Sark is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population of about 500. Sark has an area of 2.10 square miles (5.44 km2). Little Sark is a peninsula joined by a natural but high and very narrow isthmus to the rest of Sark Island.
The Seigneur of Sark is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands. "Seigneur" is the French word for "lord", and a female head of Sark is called Dame of Sark, of which there have been three. The husband of a female ruler of Sark is not a consort but is jure uxoris a seigneur himself.
Seigneur John Michael Beaumont was the twenty-second Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He worked as a civil engineer before succeeding his paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway, the 21st Dame of Sark, in 1974. During his rule, Beaumont saw the loss of many feudal rights enjoyed by the seigneurs, and he was consequently often described as the "last feudal baron".
Dame Sibyl Mary Hathaway was Dame of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974. Her 47-year rule over Sark, in the Channel Islands, spanned the reigns of four monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
William Frederick Collings was seigneur of Sark from 1882 until his death. One of the most eccentric lords of the island, he was known for his anti-clericalism, stubbornness, intemperance and generosity.
William Thomas Collings was a clergyman of the Church of England who served as Seigneur of Sark from 1853 to 1882.
Marie Collings, sometimes referred to as Mary Collings, was a wealthy Guernsey heiress who ruled as Dame of Sark (island) from 1852 to 1853, being the island's second female ruler and the first holder of the fief from the presently ruling seigneurial family. She inherited the fortune of her father, the privateer John Allaire, who had obtained the mortgage on the fief shortly before his death. The island's then-ruling seigneur, Pierre Carey le Pelley, soon had no option but to sell the fief to Collings, but she never actively governed it.
Pierre Carey le Pelley was Seigneur of Sark from 1849 to 1852. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, le Pelley's father Ernest le Pelley had obtained crown permission to mortgage the Fief of Sark for £4,000 to John Allaire, a local privateer. In 1845 the ceiling of the mine's deepest gallery collapsed. The company was uninsured for this, and was finally closed in 1847. Pierre was unable to keep up his mortgage payments and was forced to sell the seigneurie of Sark to Marie Collings, John Allaire's daughter and heiress, for £6,000.
Ernest le Pelley, 16th Seigneur of Sark (1801–1849) was Seigneur of Sark from 1839 to 1849. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, he obtained crown permission to mortgage the Fief of Sark for £4,000 to John Allaire, a local privateer. In 1845 the ceiling of the mine's deepest gallery collapsed. The company was uninsured for this, and was finally closed in 1847. Le Pelley's heir, Pierre Carey le Pelley was unable to keep up his mortgage payments and was forced to sell the seigneurie of Sark to Marie Collings, John Allaire's daughter and heiress, for £6,000.
Susanne le Pelley, Dame of Sark was the 10th Seigneur of Sark from 1730 to 1733. She was the first woman to have the position and rule the fief of Sark.
Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands, located off the west coast of Sark where they are now geographically detached from each other. Brecqhou is politically part of both Sark and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It has been established in the courts that Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark. The Ministry of Justice, the department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for the Channel Islands, considers Brecqhou part of Sark.
Little Sark is a peninsula forming the southern section of the Channel Island of Sark. There is a hamlet here, and also a guesthouse and cafe at La Sablonnerie.
General elections were held in Sark on 10 December 2008, the first elections on the island.
Dudley John Beaumont was a British Army officer and painter. He was the first husband of Sibyl Hathaway, 21st Seigneur of Sark, and grandfather of her successor, Michael Beaumont.
Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont, also known as F. W. L. C. Beaumont or “Buster" Beaumont, was the heir to the Seigneur of Sark, a Royal Air Force officer, film producer and the husband of actress Mary Lawson. He and Lawson were killed in 1941 during the Liverpool Blitz.
Robert Woodward Hathaway was jure uxoris seigneur of Sark from 1929 until his death. An American by birth, his rule spanned the reigns of four monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
Louisa Elizabeth Collings was an amateur lichenologist and natural history collector from the Channel Islands. She was the wife of William Thomas Collings, Seigneur of Sark, and an ancestor of all subsequent seigneurs.
Seigneur or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of title or land tenure—as a fief, with its associated obligations and rights over person and property. In this sense, a seigneur could be an individual—male or female, high or low-born—or a collective entity, typically a religious community such as a monastery, seminary, college, or parish. In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854. Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.
The island of Sark forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey which with the Bailiwick of Jersey form the Channel Islands. Offered the opportunity to evacuate the island in June 1940, most locally born islanders decided to stay. The 470 civilians who remained on the island would be subject to German rule for the next five years, until Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945. The main contact between the Sark residents and the German authorities in 1940 was 56-year old Sibyl Hathaway, the Dame of Sark, who was Seigneur of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974.
Christopher Beaumont, 23rd Seigneur of Sark is the present Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He is a former British Army officer.
