In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. There was suspicion that this was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had ‘rentes’ owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. As major landowners, the Lemprière family stood to profit hugely.
On Thursday 28 September 1769, a Court called the Assize d’Héritage was sitting, hearing cases relating to property disputes. The Lieutenant Bailiff, Charles Lemprière, sat as the Head of the Court. Meanwhile, a group of disgruntled individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour marched towards Town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The group was met at the door of the Royal Court and was urged to disperse and send its demands in a more respectful manner. However, the crowd forced its way into the Court Room armed with clubs and sticks. Inside, they ordered that their demands be written down in the Court book. Although the King later commanded that the lines be removed from the book , a transcription survives that shows the crowd’s demands.
The demands of the Corn Riots protestors included:
• That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per Cabot.
• That foreigners be ejected from the Island.
• That his Majesty’s tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.
• That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol.
• That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
• That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax).
• That seigneurs end the right of ‘Jouir des Successions’(the right to enjoy anyone’s estate for a year and a day if they die without heirs).
• That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
• That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.
• That charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.
In 1769, landowners were exporting wheat from Jersey to England, where a bad harvest had driven up the price.
Frustrated with the resulting food shortages, rising prices, the unfair taxation system and Jersey’s power structure, around 500 hundred islanders stormed the Royal Court with 13 demands to alleviate their struggles on September 28th 1769.
Though there was no known loss of life, many came armed with sticks and clubs, and an usher was thrown over the court railing during the disturbance.
The event paved the way for major political reform on the island. In the reform, known as the Code of 1771, the Royal Court was stripped of its legislative powers, meaning that from 1771, only the States Assembly could create laws.
The Corn Riots was essentially a time when in Jersey the majority of land was owned by a family called the Lempriere family. In power, was the Lieutenant Bailiff Charles Lempriere. Among his 12 Jurats in control of the Island were Charles’ father, father-in-law, cousin and two brothers. So… of 12, five were from the Lempriere family.
In 1767 protests raged against the exportation of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year so that all available corn was kept in Jersey. In August 1769 the States repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful and this meant that the Act was no longer necessary.
There was suspicion in the Island that this was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had wheat rentes owed to them on properties. This would especially be true of the Lemprières who not only owned a large amount of land in the Island but also had control of the Receiver-General post and so stood to profit the most with rentes going up.
Acts of resistance started taking place. A corn ship about to export goods was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and set about selling it on the Harbour, giving the proceeds to the owner of the vessel. Other disturbances took place, leading to the events of 28 September 1769.
The Lempriere family were exporting corn (main source of food for Jersey) over what they needed (greedy guts) which meant that the people of Jersey were going hungry. The price of corn was increased and the price of rent was increased… the monopoly of the Lempriere family was in full force.
But the people in Jersey had had enough, they decided to Riot! So, they marched from Trinity, picking up parishioners along the way, to the Royal Square where they marched into the Royal Court and demanded change, armed with clubs and sticks.
They ordered that their demands be written in the Court book of the time. The Greffier obliged (although afterward, their demands were literally deleted from the book by being torn out, so the Lempriere could keep their monopoly on the Island!) and their orders included (basically demanding a fair price for food and living)
• That grain and wheat was too expensive and that the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot.
• That foreigners be ejected from the Island.
• That his Majesty’s tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.
• That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol. • That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
• That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart, (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax)
. • That seigneurs stop the right of ‘Jouir des Successions’, (the right to enjoy anyone’s estate for a year and a day after they died without heirs).
• That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
• That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.
• The lowering of a money rente due by tenants on a fief.
• That Philippe Larbalestier, who had been sent to prison on 23 September, be released without having to pay a fine.
• That the charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.
• That the Customs’ House officers be ejected.
Once the rioters had left the Royal Court, there was relative peace. It was like they’d said what they needed and now felt that they’d be heard and helped.
However Lempriere family decided they didn’t want to make any of these changes, so they went to London to present the rioters problems to the King. This was done… albeit not exactly truthfully, so the King said that all the demands should be erased from the Court records (eg now the Lempriere family didn’t actually have to change anything).
Locals were obviously furious. But £100 was offered to any rioters who turned another in… so things started turning!
But Colonel Bentinck was unsure whether the Lempriere family had been entirely honest, and after he visited Jersey, he reported to the King that ‘we have been represented as enemies’ – therefore it was made illegal to export crops, and a committee was set up in order to regulate the distribution of grains and food to the market. Colonel Bentinck lay down the ‘code of 1771’ where basically it meant the Law would be as fair as possible. The Lempriere family were slowly loosing their power, and soon one of the family retired as Jurat which further helped.
The Corn Riots were the beginning of making the Law fairer for the people of Jersey.
Extension Task
George Floyd’s murder has sparked global protests against racism, inequality, and police brutality. Here, we compile a growing list of books, articles, and initiatives to learn from and support
At the time of writing, people in all 50 states in the US, and 18 countries worldwide, are protesting for the Black Lives Matter movement. The demonstrations follow the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May 2020, and have amplified the anger and outrage at the racism and inequality that continue to pervade all aspects of society, including the creative industries.
