Guy Fawkes' Night 1947
'Accident-free Guy Fawkes' Night was a brilliant success,' by Star Reporter, and 'St Saviour's procession raised 50 pounds,' from the same number of the Star.
The King versus Gavet and Lenfestey
'His case is but one out of many that might be adduced, to prove the wisdom of intrusting the punishment of offences, in a small community like ours, to the discretion of the judges rather than to the precise letter of an unyielding statute law.' From The Star, February 3rd 1834.
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 ...
New Year in Guernsey
Once upon a time Guernsey's biggest party day.
Famous coin comes home, February 1951
'Described as of the highest rarity.' The Guernsey Press, 20th February 1951. Photographs from Carey Curtis Scrapbook p. 81, Staff, in the Library.
June 1654: a new minister for the Catel
Guille manuscript No. 465, transcribed in Handbook of Guernsey Churches (MSS in the Library.) The petition of the parishioners of the Castel to have Mr Nicolas Nicols as resident Minister, 1654. This demonstrates the continuance of the Colloque as Church leadership, although the minutes for that period no longer exist.
Guernsey breed of goat soon? November, 1947
From The Star, in the Library collection.
November 5, 1907: trouble
Guy Fawkes Night in Trinity Square, and a home-made pipe bomb in St Martin's. From The Star, June 1907.
Prospectors marooned, November 1947
'Aircraft wreckage used for fire to keep out cold.' From the Star.
Mutiny in St Peter's, 1704
From the Library's militia collection. A transcript by Edith Carey of a letter in French from a worried Lieutenant-Bailiff, Eléazar Le Marchant, to the absent Lieut.-Governor, Sir Edmund Andros, (here translated), and a contemporary copy of a petition concerning the same mutiny from William De Lisle in the St Peter's militia, to the Privy Council. Complicated family ties and nepotism, and a reflection of the bitter factional resentment felt towards Edmund Andros.
November 1947
Excerpts and photographs from the Star of November 1947.
September 1658: A petition to Richard Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell died on September 3, 1658. The States sought to send an address of condolence and loyalty to his son, 'his highness' Richard Cromwell, but were prevented from doing so by the Lieutenant-Governor, Captain Charles Waterhouse, who found their petition 'too submissive.' The leader of the republican party, Pierre De Beauvoir des Granges (1599-1678) and William De Beauvoir du Hoummet, potentially a less committed republican, wrote a defiant letter to Waterhouse, pointing out the Guernsey public's many grievances against him, and proceeded to sneak out of Guernsey and present their petition to Cromwell anyway, taking the opportunity to plead for the unpopular Des Granges to remain as Bailiff. Their actions prompted the publication of a pamphlet, An epitomie of tyranny in the island of Guernsey, which can be found in the Library. It was published anonymously at the beginning of 1659, and accuses the De Beauvoirs of all kinds of misdemeanors.