16th December 2015
From Anne Sophia Harvey's account book (brown leather), Domestic Expenditure, [from] 1 January 1829, part of Library's extensive Harvey Collection. Anne Sophia Grut (1802-1844) was daughter of Peter Grut and Anne Collings, and married John Harvey. This account book ends in December 1834. A second account book, Anne Sophia Harvey's Household Expenditure, 1 July 1838, ends in December 1842.
15th December 2015
From Anne Sophia Harvey's account books Domestic Expenditure, [from] 1 January 1829 (brown leather), and Anne Sophia Harvey's Household Expenditure, 1 July 1838, which ends in December 1842, part of Library's extensive Harvey Collection. Anne Sophia Grut (1802-1844) was daughter of Peter Grut and Anne Collings, and married John Harvey. The illustration is a detail from a 'Moss' print of 1841, Market Place, Guernsey, in the Library Collection.
11th November 2015
Marie's father Charles Mauger settles money upon her, half of which is to be given to her husband the day after their marriage. This money is to be managed by her new husband, Thomas Le Marchant, for her benefit only, and will always remain hers and will pass to her direct heirs. The remaining money will be given to her, or to her direct heirs, after her father's death, once again to be invested on her and her family's behalf. This was one of the ways that Guernsey families retained their interests in their own estate and properties, and which enabled women to have rights to their own property after their husband's death. A fiancé could himself settle monies or property on his intended upon their engagment, in the form of gages, or pledges, hers to keep if they married, or a douaire, or dowry, which on the event of his death she could claim from his estate.
19th October 2015
A letter transcribed in Andros correspondence, a 19th-century notebook which belonged to Charles Andros. To Madame Andros, en la Court de sa Majesté de la Grand Bretaigne. Peter de Jersey was the minister of the Town Church from 1659 through the Restoration until the turmoil of 1662, when he was replaced by Huguenot refugee Pierre Jannon. Mme Andros was the wife of the prominent royalist Amias Andros. She was Elizabeth Stone; her brother Sir Robert Stone was cupbearer to the Queen of Bohemia and captain of a cavalry troop in Holland. In the early years of the war she left the island for St Malo, but on the way was captured by the parliamentary forces and returned to her enemies in Guernsey. In 1645 she managed to escape from the beseiged Castle Cornet to Jersey, leaving her husband behind; they did not see each other again for nine years.
9th October 2015
A printed account of the defendants' response to an appeal to the Privy Council, March 1715, concerning the retrait lignager of a house at the Tourgand. From Petitions and trials, in the Library. For Mr. James de Havilland, Mrs. Rachel Briard, Represented by Mr. Henry de Saumarez, her Son, Defendants. Versus. Mrs. Jacquina de Saumarez, Appellant.
5th October 2015
'Réflexion sage, mais un peu Tardive de Madamoiselle Biard,' by the Reverend Elie du Fresne (b. 1692), from his collected poems, Poésie, written c. 1713-1745. Be prepared for 18th-century attitudes! On the flyleaf of the cover is written, 'These pieces of poetry were copied by her late regretted Father, John de Havilland;' the identity of the Miss de Havilland in question is not known. The illustration is from 'La vieille,' or 'The Old Woman,' a song on just this subject, from Chants et chansons populaires de la France, Paris: Garnier Frères, 1854, in the Library Collection.
6th August 2015
BOARDING AND DAY SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES, conducted by Mrs S SPURGEON. From the Comet, February 1853.
31st July 2015
The good citizens of St Martin's are asked to give evidence in this tragic case. Transcribed in the original French by Edith Carey into her notebook, Jehanne Becquet's trial for child murder, with her annotations, it is translated here into modern English. From Sir E MacCulloch's MSS. Livre ès Crimes I 60. Jehanne would have known that it was essential for her to show her baby to witnesses, even if it had been stillborn, but she was unable or unwilling to do so. Make your own mind up about her. Do you agree with the court's verdict?
26th June 2015
The observations of a French legal expert published in La Gazette de Guernesey, 28 June 1913. 'One can never be quick enough to put right an injustice, and it is unjust to exclude women from undertaking public duties.' Jurat F J Jeremie's was but a lone voice, and duly ignored.
17th June 2015
A poem about love, a proposal and marriage, by 'Nannon.' Love conquers all. First published in The Star of June 18, 1881, which provided Guernsey French vocabulary help for readers who might need it. The photograph is a carte de visite style portrait of an unidentified young lady, photographed by Maguire of the Grange, from the Library collection. If you can tell us who this 'Nannon' was, please let us know!
