Where is
Anne Lister?

FINDING HER FINAL RESTING PLACE

Marlene Oliveira, Shantel Smith, Amanda Pryce, Steph Gallaway, Livia Labate, Jude Dobson

Published on 15 December, 2020  · Last updated on 16 January, 2024

Anne Lister's remains were buried in the Halifax Minster after they were returned to Halifax following her death in Georgia in 1840. Yet, it remains a mystery precisely where, inside the church, Anne's remains lie. 

In this article, we explore how the lives—and especially the deaths—of generations of Listers intersect with the rich history of the Halifax Minster over the centuries, providing us with clues about where Anne Lister's body might be today and how we might find her.

Trigger warning: death, dying, decomposition. Estimated reading time: 70 minutes.


This article describes active research and the facts and details included have and will continue to be updated as new information is uncovered. If you come across any other relevant information that can help clarify or expand the topics below, please get in touch
Errata and content updates are noted at the end of this article.

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Anne Lister’s funeral

After the adventure of a lifetime, Anne Lister died in Kutaisi, Georgia, on the 22nd of September 1840. Ann Walker ensured Anne’s remains would travel to England, by sea, from Trebizond¹ (today’s Trabzon, Turkey). The journey of Anne’s remains homewards took approximately seven months.

Anne’s remains would reach Shibden late on Saturday, the 24th of April 1841. This return was chronicled in the Halifax Guardian from the 1st of May 1841:

“The Late Mrs. Lister - The remains of this lady (who our readers will remember died at Koutais, in Imerethi, on the 22nd of September last) arrived at Shibden Hall late on Saturday night, and were interred in the parish church², on Thursday morning.”

Per the burial records and newspaper reports, Anne’s funeral took place on the 29th of April 1841. Like previous Lister funerals, Anne Lister’s happened almost a week after her remains reached her home. Judging by what is chronicled in contemporary newspapers, this event intrigued the public in such a way that many apparently gathered to see the funerary procession on its way to the parish church. The Leeds Times of the 1st of May 1841 offers an account of what came to pass on that day.

Black and white newspaper clipping from the Leeds Times of the 1st of May 1841
From the Leeds Times - Saturday 01 May 1841 © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. See transcript below.

HALIFAX. FUNERAL OF MISS LISTER. –—The remains of  Miss Lister, heiress of the estate of the late Captain Lister, who died in Circassia, on the 22nd day of September, 1840, have been brought from thence to be interred in the family vault at the Parish Church, Halifax. The interment took place on Thursday last. The vault in the interior of the church was beautifully finished. The coffin was of the most splendid description, bearing the coat of the arms of the family. The funeral procession was formed of the hearse, two mourning coaches, with two carriages, and a few of the deceased lady's tenants on horseback. The road from Shibden Hall to the Parish Church was crowded, and in some places was almost impassable. On reaching the church thousands of people were assembled to witness the sight, and it was with the greatest difficulty the corpse could be got out of the hearse. The deceased was aged forty-nine years.

Per the parish burial records, Reverend Charles Musgrave presided over the ceremony. Both Anne Lister and Ann Walker knew and respected Reverend Musgrave and had requested his services for previous Lister funerary ceremonies. Musgrave was the Vicar of Halifax from 1827 to 1875 and would become an influential figure in the history of the parish. A little over a decade after he presided over Anne Lister’s burial ceremony, he also performed a similar ceremony for Ann Walker’s burial.

black and white burial record entry
Source: West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; New Reference Number: WDP53/1/4/3

Aside from the little information from the Leeds Times reporting that Anne’s coffin was ornamented with the family’s coat of arms, not much more is known about it. The only other detail that can be verified is the inscription in the coffin plate, which was recorded on the margin of the page that contains the record of Anne’s burial.

black and white note from burial record
Source: West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; New Reference Number: WDP53/1/4/3

“[Anne Lister] who died September 22nd 1840 at Koutais in Imeritia or, as written on the coffin plate, Imérithi. C.M.”

The intrepid mistress of Shibden Hall had finally been laid to rest in the same church she was christened in and that housed many of her family members.

  1. As stated in a schedule of an account paid by Ann Walker and submitted as evidence in Walker v. Gray.
  2. The church of St. John the Baptist in Halifax is usually referred to as Halifax Parish Church in literature. It is commonly referred to as Halifax Minster since it received Minster status in 2009.

A final resting place

The church of St. John the Baptist in Halifax, commonly referred to as Halifax Minster since it received that status in 2009 “in recognition of its great church status and monastic tradition,” is one of the oldest buildings in Halifax. Over the centuries, the parish church has been the stage of numerous events connected to Halifax’s history and its people, many of whom worshiped there, attended meetings, saw their children baptized, and their dead buried in the many vaults and brick-lined shaft graves below the church floors. Some of the illustrious tenants of the building have names that will be familiar to those studying Halifax history, and particularly the Halifax of Anne’s time: Priestley, Waterhouse, Ramsden, Walker, and, of course, Lister.

Though she is undeniably the most famous Lister from Shibden Hall buried in the Halifax Minster, Anne Lister certainly wasn’t the first. Many of her ancestors and siblings preceded her and, by the time she was buried, there were a considerable number of Listers who could also claim the church as their final resting place. However, though the Parish records include many Lister burials, there aren’t many surviving gravestones to memorialize them. It is possible some of these may not even have been memorialized in a gravestone in the first place.

Excerpt of the Lister Family Tree.  See larger version. Sources: Ancestry.com, Malcom Bull's Calderdale Companion

The oldest Lister gravestone that can be traced to the Minster is that of Anne’s great-great-grandparents, James Lister (d. 1729) and Mary Lister (née Issot, d. 1756). The gravestone inscription confirms that James Lister was buried in 1729 and Mary was buried in 1756. Per E.W. Crossley³, the gravestone’s inscription read as follows in 1909:

[Here lyeth the] body of [ ] Lister, [of Shibden] 

Hall [ ] the 17 [ bu]ried [the ] Feb[ruary

1 ]. Also the [body of] James [Lister, of] Shib[den 

Hall, gen]tleman, [who died] Nov.r 1[4th 1729]. And of [Mary], 

his wid[ow] ] Jan.y 5th 17[56].

The same Lister ancestors have a plaque dedicated to them, which can currently be seen at the western end of the south aisle of the church. This monumental inscription is written partly in Latin and adorned with the family’s coat of arms.

the memorial plaque of Anne's great-great-grandparents adorned with the Lister coat of arms and an angel
Plaque that memorializes Anne Lister's great-great-grandparents, James Lister and Mary Lister (née Issot). Photo by Shantel Smith.

There are more Lister gravestones from other Listers of this generation, which were also transcribed by E.W. Crossley. They belonged to Anne’s granduncles: Rev. John Lister (d. 1759), Samuel Lister (d. 1766), and James Lister (d. 1763). Today, only the stones of Rev. John Lister and Samuel Lister maintain fragments of their original inscriptions, but these are very worn out and barely legible. These stones can be seen at present in the south aisle of the church.

Tan ledger stone on Minster floor
The gravestone that memorializes Rev. John Lister (d. 1759). The inscription transcribed by Crossley reads "Here lyes interred the body of the Revd. John Lister, of Shibden Hall, who departed this life the day of Sept 1759, aged 56." Photo by Jude Dobson.
Tan ledger stone on Minster floor
The gravestone that memorializes Samuel Lister (d. 1766). The inscription transcribed by Crossley read: "Here lieth the body of Samuel Lister of Shibden Hall, gent.[gentleman] who departed this life the 23d. day of 1766, aged 59." Photo by Jude Dobson.

Anne Lister’s grandparents, Jeremy Lister and Anne Lister (née Hall), also had a gravestone memorializing them, which was transcribed by Crossley. The inscription reads as follows:

“Here is interred the | body of Anne, wife of | [J]eremy [L]ister,

 of Shibd | en Hall, who departed | this life April 23 1769, | aged 47

years. | Also the body of the | above Jeremy Lister, [o]f Shibden

Hall, who | [d]eparted this life Febʸ | [10]th 1788, aged 74 years.”

Anne’s Uncle James kept a record of his father’s last days, including an account of his illness and eventual death and burial. On the 15th of February 1788, James wrote:

“This day my Father was buried in Halifax Church, in the same grave, my Mother was buried, being a fine warm and calm day, in the evenin[g] it was rainy.”

A published article by local historian David Glover informs us that there are “no memorial inscriptions to Anne’s uncle and aunt, her father, and their generation.” Thus, we have to turn to Anne Lister’s journals, other family papers, and parish records for information.

The first member of this generation to be interred at the Halifax Parish Church was likely Mary Lister (d. 1746), followed by her brother John Lister (d. 1769), and probably her sister Phoebe Lister (d. 1771). Anne’s Aunt Martha Lister, who was buried on the 15th of August 1809, would also be interred in the Halifax Parish Church. In her account of the funeral of her brother John, just a year later, Anne Lister confirms the location of her aunt’s burial when she says her brother shares his grave with their Aunt Martha “in the family burying-place at the old church.” However, Anne’s is not the only record of this funeral. In the family pedigree, James Lister recorded the some details about his sister’s death and burial: 

"Sister Martha Lister died on Tuesday Evening about 20 minutes after nine oclock August 8th, 1809, and was buried in Halifax Church on Tuesday morning August 15th, 1809, aged 46 years and 5 Months. She had been long in a declining state of Health." 

Joseph Lister of Northgate would be the next Lister of this generation buried at the church on the 13th of November 1817. Unfortunately, the pages that would include Anne Lister’s account of his burial were removed from her journal, and the only details left (the dates of death and burial) are present in that journal’s index. Joseph’s first wife (Elizabeth, d. 1792) and his children (Samuel and Anne, both died as infants) were also likely interred at the Halifax Parish Church. Joseph Lister’s second wife, Mary Lister (née Fawcett), died in 1822 and was buried with her husband. Anne Lister recorded this burial in her journal entry of the 12th of February 1822:

“My Aunt Lister was buried this morning in the same grave with my late Uncle Joseph; her brother, Major-General W. D. Fawcett, of the H.E.I. Company’s Service; and Mr. Wigglesworth, her friend and attorney; and the two executors attending, as mourners; my Uncle not able to attend on account of his cold, and inflammation in his eye.”

On the morning of the 26th of January 1826, Anne’s beloved Uncle James Lister of Shibden Hall collapsed and died suddenly. On the 30th of January 1826, Anne received Mr. Rayner, the undertaker, and gave him her instructions regarding her uncle’s grave and funeral. 

“told Mr. Rayner to have the grave double depth, and lined with brick-walling to let all the four farming-men attend as mourners, and have 2 more tenants Joseph Hopkin and Jonathan Mallinson for mutes -” 

His funeral happened on the 3rd of February 1826, and Anne and her father attended the ceremony. On her journal entry of the day James Lister was buried, Anne wrote: 

“the funeral procession left the house at 11 - the hearse preceded by the 4 mutes (Benjamin Bottomley and Joseph Hall who had stood at the court gates, and Joseph Hopkin and Jonathan Mallinson who stood at the door) and followed by my father and I in the mourning coach and the 5 men servants (George Playforth footman and William Green James Smith, John Booth, and James Smith's son Joseph Smith out of doors servants) as mourners - the bearers were John Oates, William Hardcastle, Charles Howorth, John Pearson senior, George Naylor, John Balmfirth, Samuel Sowdon, and George Robinson - It rained all the way there and back (tho' not heavily) the wind set it on - 40 minutes going the same returning, and about 25 minutes in the church - the curate did the duty, the vicar being unwell, having from a bad cold lost his voice with little hope of his ever recovering it so as to enable to do duty again, and having therefore not been able to come to breakfast here along with the curate, Mr Hudson of Hipperholm the lecturer or afternoon preacher and Mr Sunderland my uncle's apothecary the only medical man who had attended him and the undertaker Mr Rayner - Owing to the weight or large size of the coffin, there was some difficulty in lowering it into the vault (or grave bricked round) - it was requisite to move another flag in the aisle, and the service preceded and we came away - the mutes and bearers and undertaker returned with us to leave their cloaks, and had wine, and biscuits or beer, or what they liked - the funeral seemed altogether conducted with proper respect and decorum, and we were satisfied -”

Thorough, as usual, Anne also records some details about the coffin and its fixtures and also adds a note regarding the brass plate that identified the deceased:

“the outside coffin was perfectly plain - covered with black cloth with 2 rows of brass nails round the edges, black handles, and a plain brass plate inscribed with 'James Lister Esquire died the 26th January 1826 aged 77' -”

