Description
Our Inspiration
A necklace of gold plated hematite beads with a central oval white pearl, on a gold plated lobster clasp.
Sarah Amherst née Archer 1762-1838
Sarah Archer was born on 9th July 1762, the daughter of Andrew Archer and Sarah West. Sarah was a notable botanist. In 1778 she married her first cousin Other Hickman Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth. They had several children together.
Following the 5th Earl of Plymouth’s death in 1799, Sarah (now Dowager Countess of Plymouth) married William Pitt Amherst, Baron (later 1st Earl) Amherst, in 1800. They had 4 children, including, Lady Sarah Elizabeth whose daughters Margaret Maria and Maude Sarah Hay Williams married brothers Sir Edmund Hope Verney and Frederick Verney. The family lived at Montreal Park near Sevenoaks.
William Pitt Amherst was a diplomat. In 1816 he was sent on an ambassadorial mission to China to try to improve trade between the two countries. However, it became clear on arrival that he would be expected to perform the kowtow ceremony in order to meet the Emperor and, in line with British policy, he refused to do so unless it was agreed that a similar reverence was due to the British sovereign. As a result he was refused entry to Peking.
He was ship-wrecked on the journey home, but survived and continued his journey home, visiting St Helena en route, where he had several interviews with Napoleon. In 1823 he was appointed Governor General of India and the family left England to accompany him. Lady Amherst kept detailed diaries covering the whole of their journey to India and their residence there, which are held by Amherst College, Massachusetts. Their daughter Lady Sarah Elizabeth Amherst (later Hay-Williams) also documented their stay in India in her journals and sketchbooks, which are held in the Archive at Claydon. William Pitt Amherst was created 1st Earl Amherst and Viscount Holmesdale in 1826, returning to England at the end of his service in India in 1828.
Sarah Archer, Countess Amherst and former Countess of Plymouth died in 1838 and the following year her widower William Pitt Amherst 1st Earl Amherst married his late wife’s daughter-in-law, Lady Mary née Sackville, Countess of Plymouth, widow of Sarah Archer’s son, the 6th Earl of Plymouth.
The portrait is a copy by Shepperson of an original portrait painted in 1802 by Sir Thomas Lawrence and now in the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Massachusetts.
