Female Fortune: The Anne Lister Diaries, 1833–36: Land, gender and authority: New Edition 9781526164438

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Female Fortune

Anne Lister, 1791–1840

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F emale F ortune T h e A nne L ister D iar ie s , 1833–36: Land, gender and authority New Edition

Jill Liddington

Manchester University Press

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Copyright © Jill Liddington 1998, 2019, 2022 The right of Jill Liddington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First edition published 1998 by Rivers Oram Press 144 Hemingford Road, London N1 1DE This edition published 2022 by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN  978 1 5261 6441 4  hardback ISBN  978 1 5261 6442 1  paperback This edition first published 2022

Cover Image: Anne Lister (1791–1840) by Joshua Horner Typeset by New Best-set Typesetters Ltd

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Contents

List of illustrations Acknowledgements 2022 Acknowledgements Anne Lister’s Halifax 1833–36: Preface to the 2022 edition Preface to the 2019 edition Preface

main characters

vii viii ix xi xiv xv xxi

Introduction 1 The Listers of Shibden Hall 2 Anne Lister 1806–32: Diarist and Heiress 3 The Walkers of Crow Nest 4 Halifax, the West Riding and Shibden: Town meets Country 5 Neighbours: Anne Lister and Ann Walker 1832–33 Note

on the

3 15 27 41 59

Text

The Anne Lister Diaries And Other Writings I

In Token of Our Union December 1833–August 1834

83

II Coal Mining Rivalry September 1834–November 1834

110

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III The Blues and Yellows: Politics and Religion December 1834–May 1835

131

IV Dividing the Joint Property June 1835–September 1835

177

V The Yellow Carriage and the Railroad October 1835–February 1836

195

VI Poisoning the Well and Burning Devil’s Dung March 1836

208

VII The Two Wills April 1836–May 1836

225

Epilogue Afterword Afterword to 2022 edition Appendix Abbreviations Reference Notes Select References Index

235 242 252 258 259 259 293 297

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list

oF

illustrations

Frontispiece Anne Lister, 1791–1840 1 Anne Lister’s diary page, 27 March 1834

2

2 Shibden Hall (from Buildings in the Town and Parish of Halifax, drawn from Nature...by John Horner, 1835)

14

3 Crow Nest from the south west, by Stott brothers

26

4 Anne Lister’s diary page: 29 March 1834

40

5 Page of crossed letter, Ann Walker to her sister, Elizabeth Sutherland, 15 October 1834 (CN:103)

58

6 Page of letter, Captain Sutherland to Ann Walker, 18 April 183[5] (CN:103)

82

7 Draft letter page: Anne Lister to Lady Stuart, 26 May 1835 (SH:7/ML/853) 8 Shibden Hall ‘Perspective View: Garden Front’, by John Harper, 1836.

176

194

maPs and tables Halifax, and the West Riding in the 1830s Shibden Hall and Halifax in the 1830s Lister Family Tree Walker Family Tree Appendix: Key Tenancies on the Shibden Hall Estate

25 39 5 29 258 252

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A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s 2022

Many thanks to Elizabeth Fidlon at Rivers Oram Press for publishing Female Fortune so impressively back in 1998 and bringing out the 2019 edition. Also, huge thanks to Emma Brennan and Paul Clarke at MUP for expertly steering this 2022 edition though with such professional expertise. For the new Afterword about the exciting discovery of Ann Walker’s diary in October 2020, I thank Ruth Cummins and Jenny Wood at West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) Calderdale, custodians of the Anne Lister journals, for permission to quote from the diary (WYC:1525/7/1/5/1). I am also grateful to Diane Halford for this unexpected discovery; for their comments I also thank Steve Crabtree, member of staff at Shibden, and Ian Philp at Lightcliffe. More broadly, I would particularly like to thank two Anne Lister fans whose support has made a huge difference to me over the last couple of years. First is Pat Esgate in Nyack, New York, who leads the Anne Lister Birthday Week (ALBW). Pat also organized my small but highly enjoyable Female Fortune book tour in December 2019. And I especially thank Rachel Lappin, who accompanied me on this tour and has since helped me immeasurably in editing videos of my Anne Lister Zoom talks; Rachel has also supported my Calderdale Heritage Walks round Halifax and Shibden, and now leads Calderdale Cultural Destinations. Finally, as always, huge gratitude to Julian Harber—who now finds that, despite her politics, he has been sharing our house with Anne Lister for over thirty years!

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aCknoWledGements

This book has been longer in the writing than I originally envisaged, partly because the full scale and complexity of Anne Lister’s 1830s writings only emerged as I began working on the material. Along the way I have therefore accumulated a large number of debts. I would particularly like to acknowledge my gratitude to Alan Betteridge, then Calderdale District Archivist, and now co-tutor on our ‘Introducing Local History in Halifax’ course; to Derek Bridge, then Reference Librarian in Halifax Library; and to the original group of Anne Lister scholars—the late Muriel Green, Dorothy Thompson, Helena Whitbread and Cat Euler—for sharing with me early on their interest and enthusiasm. I would like to thank Carolyn Steedman, Jeffrey Weeks, Eileen Yeo and in particular Anna Davin for helping smooth what might have otherwise been a bumpy transition from my original publisher, Virago, to Rivers Oram. There I am grateful to Elizabeth Fidlon for commissioning this book; and to Katherine Bright-Holmes for her enthusiastic and professional editorial support during its successive reshapings and redraftings. I also thank Libby Tempest, Lee Comer and Gwen Goddard whose comments on early versions helped make the book more readable and accessible; Sheila Rowbotham for convincing me that there was writing after RSI; Penny Ramsden, Julian Harber, Chris Yates and Jaswant Bhavra for computer help; and Tony Jowitt,

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Geoffrey Washington, Laura Gowing and Amy Erickson who all kindly brought their historical expertise to bear on what they read. I am particularly grateful for their support throughout to my co-editors of the Anne Lister Research Directory: Ros Westwood, Museum Officer at Shibden Hall Museum, and Pat Sewell, Principle District Archivist at Calderdale Archives, and to their staff (especially Ian Thomas). I thank Pat for permission to quote from the Anne Lister diaries and other writings; and Ros for permission to reproduce the Anne Lister portrait. For permission to reproduce the maps and printed illustrations, I thank Martin Stone, Chief Librarian, Halifax. For their comments on the final draft I am grateful to Dorothy Thompson and Helena Whitbread; to John Hargreaves and Julian Harber for generously giving time to check historical points; to Martha Vicinus for extremely perceptive and supportive comments on my portrayal of a lesbian marriage; to Ros Westwood whose editing suggestions helped ensure a clearer presentation of this complex material and to Sarah Boak for proof-reading help. Over the last nine years I have used sections of the Anne Lister diaries in teaching, in articles and in conference papers. The ensuing discussions have been of tremendous value in helping me shape this densely detailed archival material into a book that preserves the sense of distance between Anne Lister’s world and our own, yet can be enjoyed not only by historians but also the general reader. It is very tempting to become so engaged in the diaries’ vivid detail that one loses sight of the broader pattern. I am greatly indebted to my friends, my students and to other historians for helping me present a picture of Anne that she herself would recognize and that others can enjoy. 2019 Edition. For comment on the new Preface, I am grateful to Lucy Bland, Anne Summers, Laura Johansen and Alison Oram. For sharing their local history knowledge, I thank John Hargreaves, Alan Betteridge and Julian Harber. Over the last twenty-one years, I remain most grateful to Caroline Lazar and Liz Fidlon at Rivers Oram Press for keeping this book in print and now commissioning a new, corrected edition.

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a n n e l i s t e r ’ s h a l i F a x 1833–36 main CharaCters

the Listers of shibden haLL Anne Lister born 1791, inherited the estate from her Uncle James, 1826 Aunt Anne Lister born 1765, James Lister’s sister Jeremy Lister born 1752, Anne Lister’s father Marian Lister born 1798, Anne Lister’s sister See also Lister family tree, p.5 the WaLkers of croW nest, LiGhtcLiffe Ann Walker born 1803, lived at Cliff-hill, Crow Nest and Lidgate, Lightcliffe Aunt Ann Walker, lived at Cliff-hill, Lightcliffe Elizabeth Sutherland (neé Walker) born 1801, sister of Ann Walker, married Captain Sutherland 1828 George Sackville Sutherland born 1831, eldest son of the Sutherlands See also Walker family tree, p.29 other reLatives of the WaLker famiLy William Priestley born 1779, Ann Walker’s cousin; with his wife lived at New House, Lightcliffe Henry Edwards, Ann Walker’s uncle, lived at Pye Nest, near Sowerby Bridge Mrs Rawson, lived at Stoney Royd, Halifax, elderly friend of Anne Lister’s and mother of Christopher Rawson, JP eldest son, lived at Hope Hall, Halifax; Lord of the Manor of Southowram, banker and freemason xi x

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Stansfield Rawson, lived in Huddersfield; his daughter, Catherine, was a close friend of Ann Walker William Henry Rawson, married to Ann Walker’s cousin Mary (née Priestley) Jeremiah Rawson, lived at the Shay, Halifax Grace Waterhouse, lived at Well-head, Halifax; married to John Waterhouse JP ProfessionaL men Robert Parker and Thomas Adam, Anne Lister’s Halifax lawyers The Rev. Musgrave, Vicar of Halifax; married to John Waterhouse’s niece Ellen Reverend Wilkinson, curate at Lightcliffe and headmaster of Heath school Mr Abbott, manufacturer in Halifax; Marian Lister’s fiancé Mr Warburton and Mr Carter, contenders for the Hipperholme schoolmastership Dr Kenny, Mr Sutherland, Mr Jubb, family doctors estate and business Samuel Washington, land steward for both Ann Walker and Anne Lister; lived at Crow Nest James Holt, coal steward Joseph Mann, master miner For key Shibden Hall tenants see Appendix p.252 anne Lister’s york circLe Mariana Lawton, married to Charles Lawton and living in Cheshire Dr Henry Stephen (Steph) Belcombe, brother of Mariana Lawton Jonathan Gray, lawyer Isabella Norcliffe, lived with her family at Langton Hall anne Lister’s aristocratic stuart circLe Lady Stuart, aunt of James Stuart Wortley, MP for Halifax John Stuart Wortley, candidate for the West Riding Lady Stuart de Rothesay, wife of the ex-ambassador to Paris Lady Vere Cameron (née Hobart) married to Donald Cameron

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illustration Permissions Portrait of Anne Lister, Shibden Hall, Halifax, by kind permission of Calderdale MBC, Leisure Services Department, Shibden Hall Shibden Hall, from Buildings in the Town and Parish of Halifax, drawn from Nature by John Horner, 1835, by kind permission of Calderdale MBC, Leisure Services Department, Libraries Division Illustrations 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 8 are by kind permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale Illustrations 2, 3 and maps are by kind permission of Calderdale MBC, Leisure Services Department, Libraries Division

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Preface

to the

2022 E d i t i o n

Since the second edition of Female Fortune was published in mid-2019, so much has dramatically changed! I wrote the 2019 Preface when just four episodes of Gentleman Jack had been broadcast in the UK. Few of us then could have predicted the global impact of Sally Wainwright’s drama series. Here, I highlight just two unforeseen developments. First, the explosions of excitement among Anne Lister fans on social media, notably Twitter and dedicated Facebook pages; Pat Esgate’s Anne Lister Birthday Week interviews on Zoom; and in 2021, a crescendo of enthusiasm for celebrating Anne Lister’s 230th birthday on 3 April, with even a Bake Off competition on Zoom. Second, the tremendous increase in the number of visitors to Halifax and to Shibden, all so very welcome. I hope that this new edition of Female Fortune will persuade more Anne Lister fans to come and visit beautiful Calderdale. This paperback edition, now along with an eBook edition, aims to make Female Fortune available to everyone, wherever you live.

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P r e F a C e t o t h e 2019 e d i t i o n : anne lister tWenty-one years on.

Female Fortune was published in 1998 to positive reviews. One judged it ‘a compelling read from beginning to end’, another ‘a triumphant piece of scholarship’.1 Re-reading the pages I wrote twenty-one years ago, I still stand by the portrait of Anne Lister I presented then. However, the context in which I write this new Preface has of course changed dramatically. In 2001, just three years after Female Fortune appeared, I met the scriptwriter Sally Wainwright. Sally had grown up near Halifax and we were introduced by a mutual friend who had given her a copy of my book. Sally was immediately hooked and we spent time working together and walking round Shibden, as Sally planned ideas for a drama. The time however was not yet right for a television series. I returned to my first love, Votes for Women history.2 And Sally went on to write a number of highly successful dramas, including Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley. Over the next decade we almost lost touch. However, Sally’s fascination with Anne Lister never left her. In 2014, I was amazed and delighted when she was the guest on Desert Island Discs and chose Female Fortune as the book to take with her. Eventually the moment was right for Sally’s drama series. She approached me again in 2016, saying she was ready to return to Anne Lister. By then she was an award-winning scriptwriter. And by then, I could give more time as historical consultant making my research available to the script team.

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Soon however, Vote 100 celebrations of the 1918 suffrage centenary loomed. I was drawn back into working on Votes for Women, and others took on the consultancy role. Yet, living just six miles from Shibden, I naturally kept an eye on how filming was going. Now, in 2019, Sally Wainwright’s dramatization, Gentleman Jack, is watched globally by millions. As I write this new Preface, four episodes have been broadcast to widespread popular enthusiasm and acclaim. Yet of course while Gentleman Jack has the widest global reach, there have been other television portrayals of Anne Lister. Notable was BBC2’s The Secret Life of Anne Lister in 2010 which starred Maxine Peake.3 And there were other milestones too. One highly significant achievement was in 2011 when Anne Lister’s diaries were recognized by the UN and included on UNESCO’s UK Memory of the World register, alongside diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. However, it is over LGBT recognition that the greatest developments have occurred. During Anne Lister’s lifetime, there was no respectable language for lesbianism (though of course, the unspoken was not the unknown). As long as she was the discreet, landowner Anne Lister—tucked away in rural Shibden, high above the prying eyes down in Halifax—she could conduct her lesbian life. And she could even ‘marry’ the wealthy heiress Ann Walker a neighbour. There was of course oblique gossip—and even harsh mockery.4 Yet it was arguably easier for a woman member of the landed gentry to live a discreetly clandestine lesbian marriage with a neighbouring heiress in the 1830s than it was decades later. Male homosexuality was then far more dangerous. (Halifax’s Liberal MP elected in both 1837 and 1841 did not stand for election again after his valet attempted to blackmail him over homosexual practices.)5 Worse followed. The 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act made male homosexual practices (sodomy) illegal.6 The law did not affect women. So why should this concern late-Victorian lesbians? Partly because the idea of a homosexual identity had begun to form; broadly this prompted a greater self-consciousness about ‘abnormal’ women as culturally unspeakable.7

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PreFaCe to the 2019 edition

Two decades passed. The Edwardian women’s suffrage movement campaigned vigorously for the vote. Eventually, in 1918, parliament granted women over the age of 30 (and men over 21) the right to vote in elections. Victory! However, in 1921 there was an attempt in Parliament to extend the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 to include women. The aim was to smear post-suffrage feminist campaigners by criminalizing lesbian sexual activity.8 MPs were fearful that now that most women had the vote, and with it increased independence, lesbianism was increasing. MPs asked: ‘will anyone’s marriage be safe?’9 In other words, ‘if their wives were to hear of this, what future for the family?’10 This amendment quickly fell. One argument for burying it was fear of making the subject public knowledge. The House of Lords held that it ‘introduced a new offence which may lead to unlooked for and evil results’, for ‘the more you advertise vice by prohibiting it the more you will increase it’.11 In other words, knowledge is emboldening.. A policy of making lesbianism unspeakable was preferable to respectable British women ever getting to know such a possibility existed. (Though of course the banning of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness [1928] did attract publicity.) This silencing of lesbian voices affected all those who edited the Anne Lister diaries and letters, right through to the 1960s. For it was not until 1967 that the Sexual Offences Act finally decriminalized male homosexual acts in private. Of course, the Act referred only to men; but (given for instance the 1921 amendment debate), it had broad liberalizing repercussions for women too. Growing up in the 1950s–60s, however, my memory is that ‘it’ was absolutely never mentioned, even after 1967.12 And indeed, in 1980 when I moved to Halifax, little was still said. The town remained traditional and conservative (small ‘c’); feminism had not yet arrived. And it was definitely was not a good place in which to be gay. Revealingly, it seems the Anne Lister editor Phyllis Ramsden destroyed some of her own research, probably including transcripts of the coded passages, shortly before her death in 1985.13 This is one reason why Helena Whitbread’s I Know My Own

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Heart (1988) had such major local impact. Anne Lister had enjoyed freedoms for women, still little dreamt of. I was then teaching a New Opportunities for Women class in Halifax itself, and my students all exclaimed: ‘We’d no idea that sort of thing went on round here! No one told us!’14 More broadly however, if 1967 was a liberalizing step forward, a backwards step followed. Under Margaret Thatcher’s government, Clause 28 in the 1988 Local Government Bill aimed to prohibit local authorities from ‘promoting’ homosexuality. Protests erupted: lesbian activists (wearing t-shirts demanding ‘Stop the Clause’) stormed the BBC News studio, as Sue Lawley was reading the Six O’Clock News. But such protests were unsuccessful, and Section 28 became law.15 Its target was mainly schools and teachers. But it also touched other areas of local authority provision—including museums. Shibden Hall museum was run and funded by Calderdale Council (of which Halifax is a part). People who visited Shibden then sometimes wondered why there was so little on the display boards about Anne Lister and her diaries. A small local authority like Calderdale, fearful of legal costs, would be prudently sparing in what it promoted. So, a silencing of lesbianism once again. Yet, more broadly in the 1990s, there was a local awareness of LGBT issues, if not as widely accepted as now.16 And of course a Local Government Act could not censor publishers; so new books included Virago’s I Know my Own Heart, Pennine Pens’ Presenting the Past and Nature’s Domain, plus of course Rivers Oram Press’s Female Fortune. Section 28 lasted for fifteen years. It was repealed in 2003; and a more tolerant and open era was ushered in—exemplified by the Civil Partnership Act (2004). And alongside that new approaches to lesbian history—and so to Anne Lister and her diaries.17 In this new Preface, we see the cultural silencing of lesbian lives: in 1885, 1921 and 1988. So the final question is: in what way was this more powerfully so in Halifax compared to London and other cosmopolitan cities? After all, this West Yorkshire town grew prosperous on its textiles and engineering industries; and even after these declined, remained fiercely proud of its

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PreFaCe to the 2019 edition

own cultural heritage. One way to illuminate Anne Lister’s local legacy is to ask: who called her ‘Gentleman Jack’—and when? The first public reference comes in Helena Whitbread’s Introduction to I Know My Own Heart (1988): ‘that her nickname amongst the inhabitants of Halifax was “Gentleman Jack” is indicative of…her masculine appearance and behaviour…’ Headline writers, always loving alliteration, pounced. The London Review of Books (1988) headed its review ‘Gentleman Jack from Halifax’. Others included BBC Radio 4’s programme, ‘Gentleman Jack from Halifax’ (1993). Now of course, Sally Wainwright’s BBC1 drama series is also entitled Gentleman Jack. As is Angela Steidele’s biography18; plus Anne Choma’s The Real Anne Lister (BBC Books 2019). Finally, the song of local folk duo O’Hooley and Tidow, inspired by Anne Lister, is likewise ‘Gentleman Jack’, heard as each televised episode ends.19 So who used this nickname—and when? You would need to spend long hard days transcribing Anne Lister’s almost indecipherable diaries before venturing an answer. Yet, despite all the researches of Helena Whitbread, myself and Cat Euler,20 who probably know the diaries better than most, none of us has found a reference to ‘Gentleman Jack’.21 It may surprise readers to learn that the only published ‘Gentleman Jack’ phrase pre-1988 is buried deep in a little-known local history, Story of the Town that Bred Us (1948) proudly celebrating Halifax Borough’s centenary. A chapter by local antiquarian W. B. Trigg contains a reference to how ‘the masculine Miss Lister, known as “Gentleman Jack”, was full of adventure’.22 So how would Trigg have come across this compelling nickname? Born in 1885, he joined the Halifax Antiquarian Society’s golden generation.23 He brought professional experience as a surveyor to his local history research and for over fifty years, Trigg wrote scholarly articles (notably on coal mining) for the Antiquarians’ Transactions. His practical knowledge of local mining meant he had met old miners on his walks and in his first ‘Halifax Coalfield’ article (1930), he recalled his vivid memories: The Halifax collier, once…an important character in old

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Yorkshire anecdotes, is now an almost extinct species of humanity. These little black men…were in many cases men of stunted growth, due to working in the very shallow seams of coal, and the precariousness of their existence below ground seemed to reflect itself in [their] light-hearted recklessness…so that in any mischief or horseplay that was afoot the colliers seemed to take a leading part. We can never know for certain: but did mischievous miners, perhaps relaxing over a pint, relate to young surveyor Trigg the story of how one mine-owner was known locally as ‘Gentleman Jack’?24 Whenever it was that elderly miners’ tongues were sufficiently loosened for Trigg to hear this tale, it seems likely, in the context of lesbianism as unspeakable, he had to wait until well after the death of John Lister of Shibden Hall in 1933, before publicly airing this controversial nickname.25 There was a local miners’ union right up to 1945, and Trigg’s article appeared in 1948, just three years before he died.26 Perhaps this tenacious oral testimony after Anne Lister’s death in 1840 was passed on to Trigg, to emerge a century later. Certainly, in a town as proudly traditional as Halifax, folk memories of local stories remained as fresh and green as if they had happened yesterday. Whatever its precise historiography, the daring nickname ‘Gentleman Jack’ is now, largely thanks to Sally Wainwright’s television drama, well-established—and even has global reach. So, given the legal changes (1885, 1921, 1988 and 2003), it may well have been easier to live a lesbian life (albeit discreetly) in rural Shibden as a member of the landed gentry in the 1830s than it was a century later. The tenacity of rich oral testimony around the ‘Gentleman Jack’ nickname, popping up publicly only in 1988, suggests how long lesbianism had remained ‘the unspoken’. Anne Lister, her class confidence inherited with her ancient acres, persuades us to look again at the possibilities of living a lesbian life 190 years ago. Jill Liddington June 2019. xx xviii

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PreFaCe

Anne Lister—scholar and writer, traveller and heiress—inherited the Shibden Hall estate in the West Riding of Yorkshire on the death of her uncle in 1826, aged 34. The Listers had owned Shibden for just over 200 years; and so Anne now joined Halifax’s small-scale gentry, becoming accepted as a respectable member of the local Anglican-Tory landed élite. But Anne Lister remains significant to us primarily as a writer—of thousands of letters, of her estate records and—especially—of the twentyseven volumes of her journals. Her daily diaries began in 1806 when she was fifteen, to record her first intimate relationship—with Eliza Raine, whom she had met at York’s fashionable Manor boarding-school.1 The journals developed, growing to their fullest and richest in the 1830s—until, by the time of her death in 1840, they ran to almost four million words. Of these roughly one-sixth is written in her private code, recording Anne’s most personal thoughts and experiences (usually about love or sex, sometimes candid asides on money). Partly because of her use of this secret cipher, Anne Lister’s writings—page after page—still possess the power constantly to shock. The record of Anne Lister’s startling candour extends not only to her most intimate lesbian relationships but also to her manipulative powers in the wider world. She combined a life of daring personal dissidence with the profoundly conservative

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social views of other local traditionalist Tory landowners. Like so many of them, she was keen to run her 400-acre estate effectively, by keeping her tenants subservient and by exploiting the industrial opportunities developing in nearby Halifax. Yet unlike them, of course, Anne Lister resolutely rejected heterosexual marriage. Instead she sought—and found—successive romantic relationships from among her extensive network of women friends. Eventually in 1834 she even contracted a ‘marriage’ with Ann Walker, a wealthy neighbouring heiress; and they lived together until Anne’s death six years later. Contemporary readers may raise a perplexed eyebrow at this rather startling mix of sexual subversion with the orthodox Lister dynasty of ancient Shibden Hall. Certainly, Anne was a remarkable and unusual woman, combining her lesbianism with the social, economic and political activity of a local landowner— and recording it all in vivid detail in her journals. But rather than just focusing on Anne Lister’s personal unusualness, this book, by presenting her mid–1830s writings, also offers an indication of what was very usual in the texture of Anne’s daily life; and a suggestion of what such independentlypropertied women could in practice then do. For the Anne Lister evidence offers the historian a unique opportunity to track in enthralling daily detail how one determined masculine woman challenged, to their very limits, many of the conventional boundaries shaped by class, gender and heterosexuality. This book disentangles Anne’s intimacy with Ann Walker and her strategy for exploiting Shibden’s economic potential; it measures how effectively friends, neighbours and relatives in Halifax were able to signal their displeasure at this unorthodox relationship and its inheritance implications. In this way the Anne Lister writings for the mid-1830s open a new and challenging picture of the provincial élite, prompting a reappraisal of social relationships at the very dawning of the Victorian era. I live near Halifax, so had visited Shibden Hall (now a museum run by the council, in beautiful grounds open to the public), and I knew of Anne Lister. I even had a hazy idea of earlier editors having worked on her writings.2 Yet I was absorbed elsewhere

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PreFaCe

and my own interest was really sparked only by the pioneering publication in 1988 of I Know My Own Heart, Helena Whitbread’s edition of the 1817–24 diaries. This finally established beyond a scintilla of doubt Anne’s lesbianism, and made the diaries accessible to a wider readership.3 I began using this book in my own teaching, a ‘New Opportunities for Women’ course in Halifax (where rather startled students commented that they ‘never knew that sort of thing went on then’), gradually including other primary material plus pages of the original diaries. The Whitbread edition caused controversy—initially over whether the diaries were fakes.4 Then in 1989 a local dayschool on Anne Lister roused my curiosity further—especially about what previous generations had left out.5 By then I was hooked. I decided to assess how earlier editors (who before the 1980s had remained silent about Anne Lister’s relationships with women) had presented their portrait of Anne. I wanted to find out who had cracked the diaries’ secret code—and when. (I was intrigued to discover that it had in fact been broken a century earlier by John Lister, Anne’s first editor and her indirect descendant, the last of the Listers to inhabit Shibden Hall.6 So distressed was he by what he read in the coded passages that apparently the diaries were put back behind panels at Shibden: from then on till his death in 1933 he never wrote another word about his notorious ancestor—though, as a scholar and antiquarian, he had decided against burning the journals.7 I wrote about these findings in Presenting the Past.) The ‘rediscovery’ in 1988 of one of the most enthralling secret diaries in the English language prompted tremendous interest. By the early 1990s it had triggered two further books of selections—from her 1824–6 diaries and from her letters,8 academic theses,9 plus considerable interest among trans-Atlantic academics. Given the lack of such courageous personal pre-Victorian testimony, lesbian readers unsurprisingly welcomed the diaries warmly, one commentator describing the rediscovery as ‘a veritable Rosetta Stone of lesbian life’. And within the current reassessment of ‘romantic friendships’ between women, Anne Lister represented, as one American literary scholar put it, a

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powerful challenge to ‘assumptions about the supposed sexual “innocence” of women in earlier centuries’, offering ‘a spectacular rebuke to the no-lesbians-before-1900 myth’.10 In Britain, fascination with Anne Lister triggered two BBC programmes: a radio feature in 1993, followed by a television programme in 1994. This drama-documentary, drawing upon Whitbread’s published selections from the 1817–26 diaries and telling of Anne’s relationship with Mariana Lawton, presented a romantic story; and the popular press response to the film sensationalized her as ‘a Yorkshire gentlewoman who led a secret life as a promiscuous lesbian, keeping a diary of her exploits in an elaborate code’.11 Many of those greatly enjoying the drama were left feeling rather bemused and bewildered: how did Anne Lister manage to achieve all that she did, and what else did she do besides love other women? Anne Lister’s writings do indeed offer a major contribution to righting the erasure of lesbians from history. But the representations emerging from this crucial recuperative work do leave her oddly decontextualized. (One writer, wrenching Anne Lister completely from her historical roots, wrote of the diaries being ‘recently unearthed in an obscure Yorkshire archive’; while another—yet more misleadingly—even suggested Anne held views ‘remarkably similar to’ a Jacobin.12) It seemed that possibly, after decades of silence and censorship, the stick was now being bent the other way. Indeed, there has been recent critique of the shining of such a narrow spotlight on sexual relationships at the expense of both lesbians’ other achievements within a homophobic context.13 Thus American historian Martha Vicinus criticises new approaches which deny ‘the historicity of all lesbian roles, and their specific meanings at different historical times....Modern sexual behavior cannot be divorced from its intersection with race, class, and other social variables’.14 So how can historians present lesbian lives as more than just ahistorical and bizarre? By then I too was feeling rather uncomfortable with some of the representations of Anne Lister as wearisomely exotic.15 There are two issues here. First, by leaving us such a wealth of extremely

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intimate detail, she perhaps remains particularly open to prurience and sensationalism, rooted in neither time nor space. Both the historian and the general reader are thus likely to miss the immense usefulness of her writings. Second, the best known years of Anne’s life remain 1817–26—until she was 34. We still know too little about the period after she inherited Shibden. Yet from 1826 Anne, effectively responsible for running the estate, began to enter the Halifax landowning élite—and the public domain.16 We still know too little about women landowners in early nineteenth century England. Yet, of course, women could—and did—own land (and they could continue those rights into marriage).17 Such women, who inherited and owned estates, shared with male landowners many—but of course not all—the rights and privileges that went with property. Particularly significantly here, land entitled owners like Anne Lister to instruct their lawyers to draw up leases that retained most of the reins of power in their hands, while placing upon their tenants a long list of responsibilities and obligations. After the 1832 Reform Act, the formal political rights enjoyed by such women may have declined relative to their enfranchised male tenants; but the power of property ensured they could now exercise very real political leverage over a larger proportion of these tenants—and this a woman like Anne Lister did do.18 But what other freedoms could such independently propertied women enjoy? Anne Lister was undoubtedly remarkable and unusual. Certainly, it is unlikely that many other women so resolutely refused every semblance of conventional heterosexuality and determinedly developed the economic potential of their estate and left hidden, waiting to be rediscovered, similarly candid diaries recording so frankly both their desires and how they pursued them.19 But historians may miss her significance in part by focusing on questions about her representativeness, about how many other women rejected heterosexual marriage, and how usual it was for a woman to run her estate so actively. Yet what Anne Lister’s 1830s writings indicate is the range of freedoms open to determined independently propertied women. They reveal the extent to which she managed to run her life very effectively and maintain her authority at home, on her estate and

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in the wider business world—while conducting a clandestine lesbian ‘marriage’. She lived her life on the sexual margins, yet largely managed to retain her social respectability within the heart of the Halifax Tory-Anglican gentry. So here I suggest that, in order for readers to be open to the full importance of the Anne Lister evidence, we need to take a new tack. This book tracks what freedoms an independently propertied woman like Anne Lister was able to enjoy in pre-Victorian England. Within what boundaries determining respectable female conduct could she enjoy her unorthodox marriage to Ann Walker; and how, and by what processes, did she do it? What was it about her specific historical context—land, gender, sexuality, language—that allowed her to push so very far up to the limits placed by law and by custom? And when she encountered local criticism and opposition, where did it come from and exactly how was it signalled? Faced with suggested censure, how did Anne manage to negotiate around so many of her would-be critics? This book examines how her masculine ‘oddity’ was perceived and represented locally, and assesses the extent to which Anne Lister’s freedom and authority sprang from her landownership, from her ancient dynastic credentials, from her gender, and—ironically—from her lesbian identity. It offers a reappraisal of Anne Lister’s significance to historians by presenting a narrative of her life in that most turbulent decade, the 1830s.20 At the end of 1833 Anne, returning home from an extended visit to Denmark, settled back into her estate and neighbourhood: Shibden, Halifax and the West Riding. Here she found herself in the eye of the industrial and political storm. Worsted manufacturing was shifting from water-power to steam-power; and Halifax, like other major industrial towns in the north, had just been transformed from having no MPs to becoming a constituency returning two Members. From then on Anne Lister was at her most politically and economically active, running her estate with entrepreneurial flair. Her life just took off—fast. At the same time, her courtship of eligible young Ann Walker, whose estate adjoined hers so very conveniently, rapidly developed into her most serious (though not most romantic) relationship, and so into a clandestine ‘marriage’.

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Her 1833–6 writings clearly reveal her twin obsessions: her determination, within Halifax’s rapid urbanization, to exploit Shibden’s own industrial potential; and her daring property and inheritance plans flowing from her ‘marriage’. Like in many other more conventional unions, Anne and Ann would squeeze every penny of profit from both estates’ mineral wealth, and each would redraft her will, bequeathing her property to the other.21 The diaries are at their fullest in this final decade: Anne wrote almost two million words during the 1830s, representing half of her total journals. As a result readers can trace day-byday—indeed almost hour-by-hour—the startling juxtaposition of Anne’s personal relationships with her economic and political activities in and around her estate, seeing how intimately entwined were her deepest desires. But the research challenge, identified in Presenting the Past, facing anyone embarking upon the vast Anne Lister writings, is sobering. (Previous editors, confronted by such a daunting mass of manuscript material, had seldom made clear what criteria they relied upon when deciding what to include and what to omit: yet the reader badly needs this information to make sense of any selection.22) Here I have relied upon the signposts left by earlier editors to help me identify a period, initially mid-1832 to mid-1837, which seemed particularly rewarding. Yet the journals alone for these five years run to almost one million words; and, drenched in arcane detail and obscure abbreviations, they remain virtually inaccessible to the general reader.23 The more I read, the more forcibly I was struck by the very real need to select a more manageable timeframe to give the Anne Lister narrative the close textual analysis it requires. I finally decided to focus on the period from her return to Shibden in December 1833 to May 1836, shortly after the death of her father—only to discover the journals alone for these key years still ran to nearly half a million words, of which about a tenth was written in code.24 Reading these two-and-a-half years in their labyrinthine detail, I often felt like an early explorer, sensing that apart from a few well-quoted passages I was still the first person to read

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them all and to read them as a continuous narrative just as Anne herself had written them.25 I was continually struck that so much of this fascinating material, buried deep within a impenetrable thicket of handwritten words, remained effectively hidden from view. The 1830s diaries had never before been fully transcribed and, though time-consuming, I began working on a transcription of key months and weeks for 1833–6.26 I was determined to rely as far as possible on a direct reading of original evidence, since there has understandably been an over-reliance on secondary sources for Anne Lister. I wanted to allow the voices of some of her critics to be heard as well, so that readers could begin to piece together the local community’s perceptions of this extraordinary woman. So I also read through, for instance, the Walker correspondence in the Crow Nest papers to see how Ann Walker’s extensive family treated Anne Lister and responded to her lesbianism. And I began to compare the version of Anne Lister she presents in her diaries with that in her account books and in her correspondence: only a careful reading—and re-reading—across these caches of documents (sometimes in a near-illegible hand) brings us as close as we can get to the complete Anne Lister. I have structured this book to offer a full critical introduction for readers who wish to place Anne Lister more firmly in her historical context: but I also have deliberately allowed maximum space for Anne’s own voice during these years. A few brave readers, impatient to read what Anne herself actually wrote, may prefer to turn straight to the ‘Note on the Text’ and ‘The Diaries and other Writings’. But most will probably want to read the Introduction first as this eases reading the often-opaque journals. By the time we meet Anne in December 1833, she was forty two. She had known most of her local friends and neighbours for years. Each relationship had a past, often a complex past. Additionally, both Anne and Shibden itself were steeped in family history. So to understand the 1830s narrative, we need to trace her steps right back—to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I want in this book to allow readers the opportunity to judge what an independently propertied woman in early nineteenth

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century England, determining upon a lesbian marriage without even the cover of a match of convenience, could do; and the extent to which she managed to silence or contain her critics, opponents and rivals. This 1833–6 narrative unfolds mainly locally: Anne is seen day-by-day within her own household, her estate, Halifax town and the surrounding West Riding countryside.27 This magnificent archive material does indeed allow us to eavesdrop on the conversations that Anne Lister conducted 160 years ago with the very people she talked to—her family and her women friends, her tenants and her lawyers, her political allies and her commercial rivals. Like the recreation of medieval French village life in Montaillou or George Eliot’s retrospective depiction of a 1830s community in Middlemarch, Anne Lister’s diaries and other writings enable us to reconstitute in detail the broad social panorama, with its tense local web of complex relationships and gossip, that was then Anne Lister’s own world.28

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Part 1

IntroductIon

Anne Lister’s diary page for 27–28 March 1834

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1

the LIsters

of

shIbden haLL

Shibden Hall was built in the early fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth century the Listers’ predecessors there had been Lords of the Manor of Halifax. Particularly after she went to live at Shibden in 1815, Anne Lister grew acutely conscious of this ancient acreage and lineage.1 And, especially after she returned from Europe in the early 1830s, she was proud to lay claim to it as ‘my own place where my family had lived between 2 & 3 centuries, I being the 15th possessor of my family and name’.2 Certainly the image that Anne sedulously cultivated was of broad and antique acres—but this reflected as much her social aspirations as her genealogy.3 She was skilled at reinventing and re-presenting herself: and she did indeed have a rich seam to mine in constructing her own dynastic identity. Yet even the briefest glance at the history of the Listers of Shibden makes it clear that it was two centuries rather than three; and that the ‘fifteen generations’ in fact took the Listers back to modest beginnings. Shibden Hall lay about half-a-mile north-east of Halifax, perched high above the town, within the rural township of Southowram. The area, falling broadly within the ancient Manor of Wakefield, remained isolated.4 The only route from Halifax to the key cities of York and Wakefield was an ancient packhorse track across the fields above Shibden. Manorial

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business papers and raw wool were carried down the precipitous hill, over the Hebble brook and into Halifax; packhorses carrying the finished woven kerseys then struggled up the steep hillside and, skirting Shibden, out into the world. Shibden Hall, with its immense oak beams, had long been associated with two powerful landowning families. In the early sixteenth century the élite Saviles—controlling the sub-manor of Southowram—lived at Shibden, its parlour ceiling boldly decorated blue with silver lacquer.5 In 1522 it passed to the cosmopolitan Waterhouse family: they effectively became Lords of the Manor of Halifax, with the right to receive tithes and to conduct manorial court business at Shibden.6 Only in 1619 did the Listers through marriage themselves acquire Shibden—by which time its status was in relative decline. The Listers from nearby Ovenden were much more modest than the grand Saviles or Waterhouses. Soon after she herself moved up to Shibden, Anne, keen to prove direct descent by confirming her pedigree, obtained a copy of the 1632 will of Samuel Lister of Shibden Hall, her great-grandfather’s great-grandfather. Samuel was a yeoman clothier working in the wool trade (plus also operating Shibden’s small coal pits).7 By the 1650s his second son, John, worked as a cloth factor, buying wool from domestic clothiers, dressing the cloth and sending it down to a London merchant. This growing commercial activity was continued by his son Samuel (1633– 1707), who bought wool further afield to sell to local clothiers. In the seventeenth century the Listers certainly operated effectively right across the growing Halifax wool trade.8 However, the eighteenth century picture is rather different. In 1702 James Lister (1673–1729), Anne’s great-grandfather, inherited Shibden. But in the process the ancient estate was—to Anne’s undoubted annoyance—split up into four portions;9 and so—despite the image of seamless stability cultivated by Anne— James’s inheritance was modest indeed.10 An apothecary, he found expenditure and expectations exceeded estate income: other Listers turned to medicine and grammar-school teaching. And already the family was dynastically fragile: of his nine sons, five died unmarried.

4

THE LISTERS OF SHIBDEN HALL FAMILY TREE Thomas Lister of Ovenden d 1606

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Samuel of Shibden Hall 1570–1632

Thomas of Shibden Hall

John of Upper Brea 1602–62 Samuel of Upper Brea 1633–1707 James of Shibden Hall 1673–1729

Children

Reverend John of Shibden Hall 1703–59

Thomas William (Vir) (Vir)

Martha m Gen Sir William Fawcett KB KCB

Jeremy of Shibden Hall 1713–88 m Anne Hall c 1722–69

Mary **

Maj Gen William Fawcett d 1823

Japhet of Northgate House

* John 1745–69

James 1748–1826 of Shibden Hall

John Lister 1847–1933

Anne 1765–1836

1) Elizabeth Lister* d 1795 2) Mary Fawcett** d 1822

John 1771–1836 of Swansea Dr John Lister 1802–67

Martha

Jeremy 1752–1836 m 1788 Rebecca Battle d 1817

Joseph 1750–1817 of Northgate House m:

John 1789

Samuel 1793–1813

John 1795–1810

Anne Lister 1791–1840 of Shibden Hall

Children

Marian 1798–1882

Jeremy 1801–2

Vir = emigrated to Virginia

* & **

5

= intermarriage

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When James himself died in 1729, the estate passed to his eldest surviving son, the Reverend John Lister—who discovered he too had to support a large number of dependents. In the 1730s Shibden Hall was even divided up, and a portion let to a tenant. Bowed by ‘this thing called poverty’, his brothers Thomas and William emigrated to Virginia in the 1730s, pinning their hopes on the tobacco trade—and buying about fifteen slaves. However neither was successful and both died young (the family of Thomas Lister returning to settle in south Wales).11 Rather, it was the development of Shibden’s industrial potential that helped supplement its limited agricultural income and rentals to keep the estate afloat: the Reverend John Lister received a monthly income from his small, primitive ‘Colepit’ and brickmaking, and from investments in new turnpike roads and a local canal. He too died unmarried; and Shibden Hall passed down through various brothers until eventually inherited by the seventh brother, Jeremy (1713–88), Anne Lister’s grandfather.12 Anne’s grandparents, Jeremy and Anne Lister, had eight children; three sons survived to adulthood—Anne’s Uncle James, her Uncle Joseph and her father Jeremy; and two daughters survived, her Aunt Martha and her beloved Aunt Anne, both remaining unmarried. However, for a better understanding of family life at Shibden when Anne Lister’s father, aunts and uncles were growing up there, we need to consider how Halifax developed in the eighteenth century. The Pennine landscape had kept the town isolated. Daniel Defoe visiting in the 1720s marvelled that ‘Hallifax Bank is so steep, so rugged, and sometimes too so slippery, that, to a town of so much business as this is, ‘tis exceeding troublesome and dangerous’.13 However during the mid-eighteenth century Halifax’s economic structure began to change, largely due to the dramatic development of a new type of cloth, introduced earlier into Yorkshire. Worsted, made from long-stapled combed wool, was much lighter and more versatile than the old wool kerseys.14 Despite requiring greater capital outlay, it offered greater profits both at home and abroad.

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the LIsters of shIbden haLL

The new generation of capitalists was no longer content with the old packhorse routes, complaining that the old HalifaxWakefield road running above Shibden had ‘become so exceedingly deep and ruinous that...many parts thereof are unpassable for waggons, carts and other wheel carriages’. So in 1741 parliament introduced the Halifax and Wakefield Turnpike Trust, with 175 elected commissioners. A new road, Old Bank (as it quickly became known), was constructed, still rising steeply and continuing just above the strategically-placed Shibden Hall. (The traditionalist Listers, though involved in the Turnpike Trust, now saw economic changes as a threat not an opportunity, appealing against the new turnpike gate at the Hebble crossing, fearful that it ‘would be fatal to me by depriving me of sale for my coals’.) Yet even this new route quickly proved impracticable for horse-drawn narrow-wheeled carts carrying coal. More ambitious plans were laid: from 1760 ‘New Bank’ crossed the Hebble higher up, at North Bridge, cutting the steep escarpment at an angle. This was the road into Halifax, still sometimes dangerous but at least accessible to wheeled vehicles, that Anne Lister grew up with.15 An even greater transport revolution soon followed. In 1768 construction began of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, following the River Calder and linking Sowerby Bridge to Wakefield and beyond. Engineering problems meant it did not reach Halifax; but from the 1790s it did provide a through waterway to the Rochdale Canal.16 Canal proprietors, drawn from members of the local élite, naturally included Jeremy Lister, Anne’s grandfather. But the Listers were decidedly not among the Halifax families who amassed sufficient capital to invest in the new worsted manufacturing opportunities, and then reaped the gleaming profits. Rather, the family’s active links with cloth had virtually lapsed—much to Anne’s relief:* The Listers were content to live on their rentals: but on such upland ground there was little *Around the 1770s Anne’s Uncle Joseph dabbled rather unsuccessfully in the cloth trade, the last Lister to do so. He kept ‘his old trade books and copies of trade letters and pattern books of cloth’, much to Anne’s embarrassment when, fifty years later, she discovered them: ‘I did not examine but burnt them all’. Trade did not fit her image of an ancient landed family.17

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opportunity for real agricultural improvements, and the technology of Shibden’s tiny coal pits remained primitive. The house itself had scarcely been improved since its glory days of the Saviles and Waterhouses. The Listers might just fall into the very bottom ranks of the local landed gentry, but if so it was where this class merged with major farmers. Indeed if the Listers remained members of the local élite, it was more due to ancient status claims than current prosperity. The Lister’s position is clear from looking at the frail family fortunes—both economically and genealogically—of Anne’s father and his brothers. As fourth son, Jeremy Lister had limited prospects: he turned to the army, fighting in the American War of Independence in the 1770s and returning wounded, with little to fall back upon other than soldiering.18 His older brother Uncle Joseph prudently married his cousin Elizabeth Lister of Northgate House, thus bringing into this branch of the family this elegant Halifax town house.19 In 1788 their father, Jeremy Lister, died. His simple two-page will followed gentry custom of primogeniture: he passed the bulk of his estate on to his eldest surviving son, Anne’s Uncle James—with just small neighbouring properties left to his two younger sons, Joseph and Jeremy; and £600 each to daughters Martha and Anne.20 Uncle James thus inherited Shibden. A quiet scholarly man, he seemed one of those many Listers disinclined to marry. However, in August 1788, Anne’s father, Jeremy, did marry. Rebecca Battle, Anne’s mother, came from near Market Weighton in the East Riding: here her family owned modest farming property. Their first son was born in July 1789—but died aged seven weeks. Anne Lister herself was born in Halifax on Sunday 3 April 1791.21 (Her father, out in Ireland with the army, rather laconically commented to his brother James at Shibden that ‘I am happy to find Mrs Lister has got her Bed of a Daughter, and with her little one is likely to do well’.22) Anne Lister’s survival of her first few months had special significance for the dynastically frail Listers. The years 1789–92, as well as tumultuous events in France and their repercussions in

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the LIsters of shIbden haLL

Britain, were a time of disease and death. The daughter of Uncle Joseph and his wife Elizabeth died aged three weeks; their son born in May 1791 died aged three months. After burying her two babies, Elizabeth herself died aged thirty-nine, just a week after Anne’s first birthday.23 In four years there had therefore been no fewer than four funerals—Anne’s two infant cousins, her brother and her aunt. Anne Lister’s survival must indeed have seemed a minor miracle. For Uncle James 1791–2 must have been sobering time. In his mid-forties and still unmarried, he was unlikely to pass the estate onto an eldest son as successive generations of Lister had attempted to do. It was an appropriate moment to reflect—and Uncle James sat down to compile a ‘Genealogy of the Lister Family of Shibden Hall’. With endearing precision he formally recorded in his own painstaking hand the family prospects as they then stood. As he wrote he must have been struck how certain phrases repeated themselves uncannily right through his narrative—for the Listers showed a marked preference for remaining unmarried; or, if marrying, for neglecting prudent local alliances; or dying without children; or for their children not surviving into adulthood. So it must have been with considerable satisfaction and relief he could add, amid the child deaths, ‘Anne Daughter of Jeremy Lister was born at Halifax on Sunday April 3d 1791, and was baptised on Monday September 12th following, she is now living.’ This baby represented the future hope of the Listers.24 Despite the economic opportunities opening in Halifax, Uncle James still entertained no ambition for expanding estate activity to generate new wealth. His map of Shibden in 1791 showed a cluster of about four dozen small fields, none larger than five acres, each with an archaically evocative name—Upper Whiskam and Wakefield Gate Field, Trough-a-Bolland Wood and Coalpit-Close.25 Overall, the picture is one of social stability, albeit rather isolated and threadbare. Shibden, perched high above the busy town, remained the old-fashioned house of Anne’s unmarried aunts and uncle. Anne admired their dignified refinement; but, unlike them, she longed to reclaim Shibden’s golden past.

9

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Talented, energetic and determinedly independent, from the earliest age Anne Lister distanced herself from her own immediate family—her improvident old-soldier father, slip-shod mother and mawkishly conventional younger sister Marian born in 1798. This detachment increased when she was sent away to school, first to Ripon and then in 1805–6 to the fashionable Manor school in York. However she remained very fond of her two surviving brothers, schoolboys Samuel and John. Amid family bickering, Sam and Anne would commiserate with each other over having ‘to be a witness to the daily disagreeables that forever beset our unfortunate family’. Their father’s army career petered out about 1806 and the family moved from the East Riding to a modest house on the outskirts of urban Halifax: Sam refered to Anne’s room as ‘your kennel’.26 Anne clearly preferred the pastoral antiquity of Shibden Hall—home of Uncle James and her beloved Aunt Anne—and the dignity of Uncle Joseph’s and Aunt Mary’s elegant Northgate House. After 1810, when Anne’s brother John fell ill and died, Anne looked to her only remaining brother—by 1813 an ensign in Ireland with the army—to revive the family fortune: You my dear Sam, are the last remaining hope and stay of an old, but lately drooping family. Seize it in its fall. Renovate its languid energies....Ah! let the well-ascended blood that trickles in your veins...prove it not degenerated from the spirit of your ancestors’.27

Together, brother and sister looked to Northgate House and Shibden Hall to reclaim their inheritance. One of the wittily affectionate letters Anne exchanged with Sam in Ireland suggests how intimately enmeshed were their ambitions; towards their aunts and uncles she urged, ‘Pray be punctual and attentive in writing to them all—this is the best way of insinuation into their good graces’.28 Yet in under two months Anne learnt of Sam’s death by drowning. She had lost her closest male friend; and Uncle James had lost the most obvious Lister to inherit the Shibden estate.

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the LIsters of shIbden haLL

Anne Lister enjoyed an unusually academic education— including geometry and astronomy, drawing, geography and heraldry.29 Even after she left the Manor school in 1806, she continued studying algebra and rhetoric, Latin and Greek with a scholarly clergyman, later Vicar of Halifax. She was also extremely ambitious to exploit whatever opportunities were available to her. The daughter of an improvident fourth son, her immediate prospects did seem limited. She was excluded by gender from advancement through the army (the route taken by her father and Sam), through the universities (like her great-uncle John), and training for the key traditional professions— the church, law and medicine (like earlier Listers who had become apothecaries). Instead, Anne looked to family inheritance as her hope: and she was increasingly taken up by her aunts and uncles—who alone could discreetly offer their talented and charming niece the financial stability she craved. She later remembered appreciatively how from 1806 ‘my uncle Joseph used to give me a £5 note at Xmas’; and from 1809 Uncle James, ‘(his income was very small) used to give me a £5 note at Xmas; & this was all I could count upon with any certainty’. Later, on a visit to Bath in 1813, ‘My 2 uncles & my aunt Anne gave me each £5. How liberally my aunt gave me afterwards.’30 (Her aunt’s generosity was never forgotten: years afterwards Anne, whose correspondence style was marked by rhetorical flourishes, wrote of ‘she who...took me on her lap the moment I was born, gave me the first food I ever tasted, lifted me within the pale of Christianity’.31) Indeed two years after Sam’s death, Aunt Anne and Uncle James actually invited their remarkable niece up to live at Shibden Hall itself. Anne, keen to distance herself from her parents and to present herself as Shibden’s newly-adoptive daughter, recorded her gratitude for the invaluable help her aunt and uncle increasingly gave towards her economic independence: ‘I did not, & could not keep any regular account of my exp[enditure] before 1815;..but, in May 1815, my father, mother, & sister...went to live...near Market Weighton; and I came to Shibden, to live with my uncle, & I lived there from that time, the spending of all that was spent on my account.’32

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Anne Lister’s almost obsessive precision about money and time is already starkly evident. She was also determined to confirm her direct dynastic descent. Once ensconced at Shibden Anne, as we know, acquired a copy of the 1632 will of Samuel Lister—from whose son John, she wrote, ‘we are descended, and in right of whom...James Lister, grandfather of the present James Lister of Shibden Hall, came into possession of the property’.33 Both Uncle Joseph and Anne’s mother died in November 1817. Rebecca Lister’s death further confirmed Anne’s separation from her immediate family—of whom only her father and sister Marian survived. Although Uncle Joseph had been Anne’s earliest benefactor, he merely left Anne ‘Twenty Pounds for Mourning’ (while his widow, Aunt Mary was, of course, left Northgate House in Halifax.34) Clearly, much of the Lister family fortune remained tied up with payments to dependent female relatives. But Anne’s inheritance ambitions grew keener: by 1819 she had broached the subject with Uncle James. ‘Talking to my uncle about making his will...I said I should wish to have all the estate here, ultimately. “What, all?” said my uncle, smiling. “Yes, all”.’35 Indeed, Anne increasingly identified herself with inherited land, writing to Aunt Anne with seductive charm: as far as place is concerned, every ambition and every wish of my heart are in the welfare of Shibden, wherein so long a series of generations we have lived with that unblemished respectability which I cannot think of without a feeling of honest pride, nor ever remember without a sentiment of deep and heartfelt gratitude to my uncle who has done so much towards its support. I am daily more and more sensible of this, and more and more anxious to shew that his kindness to, and confidence in, myself, are neither unappreciated nor undeserved.36

In spring 1822 Aunt Mary died.37 Under Uncle Joseph’s will, the key property, elegant Northgate House, now reverted to Uncle James. This prestigous town house significantly embellished the ancient though depleted Shibden estate which Anne hoped to inherit. In this way Aunt Mary’s death did enrich Anne indirectly—for Uncle James, ‘being then easy in his circumstances, 12

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promised me an allowance of £50 a year, of which he paid me the first [half] year Wednesday 10 July that year (1822), and on that day began the 1st certainty of pecuniary comfort I had ever experienced’.38 With one fewer dependent female relatives, Uncle James was now able to be generous to his impressively talented niece; unusually among the Lister family, she already showed considerable aptitude and enthusiasm for the practical business of running the estate; and he was happy to recognise this. Anne gently encouraged Uncle James to make his will. Indeed in June 1822, ‘my uncle brought down his will that he has written....Everything is secured to me except the navigation money, which will be at my aunt’s disposal’. This will was signed in August, James Lister effectively leaving his estate to his remarkable niece and leaving her free to bequeath the family property to whomever she chose. That a cautious traditionalist like Uncle James could contemplate the ancient estate going out of the family after Anne’s death indicates the great affection he had for her and the enormous trust he placed in her practical management skills. For by then he knew Anne would never marry—and had a fairly good idea why.

13

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Shibden Hall (from Buildings in the Town and Parish of Halifax, Drawn from Nature...by John Horner, 1835)

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a n n e L I s t e r 1806–32 dIarIst and heIress

Anne Lister earliest surviving diary opens in 1806 when she was fifteen years old and was living with her family on the outskirts of Halifax: ‘Monday August 11. Eliza left us. Had a letter from her on Wednesday morning....Wrote to her on Thursday 14th’. The journal clearly started as a record of the exchange of letters, gifts and visits between Anne and Eliza Raine, ‘a girl of colour’, daughter of an East India Company surgeon. Anne had shared a room with Eliza at the Manor school in York. This was probably the first of Anne’s many lesbian relationships. Eliza also kept a diary and it seems that by 1808 the two girls had together evolved a secret code in which to record their affair: this developed all the intimacy of a marriage, with Eliza referring to Anne as ‘my husband’.l Cosmopolitan York had indeed opened up a new and enticing world to Anne: new ideas, new intellectual interests, new friends—the grand Norcliffes of Langton,2 and the Belcombes, a doctor’s family in the city. Anne was ‘introduced at the Rooms’ in York in 1809, and clearly her life had by then changed for ever. (Her brother John, asking how she got on in York, commented ‘I’m afraid they have spoilt you’.3) Anne was attracted to feminine women markedly different from herself, to ‘sweet and interesting creatures’ rather than ‘learned ladies’.4 Her letters and diaries record her intense (and overlapping) lesbian relationships—first with Eliza Raine (though that lapsed in 1814, when

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Eliza was pronounced ‘insane’); then with the luckless Isabella Norcliffe; and most passionately with Mariana Belcombe. The two women became lovers in 1814 when Anne was twenty three. Yet Mariana’s calculated marriage to older wealthy landowner Charles Lawton in 1816 devastated Anne as a betrayal: Mariana had ‘sold her person to another for a carriage and a jointure’— though this was not allowed to halt their romantic and sexual relationship.5 From Helena Whitbread’s editions of the diaries 1817–26,6 we get a very strong sense of Anne Lister’s lesbian identity. She entertained neither romantic nor sexual interest in men. Though unusually talented and well-educated, as a daughter her prospects remained limited. Yet she unhesitatingly refused heterosexual marriage, the safe route for advancement taken by even Mariana; most of the women she flirted with might marry, but Anne Lister would not contemplate even the conventional figleaf of a marriage of convenience. It was this, rather than her lesbian affairs, that really marked her out. Anne held a strong belief in her own dynastic destiny and in how ‘Nature’ had shaped her own sexuality: while this might seem contradictory to some, to Anne it was certainly not. She told one of her new and well-connected friends, Sibella Maclean of Tobermory, whom Anne had met through the Belcombes in York, that: ‘When we leave nature we leave our only steady guide, and, from that moment, become inconsistant with ourselves’, adding with lofty snobbery, ‘I could not like a vulgar person. Why do I so revere the pride of ancestry? Because how rarely, how very rarely we see nobility of mind among the lowly born!’7 While with her cosmopolitan York friends she was able to be more open about her ‘oddity’, in provincial Halifax she had to be much more discreet. So how was her singularity perceived there? Now she was a Lister of Shibden Hall, her friends were increasingly drawn from the local élite: the ancient Waterhouse family; the Priestleys, old-established wool clothiers from Sowerby; and the Rawsons, newer entrepreneurs with growing manufacturing and commercial interests. How much tolerance and acceptance did they extend to Anne Lister?

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Whitbread’s I Know My Own Heart and its sequel make clear that in Halifax, among her own social circle, Anne Lister’s lesbian flirtations were well-known, tolerated and by some even admired. The local élite was in regular contact with York, through social and business links. Doyenne of Halifax town, elderly Mrs Rawson of Stoney Royd, whose eldest son Christopher was a magistrate, pointedly mentioned gossip he had picked up in York at the Assizes about Mariana and Charles Lawton’s disastrous marriage; Anne tried to look disinterested at ‘the old [story] all over again. I pretended to smile’.8 But it seems that in the youthful social partying, the enthralling Anne Lister had flirted with Christopher Rawson’s sister Ellen, now married; Ellen asked Anne, ‘very innocently, “Why did you let me marry?” “What could I do? You never asked me”’, Anne replied significantly. Anne had also been close to another Rawson sister, Emma, also recently married: ‘Brought on the subject of my own oddities of which Emma seems aware but which she does not appear to object. In fact, she thinks me agreeable and likes me’.9 Likewise a third Rawson sister, Grace, now married to John Waterhouse of Well-head, probed Anne’s most recent flirtation and obviously ‘thinks me very odd and asked if it was owing to education’. These friends tried out the names of possible suitors—John Waterhouse’s brother Samuel and one of the Priestleys—but Anne Lister refused to respond, stressing ‘how very much I preferred ladies to gentlemen’.10 There was a tolerance of sexual peccadilloes—so long as the form of conventional marriage was preserved and it produced ‘an heir and a spare’. After all, the Prince of Wales, who became George IV in 1820, had a secret marriage to Mrs Fitzherbert by whom he had various children—yet went on to marry his cousin and produce a legitimate daughter. In Regency and 1820s Halifax, sowing wild oats seemed fairly acceptable: Christopher Rawson and his married brothers flirted very openly.11 However it was Anne’s rejection of any form of conventional marriage which set her apart from these friends. She had earlier been harrassed about her masculine appearance; but as one after another of her Halifax friends married, she became the butt of anonymous but pointed baiting; a joke advertisement for a

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husband was even placed in a newspaper. Anne loftily fixed her social gaze well above such annoyances: ‘One can hardly carry oneself too high or keep people at too great a distance’.12 By then Anne Lister had already spent a month in Paris, whetting her appetite for further European travel. She rather cut herself off from ‘vulgar’ Halifax society; yet she did develop a friendship with the Priestleys of New House, Lightcliffe. She shared a keen interest in music with William Priestley, founder of the Halifax Choral Society; and his wife became a close confidante, telling Anne she believed she should never marry. Anne replied optimistically about her expectations: [I] might still have rank, fortune and talent, a title and several thousand a year....But I refused from principle...‘I have chosen already....It is a lady and my mind has been made up these fifteen years’...but said I never mentioned this to anyone but my uncle and aunt...I wonder what Mrs Priestley thought. She will not forget and, I think, was rather taken by surprise.

Mrs Priestley did not forget, remaining one of Anne’s loyal defenders: Speaking of my oddity, Mrs Priestley said she always told people I was natural, but she thought nature was in an odd freak when she made me....She herself is proud of being thought a friend of mine and I now have certainly made up my mind, I think forever, to like her better than anyone else here.13

But Anne dared not now confide in neighbours other than Mrs Priestley. Exactly how much Uncle James and Aunt Anne knew about the nature of their favourite niece’s homosexuality is unclear; certainly they knew of her affectionate friendship with Mariana Lawton, Isabella Norcliffe and other women; and they can have been under under no illusion that she would ever marry. When a Parisian lover asked what Aunt Anne thought, Anne replied revealingly ‘She and my friends are all in a mist about it’. Uncle James was probably less misted than his sister.14 In that sense,

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Uncle James knew that making Anne his heiress would at least protect the estate from unscrupulous fortune-hunters. He had, Anne explained, ‘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’.15 Emboldened by these prospects, Anne wrote in her diary in June 1822: talking, after supper, to my uncle and aunt about M-[Mariana]. One thing led to another till I said plainly...that I hoped she would one day be in the Blue Room, that is, live with me....My uncle, as usual, said little or nothing but seemed well enough satisfied. My aunt talked, appearing not at all surprised, saying she always thought it [Mariana’s marriage] a match of convenience.16

Neither relative seemed too perturbed; Anne could still talk of how she ‘had the expectation of succeeding my uncle’. Perhaps he hoped that Anne’s attachment to Mariana was just a passing phase, to be modifed later by her longer-term dynastic considerations. A few weeks later, in preparation for another trip to France, Anne ‘went downstairs and staid with my uncle and aunt till near 9. They both witnessed my will in favour of M–. My aunt very low. My uncle carried it off better than I expected’. Was this lowness because they would miss her, or also because they recognised that on Anne’s death Shibden would probably go out of the family—to a woman they hardly knew?17 At least Uncle James knew Anne Lister was there to stay and would rebuff heiress-seeking suitors; it seems he preferred this to the other inheritance options open to him. (Yet it is still surprising that Uncle James did not formally settle the estate: he could then have introduced crucial legal safeguards, notably appointing trustees, usually male relatives or family friends, and leave Anne just a life interest so that Shibden reverted back after her death to a male relative, perhaps the distant Lister relatives in Swansea.18) Despite her travels, old-fashioned Shibden remained her home, with Uncle James and Aunt Anne her adoptive parents. Both uncle and niece remained uninterested in trade. Keen to present herself as unconnected with such things, she wrote to one of her

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cosmopolitan York friends: ‘I cannot help congratulating myself that, in a part of the country so engrossed by commerce, I have not even a distant connection at the mercy of its vicissitudes’.19 Uncle James continued to run the estate traditionally: despite the steam-powered cotton mills now reaching Halifax, he still leased in customary manner the right to strip coal from the upper part of the estate. Anne tried to protect her gentle uncle from the West Riding’s commercial bustle. She wrote anxiously from Paris about plans to cut a new road below Shibden which would have involved him in vexatious turnpike meetings with new commercial families pushing for such improvements: ‘The public business of our neighbourhood is changing...; men and things are equally new; and I had rather have my uncle sitting quietly by his own fireside...I am glad he did not dine with the people’.20 In this battle between old and new within the local élite, few irked Anne more than the entrepreneurial Rawson men. The eldest brother, Christopher Rawson of Hope Hall, particularly needled her. A colourful character who had run away to sea, he returned to become the leading local banker, Deputy Lieutenant and county magistrate. Along with these public offices which might rightly be due to the heir of Shibden, he had purchased for himself the medieval trappings of the Lordship of the Manor of Southowram (and Uncle James attended his ‘Manorial Court, held at the Chequer Inn, Southowram’).21 Christopher Rawson did indeed become treasurer for the new turnpike road from Leeds: but the trustees had to woo the strategically-placed Listers and so were keen ‘to oblige my Uncle as far as they could’, and in face of Lister stubborness country managed to delay town. (Only eventually was the road made: Anne, by then far more active than her elderly uncle, wrote to a friend: ‘We are, therefore, cutting down hills, and making a raised way across a valley...my uncle is not able to stir out beyond the garden...I am the plotter, and planner, and superintendant...my time is completely given up to workmen’.)22 Uncle James died in January 1826. Anne, rather than her father, took charge of the formal arrangements:

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anne LIster 1806–32

The corpse was ready for us to see & I took my father into the room...I read out aloud the will. No one uttered a word.... Ordered mourning....The funeral to be tomorrow week. 8 tenants to be bearers....Felt frightened to think I could think, at such a moment, of temporal gains—that I was now sure of the estate. ‘Are others,’ said I, ‘thus wicked?’ and knelt down & said my prayers....He was the best of uncles to me...I shed a tear or two when my father and Marian came and stopt once in reading the will...Lord, have mercy on me.23

Anne Lister now effectively inherited Shibden, as she had known she would. The key provision of Uncle James’ simple will was clear: I give devise and bequeath all and every my real and personal Estates whatsoever and wherever...to my Niece Anne Lister her Heirs, Executors, Administrators and Assigns absolutely for ever. And I hereby appoint her, the said Anne Lister my Niece the sole Executrix of this my Will, not doubting she will see the same carefully performed.24

However, Uncle James also gave Anne’s father Jeremy and Aunt Anne the use of Shibden Hall and the right each to receive one third of the rents. Effectively therefore, while they both lived, the estate income was divided into three (possibly Uncle James’ brake on any romantic extravagances by his wilful niece; but this was the only brake—and a fairly temporary one at that). Aunt Anne also received income from the Calder and Hebble Navigation investment—which Anne was surprised to discover was extremely valuable.25 Anne also arranged her uncle’s burial in Halifax Parish Church: The funeral procession left the house at 11. The hearse was preceeded by 4 mutes [funeral attendants]...and followed by my father and I in the mourning coach and five men-servants as mourners....Our burying place is in the south chapel, at the west end, next to the constable’s pew.26

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Anne Lister wanted to set the estate on a more efficient footing now. But her unbusinesslike father—and so younger sister Marian—were also entitled to live at Shibden Hall. Anne and her devoted aunt both found Marian, now aged twenty eight, irksomely plaintive. (Marian complained to Isabella Norcliffe that she ‘should like to go to the Assemblies here, with Mr Rawson, for instance, but I [Anne] did not wish it....My aunt was my echo...I explained...all I had, I owed to myself. Marian... had not the nous’.27) Anne felt restless, her desires unfulfilled: she confided in Mrs Priestley that her remaining at Shibden ‘was uncertain & would be till I could settle, which would not be till I had some friend ready to settle with me. Wished I had one now.’28 In the absence of such a life-partner she would visit France, delegating the responsibility for running the estate to ‘my steward Mr James Briggs’ at £20 a year, and to ‘James Holt as my agent for the collieries’ at £3 a year. Later that year Anne returned to France with her aunt and Mariana Lawton.29 With only brief visits back to Shibden, Anne remained abroad for much of the next few years. Her affair with Mariana increasingly paled: it offered neither the sophistication nor wealth Anne yearned for. For now, through Sibella MacLean, Anne was introduced into a new and aristocratic social world, escorting to Paris young Vere Hobart, Sibella’s niece, and so meeting Vere’s great-aunt, elderly Lady Stuart.30 Anne had a genuine affection and respect for older women—such as her aunt, Mrs Norcliffe or Mrs Rawson; and aristocratic connections, however, minor, were exactly what she craved. Lady Stuart introduced Anne to her daughter-in-law, Lady Stuart de Rothesay—whose husband was then ambassador in Paris. Anne Lister, humbly grateful for entré into ambassadorial circles, wrote to Lady Stuart with gushing appreciation: ‘You know not the pleasure I have in doing anything in the world I fancy you would like. Obliged and flattered by your so high opinion.’31 Through Lady Stuart, Anne Lister was introduced into élite county and national Tory circles, far beyond the local township politics of her uncle or father. In France in 1830, she became drawn into the world of loyalist high politics while seeking refuge

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from the revolutionary events in Paris with Lady Stuart de Rothesay and her children. This strategic friendship with the Stuarts, coupled with Anne’s new status as a landowner, hardened her conservative politics into unflinching support for the Protestant Tory interest. Anne, long interested in following the fortunes of the ‘Blues’, now became acquainted with Lady Stuart’s nephew, the Honorable James Stuart Wortley, a rising regional star in the traditionalist Tory firmament.32 This political activity suited Anne doubly: it helped protect her interests as a property-owner; and she hoped it would help strengthen the esteem in which Yorkshire’s county gentry and minor aristocracy might now hold her. However the years 1830–32 were sobering for Anne Lister. She could not forget that she lacked both a life-partner and serious money. Travelling to Holland with Mariana, Anne found her increasingly provincial, and their relationship dwindled to little more than friendship.33 Sibella MacLean died. Another friend of Lady Stuart’s, Lady Gordon, with whom Anne flirted, talked symbolically of their wintering together in Rome—but nothing came of this.34 Anne Lister actually set up house in Hastings with Vere Hobart in 1831, but she found Vere’s male suitors (and her own lack of money) depressing: then in 1832 Vere too married, becoming Lady Cameron.35 Anne Lister felt her options shrinking. Restlessly, she contemplated writing poetry or ‘to go to Italy and write something with references to the classics—not to look at a book on the subject till I have written my own’.*36 Her grand new friends owned estates five or ten times the size of Shibden: in despair, she even toyed with the notion of ‘my marrying for rank some old peer of seventy’.37 But unlike Mariana and other women who wedded cynically, Anne still decidedly and courageously rejected a marriage of convenience. Other than as wise mentors or as practical men with whom she could do business, she had scant affection for men. She was not prepared to compromise with a tawdry marriage merely to secure respectability and produce an heir to inherit Shibden. Letters exchanged with James Briggs and with Marian kept * Coded passages are distinguished throughout by italics.

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her abreast of estate affairs. But Anne felt lonely. She had intermittently redrafted her will (in favour of her sister, her aunt, Mariana or the Welsh Listers in various combinations38); and early in 1832 she drafted a short will, still rather indecisively, promising Mariana that on certain conditions she might ‘leave her a contingent life interest in the estate’.39 Then in May 1832, Anne Lister returned home to Shibden. An independent woman of modest property, she remained conscious that her income was sadly inadequate for the elegant lifestyle she desired. However attached she was to her aunt and to her estate, she did not relish sharing Shibden with her father and sister—and wrote confidingly to Mariana: The thought of exile from poor Shibden always makes me melancholy. Come what may, I have been happier here than anywhere else....Providence ordains all things wisely....I am attached to my own people—they are accustomed to my oddities, are kind, are civilised to me....But...a great deal will, & must, depend on that someone known or unknown, whom I still hope for as the comfort of my evening hour.40

Anne Lister was long practised in shaping her letters to fit the recipient; but this was Anne at her most disingenuous. For she had already met ‘that someone’ who might provide her with much of what her new sophisticated friends had failed to do: a marriage in every possible sense of the word. Ann Walker, a neighbouring heiress whose estate adjoined Shibden, was a young single woman of considerable fortune.

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Halifax, Shibden and Lightcliffe, based on Myers’ Map of the Parish of Halifax 1834–35. Map design by Paul Grove.

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Crow Nest from the south west, by Stott brothers

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3

the WaLkers

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If old-fashioned Shibden Hall, little changed since its sixteenthcentury heyday, evoked the old manorial past, then Halifax’s classical Georgian architecture conjured up the rising mercantile and manufacturing élite. Few local families epitomised this new commercial self-confidence more acutely than the Walkers. Ann Walker, born in 1803, grew up in one such house, visiting her relatives in others. The key architect was John Carr of York, whose magnificent mansions included Harewood House near Leeds and Wentworth Woodhouse near Sheffield. His designs for the upland Halifax area, with its smaller-scale land-holdings, were of course less grandiose. Nevertheless in the 1760s and 1770s Carr changed the entire living style of the new élite: Ann Walker’s mother’s family, the Edwards of Pye Nest; her aunt’s family, the Priestleys; her cousin’s family, the banking Rawsons. And Carr’s classical Georgian elegance naturally spawned local imitators—like Thomas Bradley who in 1788 designed Ann’s Walker grandparents’ own house, Crow Nest in Lightcliffe.1 This new formal architecture, with its separate servants’ quarters, suggested an increasingly exclusive social world.2 Screened even further out of sight were the warehouses, counting houses and mills; yet it was these that generated the new wealth to pay for the Carr and Bradley designs. So when Ann Walker chanced in 1830 to inherit half the family fortune, she became—by Halifax standards—an heiress of some substance. Her property

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was of course insignificant compared to the great landed heiresses elsewhere; but within the West Riding Pennines, Ann Walker’s new inheritance did indeed represent a considerable female fortune. We know little about Ann Walker’s ancestors compared with the well-documented Listers. Such Walker papers that survived (and oddly, few of them have) appear to have been weeded of many more personal family records. What we do know is that Ann’s great-great-grandfather, William Walker (c.1665–1714), came down from Southowram to the more richly rolling lowland of Crow Nest. He was a wool stapler (wool merchant); the family was comfortable rather than wealthy: his son married a local merchant’s daughter, leaving in his will silver spoons and tankards. But it was the following generation, a third William Walker (1713–86)—Ann’s grandfather—who was best placed energetically to exploit the new opportunities. By 1750 Halifax had become the most important worsted manufacturing centre in the West Riding, symbolised by the magnificent Piece Hall, opened in 1779. William was a manufacturer of worsted goods. (An increasingly fashion-conscious market demanded larger capital resources, so it was often those substantial merchants with access to considerable capital who became successful worsted manufacturers, so controlling the whole entrepreneurial process.3) He also made a prudent marriage—to the daughter of the wealthy merchant who owned valuable land in central Halifax. This alliance helped consolidate the Walkers’ position within the newly enriched commercial élite.4 William Walker himself also seems to have operated as a merchant: he made a remarkable journey in 1775 through the Baltic to Russia—buying timber there to rebuild in Bradley’s new grand style the family farmhouse, Crow Nest—and to build a new house nearby, Cliff Hill. This valuable wood was transported along the new Aire and Calder Navigation to Brighouse, and then by waggon up to the Walker estate which William was then extending. His new affluence was also marked by acquiring those symbolic male appointments of gentry status

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the WaLkers of croW nest: famILy tree c. 1665–1854

Richard

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William c1665–1714 Marsh & Crow Nest William b c1689

William m 1) Mary Wainhouse 1713–86 2) Elizabeth Caygill m 1746

Mary

William 1749–1809

William Priestley b 1770 m Eliza Paley

Ann John 1753–1823 m (1795) Mary Edwards

Elizabeth m John Priestley

Caroline Walker

Mary m W H Rawson

Elizabeth 1801–44 m (1828) George Sutherland

Mary b 1829

Elizabeth b 1832

George Sackville b 1831

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Ann 1803–54

John 1804–30 m Fanny Penfold

John 1834–6 Evan Charles b 1835

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within the county: Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant. Equally significant, strategic marriages helped make the Walkers’ brand new ‘worsted’ wealth more acceptable to older ‘wool’ families. Thus William’s daughter Elizabeth—Ann Walker’s aunt—married into the prosperous Priestley family of Sowerby, clothiers who had invested their money in canal shares, silver, books and scientific instruments.5 Ann Walker’s grandfather died in 1786 and his will confirms him as a substantial capitalist. Unlike earlier Listers, he avoided dividing up the estate, preferring the gentry custom of keeping the core estate intact for the eldest son (primogeniture), with daughters inheriting some capital. So the elder son, Ann’s Uncle William, inherited the bulk of the Crow Nest estate (now enlarged to include properties in Huddersfield and elsewhere). His younger son John Walker (1753–1823), Ann’s father, received various smaller outlying properties; while his three daughters—Mary, Elizabeth and Ann—inherited capital, six times as much as Anne Lister’s grandfather was able to leave his daughters.6 Ann’s Uncle William of Crow Nest also acquired the key masculine honours of J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant. A wealthy man, he not only issued his own banknotes but also had sufficient capital to back them. He remained unmarried. However in 1795 his younger brother John, Ann’s father, married Mary, daughter of John and Elizabeth Edwards of elegant Pye Nest. John Edwards was a successful woollen manufacturer, making heavy goods like blankets and baizes.7 (And later Mary Priestley, Ann Walker’s older cousin, married William Henry, one of Christopher Rawson’s brothers.) By such strategic marriages, the Walkers embedded themselves tightly into the dense kinship network of the mercantile-manufacturing families owning land either side of Halifax: the Priestleys, Edwards and Rawsons. These marriages ensured that Ann Walker, unlike Anne Lister, grew up surrounded by powerfully interconnected relations— and this was to have a profound influence upon her life as it unfolded.8 Three of John and Mary Walker’s children survived into adulthood: Elizabeth born 1801, Ann herself who was born May

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1803, and their younger brother John born in 1804. Then in 1809 Uncle William died. The terms of his father’s will provided that, if William ‘shall happen to die without Issue, in the lifetime of my Son John, I give the said real and personal Estates so given to my said Son William, unto my said Son John for ever’.9 Overnight therefore Ann’s father inherited the family estate, and property that William himself had acquired, plus money, silver and the furniture in Crow Nest including ‘the Circular Chamber and the Counting House’.10 So when she was six years old, Ann’s family fortunes suddenly altered. The Walkers moved into elegant Crow Nest—with its spacious hot-houses and long carriage drive through rolling country parkland. Here Ann spent her childhood. But personal records and letters that might give us a glimpse of Walker family life over the next two decades remain scanty; for instance, we know little about Ann’s relationship with her parents or about her education. However from other records—especially Anne Lister’s early diaries—we can at least begin to see how the neighbouring Listers viewed the Walker family. Especially after she moved up to Shibden, Anne Lister was— with Uncle James and Aunt Anne—on calling terms with William Priestley and his wife, and so with his Walker cousins at nearby Crow Nest: Anne Lister commented in one letter how, among ‘our most respectable merchants, I may mention Mr Walker of Crow Nest and Mr Priestley of Lightcliffe’.11 Anne occasionally visited Ann and Elizabeth Walker, and once ‘half promised to go and drink tea some time in a free way as I do’ with the Priestleys—but nothing much came of this. Ann’s father had a reputation in Halifax for commercial aggression and ‘his great fondness for money made him indifferent to bienseance’ (decorum).12 So when the two Walker girls, their mother, coachman and footman, were rescued after their carriage overturned nearby, they were naturally offered a glass of wine at Shibden, plus cloaks and a lantern—but no further friendship developed. Compared to the cultured Priestleys Anne Lister found the nouveaux riches Walkers of little interest: their hothouses and footmen could never disguise the vulgar taint of trade.13

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Indeed, during the 1820s Anne Lister’s relationship with Crow Nest remained arm’s-length compared to her growing friendship with the Priestleys. Keen to learn as much as she could about estate management, she depended upon William Priestley’s opinions about property: she asked him to look over a farm with her and both agreed that 70 Days’ Work* was ‘too much for this neighbourhood. 30 days’ work is enough, where people ought to have some trade and take land for convenience’; Anne also soaked up his views on the local coal trade and the likely rise in navigation shares once a canal extension reached Halifax.14 And her confiding intimacy with his wife led to Anne’s being shown round Mrs Priestley’s store-room and learning of her housekeeping method ‘excellently adapted to the gentlewomanly management of their present income, five hundred a year’.15 There was little reason to talk with Mr Walker about land or with Mrs Walker about housekeeping: Anne Lister expected local people just to know that at Shibden ‘we never visited new people’.16 Ann Walker seldom figured strongly in all this. Just once, in 1821, Anne noted: In the afternoon, at 51/4, walked along the new road & got past Pump when Miss Ann Walker of Crow-nest overtook me, having run herself almost out of breath. Walked with her as far as the Lidget entrance to their grounds & got home at 6.40. Made myself, as I fancied, very agreeable & was particularly civil & attentive in my manner. I really think the girl is flattered by it & likes me. She wishes me to drink tea with them....After parting I could not help smiling to myself & saying the flirting with this girl has done me good. It is heavy work to live without women’s society & I would far rather while away an hour with this girl, who has nothing in the world to boast but good humour, than not flirt at all.17

This ‘good humour’ was not always so available. Although there is little surviving evidence about Ann Walker’s feelings then, we do know (from a tantalisingly brief coded reference later in Anne * Land was then measured in Days’ Work, abbreviated by Anne to ‘DW’; it represented roughly two-thirds of an acre.

