Educating Young Miss Lister

Anne Lister was a curious child with varied interests. Keen on learning the ins and outs of farming and an avid reader and book collector, the young Miss Lister quickly learned to love the pursuit of knowledge. 

This was further aided by access to a more formal education, which led her to spend time at a few different boarding schools in Yorkshire and also to be taught by private tutors. But which schools were these? Who were Anne Lister’s teachers and tutors? And how did this investment in her early education shape her into the person she became later in life?

In this article we will look at the early years of Miss Lister’s education and how her schools and private tutors contributed to her lifelong love of learning. 

A curious child

In the summer of 1793, Jeremy and Rebecca Lister moved with their children - Anne and Samuel - to Market Weighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. At the time, this change of residence was noted by James Lister (1748-1826) of Shibden Hall, who relayed the news to a family connection:

“My Brother Captain with his Family went in August last to live in the East Riding of this County about Sixty Miles from hence, He has two Children, a Daughter & a Son, the latter was born since I last wrote to you, & is a very fine Boy about five Months old, & called Samuel, he is out at Nurse in this Neighbourhood, the Daughter is a very fine Girl two Years & a half old called Anne.”

Letter from James Lister to Sarah Dawes, 6 November 1793 (SH:7/LL/293)

This newly growing branch of the Lister family was likely moving into a farmstead built in a property Rebecca had inherited from her father in 1790 (Neave 2020). As this young family grew, the need to find suitable educators for the children would likely become a concern for Jeremy and Rebecca. 

In Regency England, educational opportunities were different for boys and girls, and also varied according to where one fitted into the social strata. Whilst children of upper and middle classes had some educational options at their disposal, children from poor families were likely to start their education at home with their parents (Murden 2022). Girls from middle or upper classes in particular could be educated at home by a live-in governess or tutors, enrol in a private boarding school, or be sent to live with a Master for a time (Zernich 2016). The focus of a child’s education would also depend on their sex, with boys having more opportunities than girls (Ibid.). Looking at contemporary school adverts in local newspapers, we learn that boys would be taught topics such as Latin, Greek, Geography, and Mathematics, whereas girls would be taught Drawing, Music, Dancing, French, and Arithmetics. 

Lister family correspondence dated from the 1790s and early 1800s, indicates we learn that some Lister siblings¹ started their education as young as four years old and were around that time educated by local clergymen and private tutors, but no evidence has surfaced to inform us if Anne's education started as early. Irrespective of that, in some passages preserved in Anne's journals as well as in correspondence, Anne comments on her adventures in the countryside of the East Riding. In some letters from the start of 1803, she also refers to her keen interest in farming and her love of books (Green 1938, 4). 

Due to the limited sources available for further context, one might assume that the Listers recognized Anne's curiosity and interest in learning, prompting them to hire a governess to teach her “her letters” and provide a basic education at home. However, this does not appear to have been the case. In a conversation with Lady Stuart de Rothesay in 1830, Anne mentioned that her father did not approve of governesses, so she had none.

“then got to what I had seen when young she having led to it by naming the Spanish dish of lamb’s stones and those of chickens in fricassees told how I had been shewn things by William Wilson the shepherd had seen all the animals operated on (I meant castrated) had picked up the white jelly (seed) of a boar my father sent me to school for all this she asked if I had no governess no my father did not like governesses he never talked to me of impropriety but that it was as bad as a butcher she said this was the right way for him to take it up”

19 October 1830 (SH:7/ML/E/13/0096)

In 1819, Anne also wrote:

“I told her [Miss Brown] I was a curious genius and had been so from my cradle she wondered what I was when little I said a very great pickle sent to school very early because they could do nothing with me at home and whipped every day except now and then in the holidays for two years”

10 November 1819 (SH:7/ML/E/3/0110)

Thus, we can say that the Listers likely made an effort to give Anne a basic education at home but, failing that, they decided that a boarding school was a better fit for her. 

Mrs Chettle’s School in Ripon

In the spring of 1798, about a month after Anne celebrated her seventh birthday, Jeremy Lister sent her to boarding school in Ripon (Lister 19 November 1822). This establishment belonged to a Margaret Chettle (1732-1813), a spinster by then in her sixties, who was reputed for her efforts in educating young ladies (Urban, Gentleman 1814, 305). Judging by Anne's referring to this establishment as “Mrs Hague’s and Mrs Chettle's school” (Lister 19 November 1822), it is likely that the school was a joint venture of the two ladies when Anne was sent to Ripon. 

Located in Low St Agnesgate, a street right on the edge of the churchyard of Ripon cathedral, the building that housed Mrs Chettle's school was described in later years as “a burgage house² with a large school room and a garden” (British Newspaper Archive 1807). 

In her journal, Anne refers to her younger self as “a great pickle never learnt anything at school always talking to the girls instead of attending to my book” (Lister 10 March 1819) and then says she was “whipped every day at Ripon” (Ibid.). In another passage, Anne comments:

“In talking of the children said what a pickle I was whipped every day for two years at school had quarrelled with my father for a week —”

9 September 1830 (SH:7/ML/E/13/0084)

Despite alluding to these corporeal punishments during her time at Mrs Chettle's school, not everything was terrible for young Anne and she seemingly left a lasting impression on those who met her there. About twenty years later, a former schoolmate from Ripon still remembered the young Miss Lister from their school days:

“It seems I was a singular child, and ‘singularly drest, but genteel looking — very quick, and independent, quite above telling any untruth — whistled very well — a great favourite with Mrs. Chettle’”

19 November 1822 (SH:7/ML/E/6/0069)

Contemporary letters from other Lister family members also paint a favourable picture of young Anne's time at Ripon in the late 1790s, often evidencing her artistic talent. In May 1799, Rebecca Lister mentions Anne’s accomplishments at school:

“the accounts I have of Anne are flattering indeed - Mr Browne was over two or three weeks ago - he told me she was a very fine girl indeed - He says she will be a most elegant dancer, and that already she plays very prettily on the harpsichord, her Master says he had never a scholar so promising”

Rebecca Lister to Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, 30 May 1799 (SH:7/LL/310)

A month later, Rebecca Lister once again shares positive news about Anne, this time in a letter to Aunt Martha of Shibden Hall:

“The last outs I had of Anne were like the preceding one very flattering, she gets very forward with her Music, I suppose sings very prettily, and is likely to be a fine girl -”

Letter from Rebecca Lister to Martha Lister of Shibden Hall, 20 June 1799 (SH:7/LL/311)

In October of that year, Anne’s second year as a pupil of Mrs Chettle's, Rebecca Lister received an invitation for the family to attend a ball at Ripon and witness Anne’s dancing prowess at the event.

“We were to have gone to Ripon in the course of a week, but this weather coming [h]as put it out of our ponder tis a sad disappointment to poor Anne, but I have promised her to go, as soon as ever the harvest is got in, their ball is this month I shou’d have liked much to have seen her exhibit at it, as Mr Browre [Browne] says she is a very elegant dancer she gets on a pace with her music and her Master says she is the most promising of any he ever taught, you may imagine we expect great pleasure from our visit” 

Letter from Rebecca Lister to Martha Lister of Shibden Hall, 6 October 1799 (SH:7/LL/314)

A few months later, in April 1800, young Anne also impressed her maternal step-grandmother, Mary Battle, when she and her mother call on her on their return from Ripon:

"Before I left Aldborough Mrs Lister called upon me in her road from Ripon where she had been to take her little girl from school. & I was happy to see them, they both looked very well & the little girl is very much improved.”

