William Isaac Marquand was born in St Peter Port on the 16th June 1837 and died on the 13th of April 1908, and was the son of Isaac Marquand; a Coal Merchant and Ships Chandler ( The business still operated on the Quay in St Peter Port until 2003 and was latterly known as Marquand Bros).

According to the 1861 Census, William Isaac traded as a Cabinet Maker in that year and was also a Methodist Local Preacher; his father was also a preacher.

In the same year (1861), William changed direction and became a photographer and there is proof he traded with quality printed cartes at least by 1867 firstly as 'Marquand' and 'W. Marquand', then progressed to 'W.I Marquand' plus occasionally using only a handstamp for some reason with 'W. Marquand'; primarily in 1871 and 1872. (maybe he ran out of cards!)

It is believed he may have started out his career in photography in Mansell Street and then moved to Vauvert Street, both premises being in St Peter Port. He lists his occupation as Artist on his daughter's Birth Certificate (Born 1864). In the early days, photographers like to describe themselves as Photographic Artists.

He was a very successful and good photographer and gained from the popularity of the Carte de Visite (The author has not seen any other type of image to date).

From the many examples of quality photographic work the author has seen from William Marquand, it can safely be said that he was up there with the best of Guernsey Studio Photographers at that time. He was also was excellent in detail, by giving the negative number on the back of the carte for re ordering purposes - an archivists dream for placing images in chronological order and dating purposes! No other local photographer could match him in this respect.

Sometime in late 1880 or early 1881, William closed his photographic business - it is not known why as trade was excellent, but the possibility exists that his father, who was still head of the family Ships Chandlery business wished at the age of 70 (1881 Census) to bring in a family member to give continuity. His father died in 1888. William was head of the Chandlery business for the next 20 years.

Many years ago there was an article about William Marquand on the 'Islandwiki' website from a descendant of William Isaac, but unfortunately this no longer exists.

Shown below is some useful image dating negative number sequences which came from the above website with confirmed extra card dating information added by the author. If anyone has any dated cartes, the author would be grateful to hear from them.

To date the author has found eleven different types of carte backs and these are illustrated on the website with a suggested date sequence of:-

Back No 1 1867 Back No 2 1868 Back No 3 1868-1872 Back No 3A 1871 Back No 4 1873-1874 Back No 5 1875 Back No 6 1875 Back No 7 1877 Back No 8 1877-1878 Back No 9 1879 Back No 10 1879-1881



THE PHOTO DATING NUMBER SEQUENCE IS APPROXIMATE ONLY

Year Neg No
1867 2400
1868 3200
1869 4400
1870 6000
1871 7700 CDV neg number 7826 June 1871 - 8424 Sep 1871 - 8605 Oct 1871 - 8135 Aug 1871 - 8605 Oct 1871 - 8606 Oct 1871
1872 9200 CDV neg number 9154 March 1872 - 9401 April 1872 - 9451 May 1872 - 9614 June 1872
1873 10500
1874 11500
1875 13000
1876 14000
1877 15000
1878 15800
1879 17000

The author has a carte No 19980 and this more than likely dates from late 1880 or early 1881, just before the studio closure. From 1879 W. Marquand used a cdv back advertising his establishment date of 1861, no doubt in celebration of his forthcoming 20th anniversary in 1881.

If any mistakes are found, please let me know!