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Lister’s diary) that apparently around 1820 Ann became ill, prompting a religious melancholy and ‘a gradual tendency to mental derangement’.18 Exactly the nature of her illness—how much was physical, how much psychological, and how much religious guilt—remains unclear. This absence of evidence is particularly marked for 1823 when Ann was nineteen: first her father died, followed shortly afterwards by her mother. Anne Lister records how, with her aunt and uncle, she paid condolence calls to Crow Nest and the Priestleys: but she says little about reticent Ann Walker and we do not know her reaction.19 Yet within months Ann—along with her elder sister Elizabeth and younger brother John, who had been sent to Oxford University—had lost both parents. We can only guess at the effect on a shy nineteen-yearold. Their father’s will was read: its terms greatly affected Ann Walker—and so this narrative; and it is worth pausing to examine its significance more closely. The wills discussed so far have been fairly short and simple. However John Walker, leaving goods valued at £30,000,* had decided to settle the Crow Nest estate. With strict settlement, inheritance was entailed upon (i.e., restricted to) certain named successors, customarily eldest sons—who became life tenants, holding the property merely during their lifetime; trustees, often older male relatives, were appointed with legal powers to administer the trust. So a settlement—usually a will—could specify male heirs over nearer female relatives for several generations. Settlement and entail were complex and cumbersome, and it was stated in Parliament that ‘there were not above six persons who understood the laws of real property’.20 Jane Austen was someone who did understand the implications perfectly—even if, in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Bennet failed to appreciate how her husband could defend the rights of his cousin, the odious Mr Collins (‘“Who, when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases”’) over the claims of her five young daughters—for ‘“I am sure if I had been you, I should have tried * This represents the upper limit of a testator’s personal estate—usually money; and more broadly moveable property including stocks and leases.

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long ago to do something or other about it”’.21 That there was nothing Mr Bennet could do about it was, of course, the whole point of strict settlement: preserving the family estate prevailed over protecting individual interests, while still providing for dependents. Breaking entail was possible, but legally cumbersome. By the nineteenth century, perhaps almost half the land in England was settled in this way: John Walker had decided to follow the custom of the aristocracy and greater gentry and to do likewise.22 His will was forty-eight large pages of dense legalese and followed customary strict settlement form. He entailed his key properties upon his son John, appointing as trustees his brother-in-law Henry Edwards of Pye Nest and his nephew and neighbour William Priestley. At the same time he took extraordinarily good care of both Ann and Elizabeth. Each daughter inherited valuable canal stock, plus capital, to be paid to them annually once they reached the age of twenty one. Like other protective fathers suspicious of fortune-seeking husbands, he also went to lengths to ensure each daughter’s property was for her ‘sole and separate use’ against ‘any person or persons with whom she may intermarry’.23 Ann’s brother John duly inherited the Crow Nest estate of over 500 valuable acres. He enjoyed playing the young squire and in 1825 gave a fashionable coming-of-age ball at which ‘quadrilles are quite the rage at present’; but he let buildings fall into disrepair (and he and his gamekeeper ‘bought much game of Kirklees poachers that were transported’).24 Both Elizabeth and Ann were indeed now highly marriageable heiresses; but despite their father’s best endeavours to provide legal safeguards, both experienced the tribulations which contemporary novelists depicted as ensnaring wealthy young women.25 Their father had tried to guard against unscrupulous suitors; but by 1828 Elizabeth secretly planned to marry a Captain Sutherland of the 92nd Highlanders. This relationship was to trigger a cache of litigious correspondence which, more than any other personal Walker papers, has survived the intervening years. So was Captain Sutherland an unscrupulous suitor? Uncle Henry Edwards, a trustee, certainly thought so. Even

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the WaLkers of croW nest

before the wedding he grimly warned Elizabeth that the engagement had become ‘the Common Topic of Conversation in this Neighbourhood’, and advised her to secure her personal property on herself and her children; he noted ‘I am truly sorry to learn Captain S– has no fortune’, adding ‘Captain S– is a perfect stranger to us’. He grew yet more anxious when Sutherland apparently tried to persuade Elizabeth to do away with her trustees—who were of course empowered to protect her property against just such wily suitors.26 It was just at this point that Anne Lister coincidentally returned to Shibden from a visit to Scotland; she walked briskly up to Lightcliffe for a long landowners’ talk about turnpike roads and tree planting with William Priestley—then caught up on neighbourhood news with his wife: 30 August 1828 Sent my kind remembrances by Mrs Priestley to the Misses Walkers of Crow Nest, & that it would give me always great pleasure to see them, and I should have been most happy to call, but their brother had not called on my father and therefore I felt an awkwardness about doing it. Mr Sutherland’s family once of property—now none—11 brothers and sisters—live in Inverness....It seems this match is to be, and Miss [i.e. aunt] W– is indeed to have Miss Fanny Penfold [as a companion]. Young Miss Ann Walker’s illness too likely to be insanity—her mind warped on religion—she thinks she cannot live—has led a wicked life etc. Had something of this sort of thing occasioned by illness at seventeen, but slighter—the illness seems to be in fact a gradual tendency to mental derangement.*

Anne Lister’s matter-of-fact coded entry in her diary confirms she had no more interest in Ann Walker beyond routine neighbourhood news. Uncle Henry Edwards, also concerned about Ann’s health, was keen she should go on a European trip, ‘believing as I do that it might not only re-establish her bodily Health, but relieve her Mind, which appears to be so seriously affected’.28 However despite Uncle Henry’s fears about fortune-hunters, in November 1828 Elizabeth Walker married Captain Sutherland. Anne Lister visited and ate ‘bridescake’; and later * Coded passages are here distinguished by italics.27

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on, meeting at Lightcliffe Church, she was taken in Aunt Walker’s carriage (with her niece Ann, recovered from her illness but who ‘had not been at church since this day year’) to visit Crow Nest: here Anne Lister pronounced Captain Sutherland, who dropped vague but plausible allusions to aristocratic links and Scottish wealth, ‘better in appearance and manners than I expected’. About a year later, Ann Walker’s brother John, still inefficiently running the lucrative Walker estate, also married—and set off for Italy with his bride, his aunt’s companion Fanny Penfold.29 Then, in January 1830, as in a plot of a melodramatic Brontë novel, an unforeseen yet highly significant event took place. John Walker died on his honeymoon in Naples. The news took weeks to get back. Anne Lister in Paris eventually heard from Marian how ‘the shock to his family has been great and distressing particularly to poor Miss Walker, his sister; everyone of course has felt for his widow, she & her friend have not yet arrived in England....The Sutherlands are still in Scotland....There does not seem to be any probability of a son and heir’—though they now had a daughter, Mary.30 However, the relatives saw matters more keenly than naive Marian. John Walker had died intestate. His considerable personal estate was valued at no less than £45,000; (the bulk of the real estate was of course already entailed). The family therefore turned to subsidiary but crucial clauses in their father’s will: these spelled out that ‘immediately after the decease of my said Son John To the use of the first Son of the body of my said Son lawfully to be begotten....’31 Indeed, it soon transpired that Fanny, the bereaved bride, now travelling back from Rome, was pregnant. The family pursued her with chilling vigour, fearful her child would inherit. Ann Walker even went down to Dover to meet her. But in October ‘Mrs Walker was delivered of a Still Born child’.32 The family turned back once again to sharp-eyed will-reading. Tragic Fanny, widowed and childless, now forfeited her inheritance rights—for her father-in-law’s will also protected the estate against the claims of importunate widows:

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for default or failure of such issue [of John] Then as to for and concerning all that my said Capital Mansion house called Crownest...and lands....To the use of my daughter Elizabeth Walker....And as to for and concerning all those my said Messuages called Upper and Lower Cliffhill...and all such other of my lands....To the use of my said daughter Ann...33

Fanny’s brother was aghast at the Walkers’ want of ‘delicacy of feeling’ in their ill-disguised keeness to rid themselves of Fanny. In desperation, he visited Crow Nest—‘for the ostensible purpose of searching for a Will. None was found’—and took all desk keys, much to Ann Walker’s fury. Captain Sutherland urgently consulted with his lawyers to reassure himself that the widow could not prevent Elizabeth from becoming a coheiress— especially as she was now pregnant again.34 Certainly, the Captain seemed particularly alert to consolidate his new and unexpected gains. In 1831 he somehow persuaded his heavily pregnant wife to sign a deed which, despite all Uncle Henry’s warnings, placed all ‘the property coming to you, as one of the Coheiresses of your Brother, at the complete Disposal of Captain Sutherland.’35 By the time their son Sackville was born, therefore, the entire family was rent by bitter feuding—between the Penfold clan; the Priestleys and Edwards, as trustees of the estate; and the immediate Walker family—Ann, her sister and aunt—urged on by Captain Sutherland.36 What had begun as a family dispute, stirred by their various lawyers, how spilled over into something rather more public. Certainly Anne Lister, back home briefly after visiting Holland with Mariana, was soon discussing with the civilised Priestleys how: the Sutherlands and Miss Walker and the Priestleys are all queer together— probably because the latter advised some little handsome things (all but little matters [are to be] settled by law) to [go to] the widow, and Mrs Priestley will call on her. The property is between three or four thousand a year to each of the two sisters. Miss Walker junior has just bought all the Smithhouse...estate near Cliff-hill.37

Anne Lister told her aunt ‘what had passed at Lightcliffe’—and then thought no more of it. 37

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Sackville Sutherland was safely in line to inherit Elizabeth’s Crow Nest share of the entailed estate. Indeed, if Ann had no children, he would receive her Cliff-hill share as well: innumerable farming tenancies in the Shibden Valley and elsewhere, plus a Halifax mill and various small coal mines. By then Elizabeth was pregnant yet again and, anxious about childhood illnesses amid a cholera scare, seemed genuinely protective of her shy and troubled younger sister. There still seemed little immediate prospect of Ann’s marrying for, however eligible, she was still prone to melancholy and illness. So around 1831–2, doubtless urged on by the Sutherlands, Ann Walker drafted her own will. Unusually for a will, this early draft survived. Of her ‘moiety’ (i.e. share) of the estate she left the bulk in trust to baby Sackville.38 So by then both Anne Lister and Ann Walker had drafted their wills leaving their property, as was customary for spinsters, to their nearest relatives.39 Conscious of their dynastic identity, the gentry ensured they kept their estates in the family. Yet in most other respects the contrast between two neighbouring heiresses could not be starker. Ann Walker lacked Anne Lister’s academic education and lacked confidence in her own accomplishments. Instead, possessing a strong sense of Christian duty, she remained wracked by religious guilt. Firmly chaperoned, her life fitted the conventional stereotypes of middle-class female passivity, with firm boundaries limiting her activities. Predictably she delegated much of the running of her share of the estate to her knowledgeable and experienced steward, Samuel Washington of Lightcliffe, who had moved into Crow Nest. She made some of her money available to the Sutherland family, and was caught up in conventional female philanthropy.40 Anne Lister on the other hand was busy picking the brains of local landowners and reading all she could, to prepare for actively running her estate. This was her seed time: she was poised to grasp the new economic opportunities offered by rapidly industrialising Halifax.

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SC

BH

Shibden Hall estate and its neighbourhood in the 1830s from Map of the Parish of Halifax, J.F. Myers, 1834–35

key BH C NB OB PC

Brierley Hill Conery New Bank Old Bank Parish Church

PH RB SB SC WP

Piece Hall Red Beck Southowram Bank Stump Cross Walker Pit

------ Halifax borough boundary

Anne Lister diary page: 29–31 March 1834

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haLIfax, the West rIdIng and shIbden toWn meets country

Halifax in the early 1830s lay on the cusp of dramatic change: its old water-powered industry was being elbowed aside by larger steam-powered mills. Yet domestic crafts and traditional ways persisted right into mid-century. The juxtapositions were therefore dramatic, the tensions produced often brutal. And the boundary between Halifax and Shibden lay precisely where town met country. When Anne Lister returned home in 1832 she found herself living precisely on the fault line where the urban new encountered the anciently rural. When she walked up and down steep Old Bank she moved between two worlds; she remained excited by new ideas and new technology but, alienated from new and threatening social and political formations, she thrived in country rather than town. Bedeviled by transport and communication difficulties, Halifax had at last been opened up to new markets and to the rest of the industrialising West Riding. The new turnpike road had been dramatically improved by digging a 30-foot cutting at the top of New Bank and raising a 30-foot embankment across Shibden valley. Anne Lister was fascinated by this engineering feat alongside her estate: ‘Went to see the new Northowramroad, a stupendous piece of work; it will be the greatest possible improvement in the roadway to the whole neighbourhood’.1 An even more significant boost to the local economy was the

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opening in 1828 of the two-mile extension of the crucial CalderHebble Navigation along the Hebble Brook (see map p.25). At last Halifax gained direct access to Manchester, Wakefield and so Leeds by navigable waterway—along which heavy, bulky goods could be transported. Cheaper coal from the larger Leeds and Huddersfield collieries could now feed the new steampowered worsted mills springing up. Anne Lister always kept up-to-date: she went on her first railway ‘steam expedition’ in 1831, travelling from Liverpool to Manchester at ‘twenty miles an hour, but so comfortably and steadily, one might have been writing, if one chose it, all the way’. Yet Anne—like the ancient Waterhouse family and other traditionalist Tories—remained of the canal generation. They were wary of the Manchester Unitarians promoting the railway; Anne airily reassured her aunt that the Manchester-Leeds ‘railroad was given up....You may therefore set your mind at ease about the Calder and Hebble navigation’ and their valuable investment in it. She was always a receptive listener to any plans for the traditional canal clique to be able to limit the railway, or at least control it so that ‘then we should be sure we should keep the carriage in our hands’.2 With improved roads, coaches now left Halifax five times a day for both Manchester and Leeds; twice daily for York and once daily for both Wakefield and London; additionally, barges now departed daily ‘to all parts of the kingdom’ by canal. But to outlying upland areas in the sprawling Halifax Parish a coach or cart went perhaps once a week still.3 So while rural communities remained isolated, steeped in ancient customs, Halifax itself enjoyed a boom from the late 1820s as manufacturers took advantage of the steam-powered revolution in worsted spinning. Anne Lister might engage intellectually with steam travel; but, having scrabbled her way into the local gentry, she was, as we know, proud of Shibden ‘where my family had lived between 2 and 3 centuries’.4 A consummate snob, she distanced herself from the local industrial revolution taking shape along the Hebble. She just did not see it, and still praised, in a much-quoted letter to her aunt, the ‘comparatively fine clear air of Halifax. Never in my life did I see a more smoky

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place than Bradford....The same may be said of Leeds’.5 Yet Lancashire’s new pace-making technology of applying steam power to cotton spinning mules had already crossed the Pennines and even reached Halifax.6 However, locally by the 1830s the really big brash steam-powered factories were worsted spinning mills: no family personified this industrial revolution locally better than the Akroyds. Originally clothiers, they accumulated sufficient capital to shift from wool to worsted spinning (and later weaving), installing worsted power-looms as early as 1822; Anne Lister, picking up commercial news while travelling, learned Akroyds’ weekly wage bill was already reputedly £1,000, and their mill was the target of protests against power-looms. James Akroyd opened a new fire-proof six-storey mill on the Hebble, where he perfected weaving inexpensive rain-resistant worsted material.7 It boasted a 60-horse-power steam engine and employed no fewer than 550 workers, half of them girls and young women under 21, working 6am to 7.30pm. Akroyd, asked by the Factory Inquiry Commissioners about corporal punishment of children, explained ‘hands from nine to fifteen years of age are most liable to want correction’.8 But by this time James Akroyd’s flinty defence of working conditions in the mills had brought him into direct conflict with West Riding factory reformers like Richard Oastler.9 Anne Lister noticed neither these children and young women scurrying in and out of the valley-bottom mills, nor did she ‘see’ their owners.10 Rather, the textile dynasties which Anne Lister considered her social equals were the older smaller firms, still locked into woollen manufacturer—the Priestleys, the Rawsons and Edwards—and combining land-ownership with an older technology. For instance, William Henry Rawson (husband of Ann Walker’s cousin, Mary Priestley) had an old water-powered woollen mill at Sowerby Bridge, with 120 workers. And the Rawsons had in Halifax town itself a small woollen-cloth-dressing mill, now steam-powered, with 81 employees, mainly adult men.11 Anne Lister followed commercial developments keenly; but she did not recognise that, in terms of large-scale production, these wool mills represented the past—not the future: that lay with firms like the Akroyds. But, just as Richard Oastler did not

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see the factory children’s ‘Yorkshire slavery’ until it was pointed out to him, so members of the old élite like Anne Lister just did not see the ‘new men’ who threatened to destabilise the traditional social order.12 Anne was reluctant to recognise as full social equals even the Rawsons, despite their marriage links with the Priestleys and Waterhouses. Although, as we know, she liked some of the Rawson women, the family was too closely involved in commerce, their links to land too tenuous: Stoney Royd, their key family property, was merely three dozen acres on the edge of urban Halifax. Indeed the Rawson men symbolised for Anne Lister the very margins of élite Tory respectability; she found their economic success threatening, in part because their powerbase lay in the same township as Shibden: Southowram. As we know, she was particularly irked by the eldest son, Christopher, partly because he ‘ had too many trades’, partly because of the public offices he occupied: not only Chairman of the Rawson bank and Lord of the Manor, but also local Tory grandee and freemason. His family’s multiple commercial interests even led him and his brother William Henry Rawson into profitable manufacturing deals with James Akroyd.13 Halifax, with its new canal basin and steam-driven mills, boomed. At the same time, it enjoyed a newly enriched cultural and civic identity. In 1832 it gained its own newspaper, the Tory Halifax Guardian, allowing the town to read about itself. It boasted a Mechanics’ Institute and two subscription newsrooms.14 An ambitious Halifax Literary and Philosophic Society was formed, with Christopher Rawson its founding president. But more than anything else, Halifax gained a new urban coherence from the 1832 Reform Bill of Lord Grey’s Whig government; this would give northern manufacturing towns like Leeds, Bradford and Halifax not just one but two MPs of their own. The Bill also of course proposed to increase the number of male electors. So where would this leave Anne Lister, a landowner but a female landowner? In Paris in 1831, Anne followed the reform agitation with keen interest. She wondered whether women would be allowed as fellows into

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the new cultural and scientific societies, and as electors into the parliamentary franchise: Thinking as I dressed of the Literary & philosophical society just established at Halifax. I have thought of it repeatedly since hearing of it—building castles in the air about the part I myself may take in furthering it—about its becoming celebrated etc etc. Think of rules that might be for the good of the Society—ladies should be admitted as fellows....To prevent overflow of useless members let everyone be elected on the doing some benefit to the society by mind or money....All this leads to my old thought and wish for ladies under certain restrictions to be restored to certain political rights—voting for Members etc. On civil & political rights—the difference between them—why should the latter be withheld from any person of sufficient property (interest in the state) and education to be fairly presumed to know how to make a good use of them?15

Once back in Halifax, Anne added her name to the list of twelve subscribers of £100 each for building the Literary and Philosophical Society’s museum: ‘Seven names down—added my own....The president (Mr Rawson, Christopher) and council are determined I shall not lose my right to membership—I laughed on looking over the list and finding myself the only lady’.16 But the parliamentary franchise was a very different matter. Anne Lister, returning home as the Reform Bill received the Royal Assent, was of course excluded. She did not however spend time lamenting this political snub. For she was after all a landowner and there was no secret ballot as yet. To Anne Lister the newly formalised exclusion from the franchise of independently-propertied women like herself mattered far less than the political power she could exert over her enfranchised male tenants at the forthcoming election in December 1832. From here onwards Anne Lister’s ‘Blue’ party political loyalty hardened. Like the Toryism of Richard Oastler, it looked to established hierarchy and obligation, to village life and the good old days, as against trade, manufacture, Whiggish individualism and social mobility.17 But unlike Oastler, Anne Lister was no social reformer. She was determined to preserve all the old

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privileges of the Protestant ruling class. With about a third of the population of the British Isles living in Ireland, opposition to Catholic emancipation hardened, rallied by alarms about ‘the Church in danger’. Anne Lister, long familiar with France, had been fairly liberal about Catholic emancipation. 18 But now tension between the demands of the Irish Catholics and the Church of England grew acute within the large Parish of Halifax. Here the powerful new Vicar of Halifax, the Reverend Dr Charles Musgrave, was a robust supporter of the Anglican status quo. Almost a caricature of a ‘hunting vicar’ who was proud of his port wine, he had married Ellen Waterhouse and joined the local Tory élite. (His annual income of over £2,000 contrasted starkly with those of poorly paid curates: a few miles away in Haworth parsonage, Patrick Brontë was paid a meagre salary of £170.) Most controversially, Musgrave had embroiled Halifax in bitter controversy by trying to reimpose full church tithes.19 In this, he was opposed by many, including Oastler and Anne’s father who ‘joins the town in going against him’; but he was supported by Henry Edwards and the Rawsons. Here we can see Anne beginning to side with the ultra-Protestant high Tories: when a compromise was eventually reached, she commented ‘what a comfort to us all!’20 The 1832 Reform Act created Halifax as a new two-member parliamentary borough. The constituency, comprising Halifax township plus the narrow urban sections of Northowram and Southowram townships, thus further sharpened the boundary drawn between country and town. The large rural parts of those two townships fell outside the borough: electors there voted in the new sprawling West Riding county constituency. Lying just beyond the borough boundary, Shibden Hall and the bulk of the Lister estate was thus firmly identified as rural not urban. And this is how we can best understand Anne Lister in the 1830s: living on the very margins of the industrialising town—but distinctly not of it. Electoral politics further sharpened Anne’s distance from Whiggish urban manufacturers like the Akroyds. Naturally at the December 1832 general election she supported Halifax borough’s ‘Blue’ candidate, the Honorable

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James Stuart Wortley, Lady Stuart’s nephew, a barrister, an ultra-Protestant and ultra-Tory.21 She was drawn into closer compact with the élite Anglican Tory men who ran Wortley’s campaign: Christopher Rawson, John Waterhouse and Henry Edwards. But Anne had few tenants satisfying the property qualification for a Halifax borough vote. One of the few was John Bottomley of Brierley Hill Farm, a modest but strategically placed small-holding (about nine acres including a ‘Pit field’) at the very top of Southowram bank, just inside the new Halifax borough; he leased this from Anne Lister at an annual rent of £26,22 and so was entitled to vote in Halifax borough. With no secret ballot, Anne Lister could tell ‘him to vote for Wortley tomorrow’; but the Whigs ‘had all been at him, and some said they would not employ him again if he would not vote their way’. In fact the 1832 Poll Book records poor John Bottomley as dutifully casting a ‘plumper’ for Wortley (i.e. just using one of his two possible votes).23 But Wortley still lost the election to the Whigs—who gained two MPs. ‘The spirit of Radicalism is fearfully strong’, Anne lamented afterwards; ‘the dissenters are so united against us, I do not see how we can make head against them’.24 Indeed, Whigs, Radicals and dissenters were so powerful within the great West Riding county constituency that the December 1832 election was uncontested: two Whig MPs were returned without a vote being cast. With these two electoral defeats merely part of a national routing by Lord Grey’s reforming Whig government, the Tories turned to trying to register as many ‘Blue’ voters as possible before the next election; and this laborious behind-the-scenes work included collaborating with local landowners—like Anne Lister. The Listers might be merely political minnows in the West Riding compared to such landowning nobility as Earl Fitzwilliam and Lord Wharncliffe (James Stuart Wortley’s father) who exerted vast ‘influence’ for the Whigs and Tories respectively. However even small-scale landlords enjoyed immense power over their tenants. One provision in the Whig Reform Act, giving the vote in the counties to tenants who paid at least £50 a year rent, was amended by the landed interest in Parliament to include tenants whose £50 leases were annual—that is, very short-term leases. This amendment promised

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increased political power to even small-scale landowners like Anne Lister.25 For instance, the West Riding Tory machine was now vigilant in registering as many potential £50-a-year ‘voting tenancies’ as possible by for instance splitting up large tenancies. Historians still debate the extent to which the enfranchising of such dependent rural tenants, controversial at the time, helped perpetuate landowner dominance. The Anne Lister evidence suggests the significant ways in which it did.26 So we need to look at how Anne Lister approached running her estate, and approached the varied political sympathies of her tenants. This takes us over the borough boundary, into an older rural world hidden by the massive hilltop escarpment from Halifax’s smoking chimneys and noisy steam engines along the Hebble.27 In the aftermath of the election, Anne Lister surveyed the economic potential of her estate. How could she best fund her ambitious plans for travel and for improvements to Shibden? Her family links with the textile trade had long lapsed, and Anne maintained her air of dynastic disdain when considering manufacturing: hearing of a plan to build two steam-mills near her estate, she retaliated ‘I could build mills too—would then make what I could of the estate and go away’ i.e. go abroad.28 But Anne did not, of course, have access to the capital now required for profitable manufacture; additionally it was now even less acceptable for women to run large-scale mills.29 She also toyed with other speculative ventures—of which the most exotic was going to Honduras and bringing back a cargo of mahogany to sell to worsted manufacturers ‘for making machinery of’.30 But she rejected such fancies. Instead she relied upon Shibden’s traditional land-based activities: farming and agricultural rentals, canal shares, stone-quarrying and of course coal-mining. Like so many other West Riding upland areas, the estate comprised a patchwork of small fields, of greater value than broader acres elsewhere purely because of their proximity to town and industry. Like other such estates, Shibden was strategically placed to take advantage of the new canal-side industries—without the results being visible from the house. The

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view from the Hall windows over the gentle Shibden Valley and across to the Northowram hillside had changed little since her uncle’s day, and Anne intended to keep it that way. Even in the early 1830s, the estate still remained steeped in old traditional customs dependent on an oral culture. The landed interest’s iron grip, mixing enforced deference with paternalism, still held considerable sway across rural areas like upland Southowram.31 The Anne Lister evidence has been frequently quoted in studies of 1830s electoral politics. But what historians have not yet been able to do (because the evidence lies so deeply buried) is to link the diary with other manuscript material to identify the precise mechanisms of persuasion Anne Lister deployed on her tenants and the precise legal framework she could rely upon to run her estate. (Of course formally Anne’s 81-year-old father and her 68-year-old aunt were each entitled to receive roughly one third of the rentals; however by late 1833 even her father’s involvement was becoming rather a formality, and Anne seemed to draw the rents for him.) Luckily to help us reconstruct Anne Lister’s world of work, a rich cache of account books has survived, including an ‘Estate Summary 1833’. This suggests the extent to which Shibden was still run on traditional lines: tenants still paid small ‘Lord’s rent’ to Christopher Rawson, Lord of the Manor of Southowram;32 rent to the landlord was still payable on ‘the Feast days of Pentecost and Saint Martin the Bishop in Winter’; and Anne Lister still instructed her newly-acquired land steward Samuel Washington how ‘acorns not to be gathered in the woods, except for my own use’ and ‘proper notices’ to be kept up against trespassers.33 We can also read across from individual tenants’ leases to Anne Lister’s own diaries and so construct an economic, social and political snapshot of life on the estate.* We can walk the land with Anne, visiting her tenants in their homes, standing on their doorsteps and clearly hearing her distinctive landowner’s voice; and we can also try and catch the more muted tones (though sometimes rebellious) of her tenants and so begin to construct an estate history from below. * See Appendix: Key Tenancies on the Shibden Hall Estate.

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We can eavesdrop across time to listen in on the face-to-face conversations Anne Lister conducted with her voter-tenants, with her neighbours and with her business rivals. So detailed is this manuscript material Anne Lister has left us that historians at last have the evidence they require to reconstruct the world of the pre-Victorian minor gentry.34 Armed with a contemporary map (see p.25), we can start our guided walk round the estate at the top of Southowram bank. Here at Brierley Hill lived, as we know, farmer John Bottomley and his family. Among the many surviving Shibden leases is one he signed in 1834. An eloquent document, it allows us to read how inequitably property law apportioned power between landowner and the tenant, enfranchised or no. The lease was for one year and as tenant John Bottomley signed away any rights to: all mines veins beds and seams of Coal stone and clay and all other mines and minerals whatsoever in and under the same with full and free liberty power and authority to and for the said Anne Lister her...servants and workmen to enter into and upon the said premises to plant prune cut down dig sink for get and carry away the same....And also all game of every description with full and free liberty for the said Anne Lister...to hunt fowl set course shoot and sport upon or over the said premises.

Other penalties were also attached: £20 was payable for every acre of land John Bottomley did ‘plough dig up break up put in tillage or set or sow with any corn grain seed or roots’. Additionally he must pay all taxes, cultivate his ‘demised premises in a good and husbandlike manner and...leave all such dung soil manure and compost which shall remain unspent or unspread as aforesaid upon some convenient part of the said demised premises for the use and benefit of the said Anne Lister’.35 The document was signed by Anne and by John Bottomley (he was one of her tenants who could write his signature, though here he had two attempts at it) and witnessed by Anne’s Halifax lawyers, Robert Parker and his partner Thomas Adam. This lease, drenched with traditional catch-all clauses

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and copied out by a lawyer’s clerk, offered John Bottomley no incentive whatsoever to improve his rented property—and it had to be renewed each year. Small wonder Bottomley voted as his landowner required? Most of Anne Lister’s tenants lived just inside the West Riding county constituency, but their leases were similar. Moving nearer to Shibden was 21-acre Park Farm, leased to Thomas Greenwood, cabinet-maker—though, instead of signing, he just made his mark.36 Below Shibden at Ireland lived Charles Howarth, a joiner; for his 16 acres he was recorded as paying £46 rent— an amount which, within the county constituency, was just insufficient to reach the £50 threshold for enfranchising tenant farmers. However, from about autumn 1833 Anne Lister was apparently able to ensure him a vote: after her death, Charles alleged that she had told him ‘Know Charles your rent is £46 and if you will pay down £50, it will intitle you to give a voate and i will return to you £2 every half year’—to vote of course in the ‘Blue’ interest.37 Some Shibden tenancies were rural-industrial. Below Ireland, a small water-powered wire mill on Red Beck at Mytholm was occupied by George Robinson of Lower Brea, an elegant and substantial farmhouse. (Wire was used for card-making for wool processing, and the mill at one point employed about 200 children.) Anne Lister noted ‘George Robinson wants the leathershop [roof?] raising...estimate £80’.38 This was just the kind of small-scale enterprise which she liked to encourage on the edge of her estate, conveniently out of view of house. But more significant to the estate economy were the extractive enterprises: coal and stone. Opposite Ireland at Pump, about 20 acres was rented by John Oates, a self-made man who also interested Anne Lister. Self-taught, he made optical and mathematical instruments (including a telescope, through which Anne Lister had seen Jupiter and Saturn); and had been involved with a tiny primitive coal pit nearby.39 However in the early 1830s stone still remained a more reliable commodity than coal. Samuel Freeman, for instance, rented only a few acres, but his stone quarrying made him a key entrepreneur.40 Other tenants included Jonathan Mallinson at the Stag’s

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Head, Mytholm. Anne Lister had no objections at all to having a well-placed inn on her land; but she grew angry when she heard of its being used by radical stone delvers and colliers. She told Mallinson ‘he must give up having the Masons’ and Delvers’ Union fortnightly meeting at his house’; she went to the Stag’s Head to check up a month later. ‘Mrs Mallinson said her husband did not understand about it. I said I had told him as plain as I could speak....He must make up his mind to give up the meetings or leave the house’. They stayed.41 This walk round estate ends by doubling back past Shibden, over Beacon Hill and down to the new canal. The opening of the Halifax extension had strengthened the value of the Lister’s navigation stock. Such investments were still treated by traditional ‘canal’ families like the Listers and Waterhouses as secure property of unchanging value, to be bequeathed and inherited rather like land or a house. Despite unsettling railroad rumours, Anne still solemnly reassured her aunt (and herself) by suggesting of John Waterhouse that ‘there is no likelihood of a railroad to oppose us during his life’.42 In the centre of Halifax itself land was rising in value: as the town expanded the price rose of land boasting street frontage— like Northgate House. With new street improvements, Anne Lister estimated that ‘then I should be all front’; but she would wait a few years to sell ‘unless an outrageous price was offered. I said a guinea a yard was coming near enough to make me think about it’;43 but meanwhile she kept a keen eye on Northgate’s considerable economic potential. (The rest of Shibden’s income was drawn in small sums: pew rents, a turnpike road investment, a stone quarry, and a couple of very small coal agreements.44) So this guided walk around the estate confirms Shibden as still traditionally structured. Most of the effort still came from sweat and muscle, man or horse; and most of its income still derived from land-based labour-intensive economic activity: agriculture, timber, stone quarrying and tiny coal pits.45 Anne Lister’s direct involvement in manufacturing remained at arm’s-length. The estate supported, rather than contributing directly to, Halifax’s steampowered industrial revolution. A traditional gentry enterprise, even by 1833 it had changed little since her grandparents’ day.

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Nevertheless Anne Lister maintained a shrewd watching brief on the impact the canal extension might have on her mining interests. It initially seemed to pose a threat to local coal-owners, whose horse-drawn transport down the steep hillsides kept the cost of local coal high. However she determined to keep herself abreast of all mining developments, increasingly relying upon knowledgeable James Holt of High Royd, Northowram. He was to coal what Samuel Washington was to land: a fount of information, experience and skill. From him she learnt how the market for local coal, rather than declining, had of course been stimulated by the Halifax canal. Local coal seams might be extremely small; but by sending boys and girls crawling along the dark narrow passages, miners could keep the price down and so still find a local market for coal. Women coal-owners were uncommon;46 and with her travels Anne Lister appeared an absentee landlord. So initially Holt took her for a soft touch. Rather disingenuously, he ‘advised’ Anne that she ‘should not begin at Mytholm till the coals on Swalesmore [Northowram] were done, and they would be done in ten years, and then there would only be Holt and Mr Rawson to supply the town, and they would not supply all, so that we might then begin’.47 But here such men made their first big mistake. Anne Lister had found out enough about the growing demand for coal not to be fobbed off by male rivals into waiting a decade while they reaped the profit. With the coal prices rising, she decided to try her hand at coal mining in the proactive entrepreneurial style of the Rawsons (who were already developing the Swan Bank colliery between the Halifax canal and the upland Marsh area of Southowram). This was a bold move, for Anne had no immediate female role models. (Anne, friendly with elderly Mrs Rawson, had discussed with her the price of land and cattle—but seemingly not mining.) She embarked on a steep learning curve; but initially she found herself ‘pothered’ by small-scale coal negotiations that were irksomely protracted and unsatisfactory, the lawyers’ clerks producing more paper than coal ever dug for Anne Lister.48 But despite such setbacks, Anne Lister could see that coal could provide the ready income she needed—if she could take advantage of male neighbours’ low estimation of a woman rival.

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She picked the brains of coal-owners—like the Stocks family, whose estate lay at the head of the Shibden valley. Anne had no love for old Michael Stocks, ‘a radical firebrand’ who had strongly opposed Musgrave’s tithes and had stood as the Radical candidate in the 1832 Halifax election (although also unsuccessful, he had won twelve more votes than Stuart Wortley). But she talked to his eldest son Joseph about coal; he was revealing: He sells his at 9d a load or corve [2 cwt] at people’s doors at Halifax...a cart (one horse?) will carry 14 corves [28 cwt] very well from his pits, it being all down hill. The Rawsons sell for 8d....He said there had been a report that I meant to sell the coal in the Shibden estate by auction, and had that been the case, he should have been a bidder.49

Such men naively underestimated Anne Lister. She discreetly began to piece together the dimensions of the Rawsons’ enterprise: they apparently ‘employed forty men...had a good trade of it’, having bought ‘near 200 days’ work’ (over 100 acres) of land ‘very cheap’ (probably in the Marsh area), and so were ‘getting all they could’ with a vertical shaft—just above the Shibden estate.50 The rivalry with the Rawsons intensified. (There was even some talk of one of the Rawsons’ marrying Marian, which would of course have threatened Anne’s inheritance schemes.51) Christopher Rawson now wanted to buy ten acres of Anne’s coal immediately above Shibden Hall near Conery. His younger brother Jeremiah entered negotiations. But Anne already suspected the Rawsons of trespassing onto her coal and endangering her pits with flooding. In December 1832 Jeremiah called: she pointedly kept him waiting ten minutes—then began to beat him down on price: ‘Mr R– said he was never beaten but by ladies and I had beaten him. Said I gravely, ‘It is the intellectual part of us that makes a bargain and that has no sex or ought to have none.’52 In fact Anne so tightened the penalties for trespass and flooding in this proposed coal lease that it was never agreed. Christopher Rawson told Anne’s lawyer Robert Parker that ‘I would not sign such an agreement for all the coals she possesses’.

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(Without the Rawsons’ purchase money Anne soberly calculated she would only have an annual income of £820–30.53) Anne Lister might have learnt to drive a hard bargain, but to date her coals had not advanced her ambitious financial plans. However she continued to find out about fast-changing mining technology. She visited a mine on the main canal owned by yet another Rawson brother. Guided by Holt, Anne found she ‘could walk upright in the shaft 300 yards long....Upper bed—28 inches thick...[I was] about 1/2 hour in the works. 4 men getting coal.... Gave the banksman 2/- for himself and 2/- for the 4 men who worked naked’.54 This was a particularly advanced mining system for Halifax; certainly Anne Lister saw that coal was entering a profitable era. Already one local canalside dealer was planning ‘to drive a great trade...setting up coal staiths [landing wharves] at Halifax, Bradford and one or two other places’. But Holt and other coal operators now found that Anne Lister, rather than succumbing to male flattery (Norris, a leading Halifax Tory lawyer, tried to persuaded her that ‘he and I were people to push a thing forward’) was learning to appreciate the rising value of her well-placed acres. Then in mid-1833 Anne Lister set off for Paris and Copenhagen, leaving trusted Samuel Washington planning a strategic coal-road from the top of Old Bank across John Bottomley’s land.55 Shortly before she left Halifax for Europe in mid-1833, Lord Grey’s Whig government passed a harsh Irish Coercion Act, suppressing ordinary political activity in Ireland. Repression of trade union activity followed, and Radicals with high hopes of the new reformed House of Commons grew bitterly disillusioned. Agitation for further reform led to a period of sharp political conflict in the Halifax area in the years before the Chartists.56 Anne Lister of course entertained absolutely no sympathy for working-class radicals, nor much interest in the borough’s two Whig MPs, local banker Rawdon Briggs and Charles Wood, son-in-law of the Prime Minister. Rather, she was prepared actively to help increase the registration of Tory voters among her tenants. So, on her return to Halifax in December 1833, her immediate priorities were practical: party politics and

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estate business. Her period of apprenticeship as a landowner was over: it was now for real and she seized the moment. At the same time she focused her attention very keenly on courting the life-companion she had so long sought. Her renewed relationship with Ann Walker of Lightcliffe drew her attention away from Halifax itself and towards the countryside beyond Shibden. And it drew her closer towards the élite kinship networks of the Priestleys, Rawsons and Edwards.

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Page of crossed letter, Ann Walker to her sister, Elizabeth Sutherland, 15 October 1834

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and

By August 1832, forty-one-year-old Anne was back living at Shibden with her elderly father and aunt, sister Marian and servants. It was a claustrophobic situation and Anne chafed to be independent. However much she presented herself to Halifax as the dignified owner of ancient Shibden Hall, her income remained insufficient for the life-style she desired, and she still sought a life-companion. Busy running the estate with the help of Samuel Washington, she embarked on modest improvements such as making a new ‘walk’ in her grounds. She continued to read widely—including Plutarch’s Lives, a history of modern Greece and—to help her estate management—a forester’s guide. She also maintained a vigorous correspondence both with new friends such as elderly Lady Stuart, and with old—especially Mariana Lawton and Isabella Norcliffe. Her romantic youth was over: most of her friends were in mid-life. She mused wistfully, ‘surely I shall get some sort of companion by and by’: among the possibilities she ‘thought of Miss Freeman and Miss Walker as people here’.1Then in mid-summer Ann Walker called at Shibden: Anne ‘was very civil—joked Miss W– about travelling’. By August opportunities began to emerge. Feeling restless, Anne walked to Lightcliffe and ‘sat a couple of hours with Mrs Priestley’ and, in her diary recorded casually, ‘then called on Miss Walker of Lidgate & sat 13/4 hour with her—found her very civil & agreeable’. The two

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women, who had not seen much of each other recently, gossiped amicably, finding common grumbling ground in Marian’s relationship with a Doctor Kenny: Anne later confided to her diary, ‘We got on very well together. Thought I, as I have several times done before of late, “Shall I try and make up to her?”’2 The two Lister sisters—one so remarkable, the other so tiresomely conventional—got on no better than before. Marian certainly remained a serious thorn-in-the-flesh to Anne’s inheritance ambitions. They bickered rancorously over their comparative fortunes: by Uncle James’ will Anne had, of course, not only inherited his property, but also on their father’s death his Shibden rentals would revert to Anne as well. Marian resented all this: having inherited their mother’s East Riding property, she planned to leave Anne nothing. When Marian played her only trump card, Anne was incandescent with anger: [12 August] ‘Well’, she [Marian] would marry and hoped to have a child and that would settle all. [I] begged she would not marry for that—she might do as she liked: I should not say much. From all she said, I expect nothing from her—and we would both be alike, both do the same (hinting at my leaving her nothing.) She had said I ought not to have taken my uncle’s property on such conditions...I said I would rather have it on the conditions than not at all. My father [Marian claimed] does not like my walk etc; he thinks with her I shall not have income to keep these things up. ‘I shall find it out’, she said, ‘by and by’. She expects to be the richest, and that I shall be obliged to sell....These talks always annoy me. Let me name these subjects to her no more.3

Anne Lister’s masculine ‘oddity’ and preference for female friendships were of course known locally. But polite society had no language with which to allude directly to lesbian sexuality; there was a lack of public discourse through which respectable Halifax could express any reservations about Anne Lister’s sexuality. Marian, even at her most vitriolic, could not name to her sister why she would never produce an heir.4 After this quarrel Anne, gloomily anal, studied her bowels (‘only little lumps... about inch and a half long, thick cylinders’).5 She cheered herself with another visit to William Priestley and his wife, and then hurried

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off to see Ann Walker again. This time their tête à tête lasted three hours, starting with Ann’s problems with her property and her two trustees: [17 August] She consulted me about tenant right—and told me all about the Priestleys and really made a too good story against them. He not really a man of business—things went on better without him, and had not (neither he nor Mr Edwards) behaved like a gentleman. Said how astonished I was. They (the Priestleys) knew all my family concerns. I meant to leave him my executor—and all she said astonished and grieved me....Thought I, ‘she little dreams what is in my mind—to make up to her. She has money and this might make up for rank’....The thought as I returned amused and interested me.6

On 31 August Anne Lister again called at Lidgate, and chatted about Ann Walker’s planned visit to the Lakes with her relative Catherine Rawson of Huddersfield, daughter of yet another Rawson brother. They visited Ann’s aunt Walker at Cliff Hill; and then Anne Lister saw her old confidante Mrs Priestley. She reported ‘how well Miss W– and I got on together’, but they then ‘got on to grave subjects’: Anne felt more unsettled than ever, for ‘all my thoughts of a fixed companion frustrated’. Afterwards she mused: I got on as usual [as] friendly as ever—tho’ at first it struck me [what] she thought of my seeing so much of Miss Walker? Perhaps the Priestleys will think of it by and by? Miss W– and I do certainly get on marvellously; she seems quite confidential and glad to see me—told me of her plans of altering the Cliff-hill grounds etc.

But Anne, after earlier disappointments, kept her guard up: ‘Who knows how it may end. I shall be wary this time’.7 Ann Walker appeared at just the right moment to offer Anne Lister a promise of hope for love and for fortune. The friendship developed rapidly: enthralling Anne Lister represented a godsend to frail lonely Ann Walker. Like any other masculine suitor with an estate income lower than his ambitions, Anne determined upon action. To court this wealthy heiress she must summon all her persuasive charm (and must disguise any sign of

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Shibden shabbiness. Gentility, yes; fraying gentility, no.) They paid a formal round of visits in Ann Walker’s carriage: Anne Lister later that day confided to her diary that ‘Miss W & I got on very well....If she was fond of me & manageable, I think I could be comfortable enough with her.’ As in any other courtship, gifts were exchanged: shrubs, books, and even visiting Rome together was discussed. Anne, whose encoded diary entries now often began with erotic musings (‘incurred a cross last night thinking of Miss Walker’), determined, like many another suitor, upon seduction. On 27 September, the two women, walking slowly back from Lidgate, ‘sauntered...in my walk—then on returning rested in the hut’. Later that day Anne confided in code : Miss W– & I very cozy & confidential....She sat in the moss house hardly liking to move—of course I made myself agreeable & I think she already likes me even more than she herself is aware....We laughed at the idea of the talk our going abroad together would [produce]. She said it would be as good as a marriage. ‘Yes’, said [I], ‘quite as good or better’...I can gently mould Miss W– to my wishes; & may we not be happy? How strange the fate [of] things! If after all, my companion for life should be Miss Walker. She was nine & twenty a little while ago!8

The following day Ann Walker paid a formal visit to Shibden: afterwards the two women again sat in the hut: [28 september] Bordering on love-making in the hut....Our liaison is now established....We afterwards talked of it as a thing settled, depending on our respective aunts, both of whom [are] in a precarious way. Our liaison is now established: it is to be named to nobody but her sister and aunt and my aunt, and that not till a week or ten days before our being off....Perhaps after all she will make me happier than any of my former flames. At all rates, we shall have money enough, and I don’t fancy she will either be close or stingy or cold to me.9

Anne did indeed ‘name’ it to Aunt Anne late the following evening: significantly, she did this through allusion to foreign travel and to Ann Walker’s property. Anne knew she could rely upon her aunt’s unqualified loyalty and confidentiality:

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Telling her my real sentiments about Miss Walker and my expectations that the chances were ten to one in favour of our travelling and ultimately settling together. My aunt [was] not to appear to know anything about it, even to Miss W–, till I had mentioned it to the latter. My aunt...seemed very well pleased at my choice and prospects. I said she had three thousand a year or very near it (as I had understood some time since from the Priestleys). She thought my father would be pleased if he knew and so would both my uncles.10

Anne could rely on her aunt’s discreet approval. What Anne’s elderly father thought of his indomitable elder daughter is less clear: their relationship remained a rather distant truce. More predictably, Marian resented her sister’s lengthy visits to Lidgate, noisily ‘crying and having a nervous fit’. After further commotion, Anne concluded Marian would just have to be marginalised: ‘at last I am inclined to make it a rule never to mention Marian in any way to anyone’. Henceforth, Anne just would not have a sister—and Marian conveniently left for a visit to Market Weighton.11 But it was of course Ann Walker’s many relatives who were most likely to prove suspicious. (Already one of the Rawsons, who knew Anne Lister of old, had ‘looked odd’ on finding her at Lidgate.12) She had to be very careful of what people thought. To the inconveniently extensive Walker family, Anne Lister must not appear like the unscrupulous fortune-hunting husbands from whom Ann Walker’s father had sought to protect his daughters. To ward off local gossip, Anne Lister had therefore to be doubly vigilant. She had to be entirely discreet about the intimate sexual nature of the relationship. Here she was ironically assisted by the absence of a polite vocabulary for referring to her lesbianism: it was a love that apparently had no name (and if it spoke at all, it spoke through coded allusion—especially to classical literature, the cultural reference of the educated élite).13 Second, Anne Lister had to deflect any financial suspicions from those keen to protect this vulnerable young heiress. In this she was assisted—again ironically—by the absence of patriarchal scrutiny and formal precautions: since she was not a male suitor and since this was not a heterosexual relationship, Anne retained almost untrammelled social and financial access to Ann Walker. Indeed,

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people not only permitted but even encouraged this daringly subversive relationship to flower fast. Within this atmosphere of silence, Anne Lister devised a double strategy to ensure that no one—beyond her own Aunt Anne—would know of the affair or be able to block her access to Ann Walker and her fortune. Anyone unwise enough to interfere would have to be dealt with; Ann Walker would have to be isolated from any trouble-makers—notably, of course, the two trustees, Henry Edwards and William Priestley. (Anne Lister was therefore pleased to note that, among the Edwards and Walkers, ‘I see there will be no cordiality again between them; this will not suit me the less well’.14) If it was indeed to be ‘as good as a marriage’ Anne Lister needed to prise Ann Walker from her Lightcliffe relatives and persuade her to live at Shibden—for élite marriages were as much about property as about love. Anne therefore enlarged to Ann Walker upon the benefits of such a move; she told her that, on the death of her father and aunt, the entire Shibden estate would be hers and she might leave it to Ann Walker as a life tenant: [1 OctOber] Proposed her living with me at Shibden and letting Cliffhill. She spoke of her great attachment to the latter. I advocated skilfully and I think successfully the advantages of Shibden....Explained that there would be more éclat and independence even for her at Shibden than at Cliff-hill; and that she had but a life interest in the one and might [have] the same in the other. Said I expected to have ultimately two thousand a year. She told me it was more than she expected from my manner of speaking before. I then asked if she thought she could be happy enough with me, to give up all thought of ever leaving me....On the plea of feeling her pulse, I took her hand and held it some time, to which she shewed no objection. In fact we both probably felt more like lovers than friends....Thought I, ‘She’s in for it, if ever a girl was— and so am I too’.15

To Ann Walker the courtship spelt excitement and independence. Flattered by such attentiveness, she invited Anne Lister to dinner at Lidgate. Ann Walker wore an evening gown, Anne Lister talked about the Highlands and, after the manservant withdrew:

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[4 OctOber] She sat on my knee and I did not spare kissing and pressing, she returning it....On leaving the dining-room, we sat most lovingly on the sofa....Finding no resistance and the lamp being out, let my hand wander lower down gently getting to [her] queer—still no resistance—so I whispered surely she could care for me some little. ‘Yes’.

But then came a confession: Ann Walker said she had been engaged to a man who had died just three months previously. There were tears; Anne Lister ‘begged a thousand pardons’.16 The pattern of their relationship was set for the months ahead: Ann Walker’s acquiesce, guilt, lamentations, equivocation, apologies. Single-minded Anne Lister was irked by the moody vacillations about going abroad. Ann Walker hinted at other romances: ‘she let out today that there is someone who would now be glad of her and take her into a very different rank of life from her present one (some poor Scotch baronet?)’. There was coolness and distrust, tears then reconciliation. Anne Lister continued to employ the language of property with her aunt: ‘I said I thought the thing would go off—for it seemed as if she could not give up Cliff-hill and I could [not] leave Shibden....Putting all on Shibden made my aunt take [it] all right’.17 However it was, of course, the more worldly Mrs Priestley who pieced together a sharper perception of this sudden intimacy; torn between affection for Anne Lister and kinship loyalty towards her husband’s cousin, she warily agreed it was in Ann Walker’s interests to socialise with the cultivated Listers of Shibden Hall: ‘we were very thick—I had been there [Lidgate] every day—it was a very good thing for her, Miss W–; I ought to influence her to patronize this or that’.18 Anne tried to deflect the Priestleys’ suspicions by turning her charismatic charm on both these crucial social gatekeepers; she flattered Mrs Priestley that ‘I had lately heard it said she was a very fascinating person....Quite as friendly, open and consulting as ever to Mr P–’. However one fateful afternoon at Lidgate Mrs Priestley surprised Anne and Ann during passionate kissing. Anne wrote afterwards: ‘I had jumped in time and was standing by the fire but Ann looked red and I pale and Mrs P–...looked vexed, jealous and annoyed’, and left ‘in suppressed rage’. The two women ‘soon got to kissing again on the sofa’: despite their surprise visitor, Ann

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Walker ‘never offered the least sign of resistance’, explaining ‘she had always a fancy for me’.19 The courtship continued; but Ann Walker still hesitated as Anne cajoled her towards European travel. ‘Said a little French countess had taught me much of foreign manners and court scandal.... Finding my conversation needed not be so strait-laced...hinted at the only use of pocket-holes abroad etc’.20 But Ann Walker remained unwell, with irregular periods and a bad back; she spent days on the sofa. Anne Lister nursed her and persuaded her to consult a doctor in York she knew well, Mariana Lawton’s brother, Dr Henry Stephen (Steph) Belcombe; his specialist knowledge Anne— perhaps rather disingenuously—recommended. Reassured by this suggestion, Ann Walker ‘consulted me about her concerns— brought out her rent roll—evidently more at ease with me than ever and more affectionate’. (Anne Lister, writing to Mariana, mentioned the consultation but begged her not to name it.)21 On their visit to York, they visited the ‘will office’ for Ann Walker to chase a troublesome Priestley will; and Dr Belcombe visited his new patient regularly. His diagnosis was brisk: Nothing the matter with her but nervousness. If all her fortune could fly away and she had to work for her living, she would be well. A case of nervousness and hysteria. No organic disease. Thought I should be sadly pothered with her abroad, unless I had the upper hand—and ought not to pet her too much—but going abroad would do her good.

Indeed, Dr Belcombe thought Anne herself would also do Ann Walker good. (Anne later confessed to her diary ‘Poor Steph, he little dreams the real state of the case’.)22 So for the moment this élite York specialist took Anne Lister’s part. But in Halifax, after the surprise visit, it is unlikely Mrs Priestley dropped no hints at all to anybody about her wariness of Anne Lister’s motives. For by Halifax standards Ann Walker was now so wealthy: ‘She shewed me the joint property rentall’: £1,649 for the last half-year, ‘her own original property is £800 a year, of which about £540 arises from the Navigation...being at her own disposal’.23 Anne Lister might still be learning about the Walkers’ complex inheritance; but she had already had two decades of

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practice in the discretion required for a lesbian intimacy; Ann Walker had been plunged into it so suddenly. Anne Lister, taking as natural and God-given the Christian morality of so respectable a relationship, experienced no guilt; but, from her few letters that survive, Ann Walker’s voice sounds wracked by shame. Her guilt focused on previous relationships: (she felt a ‘duty’ to have married a Mr Ainsworth who, Anne Lister noted, ‘had taught her to kiss, but they had never gone as far as she and I had done’. Anne’s ‘indignation rose against this person. I reasoned her out of all feeling of duty or obligations towards a man who had taken such base advantage’.24) While ridden with guilt about this new and clandestine affair, Ann Walker also felt genuine gratitude towards Anne Lister for introducing her to Dr Belcombe and for being the first person to lead her lovingly out of her upholstered cage.25 For frail Ann Walker the strain proved too much: she begged Anne to delay their travelling together ‘till I have fewer torments of conscience than I endure at present....Weak as I am, it would be madness in me to leave the Kingdom’. Ann believed it was she who spelt trouble for Anne Lister: ‘I should only bring misery upon you, for misery I am sure it would be to you to see me in the state I have been for several days’. Yet a few days later Ann Walker still invited Anne to ‘come and dine at five tomorrow, and stay all night.’26 But by then Anne Lister had grown brutally impatient: [25 NOvember] I told her not to call on me ever on my return [from travelling] if she was Mrs Ainsworth. She would then be no longer the same person as now, and I, being the older resident in the neighbourhood, I should consider it my place to call on her...I said I should not consider him society for me, and under such circumstances what friendship could be carried on between her and me?

But despite all these tensions, their relationship deepened: [6 December] Talking last night till two....She excited as she lay on me & I pretended great difficulty in keeping my word. I felt her over her chemise & this all but did the job for her. She owned she could not help it & that now

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she had got into the way of it & did not know how she should do without it.... Yet still she talked of her sufferings because she thought it wrong to have this connection with me....She will not do for me.27

By a further irony, the lesbian intimacy was assisted inadvertently by Ann Walker’s well-meaning but distracted sister, who had just given birth to her third child. To the Walkers, the Listers symbolised the old élite: Anne noted that Elizabeth Sutherland ‘advised Miss W–’s going abroad with me—thought it would do her good & be a great advantage to her, all my acquaintances being of a higher order’. Anne Lister, presenting Ann with a beautiful giltedged prayer book, seized the moment to assert her authority: [7 December] I had decided for her & was determined. She said ‘No, no’...She burst into tears...I surely did not mean to take her abroad. Said I should not exactly say what I intended, but now that I knew her sister to be a well-judging person, I should do nothing that she would not approve.

A compromise emerged: Anne would take Ann Walker to stay in elegant lodgings in York ‘as soon after the rent day as I can’ and then go south. Leamington, she cajoled Ann Walker, need just be a first step. ‘“Yes:”, said she, “& then you mean abroad. But I will not go”—and then she got into the old story of [how] she felt she was not doing right morally...yet let me grubble her this morning gladly enough. Said to myself as I left her, “What a goose she is”.’28 Exactly how much local people beyond the Walker circle were alerted to the relationship is unclear. Once walking back on her own from Lightcliffe Anne encountered ‘an impertinent fellow with a great stick in his hand [who] asked if I was going home & made a catch at my queer. “God damn you” said I & pushed him off.’29 But this was probably as much a assault on Anne’s masculine appearance as anything more pointed. After all, Anne was now an important local employer and patron, engaged all the while in serious business transactions with Ann Walker’s more distant relatives. She negotiated about coal leases with the Rawsons. And of course December 1832 was also election time. Ann Walker’s cousin, Henry Edwards junior, called on Anne Lister about John

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Bottomley’s vote: he stayed briefly, doubtless talking Tory politics rather than family matters. Indeed later that same day Anne Lister, visiting Lidgate again, was already taking on responsibilities for Ann’s complex property—as any conventional suitor might. ‘Miss W– wished me to stay all night to look over the administrative accounts....Tea at 6.30—at the accounts (Miss W– left me at 10 to read prayers to the servants) till 11.20’.30 Then Anne Lister suggested formally sanctifying their proposed marriage with appropriate Anglican ritual: [14 December] Talking & pressing & lovemaking till after three this morning....Talked till after ten. Insinuated (first time) that our present intercourse without any tie between us must be as wrong as any other transient connection. She seems to think refusing me is refusing her best chance of happiness & is more likely than ever to accept me? Breakfast at 11—at the accounts again & talking, till out at 1.20, then walked together to the hut in my walk....Miss W– told me in the hut if she said ‘Yes’ again it should be binding. It should be the same as a marriage & she would give me no cause to be jealous—made no objection to what I proposed, that is, her declaring it on the Bible & taking the sacrament with me at Shibden or Lightcliffe church.31

Ann Walker, who set great store by her sister’s opinion, read aloud her letter asking Elizabeth’s opinion about ‘my proposal to our living together....If her sister approved, there would no longer be any obstacle between [us] & she would say a positive & decisive “Yes”’.32 But Ann Walker still dithered over phrasing the letter; Anne Lister confided her impatience to her aunt about ‘how things were with Miss W– —she would either marry in a twelve month (no good match) or go to the dogs—that is, be poorly & unhappy & perhaps, like many such nervous people, take more than she ought (drink) at last. She had everything to be wished for but the power of enjoying it.’33 The year ended on this unsatisfactory note. Ann Walker still indecisively ‘harped on Cliff-hill and Mr Ainsworth’. Anne Lister, busy negotiating coal leases with the Rawsons, grew cynical: ‘she wants my services & time and friendship, & to keep her money to herself’.34 On Christmas Day she wrote despairingly: ‘I never saw such a hopeless person in my life. “How miserable”, said I to myself, “Thank God my own mind’s not like hers”’.35

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Elizabeth Sutherland’s long-awaited reassurances arrived. Her well-intentioned sister, Ann Walker informed Anne, ‘advises our taking lodgings in York for the winter, going to visit her in the summer, & then if we are both in the same mind, make a tour on the Continent next year; she adds that she believes....I shall never Marry’. Anne Lister noted caustically in code, ‘How little Mrs Sutherland guesses the real truth & how coolly she plans for us’.36 However, Anne ended her 1832 diary cheerily reassuring herself of her independence: ‘How different my situation now & this time last year....Miss W–, as it were, come & gone, known & forgotten.... What adventure will come next? Who will be the next tenant of my heart? Providence orders all things wisely’.37 Ann Walker’s sexual and religious guilt remained—especially about the ‘promise’ to marry Anne. At New Year 1833, Anne Lister, staying at Lidgate, was awakened early by Ann Walker’s ‘moaning and groaning. On my inquiry, she said she had done wrong... from the fear of being left. Nothing but misery’. Later at Shibden, an anguished note arrived from Ann Walker, who apparently believed in ‘everlasting torment in hell-fire’, and confessed her ‘want of confidence in God...is the source of all my misery and wretchedness. It is not only death in this world, but a far worse death that I fear’....‘Why’, said I to myself, ‘this explains all. The poor girl is beside herself’.38 At this point, a more formidable player re-entered the narrative. Captain Sutherland of Udale had begun to notice the correspondence between Elizabeth and her sister. Initially both husband and wife had been just concerned about Ann Walker’s ill-health and melancholy. Elizabeth remained preoccupied with children’s measles, and with her baby, the third child in under three years. But Captain Sutherland, perhaps conscious that half his children’s inheritance depended upon his ailing sisterin-law, welcomed the attentive care of Miss Lister of Shibden Hall—who, he wrote, ‘had been good enough to accompany Miss W– to York’. Anne Lister noted he was ‘apprehensive she is in a more delicate state of health than we had any idea of’, and that he added ‘“However, it will confer a great obligation on me, if you would kindly give me your candid opinion as to

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its nature”. Mrs S– not aware of his writing.’39 Anne Lister promptly and discreetly replied to his letter, describing Ann’s religious morbidity and Dr Belcombe’s expertise. A secret plan unfolded for the Captain to escort Ann Walker up to Inverness where the Sutherlands could keep an eye on her. Anne Lister, a complex woman in a complex situation, was seemingly playing dual role towards Ann: genuinely caring and solicitous, while ruthlessly manipulating her feelings and dependency. In her most formal correspondence style Anne now wrote back to Captain Sutherland: Dear Sir– I have, of late, very often grieved over an apparent instability of purpose and inclination...I am now, however, but too strongly convinced that the advice of an experienced and clever medical man is necessary...Miss Walker is fortunately so little disposed to be generally communicative of her feelings, that I do not think any one will easily guess, at present, how very far from well she is—I have not mentioned, and shall not mention, a syllable on this subject to anyone... Believe me, dear Sir, very truly yours A Lister40

The requirement of secrecy was deepened by the stigma surrounding ‘insanity’. Catherine Rawson, probably Ann Walker’s closest friend, visited: again Anne Lister sheltered behind the need for discretion on such a delicate female subject; talking with Catherine, ‘[We] both spoke openly of Miss W–’s being not herself, I begging Miss R– not to name it at home but let it be all hushed up as much as possible’. Anne Lister even charged Catherine not to talk to Mrs William Priestley about it.41 Elizabeth was eventually drawn into the secret plan: she wrote a kind letter to her sister, proposing that Ann indeed return north with Captain Sutherland to consult Inverness doctors. With this crucial backing, Anne Lister now forcefully overrode Ann Walker’s equivocation. The die was now cast. Anne helped her to pack, and the following day: sAturDAy 16 [FebruAry] Grubbled a little last night & touched & handled her this morning. Downstairs & at breakfast at 10 35/”. Had

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just done, as Captain Sutherland and Mrs Sutherland (his mother) arrived at 11...Mrs S– must have been rather handsome—looks perhaps 60, stout & well. Captain S– good looking, very good Scottish countenance. But neither of them high ton[e] people—both of them ‘ma’am-ing’ Miss W– and me almost every word—good people but almost vulgarish? Got on very well together; Miss W– a good deal out of the room & Mrs S– went to her room to write. Some talk with Captain S–; said I thought the complaint chiefly on Miss W–’s mind; but she was perfectly herself on all subjects but that of religious despondency....Required a physician accustomed to mental suffering.42

Just before they all set off, Anne Lister and Mrs Sutherland senior chatted about Ann Walker. Mrs Sutherland (a worldly woman, not unlike Jane Austen’s Mrs Bennet) had predictably, given her son’s rather limited Scottish estate, an eye to her grandchildren’s prospects.43 Immediately she got to the nub. Suggesting Ann Walker had two thousand a year, she ‘asked if any love affair was on her mind. “No”,’ Anne Lister replied. Anne learnt that a Scottish relative had proposed to Ann Walker—to pay off his debts. Anne Lister commented impishly: ‘Surely Captain [S–] would take care that proper [marriage] settlements were made. Mrs Sutherland looked as if not expecting this. Poor girl. They want her for some of the kin, if they can get her.’ The moment for departure came, despite Ann Walker’s reluctance to separate: ‘At last I saw them off at 11/4—Miss W– & Mrs Sutherland inside & Captain S– & James (McKenzie, Miss W–’s manservant) in the rumble behind. ‘Heaven be praised’, said I to myself as I walked homewards, ‘that they are off & that I have got rid of her & am once more free’.44 For the next ten months the two neighbouring heiresses were parted, and Anne Lister turned her mind to other matters. With the economic potential of Shibden now growing, Anne Lister busied herself on estate business. She still entertained expensive travel plans, and wrote to Ann Walker that she was ‘more and more impatient to be off’—to York, Leamington ‘then cross the water’ and was preparing for ‘leaving home for some time’. But

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such letters masked the significance Ann Walker still held for her. Walking to Cliff Hill to visit aunt Walker, Anne Lister was surprised by the unexpected arrival of William Priestley; Anne rose to the occasion by out-staying him (for almost three hours), then purposely set to work on Ann’s aunt: [2 April] Talking 1st & last of Miss W– of Lidgate...said it was all on her mind...said she would not be communicative to her sister....Said that, on her [aunt’s] saying she thought she [i.e. Ann] should not marry, wished the estate to go to her sister’s children, I had said she had better go abroad with me & live with me....Tho’ [my] present income was not near as large as hers, I had as much at my own disposal as she had, perhaps more. I had told her [i.e. Ann] if she had only had quarter [of] what she has, there would have been no difficulty & she would have been better & happier—to [which] Miss W– seemed to assent....Did she quite understand all I said & will she dwell on & remember it? Said Doctor Belcombe had said it was a highly nervous case & required great care; she should be got away from home & that I should do her more good than he or anybody, but that I should have a good deal of trouble....Came away, saying it was a great consolation to me to have said to her what I had & entreated her not to name it to young Miss W– herself, her sister (Mrs S–) or anyone.45

The following day was Anne’s forty-second birthday. She was philosophically stoical: ‘I am more single than ever....Well, providence orders all for the best...I am rather st[r]aiten[ed] in money matters and obliged to borrow a few hundreds’—and she busied herself with coalmining negotiations.46 Despite all her efforts to radiate charm, the long friendship with Mrs Priestley could never be the same again: ‘the spell of 17 years is broken’.47 However with Dr Belcombe, who talked to Anne about possible arrangements for his looking after Ann Walker near York, the conversation ironically remained on safer ground. He knew of Anne’s long intimacy with his sister, of course. ‘Told him all about the business between Mariana and me—very good friends, but our ever living together at an end....He seemed surprised & sorry but behaved remarkably well.’ But although confidential with Steph Belcombe, Anne Lister still did not hint to him about her new intimacy— with Ann Walker; exactly what he thought was unclear, for he just laughed ‘You are an odd person too’. So apparently this doctor

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still felt his professional and personal loyalties could remain with his old friend Anne Lister.48 In mid-June 1833, as we know, Anne Lister sorted through her rent books and her business affairs, leaving her new steward Samuel Washington detailed instructions for managing the estate while she was abroad.49 Then significantly, during a final stay in York, she visited her élite lawyer Jonathan Gray to remodel her will—once again. This time she decided to leave ‘a life estate to old John & young John [Lister of Swansea] and then entailed forward’. She signed some 13 pages and the will was ‘done up in a parcel ready to be left at Hammersleys’, her London banker. Almost as an afterthought Anne added ‘legacies to be named another time by codicil’—and we see any small bequest to Ann Walker would be relegated to a possible minor legacy.50 Anne Lister set off southwards to stay with Mariana at Leamington—and to London to renew her acquaintance with Lady Stuart de Rothesay and Lady Stuart, plus Lady Vere Cameron and her new baby. Travelling with her two servants, Thomas and Eugenie Pierre, Anne eventually reached Paris in mid-July, meeting a woman from the Danish court. Instead of a hot overland journey to Italy, Anne Lister decided to go to Copenhagen instead, to visit another member of the Stuart de Rothesay family she had befriended in Paris—Lady Harriet de Hagemann who was married to a Danish government official.51From there she might even reach Russia. Meanwhile Anne received a perplexed letter from Elizabeth Sutherland in Udale—who reported Ann Walker was ‘better in bodily health, at least fatter, but still (it seems) no better in spirits’. Elizabeth added flatteringly that her sister had ‘“repeatedly stated that there is no individual living by whom she would be so much influenced”’, and Elizabeth hoped for Anne Lister’s continued ‘kind interference and influence...as at present she is certainly unable to judge for herself”’. Anne noted, ‘How extraordinarily things happen!’ and the following morning she confided in her journal: ‘Incurred a cross just before getting into bed thinking of Miss Walker’. She promptly wrote back to Elizabeth, suggesting that Ann be discreetly placed under the care of Dr Belcombe (who is

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‘well accustomed to this sort of thing’); Ann ‘can take any name she likes...no one need know she is not still with you’.52 Anne Lister eventually reached Copenhagen, where she stayed till the end of November. Still ambitious for ‘good society’, she enjoyed the company of Harriet de Hagemann, Countess de Blucher and other minor aristocratic women. But when presented at the Danish court dressed in ‘black satin gown...my thinnest black silk stockings & silk shoes’, Anne was conscious of herself as threadbare and provincial, confiding to her diary ‘it was a great gaucherie....I shall learn in time’. And having learnt how to cut others socially, she now saw for herself what it was like to be cut: at the Danish queen’s palace one woman, saddled with debt (‘her greatest fault poverty’), was completely ostracised (‘sitting on a sofa alone, not a soul speaking to her...the whole evening’).53 So while loving court life, Anne became acutely aware of social slights and occasionally—thinking of Ann Walker and Mariana Lawton—even grew homesick. Then in November she received alarming news from that irritating couple, Dr Kenny and Marian Lister. Aunt Anne was dangerously ill: they feared she might not have long to live. Anne Lister, accompanied by her two servants, hastily left Copenhagen on Saturday 30 November. Her journey home was dogged by storms and seasickness: ‘five nights, from Copenhagen to Hamburg, without taking my clothes off, and ten nights from Hamburg’.54 Eventually she crawled ashore early on Sunday 15 December. Desperate to see Mariana, she eventually tracked her down at her home in Cheshire. Anne Lister only reached Shibden on Thursday evening 19 December. And from an unusual five-day gap in her diary here, we can only guess how extremely disappointing for Anne was the meeting with Mariana.55 Back at Shibden and finding her aunt recovering, Anne remained unsettled. She had returned home to all the old tensions with Marian and with her father’s stubbornness over improvements to the estate. There are no apparent diary references to Ann Walker, still up in Scotland; and Anne Lister

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seemed to have decided to put her wealthy neighbour out of her mind and to enjoy her freedom from this difficult relationship. But within days all this was to change dramatically. Leaving most of the estate business to Sam Washington, Anne Lister gave priority to organising her personal affairs during the next nine months. More broadly, her diaries and other writings for the two-and-a-half years which follow suggest the impressively wide range of activities that Anne Lister was able to undertake, and local responses to all that she did.

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note

on the

text

I have selected approximately ten per cent from the original Anne Lister diaries for December 1833 to May 1836,1 supplementing this with other evidence, notably from the Crow Nest papers. In making selections from the diaries, I have omitted material which is either tediously and persistently repetitious or is amply represented elsewhere.2 Anne’s foreign travel, in particular, is already well known through Helena Whitbread’s No Priest But Love and Muriel Green’s edition of the letters. Similarly, Anne’s long-term love affair with Mariana Lawton is fully represented in both Helena Whitbread’s editions; and so Anne’s lengthy extracts from letters to and from Mariana are referred to only briefly here. Most readers of the 1830s diaries in the original become immediately dispirited by the arcane and tedious detail. Each day Anne records every weather measurement, every tree planted or walk taken in her grounds, every boulder moved or pit-sinking negotiated, every conversation conducted (however transient), and even every letter written or received—often with lengthy extracts transcribed. Excisions of such repetitions are indicated by ellipses, so the reader can know where material has had to be omitted; where omissions are major, these are recorded in endnotes.3 I have aimed to present a coherent narrative thread, reflecting how the Halifax community perceived and responded to Anne

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Lister’s clandestine marriage to Ann Walker. This narrative focuses upon Anne’s key relationships: with her Aunt Anne, her sister Marian, her father and with the servants at Shibden Hall; with Ann Walker, of course, plus her key relatives—her ‘Cliff-hill’ aunt, and her Sutherland sister and brother-in-law; and with their relatives among the key Tory élite families—notably the Priestleys, Edwards and Rawsons; with crucial male professionals like her lawyers (Robert Parker in Halifax, the Grays in York) and other key skilled advisers, notably Samuel Washington her estate steward and James Holt her coal steward; with key tenants over her estate (though her writings predictably say far more about male tenants than female) and with the men who regularly worked for her, like Charles Howarth the joiner; and, away from Halifax, with intimate female friends, especially Mariana Lawton and Isabella Norcliffe, plus newer correspondents like Lady Stuart. In the mid-1830s Anne wrote roughly one-tenth of the diaries in her letter-by-letter secret code: and the main handwritten sections are particularly hard to read.4 (See illustration p.40) This is in large part because they are very heavily abbreviated. For instance, the township in which Shibden lay, Southowram, is written as Sthowrm; and words ending in ‘ing (for example ‘talking’) are written as talk∞. So while Anne’s formal correspondence handwriting is fairly legible, her diary hand remains extremely challenging and her letter-writing in rough draft is near impenetrable. (See illustration p.176) In transcription I have aimed for clarity and accessibility. Most abbreviations are extended;5 the exceptions are where the meaning is already very clear, notably proper names which occur frequently, where Anne Lister’s form has been retained (for example ‘A–’ or ‘AW’ for Ann Walker, ‘M–’ for Mariana Lawton, IN for Isabella Norcliffe, and ‘H-x’ for Halifax). In stark contrast to her formally constructed correspondence style, Anne’s informal diary-style punctuation used frequent dashes between phrases, and this has been broadly retained.6 However, to aid readability, some punctuation has been added, with major breaks in subject matter indicated with a new sentence or paragraph break.