Letter from Mary Battle to Martha Lister of Shibden Hall, 19 April 1800 (SH:7/LL/317)

A month later, on the 5th of May 1800, Anne writes to her aunt Anne of Shibden Hall and says she is “very happy at school” (Lister 5 May 1800). Although Anne’s time as a student in Ripon came to a close soon afterwards, she seems to have remained somewhat fond of the time she spent there. 

Mrs Margaret Chettle died on the 8th of December 1813 and was buried at Ripon Cathedral a few days later, on the 11th of December (Church of England 2022). By then an octogenarian, she was still reputed for her lifelong dedication to girls' education and her obituary was published in the Gentleman's Magazine (Urban, Gentleman 1814, 305). A memorial plaque in her honour was later erected at Ripon Cathedral and can still be seen today.

Following the death of Margaret Chettle, the building that housed her school was put up for auction in 1814. 

Years later, in May 1832, Anne was preparing to join the Norcliffes and the Daltons at St Peter’s Rectory in Croft, near Darlington, when she decided to stop at Ripon along the way. In her journal, she wrote that she'd be “growing young again at Ripon where I had spent my years from 7 to 9 amid all the little joys and sorrows of school day innocence” (Lister 13 May 1832). Whilst at this cathedral city, Anne decided to have a walk around her old stomping grounds and found most of it unchanged:

“walked about low Agnes gate etc. all that part of the town I used to know so well at Aet [aetatis] 7 and 8 — the house (where I was at school) turned into the Mechanic’s Institution — otherwise much the same as above 30 years ago —”

22 May 1832 (SH:7/ML/E/15/0071)

The Mechanics Institute at Ripon was founded in 1831 by the Williamson brothers, both liberals and Wesleyans, who were a pair of paint and varnish manufacturers (Ripon Gazette 2016). By the time Anne visited in 1832, this relatively novel Mechanics Institute hadn't yet found a permanent home, and it likely rented the space from whoever owned the building that had once housed Mrs Chettle's school. The Institute eventually settled at Finkle Street in the 1890s (Ibid.).

Before leaving Low St. Agnesgate, Anne made another stop to meet someone from her school days. 

“then called to see Mrs. Featherstone the only one now left at the house of the Minster vicar Mr. Brown who used to be good to me when a child — merely introduced myself as the little girl ages ago at Mrs. Hague’s and Mrs. Chettle’s school to whom Mrs. Featherstone and her family used to be so good — I do not believe she made me out at all — I thanked her for all her goodness etc. etc. and walked up and down her garden with her the whole time, about 1/4 hour — Did not mention my name cared not she should recollect the all about my father and mother and Weighton and spoke of it as between twenty and thirty years since I was there and myself being five or six of age what littleness of mind why not mention all fairly I had even some doubts whether to have called on her at all I sometimes fancy I have some magnanimity how all this undeceives me!”

22 May 1832 (SH:7/ML/E/15/0071)

To see Mrs Featherstone that day, Anne called at St Agnes Lodge, a burgage house located in High St Agnesgate which had been in the possession of the Rev Richard Browne, Vicar of Ripon for the better part of forty-five years, and his family (Country Life 2020). The Mrs Featherstone Anne mentioned in this passage is Jane Featherstone (née Browne), who at the time lived on the property with her semi-retired son, the naval captain Craven John (Ibid.). Besides recording this encounter, Anne does not provide any other details to inform us of what sort of kindness she received from the Brownes, but whatever that was evidently left a mark lasting enough to prompt her to visit the St Agnes Lodge decades later to say thank you. Mrs Featherstone’s house suffered several changes over the centuries, but it still stands today and is classified as a Grade II Listed building. 

After her visit to St. Agnesgate, Anne left Ripon and resumed her journey to Croft. She did not return to Ripon in subsequent years to call on old acquaintances or have a look around again. However, before parting with this city that contributed to moulding her young self, Anne remarked in her journal:

“very pretty country about Ripon — my recollections not quite so correct as I fancied, though yet perhaps not to be found fault with —”

22 May 1832 (SH:7/ML/E/15/0071)

Rev George Skelding and the start of Anne’s classical education

By the time Anne returned home from boarding school in the summer of 1800, Reverend George Skelding had been serving as the Vicar of Market Weighton for twenty-six years (Parry 2024). He took up this position in 1774 and, a few years later, married Elizabeth Sugden in Hook, a village near Goole in Yorkshire (Church of England 2008). Lister family documents, including Anne’s journals and other correspondence, indicate that the Skelding family and Anne’s family enjoyed a friendly relationship in later years. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that both families were likely also acquainted socially around 1800. When Anne became Rev. Skelding’s pupil not long afterwards, it is likely the two families’ connection was further strengthened.

It seems likely that Anne may have received some form of instruction between 1800 and the beginning of her studies with Rev Skelding in 1804, but no primary sources have emerged to confirm this. In her book, the noted librarian and researcher Muriel Green claims that Anne's education with Rev Skelding began in 1801 (Lister 1992, 7). However, it is unclear how Green reached this conclusion, as the earliest documents in Anne’s archive that link her education to the Reverend date from 1804 at the earliest. One such document is a timetable outlining Anne’s lessons from the 19th of January 1804.

According to Anne’s own admission several years later, Rev George Skelding was her “first classical preceptor” (Lister, 21 December 1821) and a closer look at this timetable from 1804 reveals the foundations of her classical education with him. At that time, Anne was studying subjects such as Latin, Geometry, Astronomy, Geography, and Heraldry with the Vicar. These subjects were in stark contrast to the curriculum at Mrs. Chettle’s school in Ripon, where she focused on more traditionally feminine topics like Music and Dancing.

Latin was also a key focus of Anne’s education during her time as Rev Skelding's student, with grammar lessons being taught almost every day (Skelding 19 Jan 1804). In July 1804, Anne wrote to her uncle James Lister and provided an update on her progress in Latin:

“I go to Mr Skeldings every Morning at nine oClock, and stay an Hour, Mr S.[Skelding] is so good as to teach me Latin; I write an Exercise every day, out of that Book I bought at Halifax, I have nothing to get off except the declensions of Nouns, congugations [conjugations] of Verbs, and a rule out of Syntaxies sometimes. -”

Anne Lister to James Lister of Shibden Hall, 8 July 1804 (SH:7/ML/10)

Under Rev Skelding’s tutoring, Anne thrived in Latin and, by September 1804, her brother Sam recognized that both he and his brother John went “on middling at school but don’t keep up with my Sister in Latin because we have not the advantage with our Master that she has with hers” (Lister 20 September 1804). 

Anne’s education with Rev Skelding was eventually interrupted when she began to attend the Manor School in York during the summer of 1805. However, her lessons with the Vicar seem to have resumed when she returned home later in 1805 and continued in early 1806. In her journal, Anne noted that Mr Skelding provided her with "the rudiments of my classical education in 1805 and the very early part of 1806, and studied for about eleven months" (Lister, 6 December 1819). This indicates that Anne misremembered the timeline of events, as she claimed her classical education began in 1805, when in fact it had started in January 1804, as demonstrated by the timetable shown above.

