The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister

by Helena Whitbread

  3. One of the first provincial theatres in Halifax was built at Ward’s End in 1791, superseding the earlier venues in the old Assembly Rooms at the Talbot Inn, and the inn yards of the Old Cock Inn and the White Lion. See ‘The Old Theatre in Halifax, 1789–1904’ by A. Porritt, HAST, 1956 (pp.17–30).

  4. Anne constructed four different indexes: a journal index in which she recorded a short abstract of each day’s entry in her main journal; a literary index, in which she listed all the books, pamphlets, reviews, etc., which she had read or partly read throughout each year; a letters index which allowed her to track down the date, and the name of the sender or recipient of every letter sent or received during each year; and an extracts index listing the subject of each extract from her reading alphabetically.

  5. The housekeeper at the Norcliffes’ town house in York.

  6. ‘The Cornelian’ is a love-poem by Byron written to commemorate the gift of a heart-shaped cornelian stone to Byron from John Edleston, a young Trinity choirboy, with whom Byron fell in love during his time at Cambridge University. See Byron’s letter to a friend, Elizabeth Bridget Pigot, dated 5 July 1807, in which he expresses his love for Edleston. Byron: A Self-portrait: Letters and Diaries 1798–1824, ed. Peter Quennell, Oxford University Press, 1990 (p.30). The esoteric theme of this poem is that of the transgressive love between Byron and a young man who was poor and socially inferior to the poet. The young man gives the poet a cornelian stone which the poet values greatly. This text would have allowed Anne to send two veiled messages to Miss Browne – that she was the object of Anne’s unorthodox love but that she was also Anne’s social inferior and therefore she could not be her life-partner. In the event, Anne gave up the idea and Miss Browne eventually married without ever having really understood what Anne’s motives were towards her – at least not until after her marriage when she had become more worldly-wise.

  7. Kallista or Callista derives from Callisto from the Greek, meaning ‘most beautiful’. Anna Clark, in her article, ‘Anne Lister’s Construction of Lesbian Identity’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, volume 7, number 1, July 1996 (pp.41–50), relates Anne’s choice of this name to ‘… the myth, retold by Ovid, of the nymph Callisto, beloved of Diana, chaste leader of the hunt, who rejected male company. When Callisto rests while hunting, Jove comes upon her, and in order to seduce her, disguises himself as Diana. When Callisto becomes pregnant, Diana turns her into a bear in disgust and anger at her betrayal. If Miss Browne was Callisto, who did Anne see herself as: Jove or Diana, or one in the disguise of the other? As Jove, Anne could inflame her fantasies of “taking” lower-class young women in a masculine disguise. As Diana, Anne could imagine a comradeship of free, virginal young women hunting and loving in the forest and identify with her rage when Jove raped Callisto, just as she resented the marriages of the young women she admired.’

  8. Langton Hall, home of the Norcliffe family in the picturesque village of Langton, near Malton, East Yorkshire.

  9. The Piece Hall was built for the specific purpose of buying and selling the cloth pieces manufactured by the woollen industry for which Halifax was renowned in Anne Lister’s day. Designed on the Classical lines of Italian architecture, incorporating Tuscan columns and arches which surround a great courtyard, this spacious Italianate building was opened on 1 January 1779 to a great fanfare of public rejoicing and civic pride. Now listed as a Grade I building of historical and architectural importance and interest, it remains the only one of its kind in the whole of Great Britain.

  10. Housekeeper at Langton Hall.

  11. This was to be the first time Anne had met the Norcliffe family since the deaths of their youngest daughter, Emily, and their son-in-law, Dr Charles Best, husband of their daughter Mary Best. Both tragedies had occurred in 1817 whilst the Norcliffe family were on a tour of Europe. Anne Lister was understandably anxious about visiting a family in mourning for their recently deceased loved ones.

  12. Charlotte Norcliffe, sister to Isabella.

  13. François Joseph Talma, (1763–1826), famous tragedian of the French stage, patronised by Napoleon and influenced by David, the greatest French artist of the French revolutionary period. Talma’s reforms in acting styles, staging and costume in the theatre led to him becoming one of the leading figures in nineteenth-century French Romanticism and Realism. For a short account of his funeral, see Philip Mansel’s Paris Between the Empires, John Murray Ltd, 2001 (p.216). Anne Lister was in Paris at the time and she noted the occasion in her journal. ‘Joseph-François Talma buried yesterday morning at 11½ in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, not far from Massena, being carried, according to his request, directly from his own house to the cemetery. The procession left his house at 10, consisting of between 3 & four thousand. About twenty thousand persons estimated to be assembled in the cemetery. His death occasioned by an obstruction (of about 1½ inch) in one of the bowels.’ Ref. CDA. SH:7/ML/E/9. 22.10.1826.

