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.

Religion

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.

December 1843

From the Guernsey newspapers.

Daniel Dobree's swallows

From Report and Transactions of the Guernsey Society of Natural Science, 1882, p. 12.

October 1892

From the local newspapers.

Oliver Dobree and Catherine Stephens, 1693

Or was he a Dupré—and a Jerseyman?

30 December 1672: Castle Cornet explodes

Richard Godfrey 1779 print of Castle Cornet before 1672

Reminiscences, from The Star, Tuesday December 9, 1890. The reaction of the population to the shocking event: a translation of an Ordinance of the Royal Court of 11 January, 1673; and an account from Roger North's Life of Dr John North, a 17th century Cambridge academic who was related to the Hattons. The illustration of the Castle before the explosion is a print published by Richard Godfrey in 1779, taken from a painting then in the possession of a [Mr] Carey.

Christmas 1607: what fun!

From the Acts of the Guernsey Colloquy, a document of exceptional local importance in the Library Collection. The Gathering of Ministers and Elders gives its judgment.

19 August 1634: a terrible fire

Ruette Marie Gibault, 1936, from the Library Collection

Mr Havilland's house is consumed by fire: two accounts, one from Jean de la Marche's diary, the other from George Fashion's notebook. The photograph is of the Ruette Marie Gibaut (colloquially Fuzzey's Lane), in St Peter Port, in 1936, from the Library Collection.

March 1820

Guernsey newspapers of 1820. Cemeteries, magicians, orang-utans and hot baths.

Worse than Turks: Adrian Saravia on Guernsey, 1564

A letter from the first headmaster of Elizabeth College, a native of Artois, written in 1564/5 to the Secretary of State, William Cecil.

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