Early life
Born the son of Jeffrey Amherst (d. 1750), a Kentish lawyer, and Elizabeth Amherst (née Kerrill), Jeffery Amherst was born in Sevenoaks, England, on 29 January 1717.Heathcote p. 23 At an early age, he became a page to the Duke of Dorset. Amherst became an ensign in the Grenadier Guards in 1735. Amherst served in the War of the Austrian Succession becoming an aide to General John Ligonier and participating in the Battle of Dettingen in June 1743 and theSeven Years' War
Germany
In February 1756, Amherst was appointedNorth America
French and Indian War
Amherst gained fame during the Seven Years' War, particularly in the North American campaign known in the United States as the French and Indian War when he led the British attack on Louisbourg onPontiac's War
The uprising of many Native American tribes in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region, commonly referred to as Pontiac (person), Pontiac's War after one of its most notable leaders, began in early 1763. From 1753, when the French first invaded the territory, to February 1763, when peace was formally declared between the English and French, the Six Nations and tenant tribes always maintained that both the French and the British must remain east of the Allegheny Mountains. After the British failed to keep their word to withdraw from the Ohio and Allegheny valleys, a loose confederation of Native American tribes including the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Senecas, the Mingoes, the Mohicans, the Miamis, the Ottawas and the Wyandots, who were opposed to British post-war occupation of the region, banded together in an effort to drive the British out of their territory. One of the most infamous and well-documented issues during Pontiac's War was the use of biological warfare against Native Americans and Amherst's role in supporting it. Henry Bouquet, Colonel Henry Bouquet, the commander of Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania), Fort Pitt, ordered Smallpox blanket, smallpox-infested blankets to be given Native Americans when a group of them Siege of Fort Pitt, laid siege to the fortification in June 1763. During a parley in midst of the siege on 24 June 1763, Captain Simeon Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Lenape, Delawares two blankets and a handkerchief enclosed in small metal boxes that had been exposed to smallpox, in an attempt to spread the disease to the Natives in order to end the siege. William Trent, the trader turned militia commander who had come up with the plan, sent an invoice to the British colonial authorities in North America indicating that the purpose of giving the blankets was "to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians." The invoice was approved by Thomas Gage, then serving as Commander-in-Chief, North America. Reporting on parleys with Delaware chiefs on 24 June, Trent wrote: '[We] gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect.' The military hospital records confirm that two blankets and handkerchiefs were 'taken from people in the Hospital to Convey the Smallpox to the Indians.' The fort commander paid for these items, which he certified 'were had for the uses above mentioned.' A reported outbreak that began the spring before left as many as one hundred Native Americans dead in Ohio Country from 1763 to 1764. It is not clear, however, whether the smallpox was a result of the Fort Pitt incident or the virus was already present among the Lenape, Delaware people as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years and the delegates were met again later and they seemingly had not contracted smallpox. A month later the use of smallpox blankets was discussed by Amherst himself in letters to Bouquet. Amherst, having learned that smallpox had broken out among the garrison at Fort Pitt, and after learning of the loss of his forts at Fort Venango, Venango, Fort Le Boeuf, Le Boeuf and Fort Presque Isle, Presqu'Isle, wrote to Colonel Bouquet:Fenn, Elizabeth ACould it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.Bouquet, who was already marching to relieve Fort Pitt from the siege, agreed with this suggestion in a postscript when he responded to Amherst just days later on 13 July 1763:
P.S. I will try to inocculate the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.In response, also in a postscript, Amherst replied:
P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.Amherst was summoned home, ostensibly so that he could be consulted on future military plans in North America, and was replaced ''pro tem'' as Commander-in-Chief, North America by Thomas Gage. Amherst expected to be praised for his conquest of Canada, however, once in London, he was instead asked to account for the recent Native American rebellion. He was forced to defend his conduct, and faced complaints made by William Johnson and George Croghan, who lobbied the Board of Trade for his removal and permanent replacement by Gage. He was also severely criticised by military subordinates on both sides of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, Amherst was promoted to lieutenant-general on 26 March 1765, and became colonel of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), 3rd Regiment of Foot in November 1768.Heathcote p. 25 On 22 October 1772, Amherst was appointed Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, and he soon gained the confidence of George III, who had initially hoped the position would go to a member of the Royal Family. On 6 November 1772, he became a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Privy Council.