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note on the text

Square brackets are used sparingly, usually to indicate that a word or phrase has been added where the meaning would otherwise be unclear, for instance local dialect.7 Endnotes have also been kept to a minimum, and are used to suggest possible meanings or interpretations. However, while I have aimed for clarity and accessibility, I also want to preserve a sense of distance. Anne Lister’s world was not our world; and I have retained many of her spellings (for example ‘shew’ for ‘show’) and the form in which Anne characteristically noted key information in her diaries. For instance, she recorded times of the day not as 3.15 but as 31/4 or 3 15/”, and I have retained this; similarly her measurement of land in ‘Day’s Work’ (roughly two-thirds of an acre) I have kept as ‘D.W.’ The origin and status of sections of text are indicated by the use of distinct typefaces. Passages from the diaries are indented and prefaced by the year and month, plus the date and day of the week; coded passages are printed in italics.8 Passages written by hands other than Anne Lister (for example, the Crow Nest correspondence) are indicated by no indentation; and editorial linking passages are identified by a bold typeface. Overall, therefore the editing has been guided by the requirement of accessibility, while preserving as far as possible the sense of what it sounded like for Anne Lister as she was in the act of writing the page. As noted, I have selected roughly ten per cent from the original diaries for December 1833 to May 1836; I have aimed for a coherent narrative thread, reflecting key relationships plus the twin themes of inheritance and economic activity. However I have purposefully included other passages occasionally which reflect the texture of Anne Lister’s daily life in order to present a picture of her days that she herself would recognise. So, for instance, I have tried to retain a selection from Anne’s remarkably wide and up-to-date reading. More rarely, I have been able to include a complete day,9 from her moment of waking to the final jotting of the evening—to reflect the stupendous energy she brought to all she did and the staggering range of activities that

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she managed to cram into her days. Otherwise, ‘The Writings’ reflect the interweaving of the main narrative skeins: Anne Lister in her local community, all she was able to do there and what boundaries she encountered, how the various groups within that community saw her, how it represented those perceptions and how she then responded back to those groups. Finally, Anne Lister’s original diaries comprise 27 volumes.10 But this is probably not how the reader can make best sense of this very complex material; here, rather than volume-by-volume or year-by-year, I have presented this mid-1830s material as seven broad chronological sections, reflecting her marriage to Ann Walker, local electoral politics, her inheritance concerns, and property (especially mining) transactions.11

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the anne LIster dIarIes and other WrItIngs

Page of letter, Captain Sutherland to Ann Walker, 18 April 1834

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I

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In token

of

our unIon

d e c e m b e r 1833–a u g u s t 1834

december 1833 Back at Shibden, Anne Lister shared the household again with her aunt, father, sister and servants: Elizabeth Cordingley, Mrs Oddy, Eugenie Pierre, John and Thomas. She was still irritated by Marian and by the need to consult her father over estate improvements. In running the estate she worked with Samuel Washington and men like Charles Howarth, the joiner. The disruption caused by the building work on the house itself made her feel yet more unsettled.

mONDAy 23 Breakfast with my father at 725/60 the moment he came downstairs—he consented to let all the upper land and took very well (no objection) all I said about blocking up his west window by a stack of chimneys....Some time with my aunt—Dr Kenny came at 11/2—my aunt may continue 2 or 3 years, though he does not seem to think she will. Told him it was unfair and absurd to send for me in such circumstances—I had come at the risk of my own life & that of my servants—he said it was not his doing—he wished Marian not to send for me, but she did it in her fright. Anne received a letter reassuring her ‘how much I am regretted at Copenhagen’. Feeling restless, she visited York for Christmas, then went to nearby Langton to stay with Isabella Norcliffe and her family. She was there when she received an unexpected letter.

FriDAy 27 Letter (2 pages) from Miss Walker who arrived at

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Huddersfield on Tuesday night, but was too sick at heart to go home till the next day (Christmas day), when she called at Shibden and wrote the 2nd page of her letter and left it with my aunt to direct and send off. ‘Whilst you are in England I hope you will consider my little cottage [Lidgate] as your own. I have plenty of accommodation for your servants, and 2 rooms entirely at your disposal...’ She had near passed through York on her return and would have consulted Dr Belcombe, but could not without telling her uncle Atkinson, who was with her. Would like to meet me in York on my return and go to Dr B–’, ‘with the full intention of following his advice to the very letter’....Poor girl! I fear she is not much better. Came to my room at 2.30 and wrote 2 pages in answer and sent them off by Thomas. Anne Lister’s letter to Ann Walker was both affectionate and fairly formal, concerned about Ann’s health and asking her to visit her aunt at Shibden. She offered to help manage Ann’s life for her: ‘It will be better for you not to think of meeting me in York. I will see you first, and then plan for you as may seem best’. Hearing again from Ann Walker, Anne made her decisive move.

mONDAy 30 Letter also (2 pages and 2 lines) from Miss Walker—will count each day and hour to my arrival—cannot be too grateful to me. Came to my room at 2 or before....Wrote (2 pages and 2 or 3 lines) to ‘Miss Walker, Lidgate, Halifax’...saying...[I] should leave my servants at Shibden, and then after seeing my aunt, be at Lidgate about 8 in the evening....Will do all I can for her—never to think of repaying me—once well again, her health and happiness would be enough and all that I desired—‘affectionately and faithfully yours AL’.

January 1834 Anne Lister left Langton for Halifax. But first she stopped in York, calling on Dr Steph Belcombe and ‘talked to him to him about a lodging for Miss W– and myself’. She also spent time with friends—including Mrs Milne, sister of Mariana and Steph Belcombe.

sAturDAy 4 Mrs Milne and I flirting all the morning....I get tired of her and don’t like to be seen with her....Would not give up my authority to her, tho’ I did to Mrs Norcliffe and Isabella....I off from the Black Swan at 13/4....Made the best of my way to Shibden (never stopt in Leeds) & arrived at 8. A little while with my father & Marian & then with my aunt...her leg

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more inflamed....Changed my dress—took John to carry my night things and off (walked) to Lidgate at 9 10/” and there at 9 35/”. Miss W– delighted to see me—looking certainly better in spirits than when I saw her last;1but probably this improvement is merely the result of the present pleasure and excitement on seeing me. Dinner (a mutton steak) then tea and coffee—and went upstairs at 11 40/”. Fine day till about 6pm and then rainy evening and night. But little had changed: the old equivocations on the part of both women remained.

suNDAy 5 Much talk last night till 4 this morning and then not asleep for a long while. She repented having left me—longed to go after me to Copenhagen. Had had Mr Ainsworth writing and offering again etc—once thought she ought to marry—lastly refused him. Her sister told him she [Ann Walker] was not able to judge for herself—but [Ainsworth said] he did not mind this—so both Captain and Mrs Sutherland got annoyed at him, I suppose saw thro’ him.2 Miss W– talks as if she would be glad to take me—then if I say anything decisive she hesitates. I tell her it is all her money which is in the way. The fact is, she is as she was before, but was determined to get away from the Sutherlands and feels the want of me. But [I need to] take someone with more mind and less money. Steph [Belcombe] is right: she would be a great pother. Have nothing serious to say to her—she wants better manning than I can manage—I touched her a little but she soon said it exhausted her. I had my drawers on and never tried to get near, knowing that I could not do it well enough. I am weak about her. Oh, that I may get well rid of her. Breakfast at 91/2—sat talking—left her alone in the house & came & read prayers to my aunt....Off again at 5 10/” & at Lidgate in 1/2 hour—dinner at 61/4—coffee & tea at 81/2—read a chapter in St Matthew & prayers to the servants & came to my room at 10 20/”—fine day. mONDAy 6 At twelve last night felt her on the amoroso...She seems bent on taking me—but yet it is uncertain, for she says nothing quite positive.’Tis well my care for her will not kill me, whether she says eventually ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Ready in an hour then breakfast—out at 113/4—walked with Miss W– to Cliffhill & sat an hour with her aunt....Came to my study...& in answer to a rigmarole of 3 pages received this morning from a Miss Jane Clark...offering herself to me either as a travelling companion or nursery governess! Wrote merely...‘I am not in want of anyone in the capacity you name’.

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The seriousness of their renewed intimacy was now confirmed by formal family visits, and by very sudden changes to their inheritance plans. Each woman would alter her will, making the other a life tenant of her estate.

Tuesday 7 Walked with Miss W– by Lower brea and along my walk to here—she paid her visit to my sister, and was a little while in the drawing room with my aunt....At Lidgate in 25 minutes—dinner at 6—tea at 7 50/”. Long talk—she will employ Mr Gray in York to make her will—meant to leave me and Captain Sutherland executors and secure all to the [Sutherland] children. She seems quite decided to take me and leave me all for my life and I said then I would do ditto. Came upstairs at 10 35/” and to my room at 10 55/”—fine day. WeDNesDAy 8 Soft damp thick foggy morning. Goodish touching and pressing last night—she much and long on the amoroso and I had as much kiss as possible with drawers on. Breakfast at 101/2....Read a little French with Miss W–....Tea at 8—talk—prayers at 10—came upstairs at 101/2—very rainy day and night. Miss W– complained of weariness thro’ not having been out today. She seemed lowish. In fact the day had passed without excitement & in bed she was getting a little in the old way, despairing of being quite well—felt so oddly afraid of not caring for anybody—dislikes the Sutherlands’ way, yet has a feeling of not being able to manage for herself. ‘Oh ho’, thought I, ‘I will get off as well as I can3—I can never make anything of her & why all this pother for nothing?’ However, she was on the amoroso as usual and lay upon me and I handled and grubbled till I was heartily tired. Very rainy day and night. The diaries reflect this internal tension: Anne Lister might dream of ‘getting off’ and travelling, but in fact, as the discussion of redrafting their wills indicated, the liaison was growing increasingly serious. Key to this were property considerations: as she would be staying in York, Ann Walker would let Lidgate to a tenant; Samuel Washington negotiated the letting.4

thursDAy 9 Left her (Miss W–) at the gate at Cliff-hill...I can make nothing of Miss W– and wish myself out of the scrape. I am sick of the whole thing and almost begin to think I shall never live much at Shibden. At Lidgate in 1/2 hour at 6—dinner at 61/4. Had S. Washington who paid me the balance of Xmas rents....He had been settling with Miss W–’s Lidgate tenant. sAturDAy 11 No touching and grubbling last night and she snored so loud I could not sleep. ‘Why should [I] be so annoyed?’ said I to myself and resolved to get 86

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rid of her as soon as I could....Talked about my being obliged to be at Shibden and fixed to take her to York on Monday....We called & sat some time with her aunt—told her of going to York on Monday.... Long talk with Marian about her always crying when I say anything to her—her nervousness quite terrible—she said at last she thought it was owing to my father’s hot sitting room. Anne Lister planned to place Ann Walker under Dr Steph Belcombe’s specialist medical care. He was to tell nobody except his wife.5

mONDAy 13 Off from Shibden (in my own carriage and with my own 2 servants) at 1 20/”, the horses having waited about an hour at Lidgate in 1/4 hour. Helped Miss W– to put up her things in one of my imperials [trunks] and 1 of the seat boxes....Alighted at the Black Swan, York, at 8 55/”. Had had a cold fowl & tongue in the carriage on leaving Leeds, holding (propping) up the carriage lamp between us to give light. Tea at 91/4 just as Dr Belcombe came and staid about 1 /2 hour....Got out of Miss W– that she had given the Sutherlands a thousand pounds last June—I exclaimed against it—she owned she seemed to have got little thanks and will not do it again. Fine morning and day...no fire in my room at 11/2 tonight. Miss W– makes no complaints of fatigue and seems as well as usual—[I] saw Steph first and explained a little. Dr Belcombe understood precisely what was required: very discreet lodgings about a mile outside York at Heworth Grange, where his new patient, Ann Walker, could stay.

tuesDAy 14 Drove to Mr Bewly’s out of Monk bar to look at their lodgings—good homely people—sufficiently satisfied with them and their rooms—back in about 1/2 hour—Dr Belcombe saw his patient. Breakfast at 11 to 12. Then out with Miss W– (walked)....To Mr Bewly’s Lodgings—Miss Walker well enough [pleased] with the 3 rooms & people—terms: 2 guineas a week. But before she left Ann Walker there, the two women travelled through the East Riding, visiting Selby and Goole. At the latter, a busy port serving Leeds and Hull, Anne Lister took an informed interest in its corn and woollen warehouses.6 From Hull they visited the Market Weighton area where Anne Lister had spent much of her childhood. Back again in York, she arranged for Ann Walker’s baggage to be taken to Heworth Grange, and for a new lady’s maid to wait on Ann there. Anne Lister now introduced Ann Walker to her old Langton friends, Isabella and her brother Major Norcliffe.

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WeDNesDAy 22 Long and tolerable grubbling last night....Had the other lady’s maid, Lucy Smith...hired her—to be with Miss W– by 12 on Friday morning—to have 12 guineas the 1st year and 14 the 2d.... Then Isabella N– came for a moment—then Norcliffe—to both of whom I introduced Miss W–...Dr Belcombe came—had some private conversation with him—thinks Miss W– quite competent (perfectly so) to make a will. Backwards and forwards. Leaving Ann Walker at the lodgings, Anne Lister returned to Shibden. She visited Ann’s aunt at Cliff-hill to reassure her about her niece’s remaining in York, and she kept up a busy correspondence with Heworth Grange. Feeling that Ann’s education had, compared to her own, been sadly neglected, she laid down a plan for Ann to study French, drawing and reading, plus a daily walk. Now feeling more in control of her personal life, Anne could turn her mind to business affairs; these now included discreetly overseeing some transactions concerning Ann Walker’s estate.

suNDAy 26 At 12 read prayers to my aunt and her maid. Had Mr Washington from 3 to 4 about Miss Walker’s business and my own— Mallinson had done the chimney all wrong—it must come down again. mONDAy 27 Kind letter from Miss Walker (Heworth Grange, York), 13/4 pages in French. Such French as I never read before—but I contrived to make out her meaning—she begs me to send it back corrected but that is quite impossible without changing every word. Poor girl. Was she in better spirits than usual [that] made her write? Wrote 3 pages to Miss Walker—kind enough, and cheering, and about business of one sort or other.7.... Wrote and sent 3 pages and 2 lines of one end to ‘Mrs Lawton, Claremont house, Leamington, Warwickshire’—very kind cheering letter—mentioned my little excursion with Miss W–, and having left her under Dr Belcombe’s care—adding that I was not at all more likely than I had acknowledged myself in my last letter to tie myself either too soon or too tightly. Anne was adept at offering an appropriately economical amount of truth to each of her correspondents. Here, she put Mariana in the picture about her brother Steph’s new patient, but deflected all hints about the seriousness of her renewed relationship with Anne Walker.8

tuesDAy 28 At Cliff-hill from 31/2 to 5—long talk to Miss Walker about

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february 1834

Miss W– junior—convinced her, I think, that it was right for the poor girl to remain quietly for some time under Dr Belcombe’s care. Hinted pretty strongly at Mr Ainsworth’s real character—said he was the last man Miss W– ought to marry—that I abominated the fellow....Said Miss W– thought of making her will—had asked if I would be executor—but I had merely said she must remember I was likely to be much abroad. Said she [i.e. aunt], ‘they would think her not fit to make a will’—but I assured her to the contrary—had asked [a] doctor who said decidedly ‘Yes’, and I had advised her to send for Mr Jonathan Gray and to make the will right. (Said the way she mentioned [it] to me would annoy the Sutherlands—keep all [her property] safe at home, and [it] was the sort of will I should make myself—for she might leave an additional life estate by codicil.9)....I said I did not say much now to Miss W, but...I was not like Mr Ainsworth, who would be glad to get hold of her whether [she was] able to decide for herself or not....Home in 1/2 hour at 51/2—very wet—rained all the way home—changed my dress—dinner at 6 20/”. FriDAy 31 Marian kept me talking till 10 50/”...advised her to choose between Market Weighton [property] and here, and sell all at one place or other...no good in her waiting till my father’s death.10

february 1834 Anne Lister tried to ensure that all the arrangements concerning Ann Walker’s stay in York were swathed in discretion and secrecy.

sAturDAy 1 Wrote 3 pages & ends (pretty close) to Mrs Norcliffe... mention having written to I. N– on Saturday (under cover to Dr Belcombe)—and having left Miss Walker under his care—made no mystery of it but to Mrs Duffin1– but [Mrs Norcliffe] ‘should not talk much about it, as there are certain ladylike derangements of [the] system which it is always well to have cured as quietly as possible.’2....Then wrote & sent note to ‘Mr S. Washington’ enclosing Miss Walker’s bill for medicines. The Vicar of Halifax, the Reverend Musgrave, seemed to have favoured large tithes but small sermons.

suNDAy 2 Walked to [Parish] church & back with my father...Mr Musgrave preached 3 minutes, good sermon from Romans i. 22.

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Home a little after 1—my father now walks very slow—obliged to return up the New Bank3—I perceive that he has failed considerably—his breathing worse uphill than last summer. Anne Lister now encountered the suspicions of the extended Walker family. It was no longer just William Priestley and his wife who were wary, but also Ann’s uncle Henry Edwards and other relatives. They wondered about precisely what kept Ann Walker in York for so long. One of the Priestleys just happened to be in the city, and called on Dr Belcombe.

Tuesday 4 Letter this morning (3 pages and 1st page 3/4 crossed) from Miss Walker, Heworth Grange, York—11/2 pages in French as before—has not quite lost all her fears and doubts but is making the great effort — liked her visit at the Henry [Steph] Belcombes and likes them all very much—longs to see me again—thinks it [the separation] longer than all the time in Scotland—talks of coming over for 2 or 3 days on the 8th or 10th—if I will let her. Letter also (21/2 pages) from Dr Belcombe, dated the 2d—very good account: ‘everything goes as well and as smoothly as I could possibly desire’—she has twice spent 2 days with them ‘and all parties are mutually pleased’—likes the lodgings, the people & her servant and everything; Mr Charles Priestley had called (on the 2d) ‘to say he had received a letter from Mr Edwards of Pyenest4 begging him to ask if Miss Walker was under my care, and whereabouts, as she had left home without her servants, and he was in some perturbation about her. I [i.e. Dr Belcombe] replied that Miss W– was here in lodgings, highly respectable, chosen by herself, and that her wish was to be more completely under my care than she had yet been, and for this purpose had resolved to come to York.’ Well answered. ‘I am anxious it should be considered and known that she is entirely her own mistress in every way while here’. Was Mr Edwards’s query a fetch [trick] to find out how she came here? If so, it answered not. I am in good spirits about her— but however it is not good policy to dream—much may be done—a little while and I shall gain more experience about her. [She] will write again shortly. Odd enough of Mr Edwards—Miss [aunt] Walker will not be much pleased when she hears it.5 As these suspicions circulated, Anne Lister needed to win over Ann Walker’s elderly aunt.

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WeDNesDAy 5 Incurred a cross thinking of Miss Walker....To Cliff-hill—sat half hour and 5 minutes with Miss Walker till 1 5/”—said I had heard from her niece yesterday—she talked of coming for 2 or 3 days on the 8th or 10th...Miss W– wished she [her niece] was coming back to stay—and all I could say did not seem so convincing as before, that Lidgate was not the place for her...I said I had nothing to do with the going to York beyond helping Miss W– to fulfil her own plan— but if she went abroad with me I should think myself quite able to take care of her. ‘What [would] she go abroad for? It would be very foolish.’ She might always have someone [i.e. a companion] with her at home—Miss Atkinson.6 I said she [Ann Walker] did all she could for the Atkinsons, but their society did not particularly suit her. (Mrs William Priestley was at Cliff-hill yesterday—probably enough to account for Miss W–’s opinion of this morning.) ‘Poor girl!’ said I, ‘I am sorry for her—she wants different management from that she has hitherto had. I hope all will turn out well but if you do not keep her up to what she is now doing—if you disapprove, you will only unsettle her and it is even now the toss up of a straw which way the thing turns’—meaning whether [her] intellect is safe or not. Poor girl indeed! they are all against the only plan likely to answer—I shall be much talked of & blamed for all the good I have tried to do. I shall by & by be scared from attempting more—and once off again, perhaps I shall not return in a hurry. Some time with the masons and came in at 3—it rained for the last hour & turned out rainy afternoon. Had John Bottomley...J. B. must pay 40/- a D.W. for all 3 fields, & taxes, & they must be under lease from year to year like the rest.7 Anne Lister possessed the ability to switch adroitly from Walker family affairs to her own estate leases and back again. Hearing of the illness of one of her Atkinson relatives, Ann Walker had hurried back from York for a brief stay. Anne Lister walked over from Shibden Hall to call on her.

suNDAy 9 At Lidgate in 25 minutes...breakfast at 91/2—sat talking over it—she had on Friday a long queer rigmarole from Mr Edwards under cover to Dr Belcombe—read me her answer that Dr B– advised her not sending before she left York—I wrote the copy of a better [answer].... Then sat talking as if our being together was all but fixed—instead of staying with her in York, [we] would excursionize—go to Paris for ten days.... Home (by my walk) at 5 50/”—a minute or 2 with my father &

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Marian, about near an hour with my aunt....As for Miss W–, if it is to be or not, I am easy about it. We calculated, and she said she could afford three hundred pounds for the Paris trip. She will pay all and I will make all [plans] answer as well as I can, however things may be. Thomas Greenwood came at 71/4.8 Sent off Miss Walker’s note to Mr Edwards, having first read it to my aunt... Thomas brought letter after church this morning from Mrs H. Steph Belcombe, York9—very kind, proper letter, 3 pages & ends— they all like Miss Walker, & she seemed unreserved & to feel at home with them. At Lidgate in 25 minutes at 10 5/”—coffee & tea. She had had a fine lecture from her aunt (Miss W–) & made me promise never to name her (to tell anything about her) again to old Miss W– in future. Came upstairs at 11 20/”. The ‘marriage’ did indeed now seem settled: Ann Walker apparently put earlier equivocations and guilt behind her, and had finally cast her lot in with Anne and Shibden—even though it meant colluding with Anne against her relatives, including her aunt and sister; and even if it meant relaxing her usually strict religious observance of Sundays.

mONDAy 10 She was at first tired and sleepy but by and by roused up & during a long grubbling said often we had never done it so well before. I was hot to washingtub wetness & tired before it was half over. We talked & never slept till five. Talk of taking her to Paris the end of March. She to pay all—can afford three hundred. Talked too of taking her to Langton [the Norcliffes] & this she thought would most satisfy her sister. Somehow it often strikes me she hesitates to take me for better or worse, but wants to make me a stepping stone into society. She thought Norcliffe gentlemanly—would she not have him if she could? How it will all end I know not. I almost wish I was well off. Miss W– not off to Huddersfield [to visit Catherine Rawson] till 103/4, having breakfasted at 9 & written notes etc with which I helped. No prayers now & no mention of [church] service yesterday. We neither of us hinted at the subject. Sauntered thro’ my walk—home at 113/4....At Lidgate in 1/2 hour at 6 35/”—Miss Rawson of Gledholt [Huddersfield] there—agreeable evening—she thinks Miss W– much better—strange reports about her being crazy10 in Halifax, & encouraged by the Miss Atkinsons etc. Coffee & tea at 83/4—came upstairs at 111/2—stood talking. I said [to Ann Walker] in part what Miss R– had told me. Too bad: Miss W– now saw what she had to deal [with].11 [I said] better make up her mind at once, or what could I do? She agreed it was understood that she was to consider herself as having nobody to please,

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& being under no authority, but mine. To make her will right directly—and, on returning from France and on my aunt’s death, then to add a codicil leaving me a life estate in all she could and I would do the same to her. Well, then, is it really settled or not? I am easy about it & shall prepare for either way. Fine day. In fact even Anne Lister, unusually skilled at absorbing new and complex information, was probably only just getting a sense of what ‘in all she could’ meant concerning Ann Walker’s inheritance. Property law remained desperately complex; and women were of course excluded from university education, from legal training and from practising the profession. Customarily heiresses ensured that their legal affairs were handled by a lawyer, instructed by the trustees of the estate. Certainly at this stage, it is unlikely that either Ann or Anne was familiar with the precise provisions of John Walker’s lengthy will; nor that either could distinguish clearly between Ann’s entailed and unentailed property. But Anne Lister began to realise that, as in any other marriage, she would need to understand her ‘wife’s’ father’s will in order to grasp the full economic value of the female fortune she had married. For the moment however she needed to persuade Catherine Rawson of the value of Dr Belcombe’s care of Ann Walker.

WeDNesDAy 12 Long capital grubbling so that little time for sleep. She is to give me a ring & I her one in token of our union as confirmed on Monday. Breakfast at 9—Washington came for a little while. Miss W–’s maid not much fit for packing—I did it all—books & paper etc etc in abundance and had not done till 2—then off to Shibden. Miss W– 1 /2 hour here with my aunt & a few minutes in my study & off again at 31/4. I went with her in an hour (her own carriage & man[servant] & maid) as far as the King’s Head Inn near Bradford—and walked back....Affectionate to Miss W– & told her I should not be long without seeing her....A hail shower as I returned over the hills after leaving Miss W– this evening. Anne Lister now understood ‘our union’ was agreed: she could turn her mind towards the development of her estate’s industrial potential, especially coalmining; and, the better to be informed on family and business matters, she would need to open Ann Walker’s letters.

thursDAy 13 James brought me 1/2 sheet full from Miss Walker12— arrived safe at Heworth Grange...I had sent to the Post Office this morning for Mrs Sutherland’s letter—opened & read it—widely written & in a hurry—I think she is rather shy of writing just now....Had Holt this

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afternoon...when the Shibden coal is on sale, Holt hopes I shall let them (himself and company) have a chance at it. ‘Yes! Certainly’. Says he would sink the pit close by the Lower brea road side.

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FriDAy 14 Two letters for Miss Walker, one from her sister and one from old Mrs Sutherland—ill-written & spelt—opened both. suNDAy 16 Till 111/2 looking over plan of the estate & considering what to do....Let Mr Rawson, Lord of the Manor, do what he will....At 12 read (to my aunt & Eugenie & Mrs Oddy) the service, and in 1/4 hour as much as I could in that time volume 1 Dr South’s sermon on God creating man in his own image—not a very fit sermon for my congregation. Asleep afterwards in my aunt’s room—gave her twenty pounds which she said would do for the present—if she has a long illness & doctors, I expect two hundred a year will hardly do. Word had got around that Anne Lister might be willing to sell or lease her coal-mining. She never went short of either bidders or advice. The two prime spots for her to sink new mines were above Shibden at the top of Old Bank, near where John Bottomley and his family lived; and below Shibden near Ireland.

mONDAy 17 Down at 81/4 to speak to Hinscliffe13—he had heard I meant to dispose of the coal. ‘No!’ [I] had said nothing about it.... Said I had had many applications...[He] would advise...a pit at Charles Howarth’s [Ireland]...and again a pit (this would take 2 years before completed) at the top of the [Old] Bank for Halifax sale— should probably keep 10 colliers working....With my aunt from 83/4 to 9 50/”—talked of my journey to Paris & taking Miss W–. Letter from her...says very little alluding to our union but yet enough to show me she thinks of it as fixed....Talked to my aunt tonight as if the thing was nearly done [i.e. settled], but I should know better in York—tacitly meaning that I should then make her [Ann] give me a ring & bind herself by a decided promise.14 Anne Lister’s aunt and sister were now well informed about the seriousness of the relationship if not its sexual intimacy. Meanwhile, Anne Lister was busy assessing her plans for the estate.

suNDAy 23 Breakfast and staid talking to Marian & then my father till 10 25/”. The former seems quite prepared for Miss W–’s being here, makes no objection—on the contrary, I could bring no one my father

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would like better....Had Washington at 51/2 for an hour—he brought 3 letters for Miss Walker, one with money from the bank. mONDAy 24 3/4 hour with Marian—speak as if all was settled with Miss Walker, at least Marian seems to think it so.

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Anne travelled to York again. To both women their stay at Heworth Grange, away from relatives’ prying eyes, seemed something of a honeymoon.15

WeDNesDAy 26 Got to the Henry Belcombes’ at 53/4 to dinner....A few minutes with Dr Belcombe downstairs—told him my intention of taking Miss W– to Langton in the morning—he easily entered into my view of the thing, and was for instead [of] against it—home per Fly16 at 103/4. Rings were finally and symbolically exchanged. However, with so much at stake, Anne Lister’s diary does not make it clear whether it was still an exchange of two rings; or whether she just made Ann Walker give her a ring (which seems to have been Anne Lister’s anyway). This hesitancy is—unusually—reflected in the diary’s lack of clarity and confusing syntax here.

thursDAy 27 No drawers on last night—first time and first attempt to get really near her—did not succeed very well, but she seemed tolerably satisfied....Off to Langton at 12 50/”—damp rainy disagreeable day. She was poorly and tired tho’ she had got up so well in the morning. I saw there was much nervousness about going to Langton but took no notice. I asked her to put [on] the gold wedding ring I wore (and left her sixpence to pay me for it).17 She would not give it me immediately but wore it till we entered the village of Langton and then put it on my left third finger in token of our union—which is now understood to be confirmed for ever tho’ little or nothing was said. At Langton at 3 5/”—only Mrs Norcliffe and Charlotte at home—surprised but very glad to see us, and very kind and attentive....Our visit went off very well—all sides sufficiently pleased apparently—came away at 7 20/” and home at 93/4—coffee—sat talking till 113/4. Glad we went—the Norcliffes very civil to her—shyness went off and she seemed much pleased with her visit. FriDAy 28 Tolerably near her last night—she said not quite as well as last night, but I think we shall do in time. She seems very fond of me—is very proper during the day but very sufficiently on the amoroso at night that I am really [sure I] soon shall be satisfied with her and I really hope we shall get on very well together.

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The month ended with Anne Lister’s reading the newspaper and Ann Walker’s writing to relatives—already rather like any other comfortably married couple.18

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march 1834 Leaving instructions with the Belcombes that Ann Walker was not to meet new people in York unless introduced by herself, Anne Lister returned to Shibden.1 However, Ann Walker’s aunt was still suspicious of her niece’s long absence. Additionally the coolness between Anne and the Priestleys was now further fuelled by differences over Church of England politics. William Priestley took a serious view of clergy who combined clerical office with other demanding jobs. A traditionalist, Anne Lister had little time for such new-fangled evangelical views.

tuesDAy 4 From 81/2 to 93/4 wrote 3 pages and ends to Miss W–; said that as I wrote for the eye of Mrs Bagnold more than ordinary caution was required.2 Miss W– had begged me not to write anything particular—not to get ourselves laughed at. I believe she is fond of me, and however unreserved and on the amoroso at night in bed, no allusion to these matters ever escapes her in the day. In fact she is then really modest and nicely particular enough....Some time talking to Marian who thinks Miss W–’s coming here will never go down with her tribe of relations....At Cliff-hill from 12 25/” to 1 35/”—hardly any mention of Miss W–; [her aunt] only asked if she was soon coming back—merely answered she did not talk of it. Miss Cliff-hill said: ‘if she was so much better, why did she not come home?’ She should write and tell her to come. ‘Oh! Oh!’ thought I, but said nothing. I was determined to stay an hour, but had literally almost nodded several times with sleep, when Mrs William Priestley came in—shook hands—very civil to each other—she never named Miss W–. Presently came Mr William P–; he had got 200 signatures to the lay declaration in favour of the established Church. [He] said with bitterness [that] Mr Wilkinson could not have got 10, such was the feeling towards him. On my observing something on his having no curate, Mr W. P– [said] if he [himself] was younger he would apply to the archbishop and compel him to have one; though he [Wilkinson] had a licence for non-residence, he had not one for neglect of Duty. Returned home along my walk.

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march 1834

William Priestley had touched on one of the bitter controversies of the 1830s. In Musgrave’s sprawling parish, other clergy remained ill-paid. The Reverend Wilkinson had for fifty years combined being curate of Lightcliffe with being headmaster of Heath Grammar School in Halifax. Musgrave might be more concerned to preserve his vicarial privileges than to respond to accusations of neglected clerical duties; but nationally Anglicans were stirring to defend ‘the church in danger’ from attacks by non-conformists and radicals. Two addresses, one from the clergy and the other from the laity (including William Priestley’s signatures), were sent to the archbishop of Canterbury.3

WeDNesDAy 5 Breakfast at 9 alone till Marian came in about 1/4 hour— stood talking (she mended [my] pelisse at the hands [cuffs]) of Miss W– till near 11—Marian really behaves very well about it. Anne Lister and Ann Walker conducted a vigorous correspondence while the latter remained in York. Meanwhile by appealing to Marian’s snobbery, Anne prepared her family for the likely arrival of Ann Walker at Shibden.

FriDAy 7 Stood talking to Marian near an hour till after 7 in the hall— laughed and asked which would suit me best, M– or Miss W–? She thought the latter—would be more convenient and then agreed with me that she [Ann Walker] would suit me in every respect the best. I said I would rather take her [social] connections than M–’s. ‘Yes’ said Marian ‘and so would I’....Both my father and Marian seem pleased about Miss W–. Said I thought I should be happier with her than I should now be with Mrs Lawton, to which Marian seemed to agree without the least surprise. Anne Lister might already be acting informally as Ann Walker’s business adviser; but at the same time she grew impatient with Ann’s wariness to give any public sign of the seriousness of their ‘union’, particularly her reluctance to live at Shibden. Yet Anne Lister remained keen to proceed with her other ambitious plans—including improvements to Shibden itself. She felt she must keep on her guard in case she lost control of the relationship and she grew angry at any hint of an affront to her authority from Ann Walker. The diary now becomes interwoven with extracts from Ann’s letter and Anne Lister’s own internal angry meditations.

sAturDAy 8 Wrote (1 page and 4 lines) to Miss W– and copied what I would advise her to write in answer to Washington....Strongly urge her to determine about [it] and give Washington orders to let Lidgate....A great comfort and advantage to us to have things settled

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as soon as possible, so that our intentions should be clear to all whom they concerned—our position too equivocal...Letter (3 pages and 21/4 pages crossed) from Miss Walker, Heworth Grange...‘I am thinking about Lidgate, and will say more when I write next—will it be wise to irritate or brave public opinion further just now? For the same reason, ought or can I accept your kind proposition about Shibden?’ Her usual indecision—does she mean to make a fool of me after all? She would not have me paint the carriage, nor do more at Shibden than necessary. Gave me (that is, bought for sixpence and put on again) my ring languidly4—and now declines taking the straight course of shewing our union, or at least compact, to the world....Whatever force there is against her coming here, is the same against my going there. I don’t like all this—I distrust her and feel as if the thing would again (and this time forever) go off between us. I shall not be played with. Let her come here before I go there again.... Affront! Does this seem as if she really thought us united in heart and purse? Delighted to hear my aunt is a little better—‘Not selfishly so, for my own wish is that you should never take any distant journey so long as she lives...’ This would be well enough if I did not shrewdly suspect she wishes to avoid going abroad or doing anything that would too decidedly bespeak our compact...It has often struck me she wanted to make a cat’s-paw of me to get into society. No harm done, yet [I must] take care of my own concerns...Miss Rawson says her mind is little and much in her money. Shall I find her right? ‘Only think of the time when you can come again to me—the onyx (the ring I gave her)5—and ever believe me—with kind regards to your father and sister—love to your aunt—yours faithfully and affectionately AW.’ She little thinks how much she has annoyed me—but no more of her just now. Rainy day from between 8 and 9. Sunday was a letter-writing day for Anne Lister. Significantly her beloved aunt—but not the absent Ann Walker—figured in the social face Anne chose to present herself to her aristocratic Copenhagen correspondents.

suNDAy 9 With my aunt—from 123/4 in 3/4 hour read the short morning service and one of Mr Knight’s sermons and then saw my aunt’s leg dressed....Affectionate letter to Lady H. de Hagemann....Kind affectionate letter also to Countess de Blucher...‘My poor aunt suffers a martyrdom and may still survive some months. It was her arms that 1st held me—hers was like a mother’s care, and to her liberal kindness were owing half the comforts of my early life—I see her sinking slowly and painfully into the grave.’6...With my aunt at 91/2 for 3/4 hour—told

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her Miss W–’s hesitating about letting Lidgate and coming here and my feeling about it, saying it was touch-and-go with me. ‘Yes’, answered my aunt, ‘I should not be surprised if it is all off’. ‘No, no’, said I, ‘I don’t quite know that’. Dr Steph Belcombe, while recognizing Anne Lister’s ‘oddity’, continued to treat Ann Walker as any responsible mental health doctor might. But he had now spoken to his sister Mariana about this particular patient; knowing her long-standing relationship (still continued with lengthy letters) with Anne, he perhaps began to feel a certain professional wariness.

tuesDAy 11 Letter (3 pages and ends and 1st page crossed, forwarded by Dr Belcombe from York) from Mariana, Leamington—very affectionate and very judicious answer to my last—hopes I found Miss W– better. ‘Is she une malade imaginaire? Because Steph says, in speaking of her to me, “If Miss Walker was poor she would probably not be sick...”’ Out again at 2 and from then to 71/4 out with one or other [of the men]—chiefly with John Booth planting out flowers in my walk....In the meantime, Mark Town, Mr Joseph Akroyd’s watchman,7 came to take [i.e. rent] the Hanging Hey & Flat Field (11 D.W.), at £2 [p.a.], the tenant paying all taxes. sAturDAy 15 Letter from Miss Walker, Heworth Grange....The tone of her manner of writing affectionate and proper enough, as if she really did mean to submit—so said I was quite satisfied. The onyx [ring] only off her finger at night and to wash [her] hands. Miss W– quite satisfied to let Lidgate house and land next spring....Off to Halifax at 12—down the Old Bank to Mr Parker’s office—Mark Town’s lease to be ready for signing at 6 pm on Monday....Returned by Bailey Hall [canal basin] and John Bottomley’s and all along the upper land to see about Mark Town getting into his land with manure. sAturDAy 22 5 pages and ends to Miss Walker....Said I had written, as I told her, to Mrs Lawton but had not sent the letter which should now be rather modified—that is, [I] will not tell M– that Miss W– and I are positively engaged—and advised Miss W– not to name it, as [i.e. unless] she asks my leave to do it, to Steph—say he had better hear it from M– than from Miss W– or me.8 thursDAy 25 To 5 55/”, at Estate plans—making out instructions for leases—comparing contents in acres and D.W. and making

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other calculations....Letter (nearly 3 widely-written pages) from Mrs Sutherland (Udale House) to enquire after Miss Walker, as she knew I had been lately with her—grateful for my kindness to her, etc. etc.—had heard, though not from Miss W–, of Mr Edwards’s interference: ‘He could do no good, and was sure to give offence—he might have felt assured that we should take every prudent precaution in regard to Ann—however Dr Belcombe judged most wisely in not replying to the questions put [by Charles Priestley].’ Anne Lister still wrote rough drafts of her most serious letters, copying extracts into her diary.

WeDNesDAy 26 Incurred a cross just before getting up thinking of Miss W–... Writing rough draft of letter to Mrs Sutherland... ‘I can confirm the good accounts you have had from your sister....The character of those to whom your sister had thought proper to apply was, surely, sufficient guarantee that she would not be left to place herself in any circumstances either insufficiently respectable or insufficiently comfortable... Kind regards to yourself and Captain Sutherland; and believe me very truly yours, A. Lister.’ Anne Lister set off again for Heworth Grange; Ann Walker was very glad to see her. The diary’s brevity here suggests bathos.

suNDAy 30 Three kisses—better to her than to me...At Goodramgate church at 10 35/”; Miss W– and I and Thomas staid [for] the sacrament.... The first time I ever joined Miss W– in my prayers—I had prayed that our union might be happy—she had not thought of doing as much for me.9

aPrIL 1834 Anne Lister and Ann Walker left York for a tour of Yorkshire; their final stop was to visit the Norcliffes at Langton again: here Anne Lister could now name-drop minor aristocratic names. Of her newest relationship, certainly Isabella Norcliffe’s sister Charlotte (and in a much more hazy way their mother) knew Anne Lister’s seductive skills of old.1

thursDAy 3 Alighted at Langton at 7 25/”. Mrs N– thought us late— Norcliffe there and Charlotte, both going to York tomorrow. Isabella N– at Croft. Dressed. Went to Charlotte for a moment. ‘What did I bring

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aPrIL 1834

Miss W– for?’ They said she was crazy and she, Charlotte, believed it. I merely said ‘No’—if I had thought her so, should not have taken her there. Dressed— tea about 83/4... Miss W– went to her room at 10 35/”, Mrs N– staid an hour after; and then she and Charlotte N– and I went upstairs, and C. N– staid talking to me in my dressing room...from 11 35/” till 1 5/”. Thanked her very much for what she had said—tho’ she seemed ashamed of it—explained and said I thought of settling with Miss W–. C. N– thought I had better not determine too soon, but take time to let it amalgamate gradually. I said it had already been amalgamating [for] the last eighteen months, and I thought that long enough and I thought I had made up my mind—but begged Charlotte not to name it. Nobody was so much in my confidence as she—she thanked me, said she had no idea I knew Miss W– so intimately or [she] would not have said what she did. She and Mrs N– and I had had a good deal of conversation about her [Ann Walker] before coming upstairs. They said she ought to visit2 and I know not what, which I combatted and said if I could not manage York society comfortably for her, I could ask Lady Stuart de Rothesay who, I was sure, would be all kindness—this seemed a surprise upon them. Mrs N– said I should make Miss W– unhappy by so taking her out of her own line.3 But they soon began to see I was not to be talked out of it. Charlotte said she understood Miss W– had fifteen hundred a year. ‘Yes’, said I calmly, ‘she has’. Found Miss W– asleep, but she roused up and we had a long talk. Told her all I very well could. Anne began each daily diary entry with a comment on Ann Walker in bed— before going on as usual to record the weather and the exact timing of breakfast.

FriDAy 4 One last night and ditto this morning—very fine morning—downstairs and breakfast....We then sat talking with Mrs N–, Miss W– till dressing time and I (did not dress) till dinner at 4. Having said too much to Mrs N– and Charlotte about Miss W– last night, [I] said but little just before dinner today. But merely repeated that I should take her to Shibden; and afterwards said, apparently without Mrs N’s noticing it, ‘Two fortunes are better than one’. Very long sit after dinner—generally so at Langton—coffee about 6. Off from Langton at 6 40/” and home (at Hewarth Grange) at 83/4. sAturDAy 5 [Samuel] Washington had been here soon after 7 am and Miss W— was ready for him and kept him till after 9. James Clayton came to offer as footman—not very polished in speech or manner but perhaps likely enough to suit us—promised to do all that was

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wanted—look after and clean the carriage, and do the horse-work while at Shibden. Character to be enquired of Mr Cholmeley of Braudsby—if this what I approved, would give the man £21 a year. Anne Lister said goodbye to her York friends and returned home. Here she was busy bidding to buy about 16 acres of land (called Staups) along the Shibden valley, including some coal plus Stump Cross Inn which she hoped to let. This purchase was part of her overall strategy for enlarging her estate and maximizing her mining potential. Naturally she relied upon skilled professional men like Robert Parker to mediate for her—under her discreet but firm direction. Later she brought Ann Walker back to Shibden, and much of the pattern of their ‘marriage’ was established. Negotiations were now opened with the Sutherlands about dividing up the Walker estate inherited from their brother John.4 This would be helpful: Anne Lister did not have quite enough money to buy Staups.

thursDAy 17 One good one last night and both asleep directly. Twenty minutes dalliance in the midst of dressing. Downstairs at 71/2... Mr Parker very civil about advancing the [Staups] deposit £350...which needed not to be paid till Friday afternoon. [I] said I dared say I could make up the money—if not, Miss W– was at Shibden and would, I was sure, advance what was wanted...5 Everybody glad I had bought Staups...I had feared much coal opposition and pother. Home up the Old Bank at 12 5/”...Dinner at 61/4—coffee immediately as usual—backgammon; Miss W– a little tired—had been on foot all day....Letter (1/2 doz lines) from M–, Leamington...‘Dearest Fred, I have received your letter—the die is cast and Mary [i.e. Mariana] must abide by the throw. You at least will be happy...Ever yours, Mariana.’ Miss W– being at my elbow, [I] put the letter into her hands. But she has no idea of the real state of our former Miss W– got six hundconnection—[she] wondered—but I talked all off as well as I could, red pounds from Briggs 7 and she thinks it is merely about [as close] as Catherine Rawson [bank] , four hundred and fifty for me. will feel about her, Miss W–.6 FriDAy 18 As last night but not quite so good—she woke me up by a scream in the night, for I was biting her lip through. She got up and put spirits of wine [on it]—great laughter. Fine F 491/2 at 73/4am—breakfast at 81/2. Had Washington—said how satisfied I was and complimented him on his good management about Staups. Left Miss W– to write to her sister...to enquire after Captain Sutherland, not well—and off to H-x (down the o

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Old Bank) at 10 55/”—at Whitley’s [bookshop]. Paid Mr Parker the deposit money and auction duty (vid lines 6 and 7 above) = £52.13.4.

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may 1834 Once again Anne Lister took Ann Walker back to Heworth Grange and returned to Shibden. She worked on her estate improvements, consulting an architect about ‘a castle-plan’, gothic castellations, and a carriage drive with a lodge.1She also planted rhododendrons in the gardens; kept the masons busy with building work; and, with her Staups purchase, was able to develop her coal schemes. In all this Anne relied upon the sage advice of Samuel Washington. But as she became more adept at running her own estate, she was increasingly able to hold her own about land and its value. In all this she kept up her correspondence with female friends.

TuesDAy 6 Letter this morning...[from] Miss W–...good account of herself—Sarah [maid?] a great comfort to her—thinks Dr Belcombe has not heard anything particular about herself [and] me, or if he has he behaves very magnanimously.2 Letter this evening (3 pages) from M–, Leamington...‘Your having taken another to your bosom has not left vacant your place in Mary’s heart...“If the sunshine of love has illuminated our youth, the moonlight of friendship may at last console our decline”...ever affectionately Mariana’. She writes as if too bitterly repenting the deed of her own doing.3 WeDNesDAy 7 Washington said he had heard a man say he could buy all the Upper Brea coal at £10 per D.W. Would I not buy it at this price? ‘Yes!’ said I, and I would not let it go at twice that—but had rather wait if I could. Anne Lister began to plan for Ann Walker’s leaving her York lodgings and Dr Belcombe’s care. They would set out on a sketching trip to the Yorkshire dales with Ann’s drawing master, Mr Brown.

suNDAy 11 Note today (after church) printed, from the Literary and Philosophical Society to say the monthly meeting for May will be on the 12th inst.—and that the first stone of the new museum will be laid on Friday the 16th inst., on which occasion the attendance of the members and subscribers is requested; ‘and it is further proposed, that, in celebration of the occurance, they afterwards dine together, at the White Swan, tickets for the dinner (restricted to the members

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and subscribers and their families), 15/- each. Dinner to be on the table at 4 o’clock precisely. It is desirable that those gentlemen who propose attending the dinner leave their name with the Keeper of the Museum, on or before Tuesday, the 13th inst.’4 mONDAy 12 Incurred the cross thinking of Miss W– just before nine. Fine but dullish morning....Breakfast at 11 and [Marian] came to mend a tear in my pelisse and stood talking till 12 30/” about her living with Miss Mosey, I recommending it rather than marrying Mr Abbott.5 Out at 12 20/”....Came home to Washington....Speaking of Lidgate, I at last said it would be let—he valued it at £65 per annum, house & 32 D.W.—the 2 large fields behind the barn very bad—stiff clay— said I valued it at £80 per annum—he said that rent could not be got — Lightcliffe a very dull place now since the Walkers’ trade was given up.6 Dinner at 61/4 then coffee in an hour—long in teaching Joseph7 how to wait [at table]. At my desk at 71/4 wrote the above of today and the following: ‘Shibden Hall—Sunday evening 11 May 1834. My dearest Mary....Surely, I have in no degree deserved to forfeit your esteem—why then should there be any interuption to that friendship which has already lasted two-&-twenty years.... Friendship’s moonlight beam may be so bright, that the evening of our day may be more cloudless than its morning...I shall be in York on the 20th, but not longer than to take [i.e. pick] up my friend on our way for a little excursion to Richmond, & its interesting neighbourhood....Believe me, my dearest Mary, always & invariably very especially yours, A.L.’....Read and shed many tears over my letter. Anne Lister still deployed her artful rhetorical writing style to deflect Mariana’s wistful gaze away from the reality of the ‘marriage’ to Ann Walker. Their union now included household arrangements and increasingly complex transactions negotiated through Samuel Washington concerning property in Halifax and elsewhere.

tuesDAy 13 Wrote 21/2 pages to Miss W–. Washington paid me the theatre dividend £21.13.101/2 yesterday afternoon—£15 to be laid out on the Bailey hall cottages if she [has] no objection. [He] wants a check [cheque] for £40 to pay taxes—going to Udale after hay-time....At 9 Joseph back from Lidgate—Sarah arrived—Joseph brought back hamper of cowslip roots & asparagus, & packet containing French pillowcase & letter [from Miss W–]....The letter might be cried at the market-cross, yet still is in the quiet style of confiding affectionate regard. 104

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Anne Lister was certainly reassured that Ann Walker was so discreet in her writing that her letters could be read by any suspicious eye. Meanwhile, the infirmities of the two elder Listers meant doctors regularly visited.

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WeDNesDAy 14 Mr Sunderland came—saw my father—said he had evidently had a slight paralytic seizure—my aunt’s ankle bled more than ever last night—the linen kept unwashed. Mr S– said that there might be 2 oz = 4 leeches—my aunt poorly today. Anne Lister hoped to find a buyer for Northgate House; and she planned to make Shibden into a country house—rather like Crow Nest—with rolling parkland. She also had her eye on land at Godley, between Staups and Shibden; and in negotiating a purchase price with the owner, Mr Carr, she was prepared to be economical with the truth—even to her lawyer.

thursDAy 15 At Mr Parker’s office at 11/2 for 25 minutes...[Carr] would not take less than £3,000 for Godley & had had £3,100 bid. [I said,] ‘I must have it—I was making a fine open range of ground—a park—could not do without Godley’. [Carr] would not sell it without my knowing. Mr P– seemed inclined for me to give the money [i.e. pay that price]—said I should never get it for less. I said gold might be bought too dear with silver—I had offered enough for it, & if Mr Carr sold it so that I was incommoded,8 I was not bound to live at Shibden. Mr P– said ‘Oh!’ I could not think of leaving it. [I] said I was more indifferent about it than he or anyone thought—a better neighbourhood might easily be found. Returned up the Old Bank. Anne Lister did not in fact attend the stone-laying ceremony of the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society on Friday—nor the dinner afterwards.9 Instead she spent much of the afternoon replying to a letter from Mariana which had chided her about her travel plans. Contrary to what she had just said to Robert Parker, Anne here presented herself as wedded to Shibden and its traditions.

FriDAy 16 ‘Mary! Is not this reasonable? You find travelling insupportable....You, above all people, knew how I was situated towards my own place where my family had lived between 2 and 3 centuries, I being the 15th possessor of my family and name...I am always very especially yours, A. L–’. Writing out this letter has taken me from 3 25/” to 4 10/” = 11/4 hour. What will M– think of it?...The history of

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our acquaintance may be summed in: she accepted, refused, accepted, married, offended, refused, repented. Reading over my letter and dawdling till out [at] 41/2....Is Northgate, or will it be, sold or not—tonight at 7 the sale was to begin—I have not thought much about it even this evening and not at all during the day. My day was spent over my letter and my eyes stiffish with the tears that fell or stood big in my eyes. This weakness is too foolish....My father does not like the idea of flower-beds, so the ground before the front window is to be all sown down with grass and clover. sAturDAy 17 Had Washington between 10 and 11—no competition among the people for Northgate—only 3 or 4 bidders—the highest £6,350—of course no sale—laughed and said I was very well satisfied.10 He gave me the sale plan of Staups....Paid him two 10 pound Bank of England [notes] and £20 Briggs’s [bank] notes (theatre dividend) for the £40 Bank of England [notes] for Miss W–. Anne Lister finally set off for York on Ann Walker’s thirty-first birthday. She may not have found a buyer for Northgate, but her ‘marriage’ now smoothed her path to elegant travel (accompanied by Ann’s drawing master) and to stylish living—including crested cutlery and china plates.

tuesDAy 20 At Heworth Grange at 11 55/”—Dr Belcombe soon came—said Miss W– had overdone herself when last at home, & there had been a good deal of nervous irritation, enough to shew him what might be without care. Miss W– at that moment came in [so] that I had only time to say we would manage better in future.... After much packing of the carriage to fit all in & siding [arranging] things left behind, off from Heworth Grange at 2 10/”, thro’ Boroughbridge...to Richmond (King’s head) at 73/4...& our stay of 2 or 3 days for sketching with Mr Brown bids fair to be agreeable. WeDNesDAy 21 Two last night & one this morning but not very good ones—we had spoilt them a little by grubbling as we came along in the carriage just before & after Boroughbridge. Breakfast at 9....About 31/2, Mr Brown having had his mutton chop, we went to the Friary...[I] just saw the sketching place fixed up and all arranged and, leaving Eugenie with Miss W–, took Joseph and walked to Easby Abbey (or the abbey of St Agatha) about a mile from Richmond, a beautiful walk through wood and field along and down the river Swale—a large pile of ruins—very

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interesting and picturesque....Dinner at 61/4—Mr Brown dined with us and staid teaching Miss W– how to put the sky (in worsted work) into her stag footstool. I reading or asleep till he went out about 8. Miss W– poorly—tea at 9, Mr B– having walked out, and luckily not returned to us.11 Miss W– went to bed at 10. thursDAy 22 Real playing and squeezing and pressing for an hour and a half last night and almost as long this morning. She says she gets fonder & fonder of me and certainly seems to care enough for me now. I think we shall get on very well. Nobody would care for me more or do more for me. Very fine morning F56o now at 9am—breakfast at 101/4 in an hour—off to the abbey of St Agatha (Easby Abbey) at 12—walked slowly by the water side....Slept 1/2 hour in an old wheelbarrow, then joined with Miss W– at the cottage for 3/4 hour while she had biscuits and wine till about 31/2....Dinner at 61/2 tête a tête (Mr Brown not returning). Afterwards my going out put off by Miss W–’s having me near her on the sofa & being on the amoroso—so grubbled her well then read a little of Clarkson’s history of Richmond. After the successful sketching tour—including Barnard Castle and Brimham rocks—they returned to Heworth Grange and Anne’s York friends—including of course the Belcombe family.

FriDAy 30 No kiss last night—crept into [bed] when she was asleep, that she knew not of my getting in. Quiet this morning—she not well enough for much moving about—but looked at her queer and played gently tho’ not excitingly. Had Parsons to cut my hair at 91/2 and he then cut Miss W–’s. Breakfast at 101/2 while Miss W– lay down again—not free from sickness. Dr Belcombe came about 111/2—Miss W– got up to see [him] but lay down again before he went away—merely told him we were going to London to Daimergue, the dentist, for Miss W–, but begged him not to name it. The Lawtons expected at Harrogate in August. I think Dr B– seems now aware of the business between Miss W– and myself. [He] asked me if I thought her [Mariana] being so well would last. ‘Yes!’ I had no fear—said I had heard this [in a letter] from M–, Leamington (forwarded from Shibden dated 26th inst., 3 pages & ends & under the seal)—composed, proper enough letter, tho’ owning she repented her conduct and its consequences....Miss W– and I out a few minutes before 4—went to old Mrs Belcombe12 & walked with her in her garden near 3/4 hour....Home at 6—dinner. Mr Brown came & gave Miss W– a lesson at 7 (putting clouds into her worsted work).

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At last apparently Dr Steph Belcombe had gathered the nature of ‘the business’ between Anne Lister and his patient. Exactly what he thought about this is not immediately clear. He was a well-respected doctor, and would be loath to put his professional reputation at risk. Yet doctors then depended upon wealthy patients and their well-connected friends. Ann Walker was someone whom he could probably ill-afford to turn away. And any judgement was complicated by his own family’s long-standing friendship with Anne Lister. Possibly, through his own sister and others, he took a tolerant view of lesbian relationships; possibly as a doctor he had a professional reluctance about drawing attention to his specialist medical knowledge, or about speaking about what was best left unspoken. Certainly he apparently kept his silence.13

sAturDAy 31 Packing all the morning—Dr Belcombe came about 11/2 or after—the carriage came at 1 50/”—packed the inside myself, and saw the postboy do the back-boot. Dinner at 3—Mr Brown came about 31/2 to give Miss W– a lesson, how to do the clouds of her worsted work. Off from Heworth Grange at 3 52/”....At Shibden at 9 35/”....Sat talking to Marian till 12—said Miss W– and I should give her £100 on [our] going away finally—she thought it too much—I said it certainly was not. My aunt’s being so surprisingly better put going to Paris into my head again—Marian thought it would, and thought we might be away very well the next two months.

June–august 1834 Over the next three months Anne Lister and Ann Walker travelled, visiting France and Switzerland.1 Before they set off, Anne arranged with Samuel Washington for a tenant to rent Lidgate; and she also made the final arrangements concerning her own financial and estate affairs. With Ann Walker’s income flow increasingly under her control, Anne Lister could at last travel through Europe in style.

[JuNe] tuesDAy 3 Breakfast at 101/2—packing & giving orders all the day till near 3, when down the old bank to Halifax—went to the P.O.—letter (few hurried lines) from Miss Walker, Heworth Grange, York—merely changing the order on Messrs Briggs [bank] from 3 to 5 hundred pounds—took this to the bank (the 1st time I ever was in it) and said I would send my servant for the packet—did not much like the man in the bank, & said to myself, ‘I shall not, I think, bank here’. Then to Mr Parker’s...I must be back by the 2nd of August, or it would be difficult to manage about the Staups purchase....Changed 108

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my dress, & off from Shibden at 5—called at Lidgate for things, and at Leeds in 11/2 hour!...At Heworth Grange at 9 28/”.

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WeDNesDAy 4 A tolerable kiss last night; but my bowels having been heated & wrong for these ten days, took two teaspoonfuls of salts at eight this morning on getting up & they had worked off by twelve. Breakfast about 10—packing.... Off from Heworth Grange at 3 10/” . Two passports were ordered, and they travelled south. In London, Anne Lister visited Lady Stuart and Lady Stuart de Rothesay; here she met grand Lady Mexborough from the West Riding who, Anne recorded with satisfaction, shook hands with her twice. But Anne discovered, with the Lord Grey’s Whig government still in power and with her own new access to income, the social tables were somewhat reversed with these dispossessed ambassadorial Tories.2

tuesDAy 10 Lady Stuart de R– particularly kind—said I would bring her a waggon-load of things from Paris if she liked—but she told me she gave no parties & hoped Lord S– would not spend all their money in foolish building...I see there is sad want of money & she is not in her splendour now. But all kindness to me & I will behave with tact. I think I shall get on in high life & carry on, me with Miss W–, by & by. Once on their way, Ann Walker (whom Anne decided to call ‘Adney’ in future) was—at least according to the cheery letters Anne wrote to her aunt—a ‘blithe and happy’ traveller.3 The two women made their way to Paris and then south-east towards the Alps. While the letters back to Aunt Anne painted a very rosy picture of clambering around Mont Blanc, Anne Lister’s own diary—especially the coded passages—makes it clear that Ann Walker was in fact not her ideal travelling companion.4

[July] mONDAy 21 Rain all last night & this morning—an end of ascending Mount Blanc—packing....Off at 71/2 in spite of the rain. Never in my life saw such a fidget in a carriage—she was in all postures & places till at last she luckily fell asleep for about an hour. She had had too much Roussillon wine which made her feverish without being tipsy. They returned to Paris, arriving back in London on 27 August; they travelled all night & arrived back at Shibden early the following morning.5 Here they immediately encountered domestic irritations—particularly Ann Walker’s aunt who roundly scolded her niece. But such rebukes were far too late to be effective. Ann Walker would now live at Shibden Hall.

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coaL mInIng rIvaLry s e P t e m b e r 1834–n o v e m b e r 1834

sePtember 1834 Their ‘marriage’ and shared home now settled, Anne Lister’s diary from autumn onwards took on a more practical, less sexually charged tone. There was the pleasure of setting up house together and trying to create domestic arrangements to suit. Ann’s furniture was brought by cart from Lidgate to Shibden.1 Like any other married couple, they also had to cope with prying in-laws—notably Ann Walker’s Priestley and Edwards relatives who were suspicious as to why this shy wealthy heiress should leave her own home for Shibden Hall. Meanwhile, their extended summer travels meant that a backlog of estate business had built up; Anne Lister needed a vigorous review of whether she should buy more land, and how the market for local coal had developed while she was away.

thursDAy 4 No kiss—fine—breakfast at 9—had Greenwood’s man to measure for bookcase in blue room—unpacking china. At Lidgate (A– & I walked) at 111/2—packing china etc—had one cart again, and Charles and James Howarth who arrived just before us. George brought (in the afternoon) the card of Mrs William Priestley and ditto of Mr W. Priestley, each directed in pencil [to] ‘Miss Walker’—[they] had called and sat a little while with Marian, but never asked after me—tho’ Mr W. P– mentioned Miss W–’s being here, and said how long she would remain was another thing. Seemed in bad temper about it; said A– had not consulted any of her friends—had not mentioned her intention even to her aunt of Cliff-hill—evidently bitter against me. Mrs William Henry Rawson2 left her card for A– at

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Lidgate, & so did Mr Edwards or somebody from Pye-nest (for all the families of Pye-nest and Darcy Hey), for A– had given strict orders to admit no one.

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FriDAy 5 No kiss. Ellen Hatton and daughter3 here by 71/4 to do the tentwise-top of the upper kitchen chamber, to be A–’s and my own bedroom in future. sAturDAy 6 Had Washington with our rent accounts—I received £190 in bills [notes] + 37 sovereigns + 1/4d, leaving £50 in his hands, clear of all the payments....A– and I off at 2 55/” (walked) to Lidgate—she busy upstairs—I in cellar packing wine from 41/2 to 71/2—17 bottles champagne, 18 ditto raisin; 31/2 dozen port of 1825 + 3 doz of the same, 19 bottles fine old madeira. suNDAy 7 No kiss—she always too tired....A– & I read prayers—in as much as my aunt could bear, as she had spasms directly after the service was over. A– lay down for an hour & I sat by reading the newspaper (Morning Herald). Their separate interests dove-tailed well: Anne’s newspaper reading, Ann’s neighbourhood philanthropy. However Ann’s Cliff-hill aunt still felt bitterly querulous about how her niece had fallen into Anne Lister’s clutches, and how this spelt the doom of social isolation for Ann.

mONDAy 8 A– & I off to...Cliff-hill, and brought A– away at 5 35/”—no shaking hands with her aunt who had been crosser than ever. How tiresome! Gets upon poor A–’s nerves and undoes all good. Surely she will cease to care for such senseless scolding by and by—all sorts of bitterness against me—I am said to have said in York I would have nothing to do with her ‘troublesome friends’—and indeed her friends, said Mrs A. W–, would not trouble her (A–) much at Shibden. The poor old woman’s head is crammed full of pother and untruths. tuesDAy 9 Goodish one last night—lay quietly talking this morning....Wrote compliments to Mr Wilkinson and to enquire whether there was a front gallery-pew at liberty in Lightcliffe [church] and what would be the annual rent—if not, begged to know what pews were at liberty, as, during my stay at home, should be glad to be one of Mr W–’s congregation if I could get a good pew.

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Significantly, they chose to attend the Reverend Wilkinson’s rural church, rather than Musgrave’s parish church in Halifax itself: this would provide an easier setting for them, and fitted in with Ann’s local landed status.4

WeDNesDAy 10 With my aunt (much better tonight) 25 minutes till 10 10/”—before this, after dinner & coffee, had played backgammon with A–, leaving off after several hits, she 1 hit a head.5...F56o at 121/2 tonight in the tent room (upper kitchen chamber)—sat up talking over Mr Edwards’s letter & Mrs Sutherland’s settlement of her property on her husband (according to Mr E–’s letter) even without [it] being settled first on her children.6 sAturDAy 13 Read a little of the Morning Herald. Helped A– with her letter to her sister. She (A–) for settling with Mrs Clarke7 as soon as possible, whether the Sutherlands will or not. The demand for Halifax coal was still rising. Now with the addition of the Staups land, Anne Lister’s mining strategy began to take firm shape. She saw the Rawsons were racing ahead: their operations extended from Swan Bank down by the Hebble (where they were already experimenting with a small steam engine to drain the colliery), to small pits sunk in land in the Marsh area of Southowram, near the Shibden estate. Anne, relying upon James Holt’s stories about the Rawsons, played her cards close to her chest. She now became more proactive in negotiation, though still seemed a little gullible towards experts like Holt, who tried to flatter her.8

suNDAy 14 With my aunt at 12. A– & I had prayers & sat talking a while—having had Holt for about an hour...Rawson has put down 2 engines of 5 horse power each—the lower engine lifts the water into a level9 that empties it into the Halifax [i.e. Hebble] brook near Thief bridge (near Stoney Royde)...[Holt] thinks James Norris & Joseph Wilkinson going into coal partnership—Holt very glad he & I escaped Mr N–. He would not like to have anything to do with him—too much coal now in the market — mine will pay for keeping. Rawson has at Swan-bank pit & the other pit (coal of both brought out at the same place) 32 colliers, 14 at one, 17 at the other—& 4 colliers will get a D.W. in a year10—that R– gets 8 D.W. per annum. Thinks they have stolen some of my coal—said I should be glad if they had—would look after [i.e. attend to] them. mONDAy 15 To have the Mytholm pew in Lightcliffe church lined with

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dark green, ready for us next Sunday...1/2 hour with Marian—20 minutes with my aunt till 10 10/”—then near 1/2 hour again with Marian—money matters—if I could let Marian have fifty of the hundred A– & I are to give her on leaving & the rest at Christmas. Yes.11 Anne Lister planned to sink her tiny Walker pit at the top of the Southowram Bank near the Rawsons’ colliery, on high ground between Conery and Brierley Hill where John Bottomley lived. Key to making it profitable was road access across the hillside and down into Halifax.

tuesDAy 16 A– and I out at 23/4 to Brierley-hill12 to meet Holt about getting water for John Bottomley and about sinking pit to enable me to look after Mr Rawson...13 The job to be advertised next week for letting, as also the pit-sinking. Holt thinks the pit will cost about 40/- per yard [for] sinking, about 100 yards deep to the lower bed. Saw the place [where the pit to be sunk] near the upper gateway just above Conery wood in the Park farm well field—with a small fire [i.e. steam] engine might get coal there for many years—easy road along the foot of Bairstow, just out below Wiskum cottage into the New Bank to H-x. Pit to be oblong 8 feet x 5.4 (therefore, said S.W. tonight, 5 square yards)...H– said the coal would sell at 8d at the pit’s mouth—& no turnpike [road14] to H-x would make a penny a load difference. Rawson sells at 91/2 in the town—we shall sell at 9d....Note from Mr Wilkinson, Heath, to say the front pew in the north gallery nearest to the west gallery is at liberty, rent 1 guinea a year. Gradually Ann Walker’s move into Shibden became more accepted locally. Even some her relatives began to soften: Anne Lister recorded the timings of the visits with obsessive precision. She was also pleased they could afford to repair their yellow carriage, sending it down to London by canal.

thursDAy 18 About 121/2 sent off the yellow carriage (dragged behind the cart) to Pickford’s warehouse at H-x...A– & I....called and sat 18 minutes with Mrs William Priestley...she (Mrs W. P–) held out her [hand] to A– but not to me—yet talked civily to us both—of course I shewed no sign of hand-shaking on coming away. Then at Cliff-hill at 3 25/” for 11/4 hours—Miss W– very civil—some hope of her at least seeming less cross with and at us in future?

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FriDAy 19 Long trial [endeavour?] last night—really tolerable kiss to me, the best I have ever had of A–, but very bad one to her.

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For their Sunday attendance at church, Ann and Anne were accompanied by a servant—probably in livery—to carry their books for the service.15

suNDAy 21 A– & I read the morning (short as now usual) prayers. A– had letter from Captain Sutherland to say a ‘fine thumping boy’ born at 91/2 pm on Tuesday (the 16th inst), to be called John after his grandfather & uncle Walker—mother & child doing exceedingly well. A– wrote 3 pages in answer, of compliments & congratulations from herself & us all—never recollected till the letter was sealed that she had taken no notice of the intended name.16 A– & I off to church at 2 35/”—George followed (1st time) with the books & brought them back, there being as yet no drawer in the pew—that belonging to the Stag’s head, Mytholm17—just lined with green cloth—1st time of our sitting in it—I determined to sit in a pew of our own, since Miss Cliff-hill’s taking her books away the Sunday before last.18...40 minutes at Cliff-hill to announce the birth of the little boy—had opportunity to mention our sitting in our new pew—it seemed all right—but Miss Cliff-hill wondered we did not go to Halifax, it was nearer—said I had 4 pews of my own in the chapel [of Halifax parish church]...A– to send a letter to Captain Sutherland. WeDNesDAy 24 Home at 41/2—found Miss W– literally tipsy—laughed & told her so. She said she had taken three glasses [of] sherry at luncheon. How will all this end? Anne read geology books keenly: with naturalists beginning to develop ideas about evolution, this had an intellectual edge—as well as a serious commercial purpose.

thursDAy 25 Began last night (received yesterday evening by Booth’s man) & read 17 pages ‘A Treatise of Primary Geology, being an examination, both practical & theoretical, of the older formations’ by Henry S. Boase....Off (down the old bank) to H-x at 11 50/”....At Whitley’s—paid Booth for Boase’s Primary Geology, & for Bakewell’s Geology & Swainson’s discussion on the study of natural history, the latter to be published 1 October. FriDAy 26 Read aloud from the Morning Herald just come tonight—

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the Leeds & Selby rail-road opened on Monday without any particular ceremony & without any accident.

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sAturDAy 27 Sat talking all the evening—she had four glasses of Madeira at dinner and talked as if it was in her head—would have a division of the property—what she would say to Captain Sutherland about it—she enraged against them—her aunt Cliff-hill still queerish....Our bed moved into the tent room this evening and slept there 1st time tonight. With her tongue loosened, Ann Walker railed against Captain Sutherland’s cupidity. Ann wanted to divide the joint property and the Sutherlands opposed this, perhaps hoping by keeping it all together they might lay claim to some of Ann’s income.19 Anne Lister might still feel slighted by some of Ann Walker’s relatives, but she now asserted a new authority in the neighbourhood—partly because she planned to sink the small hill-top Walker pit and put pay to the Rawsons; and partly because she, along with other Tory landowners in the counties, would in the coming months begin to turn up the political pressure on their tenants who were £50 leaseholders.

october 1834 The ripples caused by Ann Walker’s move continued to spread: one of Anne Lister’s old friends, elderly Mrs Rawson, remained aghast at the new household at Shibden. Anne had to work hard to counter suspicion and rumour. In all such discussion, respectable conversation always sidled round the issue of the exact nature of the two women’s relationship.

thursDAy 2 At Stony Royde at 11 25/” for 1/2 hour, Mrs Rawson going early to dine at Mill-house1—all the town talking of A–’s coming here—so cruel to leave her aunt—& how did my father like so many families in the house—with her fortune so strange to give up her [home] and come and live so out of the world. Said I was more cruel [in encouraging this] than in leaving my aunt [to travel abroad]—worse to have seas between than only 2 miles—Miss Cliff-hill should have invited A– to live with her—I myself told Miss Cliff-hill this twice. [Anne Lister responded:2] ‘What could A– & I do better? Both left alone—all of us better—& very comfortable—my aunt, father, sister—everybody pleased—people should know all sides before they judged’. ‘Yes!’ agreed Mrs R– & seemed satisfied.

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Miss Cliff-hill has asked Miss Mary Rawson of Mill-house to go [as companion] to her—& she is going next week, it seemed as if to live with her.3 Home up the Old Bank....Told A– all I had heard at Stony Royde—she burst into tears on hearing about Miss Mill-house Rawson being [going?] to Cliff-hill—had seen her—her aunt had spoken as if the girl had merely arrived by accident.4 Cheered up A–; she said those who did most for people were not always most thought of...35 minutes telling my aunt all the news—then rubbed A–’s spine with brandy for 20 minutes. Anne Lister may have won this round; but not all were as easy-going as elderly Mrs Rawson. Meanwhile, at the inn at Mytholm, the bidding for sinking the Walker pit was fairly stiff. The job was let to local ‘coal’ brothers: John and Joseph Mann. Anne Lister, of course, did not attend this open tendering for work, but relied on her trusted male intermediaries to conduct the noisy business—and report back.

sAturDAy 4 Had Washington till about 11....Great crowd at the Stag’s head last night—Holt & W– there letting the pit-sinking—John Mann took it at 23/- a yard, & driving for water (for John Bottomley) at 5/3 a yard....Walked with her [A–] in the garden 11/4 hours & then sat by her on the sofa in the blue room 1/2 hour—lowish today about her aunt and looking a little in her forlorn way. Sinking the Walker pit propelled other rival coal-owners into activity.

mONDAy 6 Holt came at 9—John Mann & co ready to begin tomorrow—gave Holt one of the coal plans to set out the pit by—the sinking to be measured off every fortnight, & paid for every alternate Saturday by Washington...H– saw Illingworth (Mr Rawson’s coalsteward) on Saturday...Joseph Wilkinson told H—he & Mr James Norris were going to begin getting the Upper Brea coal—should level next week—put down an engine in the field going down to the [Red Beck] brook. Anne Lister was still working hard to normalise the situation at Shibden with Ann Walker’s many relatives: her father and sister even paid a visit to Lightcliffe.

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received & sat there an hour, saying our call was on Miss Rawson (Mary of Mill-house) as well as on Miss Walker.

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WeDNesDAy 8 Sent to Miss W– of Cliff-hill this morning the pheasant & brace of partridges received from I. Norcliffe (Langton) yesterday. thursDAy 9 Met John Bottomley—Pickells5 had told me he declined signing his lease—said he must sign it or I would quit him next spring—he explained and so did I, & it ended, on his finding me so determined, in his promising to sign tomorrow at Mr Parker’s office. The distinct households at Shibden had long been complex: Anne and her aunt, plus Marian and her father lived fairly separate lives. Now, with Ann Walker resident, a more intricate system emerged of virtually three households under one roof. Given the half-dozen servants there as well, financing this system was complex.

FriDAy 10 John Mann & co (2 Manns & another) began sinking the [Walker] pit in Greenwood’s Well-field this morning—sometime with them. Home & breakfast at 93/4—then sat talking & some while with Marian—she says she will not have more than £300 a year to spend. Told A– of the offer I had made Marian some years ago: £400 a year & a knife & fork here, or to pay for her man & maid after the rate I must buy my aunt pays my father for her [servants]. Upper Brea.6 Anne Lister liked to present herself as technologically up-to-date; but, like her aunt and the Waterhouses, she was really locked into the old canal generation. Anne followed the bitter commercial rivalry between the canal proprietors and new railroad promoters keenly. Here she had to rely heavily on engineering experts, often recording ingenuously (after a confusing discussion) that her informant ‘was quite of my opinion’.

mONDAy 13 Had Mr Bradley the architect from about 11 to near one... would if possible get the plan of new buildings [at Shibden] done for me in a fortnight....Then much talk about buying timber (at Hull) & about the Calder & Hebble navigation...the Sowerby part deepened (for larger vessels) too much—the walling not properly done—the banks will not stand long.7 Quite of my opinion: a railroad would be obtained Navigation—much sooner or later—the [canal] proprietors might oppose it & speculation now, but get the better for a year or 2, but not longer. Said I had, in B– would not sell.

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1829 or 1831, mentioned to Mr Waterhouse my plan for our taking up the railroad ourselves; Bradley quite approved it... Bradley thought great improvements might be made in the velocity of canal boats—steam might be used—the vessels propelled from the stern so as to do little injury to the canal-banks, or they might be altered & made strong enough. The affairs of our navigation now managed by a sub-committee which sits every Friday fortnight—the following gentlemen of the number: Mr Clay of Rastrick, 3 Messrs Hodgsons, Mr Briggs senior, 2 Messrs Waterhouse seniors, Mr Edwards of Pyenest, Messrs Christopher & William H. Rawson=12—there may be some others.8 The affairs of the town (H-x) now quite in the hands of 2nd rate people eg Mr Charles Whiteley (building a house in King Cross Lane) a principal leader. Such men as Mr Waterhouse who ought to lead are now set aside— consequently work done cheap & not for lasting... A– had letter this morning from her sister—all right—consent to all the business matters proposed.9 Anne Lister still used her correspondence skills to present a particular picture of herself to women friends—like Isabella Norcliffe.

tuesDAy 14 A tolerable kiss last night—weight of two blankets and quilt rather much—she a little exhausted and said ‘It is killing work’, of which I took no notice but seemed to sleep. At my desk at 8...finished my letter...to I. N–.... Mention our arriving at home on the 30th August after a delightful tour—enjoyed ourselves exeedingly—‘She’ (A–) ‘is a capital traveller....We really get on admirably—one of these days, you must come & see...A– understands keeping house better than I do, so that I am better off than formerly’. The finances of Ann Walker and Anne Lister were becoming intimately entwined. This must have been apparent to their Halifax lawyers, Parker and Adam, though these arrangements still probably fell within the acceptable boundaries of close female friendship. But Anne Lister wanted to go further. She clearly believed that she has some right of access to her ‘wife’s’ income (though she was more cautious about Ann Walker’s capital, for which she felt that she, like any other borrower, must offer security).

