Brecqhou

File:Sark_map_1680_by_Thomas_Phillips.png, so Brecqhou is located to the right (west) of Sark.]]

The name Brecqhou derives from the Old Norse {{lang|non|brekka}} (slope or escarpment; compare {{lang|fr|Bricquebec}}) and {{lang|non|holmr}} (island or islet; see -hou). It was also formerly known as "Merchant's Island" ({{lang|fr|L'Isle aux Marchands}}).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxBLAAAAYAAJ&pg=298 |title=General View of the Agriculture and Present State of the Islands on the Coast of Normandy, Subject to the Crown of Great Britain |first=Thomas |last=Quayle |date=April 24, 1815 |publisher=Sherwood, Neely & Jones |location=London |via=Google Books |page=298 |quote=A small island, anciently called Brecqhou, now generally, {{lang|fr|l'Ile de Marchands}}, uninhabited, and used as a sheep-walk, lies on the west side.}}{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pbdc6P3Ogz8C&pg=PT44 |title=Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles |first=Ernest Richard |last=Suffling |date=7 February 2012 |publisher=Tredition |via=Google Books |page=39 |chapter=Chapter III |isbn=9783847209270 |orig-year=1898 |quote=From the island, at the point opposite Neptune's Throne, a good view of Sark is obtained; on one day it will be seen standing clearly above the sea, with Brecqhou or Merchant's Island clearly discernable, and La Coupée (the isthmus which holds the two parts of the island together) plainly in view in the sunlight; on yet another day it will be quite invisible, although the distance is only about six miles.}} The spellings Brechou, Brehou, Brehoe appear on old maps.

A mere islet, Brecqhou has a surface area of just {{Convert|74|acres|ha}}. The island is separated from Sark by an extremely narrow sound ({{lang|fr|Le Goulliot}} Passage) which can be perilous for rowers.{{Cite journal|date=October 1861|title=A Week's Imprisonment in Sark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AxLAQAAMAAJ&dq=Goulliot+passage&pg=PA548|journal=The Cornhill Magazine|volume=22|pages=537–550|via=Google Books}} It is traversed frequently by yachts during summer and by fishing boats year round and even forms a part of the route taken by occasional powerboating events in the islands.

File:Brecqhou_from_the_air.JPG|An aerial view of Brecqhou

File:Brecqhou-north.jpg|A view of Brecqhou, from the north of Sark

File:Brecqhou - Barclay Brothers Castle.jpg|The Barclay Brothers completed building the castle on Brecqhou in 1996.{{Cite news|last1=Bowers |first1=Simon |last2=Pidd |first2=Helen |date=27 June 2012 |title=Brecqhou: how windswept eyesore became Barclays' getaway |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/27/brecqhou-barclay-brothers-getaway-island }}

File:Brecqhou-southeast.jpg|A view of Brecqhou, from the southeast

File:Guernsey old map.jpg (Garnsey), with Sarck (yellow) and Brehoe (green) visible in the east.]]

{{update-section|Needs to be updated after the 2008 reforms|date=August 2024}}

In Sark, the word tenant is used, and often pronounced as in French, in the sense of feudal landholder rather than the common English meaning of lessee. The landholdings of Sark are held by 40 tenants representing the parcels of the 40 families who colonised Sark. As explained on the Sark government website: "There is no true freehold, all land being held on perpetual lease (fief) from the Seigneur, and the 40 properties (Tenements) into which the Island is divided (as well as a few other holdings in perpetual fief) can only pass by strict rules of inheritance or by sale."{{cite web |url=https://sarkgov.co.uk/ |title=Sark Chief Pleas |website=Isle of Sark Government}} The relevance of the seigneurial privileges and duties that distinguish feudal from civil landowning has decreased as most of the duties relate to agriculture and defence.

Since 1929, the island has been connected to the title of the tenement {{lang|fr|La Moinerie de Haut}}, one of the 40 tenements whose owner had to keep a gun for the defence of the fief and, until forfeit in 2008, had a seat in the Chief Pleas. Originally, {{lang|fr|La Moinerie de Haut}}, named after the medieval monastery whose site is close to it, was a parcel of land in northwest Sark that was, at that time, owned by the Seigneur himself. When Sibyl Hathaway sold the island of Brecqhou to Angelo Clarke in 1929, she transferred that seat in the Chief Pleas to unrepresented Brecqhou.{{cite book |first1=Alfred Harry |last1=Ewen |first2=Alan Roper |last2=de Carteret |title=The Fief of Sark |publisher=Guernsey Press |location=Guernsey |date=1969 |pages=120–121 |quote=In 1929 the seat in Chief Pleas held by the Tenant of la Moinerie de haut was transferred by La Dame to Mr. Angelo Clarke, who had purchased the Island of Brecqhou, and since that date it has been held by the owner of Brecqhou, who at the present time is Mr. Leonard Matchan.}} This was scant loss for her, as she owned more than one tenement and every member of the Chief Pleas was entitled to only one vote.

