1920.] SOCIAL LIFE IN GUERNSEY. 251 



By the end of the fifteenth century John Bonamy was 

 probably one of the richest men in the Island. His trading 

 ventures must have brought in good profits, and he also had his 

 official salary as Procureur, which according to his note-book 

 amounted, in the year 1492 — " Item, par. mes gages de la 

 Court iiii. gros." 



On May 14th, 1498, he began to build the house at Les 

 Caches, St. Martin, which' still stands behind what is now 

 known as Hubert's Nursery garden. The stone was quarried 

 at Albecq, and evidently work was then done on the co-opera- 

 tive system ; neighbours lent their carts, horses, and oxen to 

 carry his stone and to plough his fields, and were paid in kind 

 as well as in money or corn rents. Thus we find that, while 

 Colas Jehan, senior, was paid 10 gros, his son was paid 5 gros 

 and two pairs of stockings ("cauches") worth 6 gros, while 

 Philipin Le Poitevin and Colas Fyquet, for quarrying his 

 stone, were each paid two pairs of stockings. He also got 

 some of his stone from " L'Ecluse Luet," namely, the Mill 

 Pond behind the old Water Mill of Moulin Huet, and from 

 what was then known as " Vieille Port," but what is now 

 called " Moulin Huet Bay." In 1499 we find that he owed 

 Thomas Cluett not only for his chimney piece " mantell de 

 cimeyne " but for a silver badge or token — perhaps a swan 

 (" une syne d'argent ") weighing one ounce. We do not know 

 to what purpose this was put. 



In the following year (1500) we find that he and various 

 other devout Guernsey Catholics decided to take the long and 

 expensive pilgrimage to Rome. At that time Henry VII. was 

 reigning in England, Louis XII., with his young wife Anne 

 of Brittany had just began to reign in France, Ferdinand and 

 Isabella were King and Queen of Spain, Alexander VI., 

 perhaps the most infamous of the Borgias, was Pope of Rome, 

 while in Guernsey Edmund de Weston was Governor, and 

 John Martin was Bailiff. 



Bonamy's notes on this interesting journey are tantalisingly 

 scanty. Although he writes of the route which " we " took in 

 going to Rome, he nowhere says of whom the party was 

 composed. 



In a deed belonging to the late Colonel de Garis, of Sous 

 l'Eglise, I find that on July 3rd, 1500, one Collas Corbin was 

 attorney for " John de Lisle qui est a Rome," so we may infer 

 that he was of the party. Bonamy tells us that they started on 

 the 10th March, 1500, and did not arrive in Rome until Easter 

 Monday, the 20th April, which, as they probably meant to 

 attend the great Easter Festival Celebration, must have been 



