Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

 and part of the Bailiwick

Bailiwick

A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...

 of Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

. It is located just west of Sark

Sark

Sark is a small island in the Channel Islands in southwestern English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. It is a royal fief, geographically located in the Channel Islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population...

 and has a surface area of approximately 200 acre. Sark claims it as a tenement, and the Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...

, the department of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 government with responsibility for the Channel Islands, considers Brecqhou part of Sark - but this is disputed by Brecqhou's current tenants.

Name

The name Brecqhou derives from the Old Norse brekka (slope or escarpment; cf. Bricquebec

Bricquebec

Bricquebec, a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.Inhabitants are referred to as Bricquebétais.-History:...

) and holmr (island or islet; see -hou

-hou

-hou is a suffix found commonly in Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse holmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g...

).

Geography

The island is separated from Sark by an extremely narrow sound (Le Goulliot Passage) which, according to legend, has only once been traversed by boat in a high tide. However in reality it is traversed frequently by yachts during each summer and by fishing boats year round and even forms a part of the route taken by occasional powerboating events in the islands.

Tenants and struggle for independence from Sark

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." Of course, the relevance of the Seigneurial privileges and the obligations that distinguish "feudal" from "civil" landowning has decreased, most of the obligations being connected to agriculture and defence.

Since 1929, the island of Brecqhou is connected to the title of the tenement La Moinerie de Haut, one of the 40 tenements whose owner had to keep a gun for the defence of the fief and, until 2008, had a seat in Chief Pleas. Originally, La Moinerie de Haut, named after the medieval monastery whose site is close to it, was a parcel of land in the north west of 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 the seat in Chief Pleas connected to this parcel to Brecqhou. This was no greater loss for her, as she owned more than one tenement and every member of Chief Pleas was entitled to only one vote.

Since 1993 the tenement of Brecqhou has been owned by the Barclay brothers

David and Frederick Barclay

Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay are British businessmen. The identical twin brothers have very substantial business interests primarily in media, retail and property. The Sunday Times Rich List of 2007 estimated their wealth at £1.8 billion...

, the co-owners of The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

newspaper and former co-owners of The Scotsman

The Scotsman

The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

. Under the Reform (Sark) Law 1951, the tenant is David Barclay. Since the purchase the Barclays have been in several legal disputes with the government of Sark, and have expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

 from Sark. They drive cars on the island, and have a helicopter, both of which are banned under Sark law.

The rule of Sark over Brecqhou is formally based on the retention of Seigneurial rights included in the contract of sale constituting the change in ownership from the Dame of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway, to Angelo Clarke in 1929. According to the Barclays, this retention is invalid, as Brecqhou was never part of the fief of Sark. They argue that letters patent establishing the fief does not mention the smaller island. While the Seigneur eventually came into the ownership of Brecqhou (not before 1681), the island was not merged into the fief. Therefore, in respect of Brecqhou, the Seigneurs never held the privileges valid in the fief of Sark, but lost any title to Brecqhou on reselling the island to Clarke. The conflict caused a lawsuit (1996–2000) and the founding of a Brecqhou relationship sub-committee of Sark's Chief Pleas (2006).

Tenants

• 1966–1987: Leonard Joseph Matchan
  Leonard Joseph Matchan
  Leonard Joseph Matchan - was the Tenant of Brecqhou in the English Channel from 1966 until his death. Mr Matchan was associated with the cosmetics firm Max Factor....
  
  
• From 1993: Sir David Barclay
  David and Frederick Barclay
  Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay are British businessmen. The identical twin brothers have very substantial business interests primarily in media, retail and property. The Sunday Times Rich List of 2007 estimated their wealth at £1.8 billion...
  
  

Flag and stamps

The former tenant, Leonard Joseph Matchan

Leonard Joseph Matchan

Leonard Joseph Matchan - was the Tenant of Brecqhou in the English Channel from 1966 until his death. Mr Matchan was associated with the cosmetics firm Max Factor....

, had devised a personal flag

Flag

A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...

 (identical to the Sark

Sark

Sark is a small island in the Channel Islands in southwestern English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. It is a royal fief, geographically located in the Channel Islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population...

 flag, with the exception that the Matchan arms

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 was emblazoned on the bottom right). Although frequently considered the island flag, this was only a personal flag, and is not in use any more.

Leonard Joseph Matchan

Leonard Joseph Matchan

Leonard Joseph Matchan - was the Tenant of Brecqhou in the English Channel from 1966 until his death. Mr Matchan was associated with the cosmetics firm Max Factor....

 had issued stamps in 1969. Matchan occupied Brecqhou until his death on October 6, 1987. The current tenants have issued postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s annually since 1999.