Ship movements, 1762
A selection from the London Chronicle, 1762.
The trial of George Barrington, 1787
George Barrington was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 19th of January, 1787, at the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, a silk purse value 2d. and twenty-three guineas, value £24 3s. and one half-guinea, value 10s. 6d. the property of Havilland Le Mesurier, Esq. privily from his person. From the Lawyer's and Magistrate's Magazine, Vol. I., 1792.
The Doyle Cup
From the Library and Museum of Freemasonry.
Lost things: Les Maindonnaux, 1901
View from the North-east.
The Journal of Jane Maria Barlow, 1833-38
Primary concern: Prettiness of self and other girls. Where are all the beaux? Were all the men really either tall or handsome in the 1830s? Obviously not: 'De Beauvoir De Lisle renewed his attentions which I am sorry for, I shall be obliged to draw a line.' A very annoyed Savery Brock bursts a blood vessel. Guernsey has very bad pavements. The photograph from the Library Collection shows a very benevolent-looking Jane in her old age, many years after this diary was written.
Views of James Saumarez in 1801
'A good deal of the grimace of a Frenchman'. A short biography from The European Magazine, and London Review, for October 1801; and a less kind opinion of the Admiral, written by Admiral Thomas Byam Martin, a veteran of his campaigns who had fallen out with him, parts of whose account are often regarded as at the least fanciful. Saumarez was prone to depression, however.
The Fancy Ball, 7 January 1836
'Oh happy night, enchanting sight, 'Neath garlands gay and floods of light, Brilliant eyes, balmy sighs, Shaming flow'r and lustre bright.' A report from the Star of 11 January, 1836. The photograph is a late 19th-century carte de visite, one of several in the Library Collection of subjects in fancy dress.
Prizes
Privateering action in the 18th century.
List of residents of Alderney who sheltered French priests 1792-3
The names of the Alderney people have been extracted and normalised.
July 8, 1761: John-William of Guinea
From the Town Church Registers. Victims of the slave trade. The Rivoire family, and a letter from John Rivoire of Guernsey to his cousin, Paul Revere. He was a Captain of a militia company in Guernsey: his brother Captain William Rivoire was lost at sea.
The Yellow Dress
A surprising dark side to life at the Town Hospital is hinted at in this Royal Court case. Unmarried local girls who became pregnant and who sought help at the Hospital, although treated kindly, were nevertheless put under a great deal of pressure to disclose the name of the father, so that he would be responsible for the child's maintenance and not the parish, but the threat extended to this girl is another thing entirely and seems to have terrified her. It should be noted that the Star newspaper chose not to mention the dress and represented the trial somewhat differently.
Lost things: Les Maisons aux Comtes, 1915
'One of the quaintest possible specimens of an old Guernsey dwelling'; so says the author of a report in The Star, October 20, 1915, under the byline: 'Another ancient landmark disappearing.' The photograph is by Edith Carey. She says tradition had it that the house was built in the 12th century and was connected with the Fief au Comte; the house on the left was demolished in 1921.