'Who lost his life in a humane attempt to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen on the coast of this island.' From L'Independance, March 14th, 1818; followed by excerpts from the sermon given at the Castel church on 15th March 1818 by Nicolas' young contemporary, the Reverend William Guille. The watercolour of the church is dated 1804 and is signed JM (for Dr John MacCulloch).
'But oh! what a tragic story we have to relate.' The bravery of a group of men from the Castel and their untimely deaths on the Gros Rock, March 9th, 1818; Nicolas Dobree, R.N., the two brothers Henry and George Le Tissier, Daniel Nicolle, and Captain Collenette. The photograph above shows the rock. 'Ils ont peri, meme en accomplissant un oeuvre de charite.'
Modernized list of people mentioned in legal cases, from a transcription of p. 223 of Livre des Jugements, Vol. I, in History of the Guernsey Churches scrapbook.
Letters from the Star, April 1891. Blondel and Andros, Brouard, Dumont, and Angel, at St Apolline. St Apolline's Chapel is first mentioned as belonging to Nicolas Henry in 1394; it was then called Notre Dame de la Perelle. The woodcut shows the chapel in use as a barn, from Bellamy's Pictorial Guide of 1843, in the Library collection.
An excerpt from Guernsey in the Thirties: Remininscences of the late Rev. M. Gallienne, part V, in the Star, February 1901.
In her Report to the Folklore section of the Société Guernesiaise in 1928, Edith Carey drew attention to an interesting custom connected with suicides, based on an inquest held in 1580.
From the Report of the Royal Commissioners deputed to the Island of Guernsey in 1815, published by J. A. Chevalier and N. Mauger in Guernsey in 1817. This investigation into Guernsey law came about after vociferous complaints to the Crown by non-native residents, or Strangers, about their lack of property and other rights in the island, especially when it came to laws concerning debtors and creditors.
The decoration of the salle à manger, or dining room, at Hauteville-House, Victor Hugo's residence in Guernsey, was finished in May 1857. Charles Hugo wrote of it:
Thomas Andros' Commonplace Book, by the Seigneur of Saumarez Manor, from a family 'whose penmanship was far from good;' a handwritten pamphlet of herbal medicine and fruit-growing, dated 1589, Guernsey, and an exploration of other texts quoted in it.
Lilium Sarniense, or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly. To which is added The Botanical Dissection of the Coffee Berry. With Figures. By Dr. James Douglas, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London; and Fellow of the Royal Society. London: Printed by G. STRAHAN, at the Golden Ball, over-against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill. 1725.
J. Gaspard Le Marchant, Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry, LONDON, PRINTED for the WAR OFFICE, and sold by T. EGERTON, MILITARY LIBRARY, WHITEHALL, 1796.
Ralph Durand, author and explorer, was Librarian of the Priaulx Library from 1929-1945, and the curator of the Island Museum from 1938-45.
