Thomas Kennedy
Sir John Doyle's great friend: his obituary in The United Services Magazine.
18th century
Les Ollivier du Coin des Ecailles
From the Magasin Methodiste, LIV, 1880, pp. 28-9.
The Seigneur de Domecq
A story of St Martin's, from the Star, October 28 1916. Nicolas de Taulès bought the noble title and estate of Domecq de Précillon in November, 1750, and was admitted as a member of the States of Béarn in the same year.
William Dobree, bankrupt, 1754
November the 2nd 1754 ex parte John de Sausmarez, Henry Brock, Matthew de Sausmarez: In the matter of William Dobrée a bankrupt. From Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery: in the time of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. [1736-1754], Volume 1. William's debts would today be in the region of, at the minimum, ten million pounds, but as he was in effect a banker, the amount could feasibly be multiplied by ten.
Lost things: Alexander's Hotel
Once one of the very favourite places to visit on a Sunday and eat pancakes, and subject of a poem in Guernsey French by George Métivier. The illustration, entitled 'Stacks of seaweed at Alexander's Hotel' is from R. Ellis' Rambles among the Channel Islands, by a Naturalist, 1854.
French emigres buried in St Peter Port, 1796
C. Hettier, Les Relations de la Normandie et de la Bretagne avec les Iles de la Manche pendant l'émigration, 1885.
Elizabeth Le Cocq of Alderney, paillarde, 1736
Elizabeth refused to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court to admit 'paillardise'—licentiousness—having given birth to an illegitimate child. From Peter Mollet's Notebook in the Library.
A sorry tale: the duel between Thomas Andros and Kenneth Beauvais, 1780
A duel mentioned by Elisha Dobrée in his Diary (which covers the years 1753-1789). Kenneth Beauvais was mortally wounded, though it was considered a duel 'with general good consequences.'
Major Byng
Major William Byng is the best-known Guernsey dueller; there is a stone in Cambridge Park commemorating his death in 1795. Guernseymen were forbidden to duel in Guernsey and would usually travel to Jersey to fight it out, so the majority of duels that have taken place here in the island of which we know any details occurred between locals and a member of the garrison; in this case a quarrel arose between two serving soldiers.
Thomas de Sausmarez
From Edith Carey's Scrapbooks (Vol. 1: the Chepmell MS) in the Library. 'He had 28 children, but never more than 14 alive at a time.'