19th century

Nicolas de la Mare, 1806

Nicolas de la Mare signature, 1806, Priaulx Library Collection

A letter from Southampton; teenage schoolboy Nicolas (b. 1790) to his father, Maitre John de la Mare in Guernsey. Nicolas attends John Crouch's school in Swaythling (then called Swathling). From the Le Hurel collection of historical family documents relating to the de la Mare family, recently donated to the Library by E Hatton.

Rosa Brock's Sketchbook

Rosa Brock, Alpine scene, Priaulx Library collection

These lovely watercolours are the work of Rosa, the daughter of General Sir Isaac Brock's brother, Savery Brock. They have been given to the Library on long-term loan by Rosa's great-great-neice, Sally Greenaway of New Zealand.

Guernsey 'Pilgrim Fathers'

From The Guernsey Free Churchman, February, 1924, and written by the Editor, the Reverend George Rabey. The Sarchet family emigrates to Ohio in 1806.

Antiquities at Rosenheim

Rosenheim from A Farmer's Vacation 1873 in the Priaulx Library Collection

A report of a meeting of the Société Guernesiaise in c. 1927. Rosa Brock's house 'Rosenheim,' now known as 'The Chain House,' was a very popular stop on a typical visitor tour of Guernsey, for its highly decorative gardens. The photograph below, from the Library collection, shows the famous 'sun and moon' trough in situ in the gardens. The Library is lucky enough to hold Rosa's exquisite book of watercolours.

Lines written on quitting the Vauquiedor, October 1813

From Le Miroir Politique, Saturday 23 October 1813. 'Original Poetry: the following Lines are the production of a Lady, whose poetical talents are not wholly unknown to this Island. A copy of them having fallen into our hands, we have not hesitated to insert it, from a persuasion that it will be acceptable to our numerous readers.' The Vauqiédor estate was acquired by Thomas Fiott de Havilland who transformed it into Havilland Hall.

Nicolas De Garis, conscientious objector, 1805

Etienne Gibert from Benoit's Deux Pasteurs &c, Toulouse, 1889, in the Library Collection

By H D Olivier, from The Guernsey Free Churchman, March 1932, p. 23. 'Not honesty in the abstract but Honest is my name. And I want the kind of person I am to match what I am called.' The portrait is of a sympathizer, Etienne Gibert, Rector of St Andrew, the frontispiece of his biography, published in Toulouse in 1889, by Daniel Benoît, Les Frères Gibert, du désert et du refuge. This book includes the life of his brother Louis, also a Protestant minister, who emigrated to South Carolina.

An Eternal Stranger: Harman Blennerhasset

Town Church Guernsey 1870 in Priaulx Library Collection

'Like mournful echo from the silent tomb, That pines away upon the midnight air, Whilst the pale moon breaks out with fitful gloom, Fond memory turns, with sad but welcome care, To scenes of desolation and despair, Once bright with all that beauty could bestow, That peace could shed, or youthful fancy know.' From The Deserted Isle, by Margaret Blennerhassett. Harman Blennerhassett was a clever but eccentric Irish republican who 'married' his niece, became involved in an abortive but notorious plot to make Texas independent, and ended up buried in Guernsey. The photograph above is from the Library Collection and shows the Cimitière des Soeurs, or Sisters' Cemetery, in 1870. The modern photographs in the article are of the Strangers' Cemetery as it is today.

Lost things: Les Maindonnaux, 1901

Les Maindonnaux, Priaaulx Library Collection

View from the North-east.

Captain Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure

Circumstance and media frenzy made him one of the most famous men in the world in the 1850s and 1860s. But who remembers him now?

The Journal of Jane Maria Barlow, 1833-38

Jane Saumarez nee Barlow as an old lady from the Priaulx Library Collection

Primary concern: Prettiness of self and other girls. Where are all the beaux? Were all the men really either tall or handsome in the 1830s? Obviously not: 'De Beauvoir De Lisle renewed his attentions which I am sorry for, I shall be obliged to draw a line.' A very annoyed Savery Brock bursts a blood vessel. Guernsey has very bad pavements. The photograph from the Library Collection shows a very benevolent-looking Jane in her old age, many years after this diary was written.

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