The Lister and Walker Coats of Arms, and the Lister Proof of Pedigree 

Anne Lister was acutely aware of her social status: many of her journal entries reveal her thoughts on both her own standing in society and the relative rank or class of her contemporaries. Where did this sense of her societal standing come from? What did Anne know about her pedigree? And what did the family coat of arms mean to her? 

When I visited Shibden Hall and Halifax in the autumn of 2019, I came across the Lister coat of arms in several places. It seemed that the coat of arms may have been important to Anne, but I was left wondering why that was so, and what the design of the coat of arms signified. Research on this narrow point inevitably led to the consideration of Anne’s pedigree, and, from there, some reflection on her status and her sense of self. 

Anne’s Era and Society, Her “Difference” 

Much has been written about Anne Lister’s character. She is known to have been highly intelligent, and independent. She was a keen scholar, an astute and formidable businesswoman, and an intrepid traveller, as well, of course, as being a prolific diarist and a lesbian. 

Anne was sent to school at the age of seven, where she was said by a school friend (as recorded in Anne’s journal) to be “a singular child, and singularly dressed, … very quick and independent … [she] whistled very well; a great favourite of Mrs Chettle” (Green 1992, 19). From an early age, Anne was “different”. 

Anne was acutely aware of, in her own words, her “oddity”. In the Regency period¹ , upper-class women were expected to be genteel, passive, graceful, feminine, and decorous. By contrast, Anne Lister was distinctly unfeminine, in her appearance (“[Mariana] had just before observed that I was getting mustaches [sic]” (Whitbread 2010, 319); and she was tall, lean, and flat-chested), her “gentlemanly” manners, her attire (always predominantly black² , unless strict propriety or occasion dictated otherwise), her behaviour, and her outlook. Anne was voluble (“Mrs B Barlow looked so grave I asked if she was ill perhaps   I talked too much this overcame her spirits”) (Lister 1825 Jan. 15), flamboyant, charismatic, energetic. All in all, she was somewhat striking, and even years later, the Leeds Times (22 July 1882) noted, “Miss Lister's masculine singularities of character are still remembered”. 

Typically, even high-class women did not benefit from a good education - the prevailing view was that instruction in such subjects as religion, sewing, music, drawing, and dancing was sufficient. Some young women undertook instruction in heraldry, although at least one author felt it necessary to “exhibit the elements of the science in as simple a form as possible, to enable ladies who have any claim to heraldic distinction to pursue a tasteful … amusement, by applying the knowledge they may acquire in a way, which … will “greatly grace” the places wherein they are exhibited” (Brydon 1853, 3). Brydon’s book explains how coats of arms may best be embroidered (Brydon 1853, 27), and suggests a range of objects suitable for needlework.

Anne, on the other hand, was highly educated (this in an era when educated women often concealed their knowledge, and “bluestocking”³  was a term of abuse) - she was well versed, through school, private lessons, self-teaching and voracious reading, and, later, lectures in Paris, in classical and other languages, mathematics, medicine, anatomy, music, engineering, theology, law, and a wide range of other subjects. 

At a time when it was unusual for women to be involved in business, politics or the law, Anne was actively involved in a web of business and other interests, and related legal contracts: coal mining, quarrying, estate management, road building, and investment (for example, in canals). Particularly in the 1830s, Anne became proactively engaged in local politics. 

Inheritance practices during Anne’s lifetime meant that the majority of any family land passed to the eldest son, usually for his lifetime, and daughters inherited money, jewellery, and clothing. Upon marriage, a woman lost her legal personality, that is, she became legally incapable: her husband had complete control of both her personal and real (i.e. land) property (English and Saville 1983, 32), whether owned at the time of the marriage or inherited later; and, as a wife, a woman became unable to form a contract or make a will of her own (McDonagh 2018, 16). Although in practice many landed families negotiated a marriage settlement in order to ring-fence certain property for a wife’s control and ownership, there were ample reasons not to wish to marry, as well as those for which Anne is most well known. Unusually, Anne herself was proactive in her ambitions for an inheritance. She understood that her father was a natural heir to her unmarried Uncle James, yet she adroitly, though patiently and gently, demonstrated to her uncle why leaving Shibden to her was the most desirable of his options⁴ . Uncle James died in 1826, and, although under his will Anne’s father and her Aunt Anne received life interests, enabling them to live at the hall and to receive income, Anne had successfully ensured that the Shibden Hall estate fell to her (Choma 2019, XV).

