The Fund for the Relief of Guernsey Prisoners in France, 1806
Supplement to the Gazette de Guernesey of 16 August 1806.
Georgian
French emigres buried in St Peter Port, 1796
C. Hettier, Les Relations de la Normandie et de la Bretagne avec les Iles de la Manche pendant l'émigration, 1885.
Some Brock Family Miniatures
Notes by Miss Mary Elizabeth Guille on some Brock portraits. Written November 29 1902, when she was aged 81. William Brock, Henry Brock, and Harriet Brock were children of William Brock (1725-1768) and Judith de Beauvoir. The leading portrait is of William Brock; it is signed P J, for Philip Jean, and dated 1786.
The death of Mary Saumarez, October 1812
A letter from the Library's Mann-Dobrée collection, edited by Julia de L. Mann: Anne Dobrée to Henry Routh, October 8, 1812. Nineteen-year-old Mary Dobrée Saumarez was the eldest daughter of Admiral James Saumarez and his wife, Martha Le Marchant; Anne was her cousin. Henry 'Harry' Le Mesurier, son of Havilland, had just lost his arm at the Battle of Salamanca.
Lines, on the lamented death of Captain Dobree, R N
'Who lost his life in a humane attempt to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen on the coast of this island.' From L'Independance, March 14th, 1818; followed by excerpts from the sermon given at the Castel church on 15th March 1818 by Nicolas' young contemporary, the Reverend William Guille. The watercolour of the church is dated 1804 and is signed JM (for Dr John MacCulloch).
An Eternal Stranger: Harman Blennerhasset
'Like mournful echo from the silent tomb, That pines away upon the midnight air, Whilst the pale moon breaks out with fitful gloom, Fond memory turns, with sad but welcome care, To scenes of desolation and despair, Once bright with all that beauty could bestow, That peace could shed, or youthful fancy know.' From The Deserted Isle, by Margaret Blennerhassett. Harman Blennerhassett was a clever but eccentric Irish republican who 'married' his niece, became involved in an abortive but notorious plot to make Texas independent, and ended up buried in Guernsey. The photograph above is from the Library Collection and shows the Cimitière des Soeurs, or Sisters' Cemetery, in 1870. The modern photographs in the article are of the Strangers' Cemetery as it is today.
Major Byng
Major William Byng is the best-known Guernsey dueller; there is a stone in Cambridge Park commemorating his death in 1795. Guernseymen were forbidden to duel in Guernsey and would usually travel to Jersey to fight it out, so the majority of duels that have taken place here in the island of which we know any details occurred between locals and a member of the garrison; in this case a quarrel arose between two serving soldiers.
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.'
Lost things: Alexander's Hotel
Once one of the very favourite places to visit on a Sunday and eat pancakes, and subject of a poem in Guernsey French by George Métivier. The illustration, entitled 'Stacks of seaweed at Alexander's Hotel' is from R. Ellis' Rambles among the Channel Islands, by a Naturalist, 1854.
The sweetest place in Guernsey: Candie
From W T Money's diary of his visit to Guernsey in 1798, edited by Edith Carey, and reproduced in the Report and Transactions of the Societe Guernesiaise (1931). Not much has changed, not even the views from the Library that Money so much appreciated.