Lister, Anne (1791–1840)

English countrywoman, scholar and heir who kept a detailed account of her life in a 27-volume diary which includes coded passages recording her sexual and romantic relationships with women. Name variations: Jack. Pronunciation: LIS-ter. Born on April 3, 1791, in Halifax, England; died near K'ut'aisi, Russia, on September 22, 1840, after being bitten by a fever-carrying tick; daughter of Rebecca (Battle) Lister and Captain Jeremy Lister (a veteran of the American War of Independence); attended York's Manor School, age 14–15; for the majority of her life, engaged tutors to assist with a strict regimen of self-education in math, rhetoric, classical languages and literature; never married.

Began diary at age 15; at same age, met Eliza Raine, her first "wife" met her second "wife," Marianna Belcombe (later Lawson, 1814); took up residence (as the heiress to the estate) in Shibden Hall at age 24 (1815); went to Paris for a sustained visit (1824–25); inherited Shibden Hall (1826); revisited Paris (1826–28); toured Europe (1827); returned to England (1828) and ended the relationship with Marianna Lawson; met her life-partner, Ann Walker (1832); Walker moved into Shibden Hall (1834); embarked on a journey with Walker to Russia, Persia and Turkey (1839), during which she died.

Anne Lister's exceptionally thorough diary (27 volumes) both serves as a witness to her unique life—blending scholarship, estate management, and a wealth of relationships with other women—and provides a rich portrayal of the life of landed gentry in early 19th-century England. She diligently writes about political issues, local gossip, prices paid for goods or services, and even exact times spent on each daily activity.

Fully one sixth of the diary was written in a code of her own devising. While Lister left no key to the code after her death, it is documented that one of her relatives, John Lister, cracked the cipher during the late 1800s. He found that the coded passages focused on a candid recounting of Anne's relationships, sexual as well as romantic, with women. In the words of his associate, Arthur Burrell, "The part written in cipher—turned out after examination to be entirely unpublishable. Mr. Lister was distressed but he refused to take my advice, which was to burn all 27 volumes." Although the code had been broken, each publication of her diary excerpts before 1988 deliberately omitted any of the more controversial coded passages. In 1988, Helena Whitbread 's translated excerpts of the diaries, including Lister's history of her same-sex relationships, were published in the book I Know My Own Heart, The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791–1840. Before this work, only a handful of scholars had any idea that Lister was what would now be called a lesbian, much less that her diaries provided a wealth of information on a historically overlooked and little-documented subject. The diaries, estimated by historian Jill Liddington to contain over four-million words, have presented their own obstacles to publication. According to David Ward of the Halifax Guardian, Lister has "one of the most illegible hands known to history." Notes Liddington, "Indeed, had Anne Lister written less, her journals would undoubtedly be better known." To date, it is estimated that all published transcriptions cover less than 10% of the total diary.

She was born in Halifax on April 3, 1791, one of two daughters and four sons of Rebecca Lister and Captain Jeremy Lister. Three of her brothers did not survive infancy. Although Anne began her first diary at age 15, little is yet known about her early life because this diary was lost for several years and thus not available to most of the scholars who transcribed other sections of her writings. She lived during the last years of the Napoleonic wars and the reign of King George III. Her family centered around Halifax, a busy town that was the focus of the West Riding worsted industry. Seen as a tomboy from an early age, Anne developed an eccentricity of dress and deportment that was to later earn her the nickname of "Jack" from the townspeople of Halifax. She enjoyed firing her father's pistols and later described several instances of using them to frighten off intruders at Shibden Hall, the family's estate. After attending a Manor boarding school for one year as a teenager, Anne began began what was to be a lifelong pursuit of education by engaging the Reverend Samuel Knight to tutor her in algebra, geometry, literature, Greek and Latin.

