Sausmarez Manor
Encyclopedia
Sausmarez Manor is a historic house in Saint Martin's, Guernsey.
is at the consecration of the Vale
church in 1115 followed by a letter dated 1254 in which Prince Edward, Lord of the Isles, afterwards King Edward I
, ordered an enquiry into the rights of the Abbot and Monks of St. Michel to "wreck" in the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey
. The enquiry was duly held before "Dominus Henry le Canelu, Dominus Gulielmus De Saumareis, milites."
The William De Saumareis is almost certainly the same person as William de Salinells who was Seigneur of Samres
, then called Saumareys, in the parish of St. Clement
in Jersey and was born towards the end of the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion. It is not known when he acquired his new fief in St. Martin's parish in Guernsey but its manor-house was so much the same site as the present one and the fief was the same as that mentioned in the Extente (land value assessment) of Edward III (1331) as having belonged "from time immemorial" to the family of his grandson Matthew.
Of this oldest manor-house only a fragment remains. Its rough but remarkably solid stonework forms the basis of an outhouse on the north-east side of the main buildings and surrounds an arched doorway which was later blocked in with quite a different form of stone. This is one of the most ancient fragments of unrepaired Norman masonry in the island and can be fairly confidently dated as mid 13th Century work.
, George de Sausmarez, died without issue and left his estate to his sisteer Judith; sixteen years previously she had married an Englishman called John Andrews. who had come to Guernsey from Northhamptonshire as Lieutenant to Sir Peter Mewtis, the Governor of the Islands. Their son John, who became known in Guernsey as John Andros, was in 1557, in accordance with Guernsey law, declared Seigneur in his mother's right. He it was who built the second house, running down the slope of the shallow valley towards the fish pond, at right angles to the original one. In a party-wall on the ground floor of this building there is carved, on a lintel over a door leading from the mainhall to a smaller room, the initials I.A. and the date 1585. The lower end of the house is now used as a craft metal workshop, and the upper, which was restored and altered, once in 1759 and again exactly two hundred years later, is still inhabited.
throughout the Civil War, played a distinguished part as liaison between the King's forces which controlled Jersey and the brave royalist garrison of Castle Cornet
. After the Restoration
, he was made Bailiff by Charles II
, being one of the only two prominent Guernseymen who were not obliged to seek pardon from their Sovereign for their conduct during the Grand Rebellion. His son, Sir Edmund Andros
, was in 1674 both Bailiff and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and at the same time Governor of the Colony of New York
as well as New England
, North Carolina
, Virginia
, Massachusetts
, New Plymouth
and New Jersey
. In fact he it was, who changed the name from New Amsterdam
to New York, when he was its first British Governor. Very little of his time seems to have been spent in Guernsey for he retired to live in Westminster. One of his reasons for doing so appears from the following clause in his will, dated 1713.
"My will is that my said nephew, John, shall build within five years of my death a good suitable house on or at the manor of Sasmares in Guernsey and if the said John or his heirs shall not in that time have built such house (if not built before) then my will is and I appoint my said nephew John or his heirs to pay the sum of £500 unto my nephew George Andros within one year after his or their neglect".
Clearly Sir Edmund did not consider the old Tudor Manor House to be worthy of a man of his station. Moreover he contemplated rebuilding it himself. The great beauty of the building and the strong touches of New England influence that is displays indicate that the plans were prepared for him in London before his death in 1714. The work was duly carried out by John Andros during the next four years, though the clause quoted suggests that he did so with some reluctance and under the threat of sanctions!
The façade, built of grey granite with red granite coigns is of beautiful proportions. The house , all the outer walls of which are two feet thick in thickness, is four storeys high and has two rooms on each floor. It originally had no communication with any of the earlier buildings. The main entrance is from a flight of eight steps leading to the oaken front door on the first floor. This door opens upon a hall whence a typical Queen Anne staircase rises to the top of the house, and ends with a door giving access to a widows walk, from which can be had a fine view of the greater part of the Island.
The next Seigneur, Charles Andros, succeeded his uncle John in 1746. Within two years he had sold the house and fief back to the de Sausmarez family to whose history we must now return.
