Lifetimes ago Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette 1812 December 05 Notices

TIMES INT'L

As we today go about our daily chores and routines, so too did the people who came before us in an era vastly different in many ways for our times. Past newspapers and gazettes are some of the earliest records of history that today are all that are left to offer us a glimpse of early Guyana.

Essequebo & Demerary 1813 (1 stiver). Essequebo and Demerary were originally two of three Dutch colonies along the coast of present-day Guyana. They were seized by the British to avoid falling into French hands after the French invasion of the Netherlands. They remained in British control through the 1830s, when the Netherlands and Great Britain formally divided the region between them, the British taking over the western portion. This mixed colonial origin shows in the coinage: Though the portrait of the British monarch (King George III) is honoured on the obverse, the denominations are clearly Dutch. (coinfactswiki.com)
Essequebo & Demerary 1813 (1 stiver). Essequebo and Demerary were originally two of three Dutch colonies along the coast of present-day Guyana. They were seized by the British to avoid falling into French hands after the French invasion of the Netherlands. They remained in British control through the 1830s, when the Netherlands and Great Britain formally divided the region between them, the British taking over the western portion. This mixed colonial origin shows in the coinage: Though the portrait of the British monarch (King George III) is honoured on the obverse, the denominations are clearly Dutch. (coinfactswiki.com)

This week, Sunday Times magazine provides a look at the notices printed in the Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette just over 200 years ago that reflect our lives today in some ways, highlight how far we’ve come over the centuries in other ways and proffer tantalizing clues and questions about lifetimes ago..

Wedding bells
Banns of Matrimony, [heading]
BETWEEN [heading]
Andrew Battlelia, born in the Island of St. Thomas,
AND [centred]
Mary Cornierlison, born in this Colony,
With the consent of her Mother.
Any person knowing just cause why those persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, must declare the same to
The Rev. W. G. Straghan.
Demerary, Dec. 5, 1812.

Contractor wanted
ANY Person willing to contract for a LOGIE-FRAME, of best Greenheart, seventy-two feet long, twenty feet wide, and two stories high; with a gallery on each side, ten feet wide, and shingled with the best Walaba shingles, to be brought by the contractor, and erected on the Plantation Hope, on the east coast – will please address the lowest terms to
JOSEPH BEETE, q q James Baillie.
Columbia District, George Town, Dec. 3

Debtors and creditors
H. C. WAHL, desires of Mr Scheepens to come and make a full settlement with him, for to put him in full power to settle with his creditors; or he will be obliged to take some other method, which he would be very sorry for – and from this day, he takes his Power from Mr. Scheepens.
The Subscriber takes also the liberty to beg his Creditors to have a little patience, until he can be able to dispose of his timber which lays at Fort Island, and not to put him to expence, as he will pay with honour. – Massaroony Post, Dec. 5, 1812.

Estate notice
NOTICE. [heading]
AT the request of Madelaine Hofstede, Executrix to the free coloured woman Jan Ball, deceased – All persons having any demands against the estate of the deceased, are requested to render the same, properly attested, in the course of six weeks from date; and all those indebted to come forward with payment to the Executrix aforesaid, in order to liquidate said estate as soon as possible.
Secretary’s Office, December 5, 1812.
CHARLES WILDAY,
Sworn Clerk.

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