Martha Lister

Who was Martha Lister?

Martha Lister was the third daughter, and sixth child, of Jeremiah Lister (1713-1788) and Anne Lister (née Hall) (1722-1769) (Oliveira et al.), the only² daughter of Joseph Hall and Sarah Hall of Butterworth End, Norland³ (Clare 12). 

Jeremiah had an adventurous streak, and in 1735 he left for America to seek his fortune, but returned to England the following year when the venture failed (Gould 1). In 1744, he married Anne Hall, and in 1764 inherited Shibden Hall (Clare 12) - Jeremiah was the fourth brother to do so (Clare 11). 

According to memoranda written in a “Notebook of Lister details and accounts c. 1625-1885”⁴, Martha was born at Lower Brear in the township of Northowram - her parents had moved there by 1745 (Beecham 118). She was born on 8 March 1763⁵, and baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist, now Halifax Minster, on 7 April⁶. 

Martha was the sister of Anne Lister senior (1765-1836) and Captain Jeremy Lister (1752-1836), both of whom featured in the TV series “Gentleman Jack”. 

Although Martha left no known journal, her letters (and those of her family) and cash accounts suggest she was a lively and engaged woman, who enjoyed social and cultural events, hobbies, and time at home and away on visits. She spent most of her life at Shibden Hall (“our ancient Mansion”⁷), where she died in 1809.

Martha at a Glance

Family Life

Martha appears to have had a contented home life, and to have been close to her sister, Anne, and brothers James (1748-1826) and Jeremy. The Shibden papers¹¹ include a number of affectionate letters between Martha and James, and Martha and Anne. In some, Jeremy is humorously and affectionately referred to as “Brother Captain”¹², and in others Martha refers to Anne as “Nancy”, historically a diminutive or pet form of “Ann(e)”. In one letter, Anne’s affection for her sister, and her pleasure in writing to her when they were apart, are evident: 

“I cannot omit the opportunity of writing to you … that the satisfaction I experience when absent from you in an epistolary conversation, makes me with pleasure employ any leisure time in endeavouring to amuse you by an account of some of the gentries &c. I am at present a partaker of”

(9 April 1799 - SH:7/LL/306)

Martha’s personal cash accounts evince a tenderness towards her niece, AnneJ, and nephew, Samuel (1793-1813). At Anne’sJ and Samuel’s Christenings (September 1791 and June 1793, respectively) Martha paid one guinea (one pound and one shilling), and when they were older she bought a drum (1795), a “Skiprope” (1802), and a “Toy” (1803). 

Martha appears to have liked nice things to use in the home - in 1797 and 1798, she shared (with Anne) the cost of several items of silver tableware such as a teapot, a coffeepot, and candle snuffers and silver cutlery (tongs and teaspoons), the total cost of which was over £30 (about £3,250 today¹³). These were all notable purchases for Shibden Hall, and would have been a significant upgrade from the pewter, copper, brass, iron, and tin metalware listed for domestic use in a 1766 inventory of Shibden Hall (Westwood and Brown 56). 

A letter from Anne at the end of the eighteenth century demonstrates that she and Martha were discussing, in some detail, some pictures and frames that they were ordering for Shibden Hall: 

“the paintings you mention … I have made choice of what I think will look elegant without being heavy … I hope you will not think these too broad, as the breadth I was told ought to be proportion’d to the size of the picture  … when you write again be so good as let me know if the rings are to be put on to hang the length way, or the breadth” 

(20 May 1799 - SH:7/LL/309)

Apparently the sisters shared an interest in adorning their home.

As to matters outdoors, in a letter to her brother James, Martha wrote enthusiastically about the running of the farm. Rather like her niece, AnneJ, nearly forty years later, Martha was active in overseeing some of the farmwork while James was away:

“The men are ploughing, and promise me to be as diligent as they can. Brandy has had a very bad cough that Jonathan was afraid he was going to to be ill in the same disorder the other Horses have had, but bleeding and good nursing has quite eased him. If the men think of sowing before your return, I shall desire my Brother Joseph to get us some seed Oats, … The Calf now thrives very well, and has such an excellent appetite that it leaves us very little milk,” 

(22 March 1788 - SH:7/LL/268)

Martha seems to have had a settled and contented home life surrounded by family of whom she was fond.

