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AMYAND, Claudius (1718-74), of Langleybury, Herts.
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Biography Detail
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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 £2,500 per annum’,1 s.p. suc. fa. 1740.
Offices Held
Keeper of the King’s library 1745; under-sec. of state 1750-6; commr. of customs 1756-65; receiver of the land tax, Mdx. and London 1765-d.
Biography
Brought in for the Administration by Lord Falmouth, Amyand, the grandson of a Huguenot refugee, became Newcastle’s junior under-secretary in 1750. In 1751 he was made senior under-secretary to Holdernesse, but continued to correspond with Newcastle, sending him private letters received from Lord Granville, although directed by Holdernesse ‘not to send as being unofficial’. His excuse was that Granville wanted to ‘convey his thoughts to greater persons’; anyhow he did not doubt where his duty lay.
My respect and attention to some persons [he wrote to Newcastle, 6 Oct. 1752] as well as my submission to others has proceeded solely upon a principle of duty to your Grace, and of keeping up to that line, which, I thought, your goodness and confidence obliged me to observe.2
He also occasionally sent Newcastle particulars of debates and divisions in the Commons, e.g. on the marriage bill in 1753, but was not one of his regular parliamentary reporters. He was not happy where he was, writing of ‘the short time which I hope to continue in my present situation’.
He died 1 Apr. 1774.
