Now! Then! Anne Lister seals a surreptitious mock marriage with fellow-landowner Ann Walker during the Easter Sunday service at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York

30 March 1834: Anne Lister seals a surreptitious mock marriage with fellow-landowner Ann Walker during the Easter Sunday service at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York

Jackson McHenry. 2019/05/07. 7 entries from Anne Lister’s diary that were key to writing Gentleman Jack. Vulture. New York: New York Media. Get it:

Excerpt

[Sursive denotes code.] Three kisses — better to her than to me. Very fine morning F49F at 8 ½ am. Breakfast at 8 ½. At Goodramgate Church at 10.35. Miss W and I and Thomas stayed the sacrament. Almost all the congregation stayed, and though the church too small to hold many, the service took 40 minutes. The first time I ever joined Miss W in my prayers I had prayed that our union might be happy. She had not thought of doing as much for me. Called for a minute or two in the Minster Court to say we could not dine there at 5 ½ . Declined going to hear the fine anthem at 4 in the Minster. Walked to the village of Heworth and by the Stockton road back in an hour. And at Monk-bar church at 2 ½. The clergyman preached 25 minutes who read the prayers in the morning. I asleep and knew nothing of the sermon now or in the morning. Sat talking. Dressed. Off to Dr Belcombe’s at 5 ¼. Nobody but ourselves. Dined about 5 ½, coffee, tea. Home and 10.30. Sat up talking till 12 ½ tonight. Very fine day.

Easter Sunday is on 20 April 2025.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

“Walker and Lister exchanged vows on 10 February 1834, the date they considered their union official, and exchanged rings on 27 February 1834 as a symbol of their commitment to one another” (Wikipedia contributors 2022). Lister’s attraction to Walker was based partly on lust:

She had determined on being with me at Shibden, yielding to all my reasons in addition to the former ones… I had my arm on the back of the sofa. She leaned on it, looking as if I might be affectionate and it ended in her lying on my arm all the morning and my kissing her and she returning it with such a long, confirmed, passionate or nervous mumbling kiss… I thinking to myself, “Well, this is rather more than I expected”… She certainly gulled me, in that I never dreamt of her being the passionate little person I find her, spite of calling herself cold… I shall now tum sentimentally melancholy and put on all the air of romantic hopelessness. If I do this well,’ may tum her to pity… I scarce know what to make of her. Is she maddish?… This queer girl puzzles me. She told me this morning of the weakness in her back for which she uses Mr Day’s ointment… I think a little spice of matrimony will do her good (Choma 1994/05).

But lucre also played a role:

Thought I, ‘She little dreams what is in my mind — to make up to her — she has money and this might make up for rank.’ We get on very well so far (McHenry 2019/05/07).

Walker is also being pursued by a Mr. Ainsworth, which gives rise to a splendid burst of Flashman-like hypocrisy on the part of Lister:

Spoke of Mr Ainsley … it came out that if she married him it would be from duly. I pressed for explanation and discovered that she felt bound to him by some indiscretion. He had taught her to kiss, but they had never gone so far as she and I had done… On Mr A’s account my indignation rose against the parson. I reasoned her out of all feeling of duty or obligation towards a man who had taken such base advantage (Choma 1994/05).

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Original

[Italic denotes code.] Three kisses — better to her than to me. Very fine morning F49F at 8 ½ am. Breakfast at 8 ½. At Goodramgate Church at 10.35. Miss W and I and Thomas stayed the sacrament. Almost all the congregation stayed, and though the church too small to hold many, the service took 40 minutes. The first time I ever joined Miss W in my prayers I had prayed that our union might be happy. She had not thought of doing as much for me. Called for a minute or two in the Minster Court to say we could not dine there at 5 ½. Declined going to hear the fine anthem at 4 in the Minster. Walked to the village of Heworth and by the Stockton road back in an hour. And at Monk-bar church at 2 ½. The clergyman preached 25 minutes who read the prayers in the morning. I asleep and knew nothing of the sermon now or in the morning. Sat talking. Dressed. Off to Dr Belcombe’s at 5 ¼. Nobody but ourselves. Dined about 5 ½, coffee, tea. Home and 10.30. Sat up talking till 12 ½ tonight. Very fine day.

188 words.