Articles

The Library's unique collections are a treasure chest of unusual, interesting and sometimes surprising material just waiting to be found. This anthology, written by the Editor, is based on an eclectic selection of our archive. The author asserts her copyright on all material on the Priaulx Library website except where copyright of other authors is expressly notified. Permission to reproduce material from this website and full attribution to the author is required in all cases.

Politics

Mutiny in St Peter's, 1704

From the Library's militia collection. A transcript by Edith Carey of a letter in French from a worried Lieutenant-Bailiff, Eléazar Le Marchant, to the absent Lieut.-Governor, Sir Edmund Andros, (here translated), and a contemporary copy of a petition concerning the same mutiny from William De Lisle in the St Peter's militia, to the Privy Council. Complicated family ties and nepotism, and a reflection of the bitter factional resentment felt towards Edmund Andros.

Jesuits, 1828

An Island Meeting to discuss an application to found a Jesuit seminary in Guernsey. Admiral Sir James Saumarez was in the chair. He was to forward the petition against the school and the meeting's resolutions to Robert Peel, for Peel in turn to present to the King. The complete text, printed as a pamphlet by Nicolas Mauger, can be found in the Library's Petitions and Trials scrapbook, Vol. I.

Strangers, vagabonds, and other disreputable characters

From an Order of the Royal Court of Easter 1726.

The plan for recruiting the forces for the East Indies, March 1771

From The Scots Magazine, ed. James Boswell, Vol. 33.

Extra-parishioners, 1770

Locals who live outside their native parish.

Strangers, 1772

Order of the Royal Court, 27th April 1772.

John Banister to Elisha Tupper, July 11, 1775

Elisha Tupper, son of Daniel, Priaulx Library collection

John Banister of Virginia describes the Boston Tea Party and the growing disaffection between Britain and New England, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, to update his business associate, shipping magnate Elisha Tupper. The illustration, from the Priaulx Library collection, is of a miniature of Elisha (1720-1802), in the background of which a date, possibly 1785, is just discernible. The photograph was taken by or on behalf of Edith Carey, c. 1920.

A Guernsey decision abrogated: April 29, 1783

The case of a Russian ship, the Graf Nikita, from The Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal, Volume 6, 1783; in which an independent judgment of Guernsey's Royal Court was overturned for British political expediency.

The fur trade in 1761

From the London Chronicle , Vol. 9. Guernsey and Jersey are accused of helping the French to put British fur traders in Canada out of business; the claim is denied.

Bouane Debate, February 1819

A poem in Guernsey French, from the Gazette de Guernesey of 19 February, 1819. The title means 'Good riddance!'

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