Socially, Anne was highly capable, engaging and entertaining, and - usually - a popular and welcome visitor. Social visits in and around Halifax formed an important part of Anne’s daily life while she was at Shibden, and she called on the Rawsons of Stoney Royd, the Edwards of Pye Nest, the Walkers of Lightcliffe, and a tight circle of others. However, particularly after inheriting the Shibden Hall estate, Anne felt keenly that her landed gentry status and her long family lineage afforded her a significant social advantage over these more newly monied companions, who had acquired their wealth through industry and trade. She believed that she could “do better” in her choice of acquaintances.

Anne was highly attuned to her status in society, and, understanding the hierarchy of the day, sought to improve her connections and to move in aristocratic circles. Although her journals occasionally note some self-doubt about her manners and behaviour when mixing with such people⁵ , self-elevation mattered a great deal to her, and her shrewdness, energy, capabilities, and self-confidence equipped her to pursue such relationships with some considerable success, both in England and abroad.

Anne was conservative and religious, valuing social respectability, while at the same time rather unorthodox in her conduct and her lesbian attachments. She was entirely confident in her sexuality, and was determined never to marry⁶. 

Where did this sense of self, and Anne’s self-esteem, originate from?

Importance of Pedigree, and the College of Arms 

From an early age, Anne was fiercely proud of her family’s long-standing ownership of the Shibden Hall estate, and of her lineage. In July 1823, she was “spiriting up my uncle about the pride of the family about Shibden” (Lister 1823 Jul. 18), and in October 1824, Anne told Maria Barlow⁷ that she “Loved the little spot where my ancestors had lived for centuries” (Lister 1824 Oct. 29).

Even when very young, Anne was interested in her pedigree. In around 1803, she drafted a pedigree of ancestors reaching back to Roman emperors, a range of biblical figures, and all the way back to Adam!

Anne’s landed gentry status, particularly after she inherited the Shibden Hall estate in 1826, and her pedigree, afforded her appreciable local importance, influence, and prestige. Wishing to formally prove the continuation of her family’s pedigree, and, later, to update it, Anne wrote to the College of Arms in 1816, and corresponded with one of its officers from then until 1825, and later, in 1834, 1835, and 1838. In contacting the College of Arms, Anne might also have been preparing to use and display her family’s coat of arms - a grant of arms conveys a certain nobility of birth, and, in order to establish a right to use an existing coat of arms, one must prove to the College of Arms one’s legitimate descent from the person to whom the arms were originally granted. 

The College of Arms is the heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and many Commonwealth countries. Founded in 1484 by King Richard III, to this day it grants coats of arms and maintains official registers of arms, family pedigrees, and genealogies. In some cases, pedigrees are recorded to prove an inherited right, such as a peerage. But in many cases, pedigrees are placed on record simply to confirm them as having been independently checked by the proper authority, and to preserve them in a central register for the benefit of future generations. The oldest of these registers dates back to the sixteenth century, and they are updated as new pedigrees are submitted for proof and registration. 

Between 1530 and 1687, heralds from the College of Arms visited each county roughly every generation, in order to record the pedigrees of aristocracy and gentry across the realm, and to supervise the use of coats of arms. At the visitation of Yorkshire in 1666, a pedigree of four generations of the Lister family was recorded, and it was headed by Samuel Lister of Shibden Hall. 