WeDNesDAy 15 Had Mr Adam from 101/4 to 11; A– gave him instructions to settle the administration account for her & Mrs Sutherland with Mrs Clark.10 Mr Adam hoped it would be done in a month—to 118

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october 1834

try & manage the Staups title deeds so that A–’s money would be in time for me to take [advantage?] of her £1,000 & have the other thousand [on loan] of Mr Wainhouse.11....It seems A– and Mrs Sutherland have still to pay three thousand and six pound one shilling and sixpence out [of] their share to be received:12 £5,375.15.0—3,006.1.6=2,369.13.6, [so] that A– can let me have a thousand, for which I shall give her security, as it is not out of income. A– & I off at 11 25/” by the walk...seeking Mrs Sutherland’s Harper Wood [property] to see about Mr Rawson’s coal-water that breaks out near there & damages a good deal of land.13...Then from 7 40/” to 8 25/” wrote the last 12 lines of yesterday & so far of today (A– writing to her sister)—a minute or 2 with my aunt, then A– went to her & read her the letter she (A–) had just written. Meanwhile & afterwards read from page 185 to 212 Bakewell [geology]—then asleep (A– returned from my aunt & still writing copying her letter) till 111/4. As Anne Lister walked the three miles to Harper Wood, she must have begun to realise how very extensive was the Walker estate. Luckily, Ann Walker’s letter to Elizabeth Sutherland survives among the Crow Nest estate papers, and helps give us a clearer idea of the complex relationship between the two sisters. It reveals how artlessly Ann Walker, with Anne by her elbow, masked the key financial demand behind layers of chatty family and estate news—including further blacking of the Rawsons’ name. Despite being heavily crossed and so often illegible, the letter offers a rare opportunity to read Ann Walker’s own obscurely rambling account of recent events. (See illustration p.58)

Shibden Hall Wed afternoon October 15th 1834 My dearest Elizabeth, Many many thanks for your kind letter, which I had really begun to be very anxious for, wishing to know particularly how you yourself were going on—and I have some [illegible] about the business: I am so glad we are both agreed on the subject [of the division of the estate]....It is our peculiar interest to settle, and get our money as soon as we can; I have therefore ventured, without waiting for the writing to you and your answer, to give Mr Adam (Mr Parker being at Harrogate) instructions to settle the business without delay and secure the money from Messrs Rawsons’ [bank]...; will you, in the meanwhile, consider what you would

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like to be done with your share of the money, and either tell me or give Mr Parker your Instructions. I have very fortunately an opportunity of investing some [of my share] advantageously, & consequently shall not have it paid into Mr Briggs’ Bank...14 Mr Adam gave us his opinion: that everything would be settled in about a month, and I sincerely hope this will be the case...I thought of you all much yesterday, how busy you would be in christening [illegible] little baby....We shall wish little [illegible] Mary many happy returns on the 21st.... The Watercourse [along Harper Cliff Wood] has now broken out again, & is spoiling nearly one acre of ground, & consequently it affords the Rawsons all that they want of it. Captain Sutherland told Miss Lister, when he came to Lidgate, the whole of the circumstances of their behaviour about it; of course they were too flagrant [glaring] for her to forget; & when she accidentally heard it mentioned very lately that their Watercourse had broken out again, she told me to mention it to you, as the Rawsons really laugh in their sleeves at their good fortune. We thought it would be more satisfactory if we could tell you from observation how it is, and we accordingly took a walk this morning along the Leeds & Whitehall roads, in the hope of seeing it.... You may probably have heard already that Mary Rawson went to Cliff-hill on the 2nd October, Miss Lister was told (and from good authority), to reside—and at my Aunt’s own proposal. I may only tell you that I have never heard one word of this myself...; my Aunt told me of her [Mary’s] stay as if it was by mere accident she had come for the day & been left [there]. I am really very glad & thankful that my Aunt had at least got someone...I have often felt very uneasy about her—as it was not in my power to do more than I had done. I was the only unmarried Niece who could be with her, and I really did make her the proposal to live with her, and tho’ I had not at that time what I have now [my own fortune], you are well aware that with what my father left me, I could have shared half the expenses of the house with her and lived very comfortably; she took a fortnight to consider of the proposal and then said she thought ‘old and young people did not suit’. I then fitted up Lidgate (you know, at not a little expense). When I was in Scotland, unknown to me, Miss Lister twice asked her to ask me to live with her, when she repeated the objection she made before; but no word was ever passed upon the subject, nor should I have named it to you or to anyone else, had it not been reported in Halifax that my ‘cruelty in leaving Lidgate’ had obliged her to ask Mary Rawson. No one had a better right or more ample means to please themselves than my Aunt 120

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and I think she is quite right having done so; but I think it scarcely fair that people should judge so harshly of me without at least hearing both sides; however necessary I thought it for my Aunt to have someone, I would not force myself upon her...15 Miss Lister sends [illegible] Affectionate Sister [illegible] Yours sincerely, Ann Walker. While this letter was on its way north, the old threat to Anne Lister’s hold on Shibden re-emerged: Marian’s marriage plans.

thursDAy 16 Happening to go into the little breakfast room to my father & Marian, [had] above an hour’s talk to the latter. It seems she had made up her mind to marry Mr Abbot—I promised not to name it to anyone—said I would not advise against it, but I did not think it would answer so well as she might think. She knew what & how she was—to mind how she gave up that till pretty sure of being [gaining?] better. She did not know the mortification of giving up her own family, meaning (and explaining) myself and Shibden. But the best thing [if they did marry?] would be to get him to settle as far off as she could. Agreed she could not live happily alone, but to mind not to leap out of the frying pan into the fire. If she sold Skelfler [Market Weighton estate], might sink [invest] the over-plus [surplus] money, if she could get ten per cent for the four or five thousand—it would make her income comfortable with the stay [visits] she would have here. Said I would help her—she said she could not get ten per cent—I told her not to despair of that, but did not say further—tho’ thought I would give it [the money] her myself. Talked to her very gently and kindly—this seemed to stagger her determination and make her nervous....Read aloud to her [A–] (she making charity baby clothes) from page 107 to 133 volume 1 Neibuhr’s Rome. The predatory Rawsons were still on the prowl for coal. Anne was now much better informed and very determined. The loyalties of shrewd James Holt, with his own network of informants, now veered more towards Anne.

FriDAy 17 A kiss last night but no better than the last. She said I did not give her dinky16 as at first how was it—that is, she did not feel moisture from me as before. Very windy morning....Read the Morning Herald (of Wednesday)— long advertisment about railroad connecting London, Normanton, York, Edinburgh & Glasgow...A– off to Cliff-hill etc at 11, when Holt came....The Rawsons all low about it [a lost sale]—Holt does not think much of their colliery now—have very little of their own coal to get. Mine pulled at this new pit (to be called Walker pit in compli121

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ment to A-) will make (at 8d a load) a great deal more than Rawson’s [coal] sold in the town at 9d. Jeremiah R- wanted Holt to speak to me about their buying the Shibden coal but he (Holt) declined.... Told him [Holt] to get to know all he could (without saying anything) about the Sutherland coal in Rooke’s land17...and to get me (willing to pay for it) a general plan of the coal strata in this neighbourhood... Holt to be on the look-out—to call again by & by. Went to my father & Marian—above an hour with them—told Marian what had passed. She said she had not determined on taking Mr Abbott—did not know that she should do it. Anne Lister, with a newly-wed’s financial confidence, was able to proceed with plans to enlarge her estate. She arranged to borrow £3,000 from Mr Wainhouse, a Halifax businessman, at 4% interest, if Godley could be settled.

FriDAy 24 Looking over plans of A–’s joint [i.e. with Elizabeth] property in Halifax...Mrs Ann Lee (alone) came this morning & began re-making up our bed, lining it with handsome crimson twilled cotton. tuesDAy 28 A– had long letter from her sister, chiefly on business— twenty four distresses18 to be made—several on cottages—silly and tiresome. A– nervous and complained of her back—annoyed—cried a good deal, but got her to [play] backgammon—played 3 hits & lost them all. Began Niebuhr—but soon turned off to talking. Ann Walker, with her neighbourhood philanthropy to the respectable poor, obviously thought the Sutherlands as absentee landlords were being far too harsh on their tenants. Meanwhile amid the three distinct household at Shibden, Marian held the purse-strings.

WeDNesDAy 29 About an hour (till 12) with my father & Marian— settled to pay the latter (for A– & myself & our 2 servants) £10 per month, and advised her having it the first of every month....19 All this evening besides till 11 25/” reading over A–’s father’s will—65 foolscap pages of her copying. Just as earlier, when the two women renewed their courtship, they immediately discussed will-making; so now, like any other newly-weds, serious will-reading provided the natural language of love for a long winter’s evening. Thanks to Ann Walker’s laborious copying, Anne Lister began to grasp

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november 1834

that the core of the Walker estate was entailed, the Crow-nest half on the Sutherlands. Ann’s Cliff-hill half would, on her death, go, ‘for default or failure of such issue’, to the Sutherlands, their sons and then daughters.20 This much was fixed; and, had Anne Lister consulted a lawyer, she would have been warned of the great difficulty of breaking entail. But Anne could glimpse two other opportunities. She had already persuaded Ann Walker to give her some access to her regular income flow. And in the longer term, she might persuade Ann Walker to redraft her will to leave her, Anne Lister, her unentailed property. This included scattered pockets of land, tiny coal mines, and industrial properties in central Halifax, originally of limited value. But the canal extension and the steam-power revolution had raised the value of such unprepossessing land. (Also of particular interest to Anne Lister were the Walkers’ properties adjoining her own estate, including more small coal pits.)21 Although women remained excluded from the legal profession, determined and shrewd Anne Lister now began to absorb all the legal information she needed. However inheritance matters were further complicated by this new ‘distresses’ rift: even experienced Samuel Washington was aghast at the Sutherlands’ high-handed and cruel treatment of their tenants, many of whom his family would have known all their lives.

thursDAy 30 At Crow-nest at 10 40/” for 1 10/” hour; Washington shewed A– the letter he had jointly from Captain & Mrs Sutherland—the 25 distresses ordered the same as in Mrs S–’s letter to A–. Washington owned he would rather write 20 letters to Scotland than serve the distresses. 1 observation led to another; A– mentioned her having asked for a division of the property, & told [Washington] all the circumstances & about the furniture etc etc. W– would take care the property was divided fairly—no difficulty, but [i.e. except] about that in H-x.22 At Cliff-hill at 11 55/” for 1 25/” hour; Miss W– never more gracious to us both....Home at 4—long while with Marian—paid her for the two months (twenty pounds). A– and I and our two servants have been here since our return from the continent, up to 1st November....Read aloud from page 193 to 217, volume 1, Neibuhr’s Rome.

november 1834 Feeling more confident about the acceptance of Ann Walker’s move to Shibden, the two women paid a formal round of visits. They set off on a tour of the élite Tory families in the Halifax area—predominantly of course Ann

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Walker’s relatives. Given Shibden’s ancient acres, Anne Lister felt well able to engage with the Priestley and Rawson men on an equal footing, discussing roads as fellow landowners.

mONDAy 3 A– & I off in the carriage at 91/2—at Mill-house at 101/4—sat 1 /4 hour with Mrs W.H. Rawson & her daughter Caroline1—then to Thorpe—there 3/4 hour—Mr John Priestley...had not heard any late talk of a road along the Brighouse valley....Then 20 minutes at Haugh-end with Mrs Henry Priestley....Then 1/2 hour at Darcey Hey & saw both Mrs & Mrs John Edwards2 (very properly civil), and Mrs Protheroe3 & Miss Waterhouse....Mrs J. Edwards never saw A– looking so well—she had taken a new life—going abroad always likely to do good—people should not grow mouldy at home. Then to Pye-nest—nobody at home. A– then ate sandwiches as we drove along, having refused taking anything wherever we went....We called at Well-head—not at home—Miss Catherine Waterhouse dangerously ill—consumption? Then 1/4 hour with Mrs Catherine Rawson— then to the vicarage—not admitted—afterwards met Mrs Musgrave who stopt the carriage & was very civil. Then 20 minutes at Stoney Royde—Mrs Rawson very glad to see us & very kind & civil—was 81 yesterday....Then half hour at Heath with Mrs & Miss Wilkinson. This social round was followed by equally serious discussion of property: they looked over the plans of both their estates, and Anne Lister spent time ‘hearing A–’s letter to her sister’.

suNDAy 9 A– & I off (in the carriage as ever since the first Sunday [of] last month) to Lightcliffe church at 2—there in 20 minutes—waited 18 minutes—Mr Wilkinson did all the duty...the most interesting sermon I have heard from Mr W–.4 Anne Lister continued negotiating to buy land at Godley. Significantly in such transactions, it was upon John Waterhouse’s opinion that she relied. This was especially so concerning the ominous threat railroads posed to canal proprietors like themselves. Anne needed advice on whether she should sell the family shares or whether there should be further investment in canals to make them competitive—but found Mr Waterhouse exceedingly cagey.

mONDAy 10 A– off to Cliff-hill at 10 35/” having had much talk to S. Washington about dividing the property—determined upon it—he [was] convinced A– had better name it to the Sutherlands herself

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first, & he (S.W–) have nothing to do with it....Down the Old Bank to H-x at 1 to Mr Parker office about Godley slopes... Then (after being full 1/2 hour at Mr P–’s) to the library—Mr Waterhouse junior there—showed him the plan of the slopes and begged him to explain to his father and say I should be glad to see him at Shibden Hall, having much to say on other business subjects. Mr J Waterhouse junior said I should find his father at the counting-house, and walked with me there...[I] asked for a list of the proprietors of the navigation—[he] excused himself from giving it....I saw Mr W– was rather shy of saying much....Said I had lately heard much about the concern, and hoped the money was laid out judiciously—this seemed a sorish subject....I asked if it was true that the canal was to be deepened for large vessels—no direct answer—but the plan seems to be the favourite with Mr W– and his friends—it would be good for the coal trade (which goes on 2/3 of the line)5 to be able to ship the coal in vessels that could coast it to London...I asked if, as a friend, W– would advise me to sell out—no direct answer— but situated as he was, he should not like to sell out in a hurry—a good investment—always marketable...would not take upon himself to say there never would be a railroad, but it would not be supported by the people of this Parish—the Leeds & Selby [railroad] a poor concern—would never pay till there was a railroad from East to West right across the county—the proprietors of our navigation would never have anything to do with the railroad....There is to be a meeting of the sub-committee on Wednesday & will probably be a general meeting soon—said I did not wish to sell out if the concern of ours was likely to go on well—had no wish for parsimony, cared not what was laid out if it was laid out reasonably & paid a reasonable interest. W– owned a railroad would hurt the canal, but when I said ‘Would it diminish the profits one-half?’ he seemed to think not...W– owned it was a risk to run, but there was hazard in everything—even to let it alone was hazard. ‘Yes!’ I agreed that something must be done, but the question is, what. Old frictions remained. William Priestley and his wife were still cool to Anne Lister; Marian seemed to consider her sister inappropriate to look after their infirm father; and Anne remained hostile to Marian’s social contacts— including her protégée from Market Weighton, Sarah Inman.

tuesDAy 11 A– & 11/4 hour with my father & Marian—the latter

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talked of going to Market Weighton for 3 days...Marian would be knocked up, she knew, by the journey—uneasy to leave my father, but would have Miss Sarah Inman (aged 14, I believe) from Miss Watkinson’s school [in Halifax] (& of whom neither my aunt nor I take any notice) to take care of him!!! I asked if I could do anything to prevent the journey as I might soon be passing through Market W–. ‘No!’ I would write the copy of a letter for her if she would tell me the substance of what to write. ‘No!’ Then would she really think it necessary to have her protégée to take care of my father when A– & I were in the house, & Cordingley in the kitchen parted only by a wainscot & peeping in every minute? ‘Oh! Yes!’ She should not be easy without having her (Miss Inman)!!! Coffee & sat downstairs as we have done the last few evenings...F46 at 111/4 pm in my little dressing room, A– having taken away the key of my study [so] that I could not get in, meaning to make me by these means earlier in bed.6 o

WeDNesDAy 12 Goodish kiss last night—lay in bed an hour after A– and, when she left the room to have Eugenie and finish dressing by the blue room fire, incurred a cross. Breakfast at 93/4...1/4 hour with Marian—happening to ask if she meant to go to Market Weighton, led to my saying how odd it would seem to have Miss Inman here (a strange reflection upon me)—& she (Marian) got all wrong & into tears, saying, pro forma, how she wished herself away—how she was inconvenienced here by myself & my aunt etc, etc. I took it all very quietly & civily but felt annoyed & went & talked it over with my aunt who owned her bad night was owing to thinking of Marian’s being so queer. thursDAy 13 A– off to Cliff-hill at 10 5/” but was back in time to receive Mrs Bateman & Mrs Hartley & Miss Champaign7 & Mr & Mrs William Priestley about 11/2. The 1st enquired after me—the 3rd (Mrs Bateman’s sister) I do not know—the 4th & 5th never named me, but told A– their call was on her.8 Breakfast in the blue room at 21/4—the people gone & A– came & made tea for me. Parcel & note from Mr Waterhouse containing the last & 2 preceeding navigation acts: ‘...We had a committee yesterday when, after ample discussion, the committee were convinced in the opinion to what extent & upon what scale it would be prudent & desirable to undertake the [canal] improvements projected...yours most truly John Waterhouse, November 13th 1834’.

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sAturDAy 15 Gave H– £7.15.0 to give to S. Washington to pay the pit-sinkers....A few minutes with my father & Marian & stood some time with my aunt (looking over the Yorkshire Gazette relating to projected railroads) when called downstairs to Mr Musgrave at 13/4—my aunt was with him in the drawing room & he staid about 1 /4 hour after I went down—very civil....I see in the Yorkshire Gazette of today (dated Saturday 15th November) notices advertised of intending to apply to Parliament next Session for a Railway from Sheffield to Rotherham...a Railway or Train-road (‘Great Northern & Eastern Railway’) from London to the town of Cambridge....I see in the Halifax Guardian of today (page 1, column 1) ‘a special assembly of the proprietors of the Calder and Hebble Navigation’, advertised for Wednesday 3 December at 11 am at the Navigation Office, ‘for the purpose of deciding upon the execution of such of the New Works [to improve the canal] authorised to be made’. SuNDAy 16 A little while with my father & Marian—the latter surely means to marry as soon as may be, after my father’s death—Mr Abbott, as it seems. Well, be it so—I only hope she will not marry as if from Shibden, and that I shall be away. From mid-November onwards national politics played an increasingly important part in Anne Lister’s life. Lord Grey had resigned and William IV had sent for Lord Melbourne, a fairly conservative Whig; but Melbourne’s government faced increasing difficulties. Working-class expectations of reform were not being met. There was shock at the sentencing to seven years transportation of six Dorchester agricultural labourers for merely swearing a secret oath when they tried to form a union; (eventually, after massive protest, the Tolpuddle Martyrs returned home from Australia). Other radicals, already alienated by harsh Irish legislation, now protested at the domination of the Church of England in Ireland—where a tithe war raged. On the other side of the beleaguered Whig government, the Tories had, after their dramatic 1832 rout, pulled themselves up out of disarray. Locally, Tories worked hard to maximise their vote next time round by increasing voter registrations and voter-loyalty to the ‘Blues’. In county constituencies like the West Riding this could be achieved by increasing the number of leaseholders whose annual rents were at least £50. Anne Lister was among the small-scale landowners who became especially vigilant: we know she had already ‘assisted’ Charles Howarth to reach the £50 threshhold.9 Nationally Sir Robert Peel dragged the old Tory party into the 1830s by accepting the Reform Act and supporting at least moderate change. In November, with the issues of an Irish tithe bill and an Irish church commission still unresolved,

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William IV dismissed the Whigs. Peel was summoned back from Italy to lead a new government.10 With a general election looming, Anne Lister would support James Stuart Wortley in his second bid for one of the Halifax seats against any WhigRadical electoral alliance.11 Given her links to the Stuarts, Anne Lister found herself increasingly on the uncompromising diehard wing of the Tories. She believed implacably in the preservation of ancient Protestant privileges; for her, any ‘one nation’ Toryism would have to be on terms acceptable to traditional landowners—like herself and the Waterhouses. From here on Anne Lister’s diaries are peppered with references to political activity.

thursDAy 20 Pickells came...and his friend Mr Atkinson came with him....Atkinson12 is a Wortley man—there was a snug [i.e. secret] meeting of Wortley men last night to consider what should be done. FriDAy 21 Read part of the newspaper—nothing to be settled as to the new Cabinet till Sir Robert Peel arrives from Italy—the Duke of Wellington likely to be premier again now that the Melbourne Cabinet is happily dissolved.... Found a subcommittee meeting sitting (just closing) at the navigation office, consisting of Messrs Waterhouse, Norris (William)... all very civil—shewed (or rather explained) the plan lying on the table, of the canal and projected improvements....Nothing decided— must be decided by the majority at the next general meeting...Mr Waterhouse expressed his opinion that double locks would be best—I asked the engineer’s opinion—he, too, for double locks—I gave no opinion of my own but felt decided for double locks....Asked how the money was to be raised. As the price war with the Rawsons over coal sharpened, Anne Lister began to keep a separate ‘Colliery Account’ to supplement the general accounts she kept.13

mONDAy 24 Hinscliffe came about 11....I said I heard Mr Rawson would now give me my price for the coal (said he did not think Mr R– himself had said so). Impressed with the idea that he is tolerably in his [Rawson’s] confidence—and though I told him (Hinscliffe) in confidence, said nothing he might not repeat. Hinscliffe is in R–’s confidence; he owned R– will lower his coal a penny a load on my opening my pit for sale [of coal]. (Said ‘I want nothing but what is fair’—did not want to glut the market—but thought R– could not

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make his coal pay better at 8d than I could mine at 7d, and I could last it out as long as he could—I had a good [coal] road.) Anne Lister and Ann Walker set off for York in their brown carriage (with Eugenie inside and George plus Charles Howarth outside). They wanted to talk to Jonathan Gray about the best method of dividing the two sisters’ joint estate, and to sort out a property squabble with William Priestley.14

WeDNesDAy 26 No kiss. Fine morning—F50 at 91/2 am—breakfast at 93/4. Mr Jonathan Gray came at 10 & staid till 111/2. A– consulted him about the partition of the joint property—if done amicably might cost about £50—if not, A– must file a bill in Chancery to compel it, which would costs about £150. On my asking him to write down the best form of expressing the matter, he wrote as follows: ‘to make a partition of the joint property, either by dividing it into 2 shares as equal in value as maybe without reference to contiguity [i.e. adjoining land] to the two entailed estates; or else to divide it into 2 shares of equal value without reference to contiguity; & after it is divided, [the] 2 parties to draw lots for the respective shares.15

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o

They set off with their three servants to Hull—which Anne Lister thought ‘an abominable town for its radicalism’. However she took advantage of the trip to find out out more about the new railroads and the threat they posed to the canal system.

sAturDAy 29 A– & I & Charles Howarth walked (5 or 10 minutes from the Inn) to the railroad office—& at 9 30/” A– & I in the yellow [railway] carriage (the large best one—only this one in the train) at 3/- per place, covered in like a stage coach with door & windows at each side; & Charles H– in the green carriage just before us, open at the sides—top supported by 4 uprights, 2/- per place; the carriages best and 2nd best like those on the Manchester & Liverpool [rail] road. The carriages drawn up ready for starting under a large goods shed—our carriage called the Venus—sat waiting 18 minutes & off at 9 38/” (my watch quarter hour too soon by York [clock]—20 minutes ditto by Hull & 25 minutes ditto by Selby). At Milford (8 miles from Selby) in 44 minutes, our train having gone slow for the last 1/4 hour—this slow pace (the men got out & walked by the side of us, so throwing the small stones upon the sleepers) continued for 25 minutes....Only one person (some sort of tradesman) in the carriage

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(holds 6) with us—& not a man of much intelligence—said there was to be a meeting of the Aire & Calder Committee this afternoon to take into consideration what should be done in the present emergency. The Railway charges 6/8 per ton from Leeds to Selby—& the dues of the Aire & Calder from Leeds to Goole are 7/-....At Leeds at 11 17/”, having done the distance from Seacroft in 6 minutes.

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III

the bLues and yeLLoWs PoLItIcs and reLIgIon d e c e m b e r 1834–m a y 1835

december 1834 Marian Lister accepted Ann Walker as ‘one of the family’ at Shibden; but, to Anne’s consternation, she still planned to marry Mr Abbott.

mONDAy 1 Dinner at 6—coffee. A– & 1/2 hour with my father and Marian—then I returned to them to pay Marian for the last month, and she kept me talking near one hour—did not like to deceive her family—I at liberty to tell A–, now one of the family, and my aunt. It seems she has told my father and he knows that I know of it—but he neither gave any opinion or made any remark himself nor asked what I had said. She has made up her mind to marry Mr Abbott—can make out his having two thousand a year out of trade, but has made no enquiries...I merely said she knew [what] I should think and what I should do. I only made one request—that she should not marry from here, and that she herself would send the news to the papers (Halifax, Leeds and York), styling herself Marian daughter of Jeremy L– Esq of Skelfler House in this county [East Riding]. She said she had meant to do it in this way—I said there would be no impropriety in her marrying six months after my father’s death...not to stay long here after his death and not to announce to me her marriage—it would be enough to see it in the papers. Whatever I did, I should do nothing from caprice or without a reason—that I sincerely wished her happy—that her best friend would probably [be] that person who mentioned me to her seldomest—and that, as for A– and myself, her (Marian’s) name would not pass our lips any more. Marian was almost in tears—I could have been, but would not. Spoke calmly and kindly—said I should probably not tell my aunt as she would be much hurt and, as many things happened between the cup and the 131

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lip, perhaps the match might not take place—one of the parties might die. Sat 1/2 hour with A–; she wondered what was the matter—and was as much astonished as I was—she consoled & calmed me. To Anne Lister, Marian’s marriage represented such betrayal of her family that it demanded her social isolation and even total banishment. Meanwhile, with a general election imminent, Anne Lister needed to watch her tenants— especially the handful in the Halifax borough where the Tories only needed a few more votes to succeed.1

tuesDAy 2 John Bottomley was waiting [at the Whiskum toll bar] with two one-horse carts full of coals to pay 4d each—told him to come and speak to me this evening....Had John Bottomley to get his vote for Mr [James Stuart] Wortley—he is all for him now of his own accord, so [I] said nothing pleased me better and that I was much obliged to him and only wished he could persuade some others to be as wise. In the middle of mounting political speculation, the crucial canal meeting was held at the Halifax navigation office. Anne Lister attended, along with about 50 other proprietors. She listened to the lengthy engineering reports: the key issue was whether to invest in expensive double locks to help the canal compete with the railway; or to keep expenditure down by opting for single locks. The Tories favoured gambling on major investment; shrewder Whigs, commercial men like Briggs the bankers, opposed this.

WeDNesDAy 3 Read the newspaper—Sir Robert Peel not arrived—he to be premier, and not the Duke of Wellington. Washington came— paid him for last Saturday’s pit-sinking and mine-driving bills... I was in [the canal meeting] and seated close to, and on the right of, Mr Waterhouse (treasurer and Chairman)...I said to my neighbour I was sorry to see us begin to garble Palmer’s plan—why consult a first rate engineer unless we had so far a good opinion of him as to be guided by him?...My next neighbour but one, a Mr Wetherhead, was of my opinion and said a few words aloud, nearly what I had just whispered....A great deal of talking ensued...a Babel mode of discussion...I had in the meantime opened my mouth again and, turning to Messrs Briggs, said audibly that parsimony was not always economy...Mr Rawdon Briggs2 replied he did not think all this expenditure necessary—the trade would not require it and never would. ‘Do you then’, said I, ‘mean to limit the progress of improvement?’...I saw I had called the attention of the meeting....

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It was agreed to put it to the vote whether there should be double (and parallel locks)...or single locks. The show of hands was in our favour (the former). Mr Rawdon Briggs demanded a scrutiny3—on which [suggestion] the Chairman and clerk (Mr William Norris) and the committee retired to ascertain which side had (by the number of shares) [i.e. the majority]....In the meanwhile the whole meeting divided into sets of 2 or 3, all in earnest conversation...Mr W. Briggs left the committee, and very civilly expressed his sorrow at having me for an opponent—said (as John Hodgson also said) the anticipated coal trade would not pay—our chief trade was corn...I was just going to reply...when the chairman and committee returned saying we had the majority—there was a majority of 58 for the double (and parallel) locks....The Chairman (John Waterhouse) just whispered to me that they had not entered my proxy [vote] for A– (because I ought to have brought a written form of proxy), but that it was not wanted as we had a majority of 58....There is already a debt of £23,000 upon the navigation...Mr William Henry Rawson said in his usual sneering manner we had better empower the committee to borrow £60,000 at once; for they would want it. Of course, he was against double locks. Anne Lister, the only woman present at the meeting, had been able to make her voice heard effectively. The old landed Tory élite had beaten off commercial men like the Briggs and William Henry Rawson—who ground their teeth bitterly at the prospect of such heavy and fruitless investment.4 Meanwhile Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto preached a new Tory gospel. In place of old Wellingtonian reaction came a new rhetoric of progressive improvements and social mobility from Peel, son of a cotton manufacturer. Anne Lister might not exactly be a ‘Tamworth’ Tory: but she was determined to get James Stuart Wortley into parliament for Halifax, and in that pragmatic sense she supported Peel. The local Whig-Radical alliance was fielding the current well-connected Whig MP, Charles Wood; and Edward Protheroe stood as the Radical candidate.5 Tories like Anne Lister were stirred by the cry ‘the Established Church in danger’: James Wortley pledged himself ‘to the Support of the Crown... and, above all, to the maintenance of the Established Religion’.6 For Anne there was not an iota of doubt but that Wood and Prothero represented a tangible threat to the old order; and she went down to Halifax and persuaded one of her Northgate tenants, John Greenwood a ropemaker, ‘to promise not to go away, but stay and vote for Wortley—the latter pretty sure of being elected this time— Mr Protheroe begins to despair’.7

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mONDAy 8 Hinscliffe (James) came before 10 and staid till 1—long collier-talk....Said he did not wish to say behind his back what he would not before his face, ‘but Mr Rawson is not a gentleman’ (i.e. for lowering his coals 2d a load). tuesDAy 9 Wrote (two 1/2 sheets full) to Lady Stuart saying...Mr Wortley (James) expected to dine in H-x yesterday...[I] had several reasons for being politically quiet just now—but Lady S– [was] assured he had my best wishes and every vote I could influence privately—our [Tory] tactique improved—I was well informed to know this and that the strength of our party was increased and that Mr W–’s election, I believed, might be counted upon. Anne Lister did indeed have ‘reasons for being politically quiet’ in Halifax. Her key commercial rival was leading Tory Christopher Rawson; and she probably prefered keeping a low personal profile in Halifax, given Marian’s engagement to Mr Abbott, Tory supporter and woolstapler in the centre of town. She tried to persuade their infirm father how ill-advised was this marriage.

WeDNesDAy 10 A little while tête à tête with my father, Marian being gone to Halifax. Mentioned Marian & her intended marriage—said she had no need to do it—I had always offered to do all I could for her—she might have had a home whether A– & I were here or not—& I had only made one request viz that she (Marian) should [not] invite [to Shibden] people she knew I did not wish to have anything to do with. Matches for money seldom answered—I only hoped she would take care not to be deceived—I did not think he had so much [money] as she supposed....My father seemed to agree with me and to be pleased that I had named the subject, but merely said, when I said she was old enough to judge for herself, ‘Yes, she was’. A– came and interrupted us or more might have been said.8....Helping A– to arrange her books. Marian had company, mysterious—I not to know whom, unless I particularly wished it, so declined enquiry. FriDAy 12 Pretty good kiss last night. Breakfast at 9—Sir Robert Peel arrived [back in England]. Off with A– at 10 10/” to Cliff-hill... Mrs A. Walker all wrong again—in a passion at me for A–’s walling along the private road (between Cliff-hill & Crow-nest)...got into better humour—to last probably till she sees again Mrs William

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Priestley!...Home at 13/4—sat with A– during her luncheon—read aloud to her Mr Wortley’s speech printed separately—longish and good—delivered on Wednesday evening in the Old Assembly room [in Halifax]....Note this morning from Mr John Edwards with the compliments of Mr Wortley’s committee, begging me to ‘convert’ Shaw the plasterer’s vote for Wortley from a single [vote] to a plumper. William Shaw, with a house and workshop on her Northgate land, was one of Anne’s borough tenants.9

sAturDAy 13 A– gave me a hundred pounds. thursDAy 17 Mr Wortley still in town—in spite of dinner parties, attending his committee every night from 8 to 10. thursDAy 18 Letter from M– (Lawton), 3 pages and ends—she now wishes to see me, and so earnestly asks me to go over to Lawton before the end of this month that I cannot refuse. The new Cabinet [i.e. Peel’s] completed—likely to be a good & strong ministry.... Found Mr Wortley’s card—Mr James Norris came with him, but of course left no card—dinner at 63/4—coffee—Mr Abbott came to Marian. FriDAy 19 No kiss. Up an hour before, but went to bed again. Saw Marian the last thing last night—[I] had told Mr Abbott she had nothing to expect from here [i.e. Shibden inheritance]—he merely said she might not want it. But she says they are not engaged, tho’ she having made a proposal (I suppose she means about her estate)—could not now in honour be off10—odd enough for one side to be bound and not the other. Finish (fine) morning F441/2° at 93/4 at which hour breakfast. Throp came at 10 & staid till after 11—had him in the breakfast room while [we] breakfasted. Long talk about the election—he has no vote—but has said he would not vote against me. It seems some of our supporters are violent enough & let themselves down by sitting drinking at public houses till 1 in the morning—but it does not seem that Mr Wortley himself, as Marian said last night, has ever been of these parties himself. sAturDAy 20 Went to Cliff-hill....Left a copy of Sir Robert Peel’s letter to his constituents at Tamworth.

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Earlier in the year Anne Lister had emphasised to the Sutherlands Ann Walker’s mental vulnerability. Now, reasonably yet inconveniently, they raised doubts as to whether, when the joint property was divided, she was therefore fit enough to run her half of the estate.

SuNDAy 21 In the letter bag tonight came a letter from Mrs Sutherland to her aunt ‘Miss Walker, Cliff-hill’ etc, franked by J A S MacKenzie (Stuart McK–), on which A– & I talked & speculated. Odd to be so long in answering A–’s letter (sent a fortnight ago last Tuesday) & write to her aunt to whom Mrs Sutherland does not owe a letter. A– fancies the Sutherlands are against a division of the property & wish to find out whether she is quite able to act for herself! What a strange business! But A– does not seem very much disturbed by it. Anne Lister spent Christmas at Lawton. There Mariana, probing Anne’s commitment to Ann Walker, was cast down by the truth: Anne kept her cool.

tuesDAy 23 I led the conversation to A–; said I really liked [her], was more than comfortable and that whatever might be said, money had nothing to do with it. M– asked if it was true that she has three thousand a year—I said no, but our fortunes would be about equal and that we should have five thousand a year...I was thankful things were as they were, for I was determined to have [some]one and certainly could not have done better. Charlotte [Norcliffe] said A– was not ladylike and Mrs Milne thought she [Mariana] would not be flattered if she saw her successor—but that I could not do without money....Said I had read her [Mariana’s] last letter to A–, but she [A–] did not understand it—I had told all that was necessary, but not quite all, that is, not of our connection—nor did any[one] know of this or ever would. This seemed to satisfy her. Said I was not quite satisfied with her brother’s [Dr Belcombe’s] conduct...and that he had latterly left A– 10 days unvisited by him—but this not to be named. thursDAy 25 M– came a little before eight and staid till nine in bed with me—rather in the pathetics—she cannot get over her love for me—but I behaved with perfect propriety. FriDAy 26 Off from Lawton at 11 50/”. M– went with me to Middlewich (the phaeton to meet her for her return) to see the wormquack (Mrs Lamb)...as arrant a quack as any of her fraternity. [I] looked at all her phials full of worms—tape & all sorts, & catechised [questioned] her pretty severely—her secret is in the solvent mixture

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(a vegetable alkali)....Said I should be lastingly obliged if she (Mrs Lamb) did my friend any good... Took a hurried leave of M–...& at Shibden at 10 55/”—all gone to bed but Cordingley & John, expecting me, had come down. A– jumped up & came to me in her dressing gown & cloak, delighted to see me back again—had given me up in despair. Had tea—the 1st thing we did was to laugh aloud at her droll figure & the bustle I had made—explained, sat talking—told her I myself was astonished how little I had thought of M–, either of going or returning—very glad to be back again—mentioned how I had offered her the use of Shibden in the event of Charles [Lawton]’s death. sAturDAy 27 One very good kiss soon after getting into bed and not long after this another not quite so good but very fair...I went out at 121/2—in the Low & upper land—had the 2 Manns (pit-sinkers) about the drift11 to be driven to carry off the water from the [Walker] pit,...which would now have to stand till it (the drift) was done and could not be done in less than 3 months working day & night. Came in at 11/2 to pay the men [for] the last fortnight’s pit-sinking—found Mr Sunderland just come—he says the place [sore] on my aunt’s leg is getting larger.... All well for Mr Wortley & his election, [in] spite of the reports set afloat by the Whigs of his drinking & singing at public houses. Had Mr Sunderland into the drawing[room] to consult him....Washington came again (with A–’s navigation money and my aunt’s ditto from Mr Parker). In Halifax borough the Tories’ election campaign was run from the White Swan Inn by John Edwards, Henry Edwards’s son (and so, of course, Ann Walker’s cousin).12 He was in the throes of attacking Whig canvassing methods, with accusations about ‘intimidation’ of voters, and so badly needed Ann and Anne’s financial support.13

tuesDAy 30 We were just going out when Mr John Edwards called ‘On a little business’, as he said, ‘in consequence of a communication from Mr Adam’—ie that I would subscribe to the expense of Mr Wortley’s election. Mr J. Edwards said he had called last week, but A– had not heard of it—only three [subscribers’] names down— Christopher Rawson, Christopher Saltmarshe and John Waterhouse each down for £50, and I put down ‘A. Lister £50’....Mr E– staid 1/4 hour or 20 minutes....Kind letter...from Lady Stuart de Rothesay... hopes I do what I can for Mr Wortley.

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During his visit, John Edwards explained that his ‘private book’ of ‘promised votes’ indicated 358 votes for Charles Wood, only 280 for Edward Protheroe, and an encouraging 333 for James Stuart Wortley. The Blues’ chances looked good; but Anne Lister remained ever vigilant of ‘non-promisers’. However if Ann Walker’s male relatives talked politics, her female ones had not forgotten their personal feud with Anne Lister— election or no election.

WeDNesDAy 31 Had Throp...still as many voters as ever who will make no promise to any side—told Throp he really must have a vote for us in future—& he promised to use what influence he might have with the non-promisers to get them to vote for Wortley. Miss Caroline Rawson of Mill-house brought the 2 girls from Thorpe to call on A–; & sat with her 6 minutes enquiring after my aunt & father, but not after Marian or myself...F56o in my study (fire in the stove from 11am to 4pm) now at 101/4pm. Another year is gone! How altered my position since last year at this time! Deus nobis haec otia fecit! God be thanked!

January 1835 thursDAy 1 Wished my aunt & father a happy new year—off again for A– at 4. Went to Cliff-hill—a little while there—home at 51/2— Marian’s intended here—comes to tea once a week—probably about every Thursday—we never see him. Dinner at 61/4....Note this evening fom Mr Parker containing list from Mr Adam of unpromised voters. Meanwhile Anne’s aunt remained an affectionate ally, helping to explain to the vicar’s wife that Ann Walker’s move to Shibden was more her Cliff-hill aunt’s reponsibility than the niece’s.

SAturDAy 3 With my aunt till 10 10/”—she had had Mrs Musgrave & the widow of Mrs Musgrave’s brother—my aunt taken downstairs into the drawing room to receive them—told Mrs M– of A–’s having offered to live with her aunt at Cliff-hill but the offer had been refused—Mrs M– not to mention it—she seemed very much surprised at the fact. 3 cards left for A– & myself & Marian, the latter not once named. suNDAy 4 Mr E. Lascelles had declined becoming a candidate for our [West] Riding because his father, Lord Harewood, thought his election doubtful & it would cost him £10,000. 138

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With the Tories not even bothering to contest the election in the Whigdominated county, all political eyes were on Halifax borough. On Monday the electors gathered to nominate the candidates. Excitement mounted. The Halifax Guardian reported that ‘The blue [Tory] and yellow [Whig] bands marched up and down, playing appropriate airs, and followed by numerous files [processions], bearing mottoes on their hats and banners, and loudly cheering as they happened to meet parties of their opponents....It was difficult to see any person in the streets without a ribbon on his breast, either blue or yellow. The women and children followed the example of the men; even the carriers’ horses were decorated.’ About 6,000 people (the majority of them non-electors, of course) gathered in Halifax Piece Hall. Amid much booing, hissing and cheering, Protheroe, Wood and Wortley were nominated—the last by Christopher Rawson, seconded by John Waterhouse. The returning officer asked for a show of hands: this favoured Wood and Protheroe. Wortley then demanded a poll—that is, individual voting by electors. The returning officer therefore announced polling would start on Tuesday at 9 am. Scuffles occured. The Tory Guardian claimed blue flags were torn down by yellow supporters;’ but Ben Wilson, who later became a Chartist, recalled that a local Whig band was attacked by Tories ‘who tore a banner they had with them in pieces’.1 The Listers kept aloof from the electoral melée. Up at Shibden, the coolness between Anne and Marian Lister widened to a chasm. With their aunt virtually bedridden upstairs, the separate households seldom communicated.

mONDAy 5 Marian hoped it would not be inconvenient to me not to be able to see my father 4 evenings per week! Because Thursdays always engaged (Abbott2 comes) & Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays [she] should have Miss Sarah Inman...[I said] I only hope my father understood the thing. ‘Oh! Yes!’ Marian said she had explained it all to him. I then turned to him laughingly & said I found Marian was going to have so much company I could not come to him Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays; but A– & I would be very glad if he would come to us & we would have a good fire for him. Then at 1 50/” came upstairs to A–; explained—told what Marian had said—A– as much astonished as I was.... Had had letter that waited my return from W.F. Holroyde for the chairman of Mr Wortley’s Committee dated at the Talbot Inn, to ask me to get John Bottomley to go down to give a plumper for Wortley as soon as possible in the morning—to go first to the magistrates office at Ward’s End. Sent John Booth to J. Bottomley’s to speak to him—he was not returned from H-x. [He] had had 2 letters, one 139

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telling him to go to the Talbot, the other telling him to go to the White Swan—she [his wife] was going to H-x to seek him & would send him here on his return home. No J. Bottomley by 9, so sent George to enquire again about him, & to tell John Booth to be after him (J. Bottomley) by 5am tomorrow & take care of his plumping for Wortley. With polling spread over two days, Anne Lister had time to extract every single Halifax vote she could. But Wortley was not doing well. The results were periodically announced on placards throughout the town.

tuesDAy 6 The state of the poll on closing at 4pm was, according to the written statement brought by Matthew from the central Committee at the [White] Swan— Wortley 260 Wood 294 Protheroe 2733 Sad rough work in the town—almost all the blue flags torn in pieces by the orange, radical mob—Matthew knocked down & a little (tho’ not much) hurt. Aquilla Green4 said the committee had not voted & there was hope for Wortley. Mr Hodgson split his vote (tho’ a Whig) between Wood & Wortley. Told A. Green I did not want anyone to change his opinion against his conscience for me, but I had made up my mind to take none but blue tenants so long as there remained people of this way of thinking, & when there were none, then I must try to change [them?] myself—said a great deal on the subject but all very quietly & fairly, as he himself owned. WeDNesDAy 7 Had John Bottomley—he is a good staunch blue plumper—has behaved very well—paid him for carting etc £6.16.4, ready for his rent. Breakfast as I could between 10 & 11—then from 11 20/” to 11 55/” wrote [diary of] yesterday & so far of today. Off to the Stag’s Head, Mytholm (my rent day) & there at 12 20/”— Washington there & had already had several of the tenants—the rents very well paid—Carr, Greenwood & Denniston (who has the Hopwood-lane fields) not there—too busy at H-x with the election, & their £24.6.0 + the pew rents can be had on Saturday. Brought home the rents collected & came in about 11/2—brought three hundred and twenty three pounds four shillings, and sat with A– counting it over and she put it away to be ready for tomorrow; (I had one hundred and

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three sovereigns and the rest in five pound country notes.) Some while with my aunt....John Booth soon returned from H-x—one Jennings (lives at Cow-green) had given the casting vote for Protheroe—by & by came Mr Washington who had it from Wortley himself at the [White] Swan committee room that the casting vote was in his (Wortley’s) favour, the state of the poll being: Wood 336 Wortley 308 Protheroe 307 What a hard run race! Came upstairs & in 50 minutes (till 6) wrote 3 pages to [Lady] Vere [Cameron]—would she thank me for a scrawl per post merely to say I hoped we had succeeded—gave the state of the poll, saying I heard there were 2 bad votes—would not be made known till tomorrow to whom they belonged—but the weight of property certainly on our side, & I hoped, they did not belong to us. I had not seen Mr Wortley—out when he called, but no matter—he was sure of all the support I could give him; V– herself had asked me to do what I could for him—and I had thrown in my mite. We none of us thought the Radicals would have pushed us so hard but we hoped better times would come, & that before another election we should one & all of us (conservatives) be stronger—hoped that my own influence would not be decreased....Merely added the town was in a sad turmoil—the windows, glass & frames of many of the principal houses, inns & shops ([belonging to the] blues) smashed to atoms—the 2 front doors of the vicarage broken down— Mr [Christopher] Rawson’s carriage (the banker with [whom] Mr Wortley had been staying) completely broken up. One of our servants going to the post yesterday had been knocked down but escaped without much harm—another of our servants escaped with difficulty today having seen a poor blue taken into a surgery, almost trampled & bruised to death. Dinner at 61/2. It was, Ben Wilson wrote later, ‘known as the “window-breaking” election’;5 and certain a good excuse for a free drink. Anne Lister braved the Halifax mob—when she went down to sort out paying for Staups. She had difficulty gathering together the large sum—about £3,200—for the remaining purchase money.

thursDAy 8 Had Charles Howarth—he wanted something to drink for himself & others: 11 or 12 (John Bottomley etc) workmen & pitmen

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in honour of Mr Wortley’s election. Then with my father & Marian & with my aunt and got ninety [pounds] from the two former and fifty pounds from the latter to make up for Staups [purchase] and be repaid on Monday. A– furnished five hundred and I myself three hundred and ten [pounds] of the nine hundred and fifty I took to Mr Parker. Off to H-x at 12 40/” down the Old Bank—at the bottom of it a yellow mob of women & boys— asked if I was yellow—they looked capable of pelting me. ‘Nay!’ said I, ‘I’m black—I’m in mourning for all the damage they have done’. This seemed to amuse them, & I walked quietly & quickly past. At Mr Parker’s office before 1—he hardly expected me—thought I might not like to venture out...[I] had gone so early because I could only raise £950, instead of eleven hundred pounds as I had told him. So he had to draw on Rawson’s Bank for the deficit....Paid him towards the purchase money £500 in Bank of England, £200 in county notes, £55 in county notes + £25 in Bank of England & 170 sovereigns = £950 + £1,000 for which I signed a bond to Mr Wainhouse at 41/4% + £1000 furnished for a few days till A–’s administration-thousand is ready...= £3,218.7.7, being the sum paid today for me by Mr Parker at the office of Messrs Stead & Dyson6 for the Staups Estate, bought by auction at £3,500—of which £330 deposit was paid at the time.... Sent Mr Parker to conclude the business for me & went to Whitley’s [bookshop] & waited there about an hour. Mr Henry Priestley there—some time talking to him & Booth on the subject of our hardrun election & the damage done by the mob yesterday, estimated at £10,000—£2,000 of which said to be done at Mr James Norris’s Bull-close—all the furniture of the lower rooms utterly destroyed— pictures and books thrown about in all directions—all the windows broken, & frames torn out. Sad devastation too at the Shay, Mr Jeremiah Rawson’s—his carriage & gig pulled out of the coach house & quickly demolished—much damage to the furniture. Much damage also done at the vicarage—the 1st person who broke into the house there was a woman. Old Mr Briggs had been seen tearing down the state of the poll yesterday, & his son Rawdon being spoken to, said he could not command his father. Just before the swell mob commenced proceedings (at 3pm yesterday) clubs had been thrown out among them from Mr Protheroe’s committee room window— several people had seen this—Mr Protheroe had persuaded the mob to give up their intention of doing damage at Wellhead, saying there was an invalid there.7 They then called out for ‘Jem Norris’ & tho’ so near Wellhead, Mr Protheroe contented himself with sending his 142

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servant to ask for mercy there but did not go himself. Report says, Mr Rawdon Biggs was seen to laugh when the mob went to Mr James Norris’s—at all rates, none of the Whig or radical gentlemen made any effort to appease the mob.... Then at 31/4 back to Mr Parker’s office—he had just returned from completing the [Staups] purchase—said all had been done very agreeably....The town very full of people crowding about the [White] Swan, & running about to see where the damage was done. The Old Bank very quiet—returned up it & came in at 3 50/”. Sat talking to A–. Dinner at 61/4—coffee—Marian had her company so no going to see my father for A– & me...A– & I then sat reading the [Huddersfield &] H-x Express & London Morning Herald. When the election result was finally announced Wood and Wortley had apparently won. Protheroe had lost by just a single vote. There were immediate protests about the returning officer, and the legality of some of Wortley’s votes. The Whiggish Huddersfield and Halifax Express complained of the Tories’ bribery and intimidation.8 Certainly, the 1835 Halifax borough election was notorious for its chicanery and violence—but was by no means untypical.9 Nationally Peel’s Tories won an extra hundred seats: locally Radicals, angry at the trickery of Wortley’s political fixers, appealed to parliament, challenging the validity of the result. Certainly, the election dispute refused to die.10 In all the accusations and attacks on Tory property, Anne Lister and Ann Walker had managed to escape unscathed—so far.

sAturDAy 10 Washington took coffee with us, and with some humming and ah-ing, pulled out of his pocket today’s Leeds Mercury containing among the marriages of Wednesday last: ‘Same day, at the Parish Church H-x, Captain Tom Lister of Shibden Hall to Miss Ann Walker, late of Lidget, near the same place’. I smiled and said it was very good—read it aloud to A– who also smiled and then took up the paper and read the skit to my aunt, and on returning the paper to W– begged him to give it to us when he had done with it—he said he would and seemed agreeably surprised to find what was probably meant to annoy, taken so quietly and with such mere amusement— said not a word of it to my father and Marian, with them 1/2 hour till 81/4—then came upstairs—A– did not like the joke—suspects the Briggs— so does my aunt. mONDAy 12 Marian came into A– and me at breakfast this morning with an anonymous letter...from H-x, directed to ‘Captain Lister, 143

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Shibden Hall, Halifax’, containing extract from the Leeds Mercury... and concluding ‘we beg to congratulate the parties on their happy connection’. Probably meant to annoy, but, if so, a failure.11 This public lampooning, apparently out-of-the-blue, seems startling. It was not so much the timing of the newspaper squib in the immediate aftermath of such a bitter election, but its extremely personal innuendo which was so very pointed.12 Anne Lister, seething underneath, maintained a noblewoman’s sang-froid and nonchalantly continued her diary.

tuesDAy 13 With A– till 12, lastly rubbed the back of her neck with camphorated spirit of wine—long piece of work to reconcile her—she had read over my letter to Lady Harriet [de Hagemann] and I found her in tears. Long before I could make out what for—I had told her I should mention her & she made no objection (but seemed rather pleased) that I never dreampt of her being annoyed. At last told her I should have made just the same sort of mention of Lady Vere and I thought [this] satisfied her—and by great tenderness of manner and attention she got back into good spirits and her tears seemed forgotten. Then from 12 to 3 55/” finished my letters...to Lady S. de R–...to Lady H de H–...to Lady Vere...to Lady S–. To Anne Lister’s aristocratic friends, Ann Walker was presented merely as ‘my little friend who travelled with me in the summer, & who makes no objection to my longer travels that I think of for some time hence’.13 Meanwhile work on the Walker pit continued. Although its horse-gin technology was still quaintly primitive and flooding still a problem, such small-scale mining still made economic sense locally. Anne concluded an agreement with James Holt and the Manns for the pit-sinking. It was laced with all manner of requirements and penalties: ‘2 shifts per day till the completion of the said pit, which is to be within 12 months from the date hereof, or forfeit the sum of twenty pounds to the said Miss Anne Lister for every month after such time....The whole to be done to the satisfaction of Mr James Holt’—signed Joseph Mann, John Mann, Robert Mann.14

sAturDAy 17 About 1/2 hour at Mr Parker’s office—said I had almost determined to take Mawson for the Stump X tenant (if a blue man).... Long talk about Mr (Christopher) Rawson—Mr P– agreed that the bank was talked of underhand [surrepticiously]. I mentioned (in confidence) the business of Sam Hall’s coal & said Mr R– was not apparently going on like a man of great stability....Returned up the New Bank (having gone to Whitley’s & got 2 poll books, one published by Whitley & the other by the Whig publisher).15 144

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For the well-situated Stump Cross Inn, Anne Lister sought bids for the rent each prospective tenant would be prepared to pay. But in the bitter election aftermath, such calculations could not be just financial—as at least one bidder appreciated.

mONDAy 19 [James Crompton’s] bid was not high enough....He hoped I would not think merely of the highest bidder. ‘No!’ said I...asked what side of politics he took—blue, he & all his family & if he had had 100 votes would have given them all to Wortley—said I did not wish to influence anyone unfairly, but was anxious to have all my people conscientiously of my own way of thinking in politics—could only say, he had better think the thing over & give his answer to Mr Parker.... Mr Sutcliffe & his daughter & little grand-daughter came about Northgate House...[I] told Mr S– I was glad he had given Mr Wortley a plumper—Mr S– left me at 4 20/” after having had wine & biscuits & gingerbread—then a little while with A–, then finished arranging letter drawer. Anne Lister left domestic details to Marian. It was only when there was a crisis in the smooth running of the household (prompted here by Cordingley’s departure) that her diary reveals something of its complex organisation of servants: who paid them and whose bidding they carried out.

tuesDAy 20 Went in to Marian....What A– & I pay is perhaps not quite enough to cover the additional expense—said we would pay whatever more might be required—offered to take the whole establishment (in & out)16 upon myself if Marian liked, my father allowing me whatever his present expenses were. Marian herself had no objection—but my father must be consulted. ‘Well!’ said I, ‘& so must Adney, for all the indoors trouble would fall on her’. Said I was glad Cordingley was really going or gone. A– & I off to Cliff-hill at 11—talked over what had passed with Marian; A– quite against our having anything to do with housekeeping—thought things had much better go on as at present during my father’s life—she easily persuaded me of her opinion. WeDNesDAy 21 No kiss. Finish, hazyish winter morning—very hard frost F31o in my study at 9 5/”am—the water in my footpail frozen over 1st time; & the ice so strong [I] could not break it quite off round the edges, even with all the force I could use with my tooth brush handle. 145

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Anne Lister kept an eye on her business options. She relied upon the information Joseph Mann passed on about whether the Rawsons were tresspassing on her coal. And she still planned to make something of Northgate house: among those interested was her tenant, Greenwood.17

thursDAy 22 Greenwood came at 101/2—out with him shewing him the intended Walker pit road—very well [illegible]. Afraid I should think him presumptuous, or would have said before, that he should like to take [i.e. rent] Northgate house & land—would take boarders—sure he could make it answer—could let his shop for 50 guineas a year & get £30 a year for his workshops....If he had it, would give it up or any part of it whenever I wanted it—he would secure 3 blue votes in letting his own property there, & his own vote & one we might make (as I myself observed, of his foreman)=5 + Denniston (Hopwood Lane fields tenant) & John Bottomley=7 good blue votes.... A– & I some time with my father & Marian—she (Marian) would not be surprised at Rawson’s [bank] failure any day....Had Joseph Mann at 71/2...asked if it was true that Rawsons had got my coal skirting along to Barraclough Lane head. ‘Yes! thought it true’. Could I turn all the Shibden water upon them—i.e. round the nook [corner] of their coal—‘Yes!’ he thought I could—but his brother knew better than he did & he would get him (his brother) to come down here with him—charged him not to name a word of all this to anyone but his brother. Recriminations against Tory ‘borough-mongering corruption’ and Wortley’s wafer-thin majority refused to go away. One much-used technique of political ‘persuasion’ was exclusive dealing, whereby shoppers took their custom to shopkeepers supporting their politics. Anne Lister and Ann Walker, themselves Tory customers, experienced a variation of this: when they went shopping they encountered what they took to be a new incivility from Halifax shopkeepers. A much more pointed and public local attack was the reprinting in the Halifax Guardian of the malicious ‘marriage’ announcement.18 The personal-political lampooning was creeping closer to home, and must have prompted even more local gossip. But Anne Lister’s diary maintained its air of aloof nonchalance—though she had requested an apology.

FriDAy 23 Went for 10 minutes to Mr Parker’s office; Mr P– gave me the letter of apology he had received on my account from the Editor of the Guardian19—quite enough—said we (A– & I) were quite satis-

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fied....Then to Roper’s [shop]—said he should have my ironmongery custom if he would take care to serve me as well & easily as anyone else could [serve] me at ready-money prices. Then to Nicholson’s & very civilly complained of the want of civility to A– yesterday; N– very civil & obliging & said that what I said should not be lost upon him & his young men.20 For every diary entry about electoral politics there were still a dozen about coal mining. Helped by Ann Walker’s substantial ‘administration money’, Anne could really develop her plans. But flooding and trespass remained very serious problems: so complex was the local geology that underground encroachments were always shrouded with dark suspicions of industrial espionage. The Rawsons might be Tories: but they were still unscrupulous business rivals. Hinscliffe was one of Anne’s informants on this: together they studied the coal plan and Walker pit.

mONDAy 26 [Hinscliffe] thought that if they [the Rawsons] did trespass...& dammed the water up against me there, I could not easily find the trespass out...[I said] it was his (H–’s) interest as well as mine to bottom Walker pit & see what had been done....‘But’, said I, ‘I know the plan: they will throw the trespass on you.’ I enlarged on this till I saw that it made some impression. ‘This’, said I, ‘is what I do not want—I care not about you & your trespass—it is R–’s [trespass] I want to prove’....‘Well!’ said I, ‘there will probably be swearing enough [in court], & you must be prepared’....Poor H–! Perhaps he begins to think there is no knowing whom to trust—the impression is strong on my mind that he has hitherto been on the look-out to help Rawson... A– came for me to see Mr Parker (& H– went away at 3 5/”) who had at last got the administration money...A–’s moiety [share]=£1,187.10.0—no interest allowed—[I] advised A– to take the money & say nothing. She agreed before [i.e. in front of] Mr P– to let me have the whole at 4 per cent, a note of hand from me to her to be made out by him for £1,000 at 4 percent & the rest to be settled between ourselves.

february 1835 Buoyed up by this loan from Ann Walker, Anne Lister now became more actively involved in the management of Ann’s share of the Walker estate

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and the income it produced. Of immediate concern was of course the crucial division between the two sisters of the unentailed property; this would probably be done by a mixture of contiguity (i.e. nearness to the entailed land) and drawing lots. Anne therefore remained keenly vigilant of Ann Walker’s correspondence with the Sutherlands; and of Ann’s family papers, now apparently stored at Shibden in a tin box. The dividing of the joint estate, a fairly complicated transaction, represented a tidy commission for the lawyers who would handle it.1

tuesDAy 3 A– had a letter from her sister tonight which required an answer....Went to our room at 111/2—pothering over A–’s letter to her sister. WeDNesDAy 4 A– rewrote her letter to her sister to express herself differently.... Longish business to get the tin box out of the hall chamber into the Low Kitchen chamber. WeDNesDAy 11 A– & I off to H–x at 11 50/”—down the Old Bank....To Wellhead—saw Mrs Waterhouse, her son John, Mrs Musgrave and Mr M– for a minute....The W–s don’t care for the Protheroe letters2—seem to fear a scrutiny and another election— Mr Wortley has lost 5 plumpers by death since the election. Mrs W– hoped A– would not learn to walk and be like me—one Miss Lister quite enough—could not do with 2—one quite enough to move in such an eccentric orbit. Then shopping—went to Duncan’s & promised him my tailoring custom & hoped the blues would stick together. FriDAy 13 Out with A– at 2; down the Old Bank to H-x. Then left A– at Whitley’s while I went to Mr Parker’s office....Read [him] sentence of Mrs Sutherland’s last letter to A–...mentioned A–’s intention to have a division of the property, & pushing it forward, & hope of completing it in 6 months—& meaning to employ some law-man at a distance for fear of being thought to be favoured by Mr Parker. S. Washington now busy about the valuation [of the joint property]. Mr P– thoroughly for A–’s getting the business done at home [i.e. locally], or there would be great expense & trouble in sending the deeds to a stranger. It might be done (the law part) for £150.... [He] liked the plan of dividing partly according to contiguity to the entailed estates & partly by lot—thought the division would be for the welfare of both sides. 148

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Party political squabbling continued, with the Tories angry about exclusive dealing (that is, shopping only at ‘yellow’ traders). Robert Parker, for instance, writing to Captain Sutherland about the property transaction, complained that Halifax politics were beyond endurance: ‘Indeed soon I think there will be no living in the place, unless the People come to their Senses....Exclusive Dealing is all the rage, which is a most horrible System, for in a place like Halifax we all live by one another’.3 Anne felt similarly put out.

suNDAy 15 Stood in my aunt’s room 50 minutes reading yesterday’s H-x Guardian—letter from Mr William Briggs disclaiming the exclusive dealing system — well he may disclaim it, for the yellows are the losers....Afterwards 1/2 hour till 93/4 looking (A– & I) at large plan we got today from S. Washington sent to his father’s—it still wants more adding—more of A–’s joint property in H-x. thursDAy 19 Had the 2 Manns, 1st in the hall & afterwards in the North dining [room] till 5—had the small plan of the estate down & they made me understand their plan about the coals....All the coal above the Wakefield road...would be pulled [out] at Walker pit, & all the coal below the Wakefield road would be pulled at Pump [i.e. Listerwick] pit. FriDAy 20 No kiss. Had slept in cousin-linen with paper as usual, & white worsted stocking besides, which kept all very comfortable; A– never found out that I had cousin.4 Ready in an hour...I must hear what Holt says [about my coal plans]—my chief questions to him must be: How much can be sold per annum at one pit & at 2 pits...I shall have coal enough in Southowram to work for 24 years. sAturDAy 21 [Holt] agreed that coal at 71/2d per corve at Pump pit would be worth as much to let as coal at 8d at Walker pit, on account of double depth to pull [up] at W[alker] pit....Had the large plan down—began really to understand Mr Rawson’s colliery—he is sinking a 2nd pit (not yet bottomed) at Law-hill near to the road, up to which 2nd pit [there] will be 2 galloway5 gates (6ft high) communicating one with the staith near the bottom of the Old Bank, & the other with the Swan-banks staith; the other Law-hill pit is his engine pit— this engine pumps up the water 44 yards....Perhaps R–’s colliery will be done [i.e. finished] in 8 or 9 years. Mine cannot be fairly started of [i.e. for] 2 years, & that his rivalry will not hurt my colliery for ever... 149

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[Holt] advises the joint colliery6 being settled about (very quietly) on the measurements given in, right or wrong. suNDAy 22 No kiss. Ground still white with snow, the green peeping our here & there....Writing copy of letter to Lady Stuart....‘But surely the weather, the times, and politics, will mend by & by. What do you all think of the whig-radical success?7...But let us not at all despair. Our borough of H-x is, as perhaps almost every borough is, or will be, a house divided against itself. Our adversaries are portentously busy & elated—we have not a mite of influence to spare;8 but I hope great & small will everywhere see the necessity of being united, & that we shall weather the storm, at last. Now while I am at home, I am determined to do something—Mr Wortley has lost five plumpers by deaths—I will try to make up this loss, & ere another election, I hope to be able to manage better than hitherto.’9 MONDAy 23 Had John Mallinson about Mytholm Farm...talked about politics—said I wished to have all my new tenants on my side [of] the question—Mallinson wished to be neuter [neutral]— I said these were not times for that—the exclusive dealing system forced on us by the Whigs left us no choice what to do—we must support our friends; M– is evidently a Whig at heart.10 As well as the Leeds Mercury and Halifax Guardian announcements one apparently had also appeared in Whiggish York Chronicle.11

WeDNesDAy 25 Pretty good one last night, but she said I had half killed her and she would have no more, and she awoke me two or three times in the night to tell me she could not sleep....From 101/2 to 31/4 with A– looking over and helping her to settle the joint property coal account12....Talking to John about getting 2 broken-down coach horses to work the Walker-pit gin— John agreed that there would be hay and pasture enough for them and I should save 1/2 [the cost] by having my own horses instead of letting [out] the work to be done....Then till nine and a quarter, writing for A– copy of what she should write to her sister about the [joint] coal account.... Letter this evening (3 pages & ends & under the seal) from M–....‘Do you see the York papers? & do you know anything of a paragraph that appeared in one respecting yourself & Miss W–? I long to know what it was—tell me if you have heard of it.’

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Meanwhile, although the Tories had won more seats in the election, the combined strength of the opposition left Peel’s conservative government embattled, unable to push its legislation through. However his authority as Prime Minister grew; and the spread of local Conservative Associations (or Constitutional Committees) gave the party the local organization it needed for the registering of sympathetic voters in preparation for the next election. Anne Lister kept herself abreast of local politics through, for instance, the new family doctor, Mr Jubb. Their conversation underlines the extent Ann Walker’s relatives still constituted the local Tory élite. Unenfranchised, Anne Lister might not be able to attend political dinners; but through her estate and through her ‘wife’s’ family network, she believed she could exercise considerable political influence.

thursDAy 26 Mr Jubb came about 21/4 for about 1/4 hour or 20 minutes—never found my aunt’s pulse so good, or herself in such good spirits. A little talk of politics—he had seen a gentleman direct from London who said the general opinion was that...Sir Robert Peel (and his cabinet) had determined not to resign unless the Commons stopt the supplies, but was resolved to bring forward his plans [for legislation13] and try whether the country would support him or not. I again pressed our having a regularly organised plan, and said we should bring in 2 [Tory] members instead of one the next time—I only wished for 3 years time and by the end of that I hoped to have the command of 20 votes. Mr Jubb said the Constitutional Committee gained ground fast—John Edwards [was] a sort of standing chairman till another election—said at the very agreeable dinner they had yesterday, he hoped to be a voter by another election. The Edwardses making a great many votes, ditto the Rawsons, particularly Mr William Henry—Christopher [Rawson] will stand [for election] himself another time, and if Mr Waterhouse would have stood this time they two would have contested the borough against the Whigs. I hinted at, and at last proposed to Mr Jubb, Mr Henry Priestley,14 saying he would unite more votes than Mr Rawson who had too many trades, and had been too unlucky in offending some influential people...Mr Jubb seemed much struck with what I said and to approve it much—told him to mention it when it could serve the cause but not put my name to the hint. I should see about it myself by-&-by when opportunity offered. Mr Rawson in his zeal would gladly, I was sure, give up to any townsman who might be able to unite more votes than he (Mr R–) could....Sat up reading the newspaper (King’s speech & debates) till 11 35/”. 151

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FriDAy 27 No kiss. Rainy windy morning—reading Sir Robert Peel’s capital speech—F41o at 83/4 am—breakfast at 9 and staid downstairs with A– (till 11) on her receipt soon after 9 from Washington’s foreman (surveyor) of his valuation and proposed management of the division of the joint property. Talked it over [with A–]; told her how to make out a clear summary on one sheet so as [to] shew at a glance the relative value and contents of every farm etc....With A– from 31/2 to 5 25/”, looking over her summary of valuation, rents etc of the joint property...A’s rents per annum 407.12.6...the Navigation 506.0.0....Lot One, if she gets it, 1,527.7.3...[total] 2,774.9.3.15 sAturDAy 28 Mr Jubb came between 10 & 11....Longish talk on politics—ministers beaten in the Commons....A gentleman (barrister) come down from London & Mr Bateman [were] scrutinizing Mr Wortley’s votes, and those of the M.P. [Wood] and Mr Protheroe. They say Mr Wortley’s safe...I spoke again and more clearly than ever before that the soi-disant aristocracy of the town had not bourne its honours meekly—foolish to offend [old families who were]...older settlers than the Rawsons, Edwards etc, the Walkers of Crow-nest among the oldest of the now oldest—i.e. of about 2 centuries. Mr Jubb said my own family was the only old one here...[I] took the palm of antiquity offered, tho’ spoke with conciliatory consideration towards all newer settlers whose property and respectability gave them claims on the town. Mr Jubb said he was flattered to find my [views] so coincided with his own.

march 1835 suNDAy 1 A– had headache & lay on sofa for an hour & I sat by her. Then above an hour writing her copy of what to write to her sister (we both approved it this time)—[the letter] in the parcel with Washington’s valuation of the estate. mONDAy 2 Met Jonathan Mallinson & his son John in the walk coming after me—told the latter I would say nothing about rent—very sorry—but I found [out that] he ought to be & must be a yellow, & therefore we could not agree—he seemed sorry but said as little as he could—[he] really did not dare give a blue vote. Said I would make no attempt to change him—did not want to do that—only 152

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wanted the blues to come [to] me for anything I had to dispose of. Told Jonathan, with a smile, he must bring up his other 2 sons [as] blues—if he did, and one was a skinner, he should have Mytholm old house & the skin-pits. [I was] rather surprised to find this proposal relished—Jonathan said he would consult his wife (who he thought would be for it) & give me an answer before May day—but I am not to name it.1 Anne Lister, with her ‘palm of antiquity’, might still appear to others within the Tory party as an ‘ultra’ rather than as a conciliatory Peelite moderate.

tuesDAy 3 1/2 sheet full (kind letter) franked by Mr James Stuart Wortley, from Lady Vere Cameron (Whitehall): Donald naturally a moderate Tory—not so ultra as the Stuarts—his Scotch friends [were] radicals—his uncle the Whig speaker2—therefore Donald and therefore Vere herself no great intermeddlers in politics. WeDNesDAy 4 Looking over A–’s summaries of the joint property. thursDAy 5 Met Mr & Mrs John Edwards & Mrs Edwards of Pye-nest returning from Cliff-hill—they stopt the britska3 10 minutes or 1/4 hour in the Crow-nest road & kept us talking—all very civil. In the tense political atmosphere of spring 1835, Tories had to bury their differences. Not only was there a ‘scrutiny’4 of votes cast in Halifax, but there were also a post-election libel trial to be held at the Assizes in York Castle. In a letter to Lady Stuart de Rothesay, Anne Lister reflected on the Tories’ beleagered position:

I am not the least in despair....We hope all will yet be well, and that our member [Wortley] will not be unseated. Threats run high; but surely we shall have nothing worse than two thousand pounds to pay, of which Lord Wharncliffe will pay half. I suppose Mr Wortley has not been able to get into parliament at all—the spirit of the times is hard to manage....The longer I am at home, and the more I come into contact with the contending interests around me, the more I am anxious to learn what is likely to become of us. From my aunt’s present state of health I see no immediate danger. I may be here another twelvemonth or longer. I shall try therefore to make a few votes. The Whigs and Radicals will have their friends act upon the exclusive-dealing system; and we have no alternative.5 153

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sAturDAy 7 Sat talking to A– 1/2 hour then looked over the H-x Guardian—and stated [summarised] clearly Washington’s amended (corrected) coal account for A– to write to her sister tonight.6

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mONDAy 9 Teazed with the feeling to want a motion—my bowels have been wrong-doing—nothing but little round bits for the last five or six months. The division between the Sutherlands and Ann Walker of the joint property was at last proceeding. The land for which lots were to be drawn was numbered.

tuesDAy 10 A– all the morning busy at her summary of Lot 2 of the joint property—looking over what A– had summarised. WeDNesDAy 11 No kiss. Very rainy morning, so took at 8 10/” 2 full spoonfull of castor oil & no breakfast but only 2 cups of tea with A– at 91/4. Had one good motion just before & have had 3 since....Then till six finishing my calculations & musing about coal-getting, & then read from page 369 to 433 end of Philip on the preservation of health—very good & interesting book....Looking over A–’s summary of the Golcar Lot [beyond Huddersfield] & calculating the value of the colliery. Like other West Riding landowners, Anne Lister still wanted profit-making mining on her land—and for the Listerwick pit to be invisible from the house.

thursDAy 12 Walked by...Stump Cross Inn along the Lower-brea road—from the turnpike gate (nearside) to my nearest Willroyde land...get my pit in the former situation on the upper side—very convenient & can hide it—or disguise the look & its ugliness as viewed from Shibden Hall. The business of dividing the joint Walker property provided a reminder of how Captain Sutherland had in 1831 acquired rights over Elizabeth’s property;7 and this prompted talk at Cliff-hill of will-making. Would Ann Walker’s wealthy elderly aunt retain her unmarried niece as a beneficiary—despite her move to Shibden? Or did she distrust Anne Lister (rather as the family distrusted Captain Sutherland) sufficiently to persuade herself to protect her family property?