Sociability

Despite evident health challenges, Martha’s lively personality stands out from her correspondence and personal cash accounts. Letters to her brother James when she was twenty, in 1783, mention “Assemblies every Evening … having been two Days this Week at the Races at Richmond” (SH:7/LL/248) and “an excellent Dance no less than 28 Couples” (SH:7/LL/250). In 1789, she wrote of “engagements for almost every evening this week” (SH:7/LL/277), and in 1790 that “York is a pleasant place, but a very expensive one. We attended most of the amusements, and when not engaged with them we had generally company or went out to Tea and Cards until nine oclock” (SH:7/LL/281). 

These and other letters, sent from several places around Yorkshire, where she stayed with family and friends for weeks or even months at a time, display an energy and enthusiasm for company and companionship. She also spent considerable sums during her time away - for example, travel to and from “Weighton”, and nine weeks away, in the summer of 1795 cost eight pounds and thirteen shillings (about £900 today).  

Convivial and socially engaged, Martha was not above playing a few hands of cards, including, perhaps, for money. In a letter to Anne in the Spring of 1801, she wrote from York, “An unlucky week this, I have only play’d at cards two evenings and lost 17 /- [shillings]” (SH:7/LL/320). 

During the Regency period¹⁴, gambling took hold of all layers of society, from the highest to the lower classes, to the point of obsession (Morrison 64, 83-84). People bet on anything and everything, and games involving cards and dice were particularly in vogue (Morrison 2). At the card table, it is possible that, rather than use cash, Martha and her friends played with gaming tokens like this: 

People used their gaming tokens for different types of gambling. The tokens’ values were agreed by the players at the start of a session, and cash was handed over at the end based on the number and value of tokens held (Lathan). Card parties were fashionable (Kendall 135), and the cash accounts of both Martha and Anne show purchases of packs of cards. Anne bought a new card table in 1800 for £3 3s 0d (roughly £210 today). 

Other Interests

An arithmetic book of Martha’s dated 1776, when she was thirteen, shows some diligence in presenting her work neatly. But she also appears to have had some artistic, perhaps even dreamy, qualities - section headings are elaborately embellished, and the book contains a competent drawing of a female, and fragments and imprints of pressed flowers. These non-arithmetical touches may reflect where her greater interest lay.

Letters and cash accounts of both Martha and Anne suggest a strong inclination to pursue the fashions of the day. 

In a letter to Martha in 1799, Anne described in detail the shape and colour of some bonnets that she had tried on, and how she sometimes trimmed them. The topic was presumably of mutual interest. 

“This morning I went in search of Beaver Bonnets, … I had four of the jockey shape the brim much deeper before than behind, the crown like a common beaver hat only rather oval and black military plumes in front, but those were so very unbecoming to me I was glad to take them of [off] my Head. The other two were a deep lead colour almost a dust of Paris, quite a round shape, and very narrow brim … with Brush Feathers … I generally go to the play in one, put on as large as I can, and sometimes another tyed round my head with a flower, or gold spray, my pink cap (which Mrs Hunter admires) comes on occasionally”

(9 April 1799 - SH:7/LL/306)

The sisters’ cash accounts include countless entries for gowns, millinery, fabrics, and garment-enhancing haberdashery items such as ribbons, lace, beads, and “spangles” (shiny metal discs or wires like sequins (Oakes)). 

Essential to their apparent efforts to keep up with fashion was how they styled their hair, and Martha’s cash accounts list purchases of items that were used in this. For example, in 1791 she bought pomade and “One pound of Powder (hair)”, and these products feature throughout her accounts books. Nowadays made from a pleasantly scented wax or a water-based substance, in the 18th century the sticky pomade was typically made from bear fat or lard (“Pomade”). Powder, applied in a messy process to adhere to the pomade, was usually made from flour or starch, and came in a range of colours, white or grey being thought the most stylish (Knowles) - Martha bought some blue powder in September 1793. These styles typically took so long to create that a woman would keep the hair in position for days and protect the styling at night (“Pictorial History of Regency Hairstyles”). Depending on the occasion, a feather or two may have been added to the raised hairstyle (Mortimer 185). 

