To all intents and purposes the family historian's interest in Sark will begin in 1563. In that year, the uninhabited Island was granted to the Seigneur of St Ouen (Jersey), Helier de Carteret, who had offered to take on the defence of the island, which was in danger of becoming occupied by the French.
In 1565 Helier, his wife Margaret and a number of their St Ouen tenants, moved to Sark and began a settlement, bringing everything they needed with them. He was obliged to ensure that the Island would never again become depopulated and could be defended by at least forty men (a quarantine). He parcelled out leased land at a low rental, made large enough to support a family, on condition that a house was put up and the tenant provided one man, armed with a musket and ammunition, to defend the island if necessary.
Helier reserved one sixth of Sark for himself and built his house (Le Manoir). To repay a debt to the Gosselin family of Guernsey, he let them have the second largest site on the Island (Beauregard) on condition they provided four men and paid a rent set at 50 shillings. Gosselin brought the Vaudin and Du Val families and subleased some of his land to them.
Other parcels went to those who had accompanied Helier - their surnames were Le Cerf, Vibert, Chevalier, Le Brocq, Le Couteur, Rogier and Guille from St Ouen, Poingdestre and Hamon from St Saviour, Le Masurier and Le Gros from Trinity. Later arrivals came from St John (Hotton), the Alexandres came from St Peter and a few English folk with vital skills joined them - Smith, Dare, Brayer, Slowley and Roo.
There were also a number of Huguenots, Jean Quesle and his wife Remy Du Puits, respectively a surgeon and midwife and Cosmé Brevint, the first minister who began the first Register in 1570. Later his son Elie took the position. Elie Brevint kept a notebook, in which he recorded all manner of oddments (part of which documented local life) and the manuscript has survived. The dates run from 1620-1628; 1635; 1644; 1649-1650; 1660 and 1663. There are transcripts of this document in the The Priaulx Library and the Société Jersiaise. Various members of the de Carteret family made up many of the remaining numbers.
By 1572 the settlement needed had been undertaken and Helier travelled to England to present the Queen with his report. Elizabeth made the Fief Haubert of Sark separate from St Ouen and gave it to Helier and his heirs in perpetuity, the rent to be 50 sols tournois annually.
The fortunes of succeeding Seigneurs wavered and Sark was eventually sold in 1720 to Colonel John Johnson. It passed through the hands of several Englishmen before being bought by the Le Pelley family in 1730 and stayed in their hands until 1852, when the Collings of Guernsey took over after foreclosing on a mortgage.
During the German Occupation of the Channel Islands, 350 troops were quartered on Sark. The Dame of Sark's battles with the German officers on her island are well documented.
The island is self-governing through the Chief Pleas. The forty settlements remain and the Island still operates on the feudal system, with each tenemant paying an annual rental to the present Seigneur, Mr Michael Beaumont, the grandson of the Dame of Sark.
Sark is a tourist attraction today, reached by boat from Guernsey. Many of the population of around 600 earn their living in the hospitality industries. The scenery is spectacular and undisturbed by cars or tarmac roads. Exploration can be made by horse and carriage, bicycle or foot. Tractors are the only motorised transport allowed and are used for general farm work, carrying of goods from the harbour and even towing the Island's ambulance!
COMMITTEES OF THE SARK CHIEF PLEAS: Financial Review, Agriculture, Cemetery, Constitutional Review, Development Control, Douzaine, Education, Emergency Services, Firearms, General Purposes and Finance, Hall Management, Harbours, Island Games, Medical, Pilotage, Public Health, Road Traffic, Sea Fisheries, Shipping, Tourism, Millenium. APPEALS TRIBUNALS:Development Control, Road Traffic
