11th November 2015
Marie's father Charles Mauger settles money upon her, half of which is to be given to her husband the day after their marriage. This money is to be managed by her new husband, Thomas Le Marchant, for her benefit only, and will always remain hers and will pass to her direct heirs. The remaining money will be given to her, or to her direct heirs, after her father's death, once again to be invested on her and her family's behalf. This was one of the ways that Guernsey families retained their interests in their own estate and properties, and which enabled women to have rights to their own property after their husband's death. A fiancé could himself settle monies or property on his intended upon their engagment, in the form of gages, or pledges, hers to keep if they married, or a douaire, or dowry, which on the event of his death she could claim from his estate.
11th November 2015
Miscellaneous deeds and documents from the Library Collection.
6th November 2015
From Major Harry Harvey of the King's Own Borderers' Afghan Letters, in the Library. His letters were copied by his sisters into notebooks. The schematic above accompanies this letter and next to it is noted: 'This formation kept off the tribes of whom there were hundreds on the hills. They were afraid to attack. HH.'
3rd November 2015
Guernsey's first Methodist preacher Jean de Queteville writes about his son Jean in his Magasin Méthodiste of 1818, twenty-five years after the little boy's death. The portrait of de Queteville is from Henri de Jersey's Vie du Rév. Jean de Queteville, avec de nombreux extraits de sa correspondance, et un abrégé de la vie de Madame de Queteville, London: J Mason, and Guernsey: Mademoiselle de Queteville, St Jacques, 1847.
29th October 2015
Students sometimes complain today about the cost of text books: Pierre Martin has to write his own. Hanc Metaphisicae Tractationem docentis ab ore D: D: Stephani Guillebert philosophiae subtilissimi professoris collegit Petrus Martin, Anglo-sarniensis. Cadomi, anno do: 1686. 'Peter Martin, Anglo-Sarnian, put together this treatise on metaphysics from lectures by his tutor Etienne Guillebert, DD, a most astute professor of philosophy. At Caen, 1686.' The volume is leather bound, and many pages remain unused.
26th October 2015
Two interesting judgments from the 1760s. Library Perchard file.
21st October 2015
The contents of the 19th-century notebook in the Library. Transcripts of the following letters:
21st October 2015
'From MSS in possession of Mrs Fred. Dobrée, The Laurels, Candie. Notes taken 20 November 1909.' From the de Beauvoir files in the Library, which include a full copy of this will and others from this branch of the de Beauvoir family; and a letter of 1681 in French (here translated) from Richard to his brother James in Guernsey, taken from an undated newspaper cutting. The illustration of Balmes House is a figure from the Rev. D. Lyson's Environs of London &c, Vol. II. the County of Middlesex, London: Cadell and Davies, 1795, in the Library Collection.
19th October 2015
A letter transcribed in Andros correspondence, a 19th-century notebook which belonged to Charles Andros. To Madame Andros, en la Court de sa Majesté de la Grand Bretaigne. Peter de Jersey was the minister of the Town Church from 1659 through the Restoration until the turmoil of 1662, when he was replaced by Huguenot refugee Pierre Jannon. Mme Andros was the wife of the prominent royalist Amias Andros. She was Elizabeth Stone; her brother Sir Robert Stone was cupbearer to the Queen of Bohemia and captain of a cavalry troop in Holland. In the early years of the war she left the island for St Malo, but on the way was captured by the parliamentary forces and returned to her enemies in Guernsey. In 1645 she managed to escape from the beseiged Castle Cornet to Jersey, leaving her husband behind; they did not see each other again for nine years.
16th October 2015
A ghost story, from The Stranger's Guide to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, Guernsey: Collins /Barbet 1833, pp. 17-18. The illustration is from The Channel Islands, historical and legendary sketches, a book of poetry by C J Metcalfe, Jnr., London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1852.
13th October 2015
According to this note, or cédule, Jean de la Mare of Le Hurel in St Saviour's borrowed several lots of money from Jean Le Mesurier de la Fontaine. This note is for a relatively small amount, 5 livres tournois. The note is dated 27 April 1757, and is part of the Le Hurel Collection donated to us by Esther Hatton.
9th October 2015
A printed account of the defendants' response to an appeal to the Privy Council, March 1715, concerning the retrait lignager of a house at the Tourgand. From Petitions and trials, in the Library. For Mr. James de Havilland, Mrs. Rachel Briard, Represented by Mr. Henry de Saumarez, her Son, Defendants. Versus. Mrs. Jacquina de Saumarez, Appellant.