Anne was staying at Lawton Hall, shortly after Mariana Belcombe’s⁸ marriage, when she wrote to the College of Arms on 13 June 1816, “being anxious to have my pedigree properly proved”. To have a pedigree placed on official record at the College of Arms, one must engage the services of an officer of arms who will research and draft the pedigree in the required format and advise on the documentary evidence needed to support it. The officer, or herald, will then submit the documentary evidence to the Chapter of the College which will appoint two other officers of arms to examine it. The two examiners will each go through the pedigree in detail, calling for documentary proofs of each relationship that is to be recorded, and of each fact that is offered in support. If the officer believes that aspects of the evidence are not satisfactorily proven, he (for to date, no woman has ever been an officer of arms⁹) may call for additional research to be undertaken. Once the examination is complete, the pedigree is scrivened into the pedigree registers and becomes part of the official records of the College. 

Anne Lister went through precisely this process in 1816 and 1817. The College of Arms being extremely rigorous in requiring evidence of ancestral lines, Anne was obliged to produce a great many proofs of births, marriages, deaths, and familial lines, and extracts from parish records and local registers, to prove her lineage. Anne’s handwritten list (dated 25 January 1817) of “proofs wanting”, i.e. detailed documents and records needed to evidence her family descent, includes 22 items, all of which would have taken considerable time to compile. 

In March 1817, the herald with whom Anne had been corresponding, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, William Radcliffe, confirmed that he had “the pleasure to report that the Pedigree of Your Family has passed the Ordeal of Probation, and received the Order of Chapter for its entry upon the Record. It is now in the Custody of Registrar waiting its Turn for that Purpose”, but that an important link was missing: 

“The only material statement in the course of the Pedigree not yet proved, is that Joseph Lister of Lower Brea was the son of Samuel Lister by Susan Drake, and the examiner’s note standing under his description at present is in these words “not yet proved to have been the son of Samuel Lister of Shibden Hall”.

12 March 1817 - SH:7/ML/B/13

Anne was given guidance on how to complete the evidence, which she did, and in April 1817 the College wrote to Anne’s Uncle James, “I have the pleasure to transmit you herewith the Copy of the Pedigree of your Family from the record lately made thereof in this College and the hope it will meet your expectation…”. Anne’s journal entry of 26 April 1817 notes the family’s pleasure at receiving this official copy of their pedigree as recorded by the College.

In 1824 Anne wrote to Radcliffe, noting her understanding that he was working on an edition of “Dugdale’s Heraldic Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665-1666; together with considerable additions”, and offering to subscribe to it. It is clear from Anne’s communication that she wanted her pedigree to be publicly recorded in this work. In March 1825, Radcliffe confirmed the subscription of “James Lister, Esq. Shibden-hall” to this edition. In 1899, J.W. Clay¹⁰ edited and republished “Dugdale’s Visitation of Yorkshire”, and the Lister family is captured in this edition.

The College of Arms’ record confirms that the pedigree was completed in 1817, with additions made in 1838, and this record was signed as true in November 1838 by “A Lister”. The records also include a painting of the crest and arms, beneath which the motto scroll reads “PROPOSIT TENAX”. The College of Arms does not release copies of these records.

Anne’s interest in her pedigree continued throughout her life: from childhood, through 1816 when she wrote to the College of Arms; through April 1822 when she spent hours at the solicitor’s office in York reviewing old wills, hoping to find further information about her lineage; to August 1838, when she and Ann Walker met with a College of Arms herald regarding their respective pedigrees and coats of arms.

Letters written between Anne (and her Uncle James) and the College of Arms form part of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale’s collection of Shibden papers. The correspondence is listed and described, and transcriptions of the Listers’ letters are available, under the heading “Anne’s Correspondence with the College of Arms” immediately below. 

The Right of Women to Bear Arms 

Typically, the bearers of coats of arms were men, being the landed and the leaders of a nation, who were responsible for leading other men into battle (Franklin 1973, 98). It was necessary for those commanding others to be distinguishable by their followers, and thus the right to bear arms arose and was confined to the upper classes - there was no need for anyone other than leaders to be identifiable by coats of arms.