Anne’s friendship with her former tutor continued to thrive after the Listers moved back to Halifax in February 1806. The two kept up an occasional correspondence, an example coming from the end of 1807 and early 1808, when Anne wrote to Mr Skelding and received a reply in the same language she had used to address him: Latin!

In this letter, Rev Skelding seems to denote a certain sense of pride in Anne's academic achievements and her progress in building upon the fundamentals she learned during her lessons with him:

“Your dedication to advancing is extraordinary, and the praises I merit are few; my humble effort on my part seems not useless to you, considering the immense progress you have made.” 

Letter from Rev George Skelding to Anne Lister, 1 January 1808 (SH:7/ML/15)

In the same letter, the Vicar added: 

“Teaching and diligence, and the pursuit of knowledge, must be given utmost effort so that we may advance in our endeavors and strive for excellence according to the will of Him who has granted us to use it.”

Letter from Rev George Skelding to Anne Lister, 1 January 1808 (SH:7/ML/15)

Anne seems to have heeded her old Master's advice and continued to devote time to study throughout that summer, this time under the instruction of Rev Samuel Knight. 

Anne’s correspondence with Mr Skelding did not cease after this and, in July 1808, he wrote to Anne again with a casual topic: a transcript of a letter. This particular transcription does not seem to have survived, but the letter from Skelding to Lister still exists and, in it, he encourages her to have a break once in a while:

“I inclose to you a copy of a curious epistle, which Mrs Skelding says, she mentioned to Mrs Lister, and requested me to send it, to divert your attention for a minute or two from the intenseness of your studies, which indeed you ought to relax at this trying season of uncommon Heat. There is certainly a deal of playful ingenuity in the Epistle; but I must lay you under a positive Injunction not to mention the Transcriber’s name; - The genius of satire would make a fine subject of it; - and you know, the Parsons have enough of that already.”

Letter from Rev George Skelding to Anne Lister, 14 July 1808 (SH:7/ML/16)

Anne’s reply shows her amusement at the topic and conveys her gratitude at receiving the amusing epistle. However, in the same letter, she also includes a note of gratitude to her old Master for his role in helping her create a baseline for her classical education:

“To you, Sir I owe the first principles of whatever progress I may have in those studies which I still pursue with an avidity neither abated by time nor wearied with application but excited by the desire of excellence and encouraged by the hope that nothing is impossible to industry.”

Letter from Anne Lister to Rev George Skelding, 14 July 1808 (SH:7/ML/16)

The familiarity and friendship between the Listers and the Skeldings seems to have continued, and is particularly evident after Samuel Lister died in 1813. After that dark period in the history of Anne’s immediate family, Rev Skelding wrote to her to offer condolences. Looking at his letter, we can say he too was affected by Sam’s death but remained concerned about Anne’s state of mind:

“Tho I wish, I hardly know how to compose my mind, to express my sentiments of heartfelt condolence in answer to your last Favour. I tread on sacred ground. If the Friends, who came to comfort a pious sufferer of old, who was also an example of Patience to the latest generations, sat down with unutterable feelings seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him; for they saw that his grief was very great; well might our Grief be silent on occasion of that heavy calamity which has befallen your Family. - On such trying occasions I wish to apply that consolation, which is held out in holy writ. (...) we also shall be happy to hear of your recovered composure of mind, and that you can again relish those innocent refreshments of the mind, which are permitted us in this frail and uncertain state.”

Letter from Rev George Skelding to Anne Lister, 14 July 1813 (SH:7/ML/56)

After Rebecca Lister died on the 13th of November 1817, Anne stayed at Market Weighton for a few days and once again crossed paths with her old friends and acquaintances. Since Anne’s journal pages covering the days between Rebecca’s death and funeral are removed from the journal volume itself, we can only look at the indexes to have an idea of what Anne did and whom she met then. From this index, we learn that Rebecca Lister was buried on the 20th of November. By cross-referencing this with the burial record, we learn also that it was Rev George Skelding himself who performed the ceremony (Church of England 2019). 

George Skelding was by then quite familiar with Anne’s curiosity and interest in the natural sciences so it is hardly surprising that, at the start of December of the same year, we learn that he sent her a present via his wife.

“Mrs Skelding called and sat 3/4 hour, brought me, as a present from Mr S-[Skelding], 2 petrifactions, a miller’s thumb; and something like a cockle shell and, besides, a very nice specimen of plumbago, just as it was taken from the Borrowdale Mountain about 10 miles from Keswick in Cumberland - Mr S-[Skelding] sent me, to look at, a Romaic edition of a small work of St. Chrysostom’s -”

4 December 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0055)

When Anne visited Market Weighton in November 1818, she once again called on the Skeldings to make enquiries regarding their general health (Lister 13 November 1818). The Skeldings and the Listers, who by then used to pay social calls on each other, also crossed paths at soirées in mid-December of that year (Lister 16-17 December 1818).

These were seemingly her last recorded interactions with her old Master in person, as she left Market Weighton for York just a few days before Christmas that year. Almost a year later, on the 6th of December 1819, Anne hears of George Skelding's sudden death:

“my aunt had a letter from Marian (Market Weighton) giving an account of the rather sudden death of Mr Skelding - He had had a little cold and fever with it, but this had quite left him - he walked out and was even out only a short time before his death only a few minutes before, just after he had come and was seated in his chair, he asking Mrs Skelding to pull of his gloves for he had a letter to write and talked of going to Miss Button's - the only proof he had given of wandering was, contrary to custom to ask Mr. Inman to have a glass of ale – Mr I-[Inman] “said he had not any complaint upon him, it was nature worn out" - thus died my first Latin preceptor with whom I had the rudiments of my classical education in 1805 and the very early part of 1806, and studied about eleven months - He was not a man of general science or literature, nor a profound Grecian, but a well-grounded Latin scholar, considered a sound divine, and a most worthy good man who performed all the duties public and private of his situation with exemplary uprightness and who was beloved and respected by all who knew him – (...) He has left a widow to whom, if I mistake not, he was married only some few years after his settling at Market Weighton, but never had any children – She is, of course, such distressed at this to her irreplac[e]able loss and is, from what Marian says, very unwell having only just before recovered from some indisposition -”

6 December 1819 (SH:7/ML/E/4/0011)

Mr Skelding was buried at All Saints Church, in Market Weighton, on the 7th of December 1819 (MCPJM 2019). Nowadays his monument can be seen in the same church.

Mrs Skelding remained fond of Anne and, when she spent some time in Market Weighton in December 1821, she asked her to take a book in memory of her late husband:

“After leaving the Inmans, sat 1/4 hour with Mrs Skelding — looked over the late Mr. Skelding’s books — very few, and nothing of consequence — Mrs. Skelding bade me choose one in memory of her husband, my former and first classical preceptor — fixed on a small neatly bound Greek testament printed at Amsterdam in [no year] — Drove off from Mrs. Skelding's door at 1 in the midst of wind and rain which were just come on —”

21 December 1821 (SH:7/ML/E/5/0088)

The last time Anne referred to Mrs Skelding was in 1827, when she directed her sister Marian to “make what use you like of my remembrances at Market Weighton; but do not forget Mrs. Skelding” (Lister 16 April 1827). Elizabeth Skelding died a few years later, on the 16th of December 1831, and was buried at Market Weighton on Christmas Eve of the same year (Borthwick Institute for Archives 2022).

