THE AMHERSTS: CONQUERORS and COMMANDERS
Lord Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, was the commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the Seven Years War. He led a successful siege of the French fortress of Louisbourg in 1758. On September 8, 1760, he accepted the surrender of Montreal, the final coup in the fall of New France. The city of Amherst in Nova Scotia was named in his honour.
Amherst acted humanely toward the conquered French Canadians, but his legacy is tarnished by letters he wrote to officers under his command during an uprising of Ottawa warriors under Chief Pontiac in 1763. The letters contemplated the use of hunting dogs and smallpox-infected blankets as instruments of warfare against First Nations and called for the “Total Extirpation” of the Ottawa people.
One of his brothers, Admiral John Amherst of the Royal Navy, fought in the Seven Years War in both Canada and India. He also played a role in capturing Fort St. David, near Pondicherry, India, from the French during the First Carnatic War, which pitted the East India Company against the Compagnie française des Indes orientales in the 1740s.
Lord Jeffery Amherst’s great-nephew, William Pitt Amherst, was appointed Governor General of India from 1823 to 1828. Under his reign the East India Company fought the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26), expelling the Burmese from Assam in northeast India and annexing the territory. During his term, the renowned Sanskrit College was established in Calcutta in 1824. It still functions as one of the prime educational institutions for studying ancient Indian languages and world history.