Except for very rare cases, a woman cannot, according to heraldic rules, have her own coat of arms - almost without exception, a woman’s arms are derived from those of a man, be that her father or husband (Franklin 1973, 68).

The rules, which were formalised in the 1560s following the Act of Elizabeth in 1561, about how a woman may bear arms depend on her marital status, and, if married, whether she brings to the union her own family’s right to bear arms (Franklin 1973, 70 et seq). 

According to the rules relating to unmarried women, Anne Lister had the right to bear her father’s arms (importantly, “arms” does not include the crest part of the full coat of arms) on a “lozenge” (or diamond) shape, or an oval or cartouche¹¹, or indeed any other shape that could not be mistaken for a shield (Franklin 1973, 5). Regardless of their marital status, women must not bear crests: the rules were formulated at a time when it was considered unsuitable for women to go to war, and so they would need neither a shield nor a helmet (on top of which a crest is designed to sit¹²). However, the rules were rarely policed, let alone enforced, and if Anne used or displayed the full coat of arms, including the crest, she could reasonably have argued that she was displaying her family’s coat of arms. 

Known depictions of the Lister coat of arms do not include the motto, “Propositi Tenax”, which Anne, in 1817, notified the College of Arms she would like to have added.  Indeed, according to the heraldic rules, no woman (other than a sovereign) may use a motto (Franklin 1973, 68).

A number of the known images (see Anne’s Pride in the Lister Coat of Arms) of Anne’s arms appear on a “shield” shape, whilst others are of a more indeterminate, amorphous form. Whether Anne intended to comply with, or ignore, the ancient rules, or whether she merely required a simple and pleasing design, we do not know - she was familiar with heraldry, and may have been aware of what was expected of women who wished to bear arms. Anne led her life largely according to her own rules, so it would not be entirely uncharacteristic if she chose not to be constrained by the medieval conventions. 

Coat of Arms - Shibden Hall Estate

The precise date of the building of Shibden Hall is unknown, but the deeds to the property date back to 1420 (Green 1992, 23). The estate came into the Lister family by marriage in 1619 (Clare 2019, 9). Anne Lister made many changes to the Hall and the estate, including improvement of the housebody (main hall) with a grand staircase, oak panelling, and carved figures, and adding her carved initials and the Lister motto, chosen by Anne, “justus propositi tenax” (“just and true of purpose”). 

The Lister Lion

The newel post at the foot of the staircase, which was designed for Anne by the architect John Harper and carved from Norwegian oak by John Wolstenholme of York (Clare 2019, 17), is the Lister lion holding a shield. A similar lion, holding the same shield, and carved in stone (also commissioned by Anne, in 1837  (Clare 2019, 25)), stands outside, by the gateway into the terraced gardens surrounding the house. 

The Red Room Mantelpiece

The shield, one of the two key components of the full coat of arms, is also painted onto the stone mantelpiece of the fireplace in the Red Room (this was done during the Lister family ownership, but the date of the work is unknown¹³), and the shield’s design forms the centrepiece of the funerary hatchment displayed in the corridor leading to Anne’s bedroom. 

The Gatehouse

A close look at the estate’s gatehouse, which was designed by Anne’s architect, John Harper of York (whom Anne asked to draw designs in 1835 (Lister 1835 May 12)), and which was first used from the new driveway in 1837 (Clare 2019, 28), reveals the Lister arms in stonework, inlaid into the brickwork just above the arch above the gate. It was common for arms to be set in stone on lodges belonging to large estates (Franklin 1973, 102).

The Stump Cross Inn

The Stump Cross Inn, a public house, stood on what was, in Anne’s time, the Shibden Hall estate. In 1838, Anne, writing in the third person, tasked a Mr Hoyland with “paint[ing] her family arms, with the motto, Justus propositi tenax, so as to form a neat sign for her tenant,”. (Lister 1838 Jun. 11) (Transcription) 

Coat of Arms - Halifax Minster

The full coat of arms appears, alongside others, in the ceiling of Halifax Minster. It is thought that it was placed there in memory of James Lister, who died in November 1729 (Bretton 1936, 5)¹⁴, and there is a monument bearing his name and arms at the south-west corner of the church.

