The slave-trade and the Channel Islands network - an introduction

THE SLAVE TRADE and the Channel Islands


I have been researching Channel Islands' maritime and related history for 50 years.
Since there is now a topical interest in the trade and its modern-day implications I am publishing this part chapter which deals mostly with the Guernsey connection - but there is much more already written about Jersey's involvement and how this all became the early days of the "finance sector" which dominates these Islands today.

So you are welcome to read this part and I hope it will add to your knowledge.

Slaving Contradictions

Significantly, Olaudah Equiano aka Gustavus Vassa had become a noted figure in Britain’s abolitionist campaign besides promoter of the Sierra Leone or Bulama projects. He was an ex-slave who in 1789 had published his autobiography which proved to be a best seller. Paul Le Mesurier`s name appeared as a subscriber to the first edition along with many pages of others of influence and/or status including John Wesley who had published his own powerfully critical, Thoughts Upon Slavery speech, in 1774.

Equiano had proclaimed himself a Methodist.

He was also among the brave handful who founded the London Corresponding Society in 1792.

Yet there was more because Equiano had been brought as a “slave” to Europe in 1755 on the Industrious Bee snow, captain Michael Henry Pascal, part-owner Nicholas Dobrée of Guernsey.

Although he was initially intended as a present for somebody in England, the ten years old boy was taken to Guernsey where he stayed for some months, living “happily” with a Guernsey family. He was then shipped aboard a naval vessel with his owner Pascal, achieving the rank of Able Seaman. Subsequently, he visited Pascal’s friends in London, including Maynard and Mary Guerin (who became his God-parents at his Baptism in 1759), returning to Guernsey again briefly in 1762.

 

In December he was sold to slaver James Doran then shipped to Montserrat to experience many more adventures and insults. He worked at various jobs such as hairdresser, merchant and even “slave trader” besides serving again in the navy before writing his book.

James Doran was also a privateer commander employed by Hillhouse & Co., shipbuilders and “slavers” at Bristol in 1757. He sold Equiano to a Quaker.

John-William was another "young negro boy" of about 10 years of age, born in Guiny and brought to Guernsey from Guadaloupe where he was Christened in 1761. His Godfathers were captains John and William Rivoire with Mrs. Esther Roland as Godmother "relict of Mr Simon-Peter Rivoire."

George another "negro boy" of about 12 years of age was baptised in 1770. His Godfathers were Peter Maingy and William Rivoire and  Godmother Mrs Marie Rivoire. (Source Priaulx Library).

Paul Le Mesurier was born in Guernsey in 1755. He would most likely not have met Equiano as a child, but both the Dobrée and Le Mesurier families were involved in the slave-trade as was the East India Company for which Paul was a Director and an M.P. The India Company traded slaves mostly from East Africa, Madagascar or Zanzibar to the Middle East and India but there was also trafficking from India to South Africa.

Some slaves were shipped onwards across the Atlantic too through merchant networks.

Paul’s mother was Martha Dobrée, in a complicated family network in which Nicholas Dobrée was probably Paul’s uncle.

Nicholas Dobrée (born 1732) had married Susanne Le Pelley in 1752 then in 1769 to Elizabeth Gilchrist of Southampton who died in 1770. She might have been the daughter of a naval officer.

Dobrée was linked to the radical John Wilkes family through the Nantes’ Protestant Menuret and London De Ponthrieu, merchant families. The Wilkes family had plantation interests in the West Indies.

Israel Wilkes of London had married Miss De Ponthrieu, daughter of an eminent Hamburgh merchant in 1752.

Maynard Guerin was yet another from a Huguenot ancestry with Channel Islands relatives. He was employed as a banking agent for men serving in the army or navy through Drummond’s Bank. He dealt with Michael Pascal’s affairs during his navy service.

Guerin died in May 1760 at Westminster, apparently within a few days of the death of his son, of the same name and employment.

The Guerin family had a slave-owning branch in Virginia with another in Ireland.

The name Maynard derived from a partnership with John Maynard a London merchant. A Daniel Guerin from Clairac (Gascony) probably founded the Guernsey branch of the family. His son William married Margaret Dumaresq. Daniel and James Guerin were married into the Allez families of Guernsey in the 1730s and a James Major Guerin was one of many children fathered by James Guerin (born 1734).

A Peter Guerin served on the Snugg 2 guns privateer/smuggler of Guernsey in 1757.

The Le Mesurier & Secretan owned Columbus ship of London was commanded by Daniel Guerin in 1787  and seized at Barbados for smuggling but on appeal to the High Court of Admiralty the verdict was overturned. The landmark case is discussed elsewhere.

A Daniel Guerin was reported as Commander of a Sirene brig privateer of 16 guns lost with all hands off Honduras about 1795.

Michael Pascal died in Southampton in 1786. He too had strong connections with the Channel Islands, so besides bequeathing money and property to the Guerin family he also left his uniform sword and sword belt to “my good friend” Philip Carteret, the famous Jersey-born circumnavigator. He left five pounds and “my silver mounted sword to my good friend Paul Le Mesurier.”