The first available journal documents Anne's relationship with another student at the Manor boarding school she had been attending. The student, Eliza Raine , was a wealthy daughter of an Indian surgeon. Lister's secret code is not used in the first diaries and is thought to have been developed with Eliza Raine around 1808. Anne initially wrote private passages in Greek but later modified the writing further until it became a full code, combining Greek letters, English letters and mathematical symbols. In one of the earliest coded passages, she talks of an evening spent with Eliza and Miss Alexander: "Drank tea at Mr A's and supped also—after tea at Eliza's instigat[ion] I had Miss A on my knee, kissed [her]." Lister had coded only the phrase "on my knee, kissed [her]." The coded writing becomes more prevalent, eventually recording her relationships with women, her menses, and anything else about which she felt the need to hide her actions or thoughts.

I might exclaim with Virgil, In tennui labor, but I am resolved not to let my life pass without some private memorial that I may hereafter read, perhaps with a smile, when Time has frozen up the channel of those sentiments which flow so fresh now.

—Anne Lister

In time, Eliza and Anne settled into a relationship that they equated with a marriage. After they fought, Eliza wrote in code of Anne: "my husband came to me and finally a happy reunion was accomplished." This was not to last long, however, as their relationship became more distant and in 1814 Eliza was pronounced insane. Thereafter, Anne would continue to call on her each time she visited York.

On Lister's first visit to York, the cultural and economic center of northern England, she got a glimpse of a more sophisticated social world than she had known in her hometown of Halifax. She developed an affinity for this society and spent much of the rest of her life in a calculated attempt to elevate her social position, often to the detriment of people who had previously been her close friends. Lister clearly distanced herself from her parents in the process, despairing of their vulgarity and spending time with her more respectable uncles, Joseph and James Lister.

At age 19, she became acquainted with the Norcliffe family, wealthy landowners who epitomized the level of society that Lister wanted to enter. She developed a close attachment with their eldest daughter Isabella Norcliffe , with whom she began a sexual affair that lasted over a decade. Although Norcliffe entertained thoughts of becoming Lister's life-partner, it was she herself who introduced Lister to the woman who would ultimately consume the largest part of Lister's romantic attentions, Marianna Belcombe (later Marianna Lawton ). By 1814, a 23-year-old Lister had become Marianna's lover. Neither woman had an independent income, prohibiting them from even entertaining the unconventional idea of setting up a household together. Two years later, a wealthy landowner named Charles Lawton made an offer for Marianna's hand in marriage. Much to Lister's dismay, they were engaged immediately and married in 1816. As a result, Lister became very ill and wrote, "The time, the manner, of her marriage…. Oh how it broke the magic of my faith forever. How, [in] spite of love, it burst the spell that bound my very reason."

Lister's remaining brother Sam died in a boating accident during 1813 while serving in the army. It was agreed that, as the eldest remaining child, she should become the heir-presumptive to the family estate at Shibden Hall, into which she moved at the age of 24. Lister's unique appearance and (by the standards of the day) unladylike behavior apparently factored in this decision. She later commented about her uncle, "He had no high opinion of ladies—was not fond of leaving estates to females. Were I other than I am, would not leave his to me." Certain that the responsibility would one day fall to her, she became an apt student of the management of the estates.

Despite Marianna's marriage, Marianna and Anne continued their relationship, choosing to view the union with Charles as a temporary interruption that, since Charles was almost 50, would hopefully be solved by his early death. Even better, early widowhood would also leave Marianna with the economic resources needed to assure their independence. They continued to meet whenever possible over the next 12 years, during which time Lister's attitude towards their relationship ran from enthusiastic to despairing, eventually resolving itself into an understanding that Marianna was not to become the life-partner Lister so highly coveted.