Coat of Arms - Anne's Possessions

Muriel M. Green’s¹⁵ “Miss Lister of Shibden Hall, Selected Letters 1800 to 1840” shows a picture of a bookplate that Anne commissioned. The design of this bookplate is again based on the Lister family arms.  One of Anne’s bookplates is preserved in the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale collection of Anne Lister papers. 

These formal heraldic monochrome hatchings were devised in the 17th century (Brydon 1853, 6) to denote colours which were expensive to print. Given her knowledge of heraldry, Anne might well have known about this formal system of colour representation but, if she did not, the designer and/or printer commissioned to prepare the bookplate clearly did. This technique was commonly used for bookplates (Franklin 1973, 36).

For a silver trowel to be given to Ann Walker on the occasion of Ann laying the first stone of the casino to be built at the Northgate Hotel in September 1835, Anne devised an inscription which included “an impression of my arms”:

Anne had her carriage doors painted with the elements of the coat of arms in 1834. During the Regency period, anyone wanting to display their coat of arms was obliged to pay a tax, or duty, of between one and two guineas per annum, depending on how they wanted to use the image, for example on the side of their carriage (Mortimer 2020, 171). 

Wax seals were commonly used on letters (literally, to seal the letter) and important documents, and a seal designed with arms was another indicator of rank. Anne commissioned a seal stamp bearing the Lister arms, probably in the mid-1820s - we know that she met seal cutters in London in 1824, and that she enquired about the costs of engraving a seal stamp bearing arms¹⁶.  Anne carried a seal stamp bearing her arms on her final journey¹⁷. 

In June 1834, Anne ordered a livery suit with crested buttons for one of the servants¹⁸: 

Another object bearing Anne’s coat of arms was an embroidered image created by Anne’s lover, Madame de Rosny in 1828¹⁹. Anne also had cutlery engraved in 1826 and in 1834, the latter for use at the Northgate hotel in Halifax²⁰. 

The following drawings have also been discovered amongst the Lister papers held by West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale. The artist and the date are unknown, as is the purpose of the drawings, although they are reminiscent of Anne’s bookplate.

Anne’s pride in her coat of arms is revealed by these objects which bear (or bore) the image, and which she took the trouble to commission; by her many journal references to the family coat of arms (see Appendix: Timeline of Journal Entries); and by the coat of arms being prominent at Anne’s funeral (see Anne’s Life, and Its End). 

The Lister Coat of Arms - Composition

A coat of arms comprises the crest and the arms (or shield). According to the records of the College of Arms, the (Anne) Lister family coat of arms is formally blazoned thus:

The Crest: Upon a Wreath of the Colours a Stag’s Head erased proper charged with a Trefoil Gules

The Arms: Ermine on a Fess  Sable three Mullets Or a Canton Gules

The heraldic terms used here in bold text are described below. Here is a reminder of the coat of arms, and a stylised version, clearer to decipher, created by Biljana Popovic.

Symbols used in Anne’s Coat of Arms - Meaning?

My initial curiosity, on finding Anne’s family’s coat of arms around the Shibden Hall estate and in Halifax, was about the meaning or significance of its design and components (“charges”). As it turned out, the College of Arms advised me that the meaning behind the designs of armorial bearings is rarely recorded, if there was ever any meaning at all. The earliest and simplest coats of arms were devised purely for visual recognition, for example on the battlefield or in sporting tournaments, and usually bore no more meaning than a jockey's colours or a football player’s shirt do today. This does not necessarily mean that there was no rationale behind the choice of design and the component parts, but only that it has not been recorded, at least not by the College of Arms. 

Ann Walker's Coat of Arms

Anne Lister’s courtship of Ann Walker, and the course of their life together, are well documented elsewhere²¹. 