Another decade would pass until another Lister of this generation joined his siblings. On the 3rd of April 1836, Anne Lister’s birthday, her father Jeremy Lister passed away. As had happened to his siblings, Jeremy would be buried in the Halifax parish church. Anne's mother, Rebecca Lister (née Battle, d. 1817), was buried at All Saints Church in Market Weighton. Anne also recorded in her journal the day her father was buried. Here is the passage in which she describes the funeral:

“there were many people assembled at our own approach gates as we went, and several people all along the road - from the top of the bank the road seemed lined with people the procession went and returned all thro' the town - the streets full of people to look at us - a crowd at the church gates and from there to the church - but only a few people admitted into the church - They took the coffin forward into the chancel - I followed close then went round to the head of it and stood the whole time near the altar-railing - I must have been very conspicuous but my mind was engrossed, and I saw only the coffin and bearers - Mr Musgrave did the duty very well - Mr Jubb stood at his side in the pew over the grave as he (the vicar) committed the body to the dust - the grave took up the whole breadth of the aisle - deep enough for 2 coffins above my father's - let down steadily - plenty of room - coffin 2 foot 6 inch wide, and 3 inch to spare on each side in the neatly bricked round grave - looked down upon the coffin (could see it at the short distance off that I stood) till the service was over -”

Just a few months after her brother died, Aunt Anne Lister would also pass away. Anne made the usual funeral arrangements, as she had done for her father and uncle previously. Reverend Musgrave presided over the ceremony, and Aunt Anne Lister, the last of her generation, was laid to rest in the parish church, interred in the same grave her brother James had been laid to rest in 1826. On that day, the 17th of October 1836, Anne Lister recorded the details of her beloved Aunt’s funeral:

“alighted immediately and followed (Mr Jubb and I) the corpse into the church - Mr Steward did the whole duty in 26 minutes - I stood close over the grave the whole time saw the coffin lowered and took one last look before coming away - It was the same vault in which my father and I had seen my uncle laid in 1826 - I saw no trace of my uncle's coffin, yet my aunt's seemed to sink deep down - deeper than I expected tho' I had ordered it to be laid as deep as possible -”

Some of Anne Lister’s siblings are also buried in the parish church. Per the church’s burial records, Anne’s brother John Lister (d. 1789) was the first of her siblings to be interred there. There is a Lister infant, a sister of Anne Lister, who was also buried at the Minster in April 1806. In 1810, Anne’s second brother named John, would also be laid to rest at the church. Anne recorded his burial in the journal entry of the 30th of January 1810

“between eleven and twelve poor John was interred in the family burying place at the old church his coffin was placed upon my Aunt Martha’s my two uncles my father and Sam were the mourners Rich[ar]d Spencer W[illia]m Green James Smith Thomas who lately lived at the Northgate his half brother Robert who now lives there the joiner and two of his young men breakfasted here and attended as bearers the corpse being carried the whole way the day was fine and rather frosty”

Anne’s brothers Jeremy and Samuel are buried in different parishes. Jeremy, who at the time was with his nurse, died in 1802 and was buried in Beverley. The record of his death is part of the Lister pedigree

"Jeremy Lister Son of Jeremy Lister was born on Sunday September 27, 1801, at his House near Market Weighton, and baptized October 1801. He died Sunday February 7th, 1802, and was buried Wednesday February 10th, 1802 at Beverley, being at Nurse there."

Samuel Lister died in Ireland in 1813, when he was serving in the military. He was buried at Fermoy, Ireland, beside Major Horton of the 4th Regiment. The circumstances of his death and burial are also part of the additions James Lister made to the family pedigree

"At Fermoy in Ireland on Saturday June 19th 1813 died aged 20 years Samuel Lister only Son of my Brother Jeremy Lister, and was buried on Wednesday June 23rd 1813 in Fermoy Churchyard, close by Richard Horton Esq. late Major of the 84th (Regiment of Foot) he was Ensign in that same Regiment and was unfortunately drowned whilst bathing in the River Blackwater, about 3 oclock in the afternoon, and notwithstanding every endeavour was made, he was not got out of the water till 5 oclock. Too late to save his life. He was aged 20 years and 29 days." 

The last Lister of this generation was Marian Lister, who lived to see her 83rd birthday. However, Marian was not buried with her close family members. Instead, she is buried with her cousins Dr. Lister and John Lister, MA, in the churchyard of the church of St. Anne-in-the-Grove in Southowram. It is possible Marian’s remains weren’t interred in the family burial place at the parish church due to restrictions put in place by the Burial Act of 1852. Another possible explanation for this are the renovations of the late 1870s (see below), which significantly altered the floor of the parish church and made it difficult to access the graves below without damaging the restored floors. 

Base of ornate gravestone with inscription
Marian Lister’s gravestone at St. Anne-in-the-Grove, Southowram. Reads "Marian Lister died August 6th 1882 Aged 84 ‘In thee O Lord have I trusted’". Photos by Shantel Smith.
Tall, cross-shaped gravestone on square base in cemetery

We have discussed the many Lister burials that can be traced to the parish church, whether by burial records or journals and family papers. Many of them were buried in the family vault, to which Anne refers to as the “vault” or “burying place.” 

The use of the word “vault” in contemporary newspapers may lead us to believe that the Listers are buried in some sort of crypt. However, it is worth noting that the definition⁵ of “vault” is “a room under a church or in a cemetery, used for burying people,” but it can also be defined⁶ as “a prefabricated container usually of metal or concrete into which a casket is placed at burial.” 

Anne Lister’s descriptions of the graves in which her uncle James and father were buried match the latter description quite closely.  However, Anne’s description of the Listers’ style of burial doesn’t precisely match a burial in a family crypt. Instead, her description is more consistent with graves commonly described as ‘brick-lined shaft graves.’ A few good examples of such use of terminology are the newspaper reports that inform about the burials of John Waterhouse and Samuel Waterhouse. These men were buried in different years and their grave was, per the Leeds Mercury of the 19th of February 1879, in the exterior of the north side of the Halifax Parish Church. At the time, this was the only grave that was in use for burials. In this case, the newspaper uses the term “vault” to describe their final resting place and to refer to the grave itself. 

3. E.W. [Ely Wilkinson] Crossley was a local medical practitioner, Honorary Secretary of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and a member of the Halifax Antiquarian Society. He published several articles in the Antiquarian Society’s transactions with topics ranging from the history of the parish church and its elements to the history of local families. Crossley is also the editor of the books “Halifax Wills” (vols. 1 and 2) and author of “The Monumental and Other Inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church”.4.  Samuel Lister was an Ensign in the 84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment of Foot. At the time of his death, he was serving near Fermoy, Ireland.5. As defined in the Oxford Dictionary.6.  Merriam-Webster’s definition for “vault”.

The Lister family burial place

It is assumed from Anne’s description that the family vault is located in the south chapel, also referred to as the Holdsworth chapel, which is part of the Halifax Minster. 

Black and white digital floor plan of 1920 Minster
The ground plan of the Halifax Parish Church, recreated from  the plan in T.W. Hanson's book "The Story of Old Halifax". See larger version.

In July 1835, Anne Lister received the Sexton of the Halifax Parish Church at Shibden and paid him for several items. Among these was a plan of the parish church:

“had the Sexton of the old church at 8 – brought me plan of church and a little book of text explanatory of the plan and giving the inscriptions on the monuments for all which asked 20/- not too much –”

The initial purpose of this plan appears to be consistent with the logistics of renting pews⁷. The Calderdale branch of the West Yorkshire Archive Service holds a plan of the church that is undated but supposed to have been executed in the early 19th century. This plan was catalogued as a “seating plan,” and includes all the numbered pews in the church. These pews have numerous handwritten pencil notes attributing them to tenants. Many of these match the tenants Anne Lister had in 1835. We annotated the plan to include only the pew markings that had pencil notes scribbled in them. 

However, the plan also includes markings for several Lister and Walker graves, making it twice as important, as this may be Anne Lister’s copy of the church plan mentioned in the journal snippet above.

Black and white sketch of Minster floor plan with numbered pews
Plan of the Halifax Parish Church presumably from the early 19th century. See larger version. Image of church plan courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47).

Anne Lister’s plan was copied in January 1836.  Evidence suggests that it may be a companion to a list of occupiers of the Lister pews at the Parish Church in early 1836, written by Ann Walker. This list is part of the evidence used in the first Walker v Gray legal case. By cross-referencing the list of pew occupiers and the 1836 church plan, it is possible to map out all of the Lister pews in the old church and attribute to them the names of the people who rented them in early 1836. Aside from information regarding pews, the 1836 plan also includes the locations of several Lister and Walker graves scattered around the church. 

Black and white sketch of Minster floor plan with numbered pews annotated with color labels
Plan of the Halifax Parish Church dated of 1836. Note the Walker graves marked with a "W" and highlighted in green. See larger version. Image of church plan courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

It is very likely that this plan’s grave markings were included when it was first executed since the church’s early 19th-century plan also includes these same grave markings, with many of them in the same location. 

The 1836 plan has a few small notes that mark specific locations of plan sections. A small pencil note upside down in the sketch of the orchestra gives the approximate location of the “entrance to the tower,” which would stand below the orchestra gallery. There’s also a small note stating that the sketch of the orchestra gallery was supposed to be placed above the Governors and Constables pews.  Another small note simply states, “7 yards”. There are other smaller notes indicating the location of specific pews, walls, and entrances. The most considerable pencil note scribbled on the plan is barely legible but suggests a correction made to this document. It reads as follows: 

“[these] [vaults] are wrong placed they are on the Chancel on the East side of High Sunderland Loft extending from the South door end of the Chancel extending [to] [the] [nave] as where I ha[ve] placed [the] cross [?]”

Next to this note, there’s an area of an aisle that had something scribbled and later erased. The erased bit was then replaced by the word “Free.” Based on the description in the pencil note transcribed above, this pertains to the Walker graves nearby, which might’ve been accidentally sketched in the wrong place when the graves were added to the plan. In the early 19th-century plan of the church, these Walker graves are located in the spot mentioned in the note.

Black and white sketch of High Sunderland Loft area in the Minster
The Walker graves near the High Sunderland Loft, as sketched in the early 19th century plan of the Halifax Parish Church. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 

It seems plausible that the person who copied the 1836 plan accidentally copied the graves that were mismarked, leading them to add the pencil note and eventually correct the plan before they inked these graves’ definitive location. No Lister grave is marked near the chancel in either plan. 

Black and white sketch of High Sunderland Loft area with penciled notes
The smudged note transcribed above and the nearby Walker graves. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14). 
7. At the time it wasn’t uncommon for families to rent their pews at the church. Such rentals needed to be recorded for accounting, which produced records such as lists of numbered pews with the indication of the current tenant. Both Anne Lister and Ann Walker rented pews to their tenants. Some of the properties of the Lister and Walker estates had pews included in their leases.

The Halifax Parish Church

The church of St. John the Baptist at Halifax has undergone several alterations over the centuries. Decades after Anne Lister’s burial there were renovations that aimed at making the church more comfortable for churchgoers. Some of these meant extensive changes to the building’s fabric. 

Photograph of the front of the Minster with tower
The Halifax Minster. Photo by Tim Green.
St. John's Church floor plan circa 1850
The plan of the Halifax Parish Church, recreated from an 1850 Ordnance Survey Map held at West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (KM/A/1266).

The Halifax Parish Church in Anne Lister’s time was different from what we see today. The churchyard in the exterior wasn’t covered in grass. Instead, locals were greeted by many gravestones that memorialized the dead buried in the church’s grounds. 

The interior of the church was also quite different.  The font was in the ante-chapel⁸ of the church and this area was separated from the nave by a wooden gallery. This gallery served as a screen and supported the organ, orchestra, and a few pews. At the time, there were no pews in use past this screen towards the western wall of the church, though two unused pews hid the base of the pillars of the tower arch. 

Black and white lithograph of Minster facing the organ and orchestra gallery
The position of the organ and the orchestra gallery in the Halifax Parish Church, circa 1840s (highlighted). Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (HAS/D:K.NEGS/K38) and the Halifax Antiquarian Society.

The nave of the church was more or less similar to what we can see today, but the pews were taller and had different sizes. The pulpit was more elaborate and located in the middle of a row of pews on the south side of the middle aisle. Churchgoers walking the middle aisle towards the chancel⁹ would see this same pulpit on their right. 

Memorials to the dead and, at times, funerary hatchments¹⁰ adorned some of the columns that supported the ceiling arches. There was an elevated gallery of pews in the north side of the church adjacent to the Norman wall, the pews in the north and south aisles extended to the chancel, and there was a cross aisle in the eastern part of the church. 

This cross-aisle extended from the Rokeby chapel’s entrance to the pews in the southern side of the south aisle. In the 1840s, inscribed gravestones covered the many graves of past Halifax residents who had been interred inside the church.