  14. The Manor School, Anne’s old school. She entered the school at the age of fourteen, sometime between April and August of 1805 and remained there until the early summer of 1806. The Manor School was housed in a medieval building known as the King’s Manor which still exists today. Originally a thirteenth-century house, built as an abbot’s lodging house, the north wing of the King’s Manor was converted into boarding-school premises in the first half of the eighteenth century. At this period, 1805, there were around forty-one pupils, drawn for the most part from wealthy North of England families. For an account of the history of this medieval building see E. A. Gee’s ‘The King’s Manor’, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, City of York. Vol. IV, H. M. Stationery Office, London, 1977.

  15. Charlotte Sophia (1744–1818), wife of George III. The German-born Princess Sophie Charlotte was married to George III on 8 September 1761. The marriage produced fifteen children, of whom the eldest, George (1762–1830), became Prince Regent in 1811 and then George IV on the death of his father in 1820. As King George’s illness, diagnosed as ‘madness’, became ever more distressing, Queen Charlotte isolated herself, becoming bad-tempered with her family and aloof from society. She died on 17 November 1818. See Christopher Hibbert’s George IV, Penguin Books, 1976 (p.517).

  1819

  1. Clare Hall (previously Calico Hall) was the home of the Prescott family during Anne Lister’s era. For a fuller account of the history of this mansion see ‘Clare Hall, Halifax’ by C. D. Webster M.A., HAST, 1967 (pp.123–137).

  2. When Anne was seven her parents sent her to a dame-school in Ripon, North Yorks, run by a Mrs Haigue and a Mrs Chettle. The school was situated in Low Agnes Gate. (Ref. CDA. SH:7/ML/E/ 15/ 22.5.1832.) Anne was almost totally out of the control of her mother who was left alone for long periods whilst Captain Lister, a seemingly indifferent husband and father, was away on military duties. She admits she was a difficult child. In later life, Anne told a friend that she was whipped every day at the school in Ripon: ‘I told her I was a curious genius and had been so from my cradle. She wondered what I was when little. I said, a very great pickle. Sent to school very early because they could do nothing with me at home, and whipped every day, except now & then in the holidays, for two years.’ Ref. CDA. SH:7/ML/E/3/10.11.1819.

  3. In Greek mythology, Lethe is a river in Hades whose waters, if drunk, cause forgetfulness.

  4. Miss Watkinson’s School for Young Ladies in Halifax.

  5. John Locke (1632–1704), British philosopher, known for his work on empirical knowledge, religious toleration and anti-authoritarian theory of the state.

  6. ‘Are you dead? Are you ill? Have you changed your mind? Have any difficulties arisen?’

  7. Elvington, near York, was the home of Ellen Empson (née Rawson. She had been an old flirt of Anne’s in their younger days. In 1814, she married Amaziah Empson of Harrogate and moved to Elvington.

  8. Thomas Edwards (1762–1834) of the firm ‘Edwards of Halifax’, the booksellers. The book-binding skills of William Edwards (1723–1808) of Hal
ifax became known around 1750 when he created some of the best examples of the art of fore-edge painting in which the edges of the pages of a book depicted scenes, usually of a pastoral nature. His sons carried on the business and the Edwardses became renowned for their elegant and unique bindings. The success of their business led to the opening of a bookstore in Pall Mall, London. See ‘Edwards of Halifax’ by T. Hanson, HAST, 1912 (pp.141–200).

  9. The joke here is, of course, that in Anne’s era, ‘kiss’, like the French ‘baiser’, contained a double entendre in that in addition to its more common interpretation it could also mean ‘to have sexual intercourse’.

  10. Lallah Rookh (1817) by Thomas Moore (1779–1852), an Irish poet, songwriter and biographer, whose romantic ballads earned him the title of national songwriter of Ireland. His long poem Lallah Rookh consists of a series of Oriental tales in verse, with linking passages in prose, told to the princess, Lallah Rookh, on her journey from Delhi to Kashmir, where she was to be married.

