It happened in December - 1839
20th November 2020
A digest from the Evening Press, December 7, 1940
19th century
Tracing the history of local newspapers
14th October 2020
By Victor Coysh
High Street 100 Years Ago
8th October 2020
Pus nou vieillit, pus nou pense,/ Au temps pâssaï qui n'est pus. From the Star, 1932, a résumé of an article written in 1842 describing St Peter Port in 1800.
Ban on thatch, 1816
18th September 2020
From the Gazette de Guernesey, 2 November 1816. The appearance of wider St Peter Port would be changed by this Order of the Royal Court.
William Martel of La Mazotte, 1948
16th September 2020
Oldest inhabitant looks back. Just on a century of memories. By A Press Reporter, November 1948. 'We really couldn’t make up our minds whether the tomato was a fruit or a vegetable.’
Samuel Hocart and Port Grat
21st August 2020
A rapport from a collection of legal documents with reference to the Hocart family, particularly Samuel Hocart of Les Vardes.
Smallpox vaccination, 1803
7th July 2020
The plan and operation to undertake smallpox vaccination in the British Empire. From The Report on the progress of vaccine inoculation in Bengal, Volume 3, by John Shoolbred, 1805, pp. 14-16. John Dobrée was appointed to the Carmarthen in 1802; it was a new ship built by Mr Williams for the East India Co. that season (Naval Chronicle). He was previously captain of the Busbridge, an East India ship owned by Samuel Dobrée, esq., for which he had obtained a letter of marque in 1796.
Girl Golf Caddies
31st May 2019
From The Morning Leader, Tuesday 18 April 1889, and Punch, 12 April 1889. Cuttings in the Priaulx Library collection. The original photograph from which the drawing is taken was by Thomas Grut. Do please contact us if you have an example of this photograph.
Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Jeanne Hugo
10th May 2019
Victor Hugo's granddaughter Jeanne (1869-1941) was the apple of his eye. She knew Guernsey well. She married a childhood friend, the controversial author Léon Daudet (1867-1942), who had plenty to say about Victor Hugo - very little of it complimentary. The marriage did not last long.By Dinah Bott.
Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Léon Daudet: Hauteville-House just after Hugo’s death
8th May 2019
From Léon Daudet's Ghosts and the Living, chapter 6. Léon Daudet was the son of the celebrated author, Alphonse Daudet. His father was a friend of Victor Hugo, especially in Hugo's later years. Léon was an intimate of the Hugo family; he was the same age as Hugo's grandchildren, Georges and Jeanne. Handsome and brilliant, he was Georges' best friend and married Jeanne when they were both just of age, but he was ever aware of his (comparative) poverty and his irascible and vicious character was such that the marriage did not last long. He began as a young devotee of Victor Hugo, but as he grew older his opinion as expressed in his writing changed to implacable hatred.By Dinah Bott.