Sausmarez Manor

49°26′08″N 02°32′50″W / 49.43556°N 2.54722°W / 49.43556; -2.54722

Sausmarez Manor is a historic house in Saint Martin, Guernsey.

The first mention of the Sausmarez family in

In 1313 an inquisition of Edward II and again in 1331 Matthew de Sausmarez was Captain of the Castle at Jerbourg and the Seigneur of the Manor. The fief was mentioned in the Extente (land value assessment) of 1331 in the reign of Edward III of England as having belonged "from time immemorial" to the family of his grandson Matthew.^[1] The capture of the Island by the French in 1338 resulted in 1341, after a battle was lost in Les Hubits, St Martin, to Sir Peter de Sausmarez escaping via Petit Port to Jersey, returning after the Island was retaken in 1345.^[1]

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 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 to the mid 13th century.

Both manor and fief remained in the possession of the family until 1557. In that year the Seigneur, George de Sausmarez, died without issue and left his estate to his sister Judith; sixteen years previously she had married an Englishman called John Andrews. who had come to Guernsey from Northamptonshire 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. His rights to the title and manor being confirmed by a Royal Commission that reported in 1607.^[1] It was he 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 main-hall 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.

Including John Andros six members of his family were Seigneurs of Sausmarez over a period of nearly two hundred years. The third of these,

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.

— ^{[citation needed]}

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 it 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.^[2]

Having lost their connection with the manor house and fief as a result of their cousin Judith's marriage to John Andros, some members 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 (b.1655) had a shop in Paris where he sold woollen 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 his court at Versailles.

The firm faced ruin, but Michel's eldest son Matthew (b.1685), from whom all members of the family today are descended, was a man of imagination and energy. He married

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 Controller and Procurer. His second son, Philip, was the first of many of the family to serve 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 HMS Centurion, was put in command of the great Spanish galleon, the richest prize ever, captured during his voyage.^[1] 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.^[1] A third son, Matthew, was the father of Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez.

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.

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

Thomas had been a fiery youth 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. Thomas eventually 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, which 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, employing a Parisian garden designer who had ambitious plans which would not be fulfilled.^[3]

The General had had a distinguished career in the service of the

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• Sausmarez, Peter de, Sausmarez Manor (tour guide booklet), Guernsey, Channel Islands.

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• Sausmarez Manor Sculpture Artpark
• Guernsey Tourist Board