Artwork of the Month - September 2015

John De Saumarez, Dean of Guernsey (1633-1699)

Artist: circle of Mary Beale, c 1680

Medium: oil on canvas

Status: permanent collection

This portrait is of John De Saumarez, the first Dean of Guernsey, wearing his clerical dress. In the top right corner of the painting we can see the Saumarez family coat of arms.

John De Saumarez was appointed Dean of Guernsey in 1662 when Charles II imposed Anglicanism on the Island after the Restoration. He was also Canon of Windsor and is buried in St. Georges Chapel.

" . . . see the said John De Saumarez duly settled in the Deanery aforesaid with all the power and jurisdiction belonging unto it and to be fully obeyed in the exercise of the same and particularly in causing the Liturgy of our Church of England to be read and used in the said Island and dependencies throughout all the Churches there according to the said act of uniformity . . . ."

Extract from a letter to Lord Hatton, the Governor of Guernsey, from Charles II.

5th July 1662