William Thomas Collings (4 September 1823 – 7 March 1882) was a clergyman of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

who served as

Seigneur ''Seigneur'' 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. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

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 ...

from 1853 to 1882.

Ecclesiastical career

Collings was the son of

Marie Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tr ...

and Thomas Guerin Collings (1786–1832). His maternal grandfather, the

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 ...

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 ...

, was mortgaged the fief of

by the island's seigneur, Ernest le Pelley, in 1844. By 1852, both the Seigneur and Collings' grandfather were dead. The Seigneur's successor,

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 ...

, was unable to pay the mortgage and thus had to sell Sark to Marie Collings, Allaire's heiress. Collings was ordained a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

of the

the same year at the

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a ...

, where he served as

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

prior to being ordained as a priest the following year. The Guernsey historian James Marr denies that he ever became canon of the Wells Cathedral, calling it a "frequently repeated but entirely false assertion".

Seigneurship

Collings' mother died only a year after becoming ruler of Sark, and he inherited the fief. Much like the Le Pelleys had done when they purchased the fief a century earlier, Collings used the family fortune–acquired by privateering–to expand and renovate his residence,

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 ...

. Like his predecessor, he bought the neighbouring

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 ...

and thus gained third vote in the

Chief Pleas 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 ...

. As seigneur, Collings was keen on improving the welfare of the community. He improved schooling and encouraged the construction of small hotels, seeking to encourage the newly developed industry of tourism. His priority was to provide for the defence of the island, whose militia he was very proud of. Collings was determined to make up for the years of his predecessors' seigneurial neglect, and he used his personal resources for that end. In 1855, in keeping with his ecclesiastical background, Collings gave land to the church for a new cemetery and, striving to discourage vice, had a prison constructed on the island. In 1864, he offered a house for the use of Sark's schoolmaster on the condition that he was an Anglican, and in doing so greatly offended the numerous Methodists in the

. He was a member of the

Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

from 1853–54.Members of the Royal Photographic Society 1853-1901 http://rpsmembers.dmu.ac.uk/rps_results.php?mid=70 Accessed 28 April 2019. Collings loved Sark but, like the Pelleys, only used it as a summer residence, preferring to spend winters in the neighbouring island of Guernsey. On 28 November 1872, Collings was sailing from Sark to spend the winter on Guernsey when the vessel hit a rock and sank. The Seigneur narrowly escaped drowning, but never recovered his baggage, which contained the original charter of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

's 1565 grant of Sark to

Helier de Carteret Hellier de Carteret (floruit, fl. 1563 – 1578) was the first List of seigneurs of Sark, Seigneur of Sark, reigning from 1563 to 1578. He was the son of Édouard de Carteret, Seigneur of Saint Ouen (d. 1533), and grandson of Philip de Carteret, ...

. A copy of the charter remains preserved in the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

in London.

Family

Collings married his cousin Louisa, an amateur lichenologist and collector, on 15 June 1847. The ceremony was conducted by her brother,

William Collings Lukis Rev. William Collings Lukis MA. FSA (8 April 1817 in Guernsey – 7 December 1892 in Wath, North Riding of Yorkshire) was a British antiquarian, archeologist and polymath. William Collings Lukis was the third son of Frederick Corbin Luk ...

, at St Saviour's Church. They had four daughters and two sons, William Frederick (1852–1927) and Henry de Vic (1855–1872). William Frederick, the

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 ...

, was the exact opposite of his father, and the two never got along. Collings was succeeded by his son upon his death on 7 March 1882. He was outlived by his wife, elder son and eldest daughter, Mary Edmeades.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, William Thomas 1823 births 1882 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Seigneurs of Sark