Over time, Ann became interested in heraldry and applied to the College of Arms for registration of her coat of arms. Although it is not known whether Anne Lister fostered Ann’s interest, we do know that Anne and Ann attended the College of Arms together in 1835, and Anne’s journals note Ann working on her pedigree in 1835, 1836, and 1838. Ann contacted the College of Arms in 1838, and met with the herald Bluemantle Pursuivant in London in May of that year. See Appendix: Timeline of Journal Entries.

Given Anne’s class consciousness, and her awareness that Ann was “not a welcome part of the high society circle” (Euler 1995, 370), it is possible that she encouraged Ann to elevate her social standing by establishing and recording a pedigree and confirming her use of a coat of arms. The records of The Halifax Antiquarian Society (Bretton 1929, 100) note that the coat of arms pictured below (and rendered artistically by Biljana Popovic) was granted to “Miss Ann Walker, of Cliffe Hill and Crow Nest, Lightcliffe”, in about 1842. In fact, the College of Arms holds a copy of Letters Patent dated 9 December 1842, declaring the grant of arms and crest to Ann Walker of Cliffe Hill in the parish of Halifax, a spinster, youngest daughter of the late John Walker and sister and coheir of his son, also John, of Crow Nest. 

The College of Arms records the (Ann) Walker pedigree going back seven generations. These records also note that Ann had petitioned for the authorised arms and crest to be granted, in order to properly use them on a monument to her late father, and for the coat of arms to be borne by his descendants. Although there is no evidence that Ann arranged a dedication to her father bearing the coat of arms, the design was used on a brass memorial plaque (a portion of which is shown below), which was dedicated by Ann’s nephew, Evan Charles Sutherland Walker, in 1864 to a number of Walker ancestors who died between 1676 and 1809. Memorial brasses quite commonly bore coats of arms (Franklin 1973, 101), and the Walker plaque is to be found beneath a window in the Halifax Minster. 

However, although the Halifax Minster’s ceiling is adorned with several panels painted with coats of arms, most of these were painted in the 17th and 18th centuries (that is, before a coat of arms was granted to Ann’s family); and although some were painted in the 19th century, Ann Walker’s coat of arms is not one of them. 

In April 1834, Anne Lister records perusing William Berry’s Encyclopaedia Heraldica, and finding arms mentioned “the same as those now borne by the Walkers of Crownest”. It is clear from Anne’s journal, therefore, that in 1834 the Walkers were using some coat of arms that they were not entitled to use. The 1842 text of the College of Arms which accompanied the grant of arms to Ann Walker stated that the arms and crest previously used by her family had not been registered with the College as belonging to them. It appears that Ann’s family had borne the coat of arms of another Walker family from whom they could not prove their descent, or that they had used the coat of arms of a Walker family with which they had no connection at all. 

According to the records of the College of Arms, Ann Walker’s coat of arms is formally blazoned thus:

The Crest: On a wreath of the colours a greyhound passant argent semy of mullets and gorged with a collar gemel sable

The Arms: Argent on a chevron nebuly between three crescents sable as many mullets or 

The Motto is “Per ardua virtus”, meaning “virtue through difficulties”

In 1883, Evan Charles Sutherland and his son, William Tudor, gave formal notice that they wished to discontinue use of the name Walker, and presumably, as a consequence, they lost the right to use the Walker coat of arms. 

The Arms of Miss Lister and Miss Walker upon their Union 

Anne Lister noted in her journal on 12 February 1834 that she and Ann Walker were to exchange rings as a  symbol of their union, and they did so on 27 February 1834. Anne knew that she and Ann could not legally marry, but she was firm in her belief that she could stand before God and, before a clergyman, solemnise her union with another woman (Choma 2019, xvii - xviii). Anne and Ann took communion together at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York on Easter Sunday, 30 March 1834, to seal their union and to solemnise their commitment to one another. 

