On Thursday 28 September 1769, a Court called the Assize d’Héritage was hearing cases relating to property disputes. Meanwhile, a group of individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour stormed towards town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The crowd found their way to the Royal Court and forced themselves in armed with clubs and sticks and ordered that their demands should be written down in the Court Book.
These demands included:
That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot.
That there should be a limit on the sales tax.
hat foreigners be ejected from the Island.
That the value of the Liard coin be set to 4 per sol.
That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.
That the customs’ house officers be ejected.
This is a photo that I took in the Jersey Museum representing the corn riots in the 1700s.
In the Jersey Museum it showed a lot of what Jerseys history was like and how people were living in the earlier years. The museum had a big section about Power and Protest based on the Jersey corn riots explaining how the people of Jersey protested and demanded for many changes.
The museum was filled with many different displays that were really interesting and showed me how different life was back then.
This is a photo I took in the Museum of a sign protesters used to demand for the court book to be changed.
Some images from the museum visit:
This display in the museum is a slight representation of the corn riots of 1769.
Hamptonne Country Life is a museum and a part of Jersey Heritage. It explores rural life on the island and even has an apple orchard which is used for cider making. Some farm animals are even kept there, like lambs, piglets, calves, sheep and chickens.
Hamptonne Museum has 3 main buildings, named after the families that lived in them (Langlois, Hamptonne and Syvret) each from different periods in time, giving a glimpse into life for these islanders. Syvret house is fully furnished and gives insight to the experience of islanders during the occupation.
There are also several characters who come in to participate in Living history, reenacting behaviours from the time. For example sewing or spinning using traditional methods, as a way to keep old traditions alive. Many also wear clothing from the era they are reenacting to create a more immersive experience.
Life was difficult for farmers and Hamptonne museum documents the progression of equipment and techniques as well as living conditions. They also have the granite apple crusher on display, illustrating how the drink was made all those years ago.
Tom Kennedy is a Jersey born photographer and film maker, who runs the company Little River Pictures with his wife. They are responsible for photographing a lot of the living history seen at Hamptonne. His style is influenced by 17th century painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer, with his work highly focusing on the art of the light.
This is a celebration of our modern-day democracy, which began in 1769 when the Corn Riots of Jersey took place. Find out all about the start of Democracy with this short film.
There will be a one-off public holiday in Jersey on Monday September 27th 2021. The day will mark the 250th anniversary of the Corn Riots when islanders protested against landowners.
History of the Corn Riots
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.
Basic overview of what the Corn Riots were and why important:
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
October is Black History Month. Last year saw the death of George Floyd and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM)…which featured in the exhibition you have visited at The Jersey Museum.
To further your CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING of the importance of protest in society you should…
Add info and visuals to your blog post detailing The BLM Movement
Include info and research on how this was explored by Jersey activists
Include an artist reference from the options below, images, analysis and interpretation
The image is taken by Kevin Carter named “the vulture and the little girl” In the image is a starved boy, initially believed to be a girl who had collapsed due to starvation. In the background it appears to be a vulture eyeing him from nearby. It first appeared in The new York times. His photograph is a message to the people who are living in first world countries and showing the damage of world hunger.
The background looks very dry with not much life or plants growing and a hungry vulture keeping its eyes on the starving child. The appearance of the vulture is clearly stronger then the child. But in order of getting the ‘perfect shot’ Carter ignored his responsibility of helping the struggling girl but later chased the vulture off.
The process of creating cyanotypes was first discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1842, he did not consider it to be a way of creating art, but merely a way to reproduce notes.
A portrait of Sir John Herschel
Cyanotypes are made by mixing ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide to create a light-sensitive solution, which is then applied to a piece of paper. When you wish to produce an image, you would place an object onto, or above, the paper under a light source to create a shadow, the shadow projected onto the paper would shield the light-sensitive solution from light, allowing the shadow to mark the paper. After a few minutes, you would put the paper in either water or another desensitising chemical so it would stop the process, leaving an image. Cyanotypes can be reproduced, these are called blueprints.
As an Art-Form
Cyanotype images appear as different shades of blue with little detail within the shapes created, this allows, for example, plant life to appear familiar yet different. As cyanotypes use shadows as a way of marking the paper, the shapes created are usually clear and easily interpreted, the simplicity of these images, in both colour and shape, allows them to be easily appreciated and understood as an art form.
