George Amyand

He was the second son of Claudius Amyand, Surgeon-in-Ordinary to King George II,[2] by his wife Mary Rabache, and was baptised at the fashionable St James's Church, Piccadilly.[1] Claudius's father was a Huguenot who had quitted France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.[2]

Amyand was Army Contractor during the Seven Years' War,[3] an assistant to the Russia Company in March 1756 and a director of the East India Company in 1760 and 1763.[4] In that year, he bought the manor of Frilsham, Berkshire from Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon.[5]

Between 1754 and 1766, Amyand sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnstaple,[6] in North Devon. On 9 August 1764, he was created a baronet, of Moccas Court, in the County of Hereford.[7]

In 1748 he married Anna Maria Korteen (d. 1767), daughter of John Abraham Korteen (alias Kerton[2]), a German merchant of Hamburg,[4] by whom he had two sons and two daughters:[2]

• Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet (1748–1819), eldest son and heir, who changed his surname and arms to Cornewall following his marriage to the heiress of that family.
• John Amyand (1751–1780 ), MP for Camelford.
• Anna-Maria Amyand (1752–1829), married Gilbert Elliot, 1st Earl of Minto (after whom the Lady Elliot was probably named).[8]
• Harriet Maria Amyand (1761–1830), married James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury

Amyand died on 16 August 1766, aged 45, from unknown causes, and was buried at Carshalton a week later.[1]

In the outer south aisle of All Saints Church, Carshalton is a white marble urn, with an inscription in his memory.[9][10]

He donated the present organ in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple, one of the largest in Devon, made by John Crang in 1764.[11] It is decorated with his armorials: Vert, a chevron between three garbs or[2] with an inescutcheon of unidentified arms.