Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 26 - Amyand
Amyand, Baronet. — Isaac Amiand, aliàs Amyand, and his family were refugees from Mornac in Xaintonge. They were naturalised at Westminster on 9th September 1698 (see List xxiii.) — viz., Isaac Amiand; Anne, his wife; and Charles, Isaac, Claudius, John, Theodore, Benjamin, and Mary, their children. The patriarchal refugee died on 1 8th September 1704; his wife, whose maiden name was Ann Hottot, survived till 1728. The eldest son, Charles, was the father of Isaac Amyand of Charles Town, South Carolina, who died in London in 1739, unmarried, his executor in England being his uncle Claudius, and in Charles Town Gabriel Manigault. The second son of the refugee, Isaac, served in the Royal Navy, and died in 1721. The third son Claudius Amyand, the founder of the English family, was Principal Surgeon to George II., and F.R.S.; he married, on 5th November 1717, Marie Rabache, the officiating clergyman being his uncle, Rev. Daniel Amiand. The great surgeon died on 6th July 1740, and his widow survived till 1760. They had two eminent sons:—
(1.) Claudius Aymand, born 10th August 1718. He became Keeper of the King’s Library in 1745. In 1750 he was an Under-Secretary of State. He was made a Commissioner of Customs on 10th December 1756, and his name remains in the list of Commissioners till 1765, when he received the appointment of Receiver-General of the Land Tax for Middlesex, London, and Westminster. On that occasion he addressed the following note to the Earl of Bute:—
“Mount Street, January 29, 1765. — My Lord, Persuaded as I have always been of your kind intentions to me whilst in office, and that an agreeable event to me would not be displeasing to you, I took the liberty last week of waiting upon your Lordship to acquaint you with my expectation of being appointed Receiver-General of the Land Tax for Middlesex, London, and Westminster; and as my commission is now passing, I shall soon leave the Board of Customs with great pleasure. — I have the honour to be, with true respect, my Lord, your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant,
He married in 1761 the Dowager Countess of Northampton, and died on 1st April 1774.
(2.) George Amyand was born 26th September 1720; he was a Hamburg merchant, a Director of the East India Company, and M.P. for Barnstaple. He married in 1746 Anna Maria, daughter of John Abraham Corteen, Hamburg merchant. He was created a baronet on 4th August 1764. He latterly resided in the country, and Colonel Ruvigny De Cosne was his factor or agent in London. He died on 16th August 1766, and was buried at Carshalton in Surrey. His descendants were — 1st, Sir George, second baronet (ancestor of Rev. George Henry Cornewall, Bart); 2nd, John, M.P. for Camelford (unmarried); 3rd, Anna Maria, Countess of Minto, ancestress of the present Earl; 4th, Harriet, Countess of Malmesbury, ancestress of the present Earl, and of the late Charles Amyand Harris, D.D., Bishop of Gibraltar. A maternal grandson of the second Sir George was the late Right Hon. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart., M.P., Secretary of State, and a learned author.
Another brother of Sir George Amyand, the first baronet, was Rev. Thomas Amyand (born 1728, died 1762), some time rector of Favvley in Buckinghamshire; he married Frances, daughter of William Rider of Madeira, and had three children — Thomas, Frances (Mrs. Haggard), and Charlotte. Mr. Smiles mentions that Amyand House, Twickenham, has descended to Mrs. Haggard’s heirs. The last-named Thomas was a Director of the Bank of England, and died in 1805, aged forty-two. (See the Amyand Pedigree by Henry Wagner, F.S.A.)
- ↑ Musgrave Collection of Autographs in the British Museum, vol. iii.