“Yet my manners are certainly peculiar, not all masculine but rather softly gentleman-like. I know how to please girls.” - Anne Lister, Journals, 1820
Anne Lister lived at Shibden Hall In Halifax, West Yorkshire between 1791 and 1840.
She was a landowner, which was very unusual at the time, a scholar, and although she would never have described herself as such, a lesbian.
Known locally as ‘Gentleman Jack’, due to her masculine clothes and mannerisms, Anne was the cause of much speculation in Halifax. Her diaries give us a remarkable insight into how she perceived her sexuality as an ‘oddity’ but did nothing to conseal or change it.
The fascinating details of her life and loves may never have come to light if historian Helena Whitbread had not uncovered her coded journals in the Calderdale archives.
These journals reveal the very intimate details of Anne’s life. They show her to have been an intense, sophisticated woman, whose pursuit and courtship of women from her own class is documented in detail in her journals.
You can find out more about this remarkable woman, by reading -
I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840 (Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life & Literature)
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