Black and white lithograph of Minster interior with pews and pulpit
The interior of the Halifax Parish church, looking East, with interesting features highlighted (north aisle galleries, pulpit, and middle aisle gravestones). Image courtesy of the Calderdale Libraries.
yellowed photograph from inside Minster facing the chancel
The chancel and part of the nave of the Halifax Parish Church before the renovations of 1878. Highlights include the pulpit, the Shibden Hall pew, and one of the Walker pews. Image courtesy of Calderdale Libraries.

The Rokeby and Holdsworth chapels, which both commemorate Vicars who served the town's parish church in the 16th century, were also different in Anne’s time. The Rokeby chapel, named after William Rokeby¹¹ (Vicar of Halifax and Archbishop of Dublin), was built between 1521 and 1533 [10] at the bequest of its namesake after his death. Per Rokeby’s will, this chapel was to be built on the south side of the Halifax parish church¹², but it ended up being built on its north side. The cause for such change is not known [5]. 

In the 1836 plan of the parish church, the interior of this chapel, also referred to as the north chapel, had only one row of four large pews and the aisle was located next to the chapel’s north wall. The Holdsworth chapel, also referred to as the south chapel, was built by Robert Holdsworth¹³ in accordance to his father’s wishes as a chantry chapel on the south side of the parish church [3]. In Anne’s time, the pews inside the south chapel were located towards the north side of this chapel and the aisle was next to its southern wall. 

The chancel was separated from the nave by a wooden screen. The altar was located in this part of the church and adorned by an ornate wooden railing. On the 11th of April 1836, Anne Lister stood near this railing while Charles Musgrave performed the funeral ceremony of Jeremy Lister’s burial. 

Color photograph of altar railings in front of Minster
The altar railing at Halifax Minster. Photo by Rachel Newburn.

In 1865, the Holdsworth chapel underwent alterations in order to accommodate new pews. The Leeds Intelligencer of the 5th of August 1865 includes a brief mention of this work:

black and white newspaper clipping of 5 August 1865
Image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.

In his book from 1909, E.W. Crossley also refers to these alterations while contextualizing E.J. Walker's¹⁴ work. Crossley quotes a note in Walker’s MS, which mentions “the chapel was cleaned” [1], the old pews next to the screen were removed, the floor levelled, and hot water pipes for heating were installed.

The renovations that followed during 1878 and 1879 (funded in part by local manufacturer Edward Akroyd and Sir Henry Edwards of Pye Nest), included significant alterations to the interior of the church. These were led by the Vicar of Halifax at that time, Reverend Francis Pigou, and a committee of Promoters. The works were initially debated with prestigious architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, who died suddenly just before the renovations started. His son, architect John Oldrid Scott, saw the works to completion after his father’s death in 1878. 

The Reverend Francis Pigou was inducted as Vicar of Halifax in December 1875 after initially declining the position left vacant after Archdeacon Charles Musgrave’s death. Pigou was a central figure during the parish church renovations.  A chronological history published in the Halifax Courier of the 15th of December 1877 notes that he wished to see the parish church restored. The earliest extract published in this chronological history is from the 4th of February 1876 and it quotes Rev. Pigou’s motivation for the renovations was “to provide more accommodation”, since he considered the church “was not even large enough to hold half the number of people that it ought to hold”. The chronological history also quotes an extract from the Vicar’s Speech of the 2nd of September 1876, in which more details regarding the renovations are provided:

“By restoration he meant preserving all of original design or fitting which it were sheer vandalism to efface, and entrusting the work to one whose accurate and scientific knowledge would at once enable him to discern what really belonged to the original and therefore was worth preserving, and that which was all modern innovation and not worth preserving. It was, he believed, true that they could trace in any church unrestored such as that was, which had a history and traditions of its own, the history of different views which at different times prevailed touching the purpose of a church itself. The very structure or fittings of the house of God betrayed or expressed the current notions of the day regarding worship.

 

A large body of the congregation were certainly placed as regarded the pulpit at a very great disadvantage. It was essential to the idea of effective speaking that they should see the persons to whom they were speaking. They laboured under this great disadvantage in consequence of an obvious departure from the original design, so that they did not command the congregation as they should do were the galleries removed, the church thrown open to the west door, and the pulpit placed near the screen.”

In the Osset Observer of the 2nd of September 1876, Pigou had also made his desire for a restoration of the parish church known to the members of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, who visited the church on the 30th of August 1876. By the 9th of September 1876, Sir George Gilbert Scott was reportedly working on plans for the renovations.

However, these renovations weren’t well received by all. Throughout 1876 and 1877, several letters were addressed to the Editor of the Halifax Courier and a debate was sparked. Some of these letters objected to the alterations proposed or rumoured to be proposed by Sir Gilbert Scott. One frequent argument against the renovations was the cost, as evidenced by an article in the Leeds Times of the 17th of February 1877:

“The amount needed for this operation has been estimated by this energetic architect at £40,000. No doubt the Halifax people might for a good deal less than this sum get a real new church which would be no discredit to them or to the architect whom they might employ.”

The same article also mentions another frequent concern: preserving the old features and fixtures of the old church.

“To destroy whatever historic and pathetic interest may belong to the existing church in order to produce that which will be neither old nor new is pure folly. The old features, whether of artistic merit and value or not, are significant of life, use, and history. But this church actually does contain a good deal of excellent perpendicular work and some portions of older dates which a ‘restoration’ must of necessity ruin and efface. Everyone who has been at Halifax must have felt the impressive, sober, and solemn character of the interior of the Parish Church. Will any refacing, scraping, or replacing preserve this inestimable charm?”

In November 1877, a meeting was held in the Assembly Rooms at Halifax to discuss the proposed alterations to the Halifax Parish Church. The Leeds Times of the 17th of November 1877 reports that 450 people attended this meeting and both the Vicar and Sir George Gilbert Scott spoke in favour of the proposed renovations. The newspaper refers to Pigou’s remarks, which offer an image of a church that was, by then, in seemingly poor condition:

“The Vicar of Halifax, in the first instance, read a statement, in which he said that for some time it had been felt amongst Churchmen in the town that the Parish Church was in a condition which called for serious attention at the hands of those to whom it had been bequeathed by past generations. He yielded to none in his admiration of their noble and venerable Parish Church, and nothing more was proposed than to re-arrange the interior, so to make it more fitted for divine worship, and to put the church in a state of thorough repair. He had seen the other day, in a place near the pulpit, human skull exposed, in another arm bone, in another rib, in another shoulder blade; whilst only three inches beneath their feet they might see, wherever the eye rested, uncoffined human remains. The pipes from the heating apparatus ran through those remains, and no wonder that a sickly smell of corruption pervaded the church. (Hear, hear) It was not proposed to sweep away any monument of the past; but it was proposed to make the church a place of worship more worthy of Almighty God.”

The Halifax Courier’s report of the same meeting offers a different perspective of Pigou’s comments about the derelict state of the church floor:

“He had made it his business to examine the condition of the Parish Church during the last few days, and he would vouch for the literal accuracy of what he had seen. The church was a vast charnel house—(hear, hear). He had gone from pew to pew, and within three or four inches of the floor were human remains. He could show them near the pulpit—the Bishop saw it himself on Sunday—in one place a human skull, in another pew arm-bone, in another pew a rib, in another pew shoulder-blade. Look with a light, as the verger bade him do, under the thin platform of the floor of the church, three inches from their feet, and they would see wherever the eye rested uncoffined human remains. The pipes from the heating apparatus ran right through those remains, and no wonder, therefore, that they had the faint and sickly smell of corruption which pervaded the church —(applause) —The uneven state of the pews was owing to the fact that by degrees coffin lids had given way, and the pews had sunk into the depressions thus caused.”

Sir George Gilbert Scott’s intervention at the meeting is also quoted by the Leeds Intelligencer of the 17th of November 1877. In his remarks, he praised the church’s beauty and warned it was necessary to repair it in order to ensure future generations would benefit:

“Sir Gilbert Scott, who was next called upon, said he should be glad to get rid of the word "restoration." The word " reparation " was better, but it did not express all that was intended in this instance. They wished to repair the Parish Church of Halifax so that it might be handed down to many generations as had already worshiped within its walls. (Hear, hear.) It was not known exactly when it was founded ; but of the existing building parts were old the time of Edward I. Its internal fittings were of great beauty and thoroughly in accord with the building. Nothing could be more beautiful in their way than the fittings of the nave. He loved those fittings, and would no more think of destroying them than he would think of cutting off his hand. The screen he would most certainly preserve, but the western gallery cut off one-third from the length of the building, rendering that part invisible and useless. (Hear, hear.) The only piece of destructiveness of which he would be guilty would be the removal of the gallery. (Hear, hear.) The old seats he would most carefully preserve and restore, in the sense of putting them in better repair.”

However, Gilbert Scott had also been informed about the putrid smell that arose when the church’s heating was used. Thus, he proposed that the floor be fixed:

“He suggested therefore that a flooring of concrete or something equally impervious should be first laid down, with another floor above, and the refixing of the fittings of which they might justly be proud.”

But the works would endeavour to also repair other parts of the church:

“There were many other parts of the church which were out of repair. The whole of the southern part of the roof was thoroughly bad, and required renewal. The whole of the northern roof also required careful and well-considered repair.”

However reasonable these concerns might be, there were people in the audience who considered the full congregation should be consulted on the matter. Mr. J.D. Hutchinson, M.P. brought this concern forward and asked if only the opinion of those 450 people gathered there should be considered as representing the 200,000 inhabitants of the parish. Given that rich and poor alike were asked to contribute to the cause, Mr. Hutchinson thought that everyone should be consulted. He didn’t oppose the changes, especially those that ensured the church became more favourable to the health of churchgoers, but he considered that the times were not favourable to such large alterations.

“Either the people of the parish wanted this change, or they were indifferent to it, or they did not want it. If they wanted it let them be consulted. If they were indifferent, there were wants more pressing on which to spend their £10,000. If they did not want it, he asked those present if they were prepared to make a modern antique out of this old church, against the desire of the 200,000 inhabitants of the parish?”

At the end of this meeting, only four people voted against the motion to repair the church.

The works to renovate and repair the Halifax Parish Church took place over a period of eighteen months in 1878 and 1879. Per newspaper reports following the renovations, these were authorized in January 1878, the last sermon was preached at the church in May of that year, and the works started at once. 

When it comes to renovations or alterations to churches and their monuments, permission to proceed must be obtained from the Church of England. These renovations to the Halifax Parish Church were no exception and, as such, there is a document that confirms that said permission was granted. This is commonly referred to as “faculty” and serves the purpose of granting the people named on it the power to enact the alterations requested and approved, which must respect possible limitations included in the document.

The faculty sought and obtained by Rev. Pigou, Churchwardens, and Sidesmen is dated of the 28th of March 1878. It granted the said gentlemen, referred to as Promoters, permission to enact a large number of repairs and reorderings.

During these works, and as it had been authorized by the faculty, the floors were fixed, the galleries at the north and west ends were removed, the old pulpit was removed and replaced, the heating was fixed, the pews were altered to be lower and more uniform in size, plaster was removed from the walls, and the organ was moved to the eastern side of the church [6], [8].

The renovated church was reopened in October 1879. The Huddersfield Chronicle of the 11th of October 1879 reports that great pains were taken to ensure that all that was “ancient and beautiful” was preserved. The same article describes the alterations to the church. As had been desired, the galleries were removed and the organ and pulpit were repositioned:

“The galleries are gone, the splendid organ and choir are removed to their proper position at the east end, and the pulpit has been erected in a more appropriate position. The screen which cut off the tower arch from the nave has been taken down, and the beautiful arms of Queen Anne’s time, made to face both ways, have been divided, forming two coats of arms, one of which is placed on the wall at the west end of the south aisle, and the other in the wall at the west end of the south aisle, and the other in the wall at the west end of the north aisle. Several monuments have been removed to leave the space clear, and the west window, with its beautiful old leadwork, has been cleaned and restored.”

The font at the western end of the parish church also had minor changes to its base and had the cover stripped of its colour. The pews had been lowered and some were repaired. It was also at this time that the pews on the western end of the church were added and a new heating system installed.

Bird's eye illustration of St. John the Baptist church circa 1878
The plan of St. John the Baptist Church, recreated from the 1878  plans by architect G. Gilbert Scott held at Wakefield Archive Service (WDP30/3/4/3).

The floors of the church were fixed and, as was to be expected, the gravestones had to be moved during these repair works. However, “the grave stones are all replaced as nearly as possible in the same position as before”. 

Other monuments were repaired, both the Rokeby and Holdsworth chapels and the choir underwent “great changes”, and sections of the roof of the church were repaired. These renovations also touched the churchyard. The east end of the churchyard was also “raised, leveled, and the spaces between the graves [were] sown with grass”.

