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Sir Robert Pipon Marett (1820–1884) was a politician in Jersey and a poet. He was born in St. Peter, Jersey, on 20 November 1820, the eldest of the eight children of Peter Daniel Marett (d. 1838) and his wife, Mary Ann, eldest daughter of Thomas Pipon, lieutenant bailiff of Jersey.

Marett belonged to a family established in Jersey for many centuries, and was a descendant of Philip Marett (or Maret). His father had served in as a Major in the Madras Infantry East India Company, and married his mother on retiring to Jersey.

Marett's early education at McMahon's School, Jersey, revealed academic potential. A contemporary chronicle records: The spiritual activity and love of work, which were already characteristic of him, never deserted him in the course of a career filled not only with legal and professional achievements but also with literary and scientific studies, the gift of great intelligence. Almanach de la Chronique de Jersey, 227

In 1840 Marett commenced a five-year course of study at the University of Caen. He was called to the Jersey bar in November of that year. On completing his studies he spent one year in Blois with his family, where his widowed mother had gone for health reasons, and was involved in founding an English church there, building being his lifelong hobby.

Reform was the watchword of the time, and local politics were dominated by two parties, the laurel on the right and the rose on the left. In this contentious atmosphere Marett stood for moderation. He was defeated in the 1852 election for constable of St Helier as an independent candidate, but elected unopposed at the next election, in 1856. As constable (mayor) he used the full weight of his influence to improve the town, widening streets and creating public parks. He took the far-sighted view that as the island had no capital but that which came from outside, everything possible had to be done to make it attractive to outsiders. He was appointed bailiff in 1880 by Queen Victoria. He was knighted in May 1881.

Personal life

In 1865 Marett married Julia Anne (b. c.1830), youngest of the four daughters of Philip Marett, seigneur of La Haule, and a distant cousin, with whom he had one son, Robert Ranulph Marett, who became a distinguished anthropologist, and three daughters.

Death

Marett's death, on 10 November 1884 at La Haule Manor, plunged the island into mourning, and the local newspapers devoted many columns to the most handsome tributes and to voluminous lists of the multitude of local notables and ordinary citizens who attended his funeral at St Brelade's parish church.

Sources

Doleance of Philip Marett, Esq., A Jurat, Against a Sentence of the Royal Court of Jersey (Book)