Amherst Manuscripts

Collection of papers relating to the Amherst family. The bulk of the papers are correspondence and official papers relating to Sir Jeffrey Amherst's military career.

The Amherst MSS. formerly at Montreal House, Riverhead, are composed of four distinct parts: (a) estate papers and accounts for the Kent, Essex and Surrey properties belonging to the family; (b) the personal and official papers of Sir Jeffery, 1st Baron Amherst, 1717-97; (c) papers relating to the third and subsequent Earls - all these groups being included in the deposit at Maidstone; and (d) papers of the 1st Earl Amherst who was Governor-General of Bengal, 1822-8, which are retained by the India Office Library. A number of manorial and other documents for the Montreal estate have been received at Maidstone as part of the Sevenoaks Public Library deposit and are listed as U1000/8 (see below).

While the catalogue of the Amherst MSS. has been arranged within the normal Office classification scheme, it has proved almost impossible in the case of Sir Jeffery's papers to distinguish between personal and official correspondence and the searcher is advised to examine both categories: e.g. C41 the letters from Sir Joseph Yorke while predominantly personal contain much official material for the German campaign of 1757; in contrast O80, miscellaneous American correspondence mostly reporting affairs at the beginning of the War of Independence contains some purely personal matter. So far as possible the Official papers have been arranged as follows:

Sir Jeffery Amherst:

O1-13 The European campaigns, 1740-58

O14-64 The American campaigns, 1758-63

O65-73, 91-97 Papers relating to the career, semi-retirement, honours and military offices of Sir Jeffery, 1764-1796

O74-90 The American War of Independence, 1775-81

O91-97, 98, 99 Miscellaneous military papers, 1771-8, and the final command, 1789-95

Lt. General William Amherst:

O100-106 The Newfoundland campaign, etc. 1758-62

Other papers:

O107-112

<span class="wrapper"><p>The papers listed as K. A. O. U1000/8 comprise court rolls, rentals, drafts, etc. for</p> <p>the manor of Chevening, 1621-1914; the manor of Sundridge (Weald and Upland), 1394-1944, including a survey in the Court of Augmentation of the lands of Sir Henry Isley, attainted for High Treason, 1554; and the manor or purpresture of Otford, 1388-1940.</p></span>

Deposited by the Rt.Hon. the Earl Amherst per the India Office Library, February 1968