13 March 1857) was a British diplomat and colonial administrator who served as theGovernor-General of the Presidency of Fort William from 1823 to 1828.
Born atBath, Somerset, Amherst was the son ofWilliam Amherst and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Paterson. He was the grand-nephew ofJeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, and succeeded to his title in 1797 according to a special remainder in theletters patent. He matriculated atChrist Church, Oxford on 13 October 1789, receiving a BA in 1793 and anMA in 1797.[1]
In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China'sQing dynasty, with a view of establishing more satisfactory commercial relations between China and Great Britain. On arriving atPei Ho (Baihe, today's Haihe), he was given to understand that he could only be admitted to theJiaqing Emperor's presence on condition of performing thekowtow. To this, Amherst, following the advice ofSir George Thomas Staunton, who accompanied him as second commissioner, refused to consent, asMacartney had done in 1793, unless the admission was made that his sovereign was entitled to the same show of reverence from amandarin of his rank. As a consequence of this, he was refused entry intoPeking (Beijing), and the object of his mission was frustrated.[2]
His ship, theAlceste, after a cruise along the coast ofKorea and to theRyukyu Islands on proceeding homewards, was totally wrecked on a submerged rock inGaspar Strait. Amherst and part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship's boats toBatavia, whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship in which he returned to England in 1817 touched atSt Helena and, as a consequence, he had several interviews with the emperorNapoleon (see Ellis'sProceedings of the Late Embassy to China, 1817; McLeod's Narrative of a Voyage in H.M.S.Alceste, 1817).[2] There is undocumented speculation that in one of the interviews, Napoleon said, "China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep. For when she wakes, she will shake the world."[3]
Amherst wasGovernor-General of India from August 1823 to February 1828. The principal events of his government were the annexation ofAssam leading to thefirst Burmese war of 1824, resulting in the cession ofArakan andTenasserim to theBritish Empire.[2][4]
Amherst's appointment came on the heels of the removal of Governor-GeneralLord Hastings in 1823. Hastings had clashed with London over the issue of lowering the field pay of officers in the Bengal Army, a measure that he was able to avoid through successive wars againstNepal and theMarathan Confederacy. However, his refusal in the early 1820s during peacetime to lower field pay, resulted in the appointment of Amherst, who was expected to carry out the demands from London.
However, Amherst was an inexperienced governor who was, at least in the early days of his tenure in Calcutta, influenced heavily by senior military officers in Bengal such asSir Edward Paget. He inherited a territorial dispute fromJohn Adam, the acting Governor-General prior to his arrival, which involved the Anglo-Burmese border on the Naaf River and this spilled over into violence on 24 September 1823. Unwilling to lose face in a time of Burmese territorial aggression, Amherst ordered the troops in.
The war was to last two years, with a price tag of 13 million pounds, contributing to an economic crisis in India. It was only due to the efforts of powerful friends such asGeorge Canning and theDuke of Wellington that Amherst was not recalled in disgrace at the end of the war.
The war significantly changed Amherst's stance on Burma, and he now adamantly refused to annexe Lower Burma, but he did not succeed in repairing his reputation entirely, and he was replaced in 1828. He was createdEarl Amherst, of Arracan in theEast Indies, andViscount Holmesdale, in the County of Kent, in 1826. On his return to England he lived in retirement till his death in March 1857.[2]
Lord Amherst married twice and, remarkably, both his wives were dowager countesses of Plymouth. His first wife wasSarah, Dowager Countess of Plymouth (1762–1838), daughter ofAndrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer and widow ofOther Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth (died 1799). She was more than ten years older than him, and the mother of several children. They were married in 1800 and had three sons (Jeffrey, William, and Frederick),[5] as well as a daughterLady Sarah Elizabeth Pitt Amherst. Sarah died in May 1838, aged 76, after about 38 years of marriage.Lady Amherst's pheasant was named after Sarah; it was at her instigation that the species was introduced from Asia to Bedfordshire. The genusAmherstia, a Burmese flowering tree, is also named after her.
In 1839, a year after the death of his first wife, Lord Amherst, aged 66, married the widowed daughter-in-law of his first wife. This wasMary, Dowager Countess of Plymouth (1792–1864), elder daughter and co-heiress ofJohn Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset and his wifeArabella Diana Cope. She was also the widow of his stepsonOther Windsor, 6th Earl of Plymouth (1789–1833). Although this was an unusual marriage, it was not forbidden by either Church law or civil law. His second wife had no children, from either of her marriages.
Lord Amherst died on 13 March 1857, aged 84 atKnole House inKent, the seat of the Dukes of Dorset, a property which his second wife had inherited. He was survived by his second wife, Lady Amherst, heiress ofKnole, who died on 20 July 1864, aged 71, atBournemouth.[6] Lord Amherst was succeeded in his titles by his second and only surviving son,William.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amherst, William Pitt Amherst, Earl".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 852.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by John Adam (acting) | Governor-General of India 1823–1828 | Succeeded by William Butterworth Bayley (acting) |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Baron Amherst 1797–1857 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Earl Amherst 1826–1857 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| Other | |