19th century

Jesuits, 1828

An Island Meeting to discuss an application to found a Jesuit seminary in Guernsey. Admiral Sir James Saumarez was in the chair. He was to forward the petition against the school and the meeting's resolutions to Robert Peel, for Peel in turn to present to the King. The complete text, printed as a pamphlet by Nicolas Mauger, can be found in the Library's Petitions and Trials scrapbook, Vol. I.

My little brothers: Christmas with Victor Hugo, 1862

Hugo and the children from Delalande, Priaulx Library Collection
From the Gazette de Guernesey, Saturday 27 December, a report on Hugo's Christmas party for deprived children; a letter from Hugo to his wife, whose idea it all was in the first place; and another to the French publisher Castel, in which he plans to donate the proceeds of a new book of drawings to his poor Guernsey protégés. The editor of the Gazette at this time was Hugo's friend and disciple, Guernseyman Henri Marquand. The photograph accompanying this article is dated 1868. It was taken in March by Arsène Garnier. (Another very similar set of photographs was taken by a Jerseyman with a studio in London, named Henry Frankland, in February 1868; the Library has a photographic plate of one of these iconic images.) This particular photograph was popular with the public at the time; they could buy it in the local shops.Article by Dinah Bott.

Mrs William Sharshaw

Mary Sharshaw courtesy of Heather
A brief obituary of a pioneering woman, from The Monthly Illustrated Journal (the Guernsey Magazine), February 1889. Mary Esther Sharshaw, born in October 1821, daughter of Henry Cumber and Mary Gallienne, was a pharmacist. The obituary does not mention that she came from two families of prominent Quakers. The two photographs of Mary, which are reproduced courtesy of their owner, both show her with a book. In the lower picture she is sporting a fine calabash, a typical Guernsey ladies' hat; the photograph is by her sister, the Guernsey photographer Sarah Louise Cumber.

Pages

Categories