The Manor School in York 

On the 25th of April 1805, Jeremy Lister wrote to his brother James of Shibden Hall and informed him of his intention to send Anne to a school in York.

“it is not yet determined but I rather expect Anne will this Summer go to York where I daresay she will take what pains she can in order to make her necessary time at school as short as possible -”

Letter from Jeremy to James Lister of Shibden Hall, 25 April 1805 (SH:7/JL/106)

Jeremy eventually followed up on this and sent Anne to the Manor School, where she was already by August 1805 as shown by the address on a letter from her brother John.

The school that Anne attended was housed in an old building which has several royal ties and still stands today. Known as King's Manor, the building had its origins as a mediaeval abbot's house of St Mary's Abbey (Davies 1883, 3). The Manor became the seat of the Council of the North in Henry VIII’s time (“The King's Manor” 1975). In the reigns that followed, the building suffered several alterations to suit the needs of visitors, such as King James VI and I (Ibid.). Afterwards, the Manor became the residence of the Governor of York and, after 1688, it was rented out to private tenants. It was in this situation that the building remained at the start of the 19th century (Ibid.).

The Manor School was a boarding school housed in King’s Manor for several generations (Hargrove 1818, 578). At the start of 1791, the person in charge was a Mrs Ann Hargrave (née Vaslet), who sometime before had taken up the family business and continued to run the school after her father - Andrew or André Vaslet - passed away (B 2015). Yet, when Mrs Ann Hargrave died that same year, the school passed into the hands of the next generation of the same family: 

The Miss Ann Hargrave mentioned in the advertisement above was the daughter of the previous Mrs Ann Hargrave of the Manor and Joseph Hargrave. She was born in 1762 and was by then twenty-nine years old when she started to run the school with Miss Mills. 

In January 1804, M. A. Lewin, who was then the head teacher at the Manor School, described the state of the building to playwright Arthur Murphy Esq. as follows:

“part of it is entirely in ruins, another part is used for workshops of various trades; what was formerly the grand ball-room (and to which there is a high flight of stone steps) is converted into a granary: the guard chamber is now our school-room, and (O! the instability of earthly grandeur!) one of the principal apartments is turned into a pig-stye - and I have often been much amused with seeing a great fat pig resting its fore feet, and lolling its head out of one of the palace windows, and grunting at the passers-by.” 

(Foot Esq. 1811, 413-414)

The same Miss Lewin describes Miss Hargrave as “a very worthy woman, extremely mild and pleasant in her manners” (Ibid., 413). 

Unfortunately, no record from Anne Lister has so far emerged to confirm the existence of a friendly pig in residence at the Manor in 1805. However, Anne kept a document that lists the girls who were at the Manor then, which also notes how the girls were distributed to fill the available rooms for boarders. At the top of the same page, she also wrote the names of some teachers.

This note from 1805 shows that both Miss Hargrave and Miss Lewin were still teachers at the school in Anne’s time, but Miss Mills is no longer listed there. Also from this note we learn that Anne was by then sharing “the slope”³ with Eliza Raine. Anne's situation as a boarder is further evidenced by a letter from her brother John to her uncle James of Shibden Hall in which the boy states “My sister is parlor Boarder at the Mannor York” (Lister 15 August 1805). In later years, Anne recorded a few comments about people she knew from her time at the Manor. Such is the case of Mrs Holmes (formerly Miss Burns) and Mrs Eyre (formerly Miss Parker), both of whom are included in the list of girls at the Manor in 1805 (Lister 1805).

Though Anne and Eliza developed a close bond that evolved into a romantic relationship, Anne's stay at the Manor School proved relatively brief. Looking at Lister family correspondence and Eliza's journal, it is evident that Anne spent only a few months at this school - she was already in Halifax and out of school in the summer of 1806 when Eliza returned to the Manor, but Anne did not follow. In a book of accounts from her earlier years, it is Anne herself who confirms that her time at the Manor school ended in the summer of 1806:

“My uncle Joseph used to give me a £5 note at Xmas, from the time of my leaving the Manor School at York, in the summer of 1806”

Anne Lister’s memoranda from 22 September 1828 (SH:7/ML/AC/13)

Though some researchers have speculated that Anne's short stay at the Manor was due to her being expelled over some alleged misconduct (Lister, Raine, and Hughes 2015, 17), no evidence has thus far emerged to support this theory. Furthermore, and given Jeremy Lister's wish that Anne's time at York be as brief as possible (Lister 25 April 1805), it is not unlikely that her stay at this boarding school was shortened in an attempt to avoid impacting the family's finances rather than due to misconduct.

Furthermore, after leaving this school, Anne seems to have maintained a polite relationship with both Miss Ann Hargrave and her uncle, Mr Thomas Vaslet, as both assisted in making her notes and parcels reach Eliza Raine and vice versa. A journal entry from the summer of 1806 reads:

“on the same day a short note to Miss Hargrave enclosed with 3 handkerchiefs 1 slip in a parcel with my letter to ER [Eliza Raine] in answer to one from her on Saturday 13th by Mr Vastlet enclosing me a Cornelian Broach”

14 September 1806 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0003)

In March of 1809, Mr Vaslet once again acted as courier for Anne and Eliza:

“Saturday 4

A packet of Eliza’s letters and notes by Mr Vaslet –”

4 March 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0027)

Thomas Vaslet’s role here is explained not only by his family connection to Miss Hargrave, but also by his own situation living in Halifax and working as a stuff manufacturer⁴ (Bull December 2024). Looking at the passages above, we can say this was certainly very convenient for Anne, who was once again living in town with her parents and siblings, and wanted to stay in touch with Eliza. Had she been expelled from the school due to misconduct or a “scandal” borne out of her relationship with Miss Raine, it is quite likely that neither Miss Hargrave nor her uncle would have been so keen to assist Anne with this correspondence.

Later that year, Anne and Rebecca Lister called on Mrs Ann Hargrave, who by then was running the Manor school with her sister - Mrs Mary Tate. It is during this call that Anne proposes returning to the school for a month or two:

"my mother and I to go by the Manor Shore to call upon Mrs Hargrave Mrs H we found Miss Tate had gone to Scarbrough [Scarborough] some time before however Mrs Tate seemed glad to see us and shewed us over the house I mentioned to her my wish to return for a month or two to the Manor but Mrs T begged to refer me to her sister whom she hoped I should see at Scarbro’ [Scarborough]”

5 July 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0034)

Though we learn from Eliza Raine's journal that she accompanied Anne and Rebecca Lister on a trip to Scarborough in the summer of 1809 (Raine 1809-1810), the final decision regarding this request is recorded in neither that journal nor Anne's. Nevertheless, though it may be tempting to assume that Anne was hoping to return to the Manor school to continue her studies, the index for the journal entry of the 6th of March of that same year indicates that she was instead hoping to benefit from temporarily studying under a specific tutor:

“Monday 6th

Wrote a long letter to ER [Eliza Raine] mentioning my wish to respend a few months at the Manor for the purpose of having Mr Hill –”

Index for 6 March 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0027)

Neither Anne's journal nor Eliza's covers the former’s time at the Manor School, and very few letters from other Lister family members remain that mention it even in passing or provide clues as to where Anne was being educated at that time. 

