Pierre Carey le Pelley was Seigneur of Sark from 1849 to 1852. In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

on the island, le Pelley's father

Ernest le Pelley 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 Mining, mine on the island, he obtained The Crown#Crown Dependencies, crown permissi ...

had obtained crown permission to mortgage 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 ...

of Sark for £4,000 to John Allaire, a local

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 ...

. 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 Marie Collings (née Allaire; 1791–1853), 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 ...

, John Allaire's daughter and heiress, for £6,000.F.Cohen and N. Bird ''Silver in the Channel Islands''. Jersey Heritage Trust. pp. 85-86

References

Seigneurs of Sark Pierre Carey {{Guernsey-bio-stub