Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst (sometimes spelled
Geoffrey, or
Jeffrey, he himself spelled his name as
Jeffery) (
January 29,
1717 –
August 3,
1797) served as an officer in the
British Army.
Born in
Sevenoaks, England, he became a soldier at approximately the age of 14. He gained fame during the
Seven Years' War, particularly in the North American campaign known in the United States as the
French and Indian War.
In 1758 Amherst led the British
attack on Louisbourg, and as commander-in-chief of the British army in North America, helped the British seize most
French territory in
Canada. In 1759 he led an advance up
Lake Champlain, assisting in
Wolfe's capture of
Quebec City. On
September 8,
1760, he captured
Montreal, ending French rule in North America. He infuriated the French commanders by refusing them the "honours of war" (the ceremonial right to retain their flags); the
Duke of Lévis burned the colours rather than surrendering them. Amherst held the position of military
governor of Canada from 1760 to 1763.
The hostility between the British and
Native Americans after the French and Indian War led to one of the first documented attempts at biological warfare in North American history. In response to the 1763 uprising known as
Pontiac's Rebellion, Amherst suggested using
smallpox as a weapon for ending the rebellion. In a series of letters to his subordinate Colonel
Henry Bouquet, the two men discussed the possibility of infecting the attacking Indians with smallpox through gifts of blankets that had been exposed to the disease. Apparently unbeknownst to both Amherst and Bouquet, the commander at
Fort Pitt had already attempted this very tactic. Although Amherst's name is usually connected with this incident because he was the overall commander and because of his correspondence with Bouquet, evidence appears to indicate that the attempt was made without Amherst's prior knowledge. Whether or not the attempt was successful is unclear. (See
Pontiac's Rebellion for more details.)
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Jeffrey Amherst by Thomas Gainsborough, circa 1789 |
After the taking of Montreal in 1760, Amherst built Montreal House in his native Sevenoaks, Kent, for his seat. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the house and family hosted an annual summer picnic for the children educated at the junior school they established in the village of Riverhead; the school still bears Amherst's coat of arms. With the decline of the family's fortunes the house was knocked down in the late 20th century to make way for a housing development; only a single obelisk and the octangular gatehouse remain.
The towns of
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada, location of General Amherst High School,
Amherst, Massachusetts, location of
Amherst College;
Amherst, New Hampshire;
Amherst, Nova Scotia;
Amherst, New York;
Amherst County, Virginia; and
Amherst Island Ontario were named for him.
See also: List of Canadian Governors General*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
Historical Biographies: Jeffrey Amherst*
Amherst and Smallpox*Long, J.C.
Lord Jeffery Amherst: A Soldier of the King. New York: MacMillan, 1933.
*Amherst and the conquest of Canada : selected papers from the correspondence of Major-General Jeffrey Amherst while Commander-in-Chief in North America from September 1758 to December 1760 / edited by Richard Middleton. Stroud : Sutton Publishing for the Army Records Society, 2003. ISBN 0750931426.
