Middle Ages

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.

Little Wit, 1374

17th July 2017

The Guernsey garrison of men-at-arms and archers in 1374, a time of fear. From a transcript in the Library collection of an original document [Royal Court Library, Records and Documents, III 248.]. In August 1373, Bertrand de Guesclin attacked the islands, occupying part of Gorey Castle in Jersey and causing destruction in Guernsey and Sark; the islands had only recently recovered after a previous French invasion led by Owen of Wales.

Sir Stafford Carey's MSS

3rd February 2017

In a MSS book in the Library (Staff). 'Sir Stafford Carey's MSS. Taken by the Smiths and, after being kept in an barn, handed over by them to Wilfred Carey. March 1921.'

Mauds and Jordans

14th January 2016

French girl of 14th century, Mercuri & Bonnard, 1860, from the Library Collection

Two similar and unpleasant cases from the first half of the 14th century, one in the time of Edward I, the second under Edward II. Original documents in Latin. The illustration is of a French girl of the period, from Mercuri and Bonnard's Costumes Historiques des XIIe-XVe siècles, Paris: A Lévy fils, 1860, I, p. 78, in the Library Collection.

Manuscripts 1309-1464

15th September 2015

List of the contents of the bound volume entitled only MSS 1309-1464. The transcriptions are by various hands, and mostly appear to be late 17th century. The individual documents are in Latin or French and most have been published elsewhere.

Letters to Edith Carey

26th August 2015

Correspondence on local and family history from the Edith Carey collection.

Family notes and pedigrees

4th August 2015

A notebook with transcriptions and extensive genealogical annotations made by Edith Carey. Staff (strong room). Please ask for further information.

Lost things: Beauregard water tower, 1933

28th July 2015

Edith Carey, Pump in Cornet Street 1929, demolished, Priaulx Library Collection

The Société Guernesiaise tried its hardest to persuade the authorities to preserve this ancient structure, but to no avail. From the Star, January 1933. The photograph is from the Library Collection. It was taken by Edith Carey in 1929 and shows the water pump in Cornet Street which drew from the well of the Tour Beauregard, and which was demolished along with the water tower in 1933.

Safe-conduct for Alderney, 1513

20th July 2015

Louis Malet de Graville, Admiral of France

Letter to Monsieur de Pontaumont, archivist of the Société académique de Cherbourg.'My dear friend, I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of a document which you might think appropriate to present to our colleagues at the Society. I feel it provides interesting evidence of the relationship between the people of Alderney and those of Basse-Normandie at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries. It is a document of safe-conduct from the French admiral, Louis Malet, Seigneur de Graville, dated 20 April 1513. We were then at war with England, but, as had long been the case with the people of Alderney, even though they were subjects of the English Crown, they were very keen not to be treated as enemies by French soldiers and sailors.'[The portrait above is of Louis Malet de Graville.]

Medieval rolls

14th April 2015

The Library has a complete set of the Calendars of Patent Rolls, except for the years 1248-1280, (this volume can be accessed online.) Those below, of the last quarter of the 13th century, refer to the activities of the infamous Otto de Grandison, amongst other things.

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