Brecqhou is not and never was a Crown estate

Way back in the 1300s the owners had a bit of a ding-dong with the Crown. They proved their case and won the argument that it had been in their family from ‘time immemorial’ which in those days was a perfect defence.

The king was not happy and proceedings were started but after a number of enquiries, and after 11 years the Crown gave up and it has remained privately owned ever since.

When Helier de Carteret took over Sark he was well aware that Brecqhou was not part of Sark as he knew the owners very well.

Over time people have either not been aware of the history or deliberately chosen to ignore it.

It became known as Isle Des Marchant, after the Le Marchant family who owned it.

In 1677 the seigneur of Sark, one Sir Philippe de Carteret, believing that the charter included Brecqhou, removed all the sheep which belonged to Dame Rachel le Moigne who was acting on behalf of her under-age son.

She took the seigneur to court. Interestingly the law officers of the king were present at court but were unable to produce any right of title, and ‘held their peace’.

This court business went on for several years, and in the event Dame Rachel gave Brecqhou to the seigneur - bear in mind this was a private gift to the seigneur it was never part of Sark and never a tenement of Sark.

Moving on, in 1928 Dame Sybil Hathaway, (whom I knew quite well) inherited Sark from her father, but there was no money and she had five children to support.

As it happened Brecqhou was up for sale and was purchased by Angelo Clarke in 1929. La Dame decided that treizieme (one-thirteenth of the sale price) should be paid to her. Although certain official correspondence from her shows that she knew Brecqhou was not part of Sark.

The idea that Brecqhou was a tenement came about because Dame Sybil was the owner of two tenements at that time, the other one being La Moinerie de Haut.

Strictly speaking under manorial law at the time this was subsumed into the Seigneurie and the seat in Chief Pleas should not have existed.

However, Dame Sybil offered the owner of Brecqhou the chance to sit in Chief Pleas as the tenant of La Moinerie de Haut.

And since then all owners of Brecqhou have paid treizieme and been given a seat in Chief Pleas.

Until the Barclays arrived and discovered that they need not have paid treizieme – the rest is history.

John Buchanan Snr