Family and Education

b. 10 Aug. 1718, 1st s. of Claudius Amyand, serjeant-surgeon to George II, by Marie, da. of Daniel Rabache. educ. Westminster 1726; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1736; L. Inn 1734, called 1742. m. 26 Nov. 1761, Frances, da. of Rev. Thomas Payne, wid. of George Compton, 6th Earl of Northampton, ‘a very amiable woman with a jointure of £2500 per annum’,1 s.p. suc. fa. 1740.

Offices Held

Keeper of the King’s Lib. 1745; under-sec. of state 1750-6; commr. of customs 1756-65; receiver of land tax, Mdx. and London 1765- d.

Biography

Amyand was a Government official, of no consequence in Parliament. At the general election of 1754 he was offered a seat at Bossiney for £1,500, but declined, ‘not being able to bear the expense’;2 and he was brought in on the Government interest at Sandwich. Retained in office by Robinson, and next ‘on the same footing’ by Fox,3 he was removed in 1756 by Pitt to the Board of Customs, according to Chesterfield ‘because nobody liked him’.4 In 1765 he gave that up ‘with great pleasure’5 for the lucrative office of receiver of the land tax for Middlesex and London.

Amyand died 1 Apr. 1774.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Geo. Amyand to Sir Jas. Porter, 8 Dec. 1761, Egerton 2157, f. 3.
• 2. Add. 32995, ff. 110-12.
• 3. Robinson to Edw. Weston, 30 Oct. 1755, HMC 10th Rep. I, 310.
• 4. Chesterfield to Dayrolles, 7 Jan. 1758, Add. 32877 f. 62.
• 5. Amyand to Bute, Jan. 1765, Add. 5726C, f. 5.