18th century Jersey business adverts

18th century newspaper adverts

Stead's Gazette de L'Ile de Jersey, published between 1797 and 1800, was Jersey's third newspaper

One of the best resources for tracing the development of the commercial life of Jersey is the advertisements for businesses published over the decades. Newspaper adverts in the 18th century were only previously available to visitors to La Société Jersiaise's Lord Coutanche Library, but after all the early newspapers in their collection had been digitised, they were added to their website in early 2024

You will also find later newspaper adverts on our pages of

Early 19th century Jersey business adverts

L'Impartial_adverts

Early Chronique de Jersey adverts

Jersey 100 years ago from the Chronique de Jersey

Jersey 150 years ago from the Chronique de Jersey

Jersey 200 years ago from the Chronique de Jersey

Mid 19th century Jersey business adverts

19th century Jersey business adverts

and more recent advertisements on our page of

20th century Jersey business adverts

The adverts on these pages, plus many others, can also be found on the appropriate Family pages, and our pages covering individual town streets and country roads in Jersey. We are still in the process of assembling content on this page and translations of invidual advertisements will follow in due course

1786-1796

Mathieu Alexandre's Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey followed his unsuccessful first Jersey publication Magasin de l'Ile de Jersey, which closed in 1785, ten monthly editions after its launch the previous year. Apart from providing limited coverage of Jersey news, and furthering the cause of the Magot party, the publication also gave the first opportunity for businesses to advertise.

Although Alexandre is credited with importing the island's first printing press and launching its first newspaper, the man behind the project, who provided most of the finance, was Philippe Dumaresq, brother of Bailiff Sir Jean Dumaresq, founder and leader of the Magot party.

Both publications provide a fascinating insight into life in Jersey at the end of the 18th century, a period barely touched on by the major histories of the island. Certainly the politics of the time are covered in some detail in Balleine's History of Jersey, but not the general life of the population.

Although this was an era of domestic political turmoil, that has to be set against the background of much wider international unrest. Magasin de l'Ile de Jersey was launched only five years after the Battle of Jersey when Britain was at war with France, which launched a quasi-official attempt to capture the island. That conflict ended in 1783, but the threat of further war between the British and French was ever-present, resulting in the outbreak of another conflict in 1792.

One of the few Gazette news items which was not a report of the States or Royal Court recorded the return of Jersey mariner Captain de La Perrelle from Southampton in 1787 with news that the English were arming more stronly than ever. This was in the period between the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 and the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792. The British were particularly concerned because the French had failed to demolish military installations at Cherbourg, as had been agreed.

An undeveloped island

This was not a Jersey which would be recognisable today. None of the main roads constructed in the first decade of the following century yet existed. There were rudimentary tracks, but few residents of the country parishes would ever venture into the town of St Helier. Perhaps a handful of properties there - perhaps none - are in existence today. Streets mostly had no names, no properties had numbers, and country properties, as well as many in the town, were identified by the names of their occupants, or their neighbours.

Fort Regent would not be built for another 20 years, coastal towers were still under construction, with builders invited to tender for the work.

Privateers

Licensed privateers (known in French as corsairs) continued the Jersey tradition for profiting from 'high seas piracy' in times of war, and this activity is well documented in the newspaper advertisements of the time. However, they reflect a somewhat biased view of the success of the privateers, because for every vessel which brought a prize and its contents back to be auctioned in Jersey, at least one other was captured by the French, its master and crew ending up in a St Malo prison, and the ship's owner suffering bankruptcy.

Ships were frequently advertised for sale. Some were recommended for joining the fishing fleet which annually crossed the Atlantic to fish for cod on the Canadian seaboard. Others were identified as suitable corsairs. It was also common to see owners and captains of privateers calling on those who had already volunteered as crew to attend a meeting to hear final details of plans and receive their agreed payments. Crews seemed rarely to be complete at this stage and others were invited to join up.

The early newspapers included the occasional report of an island vessel sinking on a voyage out or back home, but these rarely referred to corsairs falling foul of enemy ships.

Very common were the advertisements of auctions at which the cargoes of prize vessels would be put up for sale.

Businesses

There were some shops in St Helier, and a few at St Aubin, but much business was conducted from home. It is remarkable how few adverts for groceries and household goods mentioned the location of the seller. It was either assumed that this would be already known to potential customers, or a business would be identified from its neighbours. This was mainly because, as mentioned above, properties were not numbered until much later.

Capt Jean Richardson, on arrival from Granville in August 1787, reported that the local authorities had forbidden any trade with Jersey merchants

1786 - Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey

Almost certainly the first Jersey adverts, from the Gazette in 1786. The Dean, Dr Edouard Dupre, advertising Les Felards, land in St Lawrence, for sale or rent, and Philippe Janvrin advertising the availability of cereal crops recently arrived on the packet Liberty ...
... and the announcement of a new boarding school by Jean Le Boutillier