Editing Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst (section)

== Later life ==
===French Revolutionary Wars===
On 8 July 1788, he became colonel of the [[2nd Regiment of Life Guards]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=13005|page=325|date=5 July 1788}}</ref> and on 30 August 1788 he was created Baron Amherst (this time with the [[territorial designation]] ''of Montreal in the County of Kent'') with a special provision that would allow this title to pass to his nephew (as Amherst was childless, the Holmesdale title became extinct upon his death).<ref name=gazmtl>{{London Gazette|issue=13020|page=413|date=26 August 1788}}</ref> 

With the advent of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]], Amherst was recalled as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in January 1793: however is generally criticised for allowing the armed forces to slide into acute decline, a direct cause of the failure of the early campaigns in the Low Countries: [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt the Younger]] said of him "his age, and perhaps his natural temper, are little suited to the activity and the energy which the present moment calls for".<ref>Burne p. 209</ref> [[Horace Walpole]] called him "that log of wood whose stupidity and incapacity are past belief".<ref>Burne p. 227</ref> "He allowed innumerable abuses to grow up in the army… He kept his command, though almost in his dotage, with a tenacity that cannot be too much censured".<ref>Burne p. 228</ref>

===Family and death===
In 1753 he married Jane Dalison (1723–1765).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:74280 |title=William Amherst letter to Jane Dalison Amherst, 1758|access-date=14 September 2017}}</ref> Following her death he married Elizabeth Cary (1740–1830), daughter of Lieutenant General [[George Cary (British Army officer)|George Cary]] (1712–1792),<ref>G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 121. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.</ref> who later became Lady Amherst of Holmesdale, on 26 March 1767.<ref name=odnb/> There were no children by either marriage.<ref name=odnb/> He retired from that post in February 1795, to be replaced by the [[Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany|Duke of York]], and was promoted to the rank of [[Field marshal (United Kingdom)|field marshal]] on 30 July 1796.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=13918|page=743|date=2 August 1796}}</ref> He retired to his home at [[Montreal Park]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.montrealpark.org.uk/history/history.htm|title=A History of Montreal Park|first=David|last=Nunnerley|access-date=22 April 2012|archive-date=20 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720202424/http://www.montrealpark.org.uk/history/history.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> and died on 3 August 1797.<ref name=heath25/> He was buried in the Parish Church at [[Sevenoaks]].<ref name=odnb/>

<gallery widths="170px" heights="200px">
File:Elizabeth, Lady Amherst (1740-1830) by Joshua Reynolds.jpg|On 26 March 1767 Jeffrey Amherst married Elizabeth, daughter of General George Cary (portrait by [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]], 1767).
File:Jeffrey Amherst.jpg|Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, by [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]].
</gallery>