Having lost their connection with the manor house and fief as a result of their cousin Judith's marriage to John Andros, some embers of the younger branch of the de Sausmarez family became, like so many of the fellow islanders in the 16th and 17th centuries, wool merchants with their chief markets in France. In the days of Charles II a Michel de Sausmarez had a shop in Paris where he sold woolen goods, principally stockings, provided for him by a cousin from an efficiently organised Guernsey cottage industry. Among his customers was Prince Rupert of the Rhine who ordered some of his clothes from the French Capital.
Yet despite this high patronage the wool trade was by then in decline as a consequence of a change in fashion greatly stimulated by the French King, Louis XIV, who made his nobles dress in silk and satin in order to attend to attend his court at Versailles.
The firm faced ruin, but Michel's eldest son Matthew, from whom all members of the family today are descended, was a man of imagination and energy. He married Anne Durell the daughter of a rich Jersey Jurat
and niece of Sir Edward de Carteret retired Governor of New Jersey and, with the money she bought him, fitted out some of the earliest of those Guernsey privateers on the activities of which, legal or otherwise, the wealth of the island was in the 18th century so largely to rely. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Matthew, on some visit to France, noticed how profitable the corsairs were proving to the citizens of the port of St. Malo and decided to take a leaf out of his neighbours' book. In addition to being a pioneer of privateering he was also in practice in Guernsey as an advocate.
His eldest son, John, was like him a member of the Guernsey bar and for 38 years held succession the two Law Offices of the Crown, those of Controllor and Procurer; his second, Philip, was the first of many of the family to server in the Royal Navy. The latter, after a most promising career, in the course of which he sailed round the world with Commodore George Anson
in , was put in command of the great Spanish galleon, the richest prize ever, captured during his voyage. He was killed in action and left a considerable fortune, derived from prize money, to his family, This windfall certainly helped John to buy back the fief and Manor House from Charles Andros in 1748.
Having regained the house of his ancestors John de Sausmarez celebrated his return by putting up the gates which are a well known feature of Sausmarez Road. Their outer pillars each bear the family crest of a falcon displayed, the two inner ones a unicorn and a greyhound the supporters of the family arms. These were all the work of Sir Henry Cheere the celebrated 18th century sculptor who also made the memorial to Philip Saumarez in Westminster Abbey
. In 1759 John restored the upper end of the Tudor manor house and added a new entrance to it.
Thomas, who had been a fiery youth and who in 1790 had fought a successful duel against his cousin Robert le Marchant, a son of the bailiff of that day, the repercussions of which provoked considerable discussion in fashionable London circles, settled down to have an enormous family. His two marriages brought him twenty-eight children. Though some of these died in infancy, he still had many who were not yet of age when he moved into the Manor. He therefore found the Andros house too small for his needs, and was obliged to build on to the back of it. His plans for it show it to have been a pleasant addition. It had a large breakfast room on the first floor and several bedrooms on this and the two upper floors. A central passage separated it on each floor from the Queen Anne house. On the ground floor, what is now part of a kitchen was originally used as the Procureur's office.
Little (it is impossible to say how much) of this Regency house, began in the last year of George III's reign, remains. Some of the doors and one of the bedroom windows are still clearly identifiable as is part of the roof. But the greater portion of it was pulled down by Thomas's youngest son, General George de Sausmarez who, having bought his brothers' shares of the property, became Seigneur and in 1873 began building the last and final additions to the family home with typical mid-Victorian gusto.
and Colin Campbell
, his was a lucrative post which enabled him on his return to Guernsey to indulge to the full his somewhat liberal and not always irreproachable taste.
Having pulled down most of his father's Regency house, he replaced it on the first floor with a large dining-room and still larger drawing-room. Despite the unfortunate appearance which their windows and general design present from outside, in strong contrast to the Queen Anne facade
, the interiors of these rooms have a peculiar charm. The same startling mixture of happy and unhappy touches of inspiration characterise the large entrance-hall which the General built on the north-east side of the Queen Anne
house to link it with the Tudor
one. The main feature of this hall and gallery is a riotous medley of wood-carving, some of it Burmese, some of it copies of the same by a local craftsman and some of it consisting of Old Testament figures and scenes, believed to have been acquired from Breton churches where they had been put up for sale. The whole presents an effect which, one feels, would meet with the approval of John Betjeman
with his sympathetic eye for such Victorian fantasy.
