Editing Marie Collings

{{EngvarB|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image       =
| title       = [[List of seigneurs of Sark|Dame of Sark]]
| term        =1852–1853
| successor   =[[William Thomas Collings]]
| predecessor =[[Pierre Carey le Pelley]]
| image_size  = 
| caption  =
| birth_date  = 1791
| birth_place = 
| birth_name  =Marie Allaire
| death_date  = {{death year and age|1853|1791}} 
| death_place = 
| religion      = 
| spouse        =Thomas Guérin Collings
| children      =[[William Thomas Collings]]
| parents       =[[John Allaire]]
}}
'''Marie Collings''' (née '''Allaire'''; 1791–1853), sometimes referred to as '''Mary Collings''', was a wealthy [[Guernsey]] heiress who ruled as [[List of seigneurs of Sark|Dame]] of [[Sark]] (island) from 1852 to 1853, being the island's second female ruler and the first holder of the fief from the presently ruling seigneurial family. She inherited the fortune of her father, the [[privateer]] [[John Allaire]], who had obtained the mortgage on the [[fief]] shortly before his death. The island's then-ruling seigneur, [[Pierre Carey le Pelley]], soon had no option but to sell the fief to Collings, but she never actively governed it.

== Background ==

Collings was born into a wealthy family from [[Guernsey]], one of the [[Channel Islands]]. She was one of the two daughters of the [[privateer]] [[John Allaire]] (1762–1846), the other one being Catherine Allaire.<ref name="Marshall">{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Michael|publisher=Paramount-Lithoprint|title=Hitler envaded Sark|year=1967|page=39}}</ref> Her father was reputedly the most affluent man in Guernsey, whose fortune appears to have stemmed not only from privateering during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], but also from outright [[piracy]].<ref name="Ewen"/> She was married to Thomas Guérin Collings, [[Connétable (Jersey and Guernsey)|Constable]] of the Town and Parish of [[Saint Peter Port]].<ref name="Reports">{{cite book|title=Reports from commissioners, 1847–1848|year=1848}}</ref> The couple had a son, [[William Thomas Collings]] (1823–1882), and several daughters. Collings' husband died in 1832.<ref name="Ewen">{{cite book|last1=Ewen|first1=Alfred Harry|first2=Allan Roper|last2=De Carteret|title=The Fief of Sark|publisher=Guernsey P.|location=[[Guernsey]]|year=1969|pages=101–102}}</ref>

== Mortgage ==

[[File:Collings Coat of Arms, Sark.JPG|thumb|upright|Collings family coat of arms at the gate of the Seigneurie]]
On 24 February 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the [[Silver mining|silver mine]] on the island, the then-[[Seigneur of Sark]] [[Ernest le Pelley]] obtained [[The Crown#Crown Dependencies|crown permission]] to mortgage the [[fief]] of Sark for £4,000 to Collings' father. The latter died within two years, leaving his wealth to his daughters.<ref name="Laughton">{{cite book|first1=Leonard George Carr|last1=Laughton|first2=Roger Charles|last2=Anderson|first3=William Gordon|last3=Perrin|publisher=Society for Nautical Research|title=The Mariner's Mirror, Volume 72|year=1986|page=82}}</ref> The mortgage and the [[List of tenants of Jethou|tenement]] of the island of [[Jethou]] passed to Collings.<ref name="Ewen"/><ref name="Laughton"/> The mine closed in 1847, two years after the uninsured collapse of its deepest gallery, and when Ernest le Pelley died in 1849 his successor, [[Pierre Carey le Pelley]], was unable to keep up his mortgage payments to Collings. She then decided to [[foreclosure|foreclose]] the mortgage, forcing him to seek [[Queen Victoria]]'s permission to sell the seigneurie of Sark on 10 November 1852. The widowed Marie Collings bought it on 4 December for £6,000 less the sum borrowed and an accumulated interest of £616.13s,<ref name="Ewen"/> for a total of £1,383.<ref name="Marr">{{cite book|last=Marr|first=James|author-link=James Marr (author)|title=Guernsey people|year=1984|isbn=0850335299|publisher=Phillimore}}</ref>

== Seigneurship ==

By the time she became Dame of Sark, she was already too old to actively participate in the government of the island. She never visited it during her tenure, "to the regret of the Sark people".<ref name="Guernsey">{{cite book|title=The Guernsey Magazine: A Monthly Illustrated Journal of Useful Information, Instruction, and Entertainment, Volume 2|year=1873}}</ref> [[La Seigneurie]], official residence of the ruler of Sark, was modernised and extended during Collings' brief rule, just like it was in the 1730s, when another widow, [[Susanne le Pelley]], bought the fief.<ref name="Sark">{{cite news|url=http://www.laseigneuriegardens.com/history.html|title=History of La Seigneurie|date=2012}}</ref> Collings meanwhile resided in Guernsey, and was represented in Sark by her only son and [[heir apparent]], the Anglican priest [[William Thomas Collings]]. He succeeded her as seigneur of Sark upon her death in 1853, less than a year after the purchase.<ref name="Marshall"/> She was also survived by a daughter, Catherine Ann Allaire Ozanne (1826–1879). The island remains in Collings' family through the children of William Thomas and [[Louisa Collings]].<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Lukis, Frederick Corbin (1788–1871), antiquary and natural historian |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-69159 |access-date=2024-07-03 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/69159}}</ref> Her descendant [[Christopher Beaumont, 23rd Seigneur of Sark|Christopher Beaumont]] is the current seigneur.<ref name="Marr"/>

==References==
<references/>

{{s-start}}
{{succession box|
title=[[List of seigneurs of Sark|Dame of Sark]]|
years=1852–1853|
before=[[Pierre Carey le Pelley]]|
after=[[William Thomas Collings]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{seigneurs of Sark}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, Marie}}
[[Category:1791 births]]
[[Category:1853 deaths]]
[[Category:Seigneurs of Sark]]
[[Category:People from the Bailiwick of Guernsey]]
[[Category:19th-century women monarchs]]