<\/p>
At 2am one night in the 1890s, amateur code-breakers John Lister and Arthur Burrell were hard at work.<\/p>\n
The pair had been up for hours poring over mysterious documents John had inherited, among swathes of ageing ledgers and paperwork, when he had become master of Shibden Hall near Halifax. Entitled the Diaries and Journals of Mrs Lister<\/em>, the 24 volumes documented the business affairs, social life and travels of one of Shibden Hall\u2019s previous owners, Anne Lister (1791\u20131840), who had inherited the house in 1826.<\/p>\n While John, a distant relation of Anne, found the diaries diverting enough, what really intrigued him were large sections tantalisingly concealed in code. He enlisted the help of Burrell, an antiquarian, and the pair set to work deciphering Anne\u2019s code of numerical figures, Greek letters<\/a> and invented symbols.<\/p>\n Once they had cracked it, however, \u201cthe part written in cipher turned out to be entirely unpublishable\u2026\u201d What had been revealed was, in the words of Arthur Burrell, \u201can intimate account of homosexual practices among Miss Lister and her many \u2018friends\u2019; hardly any one of them escaped her\u201d. Burrell was so appalled by the \u201cunsavoury\u201d discovery that he advised his friend to burn the diaries immediately.<\/p>\n Thankfully, John resisted the urge to fling the volumes directly onto the fire. Instead, he sealed them into a small chamber in Shibden Hall, keen to prevent anyone uncovering such salacious family secrets. Concealed behind wood panelling, they would go undiscovered until after his death in 1933.<\/p>\n Although Lister and Burrell may not have appreciated it at the time, the diaries they had decoded that night would go on to become a seminal source of British LGBTQ history<\/a> \u2013 one that would force historians to reassess lesbian relationships in the early 19th century.<\/p>\n Running to more than four million words, Anne Lister\u2019s journals are densely packed with the minutiae of her everyday life. Yet buried between exhaustive entries on the political situation in Prussia, canal tolls and toenail cutting are extraordinary accounts of her romantic and sexual adventures with women.<\/p>\n Lister embarked on her career as a master of seduction while still at school, starting up a relationship with her friend and roommate Eliza Raine, who she later reflected was \u201cthe most beautiful girl I ever saw\u201d.<\/p>\n Sexual encounters with various female acquaintances followed. As Anne boasted in 1816: \u201cThe girls liked me and had always liked me. I had never been refused by anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Angela Steidele, author of a biography of Lister, \u201cit was easy for Anne to find lovers because she was a very attractive character: charming, flattering, witty and well educated. She was the heart of every party and could talk you in or out of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n The greatest passion documented in Anne\u2019s diary comes from her relationship with Mariana Belcombe, the \u201cmistress of [her] thoughts and hopes\u201d. For almost 20 years, the pair were involved in an on-off love affair which continued even after Mariana married \u2013 an institution that Anne bitterly compared to legitimised prostitution.<\/p>\n The relationship eventually broke down after Mariana became increasingly anxious about its true nature being uncovered, leaving Anne with a heart \u201calmost agonised to bursting\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite this crushing rejection, Anne maintained that she had as much right to love and companionship as anyone, and was not afraid to pursue it actively. \u201cThere is one thing that I wish for\u2026 one thing without which my happiness in this world seems impossible,\u201d she wrote in 1832. \u201cI was not born to live alone\u2026 in loving and being loved, I could be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n When she was in her early 40s, Anne began what would be her last \u2013 and arguably most significant \u2013 relationship, with Ann Walker, from a wealthy neighbouring family. Although she did not inspire the same passion as Mariana once had, Ann did meet many of the criteria of what Lister looked for in a partner: she was younger, pliable, obedient and well-off. \u201cI shall think myself into being in love with her \u2013 I am already persuaded I like her well enough for comfort,\u201d the cash-strapped Lister concluded in 1832. \u201cPerhaps after all, she will make me happier than any of my former flames \u2013 at all rates we shall have money enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this somewhat lacklustre start, the pair embarked on a relationship. Walker moved in to Shibden Hall and, in 1834, the two women exchanged rings in York\u2019s Holy Trinity Church. They took the Communion together, which they thought to be equivalent to marriage (180 years before same-sex marriages were legalised in England), though their union was not blessed by a priest.<\/p>\n Anne\u2019s conquests were multiple, but \u201cwhat is clear from reading her diaries is that the biggest love of Anne\u2019s life was Anne herself\u201d, says Steidele. \u201cIn fact, you could read these volumes as one long love letter to herself. She truly got lost in her diary, and was writing purely for her own satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n And satisfaction really is the right word for it. Lister\u2019s diary is extraordinarily candid in detailing her sexual encounters, going far beyond noting who she had seduced and when. Rather, her code conceals intimate descriptions of specific sexual acts and even keeps a tally of her number of orgasms. Assessments of each encounter are frank to the point of brusqueness \u2013 while one lover is praised for \u201cknow[ing] how to heighten the pleasure of our intercourse\u201d, another is condemned as \u201cdry as a stick\u201d.<\/p>\n Such explicit details don\u2019t just make the diaries compelling reading, says Steidele, it also gives them huge historical significance.<\/p>\n \u201cIn earlier research on sexuality in the late 19th and 20th century, there was a legend that women never desired other women physically. The term that was often used was \u2018romantic friendship\u2019, implying that while some women enjoyed very close relationships, they never engaged in any physical acts.\u201d<\/p>\n Lister\u2019s diaries, however, act as the \u2018missing link\u2019 in British LGBTQ studies. By speaking directly of sex between women, they reveal the idea of \u2018romantic friendship\u2019 to be a false concept. This has led her writings to be hailed as the \u201cRosetta stone<\/a> of lesbian history\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been homosexual acts<\/em> throughout history, but what makes Lister different is her awareness of her own difference,\u201d says Steidele. \u201cHistorians tend to say an awareness of homosexuality as an identity<\/em> first emerged in the late 19th century, but Lister\u2019s journals are an earlier proof of this development. That\u2019s why she can be seen as Britain\u2019s \u2018first modern lesbian\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\nWho was Anne Lister?<\/h2>\n
The significance of Anne Lister\u2019s diaries<\/h2>\n