Pascal was Provincial Grand Master of Hampshire Freemasons in 1784. Both Carteret and Le Mesurier were Freemasons.

The involvement of the Maugers of the Channel Islands in the African trade has been referred to elsewhere. The precise relationship of Joshua, the Jersey-born Newfoundland merchant with Charles of Guernsey, is not clear but they were both active participants. Furthermore, they were also in partnerships with other Channel Islanders in this miserable business.

Hence, John Mauger commanded the Cumberland in 1749 shipping Africans to Barbados and the African in 1750. William Le Mesurier with Daniel Tupper were owners and sellers at Speight’s Town of men and women from the latter’s cargo.

The Brocks with Elisha Tupper were also involved in similar shipments.

Philip Mauger commanded the Neptune of Jersey for owner James Lempriere in 1761/2 shipping Africans from Senegal to unrecorded Caribbean destinations. This was especially significant because there was a constitutional dimension to be exploited in shipping slaves from or to territories under the control of differing nations.

Senegal had sometimes been a French domain where the Senegal Company was supposed to have a monopoly of the business in that area. Similar “monopolies” existed in different African places under British, Dutch or Portuguese control where they were set up to supply the needs of their own national or allied territories in the Americas.

James Seaborne had commanded the Charles on a slaving voyage from Guernsey via the Ivory Coast to Barbados in 1739. This might have been the second voyage for James Seaborne described as "of Guernsey" because he was at Ahimamahoe Road on 20 September 1738 in the House of Commons Journal.

He was an experienced slaver sailing out of Bristol in the 1730's usually for Barbados.

Inevitably, Channel Islanders were ideally placed to participate in a trade that required scarce or restricted commodities to be shipped to Africa to be sold or bartered for slaves. Goods such as ivory or gold were also traded at Madeira or other place for wines or brandy. There was a financial advantage to be exploited too through sailing under false flags. British goods might be passed off as French in exchange for cargoes of Africans who had no concept of such labels but whose value on earth might be determined in accordance with the scarcity of sugar or the quality of a tobacco crop.

Old World governments cooperated with the sham arrangements because it was essential to keep the distant colonies in production so that their proprietors stayed in profit and European appetites might be satisfied. Even when control changed with different flags hoisted over the various government structures, business still went on by some means or other. A few of the more worldly Channel Islanders had the expertise and the cross-border connections to assist it.

The Island of Tobago in the Caribbean Windward group had been confirmed under British sovereignty at the peace settlement in 1763 along with Grenada, St. Vincent and Dominica. Tobago was captured again by the French in 1781. It was supposed to trade only with French allies after 1783 until the British returned ten years later. In 1803 the French flag was hoisted once more – albeit briefly.

All these changes were very upsetting for the resident colonists - and no doubt created special problems for the more numerous slaves too - but some of those planters who could  left the Island altogether. Others, like Joseph Robley, stayed and prospered.

Joseph Robley, the eighteen years old son of a Lake District clergyman, was initially posted to Tobago as a navy-office clerk in 1768. Besides attending to his clerical duties he invested in a plantation too, specialising in growing cotton.

By 1789 he was a very wealthy man, owning many neat estates with windmills of his own special design and two ships – the Phoenix and the Laird – which twice each year transported his produce out and brought supplies in. The ships were impressively large. One was said to resemble a navy frigate - the other - “a ship of the line.”

Yet, in spite of their impressive size, two anchored ships including the Phoenix, out of four flying French colours at Tobago were seized by H.M.S. Venus in June 1803 and removed as prizes of war to Grenada. News that the countries were at war had not yet reached the Island so that the navy had an unfair advantage. Robley (the Island’s President) sought restitution through his London agent, nephew John Robley. The Admiralty upheld the navy action, the vessels were declared as good prizes and Robley faced a loss of £40,000.

By 1803 the Tobago plantations were at the peak of their production of sugar – which was the mainstay of the economy – at about 9,000 tons or 14,000 hogsheads each year. Other products were the sugar spin-offs of molasses and rum besides cotton, coffee, lime juice, tortoiseshell, arrowroot and hardwood. That year too Robley of Sandy Point even received a Gold Medal for his breadfruit cultivation from the London Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

The slave population had also peaked at about 17,000, or one to work every two acres of cultivated land.

They were, according to the terminology of the time “worked rigorously” in spite of all the helpful windmills and one observer optimistically wrote that :

Next to the plantation of Sir William Young at St Vincent’s, I do not believe that there were any men in existence, employed in cultivation, more happy than the negroes of the Robley plantation in 1803.

The number of resident European proprietors to supervise the Africans was only about 500 to 800 besides about 350 “coloureds” or mulattos so that the threat of rebellion was always present. The French colonies of St. Domingo (Haiti), Guadeloupe and Martinique had all experienced serious recent insurrections.

Barbarous repression was the order of the day throughout the plantations of all countries. Tobago’s government – Joseph Robley being several times Governor – was considered progressive in 1803 when it introduced capital punishment for proprietors who were found guilty of killing a slave. Previously the Island court only imposed a £15 fine for such an act of “wanton killing.”

