This week in June two centuries ago ... or thereabouts
Extracts, mostly from the Gazette de Guernesey, on this day (or thereabouts) two hundred years ago.
18th century
The Family of Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant
'I am determined to rise to the head of my profession and nothing but death will stop me.' J. Gaspard Le Marchant was born into one of the most influential and possibly the wealthiest family in Guernsey. His was one of the most illustrious careers in the history of the the British Army, in which he single-mindedly founded the Royal Military College and revolutionised the training of officers. Highly esteemed by Wellington, he died a glorious if unnecessary death in 1812 at the Battle of Salamanca, following which a monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral at public expense.
De La Mare partages
From the Le Hurel collection, donated by Esther Hatton.
The Harvey Family
Throughout the occupation of Guernsey (1940-45) Winifred Harvey (1888-1976) kept a diary, which has been edited and published under the title The Battle of Newlands, and which is still in print. In keeping her diary, she followed a family tradition; the Harveys have left behind them comprehensive records from the middle of the 19th century, so detailed that their lives could virtually be reconstructed from them, and much of that material is here at the Library. Their house, Newlands, is illustrated in the photograph above, from the Library Collection.
Paul Le Mesurier
The Monthly Magazine, XX (II) 1805, pp. 571 ff. 'At Upper Homerton, in his 51st year, Paul Le Mesurier, esq., alderman of London, representative in two parliaments for the borough of Southwark, a director of the East India Company, and Colonel of the Honourable Artillery Company.'
Captain Evan Evans
Famous highwayman, from the Newgate Calendar. 'Clerk to Sir Edmund Andrews, in Guernsey, and later Highwayman in England. Executed in 1708.'
Nicolas Lenfestey des Brehauts
From The Guernsey Free Churchman, January 1925 p. 7. The life of the Methodist preacher, by George Rabey.
The Clos du Valle from the Livres de Perchage
The Star(?) c. January 1897.
Old house in Berthelot Street: legal documents
MSS of Dr Hoskins, notes on his old house in Berthelot Street, transcribed by Edith Carey.
Mariage encombre
A wife had a year and a day after the death of her husband to claim the Writ de Mariage Encombré, which enabled her to allege that her husband had sold or alienated all or part of her personal property, without her consent.