After the General's death his widow lived on at the Manor, as Dame
, with her sister and brother until her death in 1915. She was succeeded in the Seigneurie
by her nephew, Sir Havilland de Sausmarez
who, after a distinguished judicial career in the service of the Foreign Office, including serving as Chief Judge of the British Supreme Court for China
for 16 years became the second member of his family to hold the office of Bailiff of Guernsey. He died during the German occupation
of the Island. His persistent refusal to install electric light saved the manor from being requisitioned by the occupying power. His nephew, the late Seigneur, Cecil de Sausmarez, after a distinguished career in the Diplomatic Service and whilst a successful people deputy carried out an extensive programme of restoration and modernisation of the property.
The Original Manor House
The first mention of the de Sausmarez family in GuernseyGuernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
is at the consecration of the Vale
Vale, Guernsey
Vale is one of the ten parishes of Guernsey.Until 1806 the parish occupied territory on the mainland of Guernsey, the Vingtaine de l'Epine, as well as the whole of Le Clos du Valle, a tidal island forming the northern extremity of Guernsey separated from the mainland by La Braye du Valle, a tidal...
church in 1115 followed by a letter dated 1254 in which Prince Edward, Lord of the Isles, afterwards King Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, ordered an enquiry into the rights of the Abbot and Monks of St. Michel to "wreck" in the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. The enquiry was duly held before "Dominus Henry le Canelu, Dominus Gulielmus De Saumareis, milites."
The William De Saumareis is almost certainly the same person as William de Salinells who was Seigneur of Samres
Vingtaine de Samarès
Vingtaine de Samarès is one of the three vingtaines of the Parish of St. Clement in Jersey, Channel Islands.It takes its name from the salt marsh that formerly occupied much of the area of this low-lying coastal vingtaine.-Places in the vingtaine:...
, then called Saumareys, in the parish of St. Clement
Saint Clement, Jersey
Saint Clement is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is in the south east of the Island, and contains some of the suburbs of Saint Helier. It is the smallest parish by surface area, but the second most densely populated. St...
in Jersey and was born towards the end of the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion. It is not known when he acquired his new fief in St. Martin's parish in Guernsey but its manor-house was so much the same site as the present one and the fief was the same as that mentioned in the Extente (land value assessment) of Edward III (1331) as having belonged "from time immemorial" to the family of his grandson Matthew.
Of this oldest manor-house only a fragment remains. Its rough but remarkably solid stonework forms the basis of an outhouse on the north-east side of the main buildings and surrounds an arched doorway which was later blocked in with quite a different form of stone. This is one of the most ancient fragments of unrepaired Norman masonry in the island and can be fairly confidently dated as mid 13th Century work.
The Tudor House
Both manor and fief remained in the possession of the family until 1557. In that year the SeigneurLord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
, George de Sausmarez, died without issue and left his estate to his sisteer Judith; sixteen years previously she had married an Englishman called John Andrews. who had come to Guernsey from Northhamptonshire as Lieutenant to Sir Peter Mewtis, the Governor of the Islands. Their son John, who became known in Guernsey as John Andros, was in 1557, in accordance with Guernsey law, declared Seigneur in his mother's right. He it was who built the second house, running down the slope of the shallow valley towards the fish pond, at right angles to the original one. In a party-wall on the ground floor of this building there is carved, on a lintel over a door leading from the mainhall to a smaller room, the initials I.A. and the date 1585. The lower end of the house is now used as a craft metal workshop, and the upper, which was restored and altered, once in 1759 and again exactly two hundred years later, is still inhabited.
The Queen Anne House
Including John Andros six members of his family were Seigneurs of Sausmarez over a period of nearly two hundred years. The third of these, Amyas Andros, who was a staunch royalistCavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
throughout the Civil War, played a distinguished part as liaison between the King's forces which controlled Jersey and the brave royalist garrison of Castle Cornet
Castle Cornet
Castle Cornet is a large island castle in Guernsey, and former tidal island, also known as Cornet Rock or Castle Rock, which has been part of one of the breakwaters of St Peter Port's harbour, the main one in the island, since 1859.- Geography :...
. After the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, he was made Bailiff by Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, being one of the only two prominent Guernseymen who were not obliged to seek pardon from their Sovereign for their conduct during the Grand Rebellion. His son, Sir Edmund Andros
Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros was an English colonial administrator in North America. Andros was known most notably for his governorship of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. He also governed at various times the provinces of New York, East and West Jersey, Virginia, and...