In Britain, the Anti-Slavery movement was already moving towards a suppression of the dreadful trade in British territories but other countries, such as Holland, were expanding their plantations in new colonies like Guiana.

By 1805 London forbade the expansion of plantations in Tobago. The annual import of new slaves was restricted to a maximum of 3% of the existing population, under a licence system.

The supply of slaves on British vessels to Guiana or other new colonies was also forbidden.

It is no great surprise therefore, that the typical price of a slave increased from £70 in 1807 to £105 by 1811. Inevitably, the incentive for traders to break the rules in the pursuit of profit was very great.

Cutting, the American merchant at Le Havre had advised Le Mesurier that slaves "can be obtained by contract in London at £32 per head" in 1791.

For the colonists of Tobago the need to create a supply network that was immune to the vagaries of war was an impossible dream but there were ways and means to achieve some degree of certainty. Ports such as Ostend and Dunkirk had a long history of accommodating rogue governments or their trading agents. Other French ports like Cherbourg, Le Havre, St Malo, L’Orient and Nantes had an important role to play, especially during times of war. The proximity of these places to the Channel Islands was also important. The presence of so many merchants and financiers with old family connections across national borders was like the lubricant in a very large engine of commerce.

Thus, Havilland Le Mesurier had commenced his commercial training with a merchant - most likely André Limozin – at Le Havre (Havre De Grace). He set up a commercial partnership with brother Paul in 1785 at that port specifically to trade with French governed Tobago in an ever-changing world.

Initially, William Collow was suggested as a partner for the new Le Havre enterprise but Joseph Robley together with Messrs King & Watson of Dunkirk, Abraham Buisson of Guernsey & London and Francois Claude Adam Delamotte were partners too by 1790.

David Watson, Guernsey-born in 1771, served as Le Mesurier's Havre agent in the 1790's assisted by one Veroillet with Delamotte and Dubuisson providing clerical services.

Le Mesurier et Cie despatched six vessels to Tobago from Havre in 1789, Limozin sent another five, the Collow Brothers a similar number and Bachelor & Faubisson one.

Several other French ports - notably Dunkirk - were used by various partnerships but Havre enjoyed a particular attraction at this time.

The Collow brothers seemed to be involved in many transactions and businesses. Their partners in 1783/5 included Irishman Corneille Donovan with Jacques Carmichael and Jean Beziers from Amsterdam and the infamous Lancaster born Miles Barber.

Bezier, Carmichael and Donovan had been commercially active during the American War and were negotiating to sell prize goods taken into L'Orient by the Comte d'Artois corsaire, among others,  in 1780.

The inducement to sail under a  foreign flag was revealed by the voyage of the Columbus.

Messrs Le Mesurier & Secretan's Columbus ship was Bahamas built and registered in London from whence she sailed in ballast for Gothenburg on 14 November 1786 under the command of Daniel Guerin.

She loaded a cargo of herrings in Sweden "for Tobago and elsewhere" but gales supposedly drove her into Madeira for repairs and fresh water.

At Madeira a consignment of local wine was bartered for some of the herrings and the voyage continued on about 7 March for Tobago, then French controlled.

The Columbus arrived there on 2 April and under a permit from the Governor sold the remaining herrings and part of the Madeira wine.

Guerin purchased a cargo of American (USA) timber there from Daniel King & Co (supposed British merchants at Tobago) and exchanged some of the Madeira for Claret (from a French ship) and paid for a few more cases "with bills drawn on Paul Le Mesurier of Havre de Grace in favour of French Captain Falaise."

Falaise being  the surname of several Guernsey captains.

Next, the plan was to sail for Barbados, sell the timber and freight with sugars for London.

Unfortunately the English government had recently approved temporary legislation, that forbade the loading of American products at Tobago and Guerin claimed to be ignorant of this when arrested off Bridgetown, Barbados.

There was no port or harbour at Bridgetown so the Columbus was anchored in the roads of Carlisle Bay, as was usual practice, when a platoon of soldiers was sent on board by Governor Parry to seize and secure the vessel on 8 June 1787.

Naval captain Barnes had previously warned Guerin of the proposed action and advised him to sail to a neutral Island but neither the Governor nor the acting customs officers would negotiate with Guerin or anybody else.

In the absence of the regular Customs Controller for Barbados it was Surveyor-General William Senhouse who had engineered the seizure with his "instrument" Samuel Deersley. The Governor was evidently integral to the plot and the condemnation of ship and cargo was duly confirmed at the Barbados Vice-Admiralty Court hearing soon afterwards.

Although Paul Le Mesurier M.P. had been present when the relevant temporary law had been "strenuously debated" in Parliament and ship-owners in London were "alarmed" at the policy, his appeal before the High Court of Admiralty in London was successful.

The four days of legal argument before James Marriott commenced on 18 December 1789 and the Judge described it as a "leading case as many others depend on it."

The judgement delivered a strong censure of the London government and almost everybody involved officially  in Barbados but praised the enterprising spirit of merchants such as Le Mesurier, "it would be well for this country if there were many such Harlequins...it is from small profits that great ones are accumulated".

