David Gurney

I was very pleased to acquire this 19c advertising cover in the Society room auction at the meeting on the 24^th September 2022 in London.

The envelope flap on the back has some useful information for customers in regard to their medicines.

A chemist and druggist, John Baker, had moved into 25, Halkett Place by 1881, living there with his wife Barbara, mother Mary, and two young daughters and a baby son. By 1891 the occupants of 25, Halkett Place in St. Helier. Jersey were still chemist John Baker, his wife Barbara, five daughters aged from one year to 17, and John’s widowed mother Mary. Ten years later they were still there, the property having been re-numbered as 45, Halkett Place and known as The Waterloo Pharmacy facing the Market.

Inside the envelope is a letter head as shown above, but without date. The envelope and its contents above had not been posted.

My original researches in the 1990s had always shown this particular datestamp with a code P recorded in the GPO Proof Datestamp Impression books as issued to Jersey on the 30^th December 1870.

Thus a mystery arose when our member in Guernsey, John Triggs, FRPSL acquired an example shown below as a backstamp dated April 25th 1870, with the ‘P’ code which could not be found in the GPO Proof Datestamp Impression books before this earliest known date nor till 30^th December 1870 as noted!

Thus it became clear that the 19c GPO Proof Datestamp Impression books were not as accurate a record as we had always believed to be the case as other later examples of the St Aubyns datestamps until the entry of the 30^th December 1870 were not to be found. The searches made by the Archives Manager on my behalf with whom I had a most interesting conversation also showed to my own satisfaction that the original searches I had made twenty five years ago were thorough based on the original documentation at that time held in the Archives. Measurements then could be taken from original records which is no longer the case today as only copy records are available to the public.

Our member in Jersey, Steve Power, has also provided three later examples, two of which are shown on the next page in 1883 and 1885 which have slightly different measurements between the ‘S’s of ST.-AUBYNS which I believe on examination of highly magnified examples to be a variance between the strikes of the datestamps on the back of the envelopes either due to the angle and strength of the strike and also the residual ink remaining on the datestamp at the time of the strike.

These two backstamps are dated in 1883 and 1885 and have been slightly enlarged here to show the tiny variance which could arise from the angle of strike particularly with the shadow to that on the left. This could well be more apparent if the envelope was thick in paper content. Basically of the examples seen to date the measurements are more or less the same thus it is evident we have just one datestamp, albeit with different codes seen. Why there is no Proof Book impression prior to the 25^th April 1870 is not known and can only be guessed!

The examples reported so far on cover are:

25^th April 1870 code P, 30^th December 1870 code P, 9th December 1873 code B, 7th July 1878 code P, 20^th May 1883 code P, 11^th Sep 1883 code P, 29th July 1884 code P, 15^th Sep 1885 code P, 13th June 1895 code A, 5th January 1897 code A, 11th October 1899 code A, and one on piece is just dated AU 22 ???3 (could be 1873, 1883, 1893 or 1903.

On Parcel Post labels:

14th January 1897 code A, 9th February ???? code A, 10th April 1902 code A.

There must be more examples in your collections and I will be most interested to receive scans of any further examples of this datestamp with dates of use and the codes you may have on cover or on parcel post labels.

Scans please by email to nangurney1@aol.com. Thank you.

I was quite delighted to purchase this rare letter wrapper in a London auction recently which was posted from Guernsey in August 1795 and addressed to Monsieur P. F. Dobreé Consul Americain Nantes, France with the endorsement ‘To be forwarded by Messrs Battier Zornlen & Co London.’

Struck with the first Guernsey concave handstamp and rated 7d to London (1784.24 George 3.) being 5d for a single letter plus 2d for the Ch. Is. routing. However there is no trace of a text within this letter and thus there must have been an enclosure, perhaps a small single thin sheet which should have been charged as a double letter had there been an enclosure which was possibly missed by the postal clerk when assessing the charge to be made. 

The London datestamp on the back shows the original letter passed through London on the 17^TH August 1795 and mistakes were rarely made by the London Chief Office.

Interestingly a large piece of paper measuring 37.6 by 22.5cms in all was used giving two pages of 18.9cms by 22.6cms back to back on which was written, we believe to be, the draft of a reply within this correspondence in very heavy ink which is dated 13 Sep 1795. It was not an unknown practice for a draft reply to be written on an incoming letter at that time. Thus if there was an enclosure originally it does not appear to have been noticed and charged?

