Marie Collings (née Allaire; 1791–1853), sometimes referred to as Mary Collings, was a wealthy

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

heiress who ruled as

Dame ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...

Sark Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) 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 l ...

(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 A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

John Allaire John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, who had obtained the mortgage on the

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

shortly before his death. The island's then-ruling seigneur,

Pierre Carey le Pelley Pierre Carey le Pelley was Seigneur of Sark from 1849 to 1852. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver Mining, mine on the island, le Pelley's father Ernest le Pelley had obtained The Crown#Crown Dependencies, crown pe ...

, soon had no option but to sell the fief to Collings, but she never actively governed it.

Background

Collings was born into a wealthy family from

, one of the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. She was one of the two daughters of the

(1762–1846), the other one being Catherine Allaire. Her father was reputedly the most affluent man in Guernsey, whose fortune appears to have stemmed not only from privateering during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, but also from outright

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. She was married to Thomas Guérin Collings,

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

of the Town and Parish of

Saint Peter Port St. Peter Port (french: Saint-Pierre Port) is a town and one of the ten parishes on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2019 was 18,958. St. ...

. The couple had a son,

William Thomas Collings William Thomas Collings (4 September 1823 – 7 March 1882) was a clergyman of the Church of England who served as Seigneur of Sark from 1853 to 1882. Ecclesiastical career Collings was the son of Marie and Thomas Guerin Collings (1786–1832 ...

(1823–1882), and several daughters. Collings' husband died in 1832.

Mortgage

On 24 February 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the

silver mine Silver mining is the extraction of silver from minerals, starting with mining. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires elaborate technologies. In 2008, ca.25,900 metric tons were consumed ...

on the island, the then-

Seigneur of Sark 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 b ...

Ernest le Pelley obtained crown permission to mortgage the

of Sark for £4,000 to Collings' father. The latter died within two years, leaving his wealth to his daughters. The mortgage and the

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

of the island of Jethou passed to Collings. The mine closed in 1847, two years after the uninsured collapse of its deepest gallery, and when Ernest le Pelley died in 1849 his successor,

, was unable to keep up his mortgage payments to Collings. She then decided to

foreclose Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mort ...

the mortgage, forcing him to seek

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

's permission to sell the seigneurie of Sark on 10 November 1852. The widowed Marie Collings bought it on 4 December for £6,000 less the sum borrowed and an accumulated interest of £616.13s, for a total of £1,383.

Seigneurship

By the time she became Dame of Sark, she was already too old to actively participate in the government of the island. She never visited it during her tenure, "to the regret of the Sark people".

La Seigneurie La Seigneurie is the traditional residence of the Seigneur of Sark. The Seigneur is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands. Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark Seigneur John Michael Beaumont (20 December 1927 – 3 July 2016) was ...

, official residence of the ruler of Sark, was modernised and extended during Collings' brief rule, just like it was in the 1730s, when another widow, Susanne le Pelley, bought the fief. Collings meanwhile resided in Guernsey, and was represented in Sark by her only son and

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

, the Anglican priest William Thomas Collings. He succeeded her as seigneur of Sark upon her death in 1853, less than a year after the purchase. She was also survived by a daughter, Catherine Ann Allaire Ozanne (1826–1879). The island remains in Collings' family; her descendant Christopher Beaumont is the current seigneur.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, Marie 1791 births 1853 deaths Seigneurs of Sark Guernsey women 19th-century women rulers