George Amyand


Sir George Amyand, 1st Baronet was a British Whig politician, physician and merchant.

Origins

He was the second son of Claudius Amyand, Surgeon-in-Ordinary to King George II, by his wife Mary Rabache, and was baptised at the fashionable St James's Church, Piccadilly. Claudius's father was a Huguenot who had quitted France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Career

Amyand was Army Contractor during the Seven Years' War, an assistant to the Russia Company in March 1756 and a director of the East India Company in 1760 and 1763. In that year, he bought the manor of Frilsham, Berkshire from Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon.
Between 1754 and 1766, Amyand sat as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, in North Devon. On 9 August 1764, he was created a baronet, of Moccas Court, in the County of Hereford.

Marriage and progeny

In 1748 he married Anna Maria Korteen, daughter of John Abraham Korteen, a German merchant of Hamburg, by whom he had two sons and two daughters:
Amyand died on 16 August 1766, aged 45, from unknown causes, and was buried at Carshalton a week later.

Monument

In the outer south aisle of All Saints Church, Carshalton is a white marble urn, with an inscription in his memory.

Barnstaple organ donation

He donated the present organ in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple, one of the largest in Devon, made by John Crang in 1764. It is decorated with his armorials: Vert, a chevron between three garbs or with an inescutcheon of unidentified arms.