A letter from Thomas Leighton, 1594
20th January 2017
The Governor of Guernsey to Mr Carey, concerning Newfoundland. From Chefs Plaids &c p. 88.
Maritime
A ship's captain is taken hostage, April 1748
4th February 2016
‘April 1748. A prize, with wine and brandy, and a ransomer of £1000, taken by the Hanover privateer of Guernsey,’ reported in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1748. Ransoming captured prizes was a practice favoured by Guernsey privateers in the earlier years of privateering, often with an eye to selling on a valuable cargo, but frowned upon by the British authorities, who preferred prizes to be brought into port to be officially 'condemned.' When challenged upon the reason for their not having followed the authorized procedure, the Guernseymen would often answer that at the time they had been prevented by 'a contrary wind.'
Guernsey's forgotten past, Carel Toms
17th September 2015
A list of the photographs in Carel Toms' book, Guernsey's forgotten past, published in 1992. Many of these photographs are in the Library's Carel Toms Collection; please contact the Library for further information.
On board the Tulloch Castle to Melbourne, 1852
27th July 2015
The 1850s gold rush in Australia attracted thousand of immigrants and would-be prospectors, and Guernsey was by no means immune to gold fever. 18-year old William Francis Nicolle recorded his voyage to Melbourne in the summer of 1852 in his Journal, which was generously donated to the Library by Stephen Foote. Nicolle followed this with an account of his return from Australia in the freezing cold on board the Avon. His Journal also includes a substantial amount of family history material (Nicolle, De Garis, Lainé, Lamble &c.), as well as other accounts of later voyages made on board cargo ships. He was a carpenter by trade, and the book also includes carefully written instructions for calculations, presumably for reference purposes. Finally, his poem in memory of Nicholas de Mouilpied, who died on the voyage out, aged 22.
First Lord of the Admiralty in Guernsey
25th June 2015
Winston Churchill visits the island. From La Gazette de Guernesey, 30 August 1913. The photograph from the Star shows him landing at the White Rock and in conversation with Colonel Macartney, Government Secretary.
Nicolas Lawrence, 1753
22nd May 2015
28 May 1753 Nicolas Lawrence, probably Nicolas Laurens [Old Bailey].
Report concerning the propositions of the Earl of Danbie Governor of Garnsey, 1627
12th May 2015
State Paper Office, December 18, 1627. Present: Earl of Totnes, Earl of Dorset, Lord Viscount Conway, Mr Treasurer, Mr Secretary Coke. From De Guérin's MSS notes in the Library's Forts and Fortifications file.
Medieval rolls
14th April 2015
The Library has a complete set of the Calendars of Patent Rolls, except for the years 1248-1280, (this volume can be accessed online.) Those below, of the last quarter of the 13th century, refer to the activities of the infamous Otto de Grandison, amongst other things.
The Good Intent, June 1777
A letter from Governor Le Mesurier to Mr Stephens, dated Alderney June 7 1777. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams considered Guernsey men as 'artful enemies.' The French, however, called the Channel Islands 'nids de guêpes'—'wasps' nests,' used in the sense they were a trap, a hornet's nest that one should not kick ...
Smuggling , April 1759
Plymouth, April 18th 1759, from Owen's Weekly Chronicle; and 1763, from the London Chronicle.