FriDAy 13 Went down to A– at 2, she had come for me to shew proof...of the conveyance by her sister of all her sister’s property

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to Captain S–, 27 & 28 February 1831—done by lease & release, & secure enough. We were in the midst of our astonishment & talking when...off with A– at 31/2 to Cliff-hill—walked with her to the Crownest paddock stile & then returned to speak to Holt who was with the 2 Manns....Told him to settle about [the pit-sinking] price & get it begun as soon as possible—to work shifts i.e. night & day—anxious for the Pump [Listerwick] pit to be set a-going as a sale pit as soon as possible. Holt thinks it will take at least a 12 month.... Then off again at 51/4 for A–. Dawdled about the Cliff-hill land till went into the house at 53/4 and sat 1/2 hour—home at 7. A– had told her aunt all about her sister’s making over the property to Captain S–, and about her own (A–’s) will and heard about her aunt’s. The long and the short [of it] is she [aunt Walker] thought A– had left all she had to me; and so she (Mrs A. W–) had, the [very] next thing, to cut A– out [of her will] for it. Neither she [Ann] nor Mrs Sutherland to be executors, but Mr W. Priestley. A– pleased [her aunt] by saying she had left all to Sackville—nothing yet settled about me, but if A– did not marry, [she] should probably stay with me and we should mutually give each other a life estate in all we could. Ann’s aunt obviously wanted her property to stay within the Walker family, and could not have been at all pleased about this mutual ‘life estate’ plan.8 The following day, Anne Lister was able to piece together a better picture of the Rawson coal trespass.

sAturDAy 14 Skimmed over Cabinet Lawyer....John Mann came & had him from 3 35/” to 6 25/”....Talking about R–’s colliery...[I] just asked...how I should manage to look after [attend to] his [Rawson’s] trespass on my coal in Marsh farm. ‘No way but an authority from Chancery to go down into R–’s pits’. ‘Oh! Oh!’ thought I & said nothing—‘that won’t do’. In fact I knew as much before...Holt, J. Mann agrees, is as honest as any of them but not as clever...consults with the Manns & gives in. Said I knew all this—& now began to plan for myself—but much obliged to J. M– &, said I, attended much to what he said—I had no thought of going according to some of Holt’s plans—had now plans of my own, but said nothing about some of them...[Rawson’s steam-engine] both pumps the water & draws up the scoops or corves of coal to the engine pit where six [corves] at a time are yoked together to one galloway [small horse] that pulls them out at Swan-banks or [at the] bottom of Southowram bank as wanted....Looking over with A– the 15 plans S. Washington sent

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her this afternoon by George—the plans are each comprehending as much land as lies together or nearly so.9

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With the outcome of the ‘window-breaking’ Halifax election result still disputed, anonymous attacks—both public and private—on Anne Lister’s unorthodox relationship with Ann Walker also continued.

suNDAy 15 Skimmed over the H-x Guardian of yesterday...last Monday evening petition presented against the return of the honourable J S Wortley, signed by Messrs Rawdon Briggs junior, G B Browne, & Joseph Nicholson. And the following night, a petition presented against the return of Mr Wood, signed by Mr Jeremiah Rawson & Mr Craven. Reading Parnell on Road-making till 12 10/”....Off to Lightcliffe church at 1 55/”....The post brought me a Kind Letter... from M– (Leamington); & an anonymous letter (3 pages) with promise of another to A–; extreme abuse of me—pity for A–; sure she is unhappy & [the writer] will do all to aid her getting away from me & Shibden. 1/2 hour with my aunt till 101/4 at which [hour] F46o—fine day—rainy night at 11 20/” till which hour we sat talking.10 Presumably this letter was from a genuine well-wisher who had seen the marriage ‘anouncement’ in the Guardian and felt that Ann Walker did indeed need rescuing from Shibden. However, in the heightened political atmosphere, it was far more likely to have been written by a Whig-Radical (and may have also been a rather spiteful way to try and curb Anne’s electoral activity).11 What is certain is that the letter was kept well away from Ann Walker’s relatives—including the Edwards family.

thursDAy 19 Walked in front of the house with her about 10 minutes when Mr John Edwards called. Had him to myself from 41/2 to 5 40/”—paid him £50 in bank of England [notes as] my subscription towards the expense of Mr James Wortley’s election—Mrs Prescott, Miss Horsfall & Mesdames Lancashire & Brook gave £20 each the 2 first, & £20 between them the last 212—only 9 gentlemen & myself who gave £50 each—many twentys & tens & some fives—besides all this, £1000 raised by the electors for the scrutiny, & £1000 given towards it by Lord Wharncliffe. Hope all will be well—mentioned Mr Henry Priestley for a townsman [borough] member (or rather candidate) to be hereafter brought forward. J. Edwards seemed surprised—said he [Priestley] had not money enough—I said a thousand a year. ‘No!’ ‘Then’, said I, ‘from £700 to £1000—but

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that might be managed’....Begged that my proposition might be thought of—I think it was not distasteful on the whole....Very civil to J. Edwards—said he had everybody’s good [wishes]—I & everyone in the house would be glad to see him at any time.13 Ran down to Throp...brought him here, ordered him beer & lent him for himself & his father to read (in no hurry) the Essays on the Church. FriDAy 20th No kiss. Fine morning—ready in an hour—would not let A– get up—left her in bed for the day....Came in at 123/4 & lay down by & sat by A– till 2 while she had her small basin of veal broth....Then went up to Walker [pit]....Holt said this afternoon [that] 1 collier would get 25 loads or corves per day—but including holidays...1 collier to get 20 loads a day—then taking off Sundays: 365—52=313 x 20=6,260 loads...therefore 4 colliers will get 1 acre + 168 yards per annum.14 Anne’s coal strategy remained the Walker pit for the short term, and planning the more ambitious Listerwick Colliery near Pump for the long term.

sAturDAy 21 Had Joseph Mann...satisfied with our present site of engine pit [at Pump]—think we shall have some power to spare— Pump pit may be set working (damn, goits etc & all complete) in a 12-month....Till 10 35/” calculating over A–’s summaries of the joint property lots as proposed to be divided by S. Washington. suNDAy 22 Explained to Aquilla Green why the letting [of Northgate] to John Mallinson had gone off—did not wish to influence any man’s opinion unfairly, but would not have any tenant living in the town & having a vote upon whose help at a dead lift [in a crisis] I could not count. A. Green thought the conservative side was the better & we got on very well on this part of our subject....At Cliff-hill at 41/2... Mr William Priestley came in for the last 1/2 hour—neither A– nor I addressed anything more than necessary answers to him. mONDAy 23 A goodish kiss last night—all her own bringing on—I never spoke but took it—we had not sleep till near two, tho’ lay quiet without speaking. The edredon [eiderdown] is too hot for me....Thomas Greenwood came at 2...sat talking about the is-to-be Northgate hotel....All over the town that all was ready for signing, but that I would have all off on finding

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that John Mallinson would not give me a conservative vote—this mentioned as intimidation—explained—said I supposed they would have me up before the House of Commons—would go with pleasure. Anne Lister again presented a nonchalant front over accusations of political intimidation: but, with Parliament setting up a select committee to investigate bribery at elections, she must have recognised how close to the political wind she was now sailing—and how therefore she was perceived in Halifax. Ann Walker’s aunt, having long lost the battle about her niece moving to Shibden, was able to signal her disapproval by cutting Ann out of her will (or at least cutting her down). Very likely William Priestley or his wife had explained as precisely as they possibly could about Anne Lister’s hold on Ann.

mONDAy 30 A– had long talk with her aunt, who has left Cross-platts Farm to Sackville, and [made] Mr William Priestley sole executor. Furniture, plate, linen and china were first left to A–, now to her sister. But as A– has not given all she has to me, her aunt may change [her will] back again in her favour. She told [her aunt] how I had erased Mr W.P. from being my executor. 31 tuesDAy Wrote (3 pages & ends) to M–...‘If you are bent upon having the paragraph [newspaper announcement], I must send it you another time. I cannot, at this moment, turn to the paper, in time for the letter-bag of tonight; but the announcement was, in substance, the marriage of Captain Tom Lister of S. Hall. to Miss Ann Walker, late of Lidget. On discovery of the hoax, a handsome volunteer apology was sent by the Editor of one of the papers; & here the matter ended, for nobody was annoyed, & nobody cared about it...’ Had said [to M–] my wrist was spelked [in a splint] & I wrote with more pain & difficulty than last time I wrote....Coffee with my father & Marian near 1/2 hour till 7 40/”— then looking over A–’s old papers that she brought from Crow-nest for about an hour—several copies of wills—Mr Caygill’s, great grandfather to A–.

aPrIL 1835 WeDNesDAy 1 Talking to Marian till near 12...told me she had made herself the talk of the town by passing Mrs Abbott’s every time in going to & returning from Miss Watkinson’s school with Miss S. Inman & calling to inquire after Mrs A– each time....Poor Marian! What want to good judgement she perpetually shews!

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ThursDAy 2 50 minutes burning old papers out of drawer (of which Charles Howarth had picked the lock) in the Green room that Sharpe brought me, it not having been opened of many years—not probably since my uncle Joseph left Shibden. His old trade books and copies of trade letters and pattern book of cloths from about seventeen hundred and seventy two and before and perhaps after. I did not examine but burnt them all.1 FriDAy 3 A– sat by me, downstairs, at her rent books—my aunt (much better today) brought down into the drawing room....From 123/4 to near 4 at Colliery account....Had Joseph Mann for 1/4 hour till 4 10/”—paid him for the last fortnight’s driving & gave him back his [payments] book which I have brought down to today inclusive....Then A– had letter from her sister—a civil put-off [postponement]—Captain & Mrs S– will come in July & see about the division. The letter that Ann Walker finally received from Elizabeth was certainly a ‘civil put-off’. With a keen eye on tenants’ rent arrears and on the colliery account, it reads less like sister writing to sister than lawyer writing to lawyer, bearing all the hallmarks of Captain Sutherland’s close scrutiny:

Udale House 31 March 1835 My dearest Ann I fear you have thought me long in replying to your four kind letters but I have in various ways been prevented doing so...I think the division of the Estates very fair so far as appears on paper, and I doubt not Mr S. Washington has paid the greatest attention to the subject. I am most anxious that the division should be made in such a way as to leave no room for after-reflections; consequently I think it an act of justice to you and to myself that [Captain] Sutherland should see each farm and compare it with the value put upon it by Mr S. Washington....We are as anxious as you to occasion no unnecessary delay, and unless something very unforeseen occurs Sutherland will be in Yorkshire in July for this purpose—when the land of course will be seen to the best advantage. I shall be very glad to give every facility to you taking any Land which you may wish as being contiguous to your Property.2 mONDAy 6 Mrs A. Walker had told her [AW] she heard Marian was going to be married. ‘Yes!’ said A–, ‘& Miss Lister told me to tell you; she & Miss Lister have talked it over & Miss Lister has told her

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she is old enough to judge for herself; but that if she does marry Mr Abbott, she & Miss Lister will never meet again’. Mrs A.W– seemed astonished, but not annoyed & turned the subject [shifted the conversation], A– having told her Marian had nothing to do with Shibden, that my uncle took care of this, knowing her too well.3 Ironically, despite the hoax marriage announcement and the anonymous letter, political developments were falling Anne Lister’s way. The ‘scrutiny’ demand had come to nothing and James Wortley remained an MP.4 Moreover, the strength of protest against the Halifax election result had encouraged loyal Tories to band together; and Anne Lister definitely fell within this political pale—rather than outside it. She was also assisted by another heated local political contest—for the post of Hipperholme schoolmaster. The school trustees would elect one of the candidates. Anne and Ann Walker supported a Mr Warburton, while William Priestley championed a Mr Carter. The candidates were running neck and neck, and a petition supporting Warburton was even circulated— to be presented to Reverend Musgrave, who was to make the final decision. And with William Priestley already distanced from the vicar, Musgrave inclined to ally himself with the Warburton faction—and so with the loyal Anglicans of Shibden Hall. Meanwhile Robert Parker, despite his earlier friendly correspondence with Captain Sutherland, now found himself in an unenviable position: his loyalties were divided between his Shibden clients and the Sutherlands.

WeDNesDAy 8 Mr Washington came at 10 & immediately Mr Parker....Talked over Mr Warburton & his chances (favourable) of being elected to Hipperholme school. Talked over the William Priestleys—I said (while A– was out of the room) the breach was now too wide between her & them for it ever to be made up. A– got on from little to more [conversation] till she talked over all about her sister’s signing away (by a sort of deed of sale) all her unentailed property. Mr Parker explained & quite acquitted himself of all blame—it appears Mrs Sutherland was quite aware of the consequences of what she did & cut out Ann without any scruple.5 A– explained the Sutherland condition [situation] during her last visit at Udale—said she had in fact been ill-used altogether & mentioned Mrs S–’s letter to me at Paris & its purport.6 Mr Parker astonished, thought it well A– had got away safe. All this explanation had arisen out of A–’s speaking of the division of the joint property & naming her intention of employing someone [i.e. a lawyer] at a distance, on which

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Mr P– behaved very handsomely. Allusion was made to reports circulated here against A– & myself—my tricking or getting out of her all she had—all [of] which Mr P– had heard. Explained. Mr P– thought people were already beginning to think very differently—the right would come out at last. A– at last a little nervous—almost in tears in speaking of the manner of her getting away from Scotland, Captain S–’s not letting her sister go with her to York...7 Off down the old bank to H-x at 31/4....Found both Mr & Mrs Musgrave at home—he behaved very handsomely—had received the petition in favour of Mr Warburton this morning. Mrs Musgrave had, before Mr M– came, hinted that a petition of that sort was not quite the thing—to which I quite agreed. However Mr M– had received it very graciously—presented by Dr Kenny. I made a handsome speech; glad the matter must be referred to Mr Musgrave; I was only anxious to say that A– & I & her [aunt] & everyone was interested in favour of Mr Warburton, but quite satisfied that Mr M– was the fittest person in the parish to decide the choice of the trustees, they being equally divided for Messrs Warburton & Carter. The vicar had received Mr W–’s testimonials from Mr Dearden, & Mr Carter’s from Mr William Priestly; & had told both that he knew both Messrs W– & C– & had no hesitation in saying the former was the best qualified for the school & should have his vote, should it be called [for]. Mr W. Priestley wished him to take a few days to consider the matter; Mr Musgrave said his mind was made up—Mr W. Priestley then said hastily ‘he’ (the vicar) ‘was not a fit person to appeal to—he was a prejudiced man’. Mrs Musgrave seemed struck with the impropriety of this remark—the vicar said it was not said in an angry manner—& excused Mr W. P– as best he could. Mrs M– said Mr M– had been quite nervous about it...I said I was much pleased—perfectly satisfied—did not think the vicar could have acted better and [I] was only rejoiced that the decision had fallen to him [i.e. vicar] who was so calculated to decide well. I wondered at Mr W. Priestley doing what was so unpopular with all his neighbours, & went on to say (gently tho’ in substance) that A–, for reasons which appeared to me to be quite sufficient, was now on such terms with the W. P–s that she was not likely to enter their doors again—& I should go along with her in this, not for any reason on my account, but entirely on hers—it was not necessary to say more. [I] laid no blame in particular on either Mr or Mrs W. P–; I had said enough & only begged that it might not be repeated...I think he, or at least Mrs M–, is less than perfectly satisfied 161

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with Mr W. P–. They seemed more surprised than annoyed at what I had said of the feeling of A– & myself towards the W. P–s. Asked me to stay & dine with them—dinner just coming in—of course I declined—said I was going to Cliff-hill, & asked to be allowed to tell some of the circumstances to Mrs A. Walker, to be allowed to say I knew Mr M– was for Warburton—answer ‘Yes!’ I had said that Mrs A. W– knew of A–’s resolve respecting the W. P–s & did not think her wrong—the vicar thought A– old enough to judge for herself & that she ought to be independant, independent, so thought Mrs M–. Left them, very well satisfied with both [Musgraves] & determined to be very civil to them hereafter.... Then by the Lower brea road to Cliff-hill at 53/4 & staid till 6 35/”, telling Mrs A. W– of my interview with Mr & Mrs M–. Mrs A. W– much pleased to hear Warburton is so sure of the school. [I] mentioned W. P–’s speech on the unfitness of Mr Musgrave to be judge—Mrs A. W– much amused—promised not to tell [repeat] the thing again...I had felt it better for myself & Miss W– not to sign it [the petition], but our good wishes to Mrs Warburton were very well known. On the broader political stage Robert Peel had not been able to proceed with his proposed legislation in the face of united opposition.8

thursDAy 9 Finished my letter begun yesterday to Lady Stuart when A– came to say Marian had just had a parcel from Carr’s, & the man said an express [coach] was arrived to say Parliament was dissolved!!! & 2 post boys were gone off instantly with the news to Bradford & Leeds. FriDAy 10 Saw Throp...long talk about ministers—Throp said if I began to be frightened that would have more weight with him than anything. But I shall give up talking politics—no hope of gaining people over, such is the spirit abroad for innovation....Read tonight’s paper—a short but good article on the resignation of ministers en masse, respected even by their adversaries. With Peel’s resignation after his ‘Hundred Days’, feeling ran high. In Howarth, for instance, Patrick Brontë forwarded a loyalist address entreating Peel ‘on behalf of the numerous Friends to Church and State in our Chapelry’ to stay in office ‘to stem the factious torrent which assails you’.9 Amid this political turmoil, Anne Lister arranged an urgent meeting with

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Jonathan Gray to sort out problems concerning Ann Walker’s property.10 They set off for York to see him.

mONDAy 13 A– explained the matter of the division of the joint property—what she had written to Mrs Sutherland & what Mrs Sutherland had replied—& put the affair regularly into Mr J. Gray’s hands. He thinks the coming over in July a mere put-off...I then asked J. G– to draw me up conditions of letting by ticket my coal & stone in Upper Place Land—he is to call at 11 am tomorrow. tuesDAy 14 Mr Gray came at 111/2—brought me Bythewood’s Conveyancing...thought I had better look this over to see what conditions would be advisable & left me a volume to this [end]. Read us the copy of what he will write by tonight’s post to Captain Sutherland, merely saying he is employed by A– in the matter of the division of the joint property & asking with whom he shall correspond as Captain S–’s solicitor on the subject... A– busy writing to her sister and pothered—sat down and wrote her a copy of all she needed say, then till 23/4 wrote all but the first 41/2 lines of today. Then out with A–; called at Dr Belcombe’s....Agree that Dr B– would rather not see more of us than necessary—sore about my taking A– so suddenly from under his care and ridding myself of M–. Dr Belcombe would of course have heard of the marriage announcement in the York paper. He could certainly no longer be in any doubt about the relationship, and may have realised he had perhaps been somewhat taken in. Concern for his professional reputation must have helped him decide he could no longer treat this patient.11

WeDNesDAy 15 Looking over Bythwood’s Conveyancing vol 5 page 6 et seq: form of coal lease. Mr Gray came about 103/4 & staid till 113/4— brought codicil to A–’s will authorising & desiring me as her trustee to proceed with the division of the joint property, if not completed at her death. She signed the codicil, & J. Gray & Eugenie & Joseph Booth (whom I commonly called George)12 witnessed it. thursDAy 16 Mr Gray came about 12 & staid till 2—seemed pleased with his visit for sat talking longer than business required. Anne & Ann then set off to visit the Norcliffes at Langton.

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FriDAy 17 A little play last night, but not even amounting to a grubble—yet she was rather excited and complained of being knocked up....A– went upstairs to bed at 93/4 & I sat downstairs talking till 113/4. Isabella Norcliffe then came & sat with me while I undressed till 11 50/”—all very kind & civil—she wanted to joke about my warming A– in bed but I put off all talk of this kind. All very kind, & Norcliffe particularly civil & said A– was agreeable. In fact she talked & acquitted herself very well. But I see they don’t want me unless they can have me alone. They returned to York, pleased with all Gray had done.

SAturDAy 18 Mr Gray came at 101/4 & staid till 111/2...A– to write to her sister in the mean[time]...I to consider about a coal lease—get Mr Parker to draw one up & then consult J. Gray upon it, but I was not all the time in the room while he [Gray] was there. Back at Shibden, Anne Lister ‘wrote copy of letter for A– to write to her sister’, but Ann Walker did not like what was written and it had to be redrafted. Meanwhile Reverend Musgrave called: Anne Lister enjoyed discussing theology with the erudite vicar. Differences between Anglican, nonconformist and—especially—Catholic beliefs had to be very carefully preserved.

mONDAy 20 Wrote letter for A– to her sister—quite anew and to A–’s satisfaction....Quicker about the matter this morning and more clear headed then. Wrote out Thursday & Friday till 1.20/” when Mr Musgrave came to administer the sacrament to my aunt—my father joined us for the first time & we had Marian, Oddy & George & A– & myself. Mr Musgrave did not wait 5 minutes but began the service as immediately as possible—seemed not meaning to stay long, till I got him on his own subject & he then sat talking till 21/2. I referred to our sick service— Mr M– owned that our [Anglican] priest did really give absolution in the same sense as it is understood to be given by the Roman Catholic priesthood — then referred to the Catechism....Asked M– if there was any one work which gave a succinct but clear exposition of the faith of the established Church of England—I always regretted that it was so little in my power to give a reason for the hope that was in me. M– answered very sensibly that he would think about it, but particularly recommended Bishop Burnett on the 39 articles....After M– went at 21/2, read over A—’s letter to her sister—then out at 3 40/”. Had the great gin horse put into the cart-shafts...he will do me no good—the sooner I am rid of him the better.

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Anne Lister and Ann Walker felt confident that the division of the joint estate was proceeding satisfactorily. But up in Scotland, Captain Sutherland, who had just received Gray’s letter, was furious at the suggestion that he had behaved improperly towards his wife’s property. His dense prose, tortured syntax and illegibly sloping writing (see illustration p.82) all suggest the depth of his suspicions about his younger children’s inheritance.13

Udale 18th April 183[5] My dear Ann By today’s Post I am in receipt of a letter by your Instructions from Messrs Gray Solicitors York, and I have also perused your letter to Elizabeth. When I say that the natural inference deductable from both pains me in the extreme, I but feebly indeed express what I feel. In your letter you state ‘that in Consequence of the Settlement Elizabeth made in February 1831 she has relinquished all control over her Property and it therefore seems to you that no progress can be made in the Division [of the joint property] by any further correspondence with her’. From similar considerations which prompted my Wife to make the Settlement you allude to in 1831, I assure you we have long been anxious for a Division of the Property, situated as the Estates at present are. We could make no definite, or at all events satisfactory, settlement on our Younger children while half the property on which it was secured belonged to you....Since your return [from Scotland], you have never expressed the remotest disatisfaction, or hinted at a wish to have the property divided—until December14 when you intimated it for the first time... It did occur to me, and I still entertain the same opinion, that in a matter so very important I ought to satisfy myself about Matters embracing Interests so complicated and serious, that...something might seem [appear] to me which he [S. Washington] had overlooked... Elizabeth is naturally anxious to see you and has long expressed a wish to see her Aunt and numerous other Friends in Yorkshire—from her being nursing,15 she could not properly go south before July...I of course must go South, and it occurs to me that her presence also will be requisite. Could you not therefore postpone the Division, until the period most convenient and desired by her? I won’t write to Messrs Gray until I hear from you. I shall have no objections in the remotest degree to that firm or any other person you may appoint to act for you—but I certainly will not appoint a Solicitor to act for me (in a Matter regarding which there is no dispute) independent of the necessary Deeds. They would charge several hundred pounds

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for merely looking over what S. Washington has already done...I am aware all Trades must live, but the Law is the last I would feel inclined to Patronise.16 Elizabeth is quite well as also the Children, with the exception of John, who is suffering severely from the poor effects of Teething for some days back. We feel most anxious as the Small Pox and scarlet fever is in our immediate Neighbourhood, even at the Gate, and has in small instances proved fatal. All the Children, at least the three eldest, send their love, in which Elizabeth joins me, and with best compliments to all at Shibden Hall. Believe I am My dear Ann Yours Most Sincerely G Mackay Sutherland.17 tuesDAy 21 A– had letter from Captain Sutherland who had taken amiss her having instructed Mr Jonathan Gray to write to him, & will not answer J.Gray letter till he (Captain S–) has heard from A– whom he charges with involving him in ruinous law expense—a long rigmarole silly letter (of 3 pages & ends). Just wished my aunt good night at 10—except this: from nine to ten and thirty five minutes, writing copy of letter for A– in answer to Captain S–. Meanwhile, with Peel’s resignation, the Whigs resumed office (with Lord Melbourne again as Prime Minister). This meant that senior Whig MPs might be offered positions as ministers; when this happened a by-election would be called in the minister’s constituency. There was intense speculation in Halifax that Charles Wood MP would be given office, and a ‘reqisition’ was presented to Christopher Rawson asking him to stand as the Tory candidate. As election speculation mounted in the borough, it offered an opportunity for deferential tenants to display their loyalty and for Tories to sink their differences.

WeDNesDAy 22 Had John Bottomley to ask me if he should vote for Mr Rawson (Christopher) a candidate for the Borough, on the supposition of Mr Wood’s vacating his seat on accepting office from the new Whig-radical Melbourne ministers. Had come to ask me because he knew Mr R– had not behaved very well to me about the coal—I said that was a private affair—his election was a public one—he was a good conservative, & therefore if I had a hundred votes he should have them.

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Rather than Wood, Lord Morpeth was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and so had to stand for re-election; so in fact a bylection was held, not in Halifax, but in the West Riding. This county constituency would at last have a contested election. John Stuart Wortley, brother of the Halifax MP, would stand against Morpeth—on a platform of ‘Protection of our Protestant Church’.18 For Anne Lister and Ann Walker this election triggered a tour round the rural parts of their two estates. But in the Whig stronghold of the industrial West Riding, they found the yellows had already been active; and many of their enfranchised male tenants seemed mysteriously to have vanished when they visited. Once again, we can walk round the Shibden estate with Anne Lister, listening to the conversations on the doorsteps, in part about politics, in part about estate business.

thursDAy 23 A– rode forwards to Cliff-hill, & I left her & went in to ask Hardcastle for his vote for Wortley (John)—not at home—his niece would tell H–; he had said he would not promise it to anybody till he had seen me. Then to Lower Brea to ask George Robinson for his vote—did not wish to vote at all—at last said he had promised not to vote against the yellows, and I said I would not say a word to make him break his promise—but I regretted his having made such a promise—he said had he known I was particular about it, he would not have done it—I said I hoped he would give me a vote another time. Longish talk about Manchester engineers...heard I was going to build a corn mill [at Mytholm]—hoped I should take care to make an agreement about the times that the corn mill & Mytholm [wire] mill should draw off the water or else there would be nothing but disturbance. Then to Pump to ask John Oates for his vote—not at home—but the nurse that waited on his wife, just brought to be [bed?] of a daughter, agreed [to] tell him. Then up Pump Lane & up by my Upper Place stone quarry to Joseph Hall’s19 (the quarry is now 5 foot from the bottom of the stone—promised well—some very good flags up) to ask Thomas Hall20 for his vote—would rather not vote at all. [I] did not say much, but that any kindness I might ever have in my power, would of course be done for one of my own opinion. The quietness of this rebellion masked the deep anger at how unscrupulous landowners coerced their tenants. But Tory unity was now required at all costs. Among Anne and Ann’s élite neighbours, any doubts entertained about their unorthodox relationship had to be well buried until the election

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was over. Bickering about coal and drainage, flooding and trespass had to be forgotten. Visits must be now paid; hands must be shaken. It was no moment for squeamish scruples. Anne Lister discussed election issues with the family doctor.

FriDAy 24 A– rather bilious with copying old musty wills...Mrs Frances Waterhouse & her brother Mr S[amuel] W– called on Marian & Miss Walker—Mr Jubb came to my aunt & I was with her & Mr J–; Mr Wortley (John) has not much chance of coming in for the West Riding—Lord Morpeth will get in again. Mr Wood dared not vacate his seat for H-x, so has taken a very inferior office in the admiralty.... Then sat with A– at her luncheon—Mr & Mrs Stansfield Rawson21 called on A– & me at 2 10/”...took Mr Rawson into Trough of Bolland wood & shewed him the new approach road...& shewed him A–’s intended flower garden & shewed him the north dining room, north chamber & all A–’s & my rooms upstairs—he said I had done everything very well....Then shewed Mrs R– over the rooms—she also much pleased—they staid with us, apparently much pleased with their reception, till 4 20/”. sAturDAy 25 A pretty good kiss last night—her own bringing on, not a word said by either of us....Looking over A–’s law papers & writing the last 17 lines till 9 20/”—skimmed over the H-x Guardian of today & London Morning Herald of yesterday. mONDAy 27 Letter tonight for A– from her sister...hopes A– will put off the division [of the estate] till July. Mrs Sutherland intends to come—cannot, in justice to her baby, leave home before July! She has already nursed this baby between 7 & 8 months. The rift with William Priestley worsened, with Ann Walker in dispute with him over a particular property wrangle. Sides had to be taken, and it was important to have Samuel Washington’s support.

tuesDAy 28 Had Washington...I said it [the wrangle] was an oddlooking business—I was surprised & disappointed to find W. Priestley capable of such a thing—I had made him one of my executors, but from the moment A– told me of this business I had struck him out—my father & sister had always said he would be a troublesome executor to deal with—I, at the time, thought the observation a hard one—but A– had quite convinced me they were right—Washington 168

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was evidently much struck by what I said....[Writing] to M– when called off by A– to read her rough draft of letter to Mr Gray....Wrote her a copy of what she should write—she seemed quite pleased and satisfied with what I had written and it really satisfied myself—we then sat talking till three & three quarters.

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Anne Lister was also involved in complex property transactions. She could not of course herself be appointed a magistrate—like Christopher Rawson— but instead had to rely heavily upon her local lawyer.

WeDNesDAy 29 To Mr Parker’s office...I had great hope of getting the house (Northgate) licensed without difficulty—people seemed to think such a house [i.e. inn] wanted, & it would [be] a good to the town. My impression from Mr Parker’s manner of speaking was that if I chose to lay myself under an obligation to the magistrates (at the head of them Mr Rawson Christopher) I might get it licenced—but if not, [I] might be disappointed—[he] thought if the licence is refused I should not like to apply a 2nd time, & that I should be annoyed. Said I should not be annoyed—why should I be so...?If I could not get a licence I could turn the house to some other purpose—when [I was] put off one plan I easily took up another....It struck me that Mr Rawson will not licence Northgate house if he could help it— returned up the Old bank....Tea at 9. A– regretting that her property should go to Sutherlands. I saw she was harping on wishing for children of her own. Asked if this was not the case—she said it did not signify to give an answer—I gently & immediately replied ‘You shall never find me any obstacle to anything you have much at heart’—& after a few minutes silence [I] came to my study & till 101/2 wrote part of today as far as line 8 of this page. A– & I then sat up talking over the fire till 111/2—she came to coax—sorry for what had passed—I was kind & affectionate—but no folly—she owned how good I was etc. etc. Ann Walker was committed up to her neck, and the implications of this were considerable.

may 1835 Anne Lister still wanted to obtain a licence for Northgate. With the expansion of Halifax, demand for profitable town-centre inns rose. As so much political business was conducted in pubs, and with election following election, it was to a party’s advantage to have well-placed inns. Anne’s feelings

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towards Christopher Rawson JP were finely balanced by these complex circumstances: she had a confidential word with Mr Jubb about obtaining her Northgate licence.

sAturDAy 2 He believed it only required the signatures of 2 magistrates...[I] begged it not be named but said I had some doubt of Mr Rawson, (therefore of Mr Waterhouse) from Mr Rawson’s having behaved very unhandsomely to me about the coal—could prove him not a man of his word—but private feeling of this sort should not be mixed up with public matters. I should not let private feeling operate against my best endeavours to serve his (Rawson’s) election for the borough—should give him a hundred votes if I had them. Anne Lister wrote to Mr Dearden and his son, both old-established rural Tory magistrates, asking for help with her licence.1

mONDAy 4 Note from Mr Dearden junior, dated from Mr Wortley’s committee room at the Swan, asking me to get the votes of Mr John Stansfield George Robinson, Thomas Pearson and James Holt. George of Field House [Sowerby] and a Mr brought back note from Mr Dearden [senior] this morning, Dawson called this compliments and would call upon me between 11 and 12 afternoon on A– and am tomorrow. Saw Thomas Pearson coming...T.P– fancies me for our interest he had a right of vote from paying £50 a year rent—said for the West Riding ‘no!’ because he was not under 20 years’ lease, but I would for Mr Wortley say nothing about it2—got his vote, such as it is... (John). tuesDAy 5 Off to High Roydes—found Holt at breakfast.... Thinks I may get more water by driving [digging horizontally] down towards Dove house. Asked for his vote—he had said he would not vote at all—I said we would talk about it. Home at 9—breakfast till 10—some time with my father & Marian—had my hair pinched and dressed. Mr Dearden (commonly called colonel) came about 111/2 for perhaps about 3/4 hour—had sandwiches & wine—both of us very civil to each other—apologised for the liberty I had taken in sending for him. Shewed the [Northgate] plans & explained—he seemed delighted with the whole thing—said it would be a great advantage to the town—a good Inn & large handsome rooms were much wanted....The Casino3—everybody would see that it was not a mercantile speculation—but I had a pride in the thing—only anxious to know if I could get the house licensed or not before I embarked on

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so serious an expense. Mr Dearden thought there was no doubt—he said he would answer for himself & his son, & promised to consult with the other magistrates on the subject...Mr Dearden asked for my name to the subscription for Mr Wortley’s (John) election for the West Riding—about 7 or 8 names down for £50—said I would turn over the leaf [page] & give them £30—Mr Dearden urged so well that I laughed & said ‘Well! If you will secure me the licence I will put down my name for £50’ ‘Yes!’ said he ‘I will answer for the licence’—& I put down my name for £50....Sometime with Mr Jubb—not sanguine about Mr Wortley—but hopes this will be an introduction & we shall bring him in at the next general election.... Read a very little of the newspaper—note from Captain Dearden— warm thanks for my £50 subscription & asking me to use my influence with William Moore of Staups & 1 or 2 more—wrote note in answer (vid. line 6 below) that I had got Thomas Pearson’s vote— did not despair of Holt, & had neutralised George Robinson who would be in Scotland....Then with A– who was writing to her sister. Nominations of the candidates took place on Wednesday 6th at Wakefield. Hustings had been erected and a great crowd sported blue and orange ‘favours’. Again, there was a show of hands, the majority favouring Morpeth; so Wortley demanded a poll. Polling would start on Monday 11th and close at 4pm the following day.4

WeDNesDAy 6 Holt came about 11...had handsomely given me his vote—S. Washington more close but will give in I think at last. 1/2 hour with father & Marian—she annoyed that Holt should have given me his vote—she will get hold of the Shibden estate if, by any means of flaw in my uncle’s will or mine, she can. She, if in my place, would not have taken the estate on the condition of leaving it to the Welsh Listers—she talked much & annoyingly but I answered with quiet temper & composure & conciliation. Of all her tenants, Samuel Sowden of Sutcliffe Wood caused Anne Lister the greatest political trouble. He chose not to take the easy way out of absenting himself or keeping mutinously silent.

thursDAy 7 William Keighley [of Halifax] & I met Sowden—I asked him for his vote. No! He would not vote at all—I said I was sorry for it—he said he had friends on both sides & none but independent men should vote. ‘Then’, said I, ‘there would not be as many hundreds of

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votes as there are thousands—better’, said I, ‘to take a side—those who took neither [side] made no friends, & in case of anything happening had nobody to talk to—it was as if they sat themselves on a hill to be pelted by all parties’. Sowden said that in some counties the tenants talked of turning off the landlords, instead of the landlords turning off the tenants. ‘Well!’ said I, ‘then we must make as good a fight as we can—perhaps you may get the better—we must try for it—but is not this like the unions & men taking against masters?’ S– asked if I should not want a good deal of rough stuff [stone] for my job at Mytholm (meaning coal water-wheel). ‘Yes!’ said I, ‘but I must think of my friends for this’, & then wished Sowden good day. William Keighley told me Sowden was an arrant yellow—he & Eastwood of Brighouse 2 of the yellowest in the township.5 I asked W. K– if he had observed the remark about tenants taking against landlords, & if he did not think it strange. ‘Yes!’ said W. K–, ‘I did indeed’....W.K– would not have a yellow steward. Wrote the whole of today till 9 pm—then with my aunt for 40 minutes till 9 40/”— fine day—reading the newspaper till 11 10/”—Lord John Russell turned out from South Devon by the conservative Mr Parker by a majority of 628! Samuel Washington found himself in a difficult position. He was treated with considerably more respect than small-scale tenants; but he was still living in Crow Nest and employed by Ann Walker who was a Tory and Captain Sutherland—who was not.

FriDAy 8 Told Washington what Sowden had said to me yesterday— asked W— for his vote & interest & explained that A– & I should not intend to have [a] steward who would not give us his vote & interest. I thought Captain Sutherland would say nothing, but if he did say anything, I would explain to him what part I had taken & that, if it came to the point, that Washington must choose between us. I thought he (W–) would not be a loser if he determined for the blues— but he must, of course, decide as he thought best. I said A– would exert her influence as much as I should mine, & that both together ought to have & must have some weight—I thought W– seemed well pleased...W– mentioned John Pearson—I told him to get his vote if possible—but neither A– nor I wished anyone to break a promise absolutely made. I said A– had not said anything this time because the [Crow-nest] property was still joint, & she felt a delicacy about

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Captain Sutherland; but this would be arranged by & by, & we should both see to the registering of our tenants & take care of their vote for the future.

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SAturDAy 9 With my aunt a few minutes reading her [the] printed letter A– had received for me this morning by the postman or by John—a quiz6 up[on] the blue festivities (ball & dinner), myself being named among many other persons. It was apparently at election time that the anti-Tory lampooning of Anne Lister’s masculinity—here an invitation to an all-male dinner—was at its strongest.7 Meanwhile the West Riding Tories still desperately needed to band together in the face of Whig, Radical and Irish opposition. They felt the stakes were high: Charlotte Brontë urged one friend to entreat her brothers ‘if necessary on your knees to stand by their Country and Religion in this day of danger’.8

suNDAy 10 Mr Henry [Priestley?] came for about 1/2 hour to ask A–’s & my influence with 1 or 2 voters: Mr Sowden, John Pearson & Abraham Mallinson [probably Abraham Hemingway]. We declined further interference—I mentioned Sowden’s speech about tenants turning off landlords instead of vice versa, & my not being quite pleased with him....Read the Morning Herald—some hopes in London of Mr Wortley’s turning out Lord Morpeth. Going to vote in the West Riding by-election was now quite perilous for Tory voters like Anne Lister’s elderly father. They had to run the gauntlet.

mONDAy 11 Washington came for a few minutes but did not go into the house—came, I suppose, to see if he should go with my father to vote....My father drove to Mr Parker’s, & Mr P– went with him to the voting place for Northowram (voted for High Roydes9) in Waterhouse street [in Halifax]—a special constable let my father in by the back door, that he got in & out very quietly & safe home again without any molestation....With A– till 4 helping her to make out words in her old [family] wills she was copying. While the votes were counted, Anne Lister was busy with John Harper and his designs for Shibden Hall. She now prefered to negotiate with ‘blue’ Samuel Freeman about stone than with ‘yellow’ Samuel Sowden.

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WeDNesDAy 13 Mr Harper from 10 to 21/2...he is a good sound blue (conservative)—he & his brother (an attorney in York) will both have votes by & by for the city of York & all 3 Ridings....Found Mr Freeman & his son who had been here about an hour & were impatient to be gone—they had some wine & staid till 71/2. Freeman cannot execute the stone-work [for Anne]—if he did, his men would not work for him!...Lord Morpeth & such men have spoilt everything—the men are the masters & the masters the men—he durst not tell them his mind now—has been busy canvassing all the last week— could hardly keep his votes together—we must all stick together or those that have anything will lose it—thinks Mr Harper a nice young man—talked about the stone quarry in Upper Place land. The by-election result was announced on Thursday 14th. Morpeth had beaten Wortley by almost three thousand votes.10 When the poll book was published it showed that Anne Lister, despite her best endeavours, had had very limited influence on her tenants. Thomas Pearson and Samuel Freeman had voted for Wortley; on the other hand, James Holt, William Hardcastle, John Oates and Joseph Hall had all rebelliously voted for Morpeth; Samuel Sowden, George Robinson and John Pearson all decided not to vote; while poor ‘£50’ Charles Howarth was not even registered.11 * Anne does not dwell on this political set-back in her diary, but in ‘a very kind chit-chat letter’ (see illustration p.176) to her elderly friend Lady Stuart she explained away her nephew Wortley’s disastrous electoral defeat as:

We were too late; and too many of our people were not registered. But surely better times will come. I always argue against despair in a good cause and that we should fight again, only with more spirit for having been beaten. But you have no idea of the people hereabouts. There is a deep-rooted feeling against the dignities of the olden time that it is very difficult to deal with....What used to be held sacred is no longer so....We are gaining ground in spite of the vigilance and intimidation made use of by our opponents.12 Certainly, Anne’s electoral influence was limited—partly because the Whigs had been so active in the registration of voters.13 Additionally there was growing public distaste for the high-handed style of politics of landowners like Anne Lister. The following month the Select Committee on Bribery at Elections took evidence from William Craven, a Tory solicitor in Halifax. Although most of the questions predictably concerned bribery during the * See Appendix: Key Tenancies on the Shibden Hall Estate

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earlier (and more violent) borough election, they also looked at the county by-election. However the committee’s questions were hardly penetrating, and Craven got away with anodyn answers: ‘we have very few tenantry with us, and I think there are scarcely any landlords who have any number of tenants’, suggesting misleadingly that the by-election was ‘very much in the hands of small freeholders in that county....There were no large proprietors in the neighbourhood of Halifax then in the Blue interest’.14 Craven was of course right that the Halifax area had none of the great West Riding Tory grandees like Lord Wharncliffe; but the constituency did have many small landowners—like Anne Lister and Ann Walker—who could exert considerable pressure on their tenants. However, the county also had a critical mass of anti-Tory voters. And this gave courage to a tenant, however annual his lease and however many favours he needed, to stand out against the doorstep persuasion of a Blue landowner like Anne.15 Impoverished handloom weavers and radical shoemakers, stone delvers and dissenting preachers increasingly refused to be coerced by either large landowners or manufacturers: it was from among them that in two or three years time Chartism would find keen support.

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Draft letter page, Anne Lister to Lady Stuart, 26 May 1835

Iv

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dIvIdIng

the JoInt ProPerty

J u n e 1835–s e P t e m b e r 1835

June 1835 With the elections over, Anne Lister returned to day-to-day business affairs. She kept an eye on Joseph Mann as he sunk the tiny Walker pit, inevitably encountering drainage problems. And she also remained vigilant over the Walker property division. Anne had just spent a few days helping Ann Walker write and re-write, copy and re-copy a letter to Captain Sutherland suggesting they ‘should draw for Lots 1 and 2’.

mONDAy 1 Received this morning A– & I each of our own subscription copies of ‘Horner’s Views of Buildings in the Town & Parish of H-x’ price 21/. [See illustration p.14] FriDAy 5 With A– about 11/2 hour correcting the rough copy of her letter to Mr Gray. Out again at 43/4 & with the workmen till 6—read over & stopped [closed up] A–’s letter—dinner at 61/2. A– did up the parcel containing her own letter & last letter from Captain S–. tuesDAy 9 No kiss—very fine hot morning—got up at 61/2 but lay 1/2 hour on the floor and then got into bed again for 1/2 hour to A– quite naked—I was just going to wash when she mewed for me—F70° in my dressing-room. WeDNesDAy 10 Holt says...if we cannot get the water off, the [Walker] pit cannot be bottomed & must stand. Had better begin sinking at Pump, & get the engine wheel down—& then drive drifts from Pump

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up towards Mr Rawson...but then it will be 2 years before we can see what R– is doing.

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thursDAy 11 Far too hot to touch in bed—quarter hour brushing A–’s head to teach Eugenie....Saw all the men at their work at 71/4—then off to Holt’s...has no fear of bottoming Walker pit....Till two and a half, writing copy of letter to Mr Gray for A–. The valuation of the joint Walker property to be divided was made more complex by industrial development: for instance, coal had recently been found at Bouldshaw, an isolated farm beyond Northowram village, which increased the value of this land. Anne Lister was well positioned to appreciate this.

FriDAy 12 A– had letter from Captain Sutherland—he agrees to one of her 5 propositions—she is to take Lot 1 with Bouldshaw farm & Clough, & coal in the land (altogether valued about £1,400) thrown in—& to have the contiguity lot (for nothing said against it), as awarded by Washington.1 Certainly this letter (a rough—and fairly illegible—draft of which survives) appears on the face of it to be conciliatory about the apportioning of the Lots. Rather Captain Sutherland’s anxiety now focused on where the Walker family deeds were—and whether any unwelcome person was consulting them.

Udale 6th June 1835 My dear Ann ...As you state you will take Lot 1—as originally drawn out by Washington, provided you get Bouldshaw Farm and Clough...I agree to your proposal and consider therefore the Division formally concluded and I assure you I sincerely rejoice that it is....As we expect being South as early as we can leave home, I hope you will have no objections to allow the [amending?] of the titles to lay over [i.e. be postponed till then], as I have a particular objection to [deleted: their being shown to any person]...to them being examined by anyone if avoidable. I am glad to say that John had more rest [last] night and is better today than he has been for a long time...Elizabeth joins me in best love.2 sAturDAy 13 Went down[stairs] to Mr Washington...he is quite

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surprised at Captain Sutherland’s agreeing to give up Boldshaw farm & Clough to Lot 1....Mr Jubb came—saw my aunt & A–; thinks the former (perhaps persuaded by me so to think) not in a very good way, & the latter weak & delicate—but good, quiet pulse at 76—she owned the musty papers had set her stomach wrong—she is to have a plaster on her chest—& he recommends Buxton for a little while & then Matlock. Anne Lister helped Ann Walker write letters to Captain Sutherland and to Jonathan Gray. Surprisingly, rough drafts of both have survived among the Shibden papers. Certainly Ann’s letter to her brother-in-law reads as if it had been drafted by a legally-minded spouse. It set out the agreement of the division of the estate3 and updated Captain Sutherland on the current whereabouts of the Walker deed-box.

Shibden Hall Saturday 13 June 1835 My dear Captain Sutherland, I am glad that by your agreement to one of my proposals, the division of the estate is so easily arranged...I very sincerely return your congratulations on the subject of our having come to an agreement so easily...I shall write by tonight’s post to Messrs Gray stating to them the arrangement you and I have entered into, and begging them to take the necessary steps for its completion. They will of course write to you immediately; and I hope you will be so good as [to] let all further communication upon the subject pass directly through them. I am anxious that no time should be lost in preparing the deeds. I have had the deed-box here some weeks—I shall go to York as soon as I hear from Messrs Gray that they have received your answer to their letter. I shall take with me the necessary papers, but shall of course take none but such as belong to the joint property; and of these papers, before I take them away, Mr Parker, or anyone you think proper, may come here and take a catalogue. I have still the same reasons that I had for being anxious to expedite the conclusion of the business as much as possible; and I hope the papers will be ready for signing before the end of next month: but, should you not be able to come into Yorkshire so soon as this, the papers can be sent to you for your signature. I am glad to hear a better account of John....The family here beg their kind regards, and, with my own love to you all, believe me, my dear Captain Sutherland, yours very sincerely A.W.4 179

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The second letter, to Gray about completing the joint property division, was equally businesslike. ‘I enclose you Captain Sutherland’s last letter and copy of my answer, upon which I need make no further comment—I hope you will communicate with Captain Sutherland as immediately as you can...I am, sir, your obedient servant, A.W–’.5 And that, Anne Lister must have hoped, was that. Certainly she and Ann Walker wanted to have as little truck with the Sutherlands as possible.

mONDAy 15 [A–] to Cliff-hill & home at 5 40/”—her aunt had had letter from Mrs Sutherland—they come to Cliff-hill the end of next month. Both Mrs A. Walker & A– would evidently rather they staid at home. Meanwhile Marian’s fiancé still entertained political ambitions. But her sister had misjudged Anne Lister’s real political concerns: Anne was little interested in town-centre tradesmen—whatever their politics.

thursDAy 18 With Marian—she kept me talking till 4—about Mr Abbott—thought if I wanted [political] influence in the town, I had better notice him—if I did the contrary from policy, it was bad—[I] disclaim all thought of policy. She insinuated that I might get much [advantage] for the family from Mr A–. Very gently but decidedly snouted this idea. Said I acted from a deep feeling of disappointment [about recent election results]—never thought of interest. Poor Marian.6 suNDAy 21 Note from the chairman ([John Edwards of] Darcey Hey) of Mr James Wortley’s committee to beg me attend in person, or by proxy, a meeting to be held at the White Swan tomorrow—I suppose they want a further subscription. suNDAy 28 A– had letter tonight from her sister—chit-chat chiefly about the children, their having the hooping cough etc—not a word about business or any mention of Captain Sutherland’s name. mONDAy 29 In & out till 1 then sat with A–; wrote her copy of letter to Mr Gray...asking his advice what to do, there being no letter from Captain Sutherland. Ann Walker’s many Halifax relatives included her cousin Mary, wife of William Henry Rawson, the woollen manufacturer who had sneered at Anne Lister at the canal meeting. Hauteur helped deal with such visitors.

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tuesDAy 30 No kiss. Quarter hour on the pot, half asleep and not doing much.... Then with A– till Mrs William Rawson & her daughters Mary & Emily called at 11/2 & staid 20 minutes; A– & I were civil but rather stately—I went with them to the carriage door (at the entrance gate), & then turned into my [coal] drift....A little while with the workmen—then (not able to get into my study, having inadvertantly left my keys in my desk and A– having locked the anteroom door) then went into the walk & staid there cutting grass with my knife from around the young trees till 6 40/”—dinner at 6 50/”—coffee—Mr Parker drank tea with my father & Marian—(A– & I did not see him). Significantly Robert Parker did not pay his respects to Ann and Anne. His correspondence with Captain Sutherland had accelarated the suspicions of both men as to exactly what was going on at Shibden Hall.

JuLy 1835 Jeremy’s Lister’s infirmities meant he could no longer transact his share of estate business. It was of course his highly competent elder daughter who took over his responsibilities, quickly proving much less of a soft touch than her father with tenants who had not voted.

WeDNesDAy 1 Had Mrs George Robinson (for near an hour) till 10 40/”—paid me £10 on account of the £20 husband (not at home) ought to have paid me for the [Mytholm wire] mill. Told her what Sowden had said when I asked him for his vote for our division of the county—hoped Mr G. Robinson would vote for the blues the next time. Then till 10 55/” making out rent-roll of my father’s rents—off at 11 20/” to the Stag’s head to receive my father’s rents for him, my father having staid at home—1st time of his letting me or anyone receiving his rents here—nobody come so went into Mytholm & staid there eating strawberries & weeding the beds till 121/4—then returned to the Stag’s head & received £119 for my father, including £25 being 1/2 year’s rent from Charles Howarth & £2 from him towards the arrears of £8.10.0....Charles Howarth’s rent raised two pounds—that is, four per annum, to give him a vote for the Riding. I made him a present of two pounds before he paid his rent....1 Called at the Stag’s head... saw Mrs Mallinson—said I could not be so good as my father as to their rent—they must pay me more than £28 per annum—she must pray for my father’s life. ‘Yes!’ she did. 181

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suNDAy 5 Note from the West Riding Election Committee (from Mr John Stuart Wortley) signed by Mr J. E. Norris to ask my attendance at the meeting at the White Swan on Wednesday—to pay my subscription, I suppose. A– had letter from Mr Gray, York, saying he was glad the matter of the division was amicably agreed upon with Captain Sutherland—he had written to him for the papers respecting Mrs Sutherland’s moiety—recommends Washington’s making out a regular schedule of each lot as now agreed to be taken. The inheritance tangle was apparently resolved, thanks to Anne Lister’s careful drafting. But Ann Walker, at the centre of these transactions, was not happy. A chance meeting with one of the Mrs Rawsons triggered a scene in front of a servant.

mONDAy 6 At 11 20/” off with A–; we (walked) down the old bank to H-x...shopping at Nicholson’s....Dinner at 61/2—I unluckily named Mrs Edward Rawson we had seen at Nicholson’s this morning.2 A– snubbed me (before John) and silenced me and I hardly spoke again. Fell asleep till coffee. A– would have none and would not go with me to my father—I went without her and then into the garden till Greenwood came. Found A– in bed—she said she was sorry and so we made it up. I must not and will not let her get the master—her temper wants some management or it would be queer and unhappy to herself and me at times. Coffee—a few minutes with my father & Marian. As their father’s health deteriorated, tension between the two sisters heightened. Marian was still engaged to Mr Abbott and resented Anne’s denigration of the planned marriage. There had even been local gossip that Anne might ‘put off the match’. Anne denied this (though confessed to her diary her suspicion of Mr Abbott that ‘I think he courted the connection and the place and therefore minds me’). Marian protested at Anne’s attitude: Anne’s rejoinder was that her own way of life was more ‘natural’ than Marian’s. “No one can deny that I go straight forward in the path nature seemed to have set out for us—it is you who step aside”.3 This conflict between the two sisters over marriage and inheritance was profound, but remained largely unspoken, Marian merely accusing Anne of extravagance.

WeDNesDAy 8 Wrote the following & sent it by George at 121/2 to ‘J. E. Norris Esq., Secretary of the H-x district of the West Riding Election Committee’—‘Miss Lister begs to enclose...fifty pounds, the amount of her subscription towards the election of the honorable John Stuart Wortley for the West Riding...’4...Went downstairs to speak to

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Marian, & she kept me talking till 3 40/”—[was] afraid I shall not die so rich [as] my uncle left me, alas, afraid I shall [come to] ruin. [She] will keep me, buy in my books for me & allow me £300 a year, but would not buy a foot of the estate—would do for me, but nothing for the estate. [I said I was] very much obliged to her...Marian in no good humour at first, but my calmness and temper got her right and I believe she likes and respects me more than she does anybody else.5 However, Marian set off for Market Weighton, & Anne and Ann for York to see Jonathan Gray.6 Back at Shibden, they discussed estate business with Robert Parker; increasingly he found himself caught unenviably between the Sutherlands on one side, and Anne Lister and Ann Walker on other. Over access to the crucial Walker deeds his cautious lawyer’s sympathies probably lay with the distant Captain; but in Halifax, the power of Shibden’s ancient acres was considerable.

mONDAy 20 Mr Parker called...some talk about the Sutherlands; A– shewed the letter Mr Gray had had from Captain S– just before our leaving York; but Mr Parker did not think it sufficient to authorise him to give Mr Gray even an extract from the trustees’ deed of conveyance to the Sutherlands of their undivided moiety [share] of the joint estates. Mr Parker appealed to A– & me to know if we should advise him to give up the deed or give an extract from it in such a case. We both answered we had not a word to say—he was quite right to do as he himself thought best, viz to write 1st for instructions from Captain S–. Mr Parker seemed to have no idea of their really coming [south] till he heard they had an invitation to Cliff-hill—seemed very doubtful also whether the division would really be effected [completed]. I asked if, after Captain S–’s letter to A– consenting & approving he should run back [change his mind], Mr Parker would consider him a gentleman; Mr P– evaded—said all he could in favour of Captain S–, but his mistrust of him was plain—he thought I pressed him [Parker] hard—said I did not mean to do so. He took up my saying he was right to defend Captain S– as if I meant to insinuate he was too pro-Captain Sutherland, & certainly A– & I had no such idea. Said A–’s great desire was not to bring Mr Parker into [a] scrape—& I did not think he could have managed Captain S– [better]. I saw this seemed to nettle him but I took no notice—neither A– nor I much liked his manner on the occasion—he seemed constrained &

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[in] consequence settled7 somehow or other for nothing. But A– has never either quite liked or trusted him since his making the strange deed of settlement between Captain & Mrs S– in February 1831; & she (A–) has often said she should not have employed Mr Parker 1 /2 so much but for me.8 Ironically it was on exactly the same day that Anne and Ann were grilling their lawyer, that up in Scotland Captain Sutherland was himself writing to Parker to express his deepest alarm at the turn of the inheritance tale. His letter (of which apparently only a very rough draft survives) is rambling and incoherent. Yet within its almost illegible scrawl we can detect the clearest sign yet of emerging suspicion about Anne Lister’s motives concerning Anne Walker’s property. Sutherland was aggrieved he had not been consulted about the drawing of the lots, explaining why he had not been able to come south earlier. But his real anger concerned the deeds.

Udale 20th July 1835 Confidential My dear Parker ...I apprehend there can be no objection to furnishing Mr Gray with the copy of the Deed alluded to. In fact I am most anxious, as I invariably have been, to afford every facility and assistance in endeavouring to have the Property of the late Mr Walker fairly and amicably divided... Wishing to amicably and easily settle the matter, I at once agreed to it and stated that by the 20th June my wife and I should be South when the Titles [title deeds] could be altered or given to the parties to whom they [were] portioned, and requesting that the Boxes Containing them [the deeds] should remain until then in the Bank where I placed them; but this was deemed unreasonable. The Titles were taken from the Bank, and where they now are I know not... About the time we proposed going South, they [the children] as well as Mrs Sutherland were confined to Bed and the Baby most dangerously ill. Could I, consistently laying feeling strongly aside, leave home at such a time? This was not admitted as a reason...for my not coming forthwith South. What is doing I know not, but the moment the little Boy is better, or rather strong enough to be presumed to be weaned, I shall (and Mrs Sutherland if all is well)...visit Miss Walker, Cliff-hill, and this I hope in the course of a very few Weeks. I am too aware our visit to York is not wished for by Some people,

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august 1835

but I don’t blame Miss Walker but those who from Interested selfish and wicked motives endeavour to bias her Mind....My feelings and Views on this subject I impart to you in the strictest confidence.....Miss Lister states for Miss Walker (I am certain [she] never would do so), that the object in employing Mr Gray is with the view not to perplex and mistify but to simplify. This, is I trust, some attack at you. However all this, I am certain, you will never Mention....In the mean[time] I hope you will consider the Matter and make such Preparations as will enable the whole Matter to be effected [completed] during the fortnight we are in Yorkshire. As our Properties and Miss Lister’s join, I cannot help expressing my extreme upset that the Titles should have been for Weeks at Shibden Hall, and which I of course should have decidedly objected to, so far as I was concerned.9 Whether or not the letter actually sent was so angry, Robert Parker still found himself sandwiched betweeen two conflicting sets of instructions. Should he believe the distant Captain’s insinuations about Anne Lister’s ‘selfish & wicked motives’? Or should he accept the picture of female respectability presented by Anne and Ann, his traditional Halifax clients? Up at Shibden itself, the relationship between the two women themselves also grew more difficult.

august 1835 Ann Walker was growing resentful of Anne Lister’s freedoms: the secluded life she led at Shibden was so different from the social entrée in both London and in Halifax that she had been led to expect. Equally, Anne Lister grew exasperated with Ann Walker’s complaints and her inability to be decisive about her estate.1Anne increasingly sought an escape route.

sAturDAy 1 A– went upstairs, I to my father and Marian for 1/4 hour—said A– had a headache—it was bad humour—[she] did not like sometimes going from home with me and sometimes not—very different from what she expected. I could not at first guess what she meant. On explanation, after coming up from my father, she did not like my not taking her to [visit Lady Stuart at] Richmond Park, but leaving her to call on, or rather spend the day with, Mrs Plowes.2 I explained affectionately and calmly—she cried and said she knew I should think it nothing and only turn it against her as I had done two or three times before. She thought the sooner we parted the better. I said my greatest and first wish was her happiness—if I could not make her happy, I only hoped

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someone else might succeed better etc.—very kind and affectionate....‘Oh no’, but she had expected very different. Something led to my [her?] recalling my expression about old Mrs Saltmarshe, that perhaps it might be in her power to introduce Catherine Rawson. ‘Then’, said A–, ‘You should not have claimed powers you did not possess’. I reminded her of my saying I hoped to succeed but if I could not my failure would be better than many people’s success. But if left to do my own way, I did not despair. She by-and-by came round, kissed me etc. I took all well, but thinking to myself, ‘There is danger in the first mention, the first thought, that it is possible for us to part—time will shew—I shall try to be prepared for whatever may happen. The two women duly set off for London, so that Ann Walker could consult an eminent doctor, and they could find for their Lightcliffe Sunday school a suitable master and mistress, untinged by Radicalism and Dissent. But while in London Anne Lister did indeed on her own call upon Lady Stuart, Lady Stuart de Rothesay, Lady Gordon and—an influential West Riding connection—Lady Mexborough, who invited Anne to visit Mexley.3 Among such London friends, Anne presented her most worldly self. Lady Vere Cameron, being an intimate friend, did not fail to notice that Anne had more money now.

sAturDAy 8 Home at 41/2. A– has locked up my journal—beside myself at the disappointment—asleep—dressed. At Lady Stuart’s to dinner at 7 10/”—only herself & Lady Vere Cameron...[Vere] said I must have a hoard somewhere, or coal or something must yield a great deal—[or] how could I built Inns & talk of a house in London etc— hoped I should not ruin myself. ‘I hope not’, said I, ‘but if I do, my little friend Miss W– must help me out.’ ‘Come to me’, said Vere, ‘I will keep you’. I said A– had a very good fortune—but I should take care—had no thought of a house in London perhaps for these 10 years to come. Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie visited to examine Ann Walker; her stays were unloosened and the back of her neck examined. He ‘said the pain was merely nervous pain—had no doubt A– had been much worse—suffered much more from it some time ago—there was no disease...said she was just the sort of person for nervous pains but there was nothing to fear.’ But during this unhappy visit, Anne found Ann Walker particularly ‘queer about money’ and ‘afraid I shall ruin her’; so Anne decided to ‘labour at my accounts’ and plan for her own independence. The two women made a leisurely journey back north, visiting such sites as Warwick Castle and Chatsworth.4

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FriDAy 14 A kiss last night rather better than that the night before—but she moaned after it till she fell asleep in about half hour or less—but I took no notice. Fine morning—F60o at 7 40/”. A– sickish and reading the Psalms while I washed. She is queer and little-minded and I fear [for] her intellect. I must make the best of it—perhaps she will be with me as long as my father and aunt live, and then I see she will be no companion for me. I shall be at large again. sAturDAy 22 Came in at 61/4—paid the workmen—dinner at 63/4— waited for A–’s doing up her parcel to Messrs Gray, solicitors, York, containing...Washington’s estate plans of Lot 1 on 2 skins [pages?] & the Schedule5....Read tonight’s paper—near 1/2 hour with my father & Marian till 83/4—then wrote the last 9 lines—2 men killed in Mr Rawson’s pit on the top of the hill near the chequer between 3 & 4pm yesterday6—1/2 hour asleep on the sofa. Some of the growing disatisfactions in their relationship concerned public display of status—particularly in church-going.

suNDAy 23 To A– in tears on the bed—some time in getting to know what it was all about—viz: because she did not like to go to church in [the] yellow carriage. [I] said I would order it differently directly & got her right again. I have been strongly impressed within these few days, even from little things in her own manner, that we shall not stick together forever—she will want to be off. Well, be it so—I will try to manage my affairs as well as I can & let her go—hope springs eternal in the human breast....At 121/4 went to my aunt—read the morning prayers, shortened to 25 minutes. A– & I off in the carriage to the school a few minutes before 2—Mr George Fenton did all the duty— preached 23 minutes tolerably but, unfortunately as to subject, from Psalms 133 verse 1 on the blessedness of unity & brotherly love—not much of either between A– & the W. Priestleys. Sat 3/4 hour at Cliffhill—Mrs A. Walker very glad to see us. mONDAy 24 Now at 101/2pm. A– gave me fifteen pounds tonight to pay George Naylor.7 She is afraid she shall not have enough for herself. I must manage as well as I can and not get much off her. However Anne Lister’s accounts day-book indicates that she regularly ‘received from A–’ sums of money of this kind.8 After all, she had to fund all the Walker pit-sinking long before any coal could be sold.

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WeDNesDAy 26 Mr Husband9 told me the magistrates had granted the licence for Northgate house, now to be called Northgate hotel—this is a relief to me...1/4 hour talking to A–; she read me the leading article in tonight’s Herald—the Melbourne Cabinet must resign.

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The push to finish the Walker pit was now on.

thursDAy 27 Arranged all with Joseph Mann—to begin the job this afternoon—work [all] night & day, 4 men, & never stop till the water is effectively dammed up....Dinner at 61/2—A– poorly afterwards— had three & quarters glasses of wine—too much for her—the room turned round with her—tipsy—she talked much. Speaking of Patchett’s10 having bought Godley & building mills & nuisances & forcing us from here, A– & I talked of living at Cliff-hill or Crow-nest, the Sutherlands [?] volentes.11 FriDAy 28 Had Crapper the rope-maker & paid his Walker pit rope bill... Joseph Mann to find as many other men as would keep the double work [shift?] going...A– & 11/2 hour with my father & Marian—read aloud the important part of tonight’s news—the ministers not intending to resign....Mentioned to them all tonight my names for the street in front of the Casino—Gasthaus St, Gasthoss St, Alberg St, Inn St— the street not good enough to be called Adney St. Although Ann Walker often failed to share her enthusiasms, Anne Lister remained philosophical.

sAturDAy 29 I feel now at last resigned to my fate and take it very quietly—she has no mind for me—I shall not meet with one that has, in this world. Let me be thankful for all the mercies [and] the blessings I have, rather than sigh for more.

sePtember 1835 At the by-election, Sam Sowden had angered Anne Lister by talking of tenants’ ‘turning off’ their landlords and refusing to vote. Anne had not forgiven this ‘arrant yellow’ and was now able to use her landowner’s power over his farm.

WeDNesDAy 2 Had Mr Sowden, for he had offended—hoped I should look over [overlook] it—would have given me his vote but had been

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1st canvassed by the yellows & had promised not to vote at all—otherwise did not care sixpence how he voted. ‘Then’, said I, ‘will you vote with me? I will not call upon you unless pressed, but may I count upon your vote?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Very well’, said I, ‘then I will think no more of what has passed’—meaning he might keep the farm—said I would not take a new tenant who would not give me his vote, but I had not meant to send away an old one—however, I must now consider S– as a new tenant, & ask [for] his vote—he promised to give it to me.1I said dinner was waiting—ordered him beer—& came away. Dinner at 6 50/”. 20 minutes with my father & Marian—coffee. A– read aloud several paragraphs from the newspaper—sat talking till 91/2—her aunt asked her to stay at Cliff-hill during the Sutherlands’ visit. WeDNesDAy 16 Captain and Mrs Sutherland and the oldest son Sackville (aged 4) arrived last night at 7....Went with A– to the turnpike and there left her to go forward to Cliff-hill to dinner & stay till 1 am on Saturday. Marian was overburdened by housekeeping arrangments and expenses; Anne offered to take over the responsibilities.

thursDAy 17 Poor Marian’s troubles were heavy—she wished to take my father & live at Market Weighton. However it now seems settled for me to take all into my own hands, do as I like & make everybody as comfortable as I can....Dressed for visiting & off on Ann’s pony at 4 50/” to Cliff-hill—a sad fight with the animal almost all the way....Staid there 1/2 hour, 5 or 6 minutes with A– before anybody else came to me—but she dared scarce speak—talked of going to York on Monday. Captain Sutherland wants half the rent books. A– would not give them up—he said she wanted to quarrel and she left the room. I agreeableized & talked much to the S–s, particularly Captain S–. Mrs A. Walker & A– scarcely uttered—they all thought A– meant to stay at Cliff-hill the whole of the S–s’ visit. In fact it was Captain Sutherland who hurried off to York. Despite his earlier anger expressed confidentially to Robert Parker, when he returned it seems that smooth-talking Gray had somehow persuaded him to adopt a conciliatory approach to dividing the joint estate—even if this meant laying blame on his wife, once again heavily pregnant.2 Certainly Ann and Anne seemed happy to accept his compromise.

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SAturDAy 19 A– had returned [from Cliff-hill] a minute or 2 after me and sent for me, looking thin and pale & tired—sat by her on the sofa till 4—then talking all over did her good. It is her sister not Captain Sutherland who is awkward. He returned from York this morning—quite altered, delighted with Mr Gray. Glad A– had put the business into his hands, and apologised handsomely for what he (Captain S–) had said to A—yesterday. It was Mrs S– not he who refused A– the keeping of the books—he told Mrs S– she was illiberal. So he has got right with A–. Mr Gray said the books did not belong to either sister, but should of right be kept for the benefit of both by some indifferent [disinterested] person. S– handsomely said A– was the proper person to keep them. She cried all yesterday and was quite poorly but held up as well as she could. Mrs S– on the high horse, and A– stood up against it very well. She promised her aunt to go again for two or three days, but I declared she should only go for one night. Anne Lister and Ann Walker themselves now set off for York. Anne Lister had many transactions, including discussing Northgate with John Harper.

tuesDAy 22 Had Mr Harper between 10 & 11 for a few minutes—the 1st stone of the [Northgate] Casino to be laid on Saturday next...Mr Gray (Jonathan) came at 10 and staid till 2—he 1st wrote me a short will, 5 or 6 lines, for my aunt making me sole executor and leaving me to do as I liked about everything....A– then had him busy about her affairs till 2—she had left the room at 1st while he was writing my aunt’s will—he took that opportunity of telling me Captain [S–] had told him he was not grasping. He had given A– fourteen hundred pounds to satisfy [i.e. atone]. I said it was an ungentlemanly misrepresentation and explained how it was....Advised Mr Gray not to tell A– now; it would only annoy her—but told her myself afterwards. Mr Gray wrote form of inscription to be put with the coins in the 1st [i.e. foundation] stone of the Casino, and he also wrote a speech for A– to make to Mr Nelson, the master builder. Back at Shibden, Anne completed the preparations for the stone-laying at her Northgate Casino. Despite earlier newspaper lampooning, the two women had courageously decided that the ceremony would represent a formal acknowledgement in public of the seriousness of their relationship—and that therefore Ann Walker would lay the foundation stone.

sAturDAy 26 Breakfast at 91/4. A– getting off her speech for the first stonelaying and I writing out mine—put on my new pelisse and had my hair done.

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Marian was to have gone to the first stone-laying, but got nervous and staid at home. A– and I off at 103/4 in my own carriage (with our 2 men behind) to Northgate hotel....A– did her part very well—the coins of the King’s reign (William IV)...were put into a large-mouthed green glass bottle, as also an inscription....There must have been a hundred people collected round the spot—2 neatly dressed young ladies, some respectable-looking men and the rest rabble. There was a little crowd to push through...[A–] addressed Mr Nelson as follows, ‘Mr Nelson, I have been requested by my friend, Miss Lister, to lay the 1st stone of a Casino....We hope and trust that the undertaking will prove an accommodation to the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood...’ I spoke as follows....‘Mr Nelson, my friend Miss Walker has done us great honour; and I trust her good wishes will not be in vain. I am very anxious that this Casino with its annexed Hotel should be an accommodation to the public at large, but more especially to this my native town in whose prosperity I ever have felt, and ever shall feel, deeply interested. I earnestly hope that the work we are now beginning will do credit to us all—may the voice of Discord be never heard within its walls, and may persons of every shade of varying opinion meet together here in amity...’ I heard someone of the Crowd say ‘Very well’; A– and I hurried back into the carriage—3 cheers were given...and we drove off to call on Mr and Mrs Musgrave at the vicarage. The inscription on the sheet-lead put into the bottle (written by Mr Gray on Tuesday) was as follows: The first stone of a spacious Casino...was laid on the 26th day of September AD 1835, in the sixth year of the reign of King William IV, by Miss Ann Walker the younger, of Cliff Hill, Yorkshire, in the name and at the request of her particular friend, Miss Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Yorkshire, owner of the property...3 At Cliff-hill at 5 5/”...The Sutherlands gone to Mr Parker’s in Washington’s gig. A– and I walked back by Lower brea and the walk, and came in at 6 35/”. A– wrote a handsome letter to Mr Gray...the deeds were quite correct....A– came to say the Sutherlands who had come a few minutes before had enquired about my black tin deedbox—told her to shew them upstairs into the kitchen-chamber where it has stood since A– came. Very civil to the S–s; opened the box for them and advised about it. Then shewed the [casino] inscription— Mrs S– seemed pleased—in short, we are capital friends—they stood talking upstairs & down in the drawing room—Captain Sutherland wrote a note for George to take to Mr Parker (to countermand places 191

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in the coach for Tuesday morning to Manchester) and say they would stay till Friday; A– had persuaded them to stay—they were easily persuaded, and Mrs S– took a glass of wine & a biscuit....It seems Captain S– makes a great merit (as great as he can) of having found out errors in the deeds—humbug....Was not the real fact that Captain S– wanted an excuse for conning over the deeds at his leisure again with Mr Parker? Anne and Ann suspected Sutherland and Parker of colluding. With growing anxiety over the current whereabouts of the deeds, their suspicion about Parker’s loyalties grew—especially when a promised parcel containing them failed to materialise.

suNDAy 27 Attempt at a kiss last night. A–’s manner leading to it but she called out in the middle of it that she was too weak and I stopped immediately.... [A–] had been uneasy about her deeds—knew not where they were—Mr Parker had sent word there would be a parcel ready for her at 7am today, but...the parcel contained merely Mr Parker’s bill (joint) to A– & the Sutherlands. A– more uneasy than ever about the deeds....Drove to Mr Parker’s house—alighted—there perhaps about 1/4 hour or 20 minutes—mutually explained—Mr Parker read the copy of his letter of last night to Messrs Gray...Mr Parker, seeing A–’s apparent mistrust (at first), brought down the bundle of deeds (Captain S–’s & hers) which he said somebody must keep & which he (Mr P–) or Messrs Gray must get registered. I merely said I saw how the mistake had arisen: Captain S– had thrown all blame on Mr [Shepley] Watson [Gray’s assistant]. A– left the deeds with Mr Parker, did the civil thing & we took our leave.4 Drove along the lower Brea road & at Lightcliffe church (in about 25 minutes) at 3.... The Sutherlands came into church after us—Mr Wilkinson did all the duty—preached 16 minutes from Ecclesiates v 4—the S–s were very cordial after church....At Cliff-hill at 5 55/” for 1/4 hour—Mrs A. Walker evidently not in good sorts—the Captain looked grave, Mrs S– very smiling. A–’s luggage being taken out of the carriage, I left her supposing she would have to stay till Friday. The stone-laying ceremony also represented an opportunity for Anne Lister’s ‘treating’ the builders afterwards. Such rituals carried similar political significance to doorstep canvassing:

FriDAy 28 The [Northgate work]men had a very good dinner [at 192

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Stump Cross Inn] & got so drunk none could look up yesterday—did not get home till last night, & very few at work today, but promised to come tomorrow—all very much pleased—said the Blues were the best—if it had been a yellow, they would have got nothing...Mrs A. Walker in very good sorts with A–, but fatiguée de ces Sutherlands. The Northgate ceremony had helped establish a public respectability for Anne and Ann’s relationship; and the rift between the Sutherlands and Shibden Hall over the title deeds had been resolved. But of course behind the smiles the real tensions remained: even though they had had the deed-box opened for them, the Sutherlands were still suspicions. Captain Sutherland, finding he was left with little room for manoevre, had made first his wife and now Shepley Watson the scapegoats. Anne Lister had won this first round.

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Shibden Hall, ‘Perspective View: Garden Front’, by John Harper, 1836, showing the planned improvements Anne Lister discussed with John Harper (SH:2/M/2/1)

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the yeLLoW carrIage and the raILroad o c t o b e r 1835–f e b r u a r y 1836

october 1835 While Anne Lister remained full of plans for improving the Shibden estate, Ann Walker found it difficult to share this enthusiasm; for ‘she will always long to be doing at Cliff-hill—tho’ she herself doubts whether that or Crow Nest will be the place eventually’.1 Meanwhile, Revising Barristers for the West Riding announced their revision courts for Halifax. At these hearings, lists of voters could be scrutinised and objections raised by opposition parties to the property qualification of individual voters. In both the Halifax and West Riding constituencies local Conservatives were particularly active in mustering objections.

WeDNesDAy 14 Circular from Mr Wortley’s Committee to attend meeting on Saturday, to consider upon the best means of supporting the registration of Conservative voters ‘for this borough on the approaching revision of the lists by the barristers’. Of course there will be a subscription & I must subscribe something.2 At the same time, the Halifax Guardian reported excitedly about local Conservative Associations being set up, including one in Halifax; it added ‘Let us hope that the Conservative Association of the West-Riding will follow the example...[and] rescue this great division of the County from the disgrace of being represented by the lacquey [lackey] and the tool of a Popish demagogue’.3

WeDNesDAy 21 I set off to Cliff-hill to see A–’s intended bit of planting near the Crow-nest gates....In returning met Mr Samuel Waterhouse 195

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junior who had called on me &, not finding me at home, enquired of the workmen—he wanted me to ask my subscription to the registration of conservative voters—Mr Wortley had put down his name for £25 & ten others had put down their names for £10 each—I gave him (told him to put it down) my name for £10—but hoped not to be further called upon...In spite of 5 or 6 minutes detained by Mr S.W.–, back with the workmen in 2 hours from leaving them... Robert Mann sent for to Walker pit about 4 pm [because] the scale fallen in near the bottom (should have been framed4) had narrowedly missed killing one of the men on the spot—had made a hole in his skull near an inch deep. As the tiny Walker pit neared completion, so it became both more dangerous for the miners and also more vulnerable to underground industrial sabotage.

thursDAy 22 Robert Mann told me the Walker pit hut had been broken into at night & the horse geer [gear] stolen and a vice belonging to the Manns—suspect a man of the name of Matthews—to get a search warrant against him if they can swear [before magistrates] to the things. Ann Walker felt increasingly torn between Shibden and the improvements to the Crow-nest ‘carriage-road’ she planned. Indeed, it was significantly the issue of travel by carriage that triggered quarrelling.

mONDAy 26 A– wrong about something....She has a queer stupid temper—we shall never continue long together....She said she should have gone over to Leeds today if she had had carriage & servant of her own—I quietly said she had two of each—I was very sorry I had prevented her...I said no more but came upstairs—keeping my temper beautifully, as I must say for myself, I have always done to her...I see there will be a struggle for the upper hand—I shall not give way, come what may. I know, O Lord, that thy judgements are right. thursDAy 29 Some while with Booth the mason planning about new coach-house for 8 carriages (instead of the tower I talked of) at this end of the farmyard. FriDAy 30 Mr Parker told A– he was sorry he had not sold more navigation shares for me—sad work about them now—sadly depreciated by the prospect of a railway so immediately. 196

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Anne and Ann visited Leeds to see a Mr & Mrs Barber for the posts of master & mistress for the Knowle-top school near Crow-nest. With the post went a house: the interview was extremely thorough.

sAturDAy 31 He reads well—was ready at multiplying £19.19.6d into itself—writes a very good hand & good English....A tall, thin gravelooking man—has 7 children, the youngest 7 years old—he said he had been unfortunate & looked as if what he said was true —he wanted a certainty [guarantee] of from £80 to £100 a year...[Mrs Barber] is a methodist & her husband a liberal—but she would go to church, & he say nothing about politics—would not vote against us—would not vote at all—has lost £800 by a suit in Chancery that was his wife’s...[She] looks respectable but worn down by poverty...A–’s impression in favour of Mr & Mrs Barber? I am sorry he is a radical & she a methodist.

november 1835 suNDAy 1 Read the Halifax Guardian of yesterday—a meeting the other day at Huddersfield (17th ult.) ‘for establishing a Railway from Huddersfield, by Wakefield, to Leeds...to be called ‘the Huddersfield & Leeds railway Company’. WeDNesDAy 4 I had Mark Town...said I should consider him to enter to the house1 on the 1st of this month—asked if he would give me a conservative vote or not—wanted him to ask Mr Akroyd, but he did not seem to like to do this—so I said I would not take a new tenant who would not give me a vote—I did not wish him to offend Mr Akroyd2—I should consider whether to make him (Mark) a vote or not—if I did make him one, & he voted against me, I should take away his vote as immediately as possible. Anne Lister then wrote to Lady Stuart, as always trying to put the best gloss on the situation and to give the impression that she herself had her finger on the local political button.

tuesDAy 10 Began my letter....‘The political mind of the people is sadly warped....The registration has not gained us much, if anything. I cannot understand the injudiciousness of those of Mr James Wortley’s

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friends who declined his offer to pay the whole or part (I cannot possibly learn which) of the expense of his last election....The people call out for a man of money. The town is said to say it cannot support such expenses again. Whether Halifax is to be a corporation town or not seems to hang upon the calculation of expense. I suppose Parliament is to be petitioned next session for the din of steam carriages to pass within three or four miles of us. Whenever I dare think of travelling, it is to try the railroad at Leipzig, and to be steamed down the Danube.’ sAturDAy 21 Mackintosh of Manchester, who sells the water-proof (indian rubber) cloaks, pays Mr Akroyd £30,000 a year for Camlet3 to line them with. mONDAy 23 A– queerish and poorly or middling, as she calls it—I think temper goes for much of it. She cried last night, on my gently saying I thought she ought to tell me things fairly—she would not mew as she used to do—[she said she] had reasons but would not tell. Her whole manner too about money matters nowadays speaks plain enough that things are not to be as I at first expected. Well, be it so. I dreampt last [night] of a long tete-a-tete with Lady Stuart de Rothesay in which I had an opportunity of telling her of my great regard—favourably received, and hoping to spend my days with her....Sometime talking to A—. She had been crying very much—talked gently and kindly, but still impossible to get anything out of her—tho’ she smiled and seemed in better temper. But I believe she is not only afraid of all my jobs—that is, the money to be spent—but she would be glad to be at liberty again. Ann Walker remained closely attached to her childhood home.

tuesDAy 24 Talking to A–, then wrote the above of today till 9 20/”. It seems A– was crying yesterday about some people having offered to take part of Crow-nest, and others having applied for it for a school—cheered up tonight on hearing the Sutherlands laughed at and scouted [mocked] the offers. A– had a letter from her sister tonight—all very agreeable. In the correspondence, Captain Sutherland ‘agreeableised’ with Anne Lister by consulting her on estate business, valuing some stone. But in Halifax itself some of her friends still considered her plans extravagant—despite her intention to sell Northgate.

