The Affairs of Guernsey (From a Private Letter)
8th May 2015
The trouble with Napier. From the Morning Post, June 19 1844.
The Small Pox, 1895
8th May 2015
Two letters from the Star, January 3 1895. The picture is a detail from a photograph by Edith Carey, in the Library Collection. Part of the area of Guernsey's 'seething mass of corruption,' it shows Rosemary Lane and the top of Cornet Street steps in 1929.
Our online catalogue
5th May 2015
Our collection consists of many tens of thousands of books, documents and other materials. Work to catalogue all of this material has been prioritised over the last decade and, although not complete, our catalogue is a very useful tool for finding what you need.
St Peter Port, 1831
27th April 2015
From Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England &c, 1831.
Guernsey girls
27th April 2015
A rhyme describing the girls of each Guernsey parish, given to Edith Carey at the beginning of the 20th century by 'the late Isaac Le Patourel, of St Martin's;' and a ditty from Fanny Ingrouille describing the average week of a Guernsey country girl. 'Monday, Tuesday—Party!, Wednesday, Hangover. Thursday, Hard work.' From Guernsey Folk Lore, pp. 507-8. The photograph is part of the Library's Carel Toms' Collection, and is a detail from a postcard sent to Miss M Hinson in 1909. The rhyme is attributed by George Métivier, in his notes to his poem 'L'Revillon d'une vielle chifournie,' published in Rimes Guernesiaises (1831), to a contemporary poet-songster called 'Eléazar.'
Will of John Chapman, 1703
23rd April 2015
From Vol. II of Edith Carey's book of transcripts, Wills & Legacies, in the Library (Staff).
The Invisible Man: A Midsummer Tragedy
22nd April 2015
This story is by J R Le Ruez, and was published in the magazine Guernsey Gossip and Visitors' List, June 6 1908. The tale comes from Jersey, and is interesting because of the superstitions and beliefs it is based on; in the seventeenth century Elie Brévint of Sark, himself of Jersey extraction, wrote of the belief that one could aller à la graine de fougère, or 'use the fern seed' and become invisible.
Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Rankin Campbell, DSO, 1863-1930, when Seneschal of Sark
21st April 2015
Donated 2015 by his granddaughter, Fiona Havergal. Working papers from the early 1920s, and a photograph of the Lieutenant-Colonel. Lt-Col. Kenneth Campbell moved to Sark in 1919, and was sworn in as Seneschal of Sark on the recommendation of W F Collings, the Seigneur. He had left Sark by 1923.
May Day in Alderney
20th April 2015
From the Guernsey Monthly Magazine, September 1891, p. 382.
Pierre Silvieux, 1705
15th April 2015
'How Alderney lost its minister in 1705.' From A N Le Cheminant's A Christmas Box of Channel Gems, in the Library's Channel Islands' Pamphlets XIV (Goss.-LeFebvre), pp. 29 ff. This 1700 law remained unrepealed, in Sark at least, and continued to have repercussions into the 20th century!
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.
Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx's original bequest
10th April 2015
I want nothing called after my name, and I will give nothing to those who already have much. .... If the money be not properly administered, better it had been thrown in the sea.