After the York Diocesan Society and National School took over in 1812, the King’s Manor once again received new tenants when part of it became a school for the blind. However, the boarding school for girls seemingly still occupied a part of the space because, in 1818, William Hargrove wrote in his book: 

“the palace has been rented from the family, for several successive generations, by the ancestors of Mrs and Miss Tate, the present occupiers; whose well known and highly respectable Boarding-School for Young Ladies, requires no commendation from the writer, to excite public attention; having long been patronised by some of the principal families in York, and it’s opulent and extensive county” 

(Hargrove 1818, 578)

Hargrove also includes a description of the state of the building at the time of his writing, which includes some details as to how some rooms and courtyards were used by the Manor School:

“The first of the inner courts, contains merely the modern entrances into the Boarding-School, and an adjoining tenement; but, in the second court, are two ancient grand entrances into the palace. One of them connected with the Boarding-School, was formerly the entrance to the council chamber. (...) This outer entrance seems to have opened into a large hall or vestibule, whence a second door led to a broad and handsome flight of stone steps, part of which yet remain. The staircase run up to the Council Chamber, a spacious, lofty, and comfortable apartment, now occupied as a school-room for the young ladies; and admirably adapted to the purpose.” 

(Hargrove 1818, 579-580)

Years later, in 1821, Anne wrote in her journal about a concert that Mariana Lawton and the Belcombes attended at the school, but she neither attended it nor seemed impressed.

“Mrs. Belcombe and Mrs. Milne and M—[Mariana] went before 7 to the Manor—School concert and exhibition — to shew of the music dancing specimens of work, etc. of the school—girls — Vulgar girls Lady Johnstone and a few others and the tag, rag and bobtail there I would not go myself and did not like π’s—[Mariana] going but could not well help it —”

14 December 1821 (SH:7/ML/E/5/0086)

Afterwards, and for almost a decade, the Manor School remained mostly out of Anne's mind. Then, in 1828, Anne learned that one of her old teachers was a governess at the Saltmarshes:

“Seeing the Saltmarshes’ door open, inquired after them, Mrs. S–[Saltmarshe] at home – Went in – They have got as governess Miss Vicars my old teacher at the manor school – Went into the school-room to see her and the 3 children (girls)”

30 April 1828 (SH:7/ML/E/10/0153)

And, in September of 1836, it is Miss Vicars who seeks out Anne:

“Letter from ‘Frances Vicars, Mrs. Gascoigne's, no. [number] 6 Skinner Lane, Leeds’ offering herself as housekeeper ‘if you think proper should not object to come upon trial from knowing Miss Lister in early life to whom I now beg leave to offer the best regards of Madam yours respectfully Frances Vicars’! Miss Vicars, teacher at the Manor, York, while I was there?”

11 September 1836 (SH:7/ML/E/19/0106)

Despite this connection to her younger self, Anne declined to hire Miss Vicars as her housekeeper:

“then till 12 50/.. wrote and copied Letter in answer to the one I had last night from Miss Vickers [Vicars] — in great hope of having heard of a housekeeper likely to suit me — presume it is the Miss Vicars who was teacher at the Manor school at York ‘and whose knowledge of cookery and confectionary, and whose of the arduous duties ‘of a housekeeper in an establishment consisting of several servants might not be sufficient to fit her for the place at Shibden hall — Miss Lister very much hopes that Miss Vickers [Vicars] will soon meet with a better situation’ —”

12 September 1836 (SH:7/ML/E/19/0106)

The King’s Manor was eventually leased by the University of York in 1962 and renovated (University of York 2025). It remains part of the University to this day and some areas, such as the first courtyard and the library, can be accessed by members of the public. In 2024, the University of York announced plans to remove the departments and the library housed at the Manor and move them to a new hub for the Humanities (Booth 2024). 

Anne’s education in Halifax 

When Jeremy Lister moved his family back to Halifax in February 1806, Anne was still being educated at the Manor in York and, when in Weighton, she seemingly studied the classics with Rev. George Skelding. Yet, when she left the York school, her education was not suspended. It is unclear when exactly in 1806 Anne’s education resumed, but looking at her journals we learn that she first became Reverend Samuel Knight’s pupil that year⁵ and was already studying with him that October (Lister 1806). 

Samuel Knight was the eldest son of Titus Knight, the then-coal miner and later preacher and schoolteacher who founded Square Chapel (Bull March 2025). Samuel seems to have followed in his father’s footsteps and, after studying at Cambridge and holding the vicarage of Humbertson (Lincolnshire), he became Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Halifax in 1788. Like his father, Rev Knight was also a school teacher and ran a school yearly, with breaks in the summer and around Christmas (Lister 1806-1808). It is unclear how many pupils Mr Knight took each year, but Anne’s journals indicate that some came from the landed gentry in and around Halifax⁶. Jeremy Lister himself had once written to his brother John and expressed his wish that his sons, Samuel and John, both may be tutored by Mr Knight (Lister 25 April 1805), and he is also the person responsible for Anne’s education with the Reverend⁷. 

With Mr Knight, Anne seems to have continued the classical education she had started with Rev Skelding of Market Weighton. Looking at Anne ’s journal pages from 1806 and 1807, we see that subjects such as Mathematics, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, and Geography occupied her studies during this period (Lister 1806-1814). The same pages indicate that Anne was a pupil of Mr Knight from (at least) 17 October 1806 to 22 June 1809, when the school broke up for a holiday (Ibid.). In a letter to Isabella Norcliffe in November 1810, Anne also indicated that she “begun to reattend” Mr Knight’s school after a break but it is unclear how long this break was (Lister 26 November 1810). By then, Anne had been a pupil of Mr Knight for approximately three years. Funnily enough, in the same letter to Isabella Norcliffe, Anne adds "Believe me I pray most fervently I may never be deservedly ranked among that odious class of animals commonly called Learned Ladies”, whilst being well on her way to become a “learned lady” herself (Ibid.). 

In a letter from 1808, Anne includes some observations about her schooling with Mr Knight:

“I get my lessons like some schoolboy though perhaps I may say that I seem on the eve of beginning to perceive and relish the beauties of those authors whom I read. But if under the tuition of such a man as Mr Knight I should not succeed according to my wish vain were it indeed for me to wish at all. He is not only the man whom one must respect for his learning but whom we must love for his goodness.”

Letter from Anne Lister to Rev George Skelding, 12 September 1808 (SH:7/ML/17)

The same letter includes a mention of some books Anne was reading at this point, some of them authored by the likes of Horace, Euclid, and Sophocles (Lister 12 September 1808). 

