The 19th century in newspaper cuttings - Various sources - 1809

19th century Jersey
From the newspapers in 1809

Mourant's Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey in 1808

Our history of 19th century Jersey from newspaper cuttings started with the Jersey Loyalist, an English-language newspaper published from 1825 to 1831. We have now moved back to the start of the century, with Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey, the first newspaper to be published in the island in the 1800s, and to appear intermittently in the following years published by different individuals

This was the dawn of an age of great growth and diversification in Jersey, fuelled by an influx of English immigrants over the following 25 years.

This page is part of a project launched by Jerripedia in 2024 to chronicle the history of Jersey through the 19th century using news cuttings from most of the newspapers published during those 100 years.
The 19th century in newspaper cuttings - Main index page

This page links to separate pages giving year by year coverage from 1800 onwards in the publications active at the time

The life of the Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey is difficult to follow. At one time, at least, there were two active publications of the same name. There are also periods when either the publication of the title was suspended, or it continued but editions are missing from the collection of La Société Jersiaise, which was digitised and placed in their website in 2024.

Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey was published from 5 July 1800 to the end of the year, printed by G Angot and Philippe Mourant. But it soon vanished. Quite what happened after 1800 is uncertain, but the Societe collection has no editions in 1801-1804, a single edition on 30 March 1805, numbered 28, then nothing until 1808, for which year it appears to have a full set of publications, starting on 2 January with No 1 and ending with No 53 on 31 December. We used John Stead's publication Gazette de Jersey and Weekly Advertiser and Philip Mourant's title to build a reasonable picture of local news in 1808.

1809 is a problem year. No editions of Stead's Gazette seem to have survived, although there will be a full set for 1810. Mourant's Gazette is nearly as bad, with just one 1809 edition available, with a single local news item. It was hoped that the launch of a new title in 1809 - Gazette de Cesaree - might provide a new source of local news, but only three editions have survived from its launch year, with not a local item between them.

February

On the 15th between 4 and 5 pm HMS Vulture's longboat was returning to the ship anchored in the St Aubin road when it overturned passing the Fort. Despite prompt rescue attempts six of the sailors on board were drowned. Two were rescued, one of whom died afterwards.

From other sources:

June

Coastal road

On the 17th the States decided to construct the main road from St Helier to La Haule.

October

Fort well

Work on Fort Regent's well, 12 miners having been employed for two years.

Jubilee

According to Jersey Through the Centuries, Sinel, on the 25th the jubilee of George III was celebrated in the island. That seems premature because he had only been on the throne 49 years, his golden jubilee arriving the following year.

December

New chapel

A wesleyan chapel opened in St Ouen

Customs

An office of British Customs was established in the island