Furthermore, Marriott had some interesting observations to express about the evasion of taxes and laws. He declared :

 The Law of England cannot be evaded...the law exists or does not exist...but everyman is justified in this war of private property and public revenue in this collision of interests, of attack and defence of the property of the subject and free intercourse of commerce.

The Columbus case reported in Collectanea Juridica -Tracts regarding the Law and Constitution of England. Published London 1791.

Correspondence from Paul Le Mesurier regarding this case exists in NA HO 42/12 and he wrote, presumably to the Secretary of State Lord Sydney, on 1 August 1789 - "Wednesday ½ past one" - attaching a dossier of papers. His letter started re "A ship of mine which is seized at Barbados but I understand clearly that the whole is the Act of Governor Parry."

"Hoping I am not asking anything improper in requesting you to write to him in such a manner as you shall think the law merits."..."I shall be highly obliged if through your means I may obtain a speedy liberation of my ship."

He described the Columbus as British-built, 230 tons, London registered and belonging to Paul le Mesurier.

Ship-owner Daniel King who had been resident (possibly even born) in Tobago, became naturalised as French in 1785 having settled at Dunkirk but he was arrested in October 1793 as a 36 years old “foreigner” along with his partner Peter Watson (28).

The French Convention had decreed the detention of all English, Scotch, Irish and Hanoverians (except some children) together with all their papers and effects, that same month.

Thomas Collow from Scotland was also part of the former Tobago community that had settled at Le Havre as merchants after 1783. His brother William was married to Sarah Moore of the Manx trading/smuggling family and usually maintained a London base.

Thomas had previously been a ship’s captain. In the 1750s he was delivering East India goods to the Isle of Man in the Charming Molly from Liverpool.

He too was detained in prison for several years from 1793.

In spite of having supplied grain from his warehouse when it was in short supply to residents of the French port his petitions to be liberated were not successful and he had to wait until the Jacobins fell from power.

After release he remained in Le Havre, dying there in 1803.

How M.P. Paul reconciled this business venture with his abolitionist colleagues in London is not at all obvious – but, presumably he did not shout too much about it.

Du Buisson was an unusual French name but a Huguenot Pierre Du Buisson had fled Orleans in 1685, settling in London where he was part of a family that were calico and fabric dyers (a business that a branch of the Secretan family was also involved in). By 1770 the family was wealthy enough to pay £33,000 for an extensive estate near Llandilo South Wales, which included a mansion house, woodlands, farms and pastures. Here he established an iron foundry and knife works, making everything with a blade besides cannon, shot and other war materials. He also supposedly recruited French labour, creating a self- contained industrial complex with its own brewery, laundry, slaughterhouse and mills.

In London the family also retained business interests with James Henckell & Co. of Dutch origin who were successful merchants as well as iron and copper workers at Wandsworth.

Peter Du Buisson junior married Henckell’s daughter.

There is no clear link with Le Mesurier’s partner but folklore during the Napoleonic war suggested that the South Wales enterprise was supplying armaments to the French and also engaged in espionage. This was a coincidence, bearing in mind the fate of the spy Francis De La Motte on the scaffold in the previous war.

It was also suggested that Peter Du Buisson of Hanover Square, London was a participant in Nathan Rothschild’s spying network as well as having banking interests through Landeg & Co in Swansea.

In troubled Paris, bankers Mallet Frères were also involved in various intrigues and an André Du Buisson featured there too (he was sent to the Bastille in 1790) but known links to Le Havre are tenuous.

There were several successful Delamottes in England including a London merchant named Charles (he died in 1790), besides Hull sugar refiners. Another branch allegedly included Dutch silk smugglers…

It was also perhaps just coincidental that Frederick Samuel Secretan, the Swiss financier and Le Mesurier’s ex-partner, also bought a substantial estate in South Wales when he left London.

A.J. Dubuisson was listed as a London (Cornhill) stockbroker c 1820 when Dubuisson Rougement & Teschemacher were brokers in Mincing Lane.

Following the cessation of the American war in 1783 there were many wheeler-dealers looking for their next business ventures. Some no doubt had the means to carry on with lucrative war-time scams that circumvented the restrictions of tedious legislation.

Among the many setting up shop in Le Havre was Miles Barber who had been in the slaving business for decades out of Lancaster, Liverpool and London. He traded up to 6,000 Africans each year to the Americans from his “factories” on the river Gambia, Guinea and Isle De Los at Sierra Leone. He had been shipping from Africa with vessels flying French or neutral flags since the 1760s and continued to trade during the American war through Dunkirk, Ostend or other suitable places.

His Liverpool agent and sometimes ship-master Thomas Hodgson, supplied to Boston whilst Delaye Frères of Le Havre or L’Orient shipped to French and other Caribbean destinations.

Comte Sutton Du Clonard - the ennobled Irish armateur of Dunkirk corsaires and Director of the French East India Company – was also involved.

During 1776 he was slaving to Jamaica or other places using the Wilbraham out of Liverpool, drawing upon bankers Peter Thellusson & Co and owned plantation on other islands.

Barber was just one of dozens trading from Le Havre who either evaded or avoided the regulations, using the vessels of many countries, flying various national flags delivering cargoes to and from several empires or their colonies.