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thursDAy 26 Marian had been at H-x & seen Mrs Waterhouse & Mrs Catherine Rawson—the latter told her it was said that if I did all I talked of it would cost me £30,000—I had had £8,000 bid for the place & she (Mrs C. Rawson) thought I had better have had that in my pocket than lay out so much. Marian said I told her a great deal but she forgot it all, & would seem to know nothing about what I was going to do—but she (Marian) thought I had better have taken the £8,000. Mentioned the subject of making bricks of the clay I wanted to get rid of here—Marian herself had no objection & thought my father would have none—the thought struck me yesterday—asked Robert Mann if he knew of a good brick-maker—yes! FriDAy 27 A– came back at 5—had cut Mr William Priestley—he spoke & she cantered past without taking any notice of him...A– low at my having so many concerns—oh dear! Skimmed over last night’s paper till 9 35/˝. sAturDAy 28 Down the Old Bank to Mr Parker’s office...Navigation stock not saleable—everyone so frightened at the rail road. Anne Lister wrote proudly to Mariana Lawton with her industrial news, somewhat exaggerating the magnificence of her tiny Walker shaft:

suNDAy 29 ‘I told you ages ago, I was obliged to look after my coal, for fear of having it stolen. My first pit, begun about fifteen months since, was sunk to the bottom last week—is about a hundred & ten yards deep, & said to be one of the handsomest pits in this county. Some time next spring, I hope to be ready for beginning a 2nd pit, to be about 60 yards deep.’ Mr Jubb the doctor visited—again bringing useful news, this time about the Halifax amd Society. HalifaxLiterary Literary andPhilosophical Philosophical Society.

mONDAy 30 He mentioned the 2 meetings of the proprietors of the new museum—the building before completed will cost about £2,000– £1,800 subscribed, so there will be a call for about £20 more from each of the twelve proprietors....The 12 proprietors are: 2 Messrs Chistopher & Jeremiah Rawson 4 Drs Kenny & Cockroft 199

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5 Mr Jubb 6 Mr Saltmarshe 7 Mr Wainhouse (Washer Lane) 8 Mr John Waterhouse (junior) 9 Mr Edward Alexander 10 Mr Abbott 11 Mr Richard Kershaw 12 A L– Once again, Anne Lister found herself the only woman listed.4

december 1835 Like the major worsted centre of Bradford, Halifax was also enjoying boomtown status. These were years of good harvests and national prosperity, stimulating a rush of railway construction: even in hilly Halifax, rail rumours crept ever nearer. The economic growth visible all around encouraged Anne and Ann to consider how best to exploit their commercial options— while not impairing the rural idyll visible from Shibden Hall. Although it was unlikely they would become directly involved in textiles, both women certainly became interested in mills as a profitable investment. Anne Lister calculated on Ann Walker’s behalf: ‘If A– let him [Acquilla Green] a mill of 16 horse-steam-power...would leave her a clear annual rent of £184—certainly I should...not advise her to lay out money in mills for less interest than 10 per cent.’ Anne Lister might offer advice, but her own perennial cash-flow problems meant that funding for any such investment had to come from Ann Walker. However, the complex nature of Ann Walker’s inheritance meant that Anne Lister had to tread very warily here; this was especially so when discussion involved local people (such Sam Washington) who tended to take a more conventional view of the nature of the two women’s relationship. This was apparent when they discussed transferring an inn licence on one of Ann Walker’s properties nearer to the new road. For the mid-1830s trade boom had not only stimulated demand for commodities like bricks and stone, but also for services such as brewing and inns.

FriDAy 11 With Marian while she mended my glove till 11 & while A– had Washington. Mentioned to Marian that I had thought of building a small [public] house in the Mytholm stone quarry; A–’s travellers’ Inn licence to be transferred there—I might put John Booth into the house to brew at 1st for me & under my directions, & 200

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december 1835

on my going away [abroad] I might make him tenant which would be a provision for him—Marian seemed to like the idea...1 Stood talking to A– till 1. Washington had advised her to transfer the [inn] licence to the Tan-yard house...I can have no objection to any plan that is best for A–; I just hinted that the Tan-house land was in the entail, & A– could have no control over it beyond her own life, it being in the hands of the trustees, Messrs [Henry] Edwards & William Priestley.2 A– answered quickly, ‘That’s absurd’. Of course, I had nothing more to say—the subject was too delicate on my part—I merely offered to buy the licence if she liked, & give a bond for the money. The fact is, it is perhaps better for me to have nothing to do with the matter—I merely wish I had not happened to name the thing to Marian...3 Mr Harper had been waiting...asked if I had heard of the Railroad to pass close under St James’s churchyard [in Halifax] & take up all the upper field there (intended for cattle market etc) for the station—the people had been measuring & surveying this morning or yesterday, Mr Husband had told him. My immediate answer was ‘the mania for rail-roads is quite melancholy’. Mr H[arper] would think I was no great friend to the thing—I said I had never [heard] a syllable of its going through the Northgate property—I was taken by surprise & astonished—much obliged to Mr Harper for telling me what was in agitation—he thought the promoters of the concern would be coming to speak to me tomorrow. I said they would, if they could get an act of Parliament, take the [Northgate] ground at their own price. ‘But,’ said Mr Harper, ‘You have the consolation that it will make [guaranteed the success of] your Inn at once’—to this I made no particular answer. Mentioned to A– what had passed about the Rail-road & looking very grave about it. Dressed—dinner at 63/4—so late because [I] had had Joseph & Robert Mann, & settled & paid up in full the account for sinking Walker pit 1121/2 yards deep at 23/- per yard sinking....Total cost of pit sinking £154.6.91/2, exclusive of drift to let off water & gin & all its expense & all etc, etc, that I think this pit will not be cleared for less than £250 at least....Kind letter tonight (1/2 sheet) from Lady Gordon, franked by Lord [?] Cambermere from Methley—going to Wortley (Lord Wharncliffe’s)4 on Monday. Anne Lister and others might be wildly out about the prospect of a railway climbing right up to Northgate; but she was more acccurate in her hint that

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Ann Walker’s Halifax land down by the Hebble might be of considerable interest to railway speculators.

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sAturDAy 12 No kiss....Breakfast—sat talking to A– of the railroad till 10 10/˝. I have been grave ever since yesterday noon and the licence business. A– thinks it is about the railroad and my aunt’s being poorly, but I think more and more A– and I will not get on together forever, and my mind turns to the thought of being at liberty again. Anne was of course genuinely concerned about her aunt’s failing health: the Reverend Musgrave came up to Shibden to administer the sacrament to her.

sAturDAy 19 Gave Joseph Mann the key of Whiskum cottage—told him...that he must sign a written agreement to leave at 2 months’ notice—he thought that rather too little notice—but I said it was the same sort of agreement as I had made before. Joseph to manage the [Whiskum toll]bar5—mentioned his being sworn in as special constable—he told me his daughter was en famille within 2 or 3 months of her confinement—not going to be married—a worthless young man about 19 the father of 2 other natural children—I said I was very sorry—could not do with her being confined at Whiskum cottage—& Joseph promised to get her off for the time—but said it was a great trouble to him—I told him [if] I was in his [shoes] I would give the fellow such a licking as he never had in his life before.6 mONDAy 21 In the farm-yard—went down the walk to the tail goit— Joseph Mann not there—he (& his men helping him) busy flitting to Whiskum cottage. tuesDAy 22 Mr Washington came—with him a few minutes—Sowden thought all was settled—wants to look at a lease before signing it—very well—referred him to Mr Parker—my own mind made up—he must be on lease like the other tenants or give up the farm.7 WeDNesDAy 23 With A– some minutes after breakfast to tell her how to trim the Sunday school girls’ bonnets—I think [she] would find the loss of me if she had me not...A– had letter from her sister—it seemed to me very kind & satisfactory—but A– somehow not quite pleased about it. suNDAy 27 Reading the last Quarterly Review, Miss Roberts on

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Hindoostan....Then off to Mytholm...talked a little while to Aquilla Green—he says they build mills at Bradford, a more flourishing town than H-x, for 71/2 or 8 per cent on the money laid out—and he thought I would do it. ‘No! never’, said I, ‘nor Miss W– either, nor would Mr Washington advise her to do so.’8....She is crying...an odd temper! I shall learn how to manage her by and by. The Shibden-dale singers visited on New Year’s Eve: Anne’s aunt leaned on her niece’s arm to listen to their singing ‘For auld lang syne’. But Ann Walker lay in tears upstair on the sofa; and Anne was acutely conscious this was probably the last New Year her aunt would see. ‘My uncle is gone—she will soon follow—the dream of youth is gone—the day of love is gone—but I am left’.

January 1836 Despite speculation about mills and railroad, much of daily life at Shibden carried on unchanged, with the Shibden-dale singers on New Year’s Eve and traditional gifts for servants and men working in the farmyard on New Year’s Day.1 But by now rifts within the household—between Marian and Ann Walker, or triggered by Anne Lister’s cash-flow problems—surfaced unpleasantly in seemingly trivial domestic detail, such as the expense of male servants, whose livery so significantly indicated rank and authority.

FriDAy 1 Had Sharpe the cook & then George & gave them their new year’s gift—long talk to the former as to managing the house & keeping order....Marian sick of her household—no order etc etc— consoled her as well as I could—proposed setting all right by my being considered in my father’s place—my being master & Marian mistress—made this palatable to us all—Marian staid till 10 50/” & had been 20 minutes with A– before I came—but we all seemed satisfied at the conclusion come to. mONDAy 4 A– began crying and said I seem to think she caused all the expense, wished I had told her before etc, etc. I had put stable expenses...at about two hundred and fifty a year. She said she thought I had reckoned fifty pounds per horse. ‘Yes’, said I, but that did not include servants’ wages etc. I said calmly and gently everything that was kind and conciliatory—that if she paid five hundred a year, her expenses would not exceed what she spent at Lidgate. That my father kept me when I was here, and I really had so much on my hands now...I had at

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first [thought] of her paying for one manservant and I for one. She said the excise [tax] would not allow that—I must pay for two as they wore my livery. ‘Oh ho’, thought I, ‘She wants to sport her own livery.’ I quietly said, ‘but your livery is the same as mine.’ She answered ‘but not the button.’2 I merely said the excise would not interfere. The truth is she wants to take care of her money and to be important. Nous verrons—time will tell the event. Had George near 1/4 hour till 91/4—told him to teach Frank to groom thoroughly well and to clean carriages. tuesDAy 5 No kiss—I all civility and grave silence....She made no apology—no saying of being sorry, and I shall not give in, so things must go on as they can. I suspect she will come round by and by—but it matters not—I shall get more and more callous. At my desk...making rentals for tomorrow, duplicate copy of rents received for my father....When A– came and gave me a kiss, having tears, kissed her, said nothing but went into the other room and talked kindly but gravely, of one thing or another. suNDAy 17 Read prayers in 23 minutes, I to my aunt (in bed) & our 4 servants till 12 50/”—read from page 35 to 68 Holland’s Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of Life till 1 10/”—then dress and after waiting a few minutes, sent to see if A– was ready. All wrong about going to church in the yellow carriage—would not go at all. Said I was very sorry, but really she had consented to it. No, she knew nothing about it, and I had promised never to ask her again to go to church in [the] yellow carriage. ‘Why’ said I, ‘You know I explained the necessity of using it sometimes now that we took no journeys’—and I mentioned using it every third Sunday, and thought she agreed to this and was satisfied. ‘No’—she understood we were to make the next call in this carriage. Yet she could not deny what I had said about the once-in-three-weeks. ‘Very well’ said I ‘I am sorry I have been so mistaken. Shall I order the horses to be put to the other carriage?’ ‘No’, said she, ‘I can order for myself’...3 Not a word passed in the carriage—till after waiting at the school door twenty minutes reading—she rejoined me and put out her hand saying, ‘Will it be accepted?’ ‘Yes, certainly, but we will not talk about it now as we are going to church.’ My mind had been full of her and getting rid of her....Mr Fenton did all the duty—preached 22 minutes.... I sat with my father and Marian till 81/2 skimming over the newspaper—then to my aunt and sat with her till 91/2. Very civil to A–, but I had kept up my gravity....For long I have seen from a thousand trifles that she feels no indissoluble tie. I have for months joked her about ‘meum’ and ‘tuum’—she shall have her way—I will keep up appearances as well as I can.

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mONDAy 18 She smiled at breakfast and said she was better, but tho’ I talked a good deal and as if not much had happened, yet my gravity was there—I never kissed [her] till she came to me to pay toll on going to the water closet.4

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The moody tensions continued. But for Anne Lister the financial context of these quarrels was sobering, with a constant trickle of expenditure yet little new income—as her account daybook indicates:

Wednesday 6 Gave Charles Howarth to make up his rent to £25 halfyearly & said I would give him as much every rent day during my father’s life, the rent to be afterwards £50 per annum £2.0.0.... Received from Mr S. Washington Martinmas rent £387.14.2 frIday 8 To John Bottomley’s bill for carting stone to wall bottom of Walker pit 12.6 Received from Whiskam [toll] bar 9d sunday 10 Postboy to church & Cliff-hill 3.0 To George as by his stable book... 1.13.01/2 Wednesday 27 to Mr Jubb for my aunt & Oddy £24.9.0 „ to for John Clark & Mary Rhodes 4.7.05

february 1836 Anne and Ann set off on another round of formal visits to Ann’s relatives.

mONDAy 1 Near 1/2 hour at Pye-nest—saw Mr and Mrs Edwards—she looking miserably, 10 or 20 years older than a year ago. Mr E– came in with a smile and affected to talk unconcernedly—was not the smile a nervous one? We began talking about the projected railroad— hurrying to parliament to [get] their bill into the committtee before the Huddersfield people. Mr E– and I both agreed...the railroad would do good—more good to the county at large, and even to the navigation proproprietors, than to the proprietors of the rail....Then to Well-head for about 1/2 hour with Mrs Waterhouse, and by-andby came the Misses Catherine & Elizabeth Waterhouse—they came in just as poor vulgar Mrs W– was beginning to bore me about my sister’s being going to be married—I had just said gravely no! I thought not, when the 2 girls came to my rescue and the conversation turned.

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WeDNesDAy 10 3/4 hour with A– giving her a little lesson in botany—but she too poorly tonight to profit much. A good rummage1 and going abroad would do her most good—wished her many happy returns of the day on the 1st thing on wakening this morning—it is 2 years today since the thing was settled between us—came to my study at 101/2. I think A– out [of] sorts at the day, at its being the anniversary of our being together—she can hardly perhaps own to herself that she repents, but she has a queer temper and perhaps fancies herself under restraint. My maxim is: neither to confide in nor consult her—do the best I can and leave the rest to providence...A– did her French, with my father and Marian—I with the latter till after 9—talk about the rail-road coming by Northgate. Both women were aware that their elderly aunts would not live for very long.

suNDAy 14 A– had breakfast and was off to the school at 83/4. On coming to kiss me before going downstairs, and finding she had had no motion yesterday or Friday, I said, ‘We must be off to Paris. But now I tell you beforehand, I go on your account’....I had said she kept me here. Indeed, [she said] she did not wish to be here and got all wrong. I calmly answered, ‘I always said you have kept the peace [at Shibden] and I am thankful to you—but my stay here is on account of my aunt.’ A– went to breakfast—I lay musing. ‘What a temper’, said I to myself....When she came up from breakfast she was rather better, but would not say yes or no when I asked if she had been naughty. The less I pother my head about her the better. Should anything happen to my [aunt] and when I have got my building etc etc done, things will right themselves. A– may have Cliff-hill by that time. Anne’s diary might note that ‘the less I pother my head about her the better’, but her account day book told a different story. Anne’s income from new sources still remained paltry, and expenditure high—especially for regular items like carriage travel with a postboy. Anne still needed to borrow from her aunt and Ann Walker:

monday 1 Postboy all the day making calls... 5.0 frIday 5 Received of Joseph Mann for Whiskum bar 3/81/2 Paid to Joseph Mann...for boring (1 hole) at Listerwick engine pit 1.10.11 monday 15 to John Booth to pay little John’s last 1 /2 year’s school bill 1.14.1 to Thomas Charnock as by bill for 6 corves2 for Walker pit 2.11.0 206

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frIday 19

To Joseph Mann...in a/c Listerwick engine pit sinking saturday 20 Borrowed of my aunt Borrowed of A– sunday 21 Postboy to church & Cliff-hill monday 22 Received from A– £295 which (with the £5 borrowed on Saturday) = £300 to be repaid 1 May next. ...repairs to A–’s carriage... saturday 27 ...to George in a/c of weekly accounts ...Received from A– Paid to Marian for this month’s living up to 1 March paid back my aunt (vide 20th inst)

10.0.0 £15 £5... 3.0

£2.0.0 £12 £12.0.0 £15.0.03

February ended with Anne proceeding with her ‘meer-work’ agreement, by which she planned to contruct a reservoir below Shibden Hall, hoping it would power a waterwheel for her planned Listerwick colliery.4

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vI

PoIsonIng the WeLL and burnIng devIL’s dung m a r c h 1836

march 1836 Buoyed up by this loan from Ann Walker, Anne Lister now had a rush of entrepreneurial energy, entering economic super-drive. Male experts were appointed: Mr Husband became her clerk-of-the-works; Joseph Mann her ‘master miner’, and Robert Mann responsible for ‘out-works at home’;1 John Harper consulted ‘the cleverest mechanics in the county’ about her waterwheel for Listerwick. Soil was barrowed and carted; hundreds of hollies and oaks were moved and planted. Even Walker pit at last bore coal. With neither her elderly father nor aunt likely to live long, Anne Lister was effectively completely in charge of running the estate. She commanded a small army of men with indomitable authority. A complete diary entry for 1 March records her energy and range of activity.

tuesDAy 1 No kiss—driving small rain and snow and wild morning and F341/2o and too bad weather to go out. Went downstairs—breakfast at 9—before and after till 103/4 at German—some time with A– looking over the H-x Library catalogue for books on travel in Germany to be sent for this afternoon. Out at 11 with Robert Mann + 4 [men]—John Gill made his 4th man—came 1st time today—got up the great holly in the hedge-row between the Brook Ings where the meer is to be—and had also got up some [haw]thorns. Set the men to get up oaks and 3 or 4 of the best beeches where the meer is to come up to my walk. Frank had carted clay from near the coachhouse court[yard] in the morning for puddling [making water-tight] the long water drift, and in the afternoon he and John Booth, my

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father’s bay-horse and my grey [horse] and one of Mark Hepworth’s and 1 of Mawson’s, and Robert Mann + 4 and Joseph Mann + 3, the 2 cart drivers (Richard Hepworth and Mawson’s man) and Mawson himself = 13 men and 4 horses. The great holly on the sledge and a cart fastened to the sledge (without cart the 3 leaders pulled the horse next the sledge down) got the great holly in 11/2 hour from where it grew to wheat-glen where, in spite of the heavy rain for the last hour, we got it planted about 51/2, two hours from the time of starting with it from its place. Put in the oaks (some of them 6 or 7 feet high or more) around the top of the glen and came in at 61/4—having been out from 11 to then. Dressed—wet—dinner at 7—coffee. A– did her French. With my aunt from 81/2 to 91/4—my father and Marian with my aunt part of the time and A– too till near 9. I skimmed over tonight’s paper— afterwards coming upstairs skimmed over and through and wrote the above [diary entry] of today till 10 25/”, at which hour F37o and soft damp thick foggy night—rainy snowy morning till 10 and rainy afternoon from about 4 pm or before till after 7. Had Mawson just after breakfast this morning about setting the wall against Godley land near the brook 2 or 3 feet back and taking in a goodish ash tree. Mawson might give Mr Carr 1/6 per yard for the ground and 20/- for the tree but not more. Told me afterwards Mr Carr would not give [or] sell any ground below unless I would straighten the fence above (which would take more ground than it would be safe to pay for, the place being so deeply mortgaged) and would not sell the tree for £100. Of course Mawson left Mr Carr—an end of the thing—perhaps it was well—let the wall, though leaning a little and a bad one, stand as long as it will.2 Anne Lister was proud to display her work to Ann Walker.

thursDAy 3 Went down to the meer-source (çi dev[an]t engine-pit). At 12 20/”, going home for A–, met her in the walk—shewed her the line of puddle-dike, the engine-pit, the 2 cypresses brought to the cascade bridge—my new holly hedge in course of planting—went with her to the Lodge, and walked her about till 11/2... The [water]wheel will have 201/2 horse power—it seems 21/2 horse power will do all the coal-water pumping work, and I shall have 18 horse power to spare—enough for a corn-mill. In good spirits about it—told A– I hoped to make from £200 to £300 by the meer

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eventually, but should receive nothing of two years...John Clarke the footman ill again—went to Mr Jubb at 9 am and was bled before he returned. FriDAy 4 Mr Musgrave came to me this afternoon (while planting the 3 oaks in front of the house) to ask if A– was at home—no! He gave me the balance (22/-) of her bible-account (society bibles for the Sunday School children). Told me the new Dispensary was to be thrown open to public competition—very civil. sAturDAy 5 No kiss—ready in 55 minutes—fine frosty morning—teaching A– arithmetic for 1/4 hour...Indited [wrote] note for A– to the vicar enclosing the threepence she owed him. She is and has been quite right and goodhumoured ever since our last disagreeableness and we now get on very well. suNDAy 6 Met Greenwood3—he says something must be done about the Northgate hotel—some beer or something must be sold there, or the licence may be taken away. Told Greenwood to make enquiries and see after this—he wants me to let Carr have the hotel—I said Carr had neither character nor money and the yellows were all against him, saying he was such a party-man.4...Left Greenwood to look about, having told him I hoped to have 18 horse-power to spare after pumping up the coal-water.

WeDNesDAy 9 Had Mr Husband about the water wheel...Had Mr Illingworth’s valuation of A–s Washington—would come and level in the afternoon on his return from meeting Illingworth5 at Bouldshaw coal=£150 price taking all together. Bouldshaw to value the coal. thursDAy 10 We dined on Pork—too rich for us—it disagreed with both of us, I so bilious could not see a letter of A–’s French book. A– 10 minutes & I 1/2 hour with my aunt, poorly tonight...A– would not take luncheon till I got her persuaded—at last told me she had been unhappy the last two weeks—had not pleasure in anything, never felt as if doing right. Would not take wine—was getting too fond of it—afraid she should drink—was getting as she was before—afraid people would find it6 out, & began to look disconsolate. ‘Oh’, thought I, ‘I see how it is’. Cheered her up—said we would get off in May—would go to Paris first. This made me stay with her so inconveniently long. On leaving her, thanked God as I walked along for all blessings to myself & fervently begged His help & felt comforted & my spirits good & my head clear.

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This clarity of resolution encouraged Anne Lister’s inheritance plans. She determined to delay no longer, but to obtain a legal agreement so she could not only inherit the non-entailed property as a life-tenant, but also manage Ann Walker’s estate affairs day-to-day. After all, Ann did not share her enthusiasm for business matters.

FriDAy 11 No kiss. Rainy night & morning...Walked A– out to the glen, the Lodge & in the walk for an hour & sat with her at luncheon. Mentioned going to York & that she had better give me a [legal] power to manage everything & give me a life estate etc— to all [of] which she had no objection. She had been fearing I should leave her & be tired of her etc. Rather wrong but better than yesterday & I cheered her up & did her good....Dinner at 7—coffee—a bottle of claret today out of which I drank Sackville [Sutherland]’s health on his 5th birthday & drank near 3 glasses. Anne Lister’s economic activity was visible for all to see. Local tongues wagged again about how she was funding it all. But now this critical gossip somehow took on bizarre and dramatic forms. From here on, Anne Lister and Ann Walker became embroiled in complex legal proceedings. Apparently the two women’s commercial rivals the Rawsons had stirred up working-class opposition to them—along the congested Hebble and canal, that lawless slum borderland between the civilised Halifax township and rural Southowram.7 However, initially Anne Lister’s diary was tantalizingly silent about what was really going on.8

sAturDAy 12 Note from Mr Parker purporting that Mark Town9 would ‘make a very shuffling witness before the magistrates’ and that he (Mr Parker) had all the depradators [pillagers] to appear at his office on Monday morning, there to pay damages & be dealt with as judiciously as might be—begging to know if I should be satisfied with this plan....Wrote note to Messrs Parker & Adam, solicitors, H-x, to go in the morning. Gradually the outlines of the ‘depradations’ become clearer. Damage had been done to a well near property inherited by Ann Walker; this was at strategically-situated Water-Lane, which ran from Halifax over the canal and Hebble into the notorious Caddy Fields slum.10 Exactly how the incident started is unclear, for the whole affair remained wreathed in mystery and reported gossip. However, it was the usually calm Robert Parker who impetuously provoked the incident; and the matter hinged—symbolically— on whether the well was owned by Ann Walker or was a public well where everyone could draw fresh water.

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suNDAy 13 Found note from Mr Parker....Finding Mr P– had just left the note himself, sent after him & he sat 20 minutes with my father & Marian while A– & I dined. Then had him in to coffee & he staid till near 8....Much talk about the Water Lane-mill well—pulling up by a mob of about 200 people headed, they said, & paid by Mr [Christopher] Rawson of Hope-hall! Mr Parker much irritated at the moment, and [was] for bringing an action against some of the people that could be sworn to,11 and to the last seemed to say if he had A–’s purse [i.e. money] he would bring an action against a man of straw12 to settle the matter. I mentioned summoning [them] before the magistrates. The magistrates (with Mr Rawson at their head!) would not interfere—would say it was a public well. Mr Parker mentioned putting a tar barrel into the well & spoiling the water for a year, as A– would not want it. I thought this very well—but would not A– be no better off at the end of the year than now? ‘No! She would have shewed a right of ownership, and this would place her case in a much better point of view.’ Agreed (after having a categoric advice out of Mr P– at the last minute as he was standing to go away) that S. Washington should go tomorrow & take the workmen who blocked up the well, & the constable; & Mr Parker himself would go & see the tar-barrel put in or something done to spoil the water.13 Asked Mr Parker if he had thought more of Mr Wainhouse making up at midsummer his loan to me £5,000 at 4 per cent (I have only one thousand now at 41/4 per cent). Mr P– would let me know soon. A– went to my aunt at about 81/2 & I came upstairs—at accounts again till 91/2, then 1/4 hour with A– & 1/4 hour with my aunt. A– poorly—she is getting all wrong again in her spirits. I really fear for her intellect. It would be best to get well rid of her? But what can I do? May heaven be with me & help me to do that which is right. mONDAy 14 A– had S. Washington for 2 or 3 minutes at 10 & sent him to H-x to do about the well, as agreed with Mr Parker yesterday (vid.). Out at 101/4—no! sat with A– till out at 11 25/”. She was getting low, so sat rousing & cheering her up....A– wrote [giving] authority to Holt to go down & inspect the pits & mines at Shugden head, & gave the paper to Joseph Mann to give to Holt & take care they went about the business tomorrow...14 Found A– on her knees at her prayers when I came up from my aunt. Poor A–. I know not how it will end. Anne Lister took an increasingly active role in Ann Walker’s key tenancies—

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including her small isolated mines like Shugden head; meanwhile Ann Walker prepared her school for the new master and his wife. Anne Lister’s diary might reiterate about ‘getting well rid of her’; but her account book still tells a different tale. She still ‘received from A–’ regular sums—£100, £50 or £20;15 and this helped finance such ambitious plans as the Listerwick engine pit.

WeDNesDAy 16 No kiss. Lay talking to A– more than an hour & did her good. Would not let her say prayers, but read to her (just before she went down[stairs]) the Lord’s Prayer, that for all conditions of people—& the General Thanksgiving & the Grace of our Lord—& she thanked me & seemed eased & better. Anne and Ann prepared visit to York to arrange about their wills. Meanwhile the bizarre Water-lane well episode flared up again. This time the trouble had been triggered by Robert Parker’s plan to put a tar barrel into the well to spoil the water for a year. With public access to fresh water increasingly controversial in urban areas, the reaction to this jape was strong and sharp. It presented those with little sympathy for Ann Walker’s and Anne Lister’s intimacy with a golden opportunity to moralise; and if they could do this from the magistrates’ bench such rhetoric was particularly effective.

thursDAy 17 Had Robert Mann—paid him up to tonight—he told me Mr Rawson had summoned before the magistrates the men who who put the tar barrel into the well at Water-Lane mill—that if an action [law suit] had to be brought, Mr Rawson would be 1st, Mr Stocks 2d and all the owners of cottages in Caddy-field would join & pay their share of the expense. They said they could bring a man forward [as a witness] who would swear that he had got water at the well uninterruptedly for 60 years. ‘Well! said I, ‘if the well is a public well, Miss Walker does not know it—but she only wants what is fair. She has no wish or thought to do any wrong or hardship to anybody; but Mr Rawson had better not have set a mob on at 1st—he had better have come forward handsome & openly at 1st’—to which Robert quite agreed. Packing & busy about 1 thing or other all the morning. A– & I just wished my aunt & the rest ‘good morning’ & were off at 3 (yellow carriage) by the Whitehall road to York. Alighted at the George Inn, Coney street....Sat talking till 11 about our wills etc, latterly about A–’s pedigree researches.16 Jonathan Gray gave them detailed legal advice on a range of matters. He supported Robert Parker’s advice about Ann Walker’s rights over the

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disputed well. He also helped Ann rewrite her will, giving Anne Lister considerable powers: although the bulk of the property would, of course, be inherited by Sackville Sutherland, Anne Lister was appointed sole trustee and was made a life tenant of Ann’s unentailed property. Anne came to a fairly similar agreement about Shibden, giving Ann Walker a life estate. Where Gray did hesitate was in arranging for Anne Lister to have complete management rights over Ann Walker’s property, should Ann fall ill.

FriDAy 18 No kiss. A– low on waking, as she has been for the last week (vide the tenth instant) & given to tears & prayers—but I rouse her up & do the best I can....Mr Gray came at 10 35/” & staid till 1 40/”, talking just at the last of his travels in Switzerland & along the Rhine. A– consulted him about the well at Water-Lane mill—he seems to think that if the well was always within the limits of her own private property & if [it was] made & always repaired & kept in order by her predecessors in the property, that then (even if Messrs Rawson & co can bring people to swear that they have fetched water from it uninterruptedly for 60 or more years) this will be seemed to have been from connivance, & that no right will have been gained, but A– can still maintain her right over the well as [her] private property.... A– then gave instructions about her will—she is obliged to republish [it] in consequence of the division of the joint property....She now gave instructions to entail the landed property on Sackville & the two other boys & their issue male....She makes me sole trustee as before...I have also a life estate in all her property17 real & personal... I then gave Mr Gray instructions for giving A– a life estate in all my property real & personal—appointing her a trustee (but joint trustee) with Mr Gray. Mentioned the death of John Lister senior, & desired the property to be entailed as before on John L– junior & his sister.... On [my] mentioning that my aunt was not in a state to manage the affairs herself & that she was sufficiently provided for out of the estate by my uncle’s will, Mr Gray represented that if she had a life estate in the property, Marian & her intended husband18 might claim & get the management of everything during the remainder of my aunt’s life. I on account [of this] thought it best not to give my aunt a life-estate, but to mention that I put A– in possession immediately on my death, in the assurance that she would take care of my aunt & live principally at Shibden & do all that I should have done myself if I had lived. It is agreed that there shall be in A–’s will as in mine a clause 214

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making the marriage of either of us forfeit all claim over the property of the other—the trust & life estate are both in this case done away with entirely. She then asked Mr Gray what could be done to give me the entire management of herself & her property in case she should from illness be unable to manage for herself. She explained that she has entire confidence in me & would rather that I should manage for her than that Captain Sutherland should. Mr G– said this was rather difficult, but mentioned that we might make a deed giving each other a life estate in our property & that the mutuality of it would make the deed valid—a good & binding deed & bargain between us, & we could still make any disposal of our property we liked by our own joint consent—& this deed would keep the management of A–’s property from the Sutherlands & of mine from Marian. This matter was left for our consideration till tomorrow...19 Called at the Henry [Steph] Belcombes’—nobody at home—we had no cards, so merely left a message....We had gone 1st (after getting my new bonnet) to the will office20—Mr Buckle & his son both there & very civil & obliging. A– looked at several wills...saying we would call again tomorrow. Left A– 5 minutes at the will office & went to see if the Norcliffes were in York....A– & I sauntered back— dinner about 61/2—enjoyed our dinner—mock turtle soup, boiled salmon, roast loin of lamb, & pudding & tart, nicely cooked—and a pint of good port (had brought our own white wine for A–). Ironically, the opinion of Gray concerning Ann Walker’s capability for running her own business affairs hung upon the judgement of Dr Belcombe.

sAturDAy 19 No kiss. A– low as yesterday—her bowels not moved since last Wednesday night. Sent note written last [night] in pencil, asking Dr Belcombe to come....Dr Belcombe came about 10. A–’s bowels now much out of order—said she ought to have aperient [laxative] medicine immediately. Determined to stay till very early on Monday morning. Dr B– to come again tomorrow. Mr Gray came about 101/2 & staid till 121/4—read over the instructions for A–’s will, & mentioned the substance of those for mine. He wrote & gave us what would be the substance of the deed talked of yesterday. I said I perfectly saw the thing in all its bearings—that it was not a matter to be determind upon in a hurry—in which Mr Gray quite agreed—& that A– & I would consider about it. If A– continued quite well, all will be well, & I have no objection to the deed—but then if she 215

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continues quite well, we do not want any such deed. But if she does not continue quite well, then all my property is completely tied up.21 This is a grave consideration. For all the world, I would not take any unfair advantage of her, or of anyone if I knew it. In this case, I think the gain does not seem to preponderate on my side; and I was satisfied to think that Mr Gray was also of this opinion. We begged him to get the wills done [so] they would be ready in ten days, & let us know when they were done, and said we would consider about the deed.22 A– & I out at 121/2. Went to the will-office—about an hour there. A– looked at Torres’ mss (the 1 volume West Riding) & I at several wills. Found at last the one will she wanted, that of William Walker of Lower Crownest, proved 1777. Left her for 5 or 6 minutes (not more) just to tell the Norcliffes we should be home at 2....A– pretty well after her medicine—dinner at 6—both lay slumbering on the sofa—tea at 8—afterwards till 11 wrote all the journal of yesterday, & read to A– the whole respecting the wills & deed & Mr Gray.23 suNDAy 20 A– wrote & sent at 12 20/” (by George) note enclosing £5.7.0 to Mr Buckle for the copies of wills etc which he sent before breakfast this morning. At 12 25/” A– & I read the prayers & lesson for the day in about 10 minutes...Dr Belcombe then called about 21/4 & sat 1/4 hour—thinks A– better—a tour would do her good. mONDAy 21 No kiss. A– better. Off from the George Inn, York (very comfortable there) at 71/4....& alighted at Shibden at 11/2. Changed my dress—sided my things—saw my aunt, & my father, & Marian.... Robert Mann + 3 at the rock-work & Mr Freeman + 6 men & 1/2 dozen horses getting & bringing down great stones (one 71/2 tons) from Whiskum quarry. Time for me to be at home or this job could not go on. Although it is only referred to obliquely, poor Thomas Adam had clearly had the unenviable task of defending the poisoning of the well which Ann Walker claimed was hers when the case came up in the magistrates’ court.

tuesDAy 22 No kiss. A– up 3/4 hour before me—pretty well this morning—perhaps a little better. Ready at 8—sat with A– reading the first 3 or 4 pages of volume 1 Wood’s Letters of an architect from Italy...

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A– had Mr Adam at 10...Adam thinks something must be done about selling something [e.g., ale] at the Northgate hotel before the next licence-day in September for fear of losing the licence. This matter to be thought about & Mr Harper consulted. With talk about the Water-Lane mill well [Mr Adam reported that] Mr Rawson violent [at Magistrates’ Office] on Saturday—[claimed he] would be judge & jury in the case—[insisted] the well should be proved to be a public well. But Mr Adam contrived to get off by submitting to this, without the people summoned having much to pay.24 Adam thinks it a public well, & that A– must give it up....Said I thought A– had better have an [legal] opinion—in this case, the people might have fetched water from connivance rather than right—this had been mentioned to Mr Gray who seemed to agree that there might be no right....Then had Mr Harper & his brother—the brother evidently astonished at my costume but I seemed not to notice this.25 Anne Lister was thus involved with the magistrates in two ways: she was both indirectly implicated in the well-poisoning case, and she was beholden to them not to take away her Northgate licence.

WeDNesDAy 23 No kiss. A– very low, till I accidentally told her I had no fear, nor had Doctor Belcombe, of her going really wrong (in her mind)—she then cheered up & seemed better....About 111/2 Mr Harper came....He thinks the magistrates would have no right to take away the Northgate hotel licence, even if we did not sell any ale etc before the next licence day; but says we had better try & make some profit by opening the tap-room which will be ready by the end of May, as also stabling (the coach-office) for 30 horses, and the near line of coach-houses, with granary, brewhouse etc. The kitchens will be ready by the end of July. Much talk about a tenant...Mr Harper in good spirits about it—thinks the hotel will pay very well eventually....Note from Mr Parker this evening to say he advised something being sold (ale or wine or spirits or something) at the Northgate hotel before the next Licence day—as, speaking of the magistrates, ‘their worships are a little capriced’. A– had Throp26 between 2 & 3 this afternoon—& I saw him &, speaking of Mr Rawson’s conduct in stirring up the mob against A–’s Water-Lane mill well, [I] said it was a blackguard piece of business to which Throp very heatedly assented.

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As worsted looms could now be powered by steam, the demand grew for weaving sheds near the canal. Ann Walker, with her canalside land, was well placed to negotiate.

thursDAy 24 Came in about 111/2 to Holt...the Walker pit coal will be fairly got at by Saturday next, and would be ready for letting. Said I did not wish to be hurried into a regular letting—would rather have it quietly taken off my hands by Holt or the Manns...A– then came— talked over the Water-Lane-Mill well business—we both agreed A– was ill-used by Mr Rawson, but Holt said it was a spite against [her]. Rawson irritated against me about the coal.. Besides Rawson ran off [i.e. reneged upon] his bargain—should have kept to his word.... Mr Baistow, machine-maker & under-tenant at Water-Lane mill, came about the mill, saying Mr Bray was building himself a new mill. B[aistow] proposed A–’s laying out £3,000, & he would give her 10 per cent on the machinery & 71/2 on the building. I said that would not tempt her—‘What would he give her per horsepower?’ [He] calculated 100 weavers=one frame=1 horse-power=£20 per annum. A– to coal27 & look after the engine. B[airstow] coals Mr Akroyd’s 30-horse-power engine for £300 per annum, therefore coaling=£10 per horse-power per annum. This [I] said would leave Miss W– too little—the power ought to pay her better. But A– told him to come next week & bring her a sketch & statement of what he wanted & she would consider about it...28 A– had letter tonight from her sister—little John rather better. We went to my aunt at 8 50/”—A– for 20 minutes, I for 25 minutes— then wrote the above of today, besides writing coal-letting conditions for A–. Ann Walker had apparently lost her Water-lane battle and was very angry.

FriDAy 25 A– had Washington before (or about) 10—he says the well (at Water-Lane mill) is public, & she will be obliged to give it up.... Then with A– again till 121/2—then a little while at accounts. A– called me d[amned] me off—terrible—I can do nothing—she gets worse.... Doctor Belcombe was right: I shall indeed have a deal of trouble with her. A– out at 21/4, & I too—with Robert Mann...A– sent off her letter written this morning to her sister...A– did her French & wrote out lists of boys & girls to be admitted into her school, to be opened after Easter. Marian came to us—thinks my father declining so

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rapidly that A– & I cannot leave home in May—neither she [Ann] nor I see this so rapid decline. sAturDAy 26 Between 4 & 5 pm A– had Bland & his partner for the Bouldshaw coal. A– just saw them & left me to speak to them— they agreed to give £225 per acre for the Lower bed & £125 for the upper bed....Wanted a term of 10 years—I said 8 years—they begged me to intercede with A– for 10 years—[they] agreed to all the conditions as to the manner of working the coal....[They] wanted her not to sell [it] till she had seen then again—but this I said she could not promise—however they are to come again at 6 pm on Tuesday next.... With my aunt from 81/4 to 9. Read aloud the account in today’s Halifax Guardian of Mr Rawson’s strange speech from the magistrates’ [bench] on convicting the 4 men A– employed to put the gas-tar barrel into the Water-lane mill well.29 [They were] convicted in nominal damages & 25/- costs. A– much annoyed....She very low all today—the school would be a failure. Ann Walker was demoralised by the very public drubbing her precipitate action had received. Although the diary is hazy on what happened, the newspaper account that Anne Lister read aloud to her aunt suggests not only a certain inevitability about the whole bizarre episode, but also gives a very rare glimpse of how the shy and retiring Ann Walker herself was now portrayed by her local critics.

haLIfax guardIan, 26 march 1836 On Saturday last, before John Dearden, John Dearden junior, and John Waterhouse, Esquires....John Shepherd, John Milner, James Watson, and David Brier30 were charged by David Jenkinson31 with throwing gas tar into a public well in Water Lane, Halifax, thereby rendering it unfit for use. Mr M. Stocks junior32 appeared on behalf of the prosecution, and Mr Adams on behalf of Miss Walker, who employed the men. Mr Stocks said this case was one of great hardship to the poor, but as it was well known that their worships decided between the rich and the poor with great impartiality he trusted he should have justice done. The trespass they complained of was committed by a person in high life, under a pretence of right...[He said] the well in question was a public well, and if it were necessary for him to prove it, he was prepared with evidence to show that it had been public these 50

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or 60 years. A few days back there had been considerable disturbance about this well. Miss Walker of Crow-nest thought proper to cover it with a large flag, which the public removed; she, finding that doors and stones were not strong enough, had taken a most un-English-like procedure, namely, by throwing in a quantity of gas tar, to prevent its being used; and they complained that Miss Walker, by means of her agents, had committed a trespass on this well, and also therefore came under the wilful trespass act. Miss Walker’s holding the land does not give her right in the well. Mr Adam said he had no doubt that if the right were tried, Miss Walker would be decided to have it....She wanted this water for herself, and put down a door and a padlock which was broken; she then put down a stone which was taken up, and she had no alternative but to adopt such a plan as tend to bring it to be decided by right... Mr Rawson said his learned friend (if he might call him so), Mr Stocks, tells him he is not a reformer, but where is there a more staunch reformer in correcting flagrant abuses, public or private? He [Rawson] had been in most barbarian countries of the globe, but they would scorn to injure even their enemies by poisoning the fountains of nature, and he hardly thought that four other men could be found in the borough of Halifax, seduced even by a bribe of 10s each, which he understood had been given them, who had the base priciple in their nature to afflict their poor fellow creatures with such a calamity...33 Mr Rawson said he had known it as a public well for 50 years. Mr Waterhouse said Mr Adam had not established a reasonable ground that his client [Miss Walker] had a right....Mr Washington’s evidence was nothing, his years [i.e. comparative youth] precluded him from giving evidence; his father might have been of use. Mr Adam urged again an adjournment, but all the magistrates said they saw no necessity for it. The parties were then convicted in nominal damages, and 25s costs. Even John Waterhouse and the Deardens could not withstand the succession of ‘public well’ witnesses, nor counter Christopher Rawson’s righteous rhetoric. Increasingly, access to clean water was seen to be a fundamental human right (and this provided a convenient humanitarian front behind which Christopher Rawson might hide his other more complex reasons for giving Ann Walker no quarter).34 How different was this public dragging through mire from the dignified laying of the casino stone only six months earlier. During that time, it seems likely Ann Walker’s many relatives had grown more suspicious—in particular

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of Anne Lister’s new spending plans. Small wonder, then, that Ann Walker, now humiliated, felt plagued by doubts about her next public venture: her small rural school. But worse was to follow. Joseph Mann, now in a key position as an informant upon whose stories Anne Lister had to depend for local information, brought more torrid tales from Halifax. Perhaps he already had an understandable family incentive to stir up trouble for Anne Lister?

suNDAy 27 About 111/2 had Joseph Mann who stayed till very near 1— so sent my aunt word I was engaged & could [not] read prayers to her. Joseph Mann came to explain that he thought Holt not managing judiciously at the Walker pit...Joseph said I had often found fault with him[self] for not telling me things, so he had taken this quiet opportunity of seeing me & explaining. Had the coal plan down—he shewed me clearly what he meant: Mr Rawson going to try to stop our [air]vent—had got a lump of clay ready...Rawson now stealing my upper bed [coal]...[Joseph] quite against my getting the bit of coal at the top of the hill till I better know what I am about, for fear of doing mischief....Thanked him for coming, & said I would manage everything without making any mischief. Joseph Mann to get what information he could about A–’s Water-Lane well—some hope of proving that Mr Rawson set the people on, & treated then to the rum-tea-drinking. The tea-drinking last monday, he thinks it was—& the people burnt A– & me in effigy, he thinks it was last tuesday. Strange piece of business on the part of Mr Rawson.... Some while at Old Washington’s—he positive the well is private property—he himself had the mill as tenant some time—altered the well, & did what he liked with the water & built up the wall—it was always walled off. What he said clear & decisive.... An hour at Cliff-hill with Mrs A. Walker who was in good humour & spirits. I told the story of Mr Rawson & his mob—teadrinkers with 12 pints of rum in their tea, & did not spare him—said it was a blackguard business. Mrs A. Walker quite agreed—something [had] led to his absence from home as a boy—I said we knew what it was for—he had stolen money from out of his father’s desk. ‘Yes!, said Mrs A. W–. ‘His father said he (Mr Christopher Rawson) was born a thief.’ Home at 61/2...A– very low all today & begins to look wretchedly & will hardly take wine fearing to take too much. Joseph Mann said...Brier, the owner of the cart that took the gas-tar barrel & [who] was

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summoned by Mr Rawson, said that Mr Waterhouse & Mr Dearden (the younger I believe) said the well must be a private well, & held in it [i.e. to this] to the last; but Rawson flew into a passion, & would have it to be a public well. The above named Brier’s brother (Joseph Brier35) works with the Manns—says they burnt A– & me in effigy on Tuesday, Joseph Mann thinks it was. Rawson & Stocks are interested [have an interest], having cottages in Caddy-town—Stocks has the most. Anne Lister’s diary offers no further comment on this extraordinary effigy rumour. Such theatrical warnings-off from rum-soaked Caddy Fields were beneath contempt. But had she considered its dramatic symbolism, would she have interpreted its significance as an attack upon her secret intimacy with Ann Walker as much as upon their active intrusion into the traditionally male world of coal-mining and electoral politics? Effigy-burning, using powerful symbols to lampoon an opponent, was not then uncommon: (for instance, after the 1837 election, an effigy of Branwell Brontë, an active Tory, carrying a herring and potato, was paraded through Howarth and burnt).36 However, Anne Lister remained seemingly unperturbed on both fronts. Indeed, shrugging off these ‘Caddy town’ rumours, she became yet more embroiled in industrial rivalry with Christopher Rawson.

mONDAy 28 Holt had brought his brother Joseph to agree for the bit of coal...at the top of the hill—[I] asked what they meant to bid me—they said a good price: £200 per acre. ‘Hem!’ said I, ‘i.e. about 10d per square yard—I care not about this bit of coal’...Explained that I had changed my mind about selling the bit of coal—did not care about selling it now—had rather look after Mr Rawson. I had a good friend somewhere who let me into secrets—(speaking as if from anonymous information).37 Rawson thought to bring an action against me, instead of my bringing one against him—supposes I shall turn the water on him [to flood his mine]—said I would not do this for a thousand pounds—afraid on this account of getting any coal at the top of the hill now...Rawson thought of stopping our air, but he could not do it, Holt was sure... Then had Mr Jubb in the north parlour—my aunt needs give me no anxiety—I may very well leave home on her account—thinks my father very poorly....In the midst of the conversation Mr Washington came—and said this low wall [at Water-lane] did not belong to A–; he is to see what can be done on Wednesday. Washington looked crimson—had him into the north parlour—he had brought A– a 222

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copy of the Walterclough plan of the well in 1760....Inquired about the Water-lane well, and told Washington to bring A– a plan shewing how she stood immediately before the navigation company raised the road.38

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Anne Lister thrived on this whirlygig of industrial espionage.

tuesDAy 29 Joseph Mann came to me about 11 to say Rawson’s men had been burning devil’s dung (assafoetida)39 & smothered him out of the pit (Walker-pit)....What was to be done? I said, ‘Let them alone a day or 2—get down as soon as we could & get the tools & rails out, & chamber the pit ready for the upper bed, & never mind walling up our [?]pheying in the low bed—we should be at it again in 4 or 5 months & nothing would be the worse in this short time’. I Mr Rawson stops took the thing very quietly—smiled & said I did not care a the vent by burning farthing about it—I could manage well enough. assafoetida WeDNesDAy 30 No kiss. A– was better, I think, this morning—sent off her letter written last night in answer to short letter from Miss Sutherland received yesterday afternoon to say poor little John, A’s nephew, was dead....Then out for a few minutes. At the place in the court[yard], my bowels quite loose & had had a motion on getting up. About (before) 10 went to my father—a mistake about his [being] better— much weaker—I think him very poorly—Mr Jubb came before 11... Frank to sleep tonight in the hall chamber & be ready to assist my father if wanted... Had Joseph Mann between 4 & 5 for near an hour—he got down into the pit this morning—suspects old Whitworth tells all we do,40 for Rawson had no assafoetida burning this morning. Knew we were driven off the Low bed [?]pheying & probably knows we are going to try the upper bed, & when we get too far for him, he will assa-foetida us out from there too. Asked if Joseph could keep a secret....Planned getting rid of old Whitworth & [told Joseph] the whole thing. Joseph to think about it—and not tell even his brother Robert or Holt, but walk to Leeds & let me take him quietly from there [to York] to explain so that I can get a law opinion as to what I can safely do. Joseph himself has no idea of my real plan—i.e. to give Jonathan Gray the necessary information & get a chancery order to go into R–’s pits before anyone suspects what I am about. Except this hour with Joseph Mann & a little now & then with

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A– (who came into my father’s room for a little in the afternoon), I have been all the day with Marian in my father’s room—he could not raise himself in bed—& has taken nothing during the day but a spoonful now & then of warm milk or, in the morning & now at night, of tea. Mr Jubb came about 8—thinks my father very poorly.... Sent George to H-x about 2 pm with note to the Bank enclosing three bills = £200.10.0 (A–’s) when [illegible] cashed to be placed to my account.41 thursDAy 31 No kiss. [A–] up at six saying prayers and crying as for several mornings past,42 but got into bed again in half hour or less and slept till seven....A– and I sat in my father’s room with Marian till dinner at 6 Mr Jubb came at 63/4—thinks my father better tonight than last night and that every probability of his getting well over the night, in spite of Marian’s prepossession that there will be a fatal change take place at midnight in consequence of Mr Jubb’s favourable opinion. I shall not sit up tonight. Had him in to coffee...has known patients as ill as my father continue 6 weeks or 2 months—hardly likes to give an opinion in these cases as to the nearness of danger—coffee while Mr Jubb was with us.43 A hint at Mr Rawson’s conduct—Mr Jubb said we all understood who was meant and seemed pleased when I said time would perhaps set things right.44

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the tWo WILLs a P r I L 1836–m a y 1836

aPrIL 1836 FriDAy 1 No kiss. A– perhaps rather better this morning. Fine morning— F401/2° at 8 40/” and breakfast. Mr Jubb came about 9—did not see him till after he had seen my father—quite as well this morning as last night and had passed a quiet night....Had Mr Jubb into the north dining room to A– and myself—regretted Marian’s not managing better....Then with Marian in the little dining room—then a little while in my father’s room, and out with the men. Mosey’s 2 sawyers here—John Booth had taken a load of clay up to Walker pit this morning. As Jeremy Lister grew weaker, friction mounted between the two sisters sitting by his death-bed. However as death hovered, the Priestleys’ good manners prevailed over their disapproval of Anne’s relationship with Ann. Yet Anne Lister’s priorities remain unchanged: inheritance plans and business management.1

[sAturDAy] 2 Dinner at 6—coffee. A–’s French—Mr Jubb came at 7, my father worse since 2pm today....Just before dinner, compliments from Mr and Mrs William Priestley and enquiries after my father and the family and A– and myself particularized. Marian gave the message that my father was very ill, and I that the family was much obliged and as well as could be expected. Some coal-pit conversation with the Manns....A– had Washington this morning who brought her an intelligible plan of the Water-lane mill property and the well as it 225

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is....My father so evidently changed, [I] resolved not to undress—but lie down by A– who did not like to go to bed without me—about 1/2 hour in my father’s room till 12—and then did my hair and at 12 20/” A– got into bed, and I lay down or rather got into bed with my clothes. suNDAy 3 I had hardly been lain down 10 minutes when John Booth called me up—went to my father—breathing short—but no pain and quite composed. I thought he would continue till morning—Marian would not leave him....I heard Frank come gently up the stairs and was up before he had time to tap at the door, yet I think I was asleep before I heard him. It was just by the hall-clock 4 40/” when I got into my father’s room, and it was just past 43/4 when all was over. Death could not come more gently, more easily—though at the bedside, I scarce knew that the last breath had passed away. Marian was more composed than might perhaps have been expected—I took her downstairs into the Kitchen—got her a little brandy and water to rinse her mouth with and a little to drink and a biscuit.... We then both slumbered a little—then talked a little. A– better than I expected. Up about 73/4—read prayers to A– as I have done both night and morning since our return from York.2 She and I got out sheets etc for Sharp, Matty Polland3 having come about 81/2. Breakfast at 9—Mr Jubb came about 91/2 (Frank rode to H-x & had told him all was over). I wished him to see Marian medically and she consented and is to have some medicine—but Mr Jubb thought her quite as well or better than he expected... I went to my aunt about 10 for a few minutes—she seemed composed and said she was thankful that there had been no suffering. Marian breakfasted in bed. A– wrote a note to her aunt, with my kind regards and to say I begged her to say my father had breathed his last at 43/4....Marian, having determined to employ Duncan as undertaker, sent George off to Halifax about after 11 to order the bell to toll immediately after service....In the meanwhile took A– out into the walk for about 1/2 hour & came in at 11 50/”—the air revived me. A– low on coming in—entreated her to bear up if possible for my sake—she took 2 of Doctor Belcombe’s pills last night and I hope will be all the better for them. Were I to give way, what would become of us! God be thanked for all his mercies! I feel in some sort the feverishness of mental harass, but yet I feel as if I could think of everything. A heavy responsibility presses on me for A– and for us all—but I

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aPrIL 1836

hope that I shall be enabled to do that which is right....A– and I read prayers (Lesson, Psalm and Collect and Epistle and Gospel and 2 or 3 prayers) to my aunt in 20 minutes; A– read half the service for I could not read except with difficulty—I have had cold on my chest....My aunt wished me my health and many happy returns of my birthday— a melancholy birthday today! A– so low and in tears and her breath[ing] so bad, for she would take no luncheon—fancies she takes too much [food?]—that sleeping with her is not very good for me. Really I know not how it will end. At this rate I must give [her] up—she is getting worse and I cannot go on long without some amendment. At my desk at 3—wrote letters (on broad black-edged paper) announcing the death of my father.4 As with Uncle James’ death, it was Anne—not Marian—who managed their father’s formal funeral; she remained cool and businesslike as she arranged the elaborate details.

About an hour with Marian (in her bed) till A– came for me to dinner at 61/2. Had Mr Duncan the undertaker immediately after the dinner things were taken away—gave the necessary directions for the funeral, tomorrow week. The people to assemble here at 73/4 and the procession to leave the house at 10am—all to be in Miss Marian Lister’s name as sole executrix of my father’s will. I had prevailed upon her to have no scarfs sent except to the clergy...and the medical man, the clerk of the church and the undertaker...[I] inclined to the vicar meeting the corpse at the church and not inviting Mr Jubb to attend, but said I would let Mr Duncan know tomorrow evening and send him a list of tenants to be employed as bearers and mutes [funeral attendants]—and of those tenants and others to have gloves and biscuits.5 Mr Duncan’s man intended no doubt to be respectful and proper—would have seemed to me pompous and forward, had I not, by the dignified gravity of my own manner, kept his in check. mONDAy 4 Mr Jubb came between 11 and 12—went in to him for a few minutes—Marian quite as well or better than he expected—going on very well—she had consulted him about himself and the vicar being invited to the funeral—he thought it quite optional, but evidently inclined (as delicately as he could) to their being invited—agreed they should be invited...1/2 hour with A– putting away the linen, then wrote out rough draft of instructions for Mr Duncan—went to Marian before 6—gave her the hundred pounds received this morn-

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ing from the Bank—said I thought she might want money and I had given it her in account of what I might have to pay her.6 The bearers were eight key tenants: James Holt, Thomas Greenwood, George Robinson, John Oates, Charles Howarth senior, Acquilla Green, Jonathan Mallinson and John Bottomley. The four mutes came from smaller tenancies. At least sixteen other tenants joined the formal procession (including Samuel Freeman, William Hardcastle, Joseph Hall, Abraham Hemingway, Mark Hepworth, George Naylor and Mark Town).7

mONDAy 11 I got into the mourning coach, chief mourner and alone, at 9 50/”....The vicar & Mr Jubb breakfasted here & followed me in a 2d mourning coach—then followed my father’s phaeton, my own carriage & A–’s, each with a pair of posters [post-horses], & each postboy in a black cloak. The 8 bearers walked by the side of the hearse, the 4 mutes (2 before & 2 behind the hearse) to the church, & returned in the same sort of order, alongside & before & after my mourning coach (the other mourning coach and hearse left us at the church gates). The bearers and mutes came into the house on their return & had cold meat & cheese & beer & wine (red & white) negus. There were many people assembled at our own approach gates as we went, & several people all along the road—from the top of the [New] Bank the road seemed lined with people—the procession went & returned all through the town. The streets full of people to look at us—the crowd at the church gates & from there to the church—but only a few people admitted into the church. They took the coffin forward into the chancel—I followed close, then went round to the head of it & stood the whole time near the altar-railing. I must have been very conspicuous but my mind was engrossed, & I saw only the coffin and bearers. Mr Musgave did the duty very well. Mr Jubb stood at his side in the pew over the grave as he (the vicar) committed the body to the dust. The grave took up the whole breadth of the aisle—deep enough for 2 coffins above my father’s—let down steadily—plenty of room—coffin 2 ft 6 ins wide, & 3 inches to spare on each side in the neatly bricked-round grave. Looked down upon the coffin (could see it at the short distance off that I stood) till the service was over. In leaving the church (between the doors & gates) a woman among the crowd said ‘There is not many tears’. ‘No!’ thought I, ‘I have not shed one—nor did I shed one when my father was with me over my mother’s grave, or over my uncle’s—there may

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be grief without tears’. Thankful when it was all over. Came immediately to A– & sat quietly with her... [Wrote] to ask Mr Jonathan Gray if he would be at home between 10 & 11 next Saturday morning—should like to see him....A– latterly asleep by me on the sofa—found my cousin gently come after my return from the funeral. I think A– rather better on the whole, but her mind or spirits are subject to sad lowness—tho’ she has rather more lengthened gleams of cheerfulness today. Messrs Musgave & Jubb breakfasted in the little parlour (my father’s parlour), the bearers in the hall, Mr Duncan in the north parlour, the mutes in the Upper Kitchen, & the postboys in the saddleroom. Marian gave out 6 bottles of port & 3 of white wine for negus—2 pieces of roast beef (14 or 15 lbs each) & a 10 lb piece of ham, & 1/2 cheese. There was now nothing—and nobody—to keep the two sisters under one roof. Marian would depart from Shibden Hall for Market Weighton, and a housekeeper, Mrs Briggs, be engaged instead.

FriDAy 15 With Marian—told her Mrs Briggs would come—Marian will go on Tuesday the 10th of May, after having staid a week to receive her company8....Wished my aunt goodbye, & A– & I a minute or 2 with Marian & then off at 5 by Whitehall [road]—at Leeds by 7. The main reason for going to York was to seek Jonathan Gray’s advice on Ann Walker’s Water-lane well affair and on Anne Lister’s pursuit of the Rawsons’ industrial sabotage. Since the two controversies were undoubtedly linked—at least in the mind of Christopher Rawson JP—and had already triggered tales of effigy-burning, Anne Lister was pursuing a dangerous tack. Undaunted, she sought a public apology in print.

sAturDAy 16 No kiss. A– rather less low on awaking than for this month back.... Mr Jonathan Gray came at 11 and A– had been with him—found them on the subject of the Water-lane well—he thinks we cannot prove it a private well, and that Mr Rawson’s [drunken?] condition on the bench, tho’ particular and not proper, cannot be taken hold of legally. I then proposed some biting comment on his conduct, well written and published in the newspapers—asked Mr Gray to write something for us—he will—and let us have it by 11 on Monday morning.9 Then had the coal-business over, and had Joseph Mann in (who

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femaLe fortune

came to York yesterday and was here at this house, having slept near, at 10 this morning). Joseph explained very well so that Mr G– clearly understood the business of the assafoetida-burning, and the difficulty of proving a trespass in the upper bed unless we could catch the men at work. On Joseph Mann’s leaving the room (did not keep him more than 10 minutes or 1/4 hour), Mr G– explained that an Injunction from the Court of Chancery would cost £50 and could not be had without notice given to the parties. Mr G– not aware that we could get an order to enter Rawson’s works—but if we could, notice must be given, so that R– would have time to take off his men and let all [earth] fall in so as to prevent our catching him. On talking this over, I saw that Chancery could do me no good...Mr G– agreed that I had better fight it out a little longer; and, if I could any way outwit Rawson, it would be better than going to Chancery—but I must not burn assafoetida—for if I did that, I should lose my power of bringing an action against R– on this account; as he could say I was as bad as he was. I might, as Joseph said, sent him back his own smoke; but I must not send him any of mine. Gave Mr Gray [to take] back with him the probate copy of my uncle’s will for him to determine to what Marian was entitled on my father’s account out of the rents. Gave Mr G– also my own will (forgotten to be given when last here) to make my new one from, giving A– a life estate. He gave A– the new rough draft of her new will (giving me a life estate) to read over and consider about at home... Had Mr Harper at 4 to 53/4—brought the plans and drawings of Shibden (see illustration p.194). I suggested one or 2 small alterations—but very well satisfied—only afraid of making the house too large-looking and important. mONDAy 18 Had Mr Gray from about (before) 12 to 123/4. A– to send him her copy of her father’s will, & her property to be so entailed as to go with Crow-nest & Cliff-hill...10 My property to be in trust (Jonathan & his son William trustees)—may perhaps put in Sackville Sutherland.11 J.G– brought rough draft of very good letter to be published in the newspapers respecting the Water-lane well business & Mr Rawson’s conduct therein. I proposed J.G– writing to Mr Rawson, to say he (J.G.) under my instructions, & having examined my principal collier, Joseph Mann, wrote to ask Mr Rawson’s permission for me to send an agent to see whether his (Rawson’s) men were, without Rawson’s

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knowledge, trespassing upon me or not; & to ask Rawson if he had any knowledge of their smoking my men out by means of burning assafoetida on the 29th inst (vid. Journal). J. Gray to write tonight. If Mr Rawson did not answer the letter at all, or refused the permission asked, then I could take such steps as might seem necessary & might publish the Letter with a double sting if I thought fit, having to remonstrate against both his conduct on the bench & his conduct respecting the colliery. On this more cautious note Anne’s chancery plans petered out. It was inconceivable that Gray did not know of Christopher Rawson, drunk or not: magistrate, Deputy Lieutenant, Lord of the Manor, freemason. Gray was certainly adept at persuading his landed clients to believe it was their idea to adopt a less litigious line. He must certainly have heaved a discreet sigh of relief that this stong-minded woman would no longer embroil him in a law suit over what—from a York perspective—must have seemed just unprepossessing scrubby hillside; and been gratified that instead he, Gray, merely had to write a formal letter of complaint to Rawson.12 After a brief return to Shibden to arrange for Mrs Briggs to be housekeeper, they returned to York on Saturday, to look ‘at Mr Harper’s drawings of Shibden as it is to be’, and to iron out the delicate issue of the management of Ann Walker property should she again fall ill.

tuesDAy 26 1/4 hour with Mr Gray alone—explained that I thought it better not to have a deed by which A– should convey over the management of her property (in the events of any contingency)13 to me. I should not like to tie up my property—& would not have her tie up hers without my tying up mine. Mr G– agreed to this & said it would be impossible to be very delicate in the expression of a Law deed. He mentioned Dr Belcombe’s having placed A– in a Lodging where he was accustomed to place insane patients. I said I had learnt this from common report....I said A– had simply been low and nervous but never insane...14 Mr G– had an immediate answer to his letter to Mr Rawson... Mr R– would examine into the matter concerning Mr G–’s client (myself) & write more fully on the subject as soon as he had more leisure—a civil put-off; but, as I said to Mr G–, if the assafoetida was no more burnt, Mr G–’s letter would have served my purpose, for my men might be able to work through as far as necessary without more unecessary trouble.

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So there, with Christopher Rawson’s languid response, the devil’s-dungburning issue rested. Anne Lister then left Ann Walker in York and returned to Shibden. As the two women planned to travel abroad, she needed to visit her Halifax lawyers to settle her estate finances before she departed.

sAturDAy 30 Off down the Old Bank at 11/2—long while at the office of Messrs Parker & Adam—they had heard I had turned them off [discharged them] & got a new attorney—had heard of the letter from Messrs Gray to Mr Rawson. Explained [that I] did A–’s business as well as my own....Then explained my own business— appointing Mr Parker steward15—to receive [all rents] & pay all (indoors & out)16 & call to see my aunt about once a month. Mr Wainhouse’s £4,000 ready any time.... Said with respect to going abroad, A– wished it—I had told her the expense, & said if we did go she must pay. [I suggested] had I not best advise her to order S. Washington to pay a certain sum to Messrs Parker & Adam, & then instruct them to pay the same to Hamersleys [London bankers] to be placed to my account. ‘Yes! this the most regular & best plan.’ From Parker & Adam’s to the bank—got £200....asked for letter of credit for £2,000...not a word against it... Had Joseph Mann—paid him....It seems he has already received £3.17.0 for coal (at 8d a load or corve) [from the Walker pit]—this to be regularly placed to my credit by Mr Parker. Anne Lister then wrote a cool note to Ann Walker’s aunt, crisply informing her that they planned to be abroad for the summer.

may 1836 In the final month of the diaries presented here, Anne Lister completed the arrangements for their departure via York and for the arrival of Mrs Briggs; she also had a final word with one of Ann Walker’s tenants.1

mONDAy 2 Talking to Bairstow: I said A– was of conservative principles as well as myself & I hoped if he could not vote with [us] he would not vote against us. ‘Remember’, said I, ‘you will want your lease renewing, & not voting against will do no harm to your chance’. Wrote the whole of today till 1 35/”—then packing and siding....Talked to poor Marian kindly but as if nothing like parting, perhaps for ever, was at hand—said merely ‘good afternoon’ and

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kissed her and hurried off—the hack[ney carriage] had hardly been a minute at the door—off at 4 35/”.

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In York, Jonathan Gray helped tidy up the final details of both wills so that—hopefully—they could at last be signed. But Ann Walker was far from content.

WeDNesDAy 4 No kiss. A– very low—had been crying for over an hour before nine, then lay talking—she thought she could not make me happy....She had got wrong in my absence—however she came right before we got up & owned the talk had done her good. ‘Well’ thought I to myself, ‘I will do the best I can. Her being with me will not be forever. If we can get on together, travelling or what not, for a year or two till my own affairs are rather more settled, I can arrange things well enough.2 Heaven will order this matter, as all others—that is, for the best.’ Breakfast at 11...Dr Belcombe called....Said A–’s cousin had not come of late (not since February) and her bowels were wrong, not moved since Saturday & this made her nervous and low. ‘That [shows]’ said he, ‘she will always [have] an inferior mind—she will always be nervous—but I can do her good.’ ‘Oh, no’, said I, ‘she is surprisingly well when her bowels are right and when travelling’.... Had Mr Jonathan Gray to 41/2—brought rough draft of A–’s will and mine...A– instructed him to put in...an entail general instead of an entail male.3 I gave the same instructions (i.e. tail general instead of tail male) to John Lister....Life estate to A–. Jonathan Gray doubts whether the bar in case of marriage would hold good in law unless either party divested herself of the right to the property before marriage—but the clause to stand in the will, and a memorandum to be given to Mr Gray declaring the intentions of the parties....Gray asked how many tenants I had— turned to my Estate Summary and counted up about 40 tenants. thursDAy 5 No kiss. A– roused at three with purging and sickness from the medicine she took last night....Wrote a hurried note to Marian merely...said I had asked my aunt to ask Oddy to wash and get ready by Tuesday the stays, flannel waist-coat, knitted handkerchief and sleepers [night-caps?] sent in the box. suNDAy 8 Lay slumbering on the sofa—tea at 91/2—long talk—A– thought it her duty to leave me—explanation—said I could not stand this—she must make up her mind and stick to it. She should have no difficulty in leaving me, but I thought her very foolish. The fact is, as I told her, she did not like signing

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her will. I told her she had best do it now and alter it afterwards. We should both look so foolish if she did not—it would make the break between us immediate—she had better take time. At last she saw, or seemed to see, her folly and said with more than usual energy she really would try to do better. mONDAy 9 A– better this morning—her resolution of last night has...done good. Note on Saturday evening from Mr Gray to say between 3 and 4 pm today would suit him best....Mr Gray here and Mr [Shepley] Watson and Mr William Gray (whom I did not know) and a young man from the office to witness our signing the wills—neither of us read them over but signed them immediately. Mr Gray to call between 10 and 11 am tomorrow to see if all was right and as we wished. Anne Lister was concerned she might not leave enough money to pay her debts after she died, so she decided to amend her will.

tuesDAy 10 Breakfast at 93/4 in 3/4 hour—read over the 2 wills...Mr Gray came about 2....mentioned to Mr Gray my wish to leave a power to sell Yew-trees, Hill-top, Southholm and Hipperholm fields if necessary, to pay my debts if I should not leave personalty enough. Mr Gray went home to prepare a codicil to my will to this effect. Packing. Mr Gray returned at 4 bringing with him Mr Watson and 2 young men from the office to see me sign the separate codicil to my will (giving the power to sell)...A– and I had cold mutton at 5—and at 6 were off from Tomlinson’s Lodgings, number 28 Blake street, York. At home (Shibden) at 11 20/”—tea at 12 20/”—very fine day. Mrs and Miss Briggs came this afternoon—did not see them tonight though they had sat up for us. Marian off at 81/2 this morning—gone to live at Market Weighton. Has she left here for ever? Anne Lister had missed her sister, the final link with her own immediate family, by three hours. But at least she could feel assured that both wills were at long last signed.

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In October 1836 Anne Lister’s beloved aunt died: her niece organised the dignified funeral, and finally acquired complete control over the estate and its income. Despite having apparently signed, Ann Walker still hesitated finally to publish her will: the much-vaunted visit abroad was delayed—and still further delayed. Like many other marriages, this unorthodox relationship grew more troubled. Ann Walker still entertained deep misgivings, and Anne Lister regularly opened her daily diary with ‘No kiss’. Arguments about the servants continued. Anne, exasperated by Ann Walker’s continued dithering over her will, lost patience: (‘A vulgar pride is at the bottom of it: the beautifying of poor old Shibden may eclipse Cliff Hill: she is jealous of her authority’); and it was not till 1837 that finally ‘A– satisfied & the will republished. All right’.1 Even as late as 1839 Anne continued to press Ann Walker to make over to her formally the management of her estate during her lifetime (rather as Mrs Sutherland had done for her husband); but Gray, not recognizing such a marriage, discouraged this.2 Meanwhile, the aftermath of the well-poisoning and bitter Caddy-field effigy-burning feud still festered, stirred by Ann Walker’s industrial schemes for the Water-lane area. Anne Lister noted in her diary later in 1836, ‘the (Rawson’s) tea-drinking women declare they will pull the engine boiler down as soon as it is built up—they (Mr Rawson at their head) claim the bit of 235

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ground the blacksmith’s shop stands on as waste’; and ‘this reservoir will entirely cut off in summer (so long as the engine is going) the supply of water from the well Messrs Rawson & Co made, by magisterial fiat last spring, a public well—will Mr R– set the old women of Caddy-field to pull the mill down?’3 With Queen Victoria’s accession opening a new era, expectations about clean water and public health continued to widened. Competition to provide the town and its factories with coal remained stiff. The steam-based economy was now unstoppable. Anne Lister observed, ‘we shall do all by steam, from carrying ourselves [by railway] to boiling our potatoes. But they must have coal to have steam’.4 This she was happy to provide. The Walker pit was now producing coal, though in extremely small amounts.5 But by then her relatively ambitious Listerwick colliery was progressing well: James Holt planned ‘hurrying gates’ about three foot six inches high, appropriate for ‘the boys (hurriers)’ pulling the corves of coal along underground.6 (This kind of industrial exploitation of children’s underground labour was, of course, later exposed in the 1842 Children’s Employment Commission Report. But when the local commissioner visited Halifax mines, Anne’s Listerwick colliery seems to have escaped his scrutiny, though one of Ann Walker’s isolated pits in Northowram was apparently visited: there he encountered a boy ‘crying very bitterly, and bleeding from a wound in the cheek’, because his master had thrown coal at him to get him to work faster.7) Such harsh industrial conditions, along with constant political humiliations experienced by working people, the great majority of them unenfranchised, fed the beginnings of Chartism. At the 1837 general election, the Radical candidate, Edward Protheroe, was elected and the Tory, James Stuart Wortley, roundly defeated. The introduction into the northern manufacturing districts that year of the new Poor Law with its hated workhouses also stirred bitter anger. In January 1838 Radicals in Halifax met to protest against the New Poor Law, and consider petitioning parliament for the secret ballot and universal suffrage. Ben Rushton, handloom weaver, proclaimed ‘They who produce the necessities of life had a right to live, and if any person ought

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to suffer it was the idler’—rather than workers like himself being forced to ‘retire into a bastile’.8 A few months later the six-point People’s Charter itself was published, and by the end of the year Chartism had become such a powerful force locally that worried Halifax magistrates applied for additional soldiers, and eventually a troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guard arrived.9 To diehards like Anne Lister, property must be protected from such rabble. When John Waterhouse approached her to see if the Dragoons could be stabled at Northgate, she replied, ‘I should be happy to do anything I could for the town’, adding helpfully that the Piece Hall would provide an impregnable fortress against the dangerous Chartists.10 But Chartism was unstoppable. On Whit Monday 1839 a giant regional meeting was held at Peep Green, near Dewsbury. Ben Wilson recalled later, ‘We joined the procession in Halifax, which was a very large one headed by a band of music, and marched by Godley Lane and Hipperholme’—to meet up with the Bradford contingent and others.11 Chartists were indeed marching along the edge of the Shibden Hall estate: within six weeks, in June 1839, Anne and Ann had left Halifax and set sail for Moscow. They symbolically left ‘the parcel containing A–’s will and mine’ with their London bankers.12 But the outcome was not as might be expected: Ann Walker did not predecease Anne Lister. Bitten by a fever-carrying tick, it was Anne herself who died first—in the remote Russian province of Western Georgia on 22 September 1840. It took Ann Walker six months to bring the body back for burial in Halifax Parish Church. Finally, on 17 April 1841, Anne Lister’s will was proved (i.e. approved as genuine and probate obtained) on oath by Ann Walker and Gray, the trustees. The will, thirteen great pages in all, followed the structure and language of traditional strict settlement: This is the last will and testament of me Anne Lister of Shibden Hall in the Township of Southowram in the parish of Halifax in the county of York spinster made the ninth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty six I give 237

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and devise all my estate called Shibden Hall and all and singular the messuages farms lands tenements and real estate whatsoever and wheresoever which I am in any wise seized of or intitled [sic] to or have power to dispose of unto my friend Miss Ann Walker who is now living with me at Shibden hall aforesaid...I declare my said estates shall be In trust for John Lister Esquire the only son of the late John Lister of Swansea....Provided lastly and I do hereby declare that in case of the marriage of the said Ann Walker all and singular the trust estates monies and premises...hereinbefore given to or reposed in her shall thenceforth cease and determine in the same manner to all intents constructions and purposes as if the said Ann Walker should have then departed this life....Signed sealed and published and declared by the said Anne Lister the testatrix as and for her last will and testament...13

Anne, who had entailed Shibden on the distant Swansea Listers, gave Ann Walker a life-tenancy, entitling her to receive its rents.14 Ann Walker struggled to manage the two estates, made more complex by railway operators who wanted to cut a swathe right through her land. Within two years, it appeared—at least to certain people—that Ann Walker was ‘of unsound mind’. In 1843 Elizabeth Sutherland, with the help of Robert Parker and Dr Belcombe, devised a plan for her forcible removal from Shibden. Assisted by the local constable, who had to take one locked door off its hinges, Ann was taken to Dr Belcombe’s private asylum near York. She was designated ‘a lunatic’, and Shibden Hall became occupied by tenant families.15 But her inheritance claim to both estates remained intact. Inevitably, bitter litigation followed, with extremely acrimonious squabbling in Chancery about money. Suspicious grew of the hold exerted on Ann Walker by Anne Lister, and how money from the former’s account flowed into the latter’s. In another illegible and ‘confidential letter’ Captain Sutherland shared his misgivings with John Lister: From your long and frequent intercourse with Miss Walker I doubt not you are as sensible as I am of how perfectly simple a matter it was for any designing or unprincipled person to deceive 238

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and dupe her; and I unhesitatingly say that Mrs Lister did so to an enormous extent. Step by step, I have traced the proceedings. She first instils into Miss Walker’s Mind a Mistrust and hatred of her closest relatives; when this is accomplished, she prevails on Miss Walker to leave her her estate, and, as if this was not sufficient injustice to her Family, she persuades her to direct that the proceeds of her Estate should be placed to her (Mrs Lister’s) credit during their absence abroad. Whether Miss Lister intended that Miss Walker should ever return, God only knows!!..The injury Mrs Lister has done me, my wife and [son?] I sincerely feel and who would not?16

This was an overly harsh interpretation of Anne Lister’s motives. Yet little could help Ann Walker now. In 1845 ‘the Lunatic’ was moved to Shibden Hall and later transferred to Cliff-hill.17 In 1847 Captain Sutherland died, now somehow a fairly wealthy man—at Shibden Hall. Finally Poor Ann Walker herself, a tragic Victorian ‘madwoman in the attic’, died in 1854, much impoverished. And it was Ann Walker’s Sutherland nephew who eventually inherited—and reunited—the two ‘moieties’ of the doomed and divided Walker estate.18 So it was only in 1854 that the distant Lister family at last inherited Shibden; they moved from Wales north to take up residence in 1855. (And when his father died in 1867, his son John—the last Lister of Shibden Hall—inherited the estate.) The embarrassing Walker-Sutherland interlude of the previous fifteen years was smoothed over, the impression carefully cultivated of centuries of unbroken Lister occupation. It was of course impossible and undesirable to erase the memory of indomitable and enthralling Anne Lister. Her impact on Shibden Hall itself, on the estate and on the local area could not easily be eradicated, and she inspired more than one midVictorian novel.19 The memory of the luckless Ann Walker could more easily be obliterated; for without her the tiresome lesbian ‘marriage’ could be erased and Anne Lister remembered as merely masculine and eccentric. With Halifax continuing to change rapidly, local memories of this unorthodox couple were apparently subtly reworked and reshaped: thus in the 1870s a 239

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local chronicler re-told the drama of the poisoned well—with, at its narrative centre, a completely invisible woman: At Water Lane Bridge was another spring, now dried up. This formerly supplied Caddy Field. Of course they, the inhabitants, had it all to fetch in pitchers or cans, etc. When Miss Lister lived at Shibden Hall, managing Messrs Walker’s property, a great deal of inconvenience was felt by her trying to stop people from obtaining their supply of water here. She went so far as to cause this well at one time to be filled with gas tar. The people of Caddy Field are now supplied with town’s water.20

Marian Lister, by then an elderly ghostly figure, died aged 84 in 1882 (and was, rather surprisingly, buried alongside John Lister’s father in the family grave in Southowram churchyard). Then, about five years later John Lister himself began publishing his selections from the Anne Lister diaries in the Halifax Guardian. As we know, he (with a fellow antiquarian from Bradford called Arthur Burrell) eventually managed to crack the secret code. ‘He was very distressed’, Burrell recorded years later, ‘but he refused to take my advice, which was that he should burn’ the journals; but it seems that they were placed back behind panels (presumably secret panels) at Shibden Hall. The diaries survived, but a forty-year silence followed. The 1895 trials of Oscar Wilde and attacks upon Radclyffe Hall’s banned novel, The Well of Loneliness (1928) suggest the depths of homophobia then. It was only after John Lister’s own death in 1933 that work gradually began again on the magnificent Anne Lister manuscript material, the then elderly Arthur Burrell darkly warning the Halifax librarian responsible for sorting out the jumble of papers at Shibden Hall of ‘what old Halifax scandal knows about Miss Lister’.21 Further important work was done on the diaries and letters over the next half-century.22 But the story of Anne Lister’s lesbianism was only finally publicly recognised in 1988 with the publication of Helena Whitbread’s I Know My Own Heart. And it is only now, a decade later, that has it become clear that what ‘old Halifax scandal knows about Miss Lister’ was not so much her lesbianism, but rather that this one particular relationship, 240

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with Ann Walker, acquired all the serious property complications of a conventional dynastic marriage. The implications and public repercussions of this were tremendous: for fifteen melodramatic years strategically-placed Shibden had been united with the adjoining Walker estate. Till the 1990s this clandestine marriage had been papered over. Yet local evidence of Anne Lister herself still remains strong and vivid. Key Halifax buildings stand testimony to her: the original Northgate House may have been long demolished, but its replacement (ironically now LEA headquarters) still bears its traditional name; and Shibden Hall, dating back to the earlyfifteenth-century Saviles and Waterhouses, remains a popular local museum, a regular day out for parties of schoolchildren. On the other hand memories of inconvenient Ann Walker have been obliterated: there are no public buildings to commemorate her nor streets named after her. Out beyond Lightcliffe, Cliff-hill might still stand, but it is hidden away and subdivided into flats. More significantly Thomas Bradley’s elegantly-designed Crow Nest itself has been totally demolished, right down to the very last stone. No trace of either the Walkers’ splendour or their later tragedies remain visible. It is as if any sign of the daringly clandestine marriage to Anne Lister had been completely grassed over. It is as if Ann Walker never was.