After 1810, Anne seems to have put her education with Mr Knight on hold. She continued to study on her own, but did not reconsider continuing her education with the Reverend until August 1817:

“Spent the evening in conversation. Talked seriously of going to Mr. Knight again and no sort of objection being made but rather the contrary, I think I shall do it as soon as my uncle Joseph is sufficiently better –”

9 August 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0030)

A day later, Anne wrote that she’d like to restart this chapter of her education at Michaelmas⁸ (Lister 12 August 1817). Yet, she then calls on Mr Knight on the 20th of September 1817 and agrees to start her studies with him on the 1st of November of that year (Lister 20 September 1817). Before she returns as a pupil of Samuel Knight’s, Anne goes through an examination with him and is told that Latin composition was her weakness:

“Mr Knight having told me on Saturday morning that my weak side always used to be in making Latin – that I had no idea of style and indeed could not write it at all, this set me all on the alert and I resolved to improve myself a little (if I could) before resuming my studies with him and have today begun with reading over very carefully and trying to turn into Latin the translation of ‘The epistles of M.T Cicero to Mr Brutus and of Brutus to Cicero: With the Latin text on the opposite page and English notes to each epistle together with a prefatory Dissertation in which the authority of the said epistles is vindicated and all the objections of the Reverend Mr Tunstall particularly considered and refuted By Conyers Middleton D.D. Principal Library Keeper of the University of Cambridge London Printed for Richard Manby on Ludgate-hill, over against the Old Bailey. 1743’ –”

22 September 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0039) 

Anne's lessons with Mr Knight restarted with a slight delay on the 4th of November 1817, and she found herself being examined again by Mr Knight. Afterwards, Anne conducts a little self-assessment of her progress:

“I am just now a better Grecian than I ever was in my life – Indeed I have read more Greek within the last year and half than all I ever read before – and as for Latin, whatever I may have lost, is certainly not in construing – it is perhaps in writing it – and this was always the worst thing I did – but I had had hardly any practice, having never got 1/2 thro’ Willymot’s particles – Algebra is to come on on Thursday. I have lost nothing in this, unless a few rules about simple and quadratic equations which I had got by rote – I knew nothing, in fact, about the extraction of Algebraic roots, should have stumbled at an algebraic long division sum, or the regular reduction of algebraic fractions – Arithmetic I knew very superficially indeed Very little of vulgar fractions and nothing of decimals, unless it was to add cyphers in extracting square roots – I think I could hardly manage a cube root – I had done the 1st 6 books of Euclid twice over and just begun mechanics – I have lately done the 1st 6 books of Euclid twice over and in addition 30 propositions of the Data – However I have forgotten the little I knew of mechanics, tho’ probably a few days, perhaps hours will be enough to regain it –”

4 November 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0048 and SH:7/ML/E/1/0049)

A couple of days later, Anne is back at Mr Knight’s:

“dried myself and went to Mr Knight at 3 – the 1st sum he set me was in algebraic addition – finding I made light of this set me some sums in algebraic long division and fractions – Gave me a couple of algebraic theorems to work, very easy. and here my examination ended – He said nothing to this effect, but I was evidently much better than he expected. It was agreed that Tuesday and Thursday should be mathematics days, and Saturday dedicated to the Classics – I am however to take him a latin exercise every time I go –”

6 November 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0049)

In December 1817, it becomes known that Samuel Knight will be the next Vicar of Halifax⁹ and he was finally inducted as Vicar on the 3rd of February 1818 (Lister 3 February 1818). Despite this change on the clergyman’s station which certainly added to his responsibilities, Anne’s education with him seems to have continued until the spring of 1818. In May 1818, a despairing Anne discusses her studies with the Vicar and receives an unexpected response:

“then went to Mr. Knight’s and sat 1/2 hour, mentioning my despair of getting on with my studies he proposed my giving up altogether the thought of pursuing them - this I did not think it necessary to dissemble that I scouted entirely-”

23 May 1818 (SH:7/ML/E/2/0031)

Afterwards, Anne continued to invest in her own education by studying independently. Yet, when she finished Herodotus in September 1821, she remarked:

“thus I have at length finished Herodotus in about 4 months, allowing for interruptions I have read him with very great pleasure all along, but particularly of late, since I have been able to get on with an ease and fluency amounting to positive enjoyment — I am satisfied with my progressive improvement in this most beautiful language, and only impatient to see how I can get on with Thucydides — I have heard Mr. Knight call him the most difficult prose author; but as for Herodotus I know not whether he is thought at all difficult or not, and am ignorant what I have attained in mastering him —”

14 September 1821 (SH:7/ML/E/5/0062) 

Despite being now an independent student, Anne continued to call on the Knights at the vicarage and also met them socially over the years. In 1824, she saw Mr Knight in Halifax and commented that he seemed “ill, and very much aged” (Lister 26 March 1824). 

In January 1827, Anne was attending lectures in Paris and living in the French capital with her aunt Anne when a letter from their steward, Mr Briggs, arrived with news of the death of Samuel Knight (Lister 14 January 1827). Anne decided to then send her condolences to Mrs Frances Knight and also asked the widow if she could keep a memento from her old teacher (Ibid.). A month later, upon learning that a subscription had been created to help Mr Knight’s family, Anne pledged £20 to the cause:

“breakfast at wrote a few lines to Messrs Rawson to desire them to put down my name as a subscriber of £20 for the benefit of the family of our late vicar Mr. Knight — Different from what I wrote yesterday shorter no regret that I could not give more merely desiring Messrs Rawson to pay the £20 and acknowledging the receipt of their letter of the 9th ultimo and thanking them for the message from my father adding I was surprised to learn that 3 of my letters directed to Shibden hall had not been received there —”

5 February 1827 (SH:7/ML/E/10/0054)

In a letter to Marian Lister, Anne wrote to Mrs Knight and added that “I am not so forgetful of my friends in England as may be thought” (Lister 11 February 1827). A few days later, Marian wrote again to inform Anne of the Knights’ move to Hull and mentions a book being delivered at Shibden:

“Marian has had a take leave note from the Knights who are gone to live at Hull except Mr. Knight’s sister who lived with them and who remains at H-x [Halifax] with her 1/2 sister Miss Knight — A book sent to Shibden by Mrs. Knight for me, but Marian has not opened the parcel — have desired [her] to open it, tell me what the book is, and if there be a note send me a copy of it —”

26 February 1827 (SH:7/ML/E/10/0063)

A couple of months later, in April 1827, Anne instructed Marian to thank Mrs Knight for the book:

“if they go to Hull to give my thanks etc to Mrs. Knight for the Euripides Medea by Porson given me in remembrance of Mr. Knight —”

16 April 1827 (SH:7/ML/E/10/0081)

Throughout the late 1820s and early 1830s, Anne read Mr Knight’s sermons to her relatives or servants when they did not attend church. This continued until the 1st of June 1834, when she finally read the last of her old master’s sermons (Lister 1 June 1834). 

Other educational endeavours in Halifax

Though Anne owed her earlier education to a couple of schools and some educated clergymen, they were not the only contributors to her lifelong pursuit of knowledge. In her journals and other documents, there is some information about other tutors who also contributed to this effort. Let us look now at some of Anne’s educators from Halifax. 

Schooling with the Misses Mellin

On the 12th of August 1817, Anne casually identified a pair of school mistresses from her younger days in Halifax:

“While at Mr. K-s [Knight’s] just saw Mrs. Coulthurst and her niece Miss Ann Tipping and Miss Sarah and Miss Grace Mellin my old school mistresses –”

12 August 1817 (SH:7/ML/E/1/0031)

Though there are several mentions of the Misses Mellin throughout Anne’s journals,  although Anne also does not indicate whether she was a boarder at their school or mention its location in Halifax. Therefore, we cannot say with certainty when she went to this school or if/when the Misses Mellin contributed to her education. 