I agree with Alan Moorcroft who has examined this letter with myself that the text inside seems to be the draft of a later letter dated the 13^th September 1795 concerning business and family matters written on the unused pages of the letter and initialled within the folds of the letter on the back in a very different hand ‘Guernsey 13 Sep 1795 T D’ for Thomas Dobreé, the writer and addressed to another Peter Dobreé in this large and well spread family,

A very interesting letter as only four letters are known to be in existence for this London Letter Forwarding Agent to date with two in the Priaulx Library in Guernsey and one other in private hands, and now this very rare example which I have purchased for my collection of Letter Forwarding Agents handling Channel Islands letters.

Not only this, but the letter also shows further the spread of the Guernsey Dobreé family in international commerce in the late 18c.

In the course of my ongoing researches into the manuscript circular markings on very early letters from the medieval period quite unrelated to Sark I came across an article in a foreign journal portraying some interesting comments in an account written by The Reverend J.L.V. Cachemaille, the Vicar of Sark, which first appeared in the Guernsey Monthly Illustrated Journal in 1875, some of which I had incorporated into my 1993 book, The Post Office in the Smaller Channel Islands. However I feel members may appreciate the fuller report as under herewith:

I quote – 

‘A small number of letters crossed to or from Sark, and this small collection travelled in the boatman’s basket and was distributed at his leisure, unless the people chose to go and hunt about his basket for their share of the mail. But many did not venture to go and ask for their letters lest some payment should be demanded, and the boatmen themselves did not like to ask for remuneration. However, little by little, the penny postage induced more correspondence, and, as the number of visitors increased each year the irregularity of the mails was found to be a great inconvenience….. In consideration of the great and general inconvenience felt the Seigneur, the Rev. W.T. Collins, made a proposition at a meeting of the Chief Pleas in 1856 to address a petition to Her Majesty for the regular establishment of a Post Office. This proposition met with strong and almost general opposition. It was feared that a tax would be raised for that object, and that if once the English government established a Post Office, they would encroach further upon the rights, privileges and customs of Sark, and finish by usurping its liberties.

After a strong remonstrance from the Seigneur, and his assurance that the English government and not the island would be responsible for the Postmaster’s salary and the transport of the mails, the consent of a small majority was obtained to the drawing up of a petition, and it will scarcely be credited that barely one-half of the heads of families signed the petition. The general impression was that the Post Office would be the ruin of the island, and many declared that they would never take the mail in their boats. Yet a few months later these same people complained loudly at the mails not being given to them by preference.

When once a Post Office was established, a master appointed and at work, and a letter box opened, many of the people were still afraid that the penny stamp would not frank  the letter, and that more payment would be asked if they were seen putting it into the box. For months these people only went by stealth at night to drop their letters in the box, and then ran away very fast lest they should be discovered.’

I was very pleased recently to be able to add this unusual and personal entire letter to my collection of Letter Forwarding Agents purchased from the United States. In fact, dated the 5th April, 1781 and written in Guernsey by Thomas Dobreé, it is addressed privately to Mr. P. F. Dobreé att Messrs Battier Zornlin & Co in London, charged at the post rate then of 1/1d, the letter being assessed as weighing an ounce, so was rated 4 x the 3d inland rate Southampton to London 80 miles under 9 Anne c 10, with the 1d ship letter rate making the 1/1d as charged suggested by Colin Tabeart. This was also Alan Moorcroft’s belief and he also noted that the entire is struck with the two line SOUTHAMTON/SHIP LTR handstamp in black ink on the face of the letter being without the ‘P’ – Robertson shows that the Ship Lre hand stamp with this spelling was in use 1771-1789 so all in all quite a complicated rate compilation altogether.

The reverse side of this entire letter is shown below and illustrates the very well struck ‘Bishop mark’ or ‘datestamp’ of 10th April applied in London together with the usual red sealing wax impressed with the seal of the writer.

The date of the letter was also confusing at first sight until examined under strong magnification when the ‘6’ was in fact found to be a ‘1’ which becomes evident looking carefully at the finishing flourish similar to an ‘o’ halfway up the final ‘1’ giving the impression of a figure ‘6’.