‘The ground breaking work of the acclaimed photographer (Gorden Parks) is being celebrated at a new two-part exhibition showcasing black American life’
Camera obscura, meaning darkened room in Latin, is a device in a shape of a box or a room that lets the light through a small opening on one side and projects it on the other. In this simple variant, image that is outside of the box is projected upside-down. More complex cameras can use mirrors to project image upwards and right-side up and they can also have lenses. Camera obscura is used as an aid for drawing and entertainment.
Nicephore Niepce
Nicephore niepce was the first person to make a photographic image.To make the heliograph, Niépce dissolved light-sensitive bitumen in oil of lavender and applied a thin coating over a polished pewter plate. Heinserted the plate into a camera obscura and positioned it near a window in his second-story workroom.
Louis Daguerre
Louis Daguerre called his invention “daguerreotype.” His method, which he disclosed to the public late in the summer of 1839, consisted of treating silver-plated copper sheets with iodine to make them sensitive to light, then exposing them in a camera and “developing” the images with warm mercury vapor.
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate. A daguerreotype is not flexible and is rather heavy. The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. Since the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing.
Henry Fox Talbot
Fox Talbot went on to develop the three primary elements of photography: developing, fixing, and printing. Although simply exposing photographic paper to the light produced an image, it required extremely long exposure times. By accident, he discovered that there was an image after a very short exposure. Although he could not see it, he found he could chemically develop it into a useful negative. The image on this negative was then fixed with a chemical solution. This removed the light-sensitive silver and enabled the picture to be viewed in bright light. With the negative image, Fox Talbot realised he could repeat the process of printing from the negative. Consequently, his process could make any number of positive prints, unlike the Daguerreotypes. He called this the ‘calotype’ and patented the process in 1841.
Richard Maddox
In 1871 Richard Leach Maddox, an English physician, suggested suspending silver bromide in a gelatine emulsion, an idea that led, in 1878, to the introduction of factory-produced dry plates coated with gelatine containing silver salts. This event marked the beginning of the modern era of photography.
George Eastman
In 1880 he perfected a process of making dry plates for photography and organized the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company for their manufacture. The first kodak (a name he coined) camera was placed on the market in 1888. It was a simple handheld box camera containing a 100-exposure roll of film that used paper negatives. Consumers sent the entire camera back to the manufacturer for developing, printing, and reloading when the film was used up; the company’s slogan was “You press the button, we do the rest.” In 1889 Eastman introduced a roll film on a transparent base, which has remained the standard for film. In 1892 he reorganized the business as the Eastman kodak company . Eight years later he introduced the brownie camera , which was intended for use by children and sold for one dollar. By 1927 Eastman Kodak had a virtual monopoly of the photographic industry in the United States, and it has continued to be one of the largest American companies in its field.
print/film photography
print and film photography is where you print physical images that are taken on old fashioned cameras.
Digital photography
digital photography uses modern day cameras and sd cards to take state of the art photos with expensive and clever cameras.
The angle that Newman photographs Krupp is a close up shot.
Newman has photographed Krupp looking sturdy and strong by the way his hands are clasped.
There are warm and cool tones in this image creating a sense of a dark and gloomy atmosphere. This brings more attention towards his face and his facial expression.
The quality of the photo makes it clearer to see the detail in the photograph making the image more sharp and eye catching.
In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. There was suspicion that this was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had ‘rentes’ owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. As major landowners, the Lemprière family stood to profit hugely.
On Thursday 28 September 1769, a Court called the Assize d’Héritage was sitting, hearing cases relating to property disputes. The Lieutenant Bailiff, Charles Lemprière, sat as the Head of the Court. Meanwhile, a group of disgruntled individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour marched towards Town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The group was met at the door of the Royal Court and was urged to disperse and send its demands in a more respectful manner. However, the crowd forced its way into the Court Room armed with clubs and sticks. Inside, they ordered that their demands be written down in the Court book. Although the King later commanded that the lines be removed from the book (image 3), a transcription survives that shows the crowd’s demands.
The demands of the Corn Riots protestors included:
• That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot.
• That foreigners be ejected from the Island.
• That his Majesty’s tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.
• That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol.
• That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
• That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax).
• That seigneurs end the right of ‘Jouir des Successions’(the right to enjoy anyone’s estate for a year and a day if they die without heirs).
• That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
• That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.
• That charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.
Here I have placed some images of contact sheets from Adobe Lightroom Classic, this is to show that I have developed some understanding of how to use Lightroom and how images can be edited to make some of their features stand out such as contrast and vibrancy. I like using Lightroom as I can place my favourite images into collections, this helps when editing my images to make them more aesthetic, and as adjusting their image size so I can make blog posts with the correct image sizes.