In Lister's time, a romantic relationship between two women did not incur the social animosity with which same-sex relationships would later meet. In Chloe Plus Olivia, historian Lillian Faderman remarks of this earlier period: "Most men would not have felt threatened by such relationships because common wisdom had it, at various times, that well-brought-up middle- and upper-class women had no autonomous sexuality, that they were sexual only to fulfill connubial duties or for the sake of procreation, or that anything two women might do together was faute de mieux or insignificant, that without penetration by a penis nothing 'sexual' could take place." Because it was thought not to include any carnal involvement, the exalted romantic friendship between women was considered to be one of the most pure forms of love. The response to an incident which took place in 1811 involving two schoolteachers is representative of the public interpretation of such relationships. That year, the boarding house of Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie in Scotland was closed down because one student testified that they had climbed into bed with each other and made love. The mistresses sued for libel and won their suit (with a bit of circular reasoning) in part by proving their love for each other. According to Faderman's Surpassing the Love of Men, "They sought to establish that the women loved each other with great, unquestioning intensity, knowing that the judges would agree that such overwhelming love would not permit the demon of sex to wend its way in." Such was the belief that sexual congress between women could not even exist that one judge was heard to remark it more likely "that a person heard thunder playing the tune of 'God Save the King.'" These attitudes likely factored strongly in Lister's ability to fit her relationships within the context of acceptable behavior.

In 1822, Lister had occasion to pay a visit to the widely famed Ladies of Llangollen (Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby), two upper-class Irishwomen who in 1778 had dressed in semi-masculine attire and eloped together to northern Wales. Their relationship, labeled one of the "romantic friendships" so common at the time, was exalted by local press as they settled in their idyllic little cottage, Plas Newydd. They were befriended by many a contemporary luminary, and Wordsworth said of them:

Sisters in love, a love allowed to climb
Ev'n on this earth, above the reach of time.

Lister was much struck by her visit to see Sarah (Eleanor was sick at the time). She writes, "Tis the prettiest little spot I ever saw—a silken cord upon which the pears of taste are strung…. I cannot help but think that surely [their relationship] was not platonic…. I feel the infirmity of our nature & hesitate to pronounce such attachments uncemented by something more tender still than friendship."

Continuing her primary relationship with Marianna, Lister had occasional interludes with other women whom she met among her circle of friends. Halifax was growing quickly, with the existing landowning upper class gradually losing prominence to the newer wealthy industrialists. Lister despaired over this course of events, "the affairs of the town are now quite in the hands of second-rate people." In 1819, slowly resolving into the hardened Tory that she would become in her later years, she eagerly awaited all news of the growing unrest in the working classes (which would, in time, lead to the Reform Act of 1832). After reading a newspaper article decrying the need for reform, she writes, "'Rights of Women' is a curious list of authorities in support of the rights of women to take part in these reform meetings—to vote for Representatives in the house of commons &, in short, to be in every sense of the word, members of the body politic. What will not these demagogues advance, careless what absurdity or ruin they commit!" Interestingly, Lister would later record how she and a companion freely used their influence as voteless female landowners to sway the voting of their male tenants.

In 1824, Lister's life changed course in two ways. The health of her aunt and her Uncle James was failing, and she undertook more of the day-to-day management of the Shibden Hall estates. She also acted on her lifelong plan of extended foreign travel by embarking on a seven-month visit to Paris. At this point, her relationships with her two closest friends, Isabella Norcliffe and Marianna Lawton, were declining. Isabella's excessive snuff-taking and drinking alienated Lister, and Marianna's continued marriage was frustrating. Marianna had also expressed reservations at Lister's appearance and at disclosure of their unconventional relationship. Writes Lister: "It has taught me that, tho' she loves me, it is without that beautiful romance of sentiment that all my soul desires. But mine are not affections to be returned in this world." To complicate her relationships, she had previously contracted a venereal disease from Marianna (thought to be a result of her husband's adultery). Lister headed to Paris in 1824 troubled over Marianna but excited about the social opportunities her travel would provide and anxious to see if Parisian doctors could cure her permanently of her venereal complaint.