In the early 1950s, another alteration to the interior of the church took place. This time, the east end of the south aisle was modified to accommodate a chapel dedicated to the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment [10]. The repurposing of this part of the church meant that the memorial to Archdeacon Charles Musgrave (d. 1875) was moved to its current location beneath the tower [7]. The Wellington Chapel, or Chapel of the Resurrection as it is sometimes called, also houses the Commonwealth windows.

A subsequent reordering of the interior of the church in 1983 included the installation of a dais for the nave altar. Some pews at the eastern end of the nave were also removed.

At the start of the new Millenium, the Halifax Parish Church was yet again altered. These alterations were funded by the Heritage Fund and cost £2,000,000. The purpose of these alterations was to provide a more adequate reception area at the west end of the church. Thus, to make space for this feature, the Victorian pews at the western end of the church were removed. As it happens, it was during the removal of these pews in March 2000 that the fragments of Anne Lister’s tombstone were found. 

More recent alterations saw the north and south aisle pew platforms removed to the east end of the nave, the floor at the front of the nave was removed and the floor voids filled and paved, the floors below the nave altar platform were leveled and repaved, and a new (removable) octagonal oak timber dais platform was added.

8. The ante-chapel corresponds to the section of the church that is on the western side of the choir screen.9. The chancel is the space around the altar of a church.10. A funerary hatchment is a depiction of a deceased’s heraldic achievement. Such items usually were hung on walls at the deceased’s house.11. William Rokeby was a Vicar of Halifax from 1502 to 1521. He was born in Kirk Sandall, near Doncaster, and, as Archbishop of Dublin, served in the christening of Queen Mary. Per T.W. Hanson’s article about the Archbishop, Rokeby was known as  a “Man of Great Hospitality, and thereby had the Vickaridge of Halifax, the whole parish at his Beck and Command ". After his death, Rokeby’s body was interred at the Rokeby chapel in Kirk Sandall and, per his wishes, his heart and bowels were to be buried in the choir of Halifax Parish Church. 12. Excerpt from the transcription of Archbishop Rokeby’s will present in J.W. Clay’s and E.W. Crossley’s “Halifax Wills” pertaining to the memorial chapel at Halifax: “that a chapell be made in all convenyent hast at Halifax, on the south side of the church, aftir the discrecion of myne executours and church maisters”. 13. Robert Holdsworth was the Vicar of Halifax from 1525 to 1556. He was the son of a wealthy Halifax man and the last vicar to be nominated by the monks of the Priory of Lewes. Per T.W. Hanson’s “The Story of Old Halifax”, Dr. Holdsworth was murdered at the vicarage in 1556, after becoming involved in a dispute. 14. Edward Johnson Walker was a local journalist and editor of the Halifax Guardian. As well as this he was an antiquarian who embarked on compiling an inventory of tombstones and memorials in the Halifax Parish Church in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Walker’s manuscript (MS) is referred to by E.W. Crossley in The monumental and other inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church, published in 1909. 
SECTION REFERENCES

[1] E. W. Crossley, The Monumental and Other Inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church, Leeds: J. Whitehead & Son, 1909.

[2] D. Glover, “Northern Life Magazine,” 5 June 2019. [Online]. Available: https://northernlifemagazine.co.uk/the-mystery-of-gentleman-jacks-tombstone. [Accessed September 2020].

[3] T. W. Hanson, The Story of Old Halifax, Halifax: F. King & sons ltd, 1920.

[4] T. W. Hanson, “Archbishop Rokeby, Vicar of Halifax, 1502-1521,” Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1918.

[5] J. W. Clay and E. W. Crossley, Halifax Wills Being Abstracts And Translations Of The Wills Registered At York From The Parish Of Halifax, Halifax: Privately printed for the Editors, 1904.

[6] “The Restoration of the Halifax Parish Church,” Huddersfield Chronicle, 1879.

[7] W. R. Barnes and I. M. Longbotham, The Story of Halifax Parish Church, 1971.

[8] H. England, “CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1133928. [Accessed September 2020].

[9] T. W. Hanson, “The Evolution of the Parish Church, Halifax, from 1455-1530,” Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1917.

[10] H. Minster, “Church History,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://halifaxminster.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/History-pages.pdf. [Accessed October 2020].

Anne Lister’s tombstone

Though the exact location of Anne Lister’s grave inside the Halifax Minster is not known, we can still admire the fragments of the gravestone that once covered her final resting place. Contrary to popular belief, a tombstone memorializing Anne Lister was seemingly not immediately put in place after her burial. Instead, the stone that would become her vault’s cover was only acquired in the mid-1840s, when Leonard Duncan (the undertaker) and the parish church sexton finally procured it.

At the time, Isaac Ingham (1803-1857) had been a sexton at the Halifax Parish Church for almost 15 years. Censuses and trade directory data from this period place Mr Ingham living near the church, at 13 Nelson Street, with his wife Mary Ann and their four children. Isaac had been someone Anne Lister knew and, unsurprisingly, he is mentioned in journal entries from January 1837, when he went to Shibden Hall to give Anne the accounts of the pews she rented in the old church. In September of the same year, Isaac Ingham’s tardy delivery of pew rents and of an account of a subscription to the clergymen’s widow’s fund led Anne Lister to comment that she would “not trouble Mr. I-[Ingham] another time –”. 

However, in 1846, Isaac was indeed “troubled” again on Anne Lister’s account, when he was tasked by Leonard Duncan with procuring a stone that would then serve as a large vault cover for her burial place. This stone would then be prepared and inscribed to memorialize “the late Miss Anne Lister &c”. The account giving these details and showing the total cost of the operation (a mere £3.15.9) still survives and can be seen below.

Account of the purchase of the stone that would serve as Anne Lister’s vault cover. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (FW:120/32). 

1846

Mr Leonard Duncan

to Isaac Ingham

for 1 Large Vault Cover 9ft by 4ft6in 

broad rub’d squar’d & champ’d £ s d

40 feet at 1/4 s/d per foot 2.13.4

for geting [sic] the stone in banking 

and laying –.10.--

for the inscription cuting [sic] on, 

of the Late Miss Anne 

Lister &c - –.12.5

£3.15.9

Rec[eive]d Jan 15/1846 Isaac Ingham 

1846

Feb 9 Thomas Duncan

Given the size of the vault cover (9ft by 4ft 6in, which is equivalent to roughly 2.74 m by 1.37 m) and the reference to “the late Miss Anne Lister &c”, it is likely that this stone was used to cover a shared burial vault. There are other examples of similarly large tombstones seemingly used as covers to shared burial vaults. An example that can still be seen today in the Halifax Minster is the Pool/Lister tombstone, which is currently located near the eastern end of the south aisle of the church, and measures approximately 7ft 4 in by 4ft 1in (or roughly 2.23 m by 1.25 m).

The memorial inscription that mentions Anne Lister was transcribed by both John Lister and S.T. Rigge sometime in the 19th century. This transcript is included in E.W. Crossley’s book from 1909 and reads as follows: 

“In memory of Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, who died the 22ᵈ 

Septʳ 1840 at KOUTAIS in GEORGIA, and was interred here the 29th 

April 1841, Æᵀ 49”

Per E.W. Crossley’s book, the stone could be previously seen in the “north aisle of the church”. This is consistent with information in an article published by local historian David Glover, which suggests that John Lister recorded a more precise location for the stone and placed it “in the north aisle, west of the west cross aisle”. In the 1870s, the west cross aisle of the church corresponded to the space which connected the north and south porches of the church. The north aisle would cross this aisle and stop at the western wall of the church. 

Black and white floor plan of 1879 Minster
The plan of the Halifax Parish Church after the restoration, recreated from 1879 plans held at Wakefield Archive Service (WDP53/7/10/3/78).

At the time of Anne’s burial, the northwest corner of the parish church was part of the ante-chapel¹⁷. A possible placement of the stone in this area would likely contribute to the relatively good state of the inscription, but its placement at this location hasn’t so far been confirmed.  Stones in areas with high foot traffic (i.e. in places that people have to cross frequently to access or leave their pews) have sections of their inscriptions worn out. Two good examples of this are the gravestones that memorialize Anne Lister’s great-great-uncles, which can be seen in the south aisle of the church. The alleged position of Anne Lister’s stone in a low foot traffic location and, later, below the Victorian pew likely contributed to the inscription’s preservation. 

Color photograph of Anne Lister gravestone
The fragments of Anne Lister's stone rediscovered in 2000. Photo by Shantel Smith. Opposite: diagram of what the whole stone would contain indicating where it was cut.
Black and white replication of gravestone
Transcribed by both John Lister¹⁵ and S.T. Rigge¹⁶ This transcript is included in E.W. Crossley’s "The Monumental and Other Inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church", 1909.

The damage to the tombstone is an immediately noticeable feature. Whereas other Lister stones remained relatively intact, Anne’s gravestone seems to have gone through a bit of a rough time. Two cuts with a particularly regular shape ensured that a large portion of the inscription, including the name of the deceased, would be lost. Furthermore, the edges of one of the large stone fragments seem to have been chiseled a bit. This is not surprising, considering these fragments survived the extensive renovations of the late 1870s, during which several gravestones were lost. 

No information has emerged to explain all the damage inflicted to the stone. Though, in 2000, Rev. Pauline Millward is cited by the Halifax Courier as suggesting that the stone might have possibly been used to support the metal grates that covered the pipes of the heating system. 

fragments of a tombstone with stained glass in the background and bright lines showing specific cuts to these fragments
The fragments of Anne's stone with highlights to show the cuts that were allegedly made to support the metal grates. 

The image above highlights the damage to the stone that supports Rev. Millward's suggestion about a possible use or reuse to support metal heating grates. However, further investigation is needed to understand how the stone may have been cut to accommodate these grates. Furthermore, we must take into account that stones sometimes were moved inside the church and some were reused to fit specific purposes away from their original location. 

We must also keep in mind that this particular stone was thought lost for decades until it reemerged, in March 2000, when Victorian pews at the north west side of the church were removed. These Victorian pews had been installed during Sir George Gilbert Scott’s renovations of the late 1870s. Additionally, it is also worth considering that having a stone intact enough for the inscription to be readable doesn’t necessarily mean that the stone is still whole when that observation of the inscription happens. 

fragments of a tombstone with stained glass in the background and bright rectangles showing areas of the stone with different colours
An enhanced version of the photo of Anne's stone's fragments. Note the highlights to the areas that have a different colour. 

Another interesting detail about Anne’s stone are the colorizations of some sections of it (see above). It is possible the stone acquired this colorization during its stay under the Victorian pew, especially if the stone's fragments were in contact with soil prior to their recovery during the works of 2000. 

To make the journey of the tombstone easier to visualize, we created a timeline to track what is known about its location and the changes to the church around it.

Explore Anne Lister's tombstone timeline below, or open in a new window.

15. John Lister, MA was Anne Lister’s cousin and the last Lister to live at Shibden Hall. He was founder and President of the Halifax Antiquarian Society and a gifted antiquarian, who contributed to many contemporary works. He was also the first to publish extracts of Anne Lister’s journal in the local newspaper during the 1880s.16. Samuel Taylor Rigge was a local mill owner and wool merchant. He went on to become a Halifax Councilor and was also a warden of the Parish Church. Rigge made a comprehensive inventory of tombstone inscriptions and memorials within the church,  estimated to have been taken in the late 19th century. Contained within his work was the full inscription of Anne Lister’s tombstone.17. The ante-chapel corresponds to the section of the church that is on the western side of the choir screen. At the time of Anne Lister’s burial, the choir screen was placed in the eastern side of the west cross aisle.

Where in the Minster is Anne Lister?

The mystery of the location of Anne Lister’s grave has intrigued many researchers and casual Anne Lister enthusiasts over the decades. Consequently, several theories about the grave’s probable location have arisen. The two most common theories place Anne’s grave either at the Holdsworth chapel or at the north west corner of the parish church. However, additional research has unearthed some evidence indicating other potential locations for Anne Lister’s final burial place. We’ll discuss these ideas, starting with the two most widely shared theories.

1. Burial at the Holdsworth chapel

A popular theory for a possible location of Anne’s grave includes the Holdsworth chapel, which is also known as the south chapel due to its position inside the parish church. As previously mentioned, this element of the parish church was built in the 16th century [3] by Robert Holdsworth and served as the final resting place for several members of local families. The chapel also housed the grave of Dr. Holdsworth, who was murdered at the vicarage in 1556.

Anne Lister’s chronicle of her uncle James’ funeral mentions the Holdsworth chapel in the following passage:

“our burying place is in the south chapel at the west end next to the Constables' pew”

This leads us to believe that the Lister vault was located towards the western end of the chapel, near the screen¹⁸. At the time, the Constable’s pew was located towards the western end of the pews in the south side of the church. 