Yet, looking at the timeline of Anne’s earlier education, it is possible that she was a pupil of the Misses Mellin in the period between 1800 and 1804 as that is when there is a large gap between Anne’s time at Ripon and the start of her education with Mr Skelding in Market Weighton. Curiously, Muriel Green also seems to have arrived at a similar conclusion and places Anne’s schooling with the Misses Mellin between 1801 and 1805 (Lister 1992, 7). Green also adds that Anne had lessons at this school when she visited her family at Shibden Hall, but unfortunately she never mentions where she obtained this information. In Anne’s journals, there is also no mention of such private lessons taking place at Shibden Hall or, indeed, anywhere specific. Given this lack of primary sources in the Listers’ archive that may shed some light on the Misses Mellin and their school, we have to turn to other sources to obtain more information. 

In line with this, the earliest record we could obtain was a newspaper advertisement from 1780, which indicates that the school belonged to “Miss Mellin” and her sister - likely Miss Hannah and Miss Grace, who were later mentioned in an advertisement from 1788 (Bull January 2025).

The newspaper advertisement above precedes Anne Lister by a little over a decade and it informs us that the Misses Mellin were at the time moving their business to larger premises as the school was “returning” thanks to the support of their friends. Thus, it is likely that this school saw its origins earlier than 1780. This educational endeavour seemingly continued to run profitably for a few years, as the Misses Mellin thought it necessary to eventually move to larger premises again later on. A newspaper advertisement from 1790 provides a little bit more information about this and also names some of the masters they had hired to educate the young ladies at their school.

The new premises that the Mellins Boarding School was moving into were located in Black Wall. According to the Calderdale Companion, this building had once belonged to the Winn family of merchants and, eventually, they leased the space to the Misses Mellin (Bull February 2025). A later newspaper advertisement indicates that the Mellins boarding school remained in these premises until 1814, when Miss Grace Mellin left the business and the school passed to “the Miss Watkinsons” (Hull Advertiser 1814, 2). 

In Anne’s journal entries from as early as 1808 to as late as 1828, there are mentions of the Misses Mellin and other members of the same family. Looking at these, it becomes evident that the Mellins and the Listers of Shibden Hall likely enjoyed a good social relationship as the Mellins called at Shibden Hall on occasion(though at least once Anne took pains to avoid them):

“the Miss Mellins and Miss Kershaw called — heard them announced to Marian in her room — got behind the open door — nobody saw me there — thought I was out, and so I escaped — Miss Grace Mellin wanted to see me —”

8 September 1828 (SH:7/ML/E/11/0062)

Anne also mentions having called on and having tea with the “Miss Mellins”¹⁰, which further strengthens the notion that both families were on good terms. Of the Mellin sisters, Grace seems to have been the most liked by Anne, and she gets several mentions in her journals. She is also mentioned in Eliza Raine’s journal as someone who assisted in accommodating Miss Raine in May 1810 (Raine 1809-1810). The final mentions of Miss Grace Mellin in Anne ’s journals are in March 1830, when Anne receives some news from Halifax passed on by a former schoolfellow:

“then called and sat 1/2 hour with Mrs. Holme aux Bains de Tivoli — She called, it seems, the other day to read me her news from Miss Grace Mellin — had the whole today — nothing interesting to me But that my father had taken great care of himself in the winter by seldom stirring out and was very well and Marian was ‘in charming health’ Miss Grace thought of the pleasure Mrs. Holme and I should have in meeting and hoped if I went to England this year I should persuade her to go with me! I said I had no intention of going this year -”

30 March 1830 (SH:7/ML/E/13/0020)

Grace Mellin died about a year later, in June 1831, and was buried at Holy Trinity Church, in Halifax (Church of England 2011).

Studying the visual arts with Mr Farrar

On the 1st of September 1808, Anne wrote:

“Thursday September 1st Drank tea and supped at Darcey Hey and Began Oil painting with Mr Farrar —” (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0011)

It is unclear when these art lessons started or why she recruited Farrar, but these continued throughout the second half of 1808 and early 1809 (Lister 1806-1814). Anne never wrote down the first name of her Drawing Master or gave more details about him, so identifying him is a challenge that may not have a definite solution. Yet, using the little information she provided and cross-referencing it with local history sources, it is likely that this tutor was local artist Thomas Farrar, who was active between 1796 and 1811. Some of his works are part of the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council art collection. This Mr Farrar was likely also the art master of Anne ’s brother John Lister (1795-1810) (Oliveira 2024). 

Anne’s private lessons with Mr Farrar follow a similar pattern of those given by John Horner to Ann Walker decades later, in the sense that Farrar would call on Anne at Shibden Hall and there her lessons would take place or they would go to specific locations to “take in” certain subjects. However, in her journals, Anne almost never mentions the subjects of her lessons, focusing instead on recording if she had a lesson that day or not, or even, one time, being too busy to see him:

“Mr Farrar came but being so very busy I excused him giving us a lesson and told he not come till after the fair and then some new plan could be settled”

19 February 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0031)

On Anne ’s 18th birthday, she had another art lesson and recorded the subject she and Mr Farrar went to see: Scout Hall. Located in the south side of upper Shibden Dale, this old Hall was a 3-storey building sporting a mix of different architectural styles (Bull 19 December 2024). The building is also gabled at one end and hipped¹¹ at the other (Calderdale Libraries 2025). It once belonged to a silk merchant and, in 1809, it was in possession of the Clarke family (Ibid.). 

Yet, Anne’s sketching trip was cut short by an indisposition that left her needing assistance from her drawing master to return home:

"Monday 3

Mr Farrar came at 9pm we went into Shibden dale to take Skout Hall [Scout Hall] before we had done I was suddenly taken very ill being in a moment seized with violent sickness proceeding from pain in the breast which occasioned loss of sight for a few minutes and so great weakness that with difficulty I walked home having hold of Mr F-‘s [Farrar’s] arm when I got home which was about 12 I went to bed directly and did not get up till near 3"

3 April 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0028)

Unfortunately, due to the sparsity of journal entries covering Anne’s life from late 1809 to 1817, it is impossible to tell if those lessons with Mr Farrar were cut short after this or if they continued thereafter. 

