Ledos, that devil of a man
25th July 2025
Jacques Ledos, Capitaine Corsaire from Cherbourg, takes on an Alderney privateer. Both retire wounded.
Maritime
The sea rovers of Cherbourg, 1748
14th March 2025
Cherbourg was a den of dangerous corsairs and sea rovers in April 1748, as Captain Etienne Mourant of the Expedition and his passengers found out to their cost. From the Derby Mercury
Guernsey in the shipbuilding days
28th January 2025
From The Star of 6 February 1913. 'A writer connected with the shipping interests of the island has written the following brief history of Guernsey's shipbuilding days which will be read with interest by many readers.'
Will of Jean Vautier, 1699
21st November 2024
I, Jean Vautier being sound of body [but] being of a profession in which I often fnd myself in danger of death because of storms at sea ... Firstly, to the poor of St Peter Port, 20 sous tournois. Item . To my two sisters, Marie and Elizabeth, 10 sous each and as for the remainder: to my beloved wife Catherine Le Poitevin for her to live the rest of her life in the house and land that I own at Fermain, in right of my mother, Marie Le Chevalier [La Chevaliere]. Drawn up at St Peter Port 9 May 1699. Jean Patron, witness, William de Putron, witness. IGBD Reg: 4 May 1703
Captain Ross: The Antarctic Expedition
9th August 2024
A letter sent from a local member of Captain Ross' Expedition via the ship Alarm from the Falkland Islands, from the Guernsey Star, of September 15, 1842.
The Launch of the 'Concordia'
1st August 2024
Witchcraft in action - literally with a pinch of salt. From a Report by J Linwood Pitts, Hon. Sec. of the Folklore Section of the Société Guernesiaise. The illustration is a photograph of a brigantine in St Peter Port Harbour, from the Priaulx Library's Photographic Collection. Please contact us if you wish to reproduce it.
Will of Thomas Le Pelley, 1643
22nd May 2024
Translation from the French transcribed by Edith Carey in her Sark notebook in the Priaulx Library.
Irish smuggling
30th March 2022
From Report relating to frauds in the Customs, 1733, Appendix, pp. 634-5.
The Kingdom of Congers
11th February 2022
From An Account of the Island of Jersey, with An Appendix of Records &c. (1694), to which are added, Notes and Illustrations, by the Reverend Edward Durell, MA, Rector of St Saviour, Jersey. Jersey: Richard Giffard, 1837.
When island prospered with busy shipyards
24th September 2021
Memories of an old resident. From The Star, Guernsey, Thursday June 29, 1944