Black and white sketch of south aisle
Section of the early 19th century plan of the church that includes the Holdsworth chapel. Note how none of the Lister graves are placed inside of the chapel in this plan. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47).
Black and white sketch of south aisle
Section of the 1836 plan of the church that includes the Holdsworth chapel. Note how none of the Lister graves are placed inside of the chapel either. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

Both the 1836 plan and the early 19th century plan include the same markings for Lister graves in this area. Given Anne’s description of the approximate location of the Lister vault and the cluster of Lister graves in the area of the south aisle nearest to the Constable’s pew, we can say these are probably what Anne referred to as the “family burial place”. It is possible she simply referenced the chapel as a way to indicate the side of the church relative to the middle aisle in which the Lister vault was located and used the mention “next to the Constable’s pew” to refer to the vault as being in line with the row in which this pew is located. It is also possible that Anne accidentally made a mistake and, instead of writing “south aisle”, wrote “south chapel”. 

According to an article published in the Huddersfield Chronicle of the 11th of October 1879¹⁹ mentioning the changes to the church after the renovations of the late 1870s, the gravestones were replaced “as near as possible” to their original locations before the renovations. Today, there are Lister gravestones near the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle and some of these stones possibly are close to the location of some of the graves marked in these plans of the church.

We also see one Lister grave near the perimeter of the Holdsworth chapel in both plans of the church.  However, it seems the grave is placed on the outside of the church, which is inconsistent with Anne’s reports of burials of family members inside the church. It is possible this grave belongs to other Listers buried in the 19th century or, since the plan doesn’t include dates for these graves, there’s a chance this burial place is even older. 

Therefore, considering the evidence at hand, it seems improbable that there are Lister graves in the Holdsworth chapel.

2. The northwest corner of the church

Another possible burial place for Anne Lister is the section of the north aisle encroached between the west cross aisle and the west wall of the church. 

Bird's eye digital illustration of Halifax Minster layout in 2000
Diagram of consolidated elements from 1850, 1878, and 1820 plans of the Halifax Minster, with markings from the 1836 plan (copied from the 1835 plan ordered by Anne Lister), and annotations regarding sightings of her gravestone.

There are two arguments that lend credibility to this theory: John Lister’s record [1], [2] of the stone location in the early 1870s and the location of the fragments of Anne’s stone, rediscovered by stonemason Andy Barraclough in March 2000 [5]. 

As was mentioned previously, John Lister allegedly copied the inscription of Anne’s gravestone and recorded it’s position “in the north aisle, west of the west cross aisle”. The fragments of the gravestone were found near this area of the church. This, coupled with the newspaper reports that mention how the gravestones were placed “as near as possible” to their original locations, adds strength to the argument that Anne’s grave might be nearby. 

A possible explanation offered by David Glover's article for a burial this far from the other family graves would be the size of the coffin, which might have been too broad to fit into any of the existing Lister graves. At the time, it wasn’t uncommon for people to be buried with a double or triple layer coffin, which contained a lead shell and one or two wood shells. Furthermore, it is possible that there was no space left in the other family graves scattered around the church and away from the larger cluster on the south aisle, which would have led to the procurement of a new burial place for Anne. Given that this section of the north west corner of the church  in 1841 was part of the ante-chapel and free of pews, it is likely that a larger grave would fit there. 

However, it is important to also note that a position of a gravestone at a given time doesn’t necessarily mean that it has remained static since its owner’s burial. There are other stones in the church that “travelled” to other places over the decades. One such example is the gravestone that memorializes several members of the Walker family of Crow Nest, who were buried in the south aisle of the chancel [1] of the parish church in the early 18th century. Their gravestone's inscription, transcribed by E.W. Crossley around 1909, was located in the east cross aisle [1]. Furthermore, the damage to Anne’s stone may indicate that it was possibly used for different purposes before it ended up below a Victorian pew.

The church plan from the early 19th century shows a smudged area in the north aisle where a Lister grave had been marked in ink and then erased. The “L” that is still visible indicates the grave belonged to the Listers. The plan doesn’t include any pencil notes to specify why the correction was made or where the grave was then marked. 

Black and white sketch of north aisle
The smudged remains of a Lister grave marked and then erased. Note the grave's location highlighted with a red dotted rectangle. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 

Thus, we can say it is possible that Anne’s grave was located here, but there’s also a chance that her stone was moved in the three decades that followed her burial and placed in the north aisle before John Lister recorded its location. 

3. Burial at the Lister vault in the south aisle

Yet another possible option for Anne’s burial place is the Lister vault or, as we can see in both the 1836 plan and the early 19th century plan, the cluster of Lister graves on the south aisle of the Halifax Parish Church. 

Black and white sketch of Lister graves in south aisle
Section of the early 19th century plan of the church that shows the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle of the parish church. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 
Black and white sketch of south aisle with Lister graves annotated
Section of the 1836 plan of the church that shows the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle of the parish church. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

Judging by the parish burial records, the surviving stones that can still be observed today near this location, and the records from E.W. Crossley’s book from 1909, it’s clear there are several of Anne’s ancestors buried in this cluster of graves. Anne Lister’s own accounts of family burials suggest that some of her close relatives are buried at the family burial place, such as her brother John (d. 1810) and her Aunt Martha of Shibden Hall (d. 1809). 

Looking closely at this cluster of graves marked on the 1836 plan, it seems these are merely something that can be used to inform us of the location of the Lister graves in this aisle. However, looking carefully at the early 19th century plan, we notice that it includes pencil markings over some of these same graves. The most legible notes are those of the Lister graves that occupy the full width of the aisle. 

Black and white sketch of Lister graves with labels annotated in red
A close-up of the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle of the Halifax Parish Church. Note the fiant pencil notes over the graves (shown with dotted red underlining). See larger version. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 
High contrast black and white sketch of south aisle with Lister graves annotated in red
Edited version of the close-up of the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle of the Halifax Parish Church. Note the more readable pencil notes over the graves. See larger version. 
Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 
Through the process of image manipulation where contrast, exposure and saturation are adjusted, we were able to identify what the faint pencil markings in Anne Lister's handwriting denoted on these specific Lister-marked graves in the south aisle.

One of these notes reads “Ja.s L-”. This is the usual abbreviation Anne Lister and others use for “Ja[me]s L-[Lister]” and it might indicate the location of the grave of Anne’s Uncle James Lister of Shibden Hall (d. 1826). Thanks to Anne Lister’s account of her Aunt’s funeral, we know Aunt Anne Lister (d. 1836) is buried in the same grave as her brother James, which means the grave with the “James L-” marking might also be her grave. However, we must remember that there are other Lister men also likely buried in this cluster of graves and named “James Lister”, such as Anne’s great-grandfather and granduncle, and whose gravestones, per Crossley, were located in this aisle.

The other note reads “Jos.ph L- + wife” which, resolving the abbreviations, reads as “Jos[e]ph L-[Lister] and wife”. In the generations of Listers that we saw previously were buried at the Halifax Parish Church, there are two Joseph Listers. One is from the same generation as Anne’s granduncle, the Rev. John Lister. This Joseph died in 1725, when he was just 3 years old and, of course, he wasn’t married. The other good candidate is Anne’s Uncle Joseph Lister of Northgate, who died in 1817 and is also buried at the Minster. In a previous version of this article, we theorized that his grave might’ve been the one marked on the perimeter of the Holdsworth chapel. However, looking at the pencil markings of this plan and knowing that Joseph Lister’s second wife, Mary Lister (née Fawcett, d. 1822) also shared his grave, it is very likely this pencil note marks the location of their grave. Supposing this pencil note is correct, then their grave shares the aisle with the grave that likely belongs to Joseph’s siblings James Lister and Anne Lister Senior. 

Anne’s father’s grave is also likely a part of this cluster. When Jeremy Lister was buried in 1836, his coffin was too large for the Lister grave in which he was to be buried. Per Anne’s journal of the 5th April 1836, Jeremy Lister’s coffin was 2ft. 6 in²¹ wide (around 76.2 cm) and the grave was to have a brick walling, which would need an extra foot (approximately 30.48 cm) of space in order to ensure the walls on each side of the coffin would fit. However, the Listers only had 2 ft. (around 60.96 cm) of space available, which meant they needed to use 1ft 6 in. (around 45.62 cm) of the nearby grave. Anne ended up leaving to the undertaker the decision of encroaching on the nearby grave and using extra space to accommodate Jeremy’s coffin and grave walling.

As it happens, the Lister grave in which Anne’s father was to be buried was neighbouring another that belonged to the Ramsdens of Wellhead. Anne also commented that the last two Ramsden internments in those graves had occurred 70 and 80 years prior to 1836, respectively. 

“Had Mr Duncan²² about the burial place – the sexton wrong yesterday in supposing We have 2 stone in breadth below where my uncle is laid – the 2 stone there below along sides of us belong to Ramsden of Wellhead – the last interment of the R-[Ramsdens] 70 years ago and the one before that 80 years ago that Mr Duncan thought we ought encroach sufficiently in making the bricked place –”

In his book from 1909, E.W. Crossley recorded two inscriptions from Ramsden gravestones present in the south aisle of the parish church. Per Crossley, these were near the Lister gravestones of Anne’s grandparents, great-grandparents, and granduncles. One of these stones’ inscriptions reads as follows:

H[ere lyeth the body] of | [ Ramsden], of Well | [

in Halifax] who de | [parted this life] the 25th day | of [ Anno]

Domini 1714. | [ lyet]h the body | [ the] wife of John

| [ ] Wellhead in | [ w]ho departed | [t]h[is ] day

[ mentioned] John Ramsden | [ ] who died | [

Nov]ember 1753.

Tan ledger stone with worn inscription
The Ramsden of Wellhead stone at the south aisle of the church. Photo by Rachel Newburn.

Looking at this inscription, we can say that John Ramsden (d. 1753) is a good candidate to be one of the people Anne mentions as being buried near her father’s grave. Another detail that might reinforce the idea that Jeremy Lister is buried in this cluster of graves is the pencil note on the grave directly below the one attributed to “James Lister” (see images of pencil notes in grave markings above).

As can be seen, the pencil marks seem to include the whole aisle and the bit of the note that is legible reads as “J[?].y L-”, which is likely to be expanded as “J[erem]y L-[Lister]”. Considering Anne’s account of her father's funeral, the location and inscriptions of this Ramsden gravestone, the pencil note on the Lister grave shown in the church plan, and Anne Lister’s mention of having “2 stone in breadth below where my uncle is laid”, we can say there’s a good chance that Jeremy’s grave is part of the cluster of Lister graves in the south aisle of the church and is located close to those of his siblings.

It can be argued that this location would be a good burial place for Anne Lister too, given the proximity to family graves. After all, most of the Listers whom Anne knew, and who were laid to rest at the parish church, ended up buried with close relatives. Per Anne Lister’s journal of the 11th of April 1836, there was enough space for two coffins above Jeremy Lister, which indicates that at least this one grave in this cluster had space available. Jeremy’s grave was, after all, already encroaching on neighbouring graves so it would fit the intended burial spot. However,  it has been suggested that Anne’s burial in her father’s grave would be unlikely due to the possible larger size of her coffin.

4. The east cross aisle

The Rokeby chapel was built in the 16th century and owes its name to Archbishop William Rokeby, who died in 1521. The Archbishop was so fond of Halifax that he left instructions in his will to have his body disemboweled and his bowels and heart buried in the choir of the parish church. The rest of his remains were laid to rest at St. Oswald’s Church in Kirk Sandall [4].  The entrance to the chapel was connected to the north aisle of the church by a cross aisle. The 1836 plan of the church shows one Lister grave marked in this aisle.

Black and white sketch of Rokeby Chapel aisle with Lister grave
A Lister grave in the north side of the east cross aisle, near the Rokeby Chapel. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

As we can observe, this aisle wasn’t as wide as the north aisle of the church and there were pews delimiting it. Considering the difference in the width when comparing with the other (wider) aisles of the church, there’s a chance this cross aisle housed a single row of graves. 

Going back to the possibility of Anne’s coffin being wider than her father’s, it is likely it would be too wide to fit the grave on this aisle. However, there are other Lister coffins that might have fit the grave, especially if we take into account burials of children.

One such possible candidate to occupy this grave would be the infant Lister, which Jeremy Lister and his wife buried at the Halifax Parish Church on the 7th of April 1806. This burial is recorded in the church burial records of that year.

