Thomas de Sausmarez
From Edith Carey's Scrapbooks (Vol. 1: the Chepmell MS) in the Library. 'He had 28 children, but never more than 14 alive at a time.'
Following on from Matthew de Sausmarez:
A younger brother was Thomas de Sausmarez, who for many years had been King's Procureur. Succeeded Matthew, who had no children by his wife Margaret Carey. Matthew was the son of Martha de Lisle; Thomas' mother was Martha Le Marchant. These were the sons of John de Sausmarez [who brought back the Manoir: EC.], also King's Procureur. Thomas was a man of high honour and integrity and of noble presence and bearing. His kindly heart, genial humour, and quiet tact, often succeeded in making litigants listen to reason and settle their disputes in his office.
When Comptroller he was drawn into a duel with Mr Hirzel Le Marchant, then Procureur, but, being an excellent swordsman, he quietly disarmed his opponent without hurting him. Before he inherited Sausmarez, Thomas de Sausmarez lived on the North side of Smith Street, only a few doors higher than his brother-in-law, Mr Isaac Dobrée, with whom he was very friendly. He was a good, old-fashioned churchman. He would, at St Martin's, turn to East at the Creed, a usage almost obsolete at the time except in Cathedrals and certain English counties. His regular attendance at Church when the pastor was anything but attractive was exemplary.
On the birth of his 26th child he wrote to the Reverend Thomas Le Messurier, 'My dear Tom, today I began my second quarter of a hundred.' His daughter Elizabeth having married Lt.-Col. de Havilland, his step-mother's brother, he was brother-in-law to his own daughter .....
From Volume 2.
Thomas, like his grandfather Matthew, was a large man with a strong well marked cast of features and a most kindly disposition. He also [like his father, John] married twice: his first wife was Martha Dobrée, sister of Isaac Dobrée of Smith Street, the one he thought specially endowed with common sense. She left four children, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Fiott de Havilland, Lt.-Col. R.E. in the East India Co., Martha and Harriet who lived to old age and died unmarried; John Thomas, also a lawyer like his father and grandfather, married Mary Ann Dobrée. After Martha's death Thomas married Catherine de Havilland, sister of his son-in-law which caused many curious intricacies in the relationship. He had 28 children, but never more than 14 alive at a time. When the Duke of Gloucester, during his short visit to the island was present at a ball given in his honour, Mr de Sausmarez, being in delicate health, refrained from dancing and sat out most of the evening. The Duke said to Mr de Sausmarez, 'I hope I may soon be able to congratulate you on beginning the third dozen of your family.' 'And if it were the fourth dozen it would give me equal pleasure, your Royal Highness,' was his answer. His second wife was mother of seventeen children, many of whom lived to manhood.