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Few readers will reach the end of this narrative without murmuring to themselves, ‘She wasn’t very nice, was she?’ Just so. Anne Lister was not ‘very nice’. She manipulated people and she manipulated situations to further her considerable ambitions. Her blocking of Marian Lister’s engagement to Mr Abbott was surely little more than calculatingly cruel; her control over her tenants’ behaviour—and in Joseph Mann’s case, his daughter’s behaviour—was harsh indeed. Her courtship and seduction of Ann Walker was more complex: Ann was enthralled by Anne Lister’s attention and charm and, even after being surprised by Mrs Priestley’s visit when kissing on the sofa, Ann ‘never offered the least sign of resistance’. But Anne Lister did certainly take advantage of Ann Walker’s wealth and of her loneliness: it remains hard to read the 1833–36 diaries presented here without seeing their marriage as strength manipulating weakness. Many readers—coming to the Anne Lister writings hoping for a heroine, an empowerer of other women, an inspirational feminist icon—will be disappointed, for she had no interest in widening women’s rights. But beyond this natural reaction to Anne’s instrumentalist behaviour, historians will probably want to hesitate before passing final judgement. If we resist the temptation to judge her by the values and political correctness of the 1990s, and return Anne Lister firmly to her pre-Victorian historical context, how do we make sense of her? How do we 242

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assess her conduct—as a business woman, as a political operator and as a ‘husband’? Anne Lister’s major business expansion in the mid-1830s concerned her Walker Pit and planned Listerwick Colliery. By the subsequent standards of the 1842 Children’s Employment Commission, her conduct was inexcusable: however much the price of coal was driven down by fierce competition, children should not have had to work underground in the dark. Anne Lister, of course, died before the commissioner arrived to investigate the Halifax mines. But had she lived she would doubtless have claimed, like other local coalowners, that she knew nothing about such child labour and it was indeed their parents who had sent them down the mines. Her own pits were arguably run less dangerously than the Rawsons’ big steam-powered mines (with their two fatalities in 1835), and less harshly than Ann Walker’s tiny isolated pit identified in the 1842 report.1 Anne Lister was, for certain, a cruel capitalist: but while she was probably worse than some 1830s coalowners, she was definitely better than others. As a landowner supporting the Blue candidate at elections, Anne Lister certainly never flinched from bullying her tenants about how to vote. To 1990s readers—so comfortable in our possession of the secret ballot, adult suffrage and welfare-state securities—the doorstep conversations Anne Lister conducted with her enfranchised tenants and their wives seldom fail to startle. But landowners like Anne believed in the enfranchisement of property rather than of people. She was merely trying to ensure that the landed interest should, despite massive economic and social changes, continue to be as fully represented as it had traditionally been. Her tactics were often coercive: but she was able to operate as she did because early-nineteenth-century property laws gave landowners the authority so to act. Without a secret ballot, John Bottomley or Samuel Sowden had little option but to respond as they did because the wording of their leases apportioned power so very inequitably between landowner and tenant. And Anne Lister remained largely on the right side of the law. There might be jokes about summoning her before the

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Commons’ Select Committee on Bribery; but in fact she was a comparatively clean political operator. Other landowners, for instance, systematically ‘cooped’ their bribed electors, regaling them lavishly with food and drink, before ‘uncooping’ them on election day and esorting them tipsily to vote for their kindly host. Some hired gangs of paid bullies to disuade dissident voters: on one nomination day there was even a fight between rival gangs, gipsies versus bargees.2 In the 1835 elections, Anne Lister’s hands were not clean: but her forms of political persuasion were not untypical; once again, she was worse than some landowners—but better than others. Finally, as a ‘husband’, Anne Lister’s focusing on Ann Walker’s property rather than on purely romantic considerations can still shock. Certainly Anne Lister paid extremely keen attention to Ann’s inherited land and the income that flowed from it. But she behaved as she did because she viewed their union as a serious marriage, as dynastically significant as any other. She saw absolutely no reason why property should not be as important a consideration for Ann and herself as it would be in any heterosexual alliance. Similarly Anne Lister’s treatment of Ann might often appear cruel and callous. Certainly it was not a perfectly harmonious marriage. But she did often demonstrate a warm affection and care for Ann; and arguably she behaved no worse than any other rather caddish man with expenditure ambitions which exceeded his income, and who looked for a neighbouring heiress to help prop up his ailing estate. Indeed, we might pause and wonder how Anne Lister’s behaviour compared with that of certain other early-nineteenth century husbands: with, say, Captain Sutherland, who seemed to take full advantage of his wife’s successive pregnancies; with Caroline Norton’s violent and alcoholic husband who prevented her from seeing her children; and with fictional men like, say, Anne Brontë’s portrayal of a dissolute husband in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, or of Dorothea Brooke’s aridly selfish husband in Middlemarch. Anne Lister possessed the extraordinary bravado to live a lesbian marriage in the 1830s and this set her apart—far apart. But surely her behaviour towards Ann Walker, while often callous, fell squarely within the legal and customary property conventions which then

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shaped gentry marriage and inheritance practice? Readers wishing to distance themselves from any homophobic assumptions will probably want to view their union in those terms. None of this is, of course, to exonerate Anne Lister or to minimise the effect her calculatingly cruel manipulations had on others. It is merely to remind ourselves that her world was not our world; and that life for many of her pre-Victorian contemporaries—her colliers, tenants, working people—was nasty, brutish and short. We need to preserve our sense of distance from her in order to reflect the overall balance of her life, rather than either presenting her as romantically rose-tinted or judging her as an unspeakably awful woman.3 More helpful is an assessment of how usual—and unusual— Anne Lister was in early-nineteenth-century England. Certainly many other women inherited land, from uncles, fathers, brothers. It is difficult to gauge exactly how much land was owned by women, but perhaps 7 per cent is a reasonable estimate.4 Some women exerted considerable political influence as landowners similar to the way Anne Lister did.5 Many other women kept detailed daily diaries. These not uncommon experiences place Anne Lister within her broad historical context rather than setting her apart. But beyond this, Anne was more unusual. Her own active entry as an independent woman into the heavy male-dominated sector activity of coal-mining was rare.6 But what most particularly makes Anne Lister so extremely unusual was, of course, that she uncompromisingly rejected heterosexual marriage; that she lived a discreetly clandestine lesbian marriage with a neighbouring heiress; and that her diary, running to almost four million words, records this with startling candour. So what is unusual about Anne Lister is that she did all she did—business woman, political operator, husband—and wrote detailed diaries recording it all, so that the evidence survives 160 years later for us to read. All this adds up to a startling mix. For not only was Anne Lister’s personal life subversive and transgressive in the extreme; but also her political and economic activity took her out—as far

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as it was possible for a respectable woman then to go—into the town, into the commercial market place of Halifax. Anne Lister, a masculine woman, was visibly different; and such was her class confidence and bravado, she took this difference as far into the public sphere as she could. This was courageous and daring. Halifax opinion might be in awe of Miss Lister of Shibden Hall, with her ancient acres and power of patronage; but it had ways to make felt its scruples about her behaviour. So who were Anne’s critics; what precisely did they object to; how could—and did—they make their censure felt; and how well was Anne Lister able to respond to their criticisms? In other words, what could she get away with—and how? Her earliest and keenest critic was Mrs Priestley and her husband William. They knew Anne of old and did not care for her seduction of Ann, who was after all William’s cousin. Yet in the end, despite their most persistent endeavors, it was they who grew socially isolated—rather than Anne and Ann. Anne Lister could rely on the fact that the Priestleys had no language with which politely to communicate their suspicions to other Walker kin; and she was able to draw in, for instance, influential Reverend Musgrave against the Priestleys, using the local conflicts (church duties, school elections) as a means to win influential allies and isolate enemies. The Sutherlands were initially flattered by Ann Walker’s new social friendship with Shibden. But gradually Captain Sutherland’s suspicions were aroused, even though he could not put them into direct language. When he heard the family deeds had been moved to Shibden Hall, he drafted the angry confidential letter to Robert Parker, and drove south from Scotland to investigate. But Captain Sutherland, with his conventional expectations of the clear distinction between marriage and female friendship, had met his match in Anne Lister. She was able to persuade Ann Walker to rewrite her will in her own favour and, apart from the issue of day-to-day management of Ann’s estate, Anne Lister won most of the inheritance rounds against the Captain—as his later letter to John Lister testifies.

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Other Walker relatives specialised in the social cut. The Rawson women from Mill-house visited Shibden, but their call was upon Ann Walker alone, not upon Anne or Marian Lister. Ann Walker’s elderly aunt expressed her disapproval of her niece’s move to Shibden as clearly as she could; but Anne Lister was highly skilled at reshaping and presenting the truth so that listeners grew too confused to pursue difficult issues further. There was little aunt Cliff-hill could do, except huff and puff about changing her will; and Anne Lister virtually ignored snubs from other Walker kin. Further afield, Dr Belcombe also knew Anne Lister of old, but, being in a largely dependent client relationship to her and her friends, he had limited room for manoevre. It seems he only dropped his doctor-patient role with Ann Walker once the real nature of her relationship with Anne Lister became public knowledge in York circle through the newspaper announcement of their ‘marriage’. The anonymous letter was sent, offering to rescue Ann Walker from Anne Lister’s dastardly clutches; but it apparently caused scarcely a ripple at Shibden Hall. Rather more effective were the more public critical responses, a richly intriguing mix of the personal and the political, and it is worth looking as these in some detail. The hoax ‘marriage announcements’ in the newspapers occured in January 1835, at election time when party politics were fiercely—even violently—contested. The announcements were expressed in a form and in a language that pointedly lampooned Anne Lister’s masculinity and her sexual intimacy with Ann Walker; but probably their context and timing suggests that their lesbian sexuality was being symbolically deployed to warn them off their high Tory political activity, rather than vice versa.7 However Anne and Ann did not go on to decrease their political activity with their enfranchised tenants; nor did the seriousness of their ‘marriage’ lessen. (Indeed in September 1835 Ann Walker even publicly laid the foundation stone of the casino in Halifax ‘in the name and at the request of her particular friend, Miss Anne Lister’.) Nor did they halt their industrial

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speculations, with Anne Lister developing her coal mines and Ann Walker involved in the industrial Water-lane-mill area. But, in March 1836, their critics were able to take more effective action to humilate the two women. Thanks to Robert Parker’s impetuous suggestion about ‘putting a tar barrel into the well and spoiling the water’, Christopher Rawson JP was able (by drawing in loyalist magistrates like John Waterhouse and the Deardens) to trounce Ann Walker publicly. At the same time Rawson was also able to ‘burn devil’s dung’ and so smoke Joseph Mann out of the Walker pit. Moreover, tales were reportedly told locally of Anne and Ann being burned in effigy by a hostile crowd, urged on behind the scenes by Christopher Rawson. Again, perhaps we should interpret this extraordinary story largely as using the two women’s clandestine lesbian marriage to attack their unwelcome sortie out into the public male world of coal mining and industrial speculation—led by one of Ann Walker’s relatives who, to make his criticisms felt, had to resort to lacing the old Caddy-field women’s tea with rum. But Anne Lister, if we read her diaries at face value,8 scarcely let such public attacks perturb her, even proposing to her York lawyer in April 1836 that he take on Christopher Rawson publicly in the press over burning the devil’s-dung. At times her sheer bravado against a range of mockery and attack must have staggered even her harshest and most persistent critics. There were a number of reasons why Anne Lister was able so confidently to enjoy such wide freedoms. First, her ‘palm of antiquity’ and the status of her ancient Shibden acres allowed her to look haughtily above the fray. She was helped in all this by the mediation of skilled male professionals: her lawyers, whom she paid to do her bidding; doctors, who were only too delighted to number the Listers among their élite patients; clerics like the Reverend Musgrave, whose visits to Shibden and discourses upon theology gave Anne a valuable source of impeccably respectable Anglican support. Second, her hand was also strengthened by the urgent need for Tory unity in the turbulent mid-1830s. Ann Walker’s many relations had to hold together—against the combined might of

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Whig manufacturers like the Akroyds, troublesome Radicals, dangerous Irish Catholics and uppity dissenters. With election following hard on election, the Edwardses and the Rawsons, the Waterhouses and the Walkers, all had to preserve what political unity they could. When John Edwards called at Shibden Hall he had to enlist Anne Lister’s financial support for the Blue cause: he could not afford to raise awkward questions about Ann Walker’s welfare. At elections the Tory élite (especially the male élite) had to ensure visits were paid, hands shaken, money subscribed to funds. This should not be seen as a sign of growing tolerance towards Anne Lister’s lesbianism; rather, it was sign of the seriousness of the challenge to the old landed élite: hold together or be swamped by new economic and political forces. Third Anne Lister was also able to get away with all she did because there was no respectable public language for lesbianism. There was no medium through which people could politely express their unease. There was no respectable discourse in which, say, Captain Sutherland might alert Robert Parker about his real suspicions about Anne Lister: he just had to allude to those who from ‘wicked motives endeavour to bias her Mind’. The language that Anne Lister herself might deploy with intimate female friends drew upon an Italianate, classical, Mediterranean culture, with its literary allusions and references to wintering in Rome; but such allusions implied an inner élite of intimate knowledge, recognised only by those educated few who understood the references. But of course the unspoken was not the unknown. There was obviously considerable—if oblique—gossip about the ‘marriage’; but this gossip could then only be expressed within family circles through body language—a neglected handshake, an omitted greeting, which certainly did not go unnoticed by Anne—but it was not a directly spoken or written language. (Male homosexuality was much more dangerous: Edward Protheroe, elected Liberal MP for Halifax in 1837 and 1841, did not stand for election again after his valet attempted to blackmail him over homosexual practices.9) Fourth, as a lesbian Anne Lister was ironically able to enjoy wide freedoms with Ann Walker not available to heterosexual

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couples. There was little of the formal scrutiny or legal protection against fortune-hunting suitors: thus Anne Lister and Ann Walker could—and did—draw as intimately close to each other as they wished; they could share the same bed; they could travel together; they were even free to redraft their wills in each other’s favour—all without effective interference from uncles and cousins, aunts and trustees. In all, Anne Lister was able to get away with a great deal. Compared with other women, she did indeed explore towards the very boundaries of what was possible for an independent and determined woman then to do. There were few limits placed upon her freedoms and her authority within the series of concentric circles in which she operated: the private sphere of the household, the semi-public sphere of the world outside, with her estate providing the crucial link between the two. But the boundaries she did encounter were clear. Anne Lister was excluded by gender from the franchise, from the magistrates’ bench, from the freemasons, from law, medicine and religion. She might be asked for a Tory subscription and be urged to revisit recalcitrant tenants about their votes; but when an invitation to a Blue dinner and ball arrived, it was obviously a jibe at her masculinity, rather than an inclusive gesture. She also encountered boundaries when her more grandiose social ambitions were rebuffed through her comparative lack of wealth and her lesser gentry status. And, although this uncannily went unacknowledged in her diaries, the absolute impossibility of her providing Shibden with an heir thwarted (or certainly made highly complex) her dynastic inheritance plans. But perhaps the broader boundary she encountered was that, as she left for Russia, change was beating on the doors. Although much of the power of the old landed interest would remain, the Chartists marching below Shibden to Peep Green, the rise of giant manufacturers and of new forms of municipal government and the coming of the railway,10 the dawn of Victorian values and a new language of bourgeois women’s rights, would all—had she lived into the 1840s and beyond—probably have helped close off some of the freedoms which she could still enjoy in the 1830s—so long as she maintained considerable discretion.

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afterWord

Although so many relations and friends entertained a profound sense of unease about Ann Walker’s move to Shibden Hall, it remained largely unnamed and unspoken. Anne Lister could still convincingly laugh away mock ‘marriage announcements’ and tales of effigy-burning. Her identity was still largely defined by class, by landownership, by dynasty, by education—rather than, as for later generations, by an open labelling of sexual ‘deviancy’. This allowed her to shake off her critics. Land, gender and authority did indeed still organically underpin her freedom to enjoy her female fortune in the way she chose.

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A f t e r w o r d 2022

Ann Walker’s diary, 4 June 1834–19 February 1835 On Wednesday 21 October 2020, I gave a ‘Writing Anne Lister: an LGBTQ+ History’ Zoom talk to Manchester’s wonderful Portico Library. Such was the excitement generated since 2019 by Gentleman Jack that in the Q&A afterwards no fewer than 21 people asked questions. One query was about Ann Walker’s diary—and I naturally I replied very cautiously about the chances of ever finding it. If only I had known! Just the day before, Tuesday 20 October, Anne Lister researcher Diane Halford had booked a seat in Calderdale Archives in Halifax, just reopened. Diane was researching Ann Walker’s legal difficulties when she had been designated a ‘lunatic’, following Anne Lister’s death in 1840.1 Diane’s searches took her to an obscure file in the papers of the Rawson family, cousins by marriage of the Walkers. It was not where Ann’s diary might be expected to be found, and it was catalogued as an Anne Lister travel journal.2 However, it soon turned out not to be written by Anne Lister—but to be a diary in Ann Walker’s own handwriting. Diane discovered that she had stumbled upon a long-sought archival treasure. Her hunch was confirmed when she read the entry for 19 January 1835: ‘Five years to the day since I lost my poor brother at 3 o’clock in the afternoon’.

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She shared her excitement with West Yorkshire Archives Service (WYAS) staff. Naturally, they needed to obtain formal verification. The discovery was authenticated by WYAS on Friday 23 October.3 So now, Diane Halford and her fellow researchers could make public their extraordinary discovery. A torrent of exuberant publicity rapidly appeared on social media. Among the first was on Twitter from Pat Esgate in New York: HUGE NEWS: WYAS confirms Ann Walker diary has been found. Soon, it was disseminated more widely on Facebook. For instance, on the Anne Lister Academic Research Facebook page the news was immediately greeted with huge enthusiasm. I was certainly among the most excited. If only I had known on Wednesday what I now knew on Friday! As might be expected, the discovery of Ann Walker’s diary, lying hidden and forgotten for roughly 180 years, ignited wider enthusiasm. It rippled out, not only among Anne Lister fans and scholars, but also now among the wider public.4 Copyright permission to quote from this diary is less clear than for Anne Lister’s journals.5 So here I offer brief selections, comparing Ann Walker’s diary with Anne Lister’s in Female Fortune for 1834–5.6 I illustrate these with short quotations, trusting that other scholars will eventually be able to publish the complete diary. Ann Walker’s diary covers just eight-and-a-half months, from 4 June 1834 to 19 February 1835. Just two months after they had taken the sacrament together at Goodramgate church in York, they travelled in Europe. They then arrived back in late August, Ann Walker bravely left home to go and live with Anne Lister at Shibden. So, what is the value of this discovery to both Anne Lister fans and historians? The compelling attraction of Ann Walker’s diary is that researchers may now go beyond heavy reliance entirely on Anne Lister’s personal account of these months. For we now have two parallel personal accounts of similar experiences, as each of the two women recorded them. This is rare. A comparable archival treasure is probably the Blathwayt diaries, three journals within one family, written at the height of the Votes for Women campaign.7 However, here we surely have something even rarer, possibly unique. That is, first-person accounts in daily diaries of two women living together in what they (and most especially Anne Lister) saw

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FEMALE FORTUNE

as a lesbian marriage. Though recognised by neither church nor state, ‘it would be as good as a marriage…quite as good or better’.8 So, what new do we find? We immediately discover that Ann Walker called Anne Lister ‘dearest’. In fact, the opening line reads: ‘June 4th, dear’t very poorly, bad bilious headache’ (and it seems Anne was often poorly, Ann solicitously looking after her). Indeed this affectionate name appears frequently, abbreviated further from ‘dear’t’ to ‘dr’t’. Of course, this was just the time when Anne Lister began to call Ann Walker ‘Adney’.9 June 1834 was perhaps a moment for Ann Walker rather like the moment for young Anne Lister 28 years earlier, when she embarked on her own diary. On Monday 11 August 1806, Anne opened her journal with: ‘Eliza left us. Had a letter from her on Wednesday morning.’ 10 Indeed, both are diaries which record highly personal and significant lesbian relationships. However, beyond this, differences between the two diaries soon emerge. The most obvious distinction is that, as we know, Anne Lister had devised her own secret code in which to record her most intimate experiences. By the mid-1830s about one-tenth of the diary was written in the secret code. These coded passages allowed Anne considerable freedom to record in very candid detail her sexual and emotional relationships, here with Ann Walker: (‘A tolerable kiss last night’, and ‘goodish one last night – lay quietly talking this morning’;11 or criticism of Ann Walker: ‘found Miss W– literally tipsy…she had taken three glasses of sherry’ ; or family problems, notably Marian’s threatening marriage plans: ‘I only hope she will not marry as if from Shibden, and that I shall be away’).12 The second obvious difference is that Anne Lister’s journals offer (with extremely few exceptions) a continuous, unbroken and extremely detailed record of her life as she experienced it; daily entries could easily run to 500 words.13 The entries in Ann Walker’s diary, on the other hand, are usually far shorter, and there are a number of significant gaps. Indeed, these are sometimes gaps of a week or two, with one of over two months.14 Here, I have selected one specific example to illustrate some of the differences between the two diaries. I focus on the run-up to the January 1835 General Election in Halifax and its melodramatic aftermath, both in the town and up at Shibden.

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From November 1834, Anne Lister followed local political progress keenly, especially the push to register as many Blue votes for Wortley as possible. Ann Walker’s diary on the other hand focused on trespassing by the local hunt on Halifax land that was part of the Crow Nest estate.15 As we know, Anne Lister spent Christmas with Mariana Lawton, leaving Ann Walker behind at Shibden; here, Ann’s diary entries grew very brief and her writing less fluent.16 From New Year, Anne Lister recorded in vivid detail the closely fought January 1835 Election in Halifax, Ann Walker far less so, with a gap of over a week. Indeed, on Wednesday 7 January, Ann Walker merely recorded: ‘dr’t: rent day at Mytholm, close of poll Wood [gap], Wortley 300, Protheroe 307’. Anne Lister’s diary entry is far longer and more dramatic. After they had counted up the rent money, she added: ‘What a hard run race’, with many windows broken and Christopher Rawson’s carriage smashed. Her Thursday 8 entry is likewise long and vivid: ‘Sad devastation too…at Jeremiah Rawson’s’ by ‘the swell mob’. Then, when the election result was finally announced, it appeared Tory Wortley had beaten Radical Protheroe by just a single vote. There were immediately vociferous protests in the Whig press. Then, on Saturday 10, their land steward Samuel Washington came across to Shibden and hesitantly showed Anne and Ann a ‘mock marriage’ announcement printed in the Leeds Mercury: ‘Captain Tom Lister to Miss Ann Walker’.17 Anne’s diary continued to record this very personal melodrama in graphic detail. It is like having a video recorder moving from room to room in Shibden. She noted on Monday 12 that an anonymous letter arrived, to ‘congratulate the parties on their happy connection’. And Ann Walker’s diary? There is a gap of over a week, from 7 to 16 January; she just squeezed in a note about ‘Riots, windows broken at Vicarage.’ So she stopped her diary entries when the election results were announced. Then on Friday 16, Ann started her diary again, about letting Stump Cross Inn to a new tenant. And then, of course, on Monday 19, she lamented the death in 1830 of her brother John. However, Ann apparently ignored the publicly humiliating ‘mock marriage’ announcement and anonymous letter. She only re-entered the post-election fray on Thursday 22, noting

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an apology received from the Halifax Guardian editor—after his paper had reprinted the ‘mock marriage’ announcement. In other words, Ann Walker’s diary lapses into silence over this public humiliation about their relationship. So Ann’s gaps are probably as revealing as what she did actually write. After all, Anne Lister found her in tears at Shibden at such times. Readers are left with the impression that Ann Walker was far less interested than Anne in the hothouse details of the highly controversial Halifax election. And when it came to being publicly mocked (undoubtedly triggered by the West Riding Whig grandees), Ann Walker preferred to omit recording this cruel ‘outing’ in her diary—till it was virtually over. Here, Anne Lister’s advantage over Ann Walker in being able to confide in code to her diary is crystal clear. However, Ann did not always play second fiddle. On Monday 26 January, she ‘played at Backgammon with dr’t, completely beat her’. (I did not include this in Female Fortune, but now, reopening my 1835 file of old diary photocopies—and blowing off the dust—I see that after dinner Anne: ‘won a gammon, lost a hit, & then lost a back-gammon to A–’.) This seems a rare example of Ann getting the better of Anne. More often, in the wider world, it was the other way round.18 Ann Walker’s diary ended on Thursday 19 February. By then her handwriting had grown less legible. She ended with a routine entry: ‘Dr’t went to District Bank’ in Halifax., noting an annual rent of £80 paid. And Anne Lister’s diary? She was immersed in her coal pits and Northgate property, ending her entry on: ‘found cousin coming very gently’; the following day she adds: ‘A– never found out that I had cousin’. (Anne Lister always wanted to keep this hidden, not wanting to show signs of female weakness.)19 So why did Ann Walker end her diary here? I think there is a practical explanation: she had come to the end of her small notebook. Is it likely she started a new volume? Yes, I am certain she did. Later on, Anne Lister frequently referred to Ann writing her journal in the evenings. So have any of these other notebooks survived? It is possible. If so, do they also lie hidden in the Calderdale Archives? And if so, where? So finally, what is the value of the Ann Walker diaries? For lesbian historiography, it offers a rare (and possibly unique) parallel

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account of two women’s experiences. Beyond that, my own feeling is that it will always be overshadowed by the magnificent Anne Lister journals, switching effortlessly as they do from handwriting to code and then back again. And which were, after all, recognised in 2011 by the UN and included in UNESCO’s UK Memory of the World register, alongside diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.20 However, this is perhaps an unfair comparison. Anne Lister was Renaissance woman, energetically achieving successfully everything she set out to do (except backgammon, and funding all her ambitious schemes), and recording it all in riveting detail day by day. The coded sections alone put her firmly in the LGBTQ+ canon, as they represent the earliest and most candid personal evidence of living a lesbian life.21 It would be hard for a contemporary of Pepys or Virginia Woolf to write a diary as magnificent as theirs. Nevertheless, Ann Walker’s journal is truly invaluable, reflecting and recording a parallel and complementary account of living life in a lesbian relationship in 1830s Yorkshire. 7 September 2021.

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on the

tenant’s name

property

township

Bottomley, John Dodgson, Henry Freeman, Samuel Greenwood, Thomas Hall, Joseph Hardcastle, William Hemingway, Abraham Hepworth, Mark Howarth, Charles Mallinson, Jonathan Naylor, George Oates, John Pearson, John Pearson, Thomas Robinson, George Sowden, Samuel

Brierley Hill Lower Place Robin Close, Yew Trees Park Farm Little Marsh Roydelands Southolm Yew Trees Ireland Stag’s Head, Mytholm Upper Place (farm) Pump Mytholm farm Denmark Lower Brea etc. Sutcliffe Wood and Hilltop

Swrm Swrm Swrm Swrm Swrm Hip & Brig Swrm Hip & Brig Swrm Swrm Swrm Swrm Hip & Brig Swrm Nwrm Hip & Brig

shIbden haLL estate

c.

1835

rent recipient

acres

constituency

voting

JL AA AL JL AA AL AA AL JL JL AA AL JL AL JL AL

9 20 3? 21 8 13 42 26 16 4 20 20 20 19 27 12

Halifax not enfranchised? W Riding not enfranchised? W Riding W Riding W Riding not enfranchised? not enfranchised?? not enfranchised? not enfranchised? W Riding W Riding W Riding W Riding W Riding

James S Wortley

KEY Recipient of rents: Jeremy Lister (JL), Aunt Anne (AA), Anne Lister (AL) Township: Southowram (Swrm), Northowram (Nwrm), Hipperholme-cum-Brighouse (Hip and Brig) Property: main property only listed; residence (as listed in poll books) may not be identical Sources: Samuel Washington’s survey March-June 1833; 1835 Poll Books

John S Wortley Lord Morpeth Lord Morpeth did not vote

Lord Morpeth? did not vote? John S Wortley did not vote did not vote

femaLe fortune

aPPendIx: key tenancIes

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reference notes reference notes

AbbreviAtions AbbreviAtions AL AL AL, date AL, AW date AW CN CN HG HG (XXX) HG HG (XXX) SH SH THAS THAS

Anne Lister Anne Anne Lister Lister diaries Anne Lister diaries Ann Walker Ann CrowWalker Nest Crow HalifaxNest Guardian Halifax Guardian John Lister (editor), ‘Some Extracts from the Diary of a Halifax John (editor), ‘Some Extracts from the Diary of a Halifax Lady’,Lister Halifax Guardian (1887–92) Lady’, Halifax Guardian (1887–92) Shibden Hall Shibden Hall Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society

PrefAce to the 2019 edition PrefAce to the 2019 edition 1 21 23 3

http://www.jliddington.org.uk/reviews19.html http://www.jliddington.org.uk/reviews19.html Rebel Girls, Virago, 2006, and Vanishing for the Vote, MUP, 2014. Rebel Virago, 2006, and Vanishing for the Vote, MUP,and 2014. Also Girls, Sue Perkins documentary; see Jill Liddington Alison Oram, Also Sue Perkins documentary; see Jill Liddington and Alison Oram, ‘Decoding Anne Lister’, Herstoria special feature, 2010. ‘Decoding AnneMrs Lister’, HerstoriaNature’s specialDomain, feature, p.76; 2010. for mock marriage 4 For observant Priestley, 4 announcement For observant and Mrs effigy-burning Priestley, Nature’s p.76; for mock221. marriage story,Domain, Female Fortune, pp.143, announcement and effigy-burning story, Female Fortune, pp.143, 221. 5 The valet was sentenced to 20 years transportation; Female Fortune, p.249. 56 The valetthe was sentenced to 20 yearsWilde transportation; Female Fortune, p.249. Presenting Past, p.15; 1895 Oscar trials; and c.1892, John Lister and 6 Presenting the Past, p.15; 1895 Oscar Wilde trials; and c.1892, John Lister and Arthur Burrell crack AL’s code. Arthur Burrell crack further AL’s code. 7 Sexologists’ theories silenced sex between women. 78 Sexologists’ theories furtherFreedom silenced League) sex between Alison Neilans (Women’s was women. the key suffrage link; she 8 Alison Neilans (Women’s Freedom League) was the key suffrage link; she was a 1911 census evader, Vanishing for the Vote, p.262. was a 1911 census evader, Vanishing for the Vote, p.262. the 1921 proposal 9 Caroline Derry, ‘Feminism, lesbianism and Parliament: 9 Caroline Derry, lesbianism and Parliament: the 1921 proposal femaLe fortune to criminalise sex‘Feminism, between women’, Friends of the Women’s Library talk, to criminalise sex between women’, Friends of the Women’s Library talk, November 2017. 2017.‘Lesbianism and Feminist Legislation in 1921: the Age of 10 November Caroline Derry, Consent and “Gross Indecency between Women”’, History Workshop Journal, 86, 2018, p.263. 253 253 11 Derry, 2018, p.259. 12 My earliest personal memory would be c.1970. 259 13 For Muriel Green and Phyllis Ramsden, Presenting the Past, pp.16–22. 14 Presenting the Past, pp.22–4. 15 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protesters30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben

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10 Caroline Derry, ‘Lesbianism and Feminist Legislation in 1921: the Age of

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femaLe fortune Consent and “Gross Indecency between Women”’, History Workshop Journal,

86, 2018, p.263. Caroline Derry, ‘Lesbianism and Feminist Legislation in 1921: the Age of Derry, 2018, p.259. Consent andpersonal “Gross Indecency between Women”’, History Workshop Journal, My earliest memory would be c.1970. 86, For 2018, Murielp.263. Green and Phyllis Ramsden, Presenting the Past, pp.16–22. Derry, 2018, p.259. Presenting the Past, pp.22–4. My earliest personal memory would be c.1970. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protestersFor Muriel Green and Phyllis Ramsden, Presenting the Past, pp.16–22. 30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben PresentingtotheLaura Past, pp.22–4. Thanks Johansen, email 15 June 2019, on conversation with PR’s https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protestersgranddaughter. 30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben Of these, particularly significant are: Rictor Norton, ‘Anne Lister: the Thanks to Laura Johansen, emailHistory, 15 June2003; 2019,and on conversation withFriend, PR’s First Modern Lesbian’, Lesbian Alan Bray, The granddaughter. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Importantly, they have diametrically 17 contrasting Of these, particularly significant are: modern’ Rictor Norton, ‘Anne Lister: the interpretations of AL, ‘first or ‘arch-traditionalist’. First Modern Lesbian’,Berlin Lesbian History, 2003; and Alan Bray, The Friend, 18 Published in German, 2017, An Erotic Biography; trans, Serpent’s Tail, University of Chicago Press, 2003. Importantly, they have diametrically 2018. contrasting interpretations of AL, 19 ‘The Song of a Yorkshire Jack the‘first Lass’,modern’ 2014. or ‘arch-traditionalist’. 18 Cat’s Published in German, Berlin 2017, An Erotic Biography; trans,onSerpent’s Tail, 20 impressive D.Phil thesis (York University, 1995) Anne Lister 2018. complexities (available online); now at University of Arizona. 21 Though theofword ‘jack’ appears, referring to masculine women, Whitbread, 19 ‘The Song a Yorkshire Jack the Lass’, 2014. 21 but Love, Love,p.127. p.127. The Yorkshire and Leeds1995) Intelligencer, 31 August 20 No Cat’s impressive D.Phil thesis (York Post University, on Anne Lister Priest but Miss Lister, ‘better in the neighbourhood from her masculine complexities (available online); now at University of Arizona. 22 1876: Trigg, ‘From Wasteland toknown Wilderness’, p.49. as Jack Lister’; Facebook, ‘The Hunttothrough History for Anne Lister 21 habit Though the word ‘jack’ appears, referring masculine women, Whitbread, 23 HAS first president was John Lister; Presenting the Past, p.16. Ann Walker’, 13 No Priest but Love, p.127. 24 and The 1911 census for August Halifax2021. records 65 coalminers, mostly within easy 22 walking Trigg, ‘From Wasteland to Wilderness’, p.49. Harber. distance of Shibden; thanks to Julian 23 first president wasrevered John Lister; Presenting Past, p.16. 25 HAS John Lister was highly locally, and wastheprobably homosexual. 24 census for Halifax records 65 coalminers, mostly within easy 26 The THAS1911 obituary, 1951. walking distance of Shibden; thanks to Julian Harber. 25 John Lister was highly revered locally, and was probably homosexual. P 26refAce THAS obituary, 1951. 10 11 12 13 11 14 12 15 13 14 16 15 17 16

1 See Jill Liddington, ‘Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840):

PrefAce Her diaries and the historians’, History Workshop Journal, 35, 1993, pp.59–62;

also ‘Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840): re-reading the 1 correspondence’, See Jill Liddington, ‘Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Society, Halifax1,(1791–1840): Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian 1993. These Her diaries andreissued the historians’, History 1993,1791–1840, pp.59–62; 2 articles were as Presenting the Workshop Past: AnneJournal, Lister of35, Halifax also ‘Anne ListerPennine of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840): re-reading the Hebden Bridge, Pens, 1994, see pp.25–30. Here I give both refercorrespondence’, Transactions ences as page numbers differ.of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1, 1993. These articles reissued as Presenting the Past: Lister of1984, Halifax 1791–1840, 2 2‘The two were million word enigma’, Guardian, 17Anne February interviews with Hebden Bridge, Pennine 1994,Thompson see pp.25–30. Here I give bothproject referPhyllis Ramsden, and withPens, Dorothy whose Birmingham ences as completed page numbers differ. 1986–8 a 600,000-word transcript. 23 ‘The twoWhitbread, million word enigma’, Guardian, 1984,Lister interviews with Helena I Know My Own Heart: 17 TheFebruary diaries of Anne 1791–1840, Phyllis and 1988; with Dorothy whoseUniversity Birmingham London,Ramsden, Virago Press, and NewThompson York, New York Press,project 1992. completed a 600,000-word transcript.Jack of Halifax’, London Review 4 1986–8 For example, Elizabeth Mavor, ‘Gentleman 3 Helena Know My Own Heart: The diaries of Anne Lister 1791–1840, of Books,Whitbread, 4 FebruaryI1988. London, Virago Press, 1988; and New York, New York University Press, 1992. 4 For example, Elizabeth Mavor, ‘Gentleman Jack of Halifax’, London Review 254 of Books, 4 February 1988.

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notes

5 Halifax Antiquarian Society, 7 October 1989, including Pauline Millward on ‘Diaries are dangerous things’; also Pauline Millward, ‘Will the Real Anne Lister Please Stand Up!’, Ad Lib, December 1992. 6 John Lister of Shibden Hall produced a 200,000-word transcript from the diaries (1887–92) and cracked the code; Muriel Green edited the letters (1930s), a selection of which was published in 1992; Phyllis Ramsden and Vivien Ingham summarised the coded passages (1950s–60s); and Helena Whitbread opened up the diaries to a wider readership (1980s). See ‘Her diaries and the historians’, pp.12–24, ‘Re-reading the correspondence’, pp.62–8, and Presenting, pp.12–24 and pp.48–57. 7 Thanks to Alan Betteridge, whose reclassification of the manuscripts in 1992 brought this story to light. Previously cracking the code, shrouded in mystery, was sometimes thought to have taken place about the 1920s; it is difficult to give a definite date but my hunch is around 1892. For the full story see note 6 above. 8 Muriel Green (ed.), Miss Lister of Shibden Hall: Selected Letters (1800–1840), Lewes, the Book Guild, 1992; see note 6 above. Helena Whitbread (ed.), No Priest but Love: the Journals of Anne Lister from 1824–1826, Otley, Smith Settle, 1992. 9 Notably Catherine Euler, Moving Between Worlds: Gender, Class, Politics, Sexuality and Women’s Networks in the Diaries of Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, Yorkshire, 1830–1840, PhD, University of York, 1995. See bibliography for other theses. 10 NYUP edition, I Know, back cover; Terry Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, 1993, p.96. 11 BBC Radio 4, ‘Gentleman Jack from Halifax’, 2 October 1993; TV series, A Skirt Through History, programme ‘A Marriage’, 6 May 1994, BBC2. Polly Toynbee, Radio Times, 14 May 1994. 12 Castle, Apparitional, p.95; Lisa Moore, ‘“Something more tender still than friendship”: Romantic Friendship in early nineteenth-century England’, Feminist Studies, 18, 1992, p.510. 13 Emma Donoghue, Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668–1801, Scarlet Press, London 1993; also Liz Stanley, ‘Romantic Friendship? Some Issues in Researching Lesbian History and Biography’, Women’s History Review, 1, 1992. 14 Martha Vicinus, ‘Lesbian History: All theory and no facts or all facts and no theory?’, Radical History Review, 60, 1994, p.62; also pp.66–7. 15 William Marshall, ‘Welcome to Anne Lister country’; Rosie Crook and Jill Liddington, ‘Anne’s place in history’, Halifax Courier, 6 and 20 May 1994. 16 By 1996–7 two distinct Anne Listers seemed to have emerged. One, drawing upon Whitbread’s two editions (i.e. 1817–26), focused on Anne’s lesbian identity and networks, often taking a literary turn. The other, drawing upon John Lister’s transcription, focuses on politics and economics. Euler’s thesis (see note 9 above), based upon the 1832, 1835 and 1837 election years, is unusual in presenting a balanced picture; I read the thesis after I had

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17

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18 19

20 21

22 23

24

25

26

27

finished the final draft of this book; a valuable theoretical approach to AL, its analysis is in terms of agency, subjectivity and discourse. See also: Anna Clark, ‘Anne Lister’s Construction of Lesbian Identity’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol.7, no.1, 1996. For discussion of women’s complex inheritance and property rights see the chapters: Anne Lister 1815–1832: diarist and heiress; The Walkers of Crow Nest and Afterword; see also note 21. Sarah Richardson, ‘The Role of Women in Electoral Politics in Yorkshire during the Eighteen-thirties’, Northern History, XXXII, 1996, on AL and Elizabeth Sophia Lawrence of Studley Royal. There is of course written record of other élite lesbian relationships, in particular the Ladies of Llangollen; and, much later, the relationship between Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis. What stands out is AL’s combining a refusal of even a marriage of convenience with her detailed sexual candour. See ‘Her Diaries and the Historians’, pp.66–71, and Presenting, pp.37–45 for the AL diaries September and December 1832. See Jill Liddington, ‘Beating the Inheritance Bounds: Anne Lister (1791– 1840) and her Dynastic Identity’, Gender and History, vol.7 no.2, August 1995. Also Jill Liddington, ‘Gender, authority and mining in an industrial landscape: Anne Lister 1791–1840’, History Workshop Journal, 42, autumn 1996. Though note Whitbread, No Priest, p.xii. John Lister’s transcript and Phyllis Ramsden’s summaries were particularly helpful, as was Muriel Green’s work on the letters. My own forwardsand-backwards reading of these years has, of course, been far from straightforward. (I started with late 1832, moved on to 1834, 1836 and 1837, then moved back to 1835, only to realise I had to read 1833 to understand 1834.) 21 Dec 1833 to 9 Mar 1834 = end of vol.16 = c. 39,000 words 10 Mar 1834 to 21 Mar 1835 = vol.17 = c. 186,000 words 22 Mar 1834 to 29 Feb 1835 = vol.18 = c. 187,000 words 1 Mar 1836 to mid-May 1836 = start of vol.19 = 47,000 words Total: 21/2 years = approximately 459,000 words. Particularly well known are the parliamentary election years of 1832, 1835 and 1837, where researchers have drawn heavily upon John Lister’s pioneering transcripts; also familiar are the travel sections, largely through Muriel Green’s courageous transcription of the letters. See Muriel Green, A Spirited Yorkshirewoman: The Letters of Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, b.1791–d.1840, Library Association Honours Diploma, 1938. John Lister’s transcript in the Halifax Guardian represents about 5 per cent of the original diaries. If Phyllis Ramsden and Vivien Ingham completed a transcript, it was probably destroyed. In the current economic climate, it is unlikely a complete transcription of the entire diaries can be produced; see Presenting, pp.12–25. Some previous editors have tended to minimise the local context (e.g. focus-

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notes

ing on travel, élite correspondence); of course John Lister provided rich local information, but often in bafflingly arcane detail, inadequately explained. 28 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village 1294–1324, 1978 and Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1980. George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1871–2 and Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1994.

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1 the Listers of shibden hALL 1 For comparison see Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849 and Harmondsworth, Penguin 1985, pp.208, 217, 230. 2 AL, 16 May 1834, letter to Mariana Lawton. 3 Also, more broadly, Tory romantic medievalism (for example, Disraeli’s Coningsby, 1844 and Harmondsworth, Penguin 1983). 4 22 townships fell within Manor of Wakefield and 3 (including Southowram) in Honour of Pontefract; see Martha Ellis, ‘A Study in the Manorial History of Halifax Parish in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries’, Part I, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 1960, pp.251–6. 5 John Lister, ‘Shibden Hall, Southowram’, THAS, 1907, p.161. 6 T.W. Hanson, ‘A Short History of Shibden Hall’, Bankfield Museum Notes, Halifax, County Borough of Halifax, 1934, pp.5–12; based upon John Lister’s history of Shibden Hall, THAS, 1907–26. 7 SH:7/ML/B/7, 12 August 1816; also SH:7/ML/B/11/3. Also ‘Pedigree of Lister of Shibden Hall’, THAS, 1956; with a few minor exceptions this seems a fairly reliable family tree; Hanson, ‘Shibden Hall’, pp.13–15. 8 John Smail, The Origins of Middle-Class Culture: Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660–1780, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1994, p.55 and ff. These Listers lived nearby at Upper Brea, not in Shibden itself. 9 Partible inheritance. 10 John Lister, ‘History of Shibden Hall in the early C18th’, THAS, 1936, pp.12–13. James lost, for instance, property in Halifax, Northowram and Hipperholme townships. 11 H. Arnold, ‘Early Lister Emigrants to North America’, THAS, 1966, pp.121–4. 12 However, one sister married advantageously into the élite military Fawcett family; and one brother through marriage brought into the Lister family elegant Northgate House in Halifax. 13 Daniel Defoe, A Tour through England and Wales: Divided into Circuits or Journies, London, J.M. Dent, 1927, p.187. 14 Wool: short-stapled and carded. Worsted: long-stapled and combed. 15 Charles Clegg, ‘Turnpikes and Tollbars’, THAS, 1915, pp.347–9; W.B. Crump, ‘The Wakefield Gate’, THAS, 1924. 16 Charles Clegg, ‘Our Local Canals’, THAS, 1922, pp.200–17; the first Calder and Hebble Act was passed 1758, but the work was damaged by floods; a 1768 Act gave enlarged powers and the work was completed in 1774, connecting with the Rochdale Canal in 1793.

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17 See AL, 2 April 1835. 18 H. Armitage, ‘Captain Jeremy Lister (1752–1836), THAS, 1966; he lacked the glittering military honours of his cousin and patron, William Fawcett. 19 SH:3/LF/28/5; Elizabeth L. was Japhet L.’s only surviving child. 20 Borthwick Institute, will signed 26 January 1788, sworn 15 May 1788. Primogeniture contrasts to partible inheritance, where the estate is divided. 21 SH:3/LF/28/4 and 5. 22 SH:7/JL/101, 15 April 1791. 23 SH:3/LF/28/4 and 5 (THAS ‘Pedigree’ details seem wrong here.) 24 SH:3/LF/28/5. Of more distant relatives, Thomas Lister’s descendants had returned from Virginia. Widowed Uncle Joseph remarried in 1795, Mary, daughter of General Sir William Fawcett; they had no children and remained at Northgate House. 25 SH:2/M/1/2, 1791; there were also other properties in neighbouring townships. 26 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, 23 December 1812, 5 May 1800, and spring 1810, pp.63–4, 3 and 16. 27 Undated fragment, quoted in Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.68, probably March–April 1813. 28 Quoted in Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.72, 24 April 1813; see also p.68, 5 April 1813. 29 SH:7/ML/8, 19 January 1804 30 Aunt Martha died in 1809. SH:7/ML/AC/13, 22 September 1828. 31 HG, LXIV, about spring 1826. 32 SH:7/ML/AC/13, 22 September 1828. 33 SH:7/ML/B/2, 7 and 4, 13 June–12 August 1816. AL notes ‘on the failure of the elder branch’; see family tree and endnotes above. 34 Borthwick Institute, will signed 20 December 1809, sworn 16 March 1818; personal estate valued at under £2,000. 35 Whitbread, I Know, p.75, 17 January 1819. 36 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.156, 12 October 1820. 37 HG, XLII, 6–16 February 1822; AL was anxious about the inheritance claims of her élite Fawcett relatives. 38 SH:7/ML/AC/13, 22 September 1828.

2 Anne Lister 1806–32: diArist And heiress 1 For more on the early 1806–10 diaries see Presenting the Past, pp.25–30; ‘Her Diaries and the Historians’, pp.59–62. 2 The Norcliffes were the only family among AL’s friends noted in Cliffe’s Yorkshire Gentry. Later, Bateman recorded the estate as 2,500 acres. 3 AL, 16 January 1810. 4 Whitbread, I Know, p.237. 5 Whitbread, I Know, p.57. 6 Whitbread, I Know and No Priest but Love.

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7 10 July 1824, Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.194. For a perceptive and informed discussion see Anna Clark, ‘Anne Lister’s Construction of Lesbian Identity’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 1996, vol.7, no.1. 8 Whitbread, I Know, pp.3, 41. 9 Whitbread I Know, pp.68, 89, 156; Emma married Christopher Saltmarshe in 1817. 10 Whitbread, I Know, pp.82–3, 44, 76; AL, 8 September 1818. 11 Whitbread, I Know, p.95; also his brother Tom, p.111. It is unclear when Christopher Rawson’s wife died. 12 Whitbread, I Know, pp.106, 110, 113–15, 123–4; AL consulted the leading magistrate. 13 Whitbread, I Know, pp.329–30, 347, 2 April and 19 June 1824. 14 Whitbread, No Priest, pp.38, 49, 58; it seems highly likely that her servant Cordingley must have known. 15 Whitbread, No Priest, p.19. 16 Whitbread, I Know, pp.187–90, 1 and 27 June 1822. 17 Whitbread, I Know, p.216, 29 August 1822. 18 Thanks to Chris Webb and Helena Whitbread for comment here. 19 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p 100, [3] March 1819; also Green, Miss Lister, p.55 on ‘Mr Crossley the carpet-man’. 20 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.224, 7 November 1824. 21 HG, XL, 25 May 1821; also J. Lister, ‘Stoney-Royd’, THAS, 1909. 22 HG, LXII, 16 December 1825; Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.245, 1 May 1825. 23 Whitbread, No Priest, p.156, 26 January 1826. 24 Borthwick, will signed 3 August 1822, sworn 27 April 1826. 25 SH:7/ML/AC/10, 27 February 1826; the will had to be resworn at £10,000 (rather than at under £4,000 as at 25 February 1826); so the canal shares appear to be worth perhaps about £6,000. 26 HG, LXIII, 3 February 1826. 27 Whitbread, No Priest, p.161, 27 February 1826. 28 Whitbread, No Priest, p.162, 10 January 1826. 29 SH:7/ML/AC/10, 5 July 1826; Whitbread, No Priest, p.189. 30 Sibella was of a different side of the family from Lady Stuart, and they were related only through Vere Hobart; thanks to Helena Whitbread and Hazel Brothers for clarifying this. 31 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.358, 8 November 1829. Sir Charles Stuart de Rothesay was ambassador to Paris 1815–30, and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Hardwicke. 32 The giant Yorkshire constituency had increased its representation from 2 to 4 MPs in the 1820s; James Stuart Wortley senior (1776–1845), one of the Tory MPs, supported Catholic emancipation, so alienating some of his Protestant supporters; he became Baron Wharncliffe just before the 1826 election. His youngest son, James Stuart Wortley junior (1805–81), a barrister, MP for Halifax 1835–7, figures most in this book. 33 RAM:66 and 67, 18 October 1831 and 2 May 1832.

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Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, pp.381–2, 24 and 30 June 1830. RAM:67 e.g., 12 March and 15 and 29 April 1832 . AL, 28 October 1830 ff. For example, AL, 5 June 1831. RAM:64, 12 February 1830. Whitbread, No Priest, 1 July 1826, pp.180ff; she reduced Mariana’s claim, entailing Shibden on the Swansea Listers, and later mentioning ‘leaving everything I have’ to Aunt Anne. AL, 6 September 1831: ‘I had got my will of 15 sheets’, leaving Mr Waterhouse and William Priestley executors. 39 AL, 30 April 1832; also AL, 19 February 1832 and RAM: 25 June 1832. 40 AL, 16 December 1832.

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34 35 36 37 38

3 The Walkers of CroW NesT 1 For attributions to Carr, see Derek Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, London, Lund Humpries, 1978. 2 Smail, The Origins of Middle-class Culture, pp.116, 197. 3 Pat Hudson, ‘Proto-industrialization: the case of the West Riding’, History Workshop Journal, 12, 1981, pp.38–40. Also Herbert Heaton, The Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted Industries from the earliest times up to the Industrial Revolution, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1965, pp.297–9. 4 The land included that upon which the Piece Hall was built; Rowland Bretton, ‘Walkers of Crow Nest’, THAS, 1971, pp.106–11. 5 H.P. Kendal, ‘Famous Sowerby Mansions: White Windows’, THAS, 1906, pp.111–13. 6 Borthwick, will signed 1771, sworn 1787; the daughters inherited £3,500 each. 7 H.P. Kendall, ‘Some Old Halifax Homesteads’, THAS, 1925, pp.19–22. 8 There were other intermarriages as well, for example, between the Edwards and Priestley families. 9 Also £1,000 each to his three daughters; Borthwick, will signed 1771, sworn 1787. 10 Borthwick, will signed Aug 1809, sworn Feb 1810; bequests to his nephews included High Sunderland to William Priestley; bequests to his sisters included an annuity of £250 each; by codicil, £500 to his niece Mary Rawson ‘at her disposal free from the Controul of her said Husband’, William Henry Rawson. 11 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.100, March 1819. AL, 30 June 1809 for ‘the bride visit’ to the Priestleys. She was also on visiting terms at Pye Nest: ‘Mr Edwards, as usual on a Friday, being at his mill, we did not see him’; HG, III, 15 November 1816. 12 Caroline Walker (1774–1831) went to Manor School (though before AL); due to her father’s failure as a worsted spinner etc, he had to sell his estate at Shaw Syke in Halifax c.1800s to the Crow Nest Walkers. 13 HG, XXXVI, 1 May 1820; also Whitbread, I Know, pp.14, 100, 122–3, 134, 144.

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14 HG, LVII and LXI, 17 December 1823 and 9 July 1825; Whitbread, I Know, p.328. 15 Whitbread, I Know, p.328. She was called Eliza; but as AL’s diary always refers to her as Mrs Priestley I have followed this. 16 Whitbread, I Know, p.53, 15 August 1818. 17 Whitbread, I Know, p.153, 12 June 1821. 18 AL 30 August 1828. 19 HG, LIV and LVII, 27 May and 13 November 1823. 20 Barbara English and John Saville, Strict settlement: A guide for historians, University of Hull, 1983, p.10. Also Barbara English, The Great Landowners of East Yorkshire 1530–1910, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Brighton, 1990, pp.88–100. 21 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813, Oxford World Classics, Oxford, 1980, p.54. 22 English and Saville, Strict Settlement, p.10. F.M.L. Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963, pp.66–8. 23 Borthwick, will signed 21 May 1818, sworn 27 November 1823 and 7 February 1824. 24 John Lister, THAS, 1908, p.249. HG, LXVIII, 27 November 1828. 25 For example, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848 and Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1979. p.149. 26 CN:103, 27 July and 2 August 1828; AL, 30 August 1828. In fact, the Sutherlands’ St Vincent estates produced large profits, at least until the Emancipation of Slaves in 1833. Captain Sutherland consulted his lawyers about a husband’s property rights when his wife’s fortune lay in a mixture of entailed property, unentailed property and capital; and about whether a marriage settlement could override a will. His lawyers advised that it was only her entailed property which, being already settled by will, could not be ‘noticed in the Settlement’. Before marriage she could bequeath her unentailed property and personal estate as she wished; but her will ‘must depend upon the [marriage] settlement’. In other words, despite Elizabeth’s father’s provisos, Captain Sutherland could apparently gain power over all his wife’s property except her entailed property. 27 AL 30 August 1828; thanks to Cat Euler for this Ramsden reference. Fanny was a niece of the Rawsons. 28 John Lister, THAS, 1908, p.258, 12 December 1828. CN:103/1–4, 2 August 1828. 29 HG, LXVIII, 6 November–25 December 1828 and 2 January 1829. 30 SH:7/ML/403, 31 March 1830. 31 CN:89/25; Borthwick, will p.4. Thanks to Babara English for clarification. 32 CN:103/1–4, 27 March 1830 (Frances Esther Walker, from Rome) and 23 December 1830 and undated. 33 Borthwick, will pp.5–8; thanks to Amy Erikson for comment here. 34 CN:103/1–4, 19 November 1830, 23 December 1830 ff.

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35 CN: 103/1–4, 30 August 1831; also AL, 13 March 1835. 36 CN:103/1, 26 February 1831, Parker to Sutherland, advising the latter to make a will. 37 AL, 3 September 1831; presumably land around Smith House, immediately south-east of Crow Nest. 38 CN:93/3 no date (but after Sackville’s birth in April 1831). AW had, of course, not only inherited entailed but also valuable unentailed property, which she could bequeath as she chose. 39 Significantly, AW’s will is more decisive. AL was still hovering over (e.g., AL, 30 April 1832) whether to leave Marian a (contingent) life interest or just money. 40 CN:103/1, 9 June 1832.

4 hALifAx, the West riding And shibden: toWn Meets country 1 HG, LXVII, 3 September 1828; on 13 April 1829 AL notes that two elderly men were killed falling into the Godley cutting. 2 Green, Miss Lister, p.159, 15 September 1831; HG, LXXVII, 16 June 1831. Italics added. 3 Pigot, National Commercial Directory, London and Manchester, 1834, p.732. 4 HG, LXVII, 14 April and 13 November 1828 5 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.405, 26 June 1831. 6 Pigot, Directory, 1834. 7 HG, LX and LXII, 24 August 1824 and 4 May 1825; R. Bretton, ‘Colonel Edward Akroyd’, THAS, 1948, pp.64–7. 8 Factory Inquiry Commission, Supplementary Report...as to the Employment of Children in Factories, 1834, pp.279–80. 9 Cecil Driver, Tory Radical: The life of Richard Oastler, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1946, p.547, 5 March 1831 meeting. 10 Green, Miss Lister, pp.55, 57; Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.493. 11 Factory Inquiry Commission, 1834; J. and W. Priestley of Thorpe, p.323–4; W.H. Rawson. p.324–5; Rawson and Saltmarshe, Bull Close Lane, pp.157– 8. 12 A. Porritt, ‘Richard Oastler’, THAS, 1965, p.27. The term ‘local élite’ is used to refer to the social, political and economic ascendancy of one particular group; see Amanda Vickery, Women of the Local Elite in Lancashire, 1750–c.1825, PhD Thesis, University of London, 1991, ch.1. Here, I refer to the Tory local élite (the Waterhouses and Listers, Priestleys and Edwards, Rawsons, Walkers and Musgraves); a distinct Whig élite (e.g., Rawdon Briggs) coexisted in Halifax, but AL took no interest in it. 13 AL, 26 February 1835; Pigot, Directory, 1834, includes: Rawsons’ Bank; Christopher, coal dealer, Swan Bank; Jeremiah, stuff dyer, Old Lane, stuff manufacturer; Rawson and Saltmarshes, woollen cloth and blanket merchants, and wool staplers; John, stuff mechant and woollen cloth manufacturer,

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Southowram; William Henry, woollen cloth manufatuer, Sowerby Bridge. 14 Pigot, Directory, 1834, p.732. Previous newspapers had not lasted long; the Huddersfield and Halifax Express was Whiggish. 15 AL, 27 February 1831; thanks to Anna Clark for this reference. 16 AL, 2 April 1833. 17 Driver, Oastler, pp.30–3 ff. 18 HG, LXVIII and LXIX, AL’s tolerance (1828–9); Mr Priestley and Mr Saltmarshe signed a petition against it; AL obviously found the ‘fear of being burnt or converted’ rather primitive. 19 John Hargreaves, ‘The Georgian and Early Victorian Church in the Parish of Halifax, 1740–1851’, THAS, 1990. Tony Jowitt, ‘Parliamentary Politics in Halifax, 1832–1847’, Northern History, 1976. Certain tithes had long lapsed; eventually a political compromise was reached. Juliet Barker, The Brontës, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985, p.105. 20 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, pp.321 and 295. HG, LXVI, which notes that William Priestley would not oppose the Vicar (though this report may be misleading). 21 Jowitt, ‘Parliamentary Politics’, pp.186, 198–9. 22 SH:7/ML/AC/22, p.1, 10 June 1833. 23 AL, 11 December 1832; also Presenting, pp.39–40, 65. 24 17 January 1833, quoted in Jowitt, ‘Parliamentary Politics’, p.181. Also AL, 11 December 1832; The Poll Book, Halifax 1833, p.14. 25 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.435, claims AL controlled about 50 votes; but HG, XCXI, 9 August 1837, more reliably suggests AL and AW ‘would not rest till we had about 50’. AL had about 40 tenants in total; see AL, 4 May 1836 (p.233). 26 F.M.L. Thompson, ‘Whigs and Liberals in the West Riding 1830–1860’, English History Review, 1959, pp.215–21, states £50 occupying tenants comprised 20 per cent of the county electorate in 1835; most of the remainder were freeholders. But although a minority of the electorate, £50 lease electors were particularly vulnerable to coercion. In West Riding between the 1834 and 1835 registrations, the electorate increased by 63 per cent from 18,061 to 29,456. Norman Gash, Aristocracy and People: Britain 1815–1865, Edward Arnold, 1979, pp.148–9, argues against exaggerating the importance of the Chandos clause, but, in the light of the AL evidence, is not wholly convincing; see for instance D.C. Moore The Politics of Deference: A Study of the Mid-nineteenth Century English Political System, Harvester Press, Hassocks, 1976. 27 As well as Akroyd’s giant steam-power mill, there was also Baldwins’ stocking worsted and woollen yarn mill near the foot of Old Bank, run by a 12 h.p. steam engine; further down the Hebble there was Holdsworth’s worsted spinning mill, run by a 40 h.p. steam engine; further up the Hebble, Crossley’s carpet factory combined steam (3.5 h.p.) and water (16 h.p.) power; Factory Enquiry Commission, 1834. 28 AL, 22 February 1833. 29 In the 1834 Factory Enquiry Commission Report, of the 296 Yorkshire mill-

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owners only two women are listed—both involved in small rural concerns. 30 AL, 4 January 1833. 31 See Sarah Richardson, Independence and Deference: A Study of the West Riding electorate, 1832–1841, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1995, p.36 on Tory radical paternalism. 32 SH:7/ML/AC/22, pp.20–1. 33 SH:7/ML/AC/22, Memoranda 7 June 1833. 34 For the lack of evidence about small family estates, see Olive Anderson, ‘The Anne Lister papers’, History Workshop Journal, no.49, 1995, p.192. 35 SH:2/SHE/SM/1834/5; see AL, 5 February 1834. 36 SH:2/SHE/SM/1833. 37 FW:120/51, 31 December 1844; he suggested the arrangement started in autumn 1833: ‘Miss Lister Drew rents for her father two years and a half before his death’. Also 1841 Census, Southowram township. 38 HG, VII, 22 January 1818; SH:7/ML/AC/22, 7 June 1833. Much earlier, Listers had lived at Upper Brea. 39 HG, VII and XXX, 1813 and 11 October 1819. Pump was also known as Upper Dove House; SH:2/CM:1814/1&2. 40 Also Samuel Sowden, near Crow Nest estate; and Joseph Hall at Little Marsh. 41 HG, LXXXIII, 31 August and 25 August 1832. SH:7/ML/AC/22, p.1. With the pub went 4 acres. 42 HG, LXXXIII, 3 August 1832. 43 HG, 22 and 27 April 1833. 44 SH:7/ML/AC/22, p.12ff. Very roughly, this adds up to about 320 tenanted acres plus about 3 dozen acres of Shibden Hall itself. 45 See Raphael Samuel, ‘Workshop of the World: Steam power and hand technology in mid-Victorian Britain’, History Workshop Journal, no.3, 1977. 46 The 1841 census records that just one per cent of coal-owners in England and Wales were women, and this percentage was paralleled both regionally and for Halifax. See Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.82. 47 HG, LXVII, 30 September and 13 November 1828. 48 HG, XXXI, 13 September 1819; Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, pp.324, 330, 335, 14 October 1828–11 March 1829; SH:2/CM/1831/1&2. 49 HG, LXXXIII, 21 July 1832. 50 HG, LXXXIII, 9, 22 September 1832; she also learnt that ‘the colliers mean to turn out for an advance’ that is, strike for wages. 51 AL, 26 February and 11 July 1835; Christopher married in 1807 and whether he was not widowed until 1836 remains unclear. 52 AL, 23–29 December 1832; Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, pp.436–7; SH:7/ ML/634, 30 November and 1 December 1832; see Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.69. 53 AL, 22 February 1833. 54 AL, 4 January 1833. 55 AL, 3 May 1833. 56 Dorothy Thompson, The Chartists, Temple Smith, London, 1984, pp.15–24;

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also Dorothy and E.P. Thompson, ‘Halifax as a Chartist Centre’, unpublished typescript, early 1950s, pp.13–14.

5 neighbours: Anne Lister And Ann WALker 1832–33 Euler, Moving Between Worlds, pp.296–7. AL, 6 July and 10 August 1832. AL, 12 August 1832. There were of course a range of less polite phrases, for example, ‘jack’, ‘tommy’; thanks to Helena Whitbread and Martha Vicinus for comment here. See also Clark, ‘Anne Lister’s construction of lesbian identity’, pp.31ff. on cultural references and concealment strategies. 5 AL, 15 August 1832. 6 AL, 17 August 1832; tenant right has a range of meanings, but may here refer to the rights of tenants-at-will. 7 AL, 31 August 1832. 8 AL, 2,3, 5 and 27 September 1832; AL used a cross in the margin to indicate erotic thoughts; thanks to Helena Whitbread for this reference. 9 AL, 28 September 1832. 10 AL, 29 September 1832. 11 AL, 29 and 30 September and 1 October 1832. 12 AL, 27 September 1832. 13 For instance, an Edinburgh libel case brought in 1811 by two boardingschool mistresses accused of ‘improper and criminal conduct’ was in 1819 found by the House of Lords in their favour on the grounds that the ‘crime here alleged has no existence’. 14 AL, 3 September 1832. 15 AL, 1 October 1832. 16 AL, 4 October 1832. ‘Queer’ seems to mean female pudenda; see Whitbread, No Priest, p.55. 17 AL, 4 October 1832. 18 AL, 6 October 1832. 19 AL, 29 September and 8 October 1832; Euler, Between Worlds, pp.327–9. 20 AL, 7 October 1832. 21 AL, 16 and 21 October 1832. 22 AL, 23 October and 21 December 1832. 23 AL, 29 October 1832; it is not clear whether at this stage AL quite understood how much of AW’s property was entailed and how much unentailed. This is hardly surprising, really. 24 AL, 7 November 1832, quoted in Anne Choma, Anne Lister and the Split Self (1791–1840): A Critical Study of her Diaries, MA thesis, University of Leeds, 1994, p.12. 25 SH:7/ML/619/1, probably 3 November 1832; SH:7/ML/628/1, received 13 November 1832. 26 SH:7/ML/625, 727 and 632/1, 9, 12 and c.20 November 1832. 27 AL, 6 December 1832; italics added.

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1 2 3 4

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28 AL, 8 December 1832. ‘Grubble’ (which perhaps also included caress or fondle) apparently became obsolete by 1719. 29 AL, 25 November 1832. 30 AL, 13 December 1832. 31 AL, 14 December 1832. 32 AL, 17 December 1832. 33 AL, 19 December 1832. 34 AL, 22–3 December 1832; among AL’s other concerns she kindly helped John Booth’s daughter Charlotte to go ‘a reading, writing and accounts school’ and learn to become a dressmaker. 35 AL, 25 December 1832. (Also SH:7/ML/644/1, 24 December 1832) 36 SH:7/ML/646/1 and AL, 29 December 1832. 37 AL, 31 December 1832. 38 AL, 8 January 1833; also 10 January 1833. 39 AL, 11 January 1833; SH:7/ML/646, 6 January 1833; CN:103, 11 January 1833. 40 CN:103, 11 January 1833. 41 AL, 20 and 21 January 1833. 42 AL, 16 February 1833. 43 Captain Sutherland’s access to his family’s West Indies estates is not clear. 44 AL, 18 February 1833. Rumble: back part of carriage for luggage or passengers. 45 AL, 2 April 1833. 46 AL, 3 April 1833. 47 AL, 3 May 1833; the rift was ostensibly over another issue. 48 AL, 8 May 1833; even élite York doctors were dependent upon the patronage of their patients. And as a skilled medical practitioner, Dr Belcombe might not want to acknowledge his specialist knowledge here, for fear of the information spreading; I am grateful to Martha Vicinus for this comment. 49 For example, Charlotte Booth was to go to Miss Hebden, dressmaker, AL, 14 June 1833; see n.34. 50 AL, 18 June 1833. Two months later, she was visited in Paris by John Lister to whom she offered crushingly patronizing advice about his medical career and refused to shake hands, for she was ‘not on terms with his father’s family’, Thomas of Virginia. 51 RAM:30, ‘Anne’s first visit to Copenhagen, 1833’, typescript, p.4. 52 AL, 8–9 August 1833. 53 AL, 11, 23 and 30 October 1833. 54 HG, LXXXVII, 19–30 November 1833 and 12 December 1833; also RAM:68. 55 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.463, AL to aunt, 15 December 1833; and AL, 21 December 1833 (letter to Lady Stuart).

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note on the text 1 Total words of original diaries for these 2.5 years: 459,000 (see Preface endnote 24). Diary text (excluding editorial comment and other manuscript material) = 48,000 i.e., roughly 10 per cent selection. 2 However Tuesday 1 March 1836 is a complete entry (473 words); March 1836 (approximately 23,500 words) is presented fairly fully here (5,700 words = c. 25 per cent selection). A copy of this transcript is on deposit at Calderdale District Archives; see Anne Lister Research Directory, p.10. 3 Elipses are not used at the start or end of each daily entry; where omissions are major these are indicated in the endnotes. 4 However Captain Sutherland’s handwriting is probably worse: see illustration on p.82. 5 Based upon R.F. Hunnisett, Editing Records for Publication, British Records Association, 1977, chapter 3 on Transcripts, pp.24–6; abbreviated words have been extended silently; most marginalia have been omitted. I am grateful to Alan Betteridge for this reference. 6 As the letter-by-letter code is written without punctuation, I have broadly followed the same informal punctuation style of the rest of the diaries. 7 Where AL just made a trivial, unintended slip (e.g., one or two letters) square brackets have not been used to mark the correction, unless the suggested amendment might alter the meaning; the use of ‘sic’ has also been kept to a minimum. 8 Where AL underlined a word of phrase for emphasis, this has usually been retained. For clarity, newspaper titles have also been underlined. 9 See note 2 above. 10 Strictly speaking 26 volumes, plus early loose fragments. See The Anne Lister Research Directory. 11 See John Wain, The Journals of James Boswell 1760–1795, London, 1990, for a similar presentation. However I have purposely retained a strict chronological structure (the only minor exception being the positioning of letters by date received rather than date of writing). Other commentators on the 1830s (e.g., Euler, Moving Between Worlds) have presented their material thematically; however, my belief is that AL’s world comprised a fairly organic whole, underpinned by her landed status; for instance, her involvement in local electoral politics can only be fully analyzed once AW’s kinship networks are understood. See Afterword for further discussion.

the Anne Lister diAries And other Writings JAnuAry 1834 1 Presumably, February 1832, nearly 11 months ago. 2 The implication is that Ainsworth was a fortune-hunter and the Sutherlands genuinely protective of AW. 3 Probably travel abroad but perhaps to escape the relationship. 4 Initially, to let the house but not the land (33 DW: about 22 acres).

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5 The implication was that he would treat AW as a mental patient under the guise of treating a physical illness. 6 The Aire and Calder Navigation company opened the Knottingley and Goole Canal in 1826, since when Goole and its docks had mushroomed as an inland port. 7 Letting the Lidgate land. 8 Exactly how much Dr Belcombe and his sister deduced of the nature of AL’s relationship with AW is, of course, not yet clear. 9 AL may not have fully distinguished yet between AW’s unentailed property which she was free to bequeath, and her entailed. Presumably the ‘life estate’ is an oblique reference to herself but might possibly be a smokescreen to confuse AW’s elderly aunt with legal jargon. 10 Jeremy’s small properties locally included Butterworth End, and (in Northowram township) Lee Lane and James Holt’s High Royd.

februAry 1834 1 An old York friend of AL. 2 The implications seems to be some link between mental ‘derangements’ and menstrual irregularity. 3 Presumably they had gone down very steep Old Bank, which is quickest route. 4 Charles Priestley was probably the brother of Lea Priestley, wife of Henry Edwards i.e. they were brothers-in-law. 5 Due to the coolness between the Walkers and Edwards over property etc. 6 AW’s relatives-in-law. 7 For details of lease, see p.50. 8 Cabinet-maker, tenant of Park Farm; see p.51 and Appendix. 9 Dr Belcombe’s wife. 10 Insane, mad, of unsound mind. 11 Presumably, interfering relatives. 12 James was one of AW’s servants. 13 A local coal operator. 14 Also 18 February 1834: AW was to make no new acquaintances without AL’s introducing her. 15 AW’s ‘cousin’ (menstruation) came, ‘the first time this twelve-month’. 16 A light carriage. 17 The meaning of the ‘sixpence’ reference is unclear. 18 Significantly in this unorthodox relationship the separation of the spheres into masculine and feminine is very marked.

MArch 1834 1 See AL, 18 February and 4 March 1834.

