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William Thomas Collings

William Thomas Collings
William Thomas Collings.jpg
Seigneur of Sark
In office
1853–1882
Preceded by Marie Collings
Succeeded by William Frederick Collings
Personal details
Born (1823-09-04)4 September 1823
Died 7 March 1882(1882-03-07) (aged 58)
Spouse(s) Louisa Collings (née Lukis)
Children William Frederick Collings
and five others
Parents Marie Collings (né Allaire)
Thomas Guerin 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.

Collings was the son of Marie and Thomas Guerin Collings (1786–1832). His maternal grandfather, the Guernsey privateer John Allaire, was mortgaged the fief of Sark 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, was unable to pay the mortgage and thus had to sell Sark to Marie Collings, Allaire's heiress. Collings was ordained a deacon of the Church of England the same year at the Wells Cathedral, where he served as curate 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".

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. Like his predecessor, he bought the neighbouring tenement and thus gained third vote in the Chief Pleas.

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 Chief Pleas.


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