American Revolutionary War
Amherst was raised to the peerage on 14 May 1776, as Baron Amherst, ''of Holmesdale in the County of Kent''. On 24 March 1778 he was promoted to full general and, in April 1778, he became Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, which gave him a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet. In 1778, when the British commander in North America, William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, William Howe, requested to be relieved, Amherst was considered as a replacement by the government: however, his insistence that it would require 75,000 troops to fully defeat the rebellion was not acceptable to the government, and Henry Clinton (American War of Independence), Henry Clinton was instead chosen to take over from Howe in America. Following the British setback at Battles of Saratoga, Saratoga, Amherst successfully argued for a limited war in North America, keeping footholds along the coast, defending Canada, East Florida, East and West Florida, and the West Indies while putting more effort into the war at sea. On 7 November 1778 George III of the United Kingdom, the King and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen visited Amherst at his home, Montreal Park, in Kent and on 24 April 1779 he became colonel of the Horse Grenadier Guards, 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. A long-standing plan of the French had been the concept of an invasion of Great Britain which they hoped would lead to a swift end to the war if it was successful: in 1779 Spain entered the war on the side of France, and the increasingly depleted state of British home forces made an invasion more appealing and Amherst organised Britain's land defences in anticipation of the invasion which never materialised.Gordon Riots
In June 1780, Amherst oversaw the British army as they suppressed the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London. After the outbreak of rioting Amherst deployed the small London garrison of Horse and Foot Guards as best as he could but was hindered by the reluctance of the civil magistrates to authorise decisive action against the rioters. Line troops and militia were brought in from surrounding counties, swelling the forces at Amherst's disposal to over 15,000, many of whom were quartered in tents in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, and a form of martial law was declared, giving the troops the authority to fire on crowds if the Riot Act had first been read. Although order was eventually restored, Amherst was personally alarmed by the failure of the authorities to suppress the riots. In the wake of the Gordon Riots, Amherst was forced to resign as Commander-in-Chief in February 1782 and was replaced by Henry Seymour Conway, Henry Conway. On 23 March 1782 he became captain and colonel of the 2nd Troop of Horse Guards.Later life
French Revolutionary Wars
On 8 July 1788, he became colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards and on 30 August 1788 he was created Baron Amherst (this time with the territorial designation ''of Montreal in the County of Kent'') with a special provision that would allow this title to pass to his nephew (as Amherst was childless, the Holmesdale title became extinct upon his death). With the advent of the French Revolutionary Wars, Amherst was recalled as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in January 1793: however is generally criticised for allowing the armed forces to slide into acute decline, a direct cause of the failure of the early campaigns in the Low Countries: William Pitt the Younger, Pitt the Younger said of him "his age, and perhaps his natural temper, are little suited to the activity and the energy which the present moment calls for". Horace Walpole called him "that log of wood whose stupidity and incapacity are past belief". "He allowed innumerable abuses to grow up in the army… He kept his command, though almost in his dotage, with a tenacity that cannot be too much censured".Family and death
In 1753 he married Jane Dalison (1723–1765). Following her death he married Elizabeth Cary (1740–1830), daughter of Lieutenant General George Cary (British Army officer), George Cary (1712–1792), who later became Lady Amherst of Holmesdale, on 26 March 1767. There were no children by either marriage. He retired from that post in February 1795, to be replaced by the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, Duke of York, and was promoted to the rank of Field marshal (United Kingdom), field marshal on 30 July 1796. He retired to his home at Montreal Park and died on 3 August 1797. He was buried in the Parish Church at Sevenoaks.Legacy
Several places are named for him: Amherstburg, Amherstburg, Ontario (location of General Amherst High School), Amherst, Massachusetts (location of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Hampshire College and Amherst College), Amherst, New Hampshire, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Amherst, New York and Amherst County, Virginia. Amherst's desire to exterminate the indigenous people is now viewed as a dark stain on his legacy and various agencies, municipalities and institutions have reconsidered the use of the name "Amherst". "The Un-Canadians", a 2007 article in ''The Beaver (magazine), The Beaver'', includes Amherst in a list of people in the history of Canada who are considered contemptible by the authors, because he "supported plans of distributing smallpox-infested blankets to First Nations people". In 2008, Mi'kmaq spiritual leader John Joe Sark called the name of Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst, Fort Amherst Park of Prince Edward Island a "terrible blotch on Canada", and said: "To have a place named after General Amherst would be like having a city in Jerusalem named after Adolf Hitler...it's disgusting." Sark raised his concerns again in a 29 January 2016 letter to the Canadian government. Mi'kmaq historian Daniel N. Paul, who referred to Amherst as motivated by white supremacist beliefs, also supports a name change, saying: "in the future I don't think there should ever be anything named after people who committed what can be described as crimes against humanity." In February 2016, a spokesperson for Parks Canada said it would review the matter after a proper complaint is filed; "Should there be a formal request from the public to change the name of the National Historic Site, Parks Canada would engage with the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada for its recommendation." An online petition was launched by Sark to satisfy this formal request requirement on 20 February 2016. The park is known as Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic Site and one of Parks Canada's partners for the site is the Mi'kmaq Confederacy of PEI. In 2009, Montreal City Councillor Nicolas Montmorency officially asked that Rue Amherst be renamed: "it is totally unacceptable that a man who made comments supporting the extermination of Native Americans to be honoured in this way". On 13 September 2017, the city of Montreal decided that the street bearing his name would be renamed. On 21 June 2019, the street was officially renamed ''Rue Atateken'', ''atateken'' being a Mohawk language, Kanien'kehá word describing "those with whom one shares values," according to Kanehsatake historian Hilda Nicholas. In 2016, Amherst College dropped its "Lord Jeffery" mascot at the instigation of the students. It also renamed the Lord Jeffery Inn, a campus hotel owned by the college, to the Inn on Boltwood in early 2019.See also
* List of Governors General of Canada * TurtleheartExplanatory notes
References
Citations
General bibliography
* Amherst, Jeffery (1931)External links