Miles Barber was established at Ostend very speedily at the end of the American War.

He had contracted with Delaye in November 1782 to purchase the former French corsaire Caroline originally seized in the Seven Years war by the English. 

She had been retaken into L'Orient by an American privateer and refitted. Now she was to be renamed as Les Trois Amis of Havre and used as a "floating factory" at Barber's  Isle de Los slaving centre.

Furthermore the Arundel ship under captain White's command was also to be engaged on account of John Shoolbred the London chief of the English Africa Company in this dubious enterprise in which Robert & Thomas Hubbert of Jamaica were the likely purchasers of the human cargo.

Barber died, an exile from debt, at Le Havre during 1795 from ”an apoplectic fit,” aged 72.

Yet the family interest probably continued. A French ship carrying 200 slaves was captured off the African coast in July 1793 – her commander was listed as M. Barber junior by Lloyds.

André Limozin of Le Havre was a substantial trader too with customers and connections all over Europe and the Americas. He was well placed to provide support to the slave traders or others alongside his own grain, fabrics and other related merchandising activities. During the war he had enjoyed the American tobacco monopoly, supporting the rebels in every way possible. He and the Le Mesuriers were working together soon after the declaration of peace. They possibly colluded during the war too.

Liverpool was the dominant British home-port in the Guinea trade after the American war so that was the place to go for expertise and African contacts. The old Royal Africa Company (of which the De Carterets of Jersey were founder members) had ceased trading in 1750 - although the Africa Company still operated out of London’s Mark Lane, under long-term Secretary, John Shoolbred.

Shoolbred  owned  a fleet of about  ten armed vessels commissioned as LOM's from 1777 to 1782 all registered in London and from 100 to 400 tons and evidently engaged in the slave-trade. His Bonaventure of 250 tons curiously employed Philip Journeaux as commander in 1778 but she probably never traded as the commission was cancelled after six months.

Furthermore, there were some very rich and powerful individuals or families to call upon. Philip Sanson, London banker at 65 Lombard Street, President of the Committee of American Merchants of London, was just such a person trading too out of Le Havre (and appeared as a Proprietor of the Sierra Leone project).

There were about 500 slaving voyages from London during the years 1776 to 1807. From Liverpool there were almost 2,500 whilst Bristol’s share had decreased to “only” 261.

The international banking network was an essential part of the slaving business just as it was the enabler of so much regional and cross-continent smuggling. Access to credit or the funding of speculative ventures would have been impossible without the networks of financiers who often operated out of the prestigious trading centres in Paris, London, Rotterdam, Geneva, or Hamburg. The old Huguenot Protestant families seemed to have a particularly far reaching banking “empire.”

There were other very practical dimensions too, such as the Swiss manufactured fabrics which were of good quality and undercut French produced materials. These were an essential part of the trading/ bartering process that accompanied the human trafficking. Several Swiss manufacturers were also bankers or closely associated with financiers, usually with Huguenot origins. Mallett Frères, the Paris bankers was just such a business linked through marriage with the extensive Oberkampt Swiss banking and fabrics manufacturing enterprise. Another was the Prevost banking family.

Limozin traded extensively in fabrics through Le Havre. His many correspondents included Herries the Bankers in London, Barcelona and elsewhere, Theophilus Daubuz the Huguenot merchant of London and Cornwall, Mallett Brothers of Jersey, Isaac Dobrée of Guernsey, John & Henry Le Mesurier of London, Paul Le Mesurier & Co and Havilland Le Mesurier & Co through Jacques Mauger at Cherbourg.

Paul & Havilland Le Mesurier were also negotiating with John Tarleton of Liverpool in April 1790 regarding a "joint adventure" with St. Domingo from Le Havre.

The French bounties and the "uncommon demand for Negroes would I am persuaded turn out a most lucrative one and far superior in every manner to what we can possibly expect in any of the English Islands" John Tarleton wrote to his brother Clayton.

(Tarleton papers Liverpool PRO)

The Tarleton - Backhouse partnership already enjoyed a huge, long established slave trading business out of Liverpool but clearly wanted more.

Two years later Clayton wrote to John when the abolitionist campaign was gaining support..."there is still no certainty in the Africa Trade."

He saw that France was the place to build up a standby business base especially since the recent English imposition of a two slaves maximum per ton would encourage a removal to France. He noted that Bristol and other Liverpool ships were already  being fitted out for the French trade and that the French and Spanish were recruiting Liverpool captains.

More eyewash to treat hearing impairments? Or a new dawn?

This evening 19 September 2019 I attended a semi-public meeting organised by the Deaf Partnership Board.
It was a very good meeting addressed by Minister of Health Deputy Richard Renouf and a team of about 8 persons with particular roles in the "deaf community" of  Jersey.

There was an "audience" of about 60 plus persons many of whom had hearing impairments or had a personal interest in the subject.  There was a very lively and outspoken Q and A session which included many criticisms of services available past and present. All speakers were supported by signers and  visual caption screens that displayed their speeches and presentations.
Unfortunately there were some technical problems with the screens and the hearing loop did not work

I recorded the Minister's address and his summing up and it is linked here but was asked not to record other participants, signers or the public but I recorded one short interview after the meeting with a woman from the audience.