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2 Tabitha Bagnold was postmistress at Halifax Post Office. 3 HG, LXXXVIII, 4 March 1834. 4 AL’s syntax is again confused, and it is still unclear exactly what did take place. 5 Exact syntax and meaning unclear. 6 Partly this was genuine affection for her aunt; and partly AL tried to stress her lifelong links with Shibden by erasing her mother (and now AW) in favour of Aunt Anne. 7 Unclear relationship to the main Akroyd factories. 8 Syntax and meaning is not completely clear here. 9 As with the ring ceremony, so much is at stake for AL in this church service that her coded writing grows slightly confused.

APriL 1834 1 Charlotte Norcliffe was part of AL’s old intimate circle of female friends; see Whitbread, No Priest, p.147ff. 2 Become more confident socially. 3 Out of her class, away from her appointed lot. 4 Owing to the gaps in the CN correspondence, it is difficult to guage how independently of AL AW acted. 5 This suggests the heavy reliance of landowners upon lawyers, here to bid for property. (Also RP knew AL had nothing at Rawson’s bank, possibly through Mr Rawson.) 6 This clearly suggests how, under the guise of conventional (and romantic) friendship among women, a lesbian sexual relationship was possible, so long as conducted discreetly. 7 There were then four major banks in Halifax; what is odd is that AW should keep money with Rawdon Briggs and Sons (Whig) rather than with Rawson and Co (Tory). Possibly this was due less to politics than to kinship animosities.

MAy 1834 1 HG, LXXXVIII, 21 April–13 October 1834. The architect was Bradley, probably William, who was probably the son of Thomas Bradley, designer of Crow Nest. Part of AL’s ideas were modelled on Micklegate, York. 2 Perhaps neither his sister Mariana nor the Norcliffes had gossiped to him, and it remains unclear exactly what he thought. 3 Her marriage to Charles Lawton. 4 AL makes no comment on this; yet it was one of the few social occasions, combining business with pleasure, when gender was explicitly indicated. AL looked above such snubs, but, subconsciously, it may have grated. 5 Miss Mosey was a friend of Marian.

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6 Presumably the Walkers’ trade was finally given up by around 1830 on John’s death. 7 Probably new footman. 8 Probably sold it to a manufacturer who used the land to build mills. 9 A daguerrotype was taken by John Waterhouse, showing women with bonnets and parasols; had she attended, this would have provided a first and only photograph of AL. This ceremony makes interesting contrast with the laying of the casino stone (see pp.190–3), a public ceremony where AL had full control and was not excluded by gender. 10 In fact, she probably had counted upon the income from the sale. 11 Mr Brown seems to occupy the socially ambiguous role of tutor (or governess). For example, he has to help AW with her tapestry. 12 Widowed mother of Mariana, Steph, Mrs Milne and the other Belcombe daughters. 13 I am grateful to Martha Vicinus for comment here. See Neighbours note 13 for reference to the Edinburgh case.

June–August 1834 1 These months are presented succinctly here; see ‘Note on Text’. See also Green, Miss Lister, chapter 15, ‘Switzerland Revisited’; also Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, chapter 19. 2 The Dictionary of National Biography does not give Lord Stuart de Rothesay’s occupation between Paris (1815–30) and St Petersburg (1841–5). 3 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, pp.470–1, 13 June 1834. 4 For example, AL, 26 June 1834. 5 RAM: 69 and AL, 28 August 1834.

sePteMber 1834 1 AW’s Lidgate tenant was Mr Lamplaugh Hird, who took the house and land for 10 years at £100 p.a. 2 AW’s cousin Mary. 3 Sempstresses rather than regular dressmakers. 4 Church attendance in an appropriate pew represented a key opportunity for AL and AW to present themselves as a respectable household. 5 AW seems to have introduced backgammon into Shibden: it was one thing she tended to do better than AL. 6 Obviously Uncle Henry remained unhappy about Elizabeth’s 1831 settlement; see ‘Walkers of Crow Nest’. 7 It is unclear who Mrs Clarke was but she may possibly have been John Walker’s widow, now remarried. 8 The Swan Bank colliery drove horizontal shafts into the hillside; from Marsh and Law Hill, tiny vertical pits were sunk. See Liddington, ‘Mining’.

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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

As the details are so complex, I have excluded most of the Staups and other similar small mining developments. Horizontal passage in the mine. That is, four colliers will get about two-thirds of an acre. Implies that AL and AW are planning another journey. Sometimes spelled as Brearley. Bottomley’s house, being so high up, did not have access to water. It is unclear exactly how much of AL’s motive was revenge on the Rawsons (for example, price-cutting war) and how much economic. Presumably New Bank. See Sarah Stickney Ellis, Family Secrets, or Hints to Those Who Would Make the Home Happy, Fisher, Son and Co, 1841, London, p.7. ‘The books’ were presumably Bibles and Prayer Books. Their first son, George Sackville, was named after his father; the second was named after his mother’s father and brother. AL seems confused as to whether it is the Mytholm Farm pew or the Stag’s Head pew. Presumably this is a snub, rather like taking the light bulbs out of the house? Ann’s entailed property would of course go on her death to the Sutherlands anyway; so by delaying or obscuring the division of the joint property, they were presumably hoping to benefit from Ann’s regular income stream (probably especially from the entailed property).

october 1834 1 Home of William Henry and Mary Rawson’s, AW’s cousin. 2 Unclear where Mrs Rawson’s voice changes to AL’s. 3 Mary Rawson, daughter of W. H. and Mary Rawson, was her granddaughter. This conversation is a rare example of AL recording exactly the Halifax gossip about AW going to live at Shibden. It is particularly interesting because we know that the younger Rawsons knew AL of old (see ‘Diarist and Heiress’), yet the conversation still is framed in cosy terms of not upsetting the relatives. Did 80-year-old Mrs Rawson share her children’s knowledge? was she really satisfied with AL’s assurances? Or, more likely, did she still harbour suspicions but was unable to name them? 4 AW, feeling supplanted by this other young relative, sensed there was no going back: she had committed herself now. The finality of this must have seemed frightening. 5 Pickels undertook various jobs. 6 This concerned coal rivalry with Stocks in Northowram. Also possibly a sense of AL wanting to reclaim old Shibden land: her Lister ancestors had lived at Upper Brea. 7 AL was right: the canal at Sowerby Bridge was reopened in 1996 but only after a great deal of work. 8 AL was not on the sub-committee, though the Listers had canal shares. But

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11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

interestingly AL does not even seem to consider this gender exclusion an issue, at least not consciously in her diary. Undoubtedly concerning the division of the joint estate. The administration account concerned the management and disposal of the joint Walker property. Mrs Clark (or Clarke) may, as noted, be John Walker’s widow remarried. A leading businessman; see May 1834 for AW’s loan to AL for the Staups purchase. Presumably from Mrs Clark. Between Lightcliffe and Norwood Green; in other words, the Sutherlands also had a reason to distrust the Rawsons. Presumably a reference to AL’s purchase of Staups. This rather ingeniously elides events and conversations over a few years into a seamless narrative. Possible dictionary meaning (small, neat, dainty, spruce) unhelpful here. Beyond Harper Cliff wood, near Norwood Green. Threat of seizure of goods belonging to tenants. Exactly which housekeeping expenses this covered is unclear. See ‘Walkers of Crow Nest’, p.37. HXT:156 and 157, and HXT:228 etc for rateable values in key townships. However, it is difficult to gain a very clear picture of the ownership patterns here, especially the isolated mines. It is unclear why the Halifax property division was more difficult. It may be because rising land prices or possibly because the canal had sliced through some of the land.

noveMber 1834 1 Caroline was the daughter of AW’s cousin Mary. 2 AW’s cousin (née Anne Waterhouse) on her mother’s side. 3 Another relative; her husband was to stand as the Radical candidate for Halifax in the 1835 election; see pp.138–43. 4 On the Day of Judgment. 5 Unclear whether coal only goes two-thirds of the way up the canal, or coal is two-thirds of the business on the canal. 6 Was this just the give and take of sharing a household, or did AW deeply resented AL’s long hours spent writing? 7 Presumably three friends of AW. 8 The Priestleys still do not like AW moving in with AL and obviously remain very suspicious of AL’s motives. Mrs Priestley was of course one of the few neighbours and relations who had known AL very well over decades; additionally, her husband, AW’s cousin, remained a trustee of her father’s estate. 9 See ‘Halifax’ section, p.51; also AL, 23 November 1834, for discussion of John Pearson’s rent of Mytholm Farm (£48„10s) which may well be another example of faggot-vote-making.

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10 See Gash, Aristocracy and People, pp.156–60, 168–70 and 187–91; and Thompson, The Chartists, chap. 1. 11 Jowitt, ‘Parliamentary Politics’, p.182: at a meeting on 22 November 1834 the Radicals and Whigs formed an electoral alliance against the Tories. 12 Possibly the same family as AW’s relatives. 13 I have not yet been able to trace this ‘colliery account’; see Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.79. 14 This involved Gray searching for the deed by which AW’s father bequeathed part of High Sunderland to Priestley. 15 That is, the land would be divided into two according to either: a) which land adjoined the Cliff-hill and Crow-nest estates, or: b) by the value of the land, irrespective of where it lay, to be apportioned by lot.

deceMber 1834 1 Also Wortley was more likely to be elected this time. At the 1832 election there were 4 candidates for 2 seats; for 1835 there were 3 candidates (Rawdon Briggs MP was not standing again). 2 Either the Halifax Whig MP or his father. 3 A formal counting of individual votes. 4 The voting seems to have been mainly Tory versus Whig, except for Tory entrepreneurs like W.H. Rawson. 5 Ironically, of course, Protheroe was brother-in-law of John Waterhouse and so related to the Rawsons, Musgraves and Edwards. 6 HG, 3 January 1835, ‘To The Electors of the Borough of Halifax’, 8 December 1834. 7 AL, 6 December 1834; John Greenwood qualified for the vote through his ‘House and Ropery’ at Northgate; Register of Electors for the Borough of Halifax, Halifax 1835. 8 Jeremy seemed feeble in supporting Marian, as if he often allowed AL to bully him now. 9 Plasterer, ‘House and shop’, Northgate, Register of Electors, 1835. 10 Presumably, break off the engagement. 11 Passage driven or excavated horizontally, often in the direction of the coal seam. 12 He was of course ironically related through marriage to the Radical candidate, Protheroe, an example of the narrow social class from which most parliamentary candidates were still drawn. 13 ‘The Whig Canvass’ (e.g., plumping, exclusive dealing), John Edwards, 26 December 1834, in HG, 3 January 1835.

JAnuAry 1835 1 HG, 10 January 1835, p.22; Ben Wilson, The Struggles of an old Chartist,

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17

18

19

Halifax, 1887, p.2. Looks like A.B., but must surely be John Abbott. HG, 1 October 1834 gave these figures as 259, 295 and 273 respectively. A tenant but not a borough elector. Wilson, Struggles, p.2. Presumably the Staups’ vendor’s lawyer. One of his wife’s relatives of course. HG, 10 January 1835; Jowitt, ‘Parliamentary politics’, p.183. See Gash, Politics in the Age of Peel: A study in the technique of parliamentary representation 1830–1850, Longmans Green, London, 1953, chaps 5, 6 and 8. Gash is an old apologist for the 1830s electoral dramas. More recently Frank O’Gorman, ‘Campaign Rituals and ceremonies: the social meaning of elections in England 1780–1860’, Past and Present, 135, 1992, extends this, even attempting to argue that colourful electoral violence stimulated much-needed jobs: ‘Riots and disturbances could provide a welcome boost for certain local businesses: glaziers, builders, carpenters and doctors. The list is endless’. Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.480. There was also another attack on a servant, AL, 16 January 1834. Euler, Moving Between Worlds, pp.272–3 suggests: ‘Unable to attack the two ladies for their political activity, someone had apparently tried to harass them on the basis of their lesbian sexuality’. Yes: but surely the timing of the lampoon suggests rather that it was their lesbian sexuality that was being deployed symbolically to persuade them to curtail their political activity? Martha Vicinus notes the significance of the choice of name: ‘Tommy’ was a popular libertine name for a Sapphic woman or lesbian. AL, 14 January 1835, letter to Lady Stuart de Rothesay. AL, 14 January 1835. Poll books recorded how each elector had voted. Halifax Borough Election: the Poll Book, Hartley and Walker, Halifax 1835. Inside and outside servants. Probably Thomas Greenwood of Park Farm rather than John, the ropemaker. AL’s many other business options included the Spiggs coal near her new Staups land; also, plans for the more ambitious colliery, Listerwick, near Pump. HG, 17 January 1835, p.27; see also SH:7/ML/832, from James Keating, 19 January 1835. Again, this surely has to be interpreted as a mix of political and personal; contrast Richardson, Independence and Deference, p.126, which interprets it merely as an anti-Tory insertion. In his apology, the HG editor claimed the ‘insertion which has offended the family of Shibden Hall’ had been copied from the Whiggish York Chronicle, and that ‘being a Stranger in the neighbourhood of Halifax, I was quite unaware of its malicious design’, SH:7/ML/832, 19 January 1835; AL had apparently threatened to horsewhip the man concerned. At the election in York, a Tory had finally managed to defeat a Whig candidate. Halifax and York Whigs would be in regular contact (e.g.,

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through such Radicals as Michael Stocks, one-time JP). AL’s York circle was of course predominantly Tory. It is speculation, but perhaps Halifax electoral resentment of AL and AW reached anti-Tory York circles—where a Whiggish wag dreamt up this jape. See Afterword for further discussion of this key theme. 20 Francis Roper, ironmonger, voted for Wood and Wortley; Francis and William Nicholson, drapers, both voted for Wortley. It looks as if AL and AW patronized Tory shops, but perhaps were served by young assistants with other political sympathies.

februAry 1835 1 Among the complications was ‘Paterson’s Bond’ which, for simplicity, I have omitted. 2 Presumably, complaining about the election. 3 CN:103/1–4, 20 February 1835; Sutherland was probably not a Tory, but the two men had significantly established a friendship. 4 AL may have wished to hide her menstruation from AW because it represented a sign of her femaleness. 5 Small horse. 6 That is, part of AW’s joint property. 7 Probably refering to the contest for the House of Commons Speaker. 8 Probably refering to Whig activity in the registration revision courts; the Tories put their efforts into winning back the county, neglecting the borough. Also, the Lichfield House compact brought together the Whigs, Radicals and O’Connell’s Irish, to oppose Peel’s Tories. 9 AL tended in her correspondence to play up her interest in politics in order to charm Lady Stuart, whose nephew was now an MP. However AL’s diaries give a different impression of her priorities (that is, mining). 10 Whiggish exclusive dealing is here presented as the reverse side of rural Tory landowner pressure on tenants (that is, urban working-class shoppers could put effective pressure on shop-keeper voters). 11 See AL 23 January 1835, note 19; there now seems absolutely no doubt that AL and AW had become an subject of York gossip (probably initially Whiggish, but now spilling over into some Tory circles). 12 With Hinscliffe and Stocks, who had presumably leased some of the Walker coal pits. 13 For example, church and tithe reform. 14 Henry Priestley, whose sister had married Henry Edwards, was thus doubly related to AW. 15 PRO, C106/60, AL’s rough jottings, 27 February 1835.

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MArch 1835 1 The details of this disagreement about are unclear. Skin-pits were used during dressing and tanning hides and leather. 2 See note 7 above. 3 An open carriage. 4 An official examination of the votes cast at the election, in order to eliminate any invalid votes and confirm the accuracy of the result. The Halifax Poll Book, 1835 records, for instance, 7 ‘electors who voted but whose votes were rejected’, 6 with ‘votes tendered but not taken’, etc. The expense involved in a disputed election was considerable, Gash, Politics, p.133. 5 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.480–1, 5 March 1835; letter refered to only briefly in diary. 6 Possibly AL and AW were ‘correcting’ the figures to make AW’s coal income seem lower than it really was. 7 See ‘Walkers of Crow Nest’. 8 This is not completely clear. AW said she ‘had left all to Sackville’; but her entailed property would go to him anyway (unless AW had an heir). And, because of AL’s life interest in AW’s unentailed property, Sackville would inherit this only after AL’s death. So Aunt Walker’s only hope for keeping AW’s property within the family was for AW to leave AL, marry and produce an heir. A rather vain hope. 9 That is, contiguity. 10 Here and elsewhere, AL’s diary is candid but—tantalisingly—not reflective or analytical of the implications. 11 The original letter has not been traced but, insofar as it was personal more than political, it is a further example of the limited language available for criticising a lesbian seduction. 12 A rare sign of other Tory élite women donors. Significantly AL aligns herself with male donors. 13 This conversation arguably falls within the traditional mode of female patronage politics, rather than seeing AL as a attending political ‘meetings’, as suggested by Euler, Moving Between Worlds, pp.255–6. 14 AL saw coal mine labour in terms of adult male colliers; within this traditional structure, it might be perfectly possible for AL not to ‘know’ that her colliers were using child labour in her mines. See Liddington, ‘Mining’.

APriL 1835 1 See ‘Listers of Shibden Hall’, note 17. 2 CN:103, an unsigned draft (or copy) of the letter. 3 Suggesting Uncle James had not left Marian any Shibden property as he knew she was unbusinesslike. 4 A Trial for Libel...at York Spring Assizes....Also the Verdict of a Trial for Assault..., Halifax 1835. Among those involved were Parker and Adam, William

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8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Norris, Robert Wainhouse, Christopher Rawson, William Briggs. Thanks to Dorothy Thompson for this reference. This deed transferred Elizabeth’s unentailed property, at least part of which AW might have expected to inherit, to Captain Sutherland. See ‘Neighbours’, note 52. Parker had of course to be discreet with such influential clients, but, with AL seeming to speak for AW, he may well have had some doubts about AL’s motives. In particular, the controversial appropriation issue (Clause 147) in the Irish Church Bill. The Anglican nurseryman Throp seems almost a caricature of the deferential Tory non-voter. Juliet Barker, The Brontës, 1994 and Phoenix 1995, p.222. Besides the division of the joint property, there was also the complex dispute with William Priestley and his brother, involving checking the wills of AW’s grandfather and uncle. What may have made him change his mind was not what he knew, but what York society now knew him to know. One of AW’s servants. In his fury he even misdated the letter as 18 April 1834; but it must surely have been written in April 1835. Presumably, a reference to 21 December 1834. Possibly breastfeeding 6-month-old John; also, she was pregnant again. This was rather disingenuous, as he has had extensive correspondence with his lawyers in the past concerning the Walker property. CN:103. He also opposed repealing the Corn Laws, etc. Presumably Little Marsh. Joseph’s son? Parents of Catherine Rawson.

MAy 1835 1 HG, CXIII; Captain Dearden of Hollins Hall, Warley township, became a JP in 1801; his son John became a JP in 1820. 2 AL is surely misleading Pearson here. 3 A public function room, for dancing or music; this passage is not legible. 4 The Poll Book for the Knight of the Shire, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, John Stansfield, Wakefield 1835. 5 Hipperholme and Brighouse township. 6 Probably, hoax, practical joke. 7 At such public occasions gender identities were becoming particularly distinct; women were presumably invited to the ball but not the dinner. See Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780–1850, Hutchinson, London, 1987, pp.445–9 and plate 31. 8 Juliet Barker, The Brontës, p.223.

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9 He voted through his ownership of High Roydes, Northowram. Voting was organised by township, with three polling booths in Halifax. 10 9,066 to 6,259 votes. 11 The Poll, 1835; Captain Sutherland, entitled to vote locally, also did not vote. Samuel Washington’s vote was rejected on a technicality (though this may have been his father). It is difficult to be certain that a voter listed with the same name as AL’s tenant is the same person (for example, John Oates’s and William Hardcastle’s addresses are confusing). 12 Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.481, 26 May 1835. (The quotation is taken from the second page of the letter; the illustration shows the first page.) 13 The West Riding Reform and Registration Association took on permanent form in 1835; Thompson, ‘Whigs and Liberals’. p.220. 14 The Select Committee on Bribery at Elections, 1835, pp.209–10. Thanks to John Hargreaves for this reference. 15 Within the Southowram township, Morpeth polled 2–3 times as many votes as Wortley; Richardson, Independence and Deference, p.223 notes Shibden Hall estate as ‘but a speck of blue in a vast sea of orange territory’.

June 1835 1 It sounds as if Captain Sutherland had not yet appreciated the value of even tiny local coal pits. 2 CN:103. 3 Each would take one ‘contiguity’ lot and, of the other two lots, the Sutherlands would take Lot 2 and AW Lot 1 (with Bouldshaw farm and coal being taken from Lot 2 and given to AW’s Lot 1). 4 SH:7/ML/854/2 (draft in AL’s handwriting), identical to CN:103/1–4 (AW’s handwriting). 5 SH:7/ML/854/1 (AL’s rough draft). 6 For AL, inheritance issues carried greater significance than political influence, and Mr Abbott threatened the former. To her, party politics was merely one skein within the broad and complex fabric of the landed interest (though other writers on AL, by focusing on election times, have tended to neglect this).

JuLy 1835 1 Jeremy had voted for Wortley, but he did not share his daughter’s political hardness. 2 Presumably Elizabeth Clarke who married Edward Rawson in 1831; possibly this provides a link to the Clarkes whom AW had found so troublesome. 3 The implication is that it is this AL speaking. 4 AL also arranged to raise George Naylor’s rent slightly so he had a vote in the county, and urged him to get registered; Euler, Moving between Worlds.

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5 Presumably Marian was unaware the extent to which AW was bankrolling AL. 6 Also, a visit to Eliza Raine in York revealed her to be worse: she ‘spits perpetually’ and ‘is so dirty and obstreporous’ 7 Illegible word. 8 The dependence of lawyers upon their landed clients is clearly indicated again here. 9 CN:103/1–4. AL thought she had the right to take deeds to SH as she had ‘married’ AW; but Sutherland, not recognising such a marriage, felt therefore he had grounds for bitter complaint.

August 1835 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

For instance, AL, 30 July 1835 about some estimates. Probably a relative. HG, XCIV, 3 August 1835. RAM:70. Probably an explanatory appendix. See Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.72. Chequer may have been where colliers were paid rather than a pub. For stone-carting (and possibly a refund on his rent: see July note 4 above). For instance, SH:7/ML/AC/25, 24 August and 2 September 1835. Lawrence Husband became AL’s clerk-of-works. Mr Patchett worked at Rawson’s Bank. If the Sutherlands were willing.

sePteMber 1835 1 Presumably his lease was coming up for renewal. 2 Evan Charles was born on 12 October 1835; this was at least her fifth pregnancy. 3 Contrast the canal meeting where AL could hardly speak; or political dinners which she could scarcely attend at all. This ceremony lay very much within acceptable female separate spheres (although still daring, given the ‘marriage’ announcement) and AL used the occasion to naturalise their relationship; see Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, ch.10. 4 It seems Parker had behaved properly, and AL and AW’s suspicion was perhaps mainly because of the 1831 affair.

october 1835 1 AL, 4 October 1835. 2 HG, XCVI, 14 October 1835.

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3 HG, 24 October 1835 by FWC (probably William Craven). 4 Probably, timber joists constructed for support.

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noveMber 1835 1 2 3 4

As a new tenant, at Barrowclough Cottage, Southowram. This may be Jonathan Akroyd, the Whig manufacturer. Camblet is a cheap coarse rain-resistant worsted cloth. The list was fairly predictable—except that it was an urban list, there being no Edwardses or Priestleys; and AL was undoubtly displeased to see Mr Abbott’s name.

deceMber 1835 1 This is another example of AL’s genuine consideration for her tenants and others. 2 See John Walker’s will, p.33–4 and 36–7. 3 AW only had such property as a life-tenant; see n.2 above. Understandably, this was a very sensitive inheritance issue for AL: she was better placed concerning AW’s non-entailed property. 4 Father, of course, of John and James Stuart Wortley; the family was involved in coal mining on a large scale. 5 Not a lucrative toll bar; however it is an interesting inclusion in the subtle negotiation between tenant and landowner. 6 The 1841 census records Joseph and his wife Hannah still at Whiskum Cottage, with 20-year-old Martha (a weaver), 20-year-old Alfred (also a coal miner), and 4 younger children, including 5-year-old Thomas. 7 The implication may be that tenants were asked to sign their lease without reading it. 8 Presumably, AL objected to Bradford rather than Halifax, partly because it would distance the investment doubly from their land and estates. As always, she was torn between her need for a high cash return on her capital, and her need as a member of the gentry to keep a dignified distance from ‘trade’.

JAnuAry 1836 1 SH:7/ML/AC/26, 1 January 1836. 2 The argument was ostensibly about decorated (probably crested) livery buttons worn by footmen travelling with the carriage. 3 While it is difficult to follow this quarrel about livery and the carriage in all its detail, the broad outlines are clear. 4 Precise meaning unclear, though the implications are bizarre. 5 SH:7/ML/AC/26, extracts.

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februAry 1836 1 Probably setting in order. 2 Baskets for coal. 3 Extracts from SH:7/ML/AC/26. It is difficult to give a complete financial profile of the estate c 1836 because of the gaps in the Shibden accounts (SH:1/SHA and SH:2/SHE). However, SH:2/SHE/21 for 1836 is useful, suggesting that the estate still relied on traditional sources of income; nevertheless some changes are apparent, including the rising price of land plus stone and coal, and the increased importance of brewing and workshops. 4 SH:1/SH/1836/1/a—for ‘the making, embanking & puddling of a large reservoir in the ground below Shibden Hall...’ Despite being called a ‘meer’, AL’s intention was to use its water-power.

MArch 1836 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15

SH:3/FN/30/4. Complete day’s entry of 472 words. Probably Thomas, Park Farm tenant. AL seemed wary of a tenant who was too ‘blue’. Presumably this was because Northgate would need to rely on Whig-Radical custom to make the business profitable. He was also the Rawsons’ coal steward. Presumably drink rather than their relationship. Halifax, though a parliamentary borough, was not incorporated till 1848. In the 1830s many of the improvements in Halifax township itself (e.g., roads, pavements, street lighting) did not extend beyond the Hebble (i.e., into Southowram township). As a result, areas like Caddy Fields became notorious slums. Also, her business letters have a long gap February–June 1836, SH:7/ ML/C/3. Similarly, AL’s general correspondence is oddly thin for March 1836, and may have been weeded. AL’s tenant, Barrowclough Cottage, Marsh. Caddy Fields was later identified by William Ranger, Report to the General Board of Health into...the Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of.. Northowram and Southowram, London, 1850. Against whom witnesses would be prepared to swear in court. A counterfeit, sham, ‘dummy’, a person of no substance. It seems odd for a solicitor to suggest such rough illegality. Perhaps it is best understood in terms of the heightened political tensions after the 1835 elections and the old Tory élite’s still wanting to assert its right to take the law into its own hands (as they would with, say, rural poachers). This tiny isolated pit was later visited by Commissioner Scriven; see Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.80. SH:7/ML/AC/26, 16 March and 2 and 14 April 1836, for instance.

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16 17 18 19

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20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

33

34

35 36 37 38

AW had been searching through old church registers. Presumably in AW’s unentailed property. Presumably still Mr Abbott. It seems Gray is, understandably, fudging this controversial ‘entire management’ issue; he must surely have picked up the York newspaper ‘marriage announcement’ gossip. Probably a registry of wills held in York. Presumably, meaning the life-interest in Shibden would be settled on an heir incapable of managing the property. The reference to ‘if she continues quite well’ probably refers to AW’s sanity, with which Dr Belcombe was familiar. Whether the York doctor and lawyer could—or would—have discussed such delicate matters is unclear. It seems AL genuinely weighed her real affection for AW alongside the property implications. Implying that AL was reading from her diary. Presumably, without the people who had been put up to poison the well being heavily fined. Presumably very masculine, practical clothes but probably not trousers (AL remained on the female side of cross-dressing). The deferential nurseryman based near Water Lane. To provide coal for. Such discussions seemed to represent the nearest either AW or AL came to direct involvement in textile manufacturing. A thick viscous liquid, produced in making coal gas. Probably a miner from Pineberry Hill, Southowram Bank; and a ‘farmer’ from Stoneyfield, near Stoney Royd; 1841 census, Southowram township. One of many Jenkinsons living at Caddy Field. Solicitor, coroner and Whig (rather than a Radical like his father: see Jan 1835, note 19), whose brother ran the family coal business at the top of Shibden valley; AW had taken as hard a line as AL in coercing her tenants to vote Tory. Adams called as witness Washington, whose family had been agent for ‘Mr Walker’s family these 30 years’; cross-examined by Stocks, he admits he himself had been steward only 7 years. Other witnesses included an old man who said the public had fetched water from the well for above 70 years; and Lucy Field who had ‘known this well above 60 years’ as a public well. Edwin Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain was not published till 1842; but already the 1831–2 cholera epidemic had raised worrying concerns about public health; Stocks would doubtless know of these. Probably a miner living beyond Stoney Royd at Siddal Hall. Here anti-Irish imagery was deployed, but the real target was surely his Toryism; Barker, Brontës, p.270. Here, the effigy-instigators perhaps targeted both politics and sexuality; see Afterword for discussion of this. Presumably Joseph Mann. The Walkers of Walterclough were a distant and less successful branch

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41 42 43 44

of AW’s family; see ‘Walkers’, n.12. Perhaps part of the Water-lane well controversy stemmed from the effect the canal had on draining water out of the Caddy Fields area. ‘Stinking asa’, devil’s dirt, devil’s dung. Perhaps Whitworth told Illingworth, who was involved with AW’s coalmining, but was also the Rawson’s coal steward (in other words, an industrial double agent)? This does not seem to be recorded as such in SH:7/ML/AC/26. Again, business correspondence seems oddly thin for March 1836, suggesting it may have been weeded or transferred elsewhere. Possibly part of AW’s remorse was a feeling of religious guilt for the death of her little nephew. AL of course remained much more sanguine than Marian, for whom their father’s death carried far greater significance. Not much that Jubb could say, given he was probably also doctor to some of the Rawsons.

APriL 1836 1 AL paid her many bills, and received 20 sovereigns from AW, SH:7/ML/ AC/26, 2 April 1836. 2 Perhaps to assuage AW’s feelings of guilt about her will. 3 Who may have laid out the body with the help of Sharp; there was also ‘The Woman who makes the Shroud’, SH:3/FN/30/1. 4 To Lady Stuart de Rothesay, Lady Stuart and Lady Vere Cameron; followed by letters to Mariana Lawton and Isabella Norcliffe. 5 SH:3/FN/30/1 lists the funeral groups (bearers, mutes, tenants, old servants etc) noting which were to have gloves, scarves and biscuits. 6 SH:7/ML/AC/26, 4 April 1836: ‘Paid to Marian in a/c of what may be due to her on my father’s account out of the estate—£100.0.0.’ It perhaps represented what AL thought Marian was entitled to out of their father’s rents. 7 SH:3/FN/30/1; in the lengthy list of names, that of Sowden is absent. 8 The word is scarcely legible but, if ‘company’, it probably refers to Marian’s Halifax friends rather than just Mr Abbott. 9 Newspapers had scarcely proved a friendly medium for AL and AW: the fake marriage announcement was followed by the report of the Water-lane well court case. But AL was determined on retaliation. 10 Since this must refer to AW’s unentailed property, the effect would presumably be to reunite the whole Walker estate after the deaths of AW and AL and for it to go to the Sutherlands. 11 In the end, she did not. 12 See also Liddington, ‘Mining’, note 60. 13 Undoubtedly illness, a nervous breakdown or ‘insanity’. 14 It seems AL was both being disingenuous about how much she knew about Dr Belcombe’s treatment of AW and showing a genuine sense of fair play about AW’s property.

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15 Maybe because Washington had made so many small errors. 16 Presumably estate workers and household servants.

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MAy 1836 1 There are pagination problems here. None of the three previous editors included much of spring 1836. 2 Presumably, meaning that after the death of her aunt, AL would have access to additional estate income; plus her coal revenues would begin to materialise. 3 That is, Sackville’s sons and daughters would take precedence over Evan Charles’s sons and daughters.

ePiLogue 1 AL, 24 December 1836, 12 May and 29 April 1837. As it was not AW’s final will, it has not survived; presumably it bequeathed the bulk of the unentailed property to AL. 2 AL, 25 April 1839; see also 26 April 1836 and Liddington, ‘Beating’, p.271. 3 AL, 20 June and 27 December 1836. 4 AL, 1 October 1836; HG, CV, 14 April 1838; Green, Spirited Yorkshirewoman, p.506, 2 December 1838. 5 She received just £13.4.2d from Joseph Mann for six months’ coal; SH:7/ ML/AC/28, 9 and 17 January 1837. 6 AL, 4 and 8 October 1836 and 9 and 27 December 1836; SH:7/7/ML/ AC/28, 26 December 1836 ff. 7 Children’s Employment Commission: First Report of the Commissioners: Mines, 1842, Shugden Lane Pit; Liddington, ‘Mining’, pp.79–80. 8 Thompsons, Halifax as a Chartist Centre, pp.18–19. 9 Thompsons, Halifax, pp.19–20. 10 HG, CIX, 7 May 1839. 11 Wilson, Struggles, p.3. 12 AL, 2 July 1839. 13 Sworn 24 April 1841 (WG) and 1 May 1841 (AW). Public Record Office, London, signed original 9 May 1836, pp.1 and 13. Also copies in the Borthwick and SH:1/SH/1836/2. AL left a personal estate valued at under £4,000 (less than half that left by Uncle James). 14 AW quickly produced a new will, 15 May 1841, Borthwick; her share of the unentailed Walker estate reverted to her nephew in trust; it also included small bequests to Marian Lister and to two of AL’s goddaughters, including Dr Belcombe’s daughter. 15 Liddington, Presenting, p.11. 16 CN:103, 27 September 1844. 17 CN:100; SH:7/DRL/50. 18 Liddington, ‘Inheritance’, p. 271. 19 Rosa Kettle, The Mistress of Langdale Hall: A Romance of the West Riding, Tinsley,

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1872; more controversially, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley (see ‘Listers’, n.1), a suggestion still argued over by Brontë scholars. 20 Anonymous, Itinary of Halifax, 1875, p. 59. 21 For Muriel Green’s work in the 1930s of sorting the papers see Liddington, Presenting, pp.15–18 and 50–3. 22 See ‘Preface’, p.6.

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AfterWord 1 Liddington, ‘Mining’, pp.72 and 80. 2 Gash, Politics, pp.138–44; the bargees were beaten and left the borough that evening. See January 1835, n.9. 3 Compare Whitbread, No Priest, for example, p.xii, for a more romantic focus; and Euler, Moving Between Worlds, for example, pp.286–7 for a more critical appraisal, likening AL to ‘a really distasteful human being’. (Although differently presented, Euler’s Moving Between Worlds is very useful reading for serious researchers. It succeeds in coming much closer to Anne Lister’s world in this crucial decade than any previous writer.) 4 Calculation based on John Bateman’s 1870s survey of landownership; unpublished paper given at the Royal Historical Society conference, York, 1996. 5 Richardson, Sarah, ‘The Role of Women in Electoral Politics in Yorkshire during the Eighteen-Thirties’, Northern History, 1996, compares AL with Elizabeth-Sophia Lawrence who inherited interest in the two-member borough of Ripon. Also helpful is Chalus, Elaine, ‘“That epidemical madness”: women and electoral politics in the late eighteenth century’, in Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus (eds), Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, Longman, 1997. Thanks to Anna Clark for this reference. 6 See Liddington, ‘Mining’, p.82; the 1841 census records just 1 per cent of coal owners were women; many of these would be widows of coalowners. 7 See January 1835, n.12. Thanks to Martha Vicinus for comment here. In trying to interpret this complex evidence, I have found the following helpful: E.P. Thompson, ‘Rough Music’, in E.P. Thompson, Customs in Common, 1991 and Penguin 1993; David Rollison, ‘Property, ideology and popular culture in a Gloucestershire village 1660–1740, Past and Present, vol.93, 1981; Martin Ingram, ‘Ridings, Rough Music and the “Reform of Popular Culture” in Early Modern England’, Past and Present, vol.105, 1984. 8 The diaries tell a truth but not the truth; for instance, compare the picture of her relationship with AW presented in the diaries, in her correspondence and in her accounts. 9 Thompsons, Halifax, endnote 152; the valet was sentenced to 20 years transportation for attempted blackmail. 10 Halifax borough was incorporated in 1848; when Ranger presented his Report in 1850, John Crossley (carpet manufacturer) was mayor and John Abbott JP the borough treasurer; however, in 1847 Henry Edwards was elected MP.

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Afterword 2022 1 Steve Crabtree and Diane Halford, ‘Ann Walker Revealed’, Anne Lister Birthday Week (ALBW), interview, 25 May 2020, Ann Walker’s 217th birthday. See also Epilogue, pp. 237–40. 2 The file was labelled ‘Walker’; Diane Halford and Alexa Tansley, on the Ann Walker [AW] journal, ALBW interview, 30 January 2021. 3 WYC:1525/7/1/5/1. ‘We Found It!!!’, 23 October 2020, Diane, Steve and Alexa, ‘In Search of Ann Walker’ Facebook page. 4 ‘Amateur historian sensationally discovers “Gentleman Jack” Anne Lister’s wife Ann Walker’s secret diaries hidden in plain sight’, Yorkshire Post, 26 October 2020. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/ amateur-historian-sensationally-discovers-gentleman-jack-anne-listers-wifeann-walkers-secret-diaries-hidden-plain-sight-3015227; a similar article, Halifax Courier, also 26 Oct 2020. 5 This is because they lie within the Rawson family papers, deposited by a private donor. 6 My focus here mainly reflects Ann and Anne’s life in Halifax, rather than their European travels. For more detail on travels in AW’s diary, see Ivana Nika, ‘Ann, Family and Shibden Hall’, research blog, 5 April 2021. 7 Jill Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census, MUP, 2014, chapter 14. Daughter Mary Blathwayt evaded the 1911 census with other suffragettes in Bath. 8 Nature’s Domain, 27 September 1832, p. 64. 9 p. 109, June 1834. 10 Presenting the Past, p. 25–6. 11 pp. 109 and 111. 12 pp. 114 and 127; also p. 131. 13 Note on the Text, p. 273, n2. 14 The main gaps are: 26 August–14 November 1834 (they return to Shibden, facing problems with AW’s suspicious relatives); 29 November–18 December 1834 (they return home from York and Hull); 7–16 January 1835 (see below); and 30 January–17 February 1835 (the election aftermath continues). The gaps are mainly when they are at Shibden, rather than when travelling, suggesting Ann Walker [AW] found it easier to stand her ground when away from Shibden. 15 AW diary, 14 November 1834; above Water Lane, property then owned by the Sutherlands. 16 AW diary, gap 23–26 December when ‘Dr’t returned from Lawton’. 17 pp. 140–3. 18 AL diary, p. 298. 19 p. 149. AW uses the symbol ‘xx’ for her period (e.g. 24 January 1835) and ‘K’ for a kiss (e.g. 28 November 1834), which has, as for AL, a sexual meaning; see Ivana Nika, research blog. 20 2019 Preface, p. xv. 21 The historian who best articulated this achievement was Cat Euler in her DPhil, 1995.

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seLect references

PriMAry sources Archive MAteriAL heLd in cALderdALe district Archives, hALifAx shIbden haLL records SH:1/SHA—Shibden Hall, accounts SH:2/SHE—Shibden Hall estate, accounts SH:2/SHE/SM—Shibden Hall estate, Southowram (leases) SH:2/SHE/CN—Shibden Hall estate, Crow Nest SH:2/M—Shibden Hall estate, maps and plans SH:2/CM—Shibden Hall estate, coal mining SH:3/LF—Lister family SH:3/FN—Lister mss, funeral notes SH:7/ML—Anne Lister correspondence SH:7/ML/E—Anne Lister journals SH:7/ML/AC—Anne Lister account books and day books

WaLker famILy, croW nest records CN:89—Walker family, testamentary papers CN:93—Memoranda re wills CN:103—Correspondence

other coLLectIons FW:120—Frederick Walker, solicitors RAM—Phyllis Ramsden papers Lister, John (ed.), ‘Some Extracts from the Diary of a Halifax Lady’, Halifax Guardian, 1887–92.

Archive MAteriAL heLd eLsWhere C106/60—Anne Lister MSS, Public Record Office Wills—Borthwick Institute, York

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conteMPorAry rePorts 1834: Factory Inquiry Commission, Supplementary Report...as to the Employment of Children in Factories 1834: Pigot, National Commercial Directory, London and Manchester 1835: Register of Electors for the Borough of Halifax, Hartley and Walker, Halifax 1835: The Poll Book, Halifax Borough Election, Hartley and Walker, Halifax 1835: The Poll for the Knight of the Shire, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, John Stansfield, Wakefield 1835: The Select Committee on Bribery at Elections 1841: Household census, Southowram township 1842: Children’s Employment Commission: First Report of the Commissioners: Mines, HMSO, London 1850: William Ranger, Report to the Central Board of Health into...the Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of...Northowram and Southowram, HMSO, London

books Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, 1813, Oxford World Classics, Oxford, 1980 Barker, Juliet, The Brontës, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1994, 1995 Brontë, Charlotte, Shirley, 1849 and Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1985. Castle, Terry, The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, 1993 Davidoff, Leonora and Hall, Catherine, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780–1850, Hutchinson, London, 1987 English, Barbara and Saville, John, Strict Settlement: A Guide for Historians, University of Hull Press, Hull, 1983 Gash, Norman, Politics in the Age of Peel: A Study in the Technique of Parliamentary Representation 1830–1850, Longmans Green, London, 1953 Gash, Norman, Aristocracy and the People: Britain 1815–1865, Edward Arnold, London, 1979 Green, Muriel (ed.), Miss Lister of Shibden Hall: Selected letters (1800–1840), Book Guild, Lewes, 1992. Harrison, J.F.C., Early Victorian Britain, 1832–51, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971, and 1979 Kettle, Rosa, The Mistress of Langdale Hall: A Romance of the West Riding, Samuel Tinsley, London, 1872 Moore, D.C., The Politics of Deference: A Study of the Mid-nineteenth Century English Political System, Harvester Press, Hassocks, 1976. Smail, John, The Origins of Middle-class Culture: Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660–1780, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1994 Thompson, Dorothy, The Chartists, Temple Smith, London, 1984 Thompson, F.M.L., English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963 Whitbread, Helena, I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791–1840,

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Virago Press, London, 1988 Whitbread, Helena, No Priest but Love: The Journals of Anne Lister from 1824–1826, Smith Settle, Otley, 1992 Wilson, Ben, The Struggles of an Old Chartist, John Nicolson, Halifax, 1887

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ArticLes And bookLets Bretton, R., ‘Walkers of Crow Nest’, THAS, 1971 Chalus, Elaine, ‘“That epidemical Madness”: women and electoral politics in the late eighteenth century’, in Barker, Hannah and Chalus, Elaine (eds), Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, Longman, 1997 Clark, Anna, ‘Anne Lister’s Construction of Lesbian Identity’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol.7, no.1, 1996 Ellis, Martha, ‘A Study in the manorial history of Halifax Parish in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries’, Part I, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 1960 Hanson, T.W., ‘A Short History of Shibden Hall’, Bankfield Museum Notes, County Borough of Halifax, 1934 Hargreaves, John A., ‘The Georgian and early Victorian Church in the Parish of Halifax, 1740–1851’, THAS, 1990 Hudson, Pat, ‘Proto-industrialization: the case of the West Riding’, History Workshop Journal, no.12, 1981 Jowitt, Tony, ‘Parliamentary Politics in Halifax, 1832–1847’, Northern History, 1976 Liddington, Jill, ‘Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840): her diaries and the historians’, History Workshop Journal, no.35, 1993 Liddington, Jill, Presenting the Past: Anne Lister of Halifax 1791–1840, Hebden Bridge, Pennine Press, 1994 Liddington, Jill, ‘Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791–1840): re-reading the correspondence’, THAS, no.1, 1993 Liddington, Jill, ‘Beating the Inheritance Bounds: Anne Lister (1791–1840) and her dynastic identity’, Gender and History, vol.7, no.2, 1995 Liddington, Jill, ‘Gender, authority and mining in an industrial landscape: Anne Lister 1791–1840’, History Workshop Journal, no.42, 1996 Lister, John, ‘History of Shibden Hall in the early C18th’, THAS, 1936. Moore, Lisa, ‘“Something more tender still than friendship”: Romantic friendship in early nineteenth-century England’, Feminist Studies, no.18, 1992 Richardson, Sarah, ‘The role of women in electoral politics in Yorkshire during the eighteen-thirties’, Northern History, XXXII, 1996 Thompson, E.P., ‘Rough Music’ in Thompson, E.P., Customs in Common, 1991 and Penguin 1993 Thompson, F.M.L., ‘Whigs and Liberals in the West Riding 1830–1860’, English Historical Review, 1959 Vickery, Amanda, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A review of the categories and chronology of English women’s history’, The Historical Journal, vol.36, no.2, 1993

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Vicinus, Martha, ‘Lesbian History: All theory and no facts or all facts and no theory?’, Radical History Review, Vol.60, 1994 Westwood, Ros, Sewell, Pat and Liddington, Jill (eds), Anne Lister Research Directory: An introduction to the sources, Calderdale Leisure Services, 1997 Other Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society are listed in the Introduction endnotes

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theses And unPubLished tyPescriPts Anonymous, Itinary of Halifax, 1875 Choma, Anne, Anne Lister and the Split Self (1971–1840): A Critical Study of her Diaries, MA thesis, University of Leeds, 1994 Euler, Cat, Moving Between Worlds: Gender, Class, Politics, Sexuality and Women’s Networks in the diaries of Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, Yorkshire, 1830–1840, DPhil, University of York, 1995 Green, Muriel, A Spirited Yorkshirewoman: The Letters of Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax, b.1791–d.1840, Honours Diploma of the Library Association, 1938 Richardson, Sarah, Independence and Deference: A Study of the West Riding Electorate, 1832–1841, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1995 Thompson, Dorothy and E.P., ‘Halifax as a Chartist Centre’, unpublished typescript, early 1950s, Halifax Reference Library Vickery, Amanda, Women of the Local Elite in Lancashire, 1750–c.1825, PhD thesis, University of London, 1991 For titles published since 1989, please see 2019 Preface.

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Index

Abbott, Mr (woolstapler): as Marian’s fiancé, 104, 121, 127, 131, 135, 138–9, 158–60; and local politics, 134, 180, 200, 284 n10 Adam, Thomas (lawyer), 50, 118–20, 137–8; in magistrates’ court, 217–20; see also Robert Parker Ainsworth, Mr (AW’s suitor), 67, 69, 85, 89 Akroyd, James, 43–4, 46, 198; see also 99, 197, 218 Akinson family, 84, 91–2 Austen, Jane, 33–4, 72 authority see Anne Lister Bagnold, Tabitha (Halifax postmistress), 96 banking, 30, 106, 142; see also Christopher Rawson, Briggs, Hammersleys Barber family, 197 Belcombe, Mariana see Lawton, Mariana Belcombe, Dr Henry Stephen (Steph): consulted about AW, 66–7, 71, 73–4, 84–5; AW his patient in York, 87–9, 90–1, 95, 100, 103, 106, 136, 231; AW to his asylum, 238; consulted again, 215–7, 233; and limited room for manoeuvre, 247; prefers not to see AW, 163; professional wariness, 99, 107–8

Belcombe family, 15, 16; AW visits, 90, 92 Blucher, Countess de, 75, 98 Booth, John , 99, 140–1, 200, 206, 208, 226 Bottomley, John of Brierley Hill (small-holder), 47, 99, 146, 226, 228; and 1832 election, 47, 68–9; and 1835 election, 132, 139–41, 166, 252; and coal, 94, 113; tenancy, 50–1, 55, 91, 117 boundaries to behaviour, xviii, 38, 80, 250–1 Bradford, 43, 44, 55, 93, 200, 203, 237 Bradley, Thomas (architect), 27, 28, 117–8, 241 Briggs’ bank, 102, 106, 108, 132 Briggs, James (steward), 22, 23 Briggs, Mrs (housekeeper), 229, 231–2 Briggs, Rawdon, MP, 55, 132–3, 142–3, 156 Brighouse, 28 Brontë, Branwell (burnt in effigy), 222 Brontë, Charlotte, 173 Brontë, Patrick, 46, 162 Brontë family, 36, 244 Brown, Mr (drawing master), 103, 106–8 Calder and Hebble Navigation, 7, 21, 42; AL at crucial meeting of, 132–3; Halifax extension, 42, 53, 123; and

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FEMALE FORTUNE railroad competition, 117, 124–6, 128 Cameron, Lady Vere, 22–3, 74, 186; and 1835 election, 141, 144, 153 canals, 7, 28, 130; see also Calder and Hebble Navigation Carr, John (architect), 27 Catholics see Ireland chancery, 197, 238 Chartists, 55, 139, 175, 236–7 Children’s Employment Commission (1842), 236, 243 cholera, 38 church see tithes, pews Church of England politics, 47, 96–7; and 1835 elections, 133, 167, 173 Clarke, Mrs (claimant on Walker estate), 112, 118 Clayton, James (footman), 101–2 Cliffe Hill see Crow Nest coal, 42, 133; in Marsh area, 53, 54, 112, 149; Swan Bank colliery, 53, 112, 149, 155; see also Shibden Hall estate, Anne Lister, Rawson family Conservative Associations, 151, 195 Cordingley, Elizabeth (servant), 83, 137, 145 Craven, William (Tory solicitor), 156, 174–5 Crow Nest estate: 28–38; Cliff Hill, 28, 38, 64; Lidgate, 59, 61, 64, 84, 86, 97–8; see also Walker family, Ann Walker, Sutherlands Crow Nest papers, xx, 28, 31, 34, 77, 79, 119 Dearden family, 161, 170–1, 219–21 death see funerals, wills Defoe, Daniel, 6 derangements, ladylike, 89; see also Ann Walker Dodgson, Henry of Lower Place, 252 Duffin, Mrs (York), 89 Edwards family of Pye Nest (and Darcey Hey), 27, 30, 43, 111, 124, 151, 153, 205 Edwards, Henry (AW’s uncle and trustee), 34–7, 46, 47, 118; as

AW-ES trustee, 61, 64, 90–2, 100, 102, 201 Edwards, Henry junior (AW’s cousin), 68 Edwards, John (AW’s cousin), 153; and 1835 election, 135, 137–8, 156–7; and conservative committee, 151, 180 Edwards, John (AW’s grandfather), 30 elections, general: Dec 1832, 45–8, 54, 68; Jan 1835 (Halifax), 128, 132–5, 137–43; by-election, May 1835 (West Riding), 167–75; and poll book, 144; and scrutiny and petition, 148, 152–3, 156, 158, 160; see also Anne Lister, Christopher Rawson, etc. entail, 33, 74, 93, 123, 201, 233, 337 exclusive dealing, 146–7, 149, 150, 153; see also elections Factory Inquiry Commission (1834), 43 female fortune, 27–8, 93, 251 female friendship, 118 female passivity, 38 Fitzwilliam, Earl, 47 Freeman, Samuel, of Robin Close, etc. (stone merchant), 51, 173–4, 216, 228, 252 funerals, 9, 21, 227–9 George (Joseph Booth, servant), 110, 114, 129, 140, 156, 163, 204, 226 George IV, 17 gender exclusions, 11, 44–5, 250 gentry, 8, 28, 38, 52; see also entail geology, 114, 119; see also Anne Lister: reading Goole, 87 Gordon, Lady, 23, 186, 201 governess, 85 Gray, Jonathan (lawyer), 74, 86, 89, 129; and division of joint property, 163–4, 178–80, 189–90; AL-AW visit, 229–31, 233–5; and wills of AL and AW, 214–16 Gray (lawyer, trustee), 237 Green, Aquilla (of Mytholm), 140, 157, 200, 203, 228 Green, Muriel, 77

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Greenwood, John (a Northgate tenant, ropemaker), 133 Greenwood, Thomas, of Park Farm (cabinet-maker), 51, 92, 110, 117, 146, 157, 228 Grey, Lord, 44, 47, 55, 109; resigns, 127 Hagemann, Lady Harriet de, 74, 75, 98, 145 Halifax, xviii, 6–7, 20, 52, 118; economic boom in, 200; industrialization in, 41–4, 48–9; Literary and Philosophical Society, 44–5, 103, 105, 199–200; Manor of, 3; Parish Church of, 21, 89; parliamentary borough of, 44, 46–7; Piece Hall, 28, 139, 237; see also elections Halifax élite, xiii, 7, 43–6, 56, 118, 151; AW-AL visit, 123–4ff; and canal v. railroad, 133; see also Edwards, Lister, Musgrave, Priestley, Rawson, Walker and Waterhouse families Halifax Guardian, 44, 127, 168, 197, 240; and 1835 election, 139, 149, 154, 156; and conservatism, 195; and mock ‘marriage’ announcement, 146; and Water-lane-mill controversy, 219–20 Hall, Joseph, of Little Marsh, 167, 174, 228, 252; and family, 144, 167 Hammersleys (bankers), 74 Hardcastle, William, of Roydelands, 167, 174, 228, 252 Harewood, Lord, 138 Harper, John, 173, 190, 201, 217, 230; and drawing of SH, 230–1 health, 136–7, 154; see also Ann Walker, Anne Lister (aunt) Heath Grammar school, 97; see also Wilkinson heiresses, 93; see also Elizabeth Sutherland, Ann Walker Hebble brook, 4, 42, 211 Hemingway, Abraham, of Southolm, 173, 228, 252 Hepworth, Mark, of Yew Trees, 209, 228, 252

Hinscliffe, James (coal operator), 94, 128, 134, 147 Hipperholme schoolmaster election, 160–2 historians and AL evidence, 48–50 Hobart, Vere, see Cameron, Lady Vere Holt, James, of High Royd (coal steward), 22, 53, 55, 93–4, 228; and 1835 by-election, 170–1, 174; and ‘hurrying gates’, 236 and Walker pit and Listerwick, 149, 155, 157; and Walker pit-sinking, 112–13, 116, 121–2, 144 homosexuality, 249 homophobia, xvi, 240, 245 Horner (artist), 177 Howarth, Charles of Ireland (joiner), 78, 94, 110, 129, 228; and AL’s attempt to enfranchise, 51, 127, 141, 181, 205 Huddersfield, 42, 143, 205 Hull, 87, 129 Husband, Mr (clerk-of-the-works), 188, 201, 208 Ireland, 46, 55, 127 Inman, Sarah (Marian’s protégée), 126, 139, 158 John (servant), 83, 137, 150, 210 Joseph (servant), 104, 106 Jubb, Mr (doctor), 151–2, 168, 170–1, 179, 199–200, 205, 223–5, 227–9 Kenny, Dr, 60, 75, 83, 161, 199 Lancashire cotton industry, 43 Langton see Norcliffes language, lack of polite, 60, 63, 108, 246, 249 Lascelles, Mr E., 138 Lawton, Charles, 16, 17 Lawton, Mariana, xvi; after marriage, 16–19, 23, 24, 37; and AL-AW relationship, 88, 97, 99, 103, 150, 158; AL boasts of coal mining to, 199; AL visits, 136–7; AL’s relationship with, 66, 73, 74, 75, 77, 105 Leamington, 68, 72, 74

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FEMALE FORTUNE leases, 47–8, 50–1 Leeds, 20, 42–3, 44, 108, 114 Leeds Mercury, ‘marriage’ announcement in, 143–4 lesbianism, xiii–xvi, xviii, 60, 63, 108, 240, 249–51 Lightcliffe, 104 see also Crow Nest estate, Walker family, Samuel Washington and the Rev. Wilkinson Lister, Anne: general entries: accounts, xx, 49ff, 187, 205, 206–7, 213; authority, xvii, 68, 84, 97, 203, 250; clothes 217; colliery account, 128, 159; correspondence, xx, 12, 24, 59, 71, 72–3, 77–8, 88, 98, 100, 104; diaries, xiii–xv, ixx–xx, 49, 77, 97, 100, 186, 206, 211, 233, 240; and diary code, 15, 35, 62ff, 74, 77–80, 86, 95; lesbian identity, 16–19, 60, 67, 249–51; and politics in diaries, 174; reading, 59, 107, 111, 114, 122–3, 154, 156, 204, 217 life (1791–1833): acquaintance with AW, 31–2, 35–7, 56; anonymous attacks upon, 17–18, 68; childhood and education, 8–13, 15; coalmining strategy, 50, 53–5, 68–9, 73; courtship of AW, 59–76; drafting will, 24, 38, 74; estate management, 22, 48–52, 59ff; inherits Shibden, 21–2; inheritance ambitions, 54, 60, 64; ‘marriage, as good as a’, 62, 64, 69; moves to Shibden, 11; politics, 23, 44–5, 46–8, 55ff; snobbery, 16, 20, 31, 42ff; travel, 18, 22–3ff, 55, 72; visits Denmark, 74–5; writing ambitions, 23 Diaries: Part I (Dec 1833–Aug 1834): coalmining strategy, 94, 102–3; confides in Charlotte Norcliffe, 100–1; estate management, 94, 99, 102; exchange of rings, 93–5, 98–9; improvements to SH, 97, 103, 105; ‘marriage’ seems agreed, 92, 95; redrafting will, 86, 93; religion, 96ff; renews relationship with AW, 83ff, 88ff; re selling Northgate, 105–6; sketching tour of Swaledale, 106–7; Staups and Godley purchase, 102–3, 105;

visit France and Switzerland, 108–9 Part II (Sept–Nov 1834): and Marian’s marriage plans, 121, 127; preparing bedroom, 111, 122; and right to AW’s income, 118; and three separate households, 117, 122–3; sinking Walker pit, 113, 116–17, 121–2; Staups and Godley purchase, 119, 122, 125; and yellow carriage, 113; visits Harper Wood, 119–20 Part III (Dec 1834–May 1835): AW lends £1,000, 147; and 1835 election in Halifax, 132–43; accusations of political intimidation, 158; and anonymous letter to AW, 156; attends canal meeting, 132–3; exerting pressure on tenants for West Riding by-election, 167–75; Marian’s marriage plans, 131–2; and mock ‘marriage’ announcement and anonymous letter, 143–4, 150, 158; obtaining Northgate licence, 169–71; and palm of antiquity, 152; plans Listerwick colliery, 149, 154–5, 157; and politics, 153; ‘quiz’ (blue festivities) naming AL, 173; rent day, 140; Robert Parker and gossip, 161; separate households, 139, 145; sorting family papers, 158–9; and Staups purchase money, 141–2; tries to secure Blue tenants, 144–6, 150, 152–3, 157–8; visits Mariana Lawton, 136–7; and Walker pit, 132, 137, 144, 149–50 Part IV (June–Sept 1835): helps AW write letters, 179–80; and Northgate stone-laying ceremony, 188, 190–3; plans her independence from AW, 186, 188; shows Sutherlands the deed box, 191–3; sinking Walker pit, 177–8; subscribes to John Stuart Wortley election fund, 182; visits London, 186 Part V (Oct 1835–Feb 1836): inns and railways, 200–2; and Literary and Philosophical Society, 199–200; loan from AW, 207; plans meer, 207ff; plans her independence from AW, 205; quarrel over carriage and

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Index livery, 196, 203–5; second anniversary, 206; and Walker pit, 196–201 Part VI (Mar 1836): controversy over AW’s Water-lane well, 211–23; to get rid of AW, 212; and industrial espionage, 222–4 Part VII (Apr–May 1836): counts 40 tenants, 233; father’s death and AL’s birthday, 226–7; to be independent of AW, 227, 233; father’s funeral, 228–9; signing her will, 230, 133, 237–8; to York to consult Gray, 229ff Epilogue: and coal mines, 236; and Chartism, 237; death, 237; to Russia, 237; will, 237–8 Afterword: AL’s critics and their censure, 246–7; assessment of AL’s conduct, 242–5; and more public critical responses to AL, 247–8; why AL was able to enjoy wide freedoms, 248–51 Lister, Anne (1765–1836, aunt), 6, 8–13, 18–9, 21–2; and AL-AW relationship, 62–5, 94; ill health of, 75, 83, 85ff, 94, 98, 203, 214–15, 223; death, 235 Lister, Elizabeth (aunt, d.1795), 9 Lister, James (1673–1729), 4–6 Lister, James (1748–1826, uncle), 6, 8–11, 20; death, 20–1; his will, 12–13, 19, 60, 171, 230 Lister, Jeremy (1752–1836, father), 6, 8, 21, 46, 63, 75; death, 226–7; diary references, 83, 94, 106; escorted to vote, 173; increased infirmities of, 181, 219, 223; and Marian’s planned marriage, 134, 139 Lister, Jeremy (1713–88, grandfather), 6, 7, 8, 12 Lister, John (1602–62, of Upper Brea), 4, 12 Lister, John (1703–59, the Rev.), 6 Lister, John (1795–1810, brother), 10, 15 Lister, John (1771–1836, of Swansea), 19, 24, 74, 171, 214, 233; son inherits SH (1854), 239

Lister, John (1847–1933), xv; cracks code, 240; and edits AL diaries, 240; inherits SH (1867), 239 Lister, Joseph (1750–1817, uncle), 6, 7, 8, 9–12, 159 Lister, Marian (1798–1882, sister), 10, 22, 23, 54, 60, 75, 83, 126; and AL-AW relationship, 63, 87, 94–7; death, 240; and housekeeping, 145, 203, 207; leaves SH, 234; and marriage plans, 60, 121–2, 127, 131–2, 134, 158, 159–60, 180, 182–3, 205, 214; and property, 89, 171 Lister, Martha (aunt), 6, 8 Lister, Mary (d.1822, aunt), 11–12 Lister, Rebecca (d.1817, mother), 8, 12 Lister, Samuel (1570–1632): will, 4, 12 Lister, Samuel (1793–1813, brother), 10 Lister, Thomas, 6 Liverpool, 42 Maclean, Sibella, 16, 22–3 Mallinson, Jonathan (father), of Stag’s Head, Mytholm, 51–2, 88, 152–3, 181, 228, 252 Mallinson, John (son), 150, 152–3, 157–8 Mann, John, 116–17, 144, 155 Mann, Joseph (master miner), 116, 146, 157, 159; his daughter’s pregnancy, 202; and devil’s dung, 223–4; and effigy-burning tale, 221–2; finishing Walker pit, 188ff, 201, 232; and Listerwick colliery, 206–7, 209; to York, 229–30 Mann, Robert (‘out-works at home’), 144, 196, 201, 208–9 Mann brothers, 137, 149 Market Weighton (East Riding), 8, 11, 60, 63, 87, 89, 127–8; see also Marian Lister Melbourne, Lord, 166, 188 Mexborough, Lady, 109, 186 Milne, Mrs (York), 84, 136 Mont Blanc, 109 Morning Herald, 111, 114, 121, 143, 168, 173, 188 Morpeth, Lord, 167–8, 173–4

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Mosey, Miss, 104 Musgrave, the Rev. Dr Charles and Mrs Ellen, 46, 54, 89, 97, 138, 210, 228; and Hipperholme school master election, 160–2; discusses theology with AL, 164 nature, 16, 18, 67, 182; see also Anne Lister: lesbian indentity Naylor, George, of Upper Place farm, 187, 228, 252 Nelson, Mr (master builder), 190–1 Norcliffe, Charlotte, 95, 100–1, 136 Norcliffe family (Langton), 15, 92 Norcliffe, Isabella, 16, 22, 59; diary references, 83, 84, 87–9, 164 Norcliffe, Mrs, 84, 89, 95, 100–1 Norcliffe, Major Norcliffe, 87–8, 92, 100, 164 Northgate House see Anne Lister, Shibden Hall estate Norris, James, 55, 112, 116; and 1835 election, 135, 142; and politics, 182 Norris, William (canal company clerk), 133 Northowram, 41, 46, 49 Oastler, Richard, 43, 45, 46 Oates, John, of Pump, 51, 167, 174, 228, 252 Oddy, Mrs (servant), 83, 94 Ovenden, 4 Parker, Robert (lawyer), 50, 54, 99, 137; appointed steward, 232; incites AW’s Water-lane well incident, 211–12; and joint property, 148, 160–1; and Staups and Godley purchase, 102, 105, 108, 142–3; suspicions about SH household, 181, 183–5; and vice versa, 192–3 Paris, 91, 94, 109 Parsons (hairdresser), 107 Pearson, John, of Mytholm farm, 172–3, 174, 252 Pearson, Thomas, of Denmark, 170–1, 174, 252 Peel, Sir Robert, 127–8, 132, 134, 143; Prime Minister, 151–3; resigns, 162; and Tamworth Manifesto, 133, 135

Penfold, Fanny (John Walker’s widow), 35, 36–7 pews, 52, 111–13, 114; see also Wilkinson philanthrophy, 38 Pickels, 117, 128 Pierre, Eugenie (servant), 74, 83, 94, 106, 129, 163 plumping, 47, 135, 140, 145, 148, 150 poaching, 34 Poor Law, 236–7 Presenting the Past, xv, ixx Priestley, Charles, 90, 100 Priestley family of Sowerby, 16, 17, 27, 30, 43–4; AL–AW visit, 124 Priestley, Henry, 142, 151, 156–7 Priestley, Mrs of Lightcliffe, 18, 22, 31–2, 35, 59; and AL–AW relationship, 61, 65–6, 71; coolness of, 110, 113, 126, 178; friendliness of, 96; spell broken, 73; suspicions of, 91; see also William Priestley Priestley, William of Lightcliffe (AW’s cousin and trustee), 18, 31–2, 34, 35, 37, 158, 201; AL–AW ignore, 157; and AL–AW relationship, 61, 64, 65, 73; AW cuts, 199; AW’s property wrangle with, 168; champions Warburton, 160–2; and church politics, 96–7; coolness of, 126; condolences to SH, 225; see also Mrs Priestley primogeniture, 8, 30, see also strict settlement protestantism,128, 167, 195 Protheroe, Edward and Mrs, 124; 1835 election, 133, 138–43; blackmailed, 249; elected 1837, 236 Radicalism, 47, 54, 55, 236; see also 1835 election railways, 42, 52, 114, 121, 125–7; AL–AW travel on 129; rumours about, 199–206; see also canals Raine, Eliza, xiii, 15–16, 279n6 Rawson, Catherine (daughter of Stansfield Rawson), 61, 71, 92–3, 98, 186 Rawson, Christopher (banker), 16, 20, 44–5, 47, 144, 199; and 1835

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Index election, 137–41; and AW’s Waterlane well controversy, 211–21; and Caddy Fields women, 235–6 and canal, 118; and coal mining, 49, 53, 54, 112–13, 128–9, 134, 155; and coal-water at Harper Wood, 119–20; and effigy-burning and devil’s dung, 221–4; two men killed at his pit, 187; and politics, 151, 161 Rawson, Ellen and Emma, 17, 46 Rawson family, 16, 27, 43–4, 46; and AL–AW relationship, 63, 138, 182; and AL’s extravagance, 199; and coal mining, 53, 54–5, 121 Rawson, Jeremiah (manufacturer), 54, 122, 142, 156, 199 Rawson, Mary (AW’s cousin, wife of William Henry Rawson), 30, 43; and AL–AW, 110, 124, 180–1 Rawson, Miss Mary, 116–17 Rawson, elderly Mrs, of Stoney Royd, 17, 53; AL-AW visit, 124; aghast at AW’s move, 115–16 Rawson, Stansfield, Mr and Mrs, 168 Rawson, William Henry, 30, 43–4, 118, 151; sneering, 133, 180 Reform Act, 1832, xvii, 44–5, 46–7, 55 registration of electors, 47–8, 55, 127, 151, 173, 174; and revision courts, 195–6 religion see Church of England politics, Protestantism, Ireland rent day, 49, 68, 140, 181 Robinson, George, of Lower Brea (Mytholm wire mill), 51, 167, 170–1, 174, 181, 228 roads: New Bank, 7, 41; Old Bank, 7, 41, 55; packhorse routes, 3, 7; turnpike roads, 7, 20, 41, 52 romantic friendships, xv Rome, 62, 121 Rushton, Ben (handloom weaver, Chartist), 236–7 Russia, 74 Saltmarshe family, 137, 186, 200 Sarah (servant), 104–5 Savile family, 4 secret ballot, lack of, 45, 47, 236

Select Committee on Bribery at Elections (1835), 174–5, 243 sermons: preached, 89ff; read, 94, 98; see also Wilkinson, Musgrave servants, 69ff; hiring of, 88, 101–2; prayers read to, 85, 88; see also Elizabeth, Cordingley, Eugenie, George, John, Joseph, Mrs Oddy, Pierre, Sarah, and others slavery, 6, 261n26 Shaw, William (a Northgate tenant, plasterer), 135 Shibden Hall estate: history, 3, 8, 9, 12, 46; AL’s by-election walk round (1835), 167; AL’s improvements to, 83ff; brickmaking, 6, 199; canal shares, 6, 13, 42, 52, 137, 196; coal pits and mining, 4, 6, 8, 50–2; house, 4, 8; Northgate House, 8, 12; other interests, 52, 200–1; stone quarrying, 51–2, 167ff; tour through (1833), 48–52; see also Anne Lister, Lister family, servants; and individual properties are listed by tenant: Brierely Hill (John Bottomley); Denmark (Thomas Pearson); High Royd (James Holt); Ireland (Charles Howarth); Little Marsh (Joseph Hall); Lower Brea and Mytholm wire mill (George Robinson); Lower Place (Henry Dodgson); at Mytholm (Acquilla Green); Mytholm Farm (John Pearson); Park Farm (Thomas Greenwood); Pump (John Oates); Robin Close, Yew Trees (Samuel Freeman); Roydelands (William Hardcastle); Southolm (Abraham Hemingway); Stag’s Head, Mytholm (Jonathan Mallinson); Sutcliffe Wood and Hilltop (Samuel Sowden); Upper Place farm (George Naylor); Yew Trees (Mark Hepworth); for Staups and Godley purchase, see Anne Lister Smith, Lucy, 88 Southowram, 3, 20, 44, 46, 49 Sowden, Samuel, of Sutcliffe Wood etc., 171–4, 188–9, 202 Sowerby Bridge, 7, 43

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FEMALE FORTUNE steam power, 20, 42, 200; and canal, 118; and coal, 112–13, 116, 155, 236 Stocks, Joseph, 54 Stocks, Michael, 54; family, 222; junior, 219–20 strict settlement, 33, 237–8 Stuart, de Rothesay, Lady, 22–3, 74, 101, 109, 186; and 1835 election, 137, 144, 153; AL dreams of, 198 Stuart, de Rothesay, Lord, 22, 109 Stuart, Lady, 22–3, 47, 59, 74, 109, 185–6; and 1835 elections, 134, 144, 150, 174, 197–8 Stuart Wortley see Wortley Sunderland, Mr (doctor), 105, 137 Sutherland, Elizabeth (AW’s sister), 30–4; and 1831 deed, 37–8, 112, 154–5, 160, 165, 184; and AL, 68–70, 74; correspondence with AW and AL, 93–4, 100, 102, 118–21, 159; marries, 34–6; pregnant and blamed, 189–90; for joint property see also Ann Walker and Captain Sutherland Sutherland, Captain G.M. of Udale, 34–8, 102; and AL–AW, 70–2, 86; and AW’s will, 215; death, 239; dividing joint estate and whereabouts of deeds, 178–80; visits Cliff Hill, 189–93; Whiggish politics, 172–3; writes to AW, 165–6 Sutherland, John (son), 114, 166, 178–9, 218; death, 223 Sutherland, Mary (daughter), 36 Sutherland, Mrs (mother), 72, 94 Sutherland, Sackville (son), 37–8, 155, 158, 189, 211, 214 Sutherlands, 89, 112, 160; against division of joint property, 136; and distresses, 122–3 Swaledale tour, 106–7

Tolpuddle Martyrs, 127 Tories, 44–6, 109, 127; see also Robert Peel, Wortley brothers Town, Mark (tenant), 99, 197, 211, 228 trade unions, 52, 55, 127, 172 tradition and custom, 49, 52 travel, 42; see also roads, railways treating, 192–3 trespassers, 49 turnpikes see roads unspoken, 182, 249–51 Vicinus, Martha, xvi Victoria, Queen, 236 Virginia, 6

tenants, 49; enfranchisement of, 47–51; see also Shibden Hall estate tenant right, 61 Thomas (servant), 74, 83, 92 Throp (nurseryman, deferential), 135, 138, 157, 162, 218 tithes, 4, 54; see also Ireland

wages: see Patrick Brontë, servants Wainhouse, Mr, 119, 122, 200; loan, 142, 212, 232 Wakefield, 3, 7, 42, 171 Walker, Ann: general entries: xiv, 24; and AL’s will, 74; and AW’s will, 38, 86, 88–9, 93, 155, 163, 230–1, 235 childhood and youth: 30–1, 88; encounters AL, 31–2; heiress, 27–8, 38, 66; melancholy, 33, 35, 38; poor health, 66–7, 69, 70–2; renewed acquaintance with AL, 59ff, 75 Part I (Dec 1833–Aug 1834): drinking, 109; hesitates about moving to Shibden, 97–8; heiress, 101; and joint estate, 102; mental illness, 89, 92, 98, 100; money to pay for Paris trip, 92; poor health, 88–9; relationship with AL, 83ff; stays at Heworth Grange, 95ff, 100ff, 103ff Part II (Sept–Nov 1834): anxiety about aunt’s new companion, 116; drinking, 114–15; and joint estate, 115, 118–20, 122–4, 129; philanthropy, 111; writes to sister, 119–21 Part III (Dec 1834–May 1835): copying old wills, 168, 173; dividing joint estate, 148–50, 152, 154, 163–6; gives AL money, 135; income of, 152; loan to AL, 147;

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Index regrets her property would go to Sutherlands, 169; and Sutherlands’ ‘civil put-off’, 159 Part IV (June–Sept 1835): consults London doctor, 186; copying old wills, 179; drinking, 188; joint estate includes Bouldshaw coal, 178–85; and Sunday school master and mistress, 186; and Sutherlands’ visit, 189–90; wants to leave Shibden, 185–6 Part V (Oct 1835–Feb 1836): does AW repent on anniversary, 206; interviews school master and mistress, 197; wants to leave Shibden, 198 Part VI (Mar 1836): copying old wills, 214; drinking, 210; joint estate includes Bouldshaw coal, 210, 219; plans school, 219 Part VII (Apr–May 1836): attends AL’s father’s funeral, 228–9; melancholy, 233; and Water Lane well, 229–30 Epilogue: AL’s death, 237; AW’s death, 239; inherits Shibden, 238; invisible woman, 240–1 Afterword: and intimacy, 249–51; Walker relatives, 246–9 Ann Walker’s diary: 252–7 see also Anne Lister for their relationship and joint activities Walker, Ann (aunt, of Cliff Hill) and new companion, 30, 61, 73; and AW–AL relationship, 88–9, 90–1, 111, 113, 123, 134; and new compaion, 120–1; and her will, 155, 158 Walker, Elizabeth see Sutherland, Elizabeth Walker family, 27ff, 152, 216 Walker, John (1753–1823, father), 30, 31; AW copies will, 122, 230; will, 33–4, 36, 93 Walker, John (1804–30, brother), 31–4; marriage and death, 36–7; see also AW joint estate Walker, William (1713–86, grandfather), 28; will, 30, 31 Walker, William (1749–1809, uncle), 30, 31

Warburton, Mr, 160–1 Washington, Samuel (steward), 38, 49, 53, 55, 74, 86, 89, 93, 95, 97, 104; and 1835 by-election, 172–3; and coal, 103; collects rents, 140; and division of joint estate, 159; and mock ‘marriage’ announcement, 143; and Water-lane well controversy, 212–25; to York, 101; see also Anne Lister, Shibden Hall estate, Ann Walker, Crow Nest estate, Sutherlands water closet, 205 Waterhouse family, of Shibden Hall, 4; AL–AW visit, 124, 205; and politics, 196; of Well-head, 16, 42, 44, 52, 117–18, 168, 199, 237 Waterhouse, Grace, 17 Waterhouse, John, 17, 47, 52; and 1835 election, 137; and canal issues, 118, 125–6, 132–3; as JP, 219–21 and politics, 151 Waterhouse, Mr J., junior, 125, 200 Waterhouse, Samuel, 17 Wellington, Duke of, 132 Wharncliffe, Lord, 47, 153, 156, 175, 201 West Riding of Yorkshire: county constituency of, 46–8, 182; see also election 1835, the Hon John Stuart Wortley Whigs, 44–6, 47, 55, 127, 137; see also Grey, Melbourne Whitbread, Helena, xvi, 16, 77; I Know My Own Heart, xv, 17, 240; No Priest but Love, 77 Whiteley’s bookshop, 103, 142, 144 Wilkinson, Joseph (coal operator), 112, 116 Wilkinson, the Rev. (headmaster and Lightcliffe curate), 96–7, 111, 113, 124, 192 William IV, 127–8, 151, 191 wills: see Anne Lister, James Lister, Ann Walker, John Walker will office (York), 66, 215–16 Wilson, Ben (Chartist), 139, 141, 237 wire-making, 51 women landowners, xvii, see also heiresses

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FEMALE FORTUNE Wortley, the Hon John Stuart, stands in West Riding 1835, 167–8, 170–1, 174, 183 York, 3, 10, 15, 16, 42, 153; AL–AW visiting, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 83–4, 87ff York Chronicle, and mock ‘marriage’ announcement, 150 Yorkshire Gazette, 127

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Wood, Charles, MP, 55; 1835 election, 133, 138–43, 156, 166, 168 wool, 3, 4, 6, 43, 51 worsted, 6ff, 28ff, 42ff worm quack see health Wortley, the Hon James Stuart, 22, 47, 54, 153, 197; stands in Halifax 1835, 128ff, 132–4, 137–43, 156, 160; defeated 1837, 236

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