An introduction to Anne Lister (1791-1840)
Anne Lister was born on the 3rdApril 1791 and was brought up in Skelfler House, Market Weighton. She made frequent visits to her Aunt Anne and Uncle James who lived at Shibden Hall. In 1815 Anne moved in permanently with her Aunt and Uncle, and when her Uncle James died in 1826 Anne started to manage the estate. In 1836 when her Aunt and Father died Anne fully inherited Shibden Hall andEstate.
Anne wrote a detailed diary of her daily life and left behind twenty-six volumes of 7,722 pages, an estimated five million words. The diaries give a great insight into Anne’s life as a landowner, business woman, intrepid traveller, mountaineer and lesbian. Anne was only interested in women and had ‘marriage’ ceremonies with Mariana Lawton and later Ann Walker, who would eventually move in with her at Shibden Hall. It is also clear that Anne was different from society’s expectations of a woman at the time. Anne not only did not wish to marry, but she also did not want to conform. She decided to only wear black, spent a great deal of time studying, managed her own estates and sought business opportunities, travelled widely and even climbed mountains. Anne was an avid walker and climber and undertook the first ascents of Mount Perdu in the Pyrenees in 1830 and Mount Vignemale in France in 1838.
In addition to her diaries, Anne also left behind fourteen volumes of travel notes. The volumes of travel notes cover her overseas trips and travel within the United Kingdom to the Lake District, Scotland and North Wales, including a trip on the newly opened railway from Manchester to Liverpool in 1831. Anne had first travelled to Paris for three weeks with her Aunt in 1819 and over the coming years she made journeys to Switzerland and Italy in 1827, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1829, and lived in France and the Pyrenees from 1829 to 1830. In 1831 she travelled to Holland, visited friends in Hampshire and went to the Isle of Wight and Sussex. After the deaths of her Aunt and Father in 1836 she focussed on managing and improving Shibden Hall and Estate, leaving behind a great number of changes and developments which can still be seen by visitors today.
In 1839 Anne once again had the time and resources to travel. This time Ann travelled with her partner Ann Walker, a neighbouring heiress who had moved in with her at Shibden in 1834. The couple set off in June 1839 on a two-year expedition. Anne and Ann travelled via Dunkerque, Belgium, Germany, Copenhagen, through Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia into Astrakhan (now Georgia). However, Anne Lister tragically died in Koutais, Georgia on 22September 1840.