, was in 1674 both Bailiff and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and at the same time Governor of the Colony of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as well as New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, New Plymouth
New Plymouth
New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. In fact he it was, who changed the name from New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
to New York, when he was its first British Governor. Very little of his time seems to have been spent in Guernsey for he retired to live in Westminster. One of his reasons for doing so appears from the following clause in his will, dated 1713.
"My will is that my said nephew, John, shall build within five years of my death a good suitable house on or at the manor of Sasmares in Guernsey and if the said John or his heirs shall not in that time have built such house (if not built before) then my will is and I appoint my said nephew John or his heirs to pay the sum of £500 unto my nephew George Andros within one year after his or their neglect".
Clearly Sir Edmund did not consider the old Tudor Manor House to be worthy of a man of his station. Moreover he contemplated rebuilding it himself. The great beauty of the building and the strong touches of New England influence that is displays indicate that the plans were prepared for him in London before his death in 1714. The work was duly carried out by John Andros during the next four years, though the clause quoted suggests that he did so with some reluctance and under the threat of sanctions!
The façade, built of grey granite with red granite coigns is of beautiful proportions. The house , all the outer walls of which are two feet thick in thickness, is four storeys high and has two rooms on each floor. It originally had no communication with any of the earlier buildings. The main entrance is from a flight of eight steps leading to the oaken front door on the first floor. This door opens upon a hall whence a typical Queen Anne staircase rises to the top of the house, and ends with a door giving access to a widows walk, from which can be had a fine view of the greater part of the Island.
The next Seigneur, Charles Andros, succeeded his uncle John in 1746. Within two years he had sold the house and fief back to the de Sausmarez family to whose history we must now return.
Having lost their connection with the manor house and fief as a result of their cousin Judith's marriage to John Andros, some embers of the younger branch of the de Sausmarez family became, like so many of the fellow islanders in the 16th and 17th centuries, wool merchants with their chief markets in France. In the days of Charles II a Michel de Sausmarez had a shop in Paris where he sold woolen goods, principally stockings, provided for him by a cousin from an efficiently organised Guernsey cottage industry. Among his customers was Prince Rupert of the Rhine who ordered some of his clothes from the French Capital.
Yet despite this high patronage the wool trade was by then in decline as a consequence of a change in fashion greatly stimulated by the French King, Louis XIV, who made his nobles dress in silk and satin in order to attend to attend his court at Versailles.
The firm faced ruin, but Michel's eldest son Matthew, from whom all members of the family today are descended, was a man of imagination and energy. He married Anne Durell the daughter of a rich Jersey Jurat
Jurat
Jurat is the name given to the clause at the foot of an affidavit showing when, where, and before whom the actual oath was sworn or affirmation was made....
and niece of Sir Edward de Carteret retired Governor of New Jersey and, with the money she bought him, fitted out some of the earliest of those Guernsey privateers on the activities of which, legal or otherwise, the wealth of the island was in the 18th century so largely to rely. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Matthew, on some visit to France, noticed how profitable the corsairs were proving to the citizens of the port of St. Malo and decided to take a leaf out of his neighbours' book. In addition to being a pioneer of privateering he was also in practice in Guernsey as an advocate.
His eldest son, John, was like him a member of the Guernsey bar and for 38 years held succession the two Law Offices of the Crown, those of Controllor and Procurer; his second, Philip, was the first of many of the family to server in the Royal Navy. The latter, after a most promising career, in the course of which he sailed round the world with Commodore George Anson
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson
Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson PC, FRS, RN was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe and his role overseeing the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War...
in , was put in command of the great Spanish galleon, the richest prize ever, captured during his voyage. He was killed in action and left a considerable fortune, derived from prize money, to his family, This windfall certainly helped John to buy back the fief and Manor House from Charles Andros in 1748.
Having regained the house of his ancestors John de Sausmarez celebrated his return by putting up the gates which are a well known feature of Sausmarez Road. Their outer pillars each bear the family crest of a falcon displayed, the two inner ones a unicorn and a greyhound the supporters of the family arms. These were all the work of Sir Henry Cheere the celebrated 18th century sculptor who also made the memorial to Philip Saumarez in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. In 1759 John restored the upper end of the Tudor manor house and added a new entrance to it.