When Martha and Anne were using pomade and powder in the closing years of the 18th century, the popularity of that style was in decline. In 1786, a tax on hair powder caused a further downturn in its use, and from 1795 an annual licence, costing a guinea, was required (Mortimer 180). Although for many this proved the final nail in the coffin for the fashion (Knowles), Martha “Paid for a Certificate to wear Hair powder” that year and in subsequent years. Around that time, the mode for hair styles was also becoming more natural and soft (Knowles), and by 1810 only the oldest and most unfashionable were still using pomade and hair powder (Mortimer 180).

How one’s hair was styled would have been important for attending events such as plays, concerts, and oratorios, all of which feature in Martha’s accounts. In a letter from York to her brother, James, she wrote:

“we were so fortunate as to see Mr Jo Collings at a selection of Sacred Music which was perform’d last week in the Assembly Rooms … On Friday Night we go again to the Concert, and on Saturday evening to the play”

(7 April 1790 - SH:7/LL/280)

Music was an early feature in Martha’s life - when she was nine, in 1772, she and her sister took lessons from one of Halifax’s musical leading lights (Timbs): 

“Both your Sisters learn to play upon the Spinnet¹⁵ with Mr Stopford.”

(Draft letter, James Lister to Jeremy Lister 19 May 1772 - SH:7/JL/25)

Thomas Stopford was the organist at Halifax Parish Church (now Minster) for over five decades, until he died aged 77 in 1819 (Whiteley and English 5). He also instructed Anne ListerJ in keyboard and singing in the early 1800s (Timbs). 

Twenty years later, in 1793, Martha “Paid Mr Stopford for Music & Lessons” (SH:1/SHA/7) - seemingly, improving her music skills remained important to her. Listening, too, was one of her interests - for example, in 1802 she bought a “Ticket to a Selection of Sacred Music”. 

Just as her niece AnneJ and nephew Samuel did in later years, for entertainment in June 1799 Martha went to see some “Wild Beasts and curious Birds”. 

It is likely that these birds and beasts were exhibited at a travelling menagerie. First appearing in England in around 1700, these collections of exotic animals were hosted by showmen who had found a market in people’s curiosity to see strange and wondrous things (“Travelling Menagerie”). By modern standards of animal welfare, the caging and treatment of the animals was extremely cruel. The trend to see the creatures had quite typically followed where the aristocracy led: by the 18th century many aristocrats with an interest in science had their own personal collection of exotic animals¹⁶. 

Martha left no details of the beasts that she saw, but, characteristically, Anne ListerJ  painted a vivid picture of the collection that she viewed - it is likely that Martha saw similar animals, such as “a fine elephant and Zebra – 2 large lions and a lioness – 2 large royal tigers … 2 striped hyenas from Abyssinia … a leopard … an African porcupine … wolf from the Alps … Kangaroos from Botany Bay … the Polar bear, from the frozen ocean … Pelican of the wilderness – the Great Condor, the only one ever alive in Europe … Boa constrictor” (Lister 1818 Jan. 17).

One quite different characteristic that stands out from Martha’s accounts is a very sweet tooth. A purchase in August 1793 sums this up nicely: “Paid for Cake ….. 6½ [pence]”. Within a week, Martha had also bought “Biscuits”, and “Muffins & Lemons” (SH:1/SHA/7). She also purchased treats such as “Pepper Mint Drops”, honey, and “one pound of figs”¹⁷, and both Martha’s and Anne’s accounts confirm a liking for cakes, muffins, and gingerbread. Between the early 1790s and the early 1800s, they purchased significant quantities of sugar (Kendall 133-4) - including “Half a Stone” of it in 1803.

The era in which Martha and Anne indulged their love of sweet confections was a controversial one for sugar. By the late 1780s there was a significant swell of opinion against the use of sugar imported from the Caribbean due to its connections with the inhumane treatment of enslaved people (Corfield 236-7). Abolitionists were campaigning throughout the country, and in 1792-3 around half a million people in Britain boycotted sugar produced in that region (Rogers). So widespread was the publicity that it seems improbable that Martha and Anne were unaware of the direct connection between the horrors of slavery and the cheapness of the sugar that they ate with such relish¹⁸. 

Poor Health

Anne Lister’sJ journal of 1809 records several weeks of fluctuations in Martha’s health: “my Aunt Martha was very ill and had been for some days - my Aunt Martha very ill” (30 April 1809 - SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0029); “my Aunt Martha was in tolerable spirits was rather more free from pain than when I last saw her but said she felt herself gradually weaker every day” (19 May 1809 - SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0031); and “my Aunt Martha rather better” (11 June 1809 - SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0032). 

