On Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, a unit of mass.
According to William Berry1,
The lawful weight of the Island is the pound of Rouen weight, each ounce being about 34 grains more than the English avoirdupoise [sic], so that the Guernsey pound is, within a few grains, two ounces heavier than the English pound; but the quarter is only reckoned at twenty-five pounds, and the hundred weight one hundred pounds.
An extra 34 grains to the ounce would be an extra (16 × 34 =) 544 grains in a pound, or 7544 grains in all. Eighteen avoirdupois ounces are (18 × 437.5 =) 7875 grains, which is scarcely “within a few grains” of 7544. This discrepancy creates a problem. Doursther (1840) describes two pounds associated with Rouen:
L'ancienne livre poids de vicomté, usitée pour le laines et le marchandises en gros, valait 4 pour cent de plus que le livre de Paris.......7857 grains (509.1 grams)
La livre poids de marc était usitée dans le commerce de détail......7555 grains (489.5 grams)
The ancient livre of the viscount's standard, used for wool and wholesale trade, valued at 4% more than the livre of Paris....7857 grains
The livre of the poids de marc standard is used for retail trade......7555 grains
Which was the Guernsey pound, the livre poids de marc, 11 grains heavier than Berry's estimate based on grains in the ounce, or the livre poids de vicomté, 18 grains lighter than Berry's 2-ounce heavier pound? It is likely to have been the former.
1. William Berry.
The History of the Island of Guernsey, part of the ancient Duchy of Normandy,
from the remotest period of antiquity to the year 1814,...
London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815.
Page 119.
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