From the De Lisle family file in the Library (No. 9). 'Articles of agreement made in the Island of Guernsey, on the Sixth day of October, In the year of our Lord 1832, by and between Hirzel Frederick de Lisle Esquire, son of the late Hirzel De Lisle Esquire, of the said Island, of the one part, Mary Carey, Spinster, daughter of John Carey Esquire, son of John, of the said Island, of the second part, and the said John Carey Esquire, of the third part. Bear witness.' The illustration is of Hirzel de Lisle's house, Hirzelbourne, now Swissville. The woodcut is by Dr Thomas Bellamy and was published in 1843 in his Pictorial Directory and Stranger's Guide to Guernsey.
A letter from Marguerite in Alderney to 'Monsieur De La Mare au Huret, au coin de Mr Jean Robin sur Les cais, Guernesey.' From the Le Hurel collection of de la Mare family documents, donated by E Hatton.
A letter from Southampton; teenage schoolboy Nicolas (b. 1790) to his father, Maitre John de la Mare in Guernsey. Nicolas attends John Crouch's school in Swaythling (then called Swathling). From the Le Hurel collection of historical family documents relating to the de la Mare family, recently donated to the Library by E Hatton.
These lovely watercolours are the work of Rosa, the daughter of General Sir Isaac Brock's brother, Savery Brock. They have been given to the Library on long-term loan by Rosa's great-great-neice, Sally Greenaway of New Zealand.
From The Guernsey Free Churchman, February, 1924, and written by the Editor, the Reverend George Rabey. The Sarchet family emigrates to Ohio in 1806.
A report of a meeting of the Société Guernesiaise in c. 1927. Rosa Brock's house 'Rosenheim,' now known as 'The Chain House,' was a very popular stop on a typical visitor tour of Guernsey, for its highly decorative gardens. The photograph below, from the Library collection, shows the famous 'sun and moon' trough in situ in the gardens. The Library is lucky enough to hold Rosa's exquisite book of watercolours.
From Le Miroir Politique, Saturday 23 October 1813. 'Original Poetry: the following Lines are the production of a Lady, whose poetical talents are not wholly unknown to this Island. A copy of them having fallen into our hands, we have not hesitated to insert it, from a persuasion that it will be acceptable to our numerous readers.' The Vauqiédor estate was acquired by Thomas Fiott de Havilland who transformed it into Havilland Hall.
By H D Olivier, from The Guernsey Free Churchman, March 1932, p. 23. 'Not honesty in the abstract but Honest is my name. And I want the kind of person I am to match what I am called.' The portrait is of a sympathizer, Etienne Gibert, Rector of St Andrew, the frontispiece of his biography, published in Toulouse in 1889, by Daniel Benoît, Les Frères Gibert, du désert et du refuge. This book includes the life of his brother Louis, also a Protestant minister, who emigrated to South Carolina.
Primary concern: Prettiness of self and other girls. Where are all the beaux? Were all the men really either tall or handsome in the 1830s? Obviously not: 'De Beauvoir De Lisle renewed his attentions which I am sorry for, I shall be obliged to draw a line.' A very annoyed Savery Brock bursts a blood vessel. Guernsey has very bad pavements. The photograph from the Library Collection shows a very benevolent-looking Jane in her old age, many years after this diary was written.
Circumstance and media frenzy made him one of the most famous men in the world in the 1850s and 1860s. But who remembers him now?
