6th January 2016
In Guernsey the authorities could, if they wished, make use of the jehennet, or 'Jenny,' better known as ... the rack. It appears, however, that they preferred strappado. The illustration is from Fox's Book of Martyrs, revised John Malham: London, Thomas Kelly, 1814, in the Library Collection.
29th October 2015
Students sometimes complain today about the cost of text books: Pierre Martin has to write his own. Hanc Metaphisicae Tractationem docentis ab ore D: D: Stephani Guillebert philosophiae subtilissimi professoris collegit Petrus Martin, Anglo-sarniensis. Cadomi, anno do: 1686. 'Peter Martin, Anglo-Sarnian, put together this treatise on metaphysics from lectures by his tutor Etienne Guillebert, DD, a most astute professor of philosophy. At Caen, 1686.' The volume is leather bound, and many pages remain unused.
21st October 2015
The contents of the 19th-century notebook in the Library. Transcripts of the following letters:
19th October 2015
A letter transcribed in Andros correspondence, a 19th-century notebook which belonged to Charles Andros. To Madame Andros, en la Court de sa Majesté de la Grand Bretaigne. Peter de Jersey was the minister of the Town Church from 1659 through the Restoration until the turmoil of 1662, when he was replaced by Huguenot refugee Pierre Jannon. Mme Andros was the wife of the prominent royalist Amias Andros. She was Elizabeth Stone; her brother Sir Robert Stone was cupbearer to the Queen of Bohemia and captain of a cavalry troop in Holland. In the early years of the war she left the island for St Malo, but on the way was captured by the parliamentary forces and returned to her enemies in Guernsey. In 1645 she managed to escape from the beseiged Castle Cornet to Jersey, leaving her husband behind; they did not see each other again for nine years.
15th September 2015
An extract from a set of notes by Mildred Brock 'from information derived from Mr Arthur Brouard, the owner of the two houses, and her own researches into the records of the parish of St Pierre du Bois.' Read at a meeting of the Société Guernesiaise, 22 July 1933.
10th June 2015
From the Notebook of Pierre Le Roy, edited by Rev. George Lee. In the picture is the redoubtable Sir Henry de Vic, whose influence with Charles II was instrumental in winning back the king's favour for the island after the Civil War. The portrait belongs to the Ashmolean Museum, who have kindly allowed us to reproduce it here. [WA.B.II.722 Sir Peter Lely, Sir Henry de Vic, Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, Black oiled chalk, heightened with white, on blue-grey paper, © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.]
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.
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.
Tonnerre, foudre et orage. From Pierre Le Roy's Notebook, edited and transcribed by the Reverend G Lee in 1893 under the auspices of the Guille-Alles Library. The woodcut is by Dr Thomas Bellamy, from his Guide of 1843.
An Ordinance of 19 April, 1658.