A musical education with Mr Stopford

Thomas Stopford (1742-1819) was organist at the Halifax Parish church and is considered by local historians the first professional musician in town¹². Among Mr Stopford’s endeavours was teaching music and singing. Though Anne initially recruited him to teach her music, in February 1809 she also engaged him to teach her singing:

“Sunday 5 In the afternoon wrote the following note to Mr Stopford by Mary – Miss Lister’s compliments to Mr Stopford and will be happy to see him to tea tomorrow Miss L being now desirous of having some instruction in singing and from what was said when she last saw Mr Stopford at Mr Alexanders thinking he can have no objection to again attend her wishes to decide something on the subject – Copy of Mr S’s answer – Mr Stopford presents his compliments to Miss Lister is very happy to --- receive a summons to attend her – but tomorrow afternoon and till 8 or 9 o clock at night he has to attend upon 5 pupils he has at the Heath School and on Tuesday he will be absent the greatest part of the day and part of the evening upon some engagements he has in the Country including Mrs Edmunson’s at Mythom [Mytholm] Royd Bridge but if Wednesday evening soon after tea will be convenient to her he will be happy to attend upon her – Sunday evening – to which in reply I wrote another not saying that I myself was engaged on Tuesday and Wednesday evening but would be glad to see him on the morrow evening to supper as early as convenient and returned a verbal message that he would wait upon me –”

5 February 1809 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0027)

Anne’s lessons with Mr Stopford started in 1807 and seemingly continued during 1808 and, more intensively, during 1809. Given that there are several periods from 1806 until 1817 that are either only sparsely covered by Anne’s journal entries or not covered at all, we cannot say when these music and singing lessons with Mr Stopford ended. 

A more in-depth analysis of Anne Lister’s musical education throughout her life was conducted by Lisa Timbs and discusses Anne’s time with Mr Stopford in more detail, as well as other musical education endeavours.

A #NotFrenchEnough but “admirable pupil” of Mr “De Boo” Dubois

It is unclear whether Anne ’s first forays into French happened at Ripon or at the Manor School, but what’s certain is that she certainly explored the language further in the early 1810s. Anne’s tutor at this time was a Mr “De Boo”. No doubt, he was someone whose very French name and thick French accent must have been a challenge to young Miss Lister, who managed to mangle his name beyond recognition. 

Yet, by cross-referencing a few sources both in Anne’s papers and elsewhere, it seems likely that her tutor was Father Dubois, a Catholic priest, who was living in Halifax at the time (Bull 15 November 2024). Dubois and another Catholic - Father Letellier - had seemingly established a Catholic chapel in town, by then running in a house in Lilly Lane, where they held the first Roman Catholic services in Halifax (Bull 20 November 2024). Per the Calderdale Companion, the two men fled France during the Napoleonic Wars and returned to their home country after Napoleon was removed from power (Ibid.).

Looking at Anne ’s journal, it seems that both she and her brother John either knew of or were being tutored by Mr Dubois from as early as December 1808. At the time, Anne wrote in her journal:

“Monday 19th Staid at Mr A’s [Alexander's] ½ an hour and came home to dinner afterwards went with John to the French master De Boo”

19 December 1808 (SH:7/ML/E/26/1/0030)

This is the only entry mentioning Mr “De Boo” in Anne’s journals, but it is certainly not the only one in her archive. Among Anne’s school books and notebooks, there is a volume of French exercises dating from 1805 to 1812. The first fifty pages of this volume seem to contain only school exercises and, supposing that this dating is correct, those were likely produced when Anne was a pupil at the Manor School or not long afterwards. However, the same volume was later reused when Anne was studying French under the guidance of Mr Dubois and, from her short notes in that volume, we can establish a short timeline of her French education with him.

The first note dates from 23 November 1810 and, following subsequent notes, we learn that Anne’s lessons with Mr Dubois (or “Du Boo” as she writes in this volume) lasted until January 1811, when she seemingly took a break due to an unspecified illness (Lister 1805-1812). Anne’s French lessons with Mr Dubois resumed again on the 2nd of March 1811 and continued for another fortnight, when she took another break on the 16th of March (Ibid.). Looking at the notes in this volume, it seems that this second break in Anne’s French instruction was longer as her lessons with Mr Dubois only restarted on the 27th of January 1812 (Ibid.).

It is during this longer break that Mr Dubois calls on Eliza Raine in Halifax and expresses his admiration for his pupil:

“Mr Du Bos called and spent the evening overburdened with polite enquiring after the admirable pupil, she is fled said he, ah Madame what a loss! Poor Mr Du Bos who frenchifies every English word has been really ill in cold - he fancies I believe that your equal scarcely lives such is his veneration for you my dear Friend he possesses I think more genuine goodness and solidity than the generality of them.”

Letter from Eliza Raine to Anne Lister, 2 May 1811 (SH:7/ML/A/27)

Looking back at Anne's book of French exercises, we learn that her last French lesson with this tutor happened on the 7th of April 1812 and it is unclear whether this was merely a temporary stop or the end of her French education with this Master (Lister 1805-1812). Regardless, this foundation of Anne’s foreign languages education was certainly helpful when she visited Paris in 1819 with her Aunt, where she applied her knowledge to communicate with the locals.

In this timeline, we have included information about Anne's education at the Misses Mellin's boarding school in Halifax, which operated until 1814 (Hull Advertiser 1814, 2). Most of Anne's early education took place in private schools or with tutors, with several years of consistent schooling and few interruptions. These educational periods are documented by Anne Lister or through other archival materials. Therefore, we believe it is likely that Anne was educated by the Misses Mellin sometime between 1800 and 1804. However, since Anne does not specify how long she was their pupil or when this education occurred, this information is included here for completeness. If our understanding of Anne Lister’s early educational timeline changes in the future, we will update this data accordingly.

A note on Anne’s later education

Anne Lister's thirst for knowledge led her to turn her education into a lifelong endeavour. After she stopped her schooling with Mr Knight, Anne continued to study independently and delved into topics such as Mathematics, Biology and Geology, Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and French initially), History, and Music. In parallel with this, she also continued to read numerous books and attended lectures and events relating to advances in the sciences.

Yet, despite making an effort to continue her education on her own, Anne later felt that she could benefit from a more advanced tutor. After reading one of his scientific works, Anne decided that one good candidate to become her next tutor was Georges Cuvier, the acclaimed French scientist. This led to her writing a letter in 1819 appealing to his kindness and asking him to assist her in her pursuit of knowledge. The letter reached Cuvier and nowadays is part of a collection of letters sent to Cuvier by other eminent scientists of that time. However, Anne seemingly never received an answer from the French scientist.

Anne took her education to the next level in the late 1820s, when she moved to Paris for a few years and got an opportunity to attend lectures with several eminent scholars of her time. Among them was Georges Cuvier, but the roster of Anne's professors also included Geoffroi St Hilaire, Jean Victor Audouin, and Alexandre Brongniart, among others. She also acquired a more practical knowledge of subjects such as Anatomy and Dissection by being privately tutored by fellow student Etiènne François Julliard. 

Afterwards, learning continued to be one of Anne's steadier passions and, despite concluding the most formal part of her education in the early 1830s, she continued to improve herself by reading copious amounts of scientific books and texts, as well as occasionally attending lectures and other talks about topics that interested her. 

Looking at Anne’s education, it is interesting how it started as a young ladies’ education and then evolved into one that was usually given to a young gentleman. This hybrid education likely gave Anne the tools to navigate the polite society of her time and also to manage the Shibden Hall estate, which she inherited from her uncle James Lister in 1826. Once Anne concluded the more formal parts of her education and was satisfied with the knowledge she acquired in France, her trajectory once again resembled that of a young gentleman rather than that of a young lady. Instead of marrying a man and settling into a more traditional life trajectory, Anne Lister toured Europe extensively with friends and lovers, climbed mountains, and later settled down with Ann Walker. 

References

• B, Aradia. 2015. “Anne Hargrave.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146769188/anne-hargrave.

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