Amherst, William Pitt, 1st Earl Amherst (1773 -1857)

William Pitt Amherst was the son of Lieutenant General William Amherst, of Bath, and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 13 October 1789, and took his B.A. in 1793, and his M.A. in 1797, he succeeded his uncle, Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, as 2nd Baron Amherst in 1797. He was employed on a diplomatic mission in Italy during the Napoleonic wars, and on his return was made a Lord of the Bedchamber, and was sent as Ambassador to China 1816 1817, an embassy which was a failure through no fault on his part. He was shipwrecked on the way home in the Alceste. From 1822 1827 he was Governor General of Bengal, and was created Viscount Holmesdale and Earl Amherst of Aracan in the East Indies 2 December 1826. He married, 24 July 1800, Sarah, daughter and coheir of Andrew, 2nd Baron Archer, and widow of Other Hickman, 5th Earl of Plymouth. Books from his library were sold in London 26-28 July 1926 at Sotheby’s.