Renowned for being the first woman to break the mold around sexuality, Anne Lister is revered by many as being the first modern lesbian. She blazed the road for generations of LGBTQ women to follow by living her life audaciously and fearlessly. But what was it about Anne Lister that made her so unique?
Being a woman in the 18th century who identified as gay meant risking exposure, and the various allegations about her that circulated in society were truly dangerous. Commonly circulated myths were that gay women are hermaphrodites or witches who use their charms to attract young females. As a way of gender expression, some women turned to cross-dress to address this head on.
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Hailing from West Yorkshire, England the Lister family was one of property and extreme wealth as the proprietors of Shibden Hall, a Tudor-style mansion which still stands today and has featured in such films as the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Anne Lister was born on April 3rd, 1791 and raised at Skelfer House in nearby Market Weighton. Weighton was not a favorite of Lister’s, and she spent most of her early years in Shibden House with her uncle James and aunt Anne.
Lister moved live with her aunt and uncle in 1815, and eleven years later, after her uncle died, Anne took over the estate management. This would be her first experience with having control in her life.
When Lister’s aunt Anne died in 1836, she inherited the house and estate. She had suddenly found herself in the situation of being an entrepreneur with her own source of income, giving her liberty. A fortunate position in which few women at the time found themselves. But what would she do with this privilege?
Anne Lister’s Coded Diaries
Anne, like many other teenagers, kept journals in which she chronicled her trials and tribulations. She began this practice at the age of fifteen and continued it for the rest of her life. Her early notes detailed her experiences at York’s Manor School, as well as her first love, a girl called Eliza Riane.
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Her candor about her own sexuality was one of the things that drew people to her diaries. Lister wrote about her raunchy love romances with a variety of women, as well as her intimate sexual encounters.
It’s reasonable to suppose Anne wrote so freely since she believed the contents of her journals would stay private and only for her eyes to see. Many people write about scandalous affairs in their diaries, so why was Anne Lister out of the norm?
Nevertheless, the diaries revealed a life of risk-taking and paint a candid picture of the practicalities of homosexuality at a time when it was illegal. Her diaries put pay to the lie that homosexual encounters were rare, instead revealing that they were only carefully discreet.
Even before the content of her diaries was revealed Anne stood apart from other women of her time. She was notorious for wearing “anti-feminine black attire” according to reports. Her wardrobe choices, combined with her assertive stance, upright posture and good education, further distinguished her from the notion of how a woman should be and express herself.
Lister pushed her sexuality (and the scandal which swirled around her) a step further by openly courting women, many of whom were seduced by her confidence and charisma. Many people had never seen anything like that before, earning her the moniker “Gentleman Jack”: a slang term for a lesbian.
Lister’s lifestyle made it evident that she did not agree with the expectations of femininity at the time, for example, she was opposed to traditional marriage standards. However, she did have two “marriage ceremonies” throughout her lifetime, one with Marinana Lawton and the other with Ann Walker.
Ann Walker was Anne Lister’s next-door neighbor who had also inherited a large fortune, making her another woman of means. Walker became Lister’s life companion, accompanying her across the world and finally settling in Shibden Hall in 1834.
In 1839, the two embarked on a two-year tour throughout Europe, which would be their final adventure together. Ann Lister died of a terrible prolonged fever in 1840, at the age of 49, after being bitten by a venomous insect in Georgia.
Cracking the Code and the Door Wide Open
By the time of her death her diaries amounted to 7,722 pages, 26 volumes, and approximately 5 million words. The journals are filled with writings concerning her travels, jobs, and life on the estate.
But it was her willingness to discuss her sexuality that made her diaries something that is being spoken about today. But, ever the practical person, the parts of her diaries discussing her sexuality were written in code.
In the 1890s, a descendant of Anne’s, John Lister, was sorting through the different relics in Shibden House when he came upon the journals. John Lister decrypted the texts after being intrigued by the probable mysteries hidden in the coded parts. He remarked that she had created a code she had named “crypthand” using a combination of the Greek alphabet and algebra.
Even though the substance of the diaries was unlike anything else penned at the time, John Lister did not publish them after his discovery. He, on the other hand, reburied the journals. According to one theory, John Lister was gay and afraid that releasing the diaries would draw attention to his family, himself, and his own sexual orientation.
The lengthy job of transcribing Anne Lister’s diaries began as late as 2018 thanks to the hard work of research student Helena Whitbread and the Calderdale Museum. The significance of publishing Lister’s powerful content cannot be understated.
York is currently known as the birthplace of lesbian marriage in the United Kingdom, thanks to Anne Lister’s boldness and openness. Despite being written in secret, the content of her diaries can be utilized as a source of inspiration for anyone seeking to challenge society’s standards.
Top Image: Anne Lister has been called the first modern lesbian, although her coded diaries were not translated until 2018. Source: Syda Productions / Adobe Stock.
By Roisin Everard
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