Elizabeth Frances Amherst (poet)

Elizabeth Frances Amherst (c. 1716 – 1779), was an English poet and amateur naturalist who remained largely unpublished during her lifetime.

Biography

Amherst was born c.1716 to Elizabeth Kerrill and Jeffrey Amherst (1677–1750) of Kent, one of two girls and seven boys. She married John Thomas, rector of Nutgrove, Cheshire, and of Welford, Gloucestershire; the couple had no children of their own and adopted a son, the child of a brother-in-law. One of her brothers, Jeffery, became Baron Amherst in 1776 and later became a field-marshal in the British Army: he was Commander-in-Chief of the British armed forces when they took Montreal in 1760.[1]

Amherst was an avid fossil collector and maintained an active correspondence on the subject both before and after her marriage. Her poetry, described as "sprightly",[2] would seem to have circulated mainly in manuscript, though a few poems were printed anonymously in the 1760s.[1]

Poems

Much of her writing is known from the Bodleian Library's manuscript, "The Whims of E.A. afterwards Mrs. Thomas."

  • A PRIZE RIDDLE ON HERSELF WHEN 24[3]
  • A SONG FOR THE SINGLE TABLE ON NEW YEAR'S DAY[4]
  • FROM A YOUNG WOMAN TO AN OLD OFFICER WHO COURTED HER[5]
  • THE WELFORD WEDDING[6]
  • VERSES DESIGNED TO BE SENT TO MR. ADAMS[7]

Sources
  1. Lonsdale, Roger, ed. "Elizabeth Frances Amherst (later Thomas)" in Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 179-185
  2. Greer et al. 179
  3. "Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PRIZE RIDDLE ON HERSELF WHEN 24, by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST". www.poetryexplorer.net. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  4. "Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SONG FOR THE SINGLE TABLE ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST". www.poetryexplorer.net. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  5. "Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FROM A YOUNG WOMAN TO AN OLD OFFICER WHO COURTED HER, by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST". www.poetryexplorer.net. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  6. "Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WELFORD WEDDING, by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST". www.poetryexplorer.net. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  7. "Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VERSES DESIGNED TO BE SENT TO MR. ADAMS, by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST". www.poetryexplorer.net. Retrieved 9 March 2020.


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