Amherst is a town in Amherst County, Virginia and the county seat. Amherst was founded as "The Oaks" in 1807, and it served as a stagecoach station on the Charlottesville-Lynchburg road before becoming the seat of the new Amherst County in the year of its foundation. The village was renamed for Jeffery Amherst, a British general and hero of the French and Indian War, who had served as Governor of Virginia from 1763 to 1768. Amherst was incorporated in 1910, and the General Assembly granted Amherst a charter in 1950. By 2019, Amherst had a population of 2,180 people. The county tended to vote Republican by a roughly 66% to 33% margin starting in 1972; in 2020, the town voted 64.93% Republican and 33.35% Democrat.
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