Her brother, James, related some of Martha’s maladies in a letter to a friend of 6 November 1793, when Martha was 30 years old:  

“all this Family are very well, except my older Sister, who has been very ill for some Weeks past, & is at present confined to her Room, but we are in hopes that in a little Time, she will be better; added to the Rheumatism, she is at present afflicted with a bad Complaint in her Bowels, with which she is attacked very violently several Times in the Course of the Day & Night; which the Faculty have not as yet been able to administer any Medicines to remove the pain entirely.”

(6 November 1793 - SH:7/LL/293)

In 1797, another friend expressed sympathy for Martha’s suffering from a different painful affliction, and remarked that this complaint had not been brought about by overindulgence: 

“I am sorry to hear you have got the Gout, but I will bear witness for you that it is not thro’ intemperance”

(12 February 1797 - SH:7/LL/299)

It is now known, though, that foods and drinks with a high sugar content can trigger flare-ups of gout. 

In early 1799, Martha lost the use of one of her arms - a solicitous letter from Anne expressed her anxiety about this and a wish to receive better news of Martha’s health more generally:

“I am very anxious for … a return of the use of your arm, and sincerely hope your next letter will give me a favorable account of it, also your general health”

(9 April 1799 - SH:7/LL/306)

In fact, Martha was plagued by poor health for years: Mrs Kendall’s review of both Martha’s and Anne’s accounts led her to believe that Martha was “always more or less delicate in health” (Kendall 118). She documented Martha’s purchase of various health remedies over the years, including leeches (for blood-letting), “medicine for a cough”, barley sugar, Spanish juice, and Spilsbury’s Drops, all bought frequently, and linseed and balsam of honey (Kendall 136-7).  Martha was also attended by a number of doctors at home (Kendall 137) - in May 1794, she “Paid Doctor Hulme for Attendance £10 10s”, roughly £1,000 today. 

In 1793, Martha subscribed to Horley Green Spa, a resort built in the Shibden Valley in about 1780 to exploit a natural mineral spring. In its early days the spa was quite a draw for people from the north of England seeking health cures, but it became derelict by 1840. Despite restoration work that year which resulted in better facilities for hydrotherapy and immersion (Roberts), its resurrection was short-lived, and during the 1850s the site closed for good (Bull). So obscure had the site become by the end of the First World War that Mrs Kendall was moved to remark “We can scarcely realise that there should have been anything of the kind near Halifax”. 

One of the ailments that the spa claimed to help with was digestive complaints (Roberts), and, as noted in the extract from Jeremy Lister’s letter above, Martha had by the autumn of 1793 been suffering with “a bad Complaint in her Bowels”, which home-based treatments seem not to have satisfactorily relieved. 

Intensive Attempts to Recuperate 

Usually accompanied by her sister Anne, over time Martha travelled away from Shibden to try to solve her challenging health issues - she increasingly turned to spas and sea-bathing resorts, particularly in later life.

Bridlington Quay

In 1789, they spent a few weeks at Bridlington Quay, about twenty miles south of Scarborough, this time for the benefit of both of them: 

“I am also happy to say I think my Sister better, these few Days past, she was frequently so very indifferent last Week that I began to be apprehensive She wou’d not find that benefit from change of Air and Sea Bathing we wish’d and expected”

(Letter from Martha Lister to her brother, James, 20 August 1789 - SH:7/LL/274)

Sea-bathing had been prescribed in the latter half of the seventeenth century by a Dr Robert Wittie, but, considered unseemly, it didn’t prove popular (Heywood 16). However, by the 1730s sea-bathing was more widely prescribed by physicians, with wealthy clients accepting the advice of their doctors; even the drinking of seawater¹⁹ was considered by some to be a reasonable treatment for health conditions (Heywood 16-17). 

The first English location to be established as a sea-bathing resort was Scarborough (which came to be known well by Martha’s niece, AnneJ), in the 1730s (Mortimer 13). The practice became more prevalent in the 1780s after the Prince of Wales went to Brighton, on the south coast, to bathe in the sea there (“Swimming in Regency England”) - at the time, many royal pursuits were copied by others, and sea-bathing became highly fashionable for those who could afford it.  