There was much critical comment from participants at this meeting and many defects were outlined that I have encountered over 40 or more years in Jersey.

The range of defects described were extensive and encountered in most aspects of life from babyhood to adulthood, in education at all levels, employment, consulting with doctors, interpretation etc and all manner of communication difficulties.
It was made sadly obvious that  "techno" wizardry is not sufficiently reliable and will not provide all the everyday answers needed. There was  resistance to the use of some technical aids in certain situations.
Time and time again the expressed need was for trained persons to be employed - not machines - with particular "deaf awareness" knowledge as well as BSL skills to level 3 and beyond.
There is a great shortage of such people in the UK to draw upon.
One in Six people are reckoned to have a hearing impairment and there are 6,000 hearing aid users in Jersey.

Videos below - Deputy Richard Renouf's address to the meeting as Minister of Health;

 Below is Richard Renouf summing-up;

Below is an interview with a woman from the audience ;

Discrimination evidently presents itself in many forms in Jersey and such meetings are needed much more often to help combat it and other unfairnesses.

How to make a socialist.... and end capitalism to save the world....

This blog is dedicated to my father William George Dun and all other socialists who have passed this way.
So far as I know, my father was not much interested in politics at all until Bristol was heavily bombed and much damaged during WWII. That was when he became a socialist I think
So Adolf and his supporters probably enlarged world-wide a political class that his absurd dream was intended to eliminate.

I guess that Norman Le Brocq's Socialist  political views were fermented during that same war too during the German Occupation of Jersey.

For may part, I seem to have inherited my father's political views but I am always curious to know how others became politically aligned - whether to the left or right or any other direction - and it is always especially odd when people maintain no interest in political matters at all.

Here I have recorded a discussion with two very different Jersey residents who are "Socialists." They explain how they formed their political views and how they confront the huge problems of today - especially that of "Capitalism.

The discussion was recorded in "Reg's Garden" in St Brelade. One day I hope he will overcome his shyness and be recorded too -  but anybody wanting to know more about his delightful garden can email him on reg[@]reg-garden.com 
It is open to the public free of charge most days.

Below is the discussion recorded on 13 September 2019. It is about 20 minutes.

The participants are Gabriel Carter and Nigel Jones

 

Anybody who wants to be recorded to express their view should contact me on this blog.

The English and the Channel Islands in 1885 - a "French" point of view?

“The English in the Channel Islands”

The 1885 version

 

The same old complaint – Time to change the record?

 

Henri Boland “a native of Guernsey” devoted an article in the “Revue Internationale” to proving that the Channel Islands are rapidly being Anglicized “and that this archipelago essentially Norman is losing its characteristics very rapidly.”

 His article was republished  in the London “St James Gazette” of 8 October 1885 and picked up by many CIs and other journals such as the Guernsey “Star” and Jersey “Independent” that same month.

 Henri was French speaking and described himself as a journalist or author and he did pen many volumes and articles during his life from 1854 to 1909 but he seems to have followed a busy and somewhat erratic lifestyle – and was not shy of presenting political views.

During 1883 he was accused of a major bank fraud in Belgium at a time when such things seemed to be an everyday occurrence but was acquitted by the Liege court.

The next year he was officially delegated by the people of Guernsey to lay a wreath on the coffin of the recently deceased Victor Hugo in Paris.

 His 1885 Channel Islands article could have been written today because it expresses so many of the same sentiments that have become so tired after yet another 13 decades and two world wars….

 He wrote:

 “The climate, the soil and the produce of the latter cannot of course change, but the Norman race is being absorbed by the English and the English language is elbowing out the Old Norman dialect which has been in use for six centuries.”

 “Jersey holds its own to a certain extent thanks to its regular communications with France  and the number of French tourists who visit it, not it seems that Guernsey will be completely English by another generation unless the remnants of the French population in the Island bestirs itself.”

 “The French language is dead in the urban portion of the Island and is on its last legs in the rural districts. The only reason why English is not already the official language of the Island is that the rural voters are in a majority.”

 “When English has become the official language of the archipelago the French laws will cease to be intelligible and will have to be translated into English. If the laws are in English it will be only rational to have English judges to administer them.”

 “But the municipality carries on its discussions in English and has substituted English names in the streets for the old French names with the brutality of Vandals and iconoclasts. Education is given in English although French is supposed to be taught in schools.”

 The “Jersey Independent” interpreted some of his views for the local readership;

 “M. Boland was much vexed upon commencing a conversation with a boy who had obtained a prize for proficiency in that language to receive the answer Not Much to some question which he had asked.”

 Letters in the Guernsey “Star” tried to counter some of Boland’s arguments;

 “He has fallen into several inaccuracies. The native language is not French but a Patois which probably M. Boland would not understand and therefore to speak of French as dead in the urban portion of the Island is wrong.”