In 1834, there was no recognition, by church, state, or law, of same-sex marriage. Accordingly, the College of Arms had no rules regarding treatment of coats of arms upon such a union, and I have seen nothing to suggest that Anne and Ann sought to combine their coats of arms. 

Today, the College of Arms rules specify how coats of arms following a same-sex marriage may be conjoined. The Kings of Arms ruling of 29 March 2014 states: “A woman who contracts a same-sex marriage may bear arms on a shield or banner, impaling the arms of her wife with her own or (in cases where the other party is an heraldic heiress) placing the arms of her wife in pretence [in the centre]. The coat of arms of each party to the marriage will be distinguishable by the arms of the individual concerned being placed on the dexter side of the shield or banner (or displayed as the principal arms in cases where the other party is an heraldic heiress whose arms are borne in pretence)”²². (Author’s emphasis.)

An heraldic heiress is a woman whose father rightfully bore arms, and who is either an only child or who has no surviving brothers or any surviving nephews by deceased brothers (Franklin 1973, 64). In 1834, following a male-female marriage, the arms of an heraldic heiress would be placed on a smaller shield which would sit in the centre of her husband's arms. 

Anne Lister’s last surviving brother, Samuel, died childless in 1813 (Liddington 2019, 5 and 10), and, as her other three brothers died in childhood (Liddington 2019, 5), and were therefore also without issue, Anne was an heraldic heiress. By the time that Ann Walker was granted arms in 1842, her only brother who survived to adulthood, John, had died (1830), and his only child died in childbirth (also 1830); and although the Walker family had used a coat of arms incorrectly, when the College of Arms recorded Ann’s pedigree in (or shortly after) 1843, it went back seven generations. Thus, it is evident that Ann, too, was an heraldic heiress.  

The College of Arms has confirmed that, today, where both parties are heraldic heiresses, each woman may, upon marriage, impale her own arms with her wife’s in pretence. Thus, if both Anne Lister and Ann Walker were living today, and if they were both heraldic heiresses, and if they contracted a same-sex marriage under modern legal terms, they would respectively have the right to bear arms which could look like this: 

In 1834, the absence of legal recognition of a same-sex marriage could have been viewed as an opportunity to ignore existing conventions, and Anne and Ann, both interested in heraldry, and Ann, interested in art and sketching, could, in theory, have combined and reinterpreted their arms as they wished (although, again, in no respect would the result have been formally recognised). The artwork (below) of Biljana Popovic imagines one style in which Anne and Ann, in the absence of any such constraining rules, could have chosen to do this (“quartering” is an heraldic term for dividing a shield into four): 

Anne’s Life, and its End 

Anne Lister’s life was – to us, today – extraordinary, and remarkable for its unconventionality. At the same time, despite her unorthodox manners and behaviours, she wanted, somehow, to fit in, to be socially accepted, both locally and amongst the aristocratic circles that she sought to enter, and to be recognised for who she was. One way in which Anne established a sense of herself, at least, involved going down the highly traditional and rarefied route of proving her pedigree through the College of Arms. And yet, even in doing this, she pushed the boundaries: it is probable that the College of Arms did not, at the time, typically receive enquiries from women.

Displaying a coat of arms was a rather traditional visual means of seeking to influence how others should perceive her. For all of Anne’s pride in her heritage and her apparent self-confidence, she still had something to prove, both to herself and to others.

Anne and Ann left Shibden Hall in 1839 for an extended tour of northern Europe and Russia. Anne died in Koutais (or Kutaisi), in what is now Georgia, on 22 September 1840. Ann arranged for Anne’s body to be returned to England, a journey which took about six months, and it reached Shibden Hall on 24 April 1841; it was interred in Halifax Parish Church, now Halifax Minster, on 29 April 1841. Although little is known about Anne’s funeral ceremony (for example, who attended), from newspaper archives we do know that the coffin was “most splendid”, and that it bore the family’s coat of arms. Even after her death, Anne’s prestige was evident to the many who reportedly bore witness.