From 1993, the tenement of Brecqhou was owned by the Barclay brothers, the co-owners of The Daily Telegraph newspaper and former co-owners of The Scotsman. The brothers bought the island for £2.3 million in September 1993.{{cite news |first1=Andrew |last1=Pierce |first2=Alexandra |last2=Frean |first3=Marcus |last3=Binney |title=Reclusive tycoons realise 30-year dream to buy Ritz |newspaper=The Times |date=7 October 1995}} Under the Reform (Sark) Law 1951, the tenant was David Barclay. After assuming ownership, the brothers had intermittent legal disputes with the government of Sark, and expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent. They drove cars on the island and had a helicopter, both of which are banned under Sark law.

• Customary and express written rule of Sark over Brecqhou may be evidenced in the retention of all seigneurial rights per the sale instrument from the Dame (female Seigneur) of Sark, Hathaway, to Clarke in 1929.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
• According to the Barclays this retention was invalid, as Brecqhou may not have been part of the fief of Sark. They cited facts such as that the letters patent establishing the fief do not mention the smaller island. While the Seigneur in long succession came to own Brecqhou (not before 1681), they cited practices and acts to suggest Brecqhou may not have been merged into the fief of Sark. Therefore the claim runs that the Seigneur could not legally hold the privileges valid elsewhere such as might survive sale, whatever its terms.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

This conflict caused a lawsuit (1996–2000) and the founding in 2006 of a Brecqhou liaison sub-committee of Sark's Chief Pleas.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Sir David Barclay died in January 2021, leaving his brother as the sole tenant of Brecqhou.

• 1929–1932: Angelo Clarke
• 1932–1944: Thomas Arthur Clarke (1871–1944; left the island 20 June 1940)
• 1949–1966: John Thomson Donaldson
• 1966–1987: Leonard Joseph Matchan
• 1987–1992: Susan Groves (not recognised by Seigneur of Sark{{cn|date=October 2023}})
• 1993–2021: David and Frederick Barclay
• 2021–present: Sir Frederick Barclay

{{Multiple image

| direction = horizontal

| image1 = Coat of arms of Brecqhou.svg

| caption1 = Coat of arms of Matchan

| image2 = Flag of Brecqhou 2024.svg

| caption2 = Personal flag of Matchan, formerly considered unofficial flag of Brecqhou

| total_width = 350

}}

The former tenant, Leonard Joseph Matchan, had devised a personal flag (identical to the Sark flag, with the exception that the Matchan coat of arms was emblazoned on the bottom right). Although frequently considered the island flag, this was only a personal flag, and is no longer in use.

The flag has since been adapted to equate with the current tenant, Sir Frederick Barclay. The current flag of Brecqhou remains in the same format as the previous flag, but replaces the Matchan coat of arms with the twins' coats of arms in the bottom right.{{cite web |last1=Coutanche |first1=André |url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/gg-bre.html |website=Flags of the World |title=Brecqhou, Channel Islands |access-date=21 April 2020}}

Leonard Joseph Matchan issued postage stamps (labelled "Brechou") on 30 September 1969, but they were suppressed the following day by the Guernsey Post Office when they took over responsibility from Royal Mail for the issue of stamps. Matchan occupied Brecqhou until his death on 6 October 1987. The current tenants issued stamps annually between 1999 and 2013.The Stamps of Brecqhou http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/topicals-thematics/the-stamps-of-brecqhou/ ; see also the Brecqhou Stamps website https://brecqhou-stamps.co.uk/

In 2012, it was reported that the island is open to the public, by prior arrangement.{{cite news |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-steele/brecqhou-a-private-channe_b_1327534.html |title=Brecqhou: A private Channel Island opens to the public |first=Paul |last=Steele |work=Huffington Post |date=8 May 2012 |access-date=11 April 2012}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |title=Le dicotentin: 200 chroniques des mots d'ici et d'à côté |trans-title=Le dicotentin: 200 stories of words from here and next door |language=fr |first=René |last=Lepelley |publisher=Isoète |location=Cherbourg |date=2001 |isbn=2-913920-06-3}}
• {{cite book |title=BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-first=Gertrude Mary |editor-last=Miller |date=1971}}
• {{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9709000/9709518.stm |date=28 March 2012 |work=BBC Today Programme |title=Sark Islanders fear takeover}}
• {{cite book |last1=Backman |first1=Anders |last2=Forrester |first2=Bob |date=1981 |title=The Postage Stamps of the Smaller Channel Islands |publisher=Channel Islands Publishing}}
• {{cite web |url=https://brecqhou-stamps.co.uk/|date=18 May 2020 |work=Brecqhou Development Ltd.|title=Welcome to the Brecqhou Stamps website}}

{{Channel Islands}}

Category:Private islands of the Channel Islands

Category:Geography of the Channel Islands

Category:Sark

Category:David and Frederick Barclay