And regarding substituting street names;

 “The Mill Street has been called Mill Street as long as anyone can remember and below that name, at the street corners, the authorities have written Haut Pave which was the Norman name…”

 

Captain Webb swam the English Channel the same week that Boland's article appeared

 

 

 

 

Paedophilia, Prevention rather than "Cure" (a discussion)

Paedophilia, Prevention rather than “Cure” is the title of this discussion recorded on the second anniversary of the publication of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry.

It was also the date of the launching of the second Jersey Redress Scheme for people who as children were abused or suffered harm between 1945 and the end of 2005 in places such as Les Chenes secure residential unit.

 Appearing in this video are;

Jill Garcia – the former Secretary of the Jersey Care Leavers Association

Alan Collins – a UK lawyer who represents many of those who have been abused

Neil McMurray – A long-time anti-child abuse campaigner

Mike Dun – is the interviewing voice behind the camera who blogs as “Tom Gruchy”

 This is not an easy subject to discuss and we approached it with considerable trepidation.

But, we think that it is part of a wider discussion that should take place because the abuse of children is clearly a subject that is not going away without some very positive action.

Child abuse is not a simple subject and does not always include sexual abuse.

Sex abuse of children and paedophile are just aspects of a complex web of interlinked problems that can include such as violence, neglect, poverty, mental illness, marriage breakdown and failures of child care services.

 La Moye Prison (Jersey) currently detains about 136 prisoners.  About 28 are kept in the “J” separation wing where “sex offenders” are held.

There are (according to an FOI answer in 2018) 83 persons on the “Sex Offenders Register” and 18 of these have left the Island.

 It seems that capturing and detaining “sex-offenders” in prison for long periods is an admission of failure.

It means that a child – in some cases many children – have already experienced abuse before the perpetrator is removed from society.

Obviously the aim should be to prevent the abuse happening at all.

 Potential abusers need to be identified and - if possible - “treated” before they offend.

We do not know how this can be done but recognize that capturing and convicting potential abusers before they commit sexual offences is effective, especially in a small community such as Jersey.

Similarly, we do not know what punishment or treatment can be effective or acceptable to prevent convicted offenders committing further acts of abuse if released from prison or other forms of detention.

 We discuss these matters in the video.

There are many other matters that could be discussed and we would hope that further informed examination of the issues will take place.

We invite others with an interest in this whole subject to make contact and we especially want to record further video discussions to broaden knowledge and understanding.

 

We want a serious and productive dialogue and will not publish recordings which are likely to be inflammatory or offensive.

Contributions from those who do not want to be identified in the video recordings will be considered and all communications will be treated as confidential.

 

4 July 2019

JERSEY CLIMATE CHANGE - SENSATION 1st May 2019

EXCLUSIVE!


HM BAILIFF OF JERSEY LEARNING TO PLAY BONGOS

A spokesperson said

"this is unheard of in a thousand years of Jersey history"

2nd Hustings, Districts 3/4 bye election, St Helier, Jersey 12 February 2019

There are 10 candidates for the single vacancy of Deputy
These are the candidates' initial speeches of 3 minutes each.
Questions followed from the audience (not shown here).

Candidates John Baker, Nick Le Cornu, "Ant" Lewis

Candidates George Troy, Gerraint Jennings, Guy De Faye

Candidates Lyndsey Feltham, Francesca Ahier, Andrea Mallet, Inna Gardiner

JERSEY FAIR PAY MARCH 9 February 2019

Jersey Public Sector employees and supporters marched into St Helier on Saturday and assembled in the Royal Square to protest against their working conditions and pay.

This is the same place that protestors assembled in September 1769 to which action this site is dedicated.
Then as now the protests were overseen by the same gilded statue of King George II.

Below is an interview with Andy Woolley, the Regional Secretary of the NEU
or National Education Union.
He was one of several TU leaders who also addressed the assembled marchers;

Sadie Rennard of St Saviour was the only Constable spotted and was briefly interviewed ;

Senator Kristina Moore was one of a number of elected States Members who addressed the marchers in the Square and was interviewed ;

Deputy John Young the Minister for the Environment also addressed the marchers in the Square and this is an extract together with some images of the crowd;

The Other Demo in the Royal Square, Jersey - 15 January 2019

Nick Le Cornu confronted States Members in the Royal Square today as they emerged from the States Chamber.

Had they completed their Election Expenses returns by 7 June 2018? he asked - otherwise - if not - they are liable to be prosecuted and fined if found guilty...
furthermore they must vacate their seats and face bye elections....

This was the "other demo" in the Royal Square - where hundreds of striking civil servants were also protesting about their pay  and working conditions. Inevitably the "accredited press" were present in large numbers as they should be.

But, Nick Le Cornu's solo demo is unlikely to be reported in the JEP or featured on BBC Jersey.....although a substantial number of those elected may not have completed their returns as required under the law....

As can be seen in this video Nick spoke with HM Attorney General and States Police officers were present too but no States Members seemed very concerned and none actually offered to pursue the matter or ask questions....

Nick Le Cornu on electoral reform in Jersey 2011 to 2019

Here are 4 video interviews with Nick Le Cornu discussing electoral reform in Jersey and related matters from 2011 to 2019.