Handwritten note from burial records
The burial record of the little Lister infant buried in 1806. West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; New Reference Number: WDP53/1/1/8

5. The Lister grave at the western end of the nave

Another interesting and intriguing possibility is a Lister grave marked on both the 1836 and the early 19th century plans as L-X and placed at the western end of the nave, right after the row of pews. The grave is marked behind the sketch of the orchestra pews, which, at the time of Anne’s burial, were placed over the last rows of ground level pews, towards the western end of the church. 

Black and white lithograph
The position of the organ and the orchestra gallery in the Halifax Parish Church, circa 1840s (highlighted). Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (HAS/D:K.NEGS/K38) and the Halifax Antiquarian Society.

A pencil note in the 1836 plan confirms the location of the orchestra pews. Another note next to it marks the location of the door below the elevated pew platform that would allow churchgoers to access the ante-chapel and the west cross aisle, which connected the north and south porches. 

No description of a Lister burial chronicled by Anne Lister herself seems to fit the location of this grave. However, the pencil notes of the 1836 plan provide an interesting clue: there’s a grave sketched next to it with the name “Fawcit” scribbled.

black and white sketch of orchestra area
The L-X grave at the end of the middle aisle, near the orchestra gallery. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 
Black and white sketch of the orchestra and west end of Minster
The same L-X grave at the end of the middle aisle, near the orchestra gallery, as seen on the 1836 plan of the Halifax Parish Church. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

This location would likely allow for a grave wide enough to accommodate a large coffin and this area is also close to the place in which the fragments of Anne’s stone were found in 2000. However, this location is a little far away from the north aisle, in which John Lister allegedly saw Anne’s stone. 

6. Reusing a Walker grave

The Walkers owned several graves in the Minster, which can be seen in both the 1836 plan copied from an earlier 1835 plan acquired by Anne Lister, and in the early 19th century plan. The parish records indicate that there were some of Ann Walker’s ancestors buried in the church, including her uncle William Walker (d. 1809). These graves were scattered around the church, with two located in the chancel near a door, one in the nave, and one at the end of the row of pews in the north side of the south aisle. 

black and white sketch of bird's eye view of Halifax Minster with pews labeled
Plan of the Halifax Parish Church dated of the early 19th century. Note the Walker graves marked with a "W" and highlighted in green. Image of church plan courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (MISC:333/47). 
Black and white sketch of Halifax Minster bird's eye view circa 1836
Plan of the Halifax Parish Church dated of 1836. Note the Walker graves marked with a "W" and highlighted in green.
Image of church plan courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

E.W. Crossley and other local historians recorded several Walker gravestones and their locations in the church. Some of these belonged to the Walkers of Waterclough²³ , but at least one stone belonged to the Walkers of Crow Nest.

[Here resteth the body] | of Sarah, the wife of Will[iam] |

W[a]lker, of Crownest in Light | [c]liffe, owne mother to ye three

| [c]hildren Abraham, John, & | Mary, who are interred | upon [her

husb] and, she died | t[he ] was buried |

[the ] year & | [ And also here lieth the body

of Sarah Walker departed this life the 21st day of March 1716].

The first Sarah Walker referred to in the stone’s inscription was likely Ann Walker’s great-great-grandmother on her father’s side, who died in 1702. She married William Walker of Crow Nest (d. 1714) and they had several children, including Abraham (d. 1722), John (d. 1767), and Mary (d. 1707). The Sarah Walker deceased in 1716 can be traced to this same branch and generation of the family. She died at 16 years old and her burial is recorded in the parish church books. 

Blue and  brown illustrated Walker family tree
A subset of the Walker family tree

Crossley cites Walker’s MS²⁴  to fill in some blanks in the gravestone and also to mention that the stone’s top part had been cut off. Additionally, Crossley cites Walker and mentions the location of the stone as “formerly on the south aisle of the chancel”, which is consistent with the two Walker graves marked in the chancel in the 1836 plan. 

Black and white sketch of the High Sunderland Loft area in the Minster
The Walker graves in the chancel of the Halifax Parish Church. Image courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale (SH:2/M/14).

It is possible but unlikely that Ann Walker might have considered reusing one of these graves to bury Anne Lister’s remains. At the time, the Walkers of Crow Nest and Cliff Hill used St. Matthews in Lightcliffe, nowadays Old St. Matthews, as burial place, which likely meant that their graves at the Halifax Minster might have gone unused for some time. However, that available space was not guaranteed and Ann might also not have been entitled to bury people in these Walker graves.

7. Burial at another location within the Halifax Parish Church

Though the seating plans from the early 19th century are certainly a good resource and contain important information, we cannot say when the graves were marked on these plans. It is possible that these plans served different purposes over the years, from assisting with anything from pew rental logistics to burials. 

Thus, while we can say that there were a number of Lister graves already in use in the late 1830s, and several graves marked on these plans match information recorded by Anne Lister, we cannot say for sure if Anne’s grave is any of those recorded.

With this in mind, we must always consider the possibility of a burial in any other available location within the church, provided that Anne’s coffin would fit that said grave and her stone, at some point, would cover it.

8. Burial in the grounds at Shibden

On the 29th of April 1828, Anne Lister considered being buried elsewhere outside the parish church. In case she wasn’t allowed to be buried inside the church, Anne wasn’t keen on being buried in the churchyard of the parish church and recalled cemeteries in the Continent, which were a little outside the towns they served. These possibilities were discussed with Charles Musgrave.

"It seems the opinion of our vicar that burying in the churches may ultimately be abolished – Why not, said I, have cemeteries at a little from the towns as on the Continent – Should not like to be in H–x [Halifax] church yard – Would rather be in some corner of Shibden, but understand the archbishop objected to consecrate ground for private mausolea – Mr. M– [Musgrave] thought he knew the archbishop’s opinions on most subjects but did not on this – Perhaps the subject was new to him – But families had a partiality to the place where your relatives were buried, therefore to keep them to the church yards was considered a strong collateral tie to the church – Might have a faculty to secure to me in perpetuity some part perhaps of the old churchyard – Or at any rate to secure some part of the ground intended for the church to be built on my land in Northgate – Would like to have 2 or 3 hundred more yards of ground, but not money enough subscribed – The subscription only £830 – Speaking of burial-pits and disgusting internments, never saw any so bad as at Munich – Outside the church or in some cemetery – Probably, thought I, not worse than even in Père Lachaise at Paris"

Despite having this conversation with Musgrave in 1828, Anne apparently didn’t try to have the ground consecrated at Shibden so she could be buried in her own property. 

Anne also expressed potential desire to secure land in the church²⁵ to be built in 1830 on the Northgate property, but there are no further indicators that she took any action to that effect.

It is also important to consider that moving Anne’s remains from the consecrated ground at Halifax Parish Church to unconsecrated ground at Shibden Hall would be forbidden by law. In case anyone happened to be tempted to do so in 1878, the Burial Act of 1857, section 25, explicitly forbade this. Furthermore, the faculty that authorized the restoration of the church and the disturbance, under certain conditions, of remains buried within the church only authorized removals from inside the church to the churchyard. 

9. Reburial in the churchyard at Halifax Parish Church 

Another possibility that is worth our consideration, in light of the faculty and newspaper articles connected to the renovations of 1878, is that Anne’s remains might’ve been reburied in the churchyard of the parish church.

This option might seem strange at first, but it sounds more plausible if we consider the instructions included in the faculty that authorized the restoration of the church’s floors: 

"And to take up and entirely remove the whole of the flooring of the said Church and to excavate under it sufficient to allow a solid bed of concrete to be laid thereon "

The excavation was undertaken in order to put in place the concrete layer that would ultimately seal the graves below the floors. Inevitably, this process was bound to disturb the graves themselves and the remains of those buried inside the church. 

Disturbing graves and reburying remains wasn’t something uncommon during renovations or reorderings of churches during the 19th century. In fact, Anne Lister once found herself face to face with human remains when she visited a church near Buxton in 1825. In her journal entry of the 15th of August of that year, Anne wrote: 

"great many bones scattered about - saw a coffin which must have been very near the surface - noticed one skull which had the upper teeth on the right side quite perfect, and inside the gum adhering to them - the skull, too, was covered with short clammy hair - noticed it as a male skull - yet the clerk told me it must have been interred 40 years - they buried or rather would bury all the bones again as near as possible to the places where they were found - nobody said anything against disturbing all these bones"

One of Anne Lister’s former lovers’ graves would also be disturbed many years after burial. In 1982 and 1983, the crypt of the St. Marylebone Parish Church in London was reopened during reordering works [7]. The many coffins of the deceased entombed inside were carefully catalogued and studied. Among the deceased buried in this crypt was Sibbella Maclean of Coll. Miss Maclean had died on the 16th of November 1830 after a prolonged illness²⁶ and a slew of treatments administered by a quack doctor, previously accused and convicted for manslaughter. Sibbella was buried in this church on the 23rd of November 1830. After her exhumation in the early 1980s, Sibbella was reburied in a mass grave at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey  [6], along with the remains of other people found in the same crypt. Today, a cross memorializes the dead previously buried at the St. Marylebone Parish Church [7].

The faculty that authorized the renovations and improvements at Halifax Parish Church in 1878 and 1879 also provides instructions as to what should be done with human remains recovered during the works: 

"And to remove the remains of any deceased persons which might be found within the said Church in the course of the execution of the works prayed to be authorised by our said Faculty And to re-inter all such remains with all due reverence and ceremonies in some portion of the Church Yard And to build over and effectively close up any graves vaults or tombs within the said Church"

The instructions in the faculty are clear and it looks like the workers abided by them, since contemporary newspaper reports mentioned that some bones were removed and reburied when the works to fix the floors were underway. The Halifax Courier and Guardian of the 6th of October 1879 provides a vivid description of the alterations to the church and includes details about the remains found. The excerpt concerning these bones reads as follows: 

"The removal of the pew floors, as we have before stated, showed a sad state of things, human bones being found on all sides.  These were carefully collected and re-interred."

The same article chronicles another interesting detail, this time concerning coffins: 

"The cutting of the trenches wherein to place the pipes of the heating apparatus, necessitated great care, lest any coffins should be disturbed, but it was accomplished without much trouble, and only a few coffins had to be removed."

Unfortunately, the newspaper article doesn’t specify how many coffins were removed. No detail is provided as to the fate of these coffins either. However, it is possible that these had the same fate of the bones found under the pews and were simply reburied, presumably in the churchyard as per the faculty’s instructions. 

Depending on a number of factors such as location of her grave and depth at which her coffin was buried, Anne may or may not be a candidate for such relocation if her coffin or remains proved cumbersome to the renovations. Thus, we can’t discard the possibility of a reburial in the churchyard.

20. Article published in Halifax Courier on 25 March 2000. Accessed on microfilm at Calderdale Library. Permission kindly given by Halifax Courier to share. See transcription.21. A note on measurement units: in this paragraph we use the conversion from imperial to metric, since this system “came into use across the British Empire in 1826”.22. Leonard Duncan was the undertaker and supplier of funeral clothing. He also buried other Lister family members, such as Aunt Anne and, in 1841, he buried Anne Lister herself.23. The Walker grave in the middle aisle might belong to the Walkers of Waterclough. Per Crossley’s book, there was a gravestone in the middle aisle of the church which memorialized several Walkers. One of the people named in the barely readable inscription was a daughter of Richard Walker of Water Clough. 24. E.J. Walker's Manuscript of grave inscriptions in the Halifax Parish Church is estimated to have been made in the third quarter of the 19th century. As indicated by a note within the collection stating that the copies of inscriptions from the Holdsworth chapel were taken by Walker and his son in June 1865. There are 34 grave inscriptions from Walker's MS contained within E.W. Crossley's The monumental and other inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church (1909).25. This was Saint James’s church, built in 1830 and consecrated in 1831. Anne Lister sold land for the construction of the church. In Anne’s journal entry of the 1st of May 1828, Anne wrote: "Asked Mr. Musgrave to what Saint he meant to dedicate the church – Indifferent to him – Then said I, St. James, to which he handsomely counsented – 8 trees on the ground – All agreed to take 3 down – Said as the vicar had so handsomely consented to call the church after St. James (my uncle’s name was James and on this account I wished it) I should certainly give him the 5 trees for which he seemed obliged". This church was closed in 1952 and demolished in 1955.26. When Sibbella Maclean died there were no indexes to record details such as cause of death, thus it is not possible to confirm this detail using official documents. However, in June 1823, Anne Lister mentioned that Dr. Belcombe had told her that Sibbella suffered from Scrofulous Consumption, more commonly known as a type of tuberculosis which, if  accurate, would’ve certainly contributed to her untimely death. 
SECTION REFERENCES

[1] E. W. Crossley, The Monumental and Other Inscriptions in Halifax Parish Church, Leeds: J. Whitehead & Son, 1909.

[2] D. Glover, “Northern Life Magazine,” 5 June 2019. [Online]. Available: https://northernlifemagazine.co.uk/the-mystery-of-gentleman-jacks-tombstone/. [Accessed September 2020].

