22nd May 2015
Memoirs of the extraordinary military career of John Shipp, late a lieut. in His Majesty's 87th regiment. Shipp (1784-1834) twice won a commission from the ranks before the age of thirty-two, and his memoirs were extremely popular, being published in four editions. He writes about his time at Guernsey as a young man in Chapter III. He was fourteen or so, and lead fifer in the 22nd Cheshire Regiment of Foot at the time; the regiment was in the island from 1798 to 1799 (they were inspected here on 14 August 1799.)
21st May 2015
Storms and drought, famine and barrenness, illness and illegality: an Extraordinary Meeting of Guernsey's Colloque, held 24 May 1611, in the presence of the Lieutenant, the ministers, and an elder representing each parish, to arrange a special day of fasting, prayer and humiliation. Such fasting days were, in fact, a quite common occurrence, and continued to be organized by the Church in conjunction with the secular authorities in times of trouble until relatively recently.
18th May 2015
The Friends of the Priaulx Library generously contributed the money needed to buy this Order Book at a local auction. The Anglo-Spanish Legion was a voluntary force of the British Army, raised specifically to aid the Spanish during the Carlist Civil Wars of the 1830s. The Library is very grateful to all those who contributed towards the Friends' donation of this important material.
13th May 2015
Edith Carey, in The Guernsey Society Report and Transactions for 1922 (pp. 89-90), quotes the following mystical occurrence from a 1922 article in Blackwood's Magazine, 'A Welsh Ride,' by Edmund Vale:
12th May 2015
State Paper Office, December 18, 1627. Present: Earl of Totnes, Earl of Dorset, Lord Viscount Conway, Mr Treasurer, Mr Secretary Coke. From De Guérin's MSS notes in the Library's Forts and Fortifications file.
8th May 2015
More moaning about Governor Napier, following on from The Affairs of Guernsey, June 1884. The Morning Post, July 22, 1844.
8th May 2015
The trouble with Napier. From the Morning Post, June 19 1844.
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.
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.
27th April 2015
From Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England &c, 1831.
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.'
23rd April 2015
From Vol. II of Edith Carey's book of transcripts, Wills & Legacies, in the Library (Staff).