Editing
Below I have showed how i have edited my images in Lightroom by inserting screenshots whilst using Lightroom. As you can see above in my contact sheets, a lot of my photos didn’t turn out will as the exposure was to low , therefore their is limited visibility. So I have selected some images to make them lighter and more vibrant. This example of one of the living history characters is a good example of how adjusting the contrast makes the image look more professional.
Below I have demonstrated me organising my images from Hamptonne into folders in Lightroom, this is so when I have thousands of images in the Media drive and in Lightroom, I can easily locate specific image as they will be categorised. Furthermore, I have attempted to sort them into folders which corelate with the blog posts I have been publishing.
In 1769, Islanders became frustrated with food shortages & rising prices. In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed in 1768 to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that there were enough crops in the Island to provide Islanders with enough food. There was suspicion that this was a lie to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had ‘rentes’ owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. This led to a storming of the Royal Court by around 500 Islanders in what became known as The Corn Riots. Recently there was a festival to mark the 250th anniversary of the Corn Riots from the 24th-27th of September. The demands of the Corn Riots protestors included:
• That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot
• That his Majesty’s tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.
• That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol.
• That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
• That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax).
• That seigneurs end the right of ‘Jouir des Successions’(the right to enjoy anyone’s estate for a year and a day if they die without heirs).
• That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
• That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.
• That charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.
• That the Customs’ House officers be ejected.
In the summer of 1769, a ship loaded with corn for export was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and sell it in the Island. ‘Let us die on the spot, rather than by languishing in famine. God hath given us corn, and we will keep it, in spite of the Lemprières, and the court, for if we trust to them they will starve us’
Other protests
Queen’s Valley is Jersey’s biggest reservoir holding up to 262 million gallons of water. In the late 1970’s there were plans to flood the valley, which caused outrage and led to a protest.
There were two campaign groups who organised protests against flooding the valley on environmental grounds. They were ‘Save our valley’ (pictured above) and ‘Concern’. It’s estimated around 8 thousand people marched through the valley at the height of the protests.
During the 18th century, power in Jersey was held in the hands of the Lemprière family. In 1750, Charles Lemprière was made Lieutenant Bailiff, and his brother Philippe was named Receiver-General.
Charles Lampriere
In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from Jersey. Anonymous threats were made against ship owners, a law was passed the following year to keep corn within the island. In august of the same year the court appealed this law, arguing that the levels of corn were plentiful so export was not detrimental. There was suspicion that this appeal was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich – many of them had ‘rentes’ owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. As major landowners, the Lemprière family stood to profit hugely.
The riots
Later in this summer, a ship loaded with corn for exportation was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and sell it in the island – “Let us die on the spot, rather than by languishing in famine, God hath given us corn, and we will keep it, in spite of the Lemprieres, and the court, for if we trust to them they will starve us.”
One of my images from the museum
Then, on the 28th september of the same year, a Court called the Assize d’Héritage was sitting, hearing cases relating to property disputes. The Lieutenant Bailiff, Charles Lemprière, sat as the Head of the Court. Meanwhile, a group of disgruntled individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour marched towards Town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The group was met at the door of the Royal Court and was urged to disperse and send its demands in a more respectful manner. However, the crowd forced its way into the Court Room armed with clubs and sticks. Inside, they ordered that their demands be written down in the Court book.
The court book
The demands of the protestors
That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot.
• That foreigners be ejected from the Island.
• That his Majesty’s tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.
• That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol.
• That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
• That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax).
• That seigneurs end the right of ‘Jouir des Successions’(the right to enjoy anyone’s estate for a year and a day if they die without heirs).
• That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
• That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.
• That charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.
• That the Customs’ House officers be ejected.
After the riots
Following the riots, on 6 October, a meeting of the States of Jersey was held at the Castle when it was agreed that Charles Lemprière, together with two Jurats, and Philippe Lemprière, the Attorney General, would journey to London in order to present their difficulties to the Privy Council, representing the Crown.
At first, the Privy Council was outraged by their reports and commanded that the demands of the rioters be erased from the Court records. On 1 November, a Royal Pardon and a reward of £100 was offered to any rioters who named the ringleaders. After the full situation in the Island became clear, the protestors were eventually pardoned. The corn riots had helped Jersey to become a fairer society at the time, and have an influence on how reform was dealt with from then onwards.
The power of protest in Jersey
One of my pictures – featuring the protest to save queen’s valley from being flooded.
In the 1970s, a growing population and increasing numbers of holiday makers put large pressure on Jersey’s water resources. In 1976, during a summer of droughts and hose pipe bans, the Jersey New Waterworks Company announced plans to flood Queen’s Valley and create a new reservoir. Thousands of islanders supported 2 anti-flooding groups:Concern, Friends of Queen’s Valley, and Save our Valley, arguing flooding the Valley was not a solution. They suggested capping the island’s population at 80,000, installing water meters and using more desalinated water.
Protests about food prices – one of my own photos
Another one of my own pictures – extinction rebellion flags
One of my own pictures – Black Lives Matter protests in 2020
