You might know about Anne Lister from the hugely successful and widely acclaimed BBC/ HBO series Gentleman Jack. Far from your typical period drama, Gentleman Jack follows the formidable female protagonist through her business deals, estate management, and lustful love affairs with not one, but a host of eligible young women.
Jill Liddington, author of Female Fortune, which inspired Sally Wainwright’s BBC series Gentleman Jack and new book, As Good as a Marriage is an Anne Lister historian explains more:
She read voraciously: books about politics, about engineering, about travel. On geology, Anne read what the young Charles Darwin was reading. But, unlike him, women could not go to university and so could not join the learned societies.
What makes the series all the more fascinating is its basis in fact. Lister’s diaries have given historians a glimpse into what many people believe to be the life of the first modern lesbian. Her life is self-documented over decades, providing over 5 million words in encrypted code which would only be solved by historians and expert code breakers in the 1980’s. Lister’s diaries provides rare archival evidence of day to day life in Halifax, the political landscape and the way she navigated this as a woman. Perhaps most significantly, they includued extremely detailed sexual encounters with the ‘fairer sex’.
But how was it possible to live openly as a Lesbian in 1830’s Halifax? Jill Liddington explains:
Well, she was a member of the traditional landed gentry. And Shibden Hall itself was conveniently tucked away from prying eyes down in the town. Also, when she visited Halifax, she behaved discreetly. Additionally, Anne was phenomenally clever: no man ever got the better of her!
Anne Lister – Life at Shibden
Anne Lister inherited the Shibden estate from her uncle in 1826. When she returned from her travels abroad in 1832, she set to work with extraordinary energy to redesign her ancient acres, making them elegant and modern. When she returned she also met her soon to be ‘common-law wife’ and wealthy heiress Ann Walker, who resided in the neighbouring estate of Crow’s Nest. Just several months later Lister had persuaded Ann to join her living at Shibden Hall. Their courtship was not a smooth journey, with Ann unsure about commitment, and it took some time for the relationship to be solidified.
In an era far before same sex marriage was made legal, the couple’s options to show each other their mutual dedication and love were limited. This exchange in their wills seems to be a way of legally solidifying their relationship. However, Lister and Walker also did something more personal to show their commitment. On Easter Sunday 1834 in Holy Trinity Church, York they took communion together – an act they both deemed “as good as a marriage”. Two hundred years on, the church now bears a plaque acknowledging this as the location of the first lesbian wedding.
The next chapter
Jill Liddington’s new book, As Good as a Marriage, goes beyond where the BBC series ended and explores the next chapter in Anne Lister’s adventures from 1836–38:
Anne was extremely daring. In 1838, on one of her European travels she climbed Vignemale, the highest peak in the French Pyrenees. (I climbed it in 2003, and was totally in awe of Anne as I struggled over snow-covered glaciers before the sun melted the crevasses.)
Not all was well for the newly weds. As Good as a Marriage explores the at times frayed relationship between wife and wife and the loving reconciliations which followed.
Anne Lister was a remarkable non-conformist who continuously challenged what it meant to be an aristocrat and woman in the early 1800’s. This International Women’s Day, we celebrate her and the ‘lost’ lives and stories of lesbian and bisexual women in history.
You can get your copy of As Good as a Marriage here:
Manchester University Press – As Good as a Marriage