This is not necessarily the precise order in which the letter was examined and this brought to light some factors which altered the calculation of the rate as the whole became treatable under the changes to Inland rates from the Act of 1711 viz. 9 Anne c 10. Not only this, but there was a letter enclosed, referred to in the text, and had the date of 1786 been correct this would have been treated as a ‘double’ letter for rate calculation, but this changed when it was realised the figure ‘6’ was in fact an embellished ‘1’!

So consultation became necessary between three of us to arrive at the eventual solution! This proved to be a difficult one to resolve at first, but it does show that in the main that the postal clerks of the 18c rarely made mistakes in their calculations of seemingly complex charges on letters.

Whilst this letter is more a ‘Care of’’ example rather than a true letter of a Forwarding Agent nonetheless it involves the London office of Battier Zornlen & Co in 1781, for whom very few letters are recorded, and the connection with the Guernsey Dobreé family. It has been suggested that perhaps one of our Channel Island Society members might be tempted to study the Dobreé family and their involvement in the Mercantile trade of this time in further depth?

To myself, this letter is particularly interesting, not just for the points mentioned, but it shows the inter-relationship between many of the merchant families of Channel Islands’ origins in the period of the 17c and 18c both at home and abroad in this period of great expansion in mercantile trading. Interestingly the Dobreé family were later well established Merchants and Letter Forwarding Agents in their own right, very well engaged in the mercantile trade of the time in Great Britain and abroad.

By way of other examples we find William Dobree born in Guernsey in 1674, later settling in London and prospering first as a Merchant and later as a Banker carefully looking after the affairs of Guernseys’ Merchants and Gentlemen. However he had shares in several Privateers and seemed secure and prosperous, but was declared bankrupt in 1754. Later in the 1770s Samuel Dobree & Sons are recorded as Merchant Bankers in London and in the early 1800s as Merchants in London. Also Harry Dobree, in Guernsey, where a large correspondence between 1810 and 1832 is held by the States of Guernsey Island Archives Service in addition to five letters recorded in private hands between 1794 and 1815. Harry Dobree is noted for his various positions in commerce as Merchant, Foreign Vice-Consul for Hanover, Naples, Sicily, Denmark and Micklenburg and as Agent to the Fire & Life Assurance acting from his offices in Pollet Street, in St Peter Port, Guernsey. Harry was also a member of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce in 1832.

Great wealth was created in this period by some families operating as they did at the time of the Napoleonic wars and contributing to the rapid expansion of trade between so many countries. The Guernsey Priaulx family was notable in this respect and have left us with their home and gardens in St Peter Port, Guernsey with so many records held by and at the now named Priaulx Library in Guernsey today!

This new publication by Stanley Gibbons Limited replaces the last 2016 edition of Collect Channel Islands and Isle of Man Stamps. This catalogue has now grown to a larger 568 colour pages incorporating fully priced listings of all stamps including varieties, catalogued errors (which are very well illustrated), shades, booklets, Post & Go issues and postage dues. Also covered are cylinder and plate numbers, sheet sizes, imprint details, quantities sold and withdrawal dates (where known). Listings have been completely updated and revised to 31st December 2021 and current pricing of the more modern issues seems to better reflect the current retail values. A revision of the Channel Island Occupation issues does show a more conservative re-pricing in market terms which is an improvement.  Finally turning to Postage Dues and Booklets there has been a general trend in revisions here to adjust marginally downwards in catalogue prices in many cases.

This handy and well produced soft back edition of 568 colour pages which is priced at £37.95 is recommended as an essential aid to all collectors of these colourful stamps with all its detailed information on these issues. I do particularly like the improved illustrations showing the flaws in early printings in colour which is most helpful to all stamp collectors.

Born on 27th June 1951, David died after a long illness on 6th January 2022 remarkably describing  for Spink until the end in his Nursing Home.

I have known David more or less since he joined Robson Lowe at 50, Pall Mall and then joined the Society in 1972. A good friend always helpful and willing to share his knowledge with everyone, he built a good collection of CI and professionally with

Christies Robson Lowe and eventually Spink became one of the most respected philatelists and expert describers of recent years.

He was also a long-term member and on the Board of the BPA Expertising Committee and a well-known judge at Exhibitions in South Africa.

David married Gill in October 1981 and will be greatly missed by us all who knew him in the CISS, at RPSL, at Spink and his many friends and clients around the world. Gill and David attended some of our weekend Society meetings in the Channel Islands and made many friends – a popular couple of whom David will be much missed. David Gurney. FRPSL