The Regency House
John's heir, his eldest son Matthew, was Seigneur from 1774 to 1820. His main contribution to the estate was the building of the walls which enclose the potager, (vegetable garden) the orchard and the tennis court and the restoration of the old barn facing the Tudor house and to the south-west of it. Then he died he was succeedeed by his brother Thomas who, like his father, was both Controller and Procureur, though for an even loner period of fifty-five years.Thomas, who had been a fiery youth and who in 1790 had fought a successful duel against his cousin Robert le Marchant, a son of the bailiff of that day, the repercussions of which provoked considerable discussion in fashionable London circles, settled down to have an enormous family. His two marriages brought him twenty-eight children. Though some of these died in infancy, he still had many who were not yet of age when he moved into the Manor. He therefore found the Andros house too small for his needs, and was obliged to build on to the back of it. His plans for it show it to have been a pleasant addition. It had a large breakfast room on the first floor and several bedrooms on this and the two upper floors. A central passage separated it on each floor from the Queen Anne house. On the ground floor, what is now part of a kitchen was originally used as the Procureur's office.
Little (it is impossible to say how much) of this Regency house, began in the last year of George III's reign, remains. Some of the doors and one of the bedroom windows are still clearly identifiable as is part of the roof. But the greater portion of it was pulled down by Thomas's youngest son, General George de Sausmarez who, having bought his brothers' shares of the property, became Seigneur and in 1873 began building the last and final additions to the family home with typical mid-Victorian gusto.
The Victorian House
The General had had a distinguished career in the service of the East India Company. An expert in small-arms training and a reformer in military administration he never saw a shot fired in war. In the Indian mutiny his, the Madras, command was the only one which had no mutineers. Yet though he won no great glory like HavelockHavelock
- People :* Havelock-Allan Baronets, holders of the Baronetcy* Sir Henry Havelock, , British general, active in India* Lieutenant General Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, 1st Baronet , British General, MP for Sunderland 1874–1881 and Durham South East 1885–1892 and 1895–1897 * Sir Henry...
and Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell
-Scottish history:*Cailean Mór , also known as Sir Colin Campbell, or "Colin the Great"*Colin Iongantach , also known as Colin Campbell, self-styled Lord of Argyll, see Clan MacFarlane...
, his was a lucrative post which enabled him on his return to Guernsey to indulge to the full his somewhat liberal and not always irreproachable taste.
Having pulled down most of his father's Regency house, he replaced it on the first floor with a large dining-room and still larger drawing-room. Despite the unfortunate appearance which their windows and general design present from outside, in strong contrast to the Queen Anne facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, the interiors of these rooms have a peculiar charm. The same startling mixture of happy and unhappy touches of inspiration characterise the large entrance-hall which the General built on the north-east side of the Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
house to link it with the Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
one. The main feature of this hall and gallery is a riotous medley of wood-carving, some of it Burmese, some of it copies of the same by a local craftsman and some of it consisting of Old Testament figures and scenes, believed to have been acquired from Breton churches where they had been put up for sale. The whole presents an effect which, one feels, would meet with the approval of John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
with his sympathetic eye for such Victorian fantasy.
After the General's death his widow lived on at the Manor, as Dame
Dame (title)
The title of Dame is the female equivalent of the honour of knighthood in the British honours system . It is also the equivalent form address to 'Sir' for a knight...
, with her sister and brother until her death in 1915. She was succeeded in the Seigneurie
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
by her nephew, Sir Havilland de Sausmarez
De Sausmarez Baronets
The de Sausmarez Baronetcy, of Jerburg in Guernsey, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.It was created on 26 June 1928 for Havilland de Sausmarez who had been a judge of various British courts in Africa, the Ottoman Empire and China....
who, after a distinguished judicial career in the service of the Foreign Office, including serving as Chief Judge of the British Supreme Court for China
British Supreme Court for China and Japan
The British Supreme Court for China and Japan was a court established in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1865 to try cases against British subjects in China and Japan, and from 1883, Korea, under the principles of Extraterritoriality. The court also heard appeals from consular courts in...
for 16 years became the second member of his family to hold the office of Bailiff of Guernsey. He died during the German occupation
Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands are two British Crown dependencies and include the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark...
of the Island. His persistent refusal to install electric light saved the manor from being requisitioned by the occupying power. His nephew, the late Seigneur, Cecil de Sausmarez, after a distinguished career in the Diplomatic Service and whilst a successful people deputy carried out an extensive programme of restoration and modernisation of the property.