19th century

Guillermo Tupper: A Guernsey hero's family visit from Chile

10th September 2019
A super morning spent with the lovely Tupper family from Chile - Alexander de Vic, senior and junior, Loreto and Isabel Margarita Tupper, descendants of the famous Guernsey-born soldier and hero of the Chilean Civil War, William de Vic Tupper. Born in 1800, he was the son of John Elisha Tupper and Elizabeth Brock. He was educated in Paris and his family intended him to become a merchant.…

Statue of Gilliatt, hero of The Toilers of the Sea, on display in the Library

11th April 2016
As part of our Exhibition to complement the Victor Hugo in Guernsey Festival, we were honoured to be able to display a miniature in bronze of Gilliatt by E-J Carlier, very kindly brought over to us from Paris by Professor Jean-Marc Hovasse, a leading expert in Hugo studies. The bronze normally resides in the Hugo Museum at the Place des Vosges, Paris. [ Photograph by Becky Nel. ] Emile-Joseph…

Recent donations

The Library is very grateful to have received donations of books and documents from various sources. These include: material relating to the conviction of Gill and LeBlond for 'treachery' in 1941; transcripts of letters from Captain McCaskill to General Small concerning the death in a duel of Major Byng in 1795, kindly donated by Charles Dace, the archivist at Wrotham Park, Byng's family home; an…

Pierre Mollet Fund

Pierre Mollet Junior lived at Les Landes, and was married to Elizabeth Mauger. His will of September 15th, 1882, of which we now have a beautifully printed copy, sets out his monetary legacies to private individuals, and specifies that ‘the sum of £3 per annum is to be paid during the first 12 years by his Executors and Trustees towards printing and distributing a book published in 1867,…

Hirzel Carey De Lisle, 1836-1911

This booklet, which has been very kindly donated to us by the author, Philip Walters, relates the history of the first vicar of Galleywood, the Reverend Hirzel Carey De Lisle. The author is a Londoner. He was able to indulge his love of history when in 1998 he and his wife moved from the busy metropolis to the village of Galleywood, south of Chelmsford, just at the time the Galleywood Historical…

Stuck in the Siberia of France: Charles De Havilland

These letters form the basis of two very interesting articles by André Métayer of the Société Philatélique de Rennes. Charles (1786-1844), Captain in the 20th Regiment of Foot, was captured by the French at Capri in late 1808, and was unfortunate not to be ransomed or swapped. He remained in that miserable limbo, 'the Siberia of France,' as he called it, that was the lot of an officer POW;…

An early photograph of the prison

The Library would like to thank Mrs Sue Westwood for the donation of a copy of a very interesting photograph of the interior courtyard of Guernsey prison, from c. 1870-80, showing very clearly the garden, with a substantial frame for growing fruit or vegetables, as well as the young Magnolia grandiflora, obviously recently planted , that was to grow into a magnificent specimen, now, sadly, lost…

Survey of L'Ancresse Common

The Library is very grateful to have received a splendid large-format copy of the 1840 survey of the Common, by States Surveyor J. Goodwin, from the present L'Ancresse Commons Council. Originally copied in 1909, it includes a detailed map, owners of fields and information from the relevant Livre de Perchage. For the Goodwin family see Bramall, G., 'The architects and builders of Guernsey's…