250 SOCIAL LllTE IN GUERNSEY. 



century substituted that of competition, and the individual 

 begins to step out of the crowd. 



Among the pioneers of the progress of this century was 

 John Bonamy, whose note-book is still in existence, and is one 

 of the earliest memoranda we possess. John Bonamy, of St. 

 Martin's parish, ancestor of the Guernsey family of Bonamy, 

 was the son of Peter Bonamy and Marguerite Patris, and he 

 married Marguerite Lc Mesurier. On St. Vincent's Day 1495 

 he was made Procureur du Boi, the King then being Henry 

 VII. He must have been educated by the parish priest or 

 sent to a Monkish School, either at Blanchelande or perhaps 

 to the little parish school of St. Peter-Port which preceded the 

 College. At any rate he was a man of learning for the days 

 which saw the invention of printing given to the world, and in 

 1498 he translated the famous Extente or Pent Poll of 

 Edward III. from Latin into French. It is interesting 

 to see from his book that he was part owner of a ship 

 La Pitie, his partners being Dominique Perrin and John 

 Car eye. 



In spite of all the Island had suifered from foreign 

 invaders, for two centuries she had been trying to develope her 

 train with Gascony and with England. We know that in 1425 

 three Guernsey ships, owned and manned by Guernseymen, 

 took part in the siege of Mont St. Michel. They were La 

 Pitie, La Marie, and La Trinite, commanded respectively by 

 three Guernsey jurats, Denis le Marchant, Pierre Nicholas, 

 and Edmond Henry. 



In this note-book we find that John Bonamy's ship 

 imported crossbows (arbalestes) for the Militia, which were 

 apparently issued to each parish through the medium of the 

 parish priests ; cloth, wool and yarn for general use, wine for 

 the priests for the Church Services, and also for John Blondel 

 the Bailiff, as well as for his personal friends for wedding feasts 

 and local festivals ; one entry being : " Item, a Nicolas le Mesy er" 

 (his brother-in-law) "por. maryer sa fille." This trade was 

 probably carried on via Poole and Southampton, the latter 

 being then a flourishing port, and the haven of the great galleys 

 of Venice and Genoa. 



About this time, and all through the sixteenth century, Ave 

 find that all the richer Guernsey families sent representatives 

 to live at Lyme, Poole, and Southampton, so as to further 

 the rapidly increasing trade with England and abroad. For 

 the raw wool and cotton yarn our ships brought in we re- 

 exported as knitted and woven goods, — stockings, guernseys, 

 jerseys, and linen cloth. 