Martha and Anne sought treatments in Bridlington Quay in 1789. After complaints about the standard of the beach and the town’s accommodation in the mid-1760s, during the 1770s visitor numbers increased, and the resort became popular with the gentry of East Yorkshire (Heywood 20). In 1803, readers of the Halifax Journal learned that “the sea water is particularly strong … Visitors all declare, that there is not a more healthy, clean, pleasant, or charming watering place in the Kingdom” (Smith 123); and a later publication mentioned “the fine hard sand … [and that the] gentle declivity of the surface is peculiarly favourable to sea-bathing” (Langdale 147).

In 1806, Martha and Anne also tried an extended stay in Harrogate (Kendall 133), about 60 miles inland from Scarborough, which was established as a spa²⁰ in the late 1500s. However, it was to the spa resort of Buxton that they turned time and again: in 1791 (when Martha was just 28), 1792, 1794, 1795, and 1796, before returning once more in 1807. Their last trip there was journalised by Anne ListerJ with a brief note, “My aunts²¹ went to Buxton” (Lister 1807 Oct. 11).

On each occasion the ladies remained in Buxton for several weeks. 

Buxton

In 1791, Buxton had only just been developed by the fifth Duke of Devonshire (1748-1811) as a modern spa town. However, by 1807, the time of Martha and Anne’s last known visit, it had come into its own as a fashionable place for the higher social classes to seek cure for a wide range of ailments by drinking and bathing in the naturally occurring spring waters there (Shouls). By the 1820s, Buxton was said to rival any other spa in Britain for the range of treatments on offer (Maskill 21). 

During their stay in Buxton in 1794, Anne described to her brother James the variable state of Martha’s health, and how costly it was to spend the time away from home: 

“I am sorry to say I cannot continue the same favourable accounts my sister gave of herself when we first came here, as she has been very Ill for near a fortnight past, until the last two or three Days I think she has been a good deal better, that I flatter myself she will continue to recover, she now begins to regain her appetite and strength, - Mr. Buxton … advises her to stay a Week longer and if she finds the Bathing, (which she has discontinued since she has been so Ill) of service - to prolong our stay some time … she certainly received considerable benefit from Bathing when we first came, that I am in hopes now she is upon the recovery … this place is, as we have found before, very expensive indeed, but when the attainment of Health is the object every other consideration I think ought to give place”

(21 August 1794 - SH:7/LL/294)

Martha and Anne spent several weeks in Buxton that year: on 5 September 1794, Martha “Paid Expences [Expenses] at Buxton being seven Weeks from Home” of £36 8s 9d (around £4,000 now).

According to Anne Lister’sJ journal from the time of her own seven-week stay in Buxton in 1825²², on at least one of their visits to Buxton her aunts stayed at St Ann’s Hotel: 

“my aunt, looking out of the window, saw the rooms at St. Anne’s where she and my aunt Martha were this time (this very day, 8 August) 16²³ years ago” 

(8 August 1825 - SH:7/ML/E/9/0007)

St Ann’s Hotel formed the western end of the Crescent, construction of which was completed in 1789 (Shouls). It is shown at the left-hand end of the sketch of the Crescent below.

The Buxton that Martha and Anne knew in the 1790s, depicted in the print below, was far less developed than when Anne was there with her niece, Anne ListerJ, some 30 years later: 

Although Anne’s letter to her brother reveals that Martha’s improvement was by no means guaranteed, she and Martha found the time and energy for some enjoyment. They are both listed in the Buxton Ballroom Register as having paid their subscriptions, of one guinea each, to attend events during the season at the “Ballroom at the Great Hotel”, that is the assembly rooms (with card room) at the eastern end of the Crescent. Their names were entered on 23 July 1794 - as Martha paid the Buxton expenses on 5 September, they must have subscribed just a few days after their arrival.

The women might also have indulged themselves at the shops which were to be found in the arcade on the ground floor of the Crescent, and there were regular balls, card evenings, and musical and theatrical entertainments (Maskill 15).

Martha's Demise

Despite family letters and cash accounts giving an impression of Martha having a delicate constitution from her twenties, the length of her life was by no means short for the Regency era. Between 1780 (seventeen years after Martha’s birth) and 1816, average life expectancy at birth in England increased from about thirty-five to forty years (Mortimer 58-9). Martha’s lifespan significantly exceeded what might have been expected when she was born. 