[3] T. W. Hanson, The Story of Old Halifax, Halifax: F. King & sons ltd, 1920.

[4] T. W. Hanson, “Archbishop Rokeby, Vicar of Halifax, 1502-1521,” Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1918.

[5] E. Jenkins, “Missing Historic Link Located,” Halifax Courier, 2000.

[6] M. Johnson, “Crypts of London”, The History Press, 2013. 

[7] C. K. Hamel-Cooke and D. H. Cope. "Not an alternative medicine at St Marylebone Parish Church." British medical journal (Clinical research ed.) 287.6409 (1983): 1934. 

The practice of locating a grave

Now that we’ve identified a series of potential burial locations for Anne Lister, what do we do next? Geophysicists, archaeologists, and other researchers employ multiple methods to locate graves in various environments. For this article, we focus on a few non-invasive methods that won’t cause aesthetic or structural disturbances within the Minster.

Several pieces of information provide the necessary background required before engaging any of the described below methods. The pre-work helps you determine the best method and requirements for your goal.

First, a soil profile of the surrounding area is helpful. Soils high in clay content and moisture are not the best for GPR. Soils high in Ferrous minerals can affect magnetometry results. A cursory history of the area is also helpful. Has there been construction in the past? Are there other anomalies in the ground that could affect results while trying to locate a single coffin? If you are searching inside a church, it is helpful to know the methods used to construct the graves. Were the dead buried in large crypts below the ground? Were brick-lined shaft graves used to stack coffins? Approximately how many burials occurred in the area? 

Having some knowledge of this information can make locating a grave much easier. Let’s review a brief profile on the current conditions within the Halifax Minster.

What’s happening inside the Minster?

Soil profile

Halifax is located in Calderdale, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire. The underlying bedrock dates back to the Upper Carboniferous period (about 310 million years old) and consists of  Millstone Grit sandstone and Coal Measures [1]. Due to the geology, the soils under and around the Halifax Minster are sandy textured sandstone. The soil depth is classified as shallow, meaning that soil and subsoil are approximately half a meter in depth [2]. Also, the topsoil bulk density is .8 to 1.0 g/cm3. The direct ground below the Minster floor should be relatively free of clay and siltstones [3]. The nearby Hebble Brook area contains clay and sandy loam soils [2]. However, the relatively shallow depths we are concerned with are more than likely unaffected by the Hebble Brook soil profile.

Previous construction

As you read previously, the Minster has experienced multiple renovations to the Holdsworth Chapel area, Rokeby Chapel, the entire nave, antechapel, and the chancel. The floors' construction includes additional layers of gravel, lime screed, concrete or cement, and steel mesh—all of these having the potential to affect geophysical survey results [4]. Frequently during the 19th-century, church floors were comprehensively re-constructed and re‐laid to “cope with the post-depositional disturbance’ (p. 337) [5]. We know from archival records this occurred more than once inside the Minster since Anne’s burial.  

Aerial view of St Augustine the Less, parish church of Bristol first attested in 1240, rebuilt in 1480, and demolished in 1962. Photograph taken during the 1983-84 excavations looking East shows the main church walls, intramural burial vaults, and brick grave burials circa 17th-19th centuries. Image courtesy of Bournemouth University.

Grave construction

There is a crypt below the Halifax Minster; however, there is no evidence suggesting it was used for burials in the 17th to 19th centuries [6]. The Historic England website describes the crypt's use as a library and office room but it is currently used as a song room and vestry. If archival material exists describing the exhumation and removal of burials from within the crypt, we did not locate it during this round of research.  Anne Lister uses the terms “family vault” and grave interchangeably within her journals; however, her descriptions of the grave themselves more closely align with what is known as brick-lined shaft graves [7]. These shaft-graves, reinforced by brick, allowed for efficient stacking of coffins in organized locations. It appears this type of grave construction could be seen in the 2016 floor renovations' on the nave’s east side [8]. Visible in the images appear to be the rows of brick walls that could have made up the grave shafts' supporting walls. This type of grave construction helped ensure support and prevent the graves from caving in [9]. Traditional vaults (metal, cement, or brick-lined lined areas for individual or family burials) may also exist within the Minster [10]. However, the descriptions we reviewed in funeral expenses and Anne Lister’s journal entries regarding her family members did not explicitly describe metal lined vault structures.  This could be another example of her descriptions merely being for her reference and not necessarily relied on to be textbook definitions. 

Number of burials

It is currently unknown the total number of burials within the Minster. According to Hanson, inside burials began as early as the 14th century [11]. In 1815, UK law mandated using lead or metal coffins for all intramural burials [7]. In 1861, the Burial Act of 1852 ended the practice of burying the dead inside churches [12]. Therefore all burials within the Minster between 1815 and 1861 should have utilized lead or metal coffins.

Emptied grave, St Mark's churchyard. A "three-decker" brick lined Victorian grave after the coffins had been removed for re-burial elsewhere. Wikimedia Commons.

Geophysical survey methods

While it’s not a requirement to obtain this level of detail to use geophysical practices, it may help in determining the most useful methods and how to understand the results. After reviewing the burial environment, we can look at methods used to detect objects underground. For this article, we discuss the methods at a high-level and provide information based on the context of locating Anne Lister’s grave. The science underlying each method is complex, and survey results from these methods require a trained professional.

Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR)

GPR is the most commonly used method in archaeology to detect clandestine and unmarked graves [13]. A radar unit is pulled behind an operator as the antennae emit frequencies into the ground at a constant rate. A receiver records the reflected signal and creates an image of anomalies existing below the surface. ‘The time it takes for the signal to return reflects the depth of penetration, and the returning signal can be stronger or weaker depending on the type of material it is passing through and reflecting off’ [14]. The area is surveyed in even parallel lines to create an image of the subsurface topography. The frequency used is dependent on multiple factors such as depth, nearby objects, and the amount of detail needed for identification. Depending on the environment and the visibility needs, it can be useful to conduct multiple GPR surveys with varying frequencies to provide the best interpretable results.  Your visibility into the ground is mostly dependent on the frequency used, and therefore having an idea of the subsurface composition is helpful [15].

A similar GPR survey was conducted to verify Shakespeare's burial location in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, England [5]. Although his death is surrounded by mystery, it’s believed he is buried in his family vault with other members of his family. The survey helped the researchers identify burial spots below the ledger stones and see that the grave was not as deep as assumed initially based on myths and stories. Another story reports the possible removal of his skull during construction or a potential grave robbery. The survey results indicated a small disturbance in the area that may be his head, which researchers determine could result from his missing head. Again, GPR only lets you see that something exists below ground; it does not tell you what it is. But this is another study that indicates GPR is a useful starting tool to survey the Halifax Minster's subsurface, most notably the areas we have identified as possible Anne Lister locations.

As part of a more extensive study that began in 2004, the search for Edward the Confessor's burial location in Westminster Abbey commenced in 2005 [15]. Church records specify Edward’s initial burial location and subsequent relocations over time, providing researchers a starting place. The next step involved using GPR to verify the existence of the grave. ‘The investigation uncovered evidence of the target tomb, several other graves, some previously unknown, and at least one buried object’ (p. 6) [15]. Referring back to Anne Lister and the Minster, GPR can confirm a grave’s presence in the potential burial locations we have previously highlighted. While we can use it to confirm where graves exist, pinpointing Anne’s specific grave would require excavation.  

GPR Survey Result Examples

Limitations 

Although GPR is a widely used geophysical survey method used to detect objects underground, it has its limitations. You can detect anomalies, such as water tanks, pipes, and graves, but you cannot see the object’s details. However, an experienced technician can provide reliable analyses and conclusions based on the detected objects' size, shape, and location in many cases. However, definitive object identification requires excavation or additional analysis.

We know the Minster is full of coffins, and we have an idea of the relative burial patterns. We also know that many of these coffins are lead. A GPR survey cannot tell us which of those coffins belongs to Anne Lister. Suppose Anne Lister’s burial location was in Shibden Hall's yard or the Minster parking lot. In that case, GPR could quickly help us identify the existence and location of an unmarked grave. However, inside a church, where burials have occurred for hundreds of years, with coffins stacked on top of coffins, constructed of various materials, GPR survey provides little direction in the search for Anne Lister’s specific burial spot.  

The following example displays three objects' survey readings to point out the difficulty in differentiating between objects buried underground. In the first row, you see the survey results of a metal sphere buried 10 cm underground. You see a 10.1 cm wire rotated at 90 and 45-degree angles in the two subsequent images. You can see a variance in the reflected signal, but you cannot differentiate the exact object below the surface based on a GPR scan.

Blue and yellow boxes displaying GPR survey results
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.D. A. Crocker and W. R. Scott, “An Unbalanced Sinuous Antenna for Near-Surface Polarimetric Ground-Penetrating Radar,” IEEE Open J. Antennas Propag., vol. 1, pp. 435–447, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ojap.2020.3015802.

Magnetometry

Magnetometry measures magnetic field anomalies in the surrounding area to detect ferrous and nonferrous metals in the subsurface. ‘Magnetic data can be used to identify and delimit lithological units, deformation zones, and provide information about the amount and proportion of different magnetic minerals’ [16]. Imagine using a large metal detector to locate lead coffins or coffin furniture in an unmarked graveyard. ‘While Magnetometry is best used to detect ferrous materials underground, it can locate more subtle anomalies in relation to archaeological locations’ [17].

Limitations

Surveying an area with materials that affect magnetic fields can prove challenging to locate a specific object. Besides numerous lead and metal coffins below ground, the Minster also contains piping in the floor and other construction materials below the surface.

Electromagnetic (EM) Induction

Although EMI is not as widespread due to the introduction of other methods, it is still useful. It can provide critical information in the search for objects in specific environments. Electromagnetic induction uses electromagnetic energy to measure the conductivity within the soil in a given area. Foreign objects and other anomalies in the soil can affect the conductivity indicating disturbances below the surface. Factors influencing conductivity measurements include the material properties, size, shape, orientation of a conductive object, and porosity/compaction.

In 2010 a survey was conducted of the Ocmulgee National Monument in Georgia, USA. Researchers surveyed the area around the central burial mound, and several disturbances were visible [19]. You can see where disruption to the soil occurred during a Railroad cut and what looks like ancient creek beds in the images. The results also indicated areas where burials present themselves very distinctly with a regular signature of low apparent conductivity. Based on this survey, it was possible to locate 62 additional grave sites and identify the burial grounds' boundaries.

Electrical Resistivity Tomography

‘The direct current resistivity method is also a well-established geophysical technique, used routinely and successfully in the detection and mapping of concealed subsurface structures like walls, ditches and anthropogenic or natural cavities’ [18]. Resistivity measures a material’s ability to conduct an electrical current. Objects with high resistivity have low conductivity. When surveying a given area, the results display the differences in the resistivity levels below ground. This method is considered more reliable than EMI.

Limitations

Resistivity and EMI have similar limitations in that the soil conditions can affect the results of the survey.

Which method is best?

When dealing with projects like this where you may rely on the donation of services, or people willing to participate that have expertise in specific areas, it is helpful to review all options at hand. 

As you can conclude from the initial investigation and the most common methods for locating graves, there is no best method for this case. From archival records, we can assume Anne’s grave is inside the church in addition to hundreds of other people. Currently, there is an unknown number of lead coffins sprinkled throughout the Minster. Any number of methods can provide a starting point for burial mapping within the Halifax Minster.

When locating graves and cemeteries, it is essential to approach the project to characterize possibilities instead of identifying answers. Another issue that arises when determining a non-invasive way to locate Anne’s grave is that all these methods help identify an object's presence when the object is not necessarily known. 

We know the Halifax Minster is full of graves. People have been buried in the Minster for hundreds of years. In 1815, all coffins buried inside churches had to be lead [9]. This means the Minster is full of lead coffins buried between 1815 and the 1860s when the practice ended. Due to these facts, there may be no way to locate Anne’s specific grave via standard geophysical survey methods. It would be easier to locate Anne Lister’s grave if she was buried in an unmarked grave on Shibden grounds. A GPR unit could survey the area and find something as large as a lead coffin.

However, Anne is buried inside a church, with hundreds if not thousands of others, where multiple renovations have occurred. The ground below the floor has been filled, refilled, moved, disturbed, and reinforced throughout the years. It may be helpful to use the above methods to determine where there may be no graves, helping to eliminate some of the possibilities. Unless a full-scale excavation can occur, more evidence is needed to narrow down Anne Lister’s final resting place within the Minster walls.

Let’s dig! Now what?

Imagine we were able to pinpoint Anne Lister’s grave. What's next?

