19th century

Francoise Archenaux: Poisoner

Who put the rat poison in the wine? Françoise Archenaux, who on Saturday sennight was convicted by the Royal Court of having attempted to poison the family of Mr Daniel Grut LE MASURIER, underwent a part of her sentence by being placed in the cage in the public Market from half-past eleven to half-past twelve. On the four squares of the cage was fastened a printed label signifying the crime for which she was punished, it read thus, namely, Empoisonneuse. There was a multitude of both sexes present to witness the exhibition, whom she addressed at some length, but of the purport of her harangue we know nothing.

The Musee Dobree in Nantes

There is now an interesting website for this museum, with audio and video tours of the building and collections and a great deal of background information to this branch of the Dobrée family. The Priaulx Library has the standard guide to the museum in its collection, Aptel, Claire, et al., Thomas Dobrée 1810-1895: un homme un musée, France, Fonds Dobrée, 1997 .

La Haie du Puits: from the Lukis MSS

La Haye du Puits from the Priaulx Library colleciton

More informal gossip from the memoirs of Mr Lukis and Mr Chepmell; the Le Marchant, Le Mesurier, Baynes, and Hutchesson families. How Dr Hutchesson 'fell between two fires.'

Julia de Lacy Mann

Julia Mann attr. Peter Greenham from collection of St Hilda's College Oxford

A brief introduction to the life of the scholar Julia de Lacy Mann, an Oxford economist and promoter of women's education, who was one of the last descendants of Margaret and Gother Mann. Without her work on her family letters Guernsey social historians would be very much the poorer. The arresting portrait of her shown here, attributed to Peter Greenham, is in St Hilda's College, Oxford, and is displayed here by kind permission of the College.

The Wedding of Margaret Baynes and Gother Mann, 1845

An entertaining letter from a collection in the Bodleian transcribed by Julia de Lacy Mann, the working copies of which are held in the Library. It describes in great detail the Guernsey wedding of Margaret Baynes, whose letters from Trinidad have recently been published.

The Grange in 1826

The Grange in 1870 from the Priaulx Library Collection

From Cochrane's Guide to the Island of Guernsey, published by the author in Market-Street, Guernsey, in 1826.

The Diary of Harriet Brock Pengelley - a link

Is it indeed true am I here? divided by the Atlantic from a mother so justly adored, a father so truly beloved, my parents—Oh! let me still think I am dreaming—that I have not left you—bid you such a long, such a sad adieu.

Naftel, Street, Tranter

A link to some delighful 18th-century portrait miniatures that have found their way to Australia, and some photographs from the same collection.

What Sarah Fyers saw from a window in Gibraltar

17-year old Sarah Fyers was with her father with the garrison in Gibraltar in 1801, a few days before her wedding to Cornelius Mann, when she witnessed the first part of the Battle of Algeciras from the breakfast room. A handwritten copy of her eyewitness account is in the Dobree-Mann collection held at the Library. She was a close relation by marriage of Admiral James Saumarez, who played a crucial part in the battle and eventual victory.

French Dirt is the Worst

An amusing anecdote from a Methodist pioneer in the island.

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