  11. Bolus – a large pill.

  12. The years from 1816 to 1820 were what E. P. Thompson called ‘the heroic age of popular Radicalism’, dominated as they were by repression, radicalism and reform fever and Britain was closer to revolution than it has ever been since that period. Halifax, because of its importance as a centre of the woollen manufacturing industry, was a kind of crucible in which all the elements of political, economic and social dislocation were mixed, making a potent brew of discontent which permeated the society of this small, insular, Pennine town at every level. With the increasingly vociferous demands for parliamentary reform, the government found itself facing an unprecedented wave of radicalism with the dangerous whiff of revolution about it. With scenes of the French Revolution of 1789 still vivid in the imaginations of nervous politicians, their frightened response was to introduce repressive measures of great severity such as the Seditious Meetings Act of 1817 and the Six Acts of 1819. For an extended discussion covering this period see the chapter headed ‘Demagogues and Martyrs’ in E. P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin Books, 1991 (pp.660–780).

  13. William Milne was the young son of Colonel and Mrs Milne, nephew to Mariana. He was a very sick boy, suffering from tuberculosis of the bone and died at an early age.

  14. The Peterloo Massacre is the name given to a meeting held on St Peter’s Field, Manchester, the main aim of which was to demand parliamentary reform. A crowd of between fifty and sixty thousand people gathered there. Although the meeting was peaceful the local magistrates took fright and ordered the arrest of the leading speaker, ‘Orator’ Hunt. The Cheshire Yeomanry was sent in, panic ensued and shots were fired by the troops, killing eleven peaceful demonstrators and wounding around four hundred more. James Wroe (1788–1844), a leading Manchester radical and one of the founders of the Manchester Observer, was at the reform meeting on 16 August 1819 and described the events in the next edition of his newspaper. He was reputed to be the first person to give the title of the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ to the events which took place in St Peter’s Field that fateful day. He was imprisoned for twelve months for publishing a series of pamphlets entitled The Peterloo Massacre; A Faithful Narrative of the Events.

  15. Sarah Binns was a fictitious person with whom Anne pretended to be carrying on a sexual affair. The girl was, according to Anne, of working-class origin and served Anne’s fantasy of keeping a mistress. In 1816, talking to Mariana’s sister: ‘I was led into hinting at Sarah Binns, the feigned name of a girl to whom M[ariana] believes, & has believed for the last two years, me to pay thirty pounds a year.’ Ref. CDA. SH:7/ML/E/26/ 23.11.1816.

  16. The Pleasures of Hope, by Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) a Scottish poet of Glaswegian origin, was published in 1797. An instantaneous success, it was followed by a new edition, with added lyrics, in 1803. Campbell was instrumental in the founding of London University. From 1826 to 1829 he was lord rector of Glasgow University. He is buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.

  17. Known in France during the French Revolution as the ‘bonnet rouge’, the red cap of liberty was worn by the militant sans-culottes as a symbol of freedom from tyranny. Dating back to Roman times, its original name was the Phrygian cap (in French, bonnet Phrygien) and it was given to freed slaves at the moment of their emancipation. See Simon Schama’s Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Penguin Books, 1989 (pp.603–4).

  18. Housemaid at Shibden Hall.

  19. Gay did not, of course, have the connotations which it has today. Anne is referring to Mr Kelly’s licentious behaviour with, possibly, women and alcohol. In Anne’s era it was the custom to speak of the ‘gaieties’ of men who were living a dissolute life.

  1820

  1. Mr Horton – a Halifax magistrate.

  2. George III died on 29 January 1820 and the Prince Regent, at the age of fifty-seven, became the new king, George IV. ‘The proclamation of his accession was delayed for a day, however, as January 30 was the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I; and it was not until Monday 31st that… the aged Garter King of Arms read out the traditional formula in a slow and quavering voice.’ See George IV by C. Hibbert, Penguin Books, 1988 (p.543).

  3. Haugh-end, Sowerby, near Halifax, was the home of Henry Priestley (1790–1837) and his wife, Mary. He was the son of Joseph and Lydia Priestley of White Windows, Sowerby. The family were prosperous clothing manufacturers. Joseph Priestley was a J.P. and also Deputy Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire. See ‘Famous Sowerby mansions. White Windows’ by H. P. Kendall, HAST, 1906 (pp.105–15).

