La Haie du Puits: from the Lukis MSS
More informal gossip from the memoirs of Mr Lukis and Mr Chepmell; the Le Marchant, Le Mesurier, Baynes, and Hutchesson families. How Dr Hutchesson 'fell between two fires.'
Julia de Lacy Mann
A brief introduction to the life of the scholar Julia de Lacy Mann, an Oxford economist and promoter of women's education, who was one of the last descendants of Margaret and Gother Mann. Without her work on her family letters Guernsey social historians would be very much the poorer. The arresting portrait of her shown here, attributed to Peter Greenham, is in St Hilda's College, Oxford, and is displayed here by kind permission of the College.
The Wedding of Margaret Baynes and Gother Mann, 1845
An entertaining letter from a collection in the Bodleian transcribed by Julia de Lacy Mann, the working copies of which are held in the Library. It describes in great detail the Guernsey wedding of Margaret Baynes, whose letters from Trinidad have recently been published.
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.
Captain Francis George Mockler, DSO, 1916
The Star, July 7th, 1916: We deeply regret to announce the death in action of Major F G Mockler, DSO, Royal Irish Regiment, which occurred on Sunday, July 2nd.
Nicholas Roussel, Le Rimeur, 1807
From an editorial in the Star of December 12, 1836. The woodcut of a 'frisky' Guernsey pig is from Dr Thomas Bellamy's Pictorial Directory of 1843, in the Library collection. The writer comments on the credulity of those in the country parishes, who continue to venerate such impostors and quacks as Louis D'Orléan, about to face trial for imposition, and in doing so gives us details of the case of Nicolas Roussel which, although having occurred in 1807, 'is not yet forgotten, and just a few particulars respecting it will not, just now, be unacceptable'.
A fast worker: Ozanne versus Peddle, February 1837
An appeal to the Royal Court. From the Comet, February 16, 1837.
The notorious Frenchman D'Orlean, 1836
'I have cured persons whom the Doctors had given up; if I am guilty it is of that.' The King versus D'Orléan, the conclusion of a protracted case which opened in the Royal Court, Saturday, December 10th, 1836. Much of the evidence was heard in camera. D'Orléan was practising as a veterinary surgeon. The folk of the country parishes—Judith Lainé, the Bichards, Rihoys, Reniers, Mahys, Galliennes and Ogiers, in this case—are as usual regarded as ill-educated and credulous by Guernsey's sophisticated urbanites. The details of the case are reported in the Comet of February 6, 1837.
James Ollivier, 1836
'A most audacious fellow.' From the Comet, July 14th 1836.
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.
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.