During her trip, she fostered a relationship with a 38-year-old English widow, Maria Barrow , that was to last into 1827. Prescribing such "medicines" as mercury rubbed directly on the skin, the French doctors could not cure her venereal disease. In March, she returned from Paris to her home in Shibden Hall. Dedicating herself to the successful management of the estate—which had a variety of interests, including tenant farmers, shares in the canal that carried goods to and from Halifax, and land leased for coal mining and quarrying—she drew up extensive plans of the improvements she hoped to make after her inheritance.

In January 1826, Lister's Uncle James died, leaving her the full Shibden Hall estate and all of its interests. She immediately took a firm hold on the business of running the estate, exerting stronger control than had her aging uncle. Simultaneously, she prepared for longer journeys abroad, which would make her, in effect, an absentee landlord. Over the coming years, she would realize many of her ambitions of improving Shibden Hall. Nonetheless, the income generated was barely enough to support Lister, her aunt, father, and sister, as well as her traveling and a moderate level of improvements on the estate. Lister managed the varied moneymaking interests diligently and stretched her income to its limits.

From 1826 to 1828, still maintaining relationships with both Marianna Lawton and Maria Barrow, she made an extended visit to Europe. In 1827, Lister cultivated a relationship with a Parisian widow, Madame de Rosny , eventually moving into her house as a lodger. She delighted in Madame de Rosny's acquaintance with the circle of aristocrats surrounding the king. At one point, it seems she was drawn into de Rosny's pursuit of smuggling contraband between England and France, but Lister appears to have been relieved when nothing came of it.

Returning to England in 1828, she finally severed the long relationship with Marianna, whose economic status had changed (not having provided an heir for her husband, she had no claim to his inheritance). Lister's increasing desire for social sophistication brought her to see Marianna as more provincial and a financial liability. She now wanted a life-partner who could bring money, sophistication, and preferably a title to the relationship.

Back in England, she met an increasing number of Scottish and British aristocrats through the auspices of her friend Sibella MacLean . As Lister's aspirations intensified, she was faced with the fact that her income was not generous enough to support a lifestyle comparable with that of the aristocracy. In 1832, she began to court a local young heiress named Ann Walker . Despite misgivings that they were not compatible, she encouraged Walker to move into Shibden Hall in September 1834. In 1836, Lister changed her will to leave the whole estate to Walker in the event of her death, with one caveat: if Walker were ever to marry, her claim to the estate "shall thenceforth cease … as if the said Ann Walker should have then departed this life." Walker had a history of neurotic behavior which continued into the new relationship; she was moody, sullen and prone to ailments. Lister persevered, taking Walker to doctors and encouraging her with rounds of social visits in York and beyond. Walker seemed inured to these efforts, however, and remained largely a convalescent.

Throughout Lister's life, her urge to travel had been crowned with the desire to visit the more exotic parts of the world. In 1839, despite significant reservations from Walker, the two women embarked on a trip to Russia, Turkey and Persia. They traveled for over a year, fulfilling Lister's dream. Unfortunately, the trip was not to be completed. In September 1840, in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains in Imperial Russia, Lister was bitten by a fever-carrying tick and died. The diaries she left behind detail the life of a woman whom Whitbread has described as a "trail-blazer for the emancipation of women from the mores of her day." She had lived with the notion that she was unique. Faderman notes that while quoting in her diary from Rousseau's Confessions, Lister turned his self-description on herself: "I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say that I am like no one in the whole world."

sources:

Faderman, Lillian. Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present. NY: William Morrow, 1981.

Liddington, Jill. "Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840): Her Diaries and the Historians," in History Workshop: A Journal of Socialist and Feminist Historians. Issue 35. Spring 1993, p. 45.

Whitbread, Helena, ed. I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791–1840. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1992.

——, ed. No Priest But Love: The Journals of Anne Lister from 1824–1826. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1992.

collections:

Diary, papers and memorabilia located in the Calderdale Library, England.

Scout , freelance writer, Washington, D.C.