An example of a Cyanotype image
Anna Atkins
Atkins was a 19th century botanist who became known as one of the first people to publish a book with photographic illustrations, as well as the first female photographer. She published her book: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in late 1843, which contained cyanotype images of algae or seaweed. Atkins also published a number of fiction novels in her later years.
Portrait of Anna Atkins
One of Anna Atkins’ images, displaying different kinds of leaves
Christiana Z. Anderson
An image of Anderson next to some of her images
Anderson is a photographer who uses several 19th century photographic processes such as Cyanotypes, Salted Paper, Gum Bichromate and Palladium. Her work has had several exhibitions in multiple countries and she has also published many books about how she creates images using these older methods.
An image from Anderson’s book: The Blue Print in Contemporary Practice
The Cyanotype process was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, an English inventor. Herschel’s process leaves us with a white print on a blue background made by items found in nature. Cyanotypes work on a variety of surfaces but, being a textile artist, I use natural fibre fabrics, usually silk or cotton but also linen, hemp, rayon and silk/viscose velvet sometimes.
Cyanotypes as an art form
Anna Atkins, a botanical artist from Tonbridge made history with her cyanotypes as some say her cyanotypes created the first ever book to hold photographs, it has also been said that she was the first female photographer.
Atkins used a mix of exposure and chemicals to create her masterpieces which were mainly prints of flowers, plants from both land and sea. Anna Atkins images merged science and art, it also progressed the use of photographs in books.
My Cyanotype
For my cyanotype I collected plants, feathers and leaves from around Hamptonne. I enjoyed making these and found them very interesting as you can create anything you think of.
Photography began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
Although the first camera wasn’t created until the 19th century, the concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C. It wasn’t until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura in the 11th century that the art was born. The camera obscura consisted of a tent with a pinhole which projected images onto the surface of the tent, upside down, they could be traced to create accurate drawings of real objects such as buildings.
Niépce’s success led to a number of other experiments and photography progressed rapidly. Three different techniques were quickly created known as, Daguerreotypes, Emulsion Plates and Dry Plates.
A daguerreotype consisted of a copper plate being exposed to iodine vapour, and then exposed to light for roughly 15 minutes. This was a very popular method until 1850 when it was replaced with emulsion plates. Emulsion plates, were less expensive than daguerreotypes and required only two or three seconds of exposure time. This made them more efficient for portrait photographs, which were the most common photographs in this time period.
Photography was only for professionals and the rich until George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880s. They created an affordable portable camera in 1888 known as the Brownie, the creation of this camera made photography very popular around the world as it was now affordable for the average person, and very easy to use.
In the 1980s and 90s companies such as kodak started creating cameras that held photos digitally compared to film, this started what photography is today.
The first photograph ever taken (1827)First photo of Earth 1966
Comparing these two images you can see that photography has clearly come along way, just 139 years after the first photograph was taken, we managed to take a picture of Earth.
This is a representation of photography from 1021 through to the 21st century showing how much photography has evolved throughout all the years.
Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
This is the first ever photo taken that survivedin 1826.
Niépce called his process heliography, from the Greek helios meaning ‘drawing with the sun’. In 1826, using this process, Niépce took the earliest surviving ‘photograph’. The photo was taken from his window in his house in Chalons-sur-Saône which required an exposure of about 8 hours.
What was photography first used for?
At first, photography was either used as an aid in the work of an painter or followed the same principles the painters followed. The first publicly recognized portraits were usually portraits of one person, or family portraits.
Photography in WW2
Wartime photography became much more graphic in World War II. 37 print and photo journalists were killed in World War II, 112 were wounded, and 50 were taken prisoner. The casualty rate among wartime journalists was four times higher than among soldiers.
This photo was taken in 1945 and has gone down to be the most iconic picture taken during WW2.
Hamptonne Country Life Museum gives the visitor a unique insight into the rural life in jersey. There are different houses that make up Hamptonne, which give you an idea of how houses looked in different time periods. There is lots of old machinery like apple crushing machines, where they famously make Jersey black butter. There are many animals around hamptonne, such as pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and rabbits.
The hamptonne farm is named after laurens hamptonne, who bought the property in 1633. Hamptonne is also known as La Patente, (the name of one of the roads that passes it) , after the grants by letters patent received by its owner richard langois in 1445 and by king charles II to laurens Hamptonne in 1649.
those who has provided a particular service in the monarch or close relative were awared royal patents. Hamptonne was a vicomte or executive officer of jerseys royal court.It was in that role that Hamptonne issued the famous Proclamation in St Helier’s Royal Square on 17 February 1649, declaring Charles II as King after news reached the Island of the execution of Charles I.
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