You might like to view these over a period of time and consider how many others have consistently campaigned on these matters  over so many years?

 

The first video below deals with Nick's most recent research on election procedures in the 2018 General Election which reveal that many of our elected representatives may not have followed  the law so far as making election expenses returns are concerned and are liable to lose their seats and be fined  for this failure according to the law.

 

2019

 

The second video below features Nick in discussion with Sam Mezec on the day that Deputies Shona and Trevor Pitman were declared bankrupt and so were disqualified from being States members - it was also the day that former Senator Stuart Syvret was released from prison.
Nick and Sam Mezec successfully stood for election in the seats vacated by the Deputies Pitman.
                                                                 2014   

The third video below shows Nick explaining about the attempts to reform the electoral process and the composition of the States including the hi-jacking of the Electoral Commission so that it ceased to be an independent body.
                                                                 
                                                                  2012

The fourth video below shows Nick explaining about the election re-count that was instigated by Paul Le Claire - to which Nick became a supporting party - and deals with various aspects of election procedures which have largely not been addressed yet.
                     
                                                                   2011

Serious debate and discussion in Jersey about the issues that really matter is very difficult to organise or stimulate.
There are far too many in Jersey who express instant opinions on any subject without doing the necessary research or considering what others have to say.
Very few will watch these videos but they are offered here for the benefit of those who might be interested.
If anybody would like to record a response to the views expressed or to record a video on other matters - please make contact.

Public solidarity with the strikers - But why?

Civil Servants "strike" Liberation Square, St Helier, Jersey  7 December 2018


There is no doubt that many States’ civil servants and public employees have been treated very badly.

That they have been left behind and neglected so far as wages and conditions of employment are concerned is evident.

On that basis they deserve general public support and they have been forced into a strike by a particularly uncaring management otherwise known as “our government.”

To rub salt into their wounds, the recently appointed CEO Charlie Parker has proudly announced that’s “It’s my way or the highway” and proposes to reduce the workforce by many hundreds as the continuation of a policy that has been in place for some years already.

 

BUT not all civil servants are angels.

Bullying and harassment has been a feature within many States departments for years and Charlie’s micromanaging “do as I say” ultimatum might seem to be ideally suited to that.

As I write this, Deputy Mike Higgins is speaking on the radio about the many senior managers in the civil service who have been devious, unduly authoritative, even lying in court and how some have been “defaming the public.” He claims to speak on the basis of personal knowledge

 

Only this week the Jersey Complaints Board has published its findings re Mr. B. Huda and the “unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory” treatment that he received at the hands of Health and Social Services staff.

 

His case is not unique.

 

Mr Barrette’s timber windows saga with “bullying Planning Officers” was deemed to be “oppressive and improperly discriminatory” too by a Complaints Board and he has received no compensation.

 

The Royal Court has also this week decided the amount of damages to be paid re “Family X” – one of the largest personal injury claims in British legal history - where the children were subjected to a catalogue of abuse in their home “years after it should have been obvious that they needed to be removed.”

 

Yet, this case needs to be considered in the context of the “Jersey Independent Care Inquiry” which reported 18 months ago on decades of abuse of hundreds children in care and the criminal, negligent, inadequate or otherwise defective behaviour of far too many adults employed, supposedly, in positions of trust to safeguard them.

 

When civil servants are being abusive or bullying in the workplace to each other that is bad enough and it has been researched and reported upon in the “HR Lounge Report” published (in secret initially) this year. This Report says that employees have been left “feeling like lepers about making allegations or complaints” and how “there is a culture of fear” and also of too much “gossiping.”

 

But what of the treatment of the general public who have to deal with these civil servants?

If bullying is so commonplace in schools, for example, how might bullied children or their parents expect to be treated if they complain?

Or, how might claimants at the Social Security department be enabled to ensure that they are treated fairly and with consistency and shall staff ever “blow the whistle” on their own colleagues whose behaviour towards the general public is not appropriate?

 

If civil servants are not prepared to blow the whistle to protect each other – what chance that they might take any action in support of a member of the public?

 

The establishment of a “whistle-blower hotline” has been proposed for the use of bullied or abused staff in their workplaces, but it does not seem to be intended to protect the public too or even to be accessible to them.

 

Of course, some staff are abused by the public but the proliferation of “our staff are entitled to respect” notices are themselves often intimidating and hardly likely to encourage a friendly dialogue when differences of opinion or lack of understanding feature.

 

I could list many instances of failings in the services provided by civil servants and the antagonisms that arise with the public. Some have reached the “official complaints” stage as already referred to and have been found to be valid.

Some complaints are not valid.

 

Civil servants often claim to provide an excellent service in difficult circumstances which may  be true – but it s not always so.

There is reluctance in the service to be supportive of the public. When things go wrong the public employees invariably defend “the system” and their colleagues.

 

This current “strike” by civil servants is seen as justified by many members of the general public.

But that support needs to be reciprocal.

Civil servants and other public employees must be encouraged to promote the rights and best interests of the public as well as their own.

 

Oppressive management or government is a common enemy and needs to be recognized for what it is.