The first step is acquiring permission from the Church of England to actually do some digging. The project must be appropriately detailed and a faculty must be requested and granted before the works start. Per the Church of England’s guidelines on dealing with human remains, these must be treated carefully and respectfully and an archaeologist must be involved in the process.

Since the Minster’s historical floors will be inevitably impacted by this work, it’s imperative that all care is taken so as to not damage them. This also applies to archaeology below floors, since that might contain clues about the history of the building itself. Per the Church of England’s guideline for repairs of floors, stones at surface level must be handled with care lest they crack or break. Care must also be taken in order to not damage other stones nearby and inevitably incur in loss of church fabric. After the works to access Anne’s coffin and remains are concluded, these floors must be fixed so they’re usable again. If new stones need to be laid, it must be ensured that those are “required to fill in gaps and are thought to be necessary, the replacements should be plain, of the same material and of similar density and porosity to the existing”

Now back to Anne: we have excavated the surrounding area and can see a large coffin. Without opening it, how do we know it’s Anne’s coffin? First, we need to understand a little about her possible coffin construction.

Burial practices at the time indicate she may have been laid to rest in a three-layered lead coffin. The structure would likely be lead-wood-lead. Coffin furniture and ornate woodwork was a widespread custom for funerals in the 1840s. Her breastplate would most likely be placed on the wooden coffin layer, housed between the inner lead lining, preventing the decomposing body from leaking, and the outer lead burial coffin. 

Additionally, the beginning of the 19th century marked an increase in funeral vanity. Coffins began to display ornate furniture, breastplates displayed additional detail, and artisans were employed to bring it all to life [20]. Based on the funeral expenses and descriptions in Anne Lister’s journals, the Listers were active participants in the trend.  

There is a common assumption that Anne Lister’s body was embalmed before internment in her lead or lead-lined casket. However, before the mid-19th century, embalming was held for nobility and royalty, and even then, many areas did not perform this technique [21]. Religious beliefs and other urban legends prevented embalming from being a widespread practice at the time. It wasn’t until 1841 when the French chemist Jean-Nicholas Gannal’s embalming method was approved by the Brussel’s Medical Commission, that embalming started to become a common practice [22]. In the United States, embalming became popular during the Civil War and due to President Lincoln's embalming following his assassination in 1865 [23]. Embalming the dead president allowed for his body to make a two-week tour through the Union. Embalming had not gained widespread popularity in time for Anne Lister’s death.

Next, we consider the condition of her body when the lid is opened.

Condition of the body

There are a few possibilities for Anne’s body at this stage. First, in an airtight lead coffin, her body could have putrefied, leaving nothing but bone fragments and body liquor (or goo) [7]. A second possibility is her body was able to mummify naturally. Third, if the coffin was damaged, exposing her remains to the soil, we would then encounter soil and bones. Depending on her coffin's construction, it could be challenging to find any indication that it is her grave without full exhumation. Due to the burial laws and research on burial practices in the 18th and 19th centuries, it is safe to assume she was buried in a lead coffin (although we don’t have specific evidence of this).

A lead coffin adds extra concerns to exhumation procedures. The primary purpose of sealing the corpse in lead was ‘to prevent the escape of noxious odors and effluvia’ [24]. When these coffins are opened, there is a potential for the presence of infectious diseases. Due to the built-up pressure caused by decomposition a coffin can explode, exposing the decomposing remains in several ways. A lid breach or seam pop from pressure build-up is more likely, but exploding coffins have resulted in documented damage to mausoleums. Frequently, grave workers  in the 19th century had to ‘tap’ the coffins to allow gases and goo to drain out, preventing coffins from popping open and exposing the surrounding topsoil, crypts, or vaults to goo [25]. If coffins were buried close enough to the surface, the lids could pop, exposing the contents above ground.

Gray lead coffins stacked in a tomb
Still from The Lost Archbishops video showing stacked lead coffins in various states of disrepair found in a forgotten tomb in London during a renovation project. © The Garden Museum, Lambeth

Why would her body be goo instead of dirt and bones? The bacteria in your stomach breaks down foods for digestion. After you die, this bacterium is no longer contained. Those gastric juices begin digesting your own body [26]. As oxygen is depleted, the anaerobic bacteria jump in and continue the decomposition process resulting in a dark liquid substance. This digestion of the body and other decomposition processes creates a large amount of gas—it’s beneficial if the container housing the decomposing body can expel these gasses. The expelling of the gasses allows the body to decompose and essentially dehydrate. But when the body goes through this process and the gasses and resulting liquid have nowhere to go, the body putrefies. In this scenario, the gas builds and builds until the lid can get knocked right off. Leaking coffins caused problems in the 19th century in overcrowded cemeteries and inside churches due to the odor and moisture accumulating near the surface. Coffins buried in the ground at your standard 6 feet or more did not cause problems as the depth and pressure prevented these issues.

Another option is that she is preserved in perfect condition inside the coffin. As mentioned earlier, embalming was not a common practice. The people were laid out in their ornate coffin beds for a few days before burial, at which time they were then placed in the coffin and subsequently buried. Under the right conditions, the corpse could have successfully mummified within the coffin. With hair and some skin still intact.

In 1990, Project Lead Coffin [27] exhumed a lead coffin to find a 17th-century woman with excellent preservation. Researchers could identify silk ribbons and the presence of what was determined to be rosemary on the body.

Another option is that Anne Lister is now dirt and bones. Sometimes, metal or lead coffins were poorly designed and could have fallen apart due to several factors. Sometimes the weight of the coffins resting above could cause them to crush and fall apart. This would cause the coffin to open and be exposed to soil and pressure allowing for a natural decomposition process.

SECTION REFERENCES
[1] J. Spencee, “On the geology of calderdale,” Proc. Yorksh. Geol. Soc., vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 369–373, 1894, doi: 10.1144/pygs.12.5.369.[2] UKSO, “UK Soil Observatory: Halifax Soil Map,” UK Soil Obs., 2020.[3] W. Tuttle, “SOI - Geophysical Field Assistance,” Lincoln, 2014.[4] “Halifax Minster Restoration Work - Heritage Conservation Restoration Ltd : Heritage.” [Online]. Available: https://www.heritage-cr.co.uk/project/halifax-minster/[5] E. C. Utsi and K. S. Colls, “The GPR investigation of the Shakespeare family graves,” Archaeol. Prospect., vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 335–352, 2017, doi: 10.1002/arp.1573.[6] “CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, Non Civil Parish - 1133928 | Historic England.” [Online]. Available: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1133928[7] A. Boyle, C. Boston, and A. Witkin, “The Archaeological Experience at St. Luke’s Church, Old Street, Islington,” no. June. 2005.[8] “Halifax Minster,” Heritage Conservation Restoration Ltd. 2016.[9] C. Boston, A. Boyle, J. Gill, and A. Witkin, In the vaults beneath: Archaeological recording at St George’s Church, Bloomsbury, no. 8. 2009.[10] A. Boyle, “Approaches to post-medieval burial in England: Past and present,” The Archaeology of Death in Post-Medieval Europe. pp. 39–60, 2015.[11] T. W. Hanson, The Story of Old Halifax. Halifax: F. King & Sons Ltd., 1920.[12] “Burial Act 1852.” [Online]. Available: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/15-16/85/enacted[13] X. Wu, C. A. Senalik, J. Wacker, X. Wang, and G. Li, “Object detection of ground-penetrating radar signals using empirical mode decomposition and dynamic time warping,” Forests, vol. 11, no. 2, 2020, doi: 10.3390/f11020230.[14] I. City and W. Whittaker, “Locating Unmarked Cemetery Burials,” pp. 1–7, 2005.[15] E. Utsi, “The Shrine of edward the confessor: A study in multi-frequency GPR investigation,” Proc. 13th Internarional Conf. Gr. Penetrating Radar, GPR 2010, no. July 2010, 2010, doi: 10.1109/ICGPR.2010.5550263.[16] “Magnetometry.” [Online]. Available: https://www.geovista.se/en/methods/magnetometry/.[17] W. J. Johnson, “Geophysical Detection of Graves - Basic Background and Case Histories from Historic Cemeteries,” Counc. West Virginia Archaeol. Spring Work., no. June 2003, 2003.[18] C. Nero, A. A. Aning, S. K. Danuor, and R. M. Noye, “Delineation of graves using electrical resistivity tomography,” J. Appl. Geophys., vol. 126, no. December 2017, pp. 138–147, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2016.01.012.[19] D. P. Bigman, “The Use of Electromagnetic Induction in Location Graves and Mapping Cemeteries: an Example from Native North America,” Archaeol. Prospect., vol. 19, pp. 31–39, 2012, doi: 10.1002/arp.[20] E. L. Bell, “The Historical Archaeology of Mortuary Behavior : Coffin Hardware from Uxbridge , Massachusetts,” Hist. Archaeol., vol. 24, pp. 54–78, 1988.[21] D. H. Kaiser, “Death And Dying In Early Modern Russia,” pp. 1–40, 1987.[22] O. Davies, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mortality and its Timings. 2017.[23] “Abraham Lincoln’s decaying corpse was sent on a two-week funeral tour across five states.” [Online]. Available: https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/02/abraham-lincolns-decaying-corpse-was-sent-on-a-two-week-funeral-tour-across-five-states.html[24] S. Al Qaiwani and T. Pirohakul, “The Funeral in England in the Long Eighteenth Century,” no. January, pp. 1–393, 2015.[25] T. Laquer, “Bodies, Death, and Pauper Funerals,” Representations, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 109–131, 1983.[26] “What Happens To Your Body 100 Years After Death - YouTube.” [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-rDtvVRLJA&feature=youtu.be[27] T. Discovery, “Project Lead Coffins,” pp. 1–10, 1990.

Glossary of terms


Ante-Chapel or Ante-Church - The section of the church that is on the western side of the choir screen.

Chancel — The space around the altar of a church, including the choir and the sanctuary. This is located at the east end of the church building.

Chantry chapel - Dedicated chapel built especially for “chantry duties” by a priest.

Choir - The area of the church in which the seats of the choir and clergy are located.

Nave - Central part of the church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall of the church to the chancel.

Sexton - Officer of the church whose functions include the maintenance of the church buildings. This officer may also be responsible for maintaining the churchyard.

Vicar - A title given to some parish priests.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Kathryn Williams for her assistance with transcribing several pages from Anne Lister’s journals and for kindly assisting with information, proofreading, and references for the sections that involve the burial and exhumation of Sibbella Maclean of Coll. We kindly thank the staff of the West Yorkshire Archive Service (Calderdale & Wakefield office), and especially Jenny Wood, who endured several, very specific requests and was extremely helpful every step of the way making this research possible during lockdown. We wish to also thank the staff of the Halifax Central Library for their assistance during the reference gathering phase of this project. Thank you to Rachel Newburn for taking the extra Minster photographs we requested in the fourth quarter. 

Finally, we wish to thank David Glover especially for his pioneering work on this topic, particularly as the first person to suggest Anne Lister may not rest with her family in the Minster. His independent research provided valuable insights and excellent guidance over the course of this research project. As well, we appreciate and value the open collaborative spirit in which his work is done.

See also the authors talk about the process of working on this project from the Anne Lister Research Summit from 17 October, 2021:


You can see the Twitter thread from @PackedWith for further commentary:

Errata

Updates

On January 16, 2024

Added details and context regarding the purchase of the vault cover for Anne’s burial place to the section about her tombstone.

On August 5, 2021

Added burial details for Samuel Lister (d. 1813) and Jeremy Lister (d. 1802). Also added gender of the Infant Lister (d. 1806), buried at the Halifax Parish Church. Included small transcripts from the family pedigree to add context to the burials of: Jeremy Lister (d.1802), Infant Lister (d.1806), Martha Lister (d.1809), and Samuel Lister (d.1813). Extended the paragraph about James Lister’s death and included Anne’s instructions regarding his grave.

This article now includes instructions as to how it can be cited.

On March 14, 2021

Added more details about the renovations of 1878 and 1879 at the Halifax Parish Church. Expanded the section about Anne’s tombstone.

The text of hypothesis 7 of the section “Where in the Minster is Anne Lister?” was rewritten, hypothesis 8 was updated to include legal constraints, and a new hypothesis was added (9 - Reburial in the churchyard at Halifax Parish Church).

On December 23, 2020

An additional sketch of the Minster floor plan with labeled pews and graves was discovered after the original publication of this article. It includes small penciled labels of the Lister graves in the South aisle, lending additional evidence to the theory that the List family vault is in the south aisle and not in the Holdsworth Chapel. Descriptions and images were updated throughout to reflect this new information. 

The “The Lister family burial place” section has been extended with additional information. Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 of “Where in the Minster is Anne Lister?” were expanded, and minor updates made to  4, 5, and 6.

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