New records reveal the secrets (and crimes) of island life 100 years ago

Saturday 20 January 2018

Four teenage boys were sentenced to a large fine at the Royal Court for skinny dipping at Bouley Bay, harassing girls, playing football on the road and swearing… back in 1900.

It's just one of the stories revealed in 140 never before seen records opened to the public for the first time by Jersey Heritage this weekend, including correspondence from the Bailiff’s Chambers during the Second World War period, an Honorary Police register and a 1917 admission register for the Hospital.

The Archive is hosting a free talk about the newly opened records today at 10:00. The Archive will also be open to the public from 09:00 until 13:00.

Pictured: Jersey Archive, where the newly released records can be found.

The records were previously closed to public access for periods of 30, 75 and 100 years as they contained sensitive information about criminal cases and hospital admissions. 

Linda Romeril, Archives and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage said: "Once again Jersey Heritage is able to open many more fascinating documents to the public. These records help us tell the stories of our Island and the people who lived here."

Of particular interest this year is an Honorary Police Register from the Parish of Trinity, which includes details of arrests made by the Centenier between the years 1899 and 1917. The register includes the name, age and place of birth of the individual arrested, the reason for the arrest, any witnesses to the crime and the eventual sentence in the Courts. 

Pictured: The Honorary Police Register from the Parish of Trinity gives a fascinating insight into crime and sentencing 100 years ago.

It provides a fascinating insight into crime and sentencing 100 years ago.

One case that particularly caught the attention of the team at Jersey Archive is that of four young men aged 16 to 18, who got in hot water in April 1900 for swimming at Bouley Bay without costumes. This was in the presence of a number of young ladies invited to a picnic at Bouley Bay by Miss Lydia Doris Royce. The boys were also accused of harassing the girls whilst they were at their picnic, playing football on the public road and using obscene language in front of the young ladies. They were eventually sentenced by the Court to pay a 30 shillings fine or spend four days in prison.

Another criminal record released relates to a 36-year-old woman from Reading (lead photo), who was charged with the "criminal appropriation of a number of Army shirts."

Pictured: Minutes of the Committee for the Public Asylum.

The Jersey General Hospital Admission Register is equally as fascinating. It contains names, ages and place of birth for all those admitted to the hospital which is extremely useful for family historians, the team at Jersey Archive say. It also gives details of the reasons for admission, which gives an insight into what kind of medical conditions affected islanders 100 years ago.

The newly-opened records also include minutes from the Committee for the Public Asylum and Houses Licenced as Asylums. This provides information about the treatment of mental health between 1911 and 1917.  The minutes record various items, such as when Mildred Henley, a nurse at the hospital, had just obtained a First Aid Certificate from St John’s Ambulance Association and was given £1 for the achievement.

In September 1914, the Committee notes that the hospital is full and that the number of inmates had passed the number that the hospital was built for. As a result, they decide to send - with an escort - certain inmates back to the country of their birth. Four patients were therefore listed to be returned to England, France, England and Ireland respectively.

The records also include documents from the States Treasury Correspondence from 1942. They cover a wide variety of topics including employment, pensions, insurance, requests for financial assistance and issues concerning requisitioning of premises and equipment by the German Occupying forces. 

A new group of  ‘alien’ registration cards has also been released for public consultation. While Jersey Archive holds over 4,000 of them, it can only open a new set of cards 100 years after the individual's date of birth, due to the personal nature of the information they contain. Many of the cards are for those who came to Jersey as French farmworkers. The Occupation period also brought people to the Island as part of the German Work Force. In January 1942, Ramon Pujalte-Asensi came to Jersey from Spain as a German worker. In October 1943 he married Louise Margaret Therese Le Fur who was a British Subject and after the end of the Occupation he became a shoemaker for Ellien. He was eventually naturalised as a British Subject in 1955.