By the time she died in August 1809, Martha had been particularly unwell for several months - Anne ListerJ made several entries in her journal between April and August of that year, and James Lister recorded that “She had been long in a declining State of Health”. On 31 July 1809, Martha made her last will - one of the witnesses to her signature was James Wiglesworth²⁵, and Martha’s accounts record that, on that day, she paid him 10 shillings and sixpence for preparing the document. According to a note²⁶ written by Anne, Martha’s physician, Dr Paley, attended on Martha thirty times between 25 May and the day she died, 8 August 1809. 

Martha was buried at Halifax Parish Church (now Halifax Minster) - this is evident from Anne Lister’sJ note of her brother John’s (1795-1810) interment:

“between eleven and twelve poor John was interred in the family burying place at the old church his coffin was placed upon my Aunt Martha’s my two uncles my father and Sam were the mourners Richard Spencer William Green James Smith Thomas … attended as bearers the corpse being carried the whole way the day was fine and rather frosty” 

(30 January 1810 - SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0036)

The precise location of Martha’s and John’s grave in the Minster is currently unknown (Oliveira).

The Impact of Martha's Death

The notes in the bundle of loose papers comprising Anne Lister’sJ first known journal end in June 1809 and recommence in August 1810, so her immediate reflections on the death of her aunt are unknown. However, a diary note of Eliza Raine’s recounts a last-minute dash from York to Shibden Hall to spend some final moments with Martha, suggesting the Listers’ grave concern: 

“Mrs & Miss Lister²⁷ left York for Halifax to take a last farewell of Miss Lister of Shibden Hall who was dying.”

(7 August 1809 - SH:7/ML/A/14)

Though James Lister’s notes on the Lister family pedigree recorded Martha’s death in unsentimental terms - “Sister Martha Lister died on Tuesday Evening about 20 minutes after nine oClock August 8th 1809 & was buried in Halifax Church on Tuesday morning August 15th 1809. Aged 46 years & 5 Months. She had been long in a declining State of Health.”(SH:7/ML/B/30) - the letters shared between James and Martha attest to the affection between them. 

Of all the siblings, it was undoubtedly Anne to whom Martha was the most close. Their correspondence, with each other and with their siblings, demonstrates that they spent a lot of time together, and that they shared several hobbies and interests, a mutual affection, and a sincere concern for each other’s well-being. On Martha’s death, Anne spent a notable sum on mourning purchases: a pearl ring containing her sister’s hair, black-edged stationery, and a bombazine²⁸ dress, cap, and handkerchief (Kendall 138). 

Many years later, in 1825, when staying in Buxton with her niece AnneJ, the elder Anne was overcome with emotion on recollecting the last time she was there with Martha in 1807: 

“when the band played and my aunt M- [Martha] was so ill she could scarce bear it. The remembrance was so strong my aunt (Anne) burst into tears, and cried some time”

(Anne Lister’sJ journal, 8 August 1825 - SH:7/ML/E/9/0007)

In addition to the lasting impressions that she made during her life, Martha made some valuable bequests to family members. To her “dear sister Ann Lister”, she left her holdings in navigation shares and the income and proceeds that would arise from those, as well as the sum of two hundred pounds. To her brothers Joseph and James, she left one hundred pounds each, and to her brother Jeremy her interest in and sale proceeds of houses in Hampstead²⁹. She left “the sum of twenty Pounds apiece for Mourning” to her nephews and nieces Samuel, John, AnneJ and Marian (1798-1882), with any and all residue to go to her “respected brother James” (Probate Copy of Will of Martha Lister). 

Martha's Life in Context

Martha lived at a time of rigid societal conventions and expectations about women’s behaviour and roles. Females of the middle ranks of society typically spent most of their time at home, perhaps running aspects of the household, and otherwise engaged in genteel activities such as music, drawing, reading, and embroidery (Shteir 35 et seq.). As for life outside the home, women of the gentry customarily took part in frequent social rounds with a small number of close family and friends (Shteir 37).

The written materials that Martha and her siblings left behind tell the story of a respectable, well-bred woman of a privileged, though not upper, class - she pursued the kind of life and activities that would have been expected of her. But those papers also bear witness to Martha’s unique character - her sociable and lively nature, her hobbies and interests, her ailments and challenges and the efforts that she made to overcome them, and the impact that she had on those around her. She, and her life, were perhaps rather unremarkable, but at the same time she was a much-loved individual, whose character and personality are still discernible today. 

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