  4. Hope Hall (now the Albany Club) is a Georgian mansion built in 1765; it became the home of Christopher Rawson and his wife, Mary Anne, in 1808. The couple had no children but their house, like that of his mother’s at Stoney Royde, was the venue for lively social gatherings of the town’s élite. See ‘Hope Hall, Halifax: and its Past Residents’ by A. Porritt, HAST, 1972 (pp.77–87).

  5. George Canning (1770–1827), Member of Parliament for Liverpool 1812–1823, Foreign Secretary 1822–1827. He became Prime Minister in April 1827 but died in August of the same year at the age of fifty-seven.

  6. Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), the most acclaimed English actress of the era, excelled in such dramatic Shakespearean roles as Lady Macbeth, Desdemona and Rosalind. Although she formally retired from the stage in 1812, she did appear on special occasions. A benefit evening for Mr and Mrs Charles Kemble on 9 June 1819 was her final public performance.

  7. The ‘black hole’ – a place of detention where miscreants were kept overnight prior to appearing before a magistrate the following day. It was thought to have been located in Dungeon Street at the bottom of Pellon Lane, Halifax. See ‘Notes on Halifax Gaols’ by R. Eccles, HAST, 1922 (pp.88–104).

  8. Mary Vallance was the twenty-five-year-old daughter of a Kent brewing family. She had met the Norcliffes during their Grand Tour of Europe. She and Emily Norcliffe, the youngest Norcliffe daughter, had become close friends. After Emily’s tragic death at the age of eighteen, from tuberculosis, the Norcliffes became very fond of Miss Vallance and she was a regular guest at Langton Hall. During the house-party mentioned here, there was a great deal of flirting and sexual activity between some of the women. Miss Vallance, after a show of maidenly modesty, eventually allowed Anne Lister some sexual freedom. As Anne wrote in her journal of 8 March 1821, ‘I care not about my connection with Miss V. She gave me licence enough.’

  1821

  1. Cliff Hill and Crow Nest – two of the properties forming part of the Walker estate in Lightcliffe, adjacent to the Shibden estate. In 1830, Ann Walker became co-heiress, along with her sister Elizabeth, to the estate. In 1834, Ann moved in to Shibden Hall to live with Anne Lister as her wife. See ‘The Walkers of Crow Nest’, in Female Fortune: Land, Gender and Authority by Jill Liddington, River Orams Press, 1988 (pp.27–38).

  2. Henry Stephen (Steph) Belcombe (1790–1856), brother to Mariana, was the only son of Dr William Belcombe. He foll
owed his father into the medical profession. He married Harriet Bagshaw by whom he had three children. Initially he practised medicine in Newcastle-under-Lyme but later in his career he moved to York, living in the Minster Yard. He succeeded his father at the York Retreat in 1826 and also at the Clifton private asylum. Charles Dickens was a close friend of his and visited his home on several occasions. See Clifton and its People in the Nineteenth Century: A North Riding Township now Part of York City by Barbara Hutton, Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 1969 (p.25).

  3. ‘If I lose you, I am lost.’

  4. A three-volume romantic novel by German author August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue, published in 1809. A French translation from the original German was published in London. The story, which Anne saw as a parallel to her own unhappy love-affair with Mariana, is that of an innocent young woman, Leontine (Mariana Lawton), who marries a debauched older man, Major Arlhoff (Charles Lawton), to please her father, Count de Blondheim (Dr Belcombe). A much younger, honourable man, Captain Wallerstein (Anne Lister) is in love with Leontine and, after many romantic and melodramatic twists and turns, including the death of the hated Arlhoff, all is happily resolved.

  5. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), a German philosopher of the European Enlightenment.

  6. Isabella Norcliffe’s uncle, the Reverend James Dalton, had been appointed the Rector of Croft, near Darlington, in 1805. Brother to Isabella’s father, Thomas Norcliffe Dalton, James and his wife Maria had been married for twenty-five years. There were eight surviving children of the marriage.

  7. These works, particularly Byron’s Don Juan, Moore’s Lallah Rookh and Little’s poems were thought to contain sensuous material not fit for respectable people, particularly women, to read.