Shibden Hall – from William Otes to Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) and beyond
Straying from Kirklees into Halifax for this article, I re-visited Shibden Hall and fell in love with it all over again. The 600-year-old medieval hall is surrounded by the wooded grounds of Shibden Park, and beautifully restored gardens and I have included some of the photographs that I took on one of my visits.
I was recently looking more into my Savile ancestors and discovered that Robert Saville, who married Joan Otes, heiress of Shibden Hall was a very distant cousin (his grandfather was my 17th Great Grandfather) and Joan Otes was similarly related…not surprising, since Robert and Joan were related to each other. A later owner, John Waterhouse, was also distantly connected and I have many links into the Hemingway family of Southowram. So, I decided to find out more about Shibden’s history, from the Otes family to Gentleman Jack (Anne Lister).
The Otes Family
Wool merchants and clothiers who had their own land were to be found all over the West Riding, but were especially concentrated in the Halifax area. Shibden Hall was built around 1420 by wool merchant William Otes (c1375-1427) on land in Shepedene, the “valley of sheep”. The Otes were a Yeoman class family and were related to local families of similar status, the Saviles, Waterhouses, and Hemingways.
Shibden was one of 32 such merchant houses to be built in Halifax in the early 15th Century. Halifax had only about 300 inhabitants at the time, so these merchant families would have known each other, and it is unsurprising that their children intermarried.
The original Shibden Hall comprised only the central part, shown in the photographs, with the half-timbered sections. the Hall was modified and extended by generations of later owners.
Shibden Hall was first Inherited by William’s son, John Otes (born abt 1400), who left it to his son William Otes II (1425-1491), another cloth merchant, who married Margaret Waterhouse.
William Otes II, having outlived his male heirs by his first wife, wrote a will in favour of his daughter Joan but, after his wife Margaret died, he remarried and his second wife bore him a son, Gilbert.
The Saville Family
In 1491, Robert Savile of Elland Old Hall married Joan Otes (1470-1522). Joan’s father had bequeathed Shibden to her in the same year and it looks like Robert saw a great opportunity. However, Joan’s half-brother, Gilbert laid claim to the estate. Saville contested Gilbert Otes’ claim through the court, on behalf of his wife. Between 1491 and 1504 the ownership of Shibden remained in the hands of the court, which finally decided in Joan and Robert Savile’s favour. The court awarded a lifetime interest to Gilbert Otes, but the property passed to the Savile family, through Joan and her husband.
Robert Saville and Joan Otes had daughters, but no male heir. Shibden was left to Sibella Savile, the eldest, when it came into the Waterhouse family.
The Waterhouse Family
Members of the Waterhouse family were lords of the Manor of Halifax from at least the reign of Henry III.
Shibden came into the Waterhouse family when the heiress of Shibden, Sibella Savile (1501-1558), married Robert Waterhouse (Born 1498-1507, died 1578) of Moot Hall, Halifax, on 14th May 1522 at Southowram, Halifax. They were granted a special dispensation to marry by Cardinal Wolsey, they being already related twice in the second degree. They were parents of at least four sons, John, George, Gregory and Richard. In 1554 Robert, along with his sons, John, George, and Gregory, and with Michael Wentworth, esq., by letters patent, became “farmers of the ulnage of saleable woolen cloths in the county and city of York”.
[Ulnage was a subsidy levied on the sale of woolen cloth and “farming the ulnage” became the predominant method of administering the tax, the revenue being calculated from the size of the farm. Therefore, it was possible to make a realistic estimate of the income that the crown expected to receive from the Ulnage in Halifax by adding up the amount expected from each farm…for more on “Ulnage” at this link. ]
The fact that Robert and his family are named in letters patent indicates they were farmers of some significance in the area. Robert wrote a will in 1578, and it was probated on the 15th of March 1580. The Shibden estate then passed to his son, John Waterhouse (1523-1583).
John Waterhouse, eldest son of Robert Waterhouse, (born 1523 in Northowram – died 1583 at Shibden Hall) married Joanna/Jane Bosville of Conisborough. The Bosville family were an important East Yorkshire family and owners of land and manors. John and Jane had at least 7 sons and 4 daughters.
In 1545 “John, son of Robert of Shibden, purchased for £150. 5s the reversion of the fee simple of the Manor Rectory of Halifax after the death of Anne of Cleves, to whom it had been granted by Henry VIII for her life”. He was “of Halifax” in the early part of his life but later moved to Shibden.
John described himself in a memorandum in 1566 as “John Waterhowse, of Shipden, and some time lorde of the mannor of Halifax”. He died on 23d January 1583 and was buried at Halifax on 25 January 1583 as “Johne Waterhouse de Shepeden gent”. Shibden passed to John’s eldest son Robert Waterhouse (1544-1598).
Robert Waterhouse MP (1544-1598) was a barrister of the Inner Temple, and a county magistrate; elected MP for Aldborough, near Boroughbridge 1584-5, he also inherited the Manor of Halifax in 1583, which he held until his death. Robert and his wife Jane Waterton (of Sandal and Walton Hall, Wakefield) lived mostly in York and London. Robert purchased a number of properties close to the family estates, from his cousin, Nicholas Waterhouse, including two fulling mills in Southowram, and the Moot Hall in Halifax, for which he still owed his cousin £400 when he made his will on 10th February 1598. His lands in Ackworth and a capital messuage in the parish of St Helen’s in York were sold to pay his debts when he died three weeks later, on 3rd March 1598. At his death, Robert Waterhouse left an estate worth about £800 a year, equivalent in today’s earnings of at least £2.5 million.
He left Shibden to his oldest surviving son, Sir Edward Waterhouse (1581-1630), along with his books and a gold chain. Robert was buried at St. Michael-le-Belfrey in York.
Sir Edward Waterhouse (1581-1630) inherited Shibden and the Manor of Halifax in 1598, when he was about 17 years old and under the guardianship of his uncle David Waterhouse.
Edward was married in April 1602, to Abigail Barker from Ipswich, and was was knighted in 1603. Sir Edward was among those Yorkshire knights whose estates had been seriously weakened by financial crisis. He and his uncle ran up considerable debts and he mortgaged Shibden Hall in 1604. Edward later sold the Manor of Halifax to Sir Arthur Ingram in 1609. In 1612 he sold the Shibden estate to Caleb Waterhouse, a distant relative. In 1614, Sir Edward was declared bankrupt and spent time as a debtor in the Fleet Prison in London.
Caleb Waterhouse was a relative (a distant cousin?) of Sir Edward Waterhouse. Caleb immediately sold the Shibden estate on to a Mrs Crowther, on behalf of her nephew John Hemingway of Overbrea (born 1602) for £1600.
The Hemingway Family
John Hemingway of Overbrea (born 1602 – died before 1623) was the son of Robert Hemingway of Overbrea and Edith Lister. In 1615, both Mrs Crowther and John’s father, Robert Hemingway, died. John Hemingway, although heir, was under-age, was made a ward of the Crown and his uncle Samuel Lister was appointed guardian to John and his four sisters. John died still under age, and his four sisters – including Sibel and Phoebe – inherited Shibden Hall as co-heiresses.
The Lister Family
Samuel Lister (1570-1632), a cloth merchant, now took over the tenancy of Shibden Hall. Women and girls who were heiresses were very sought after and Samuel soon married off two of his sons to his wards Sibel and Phoebe Hemingway…so Shibden passed into to the Lister family, where it stayed for 300 years.
The Lister men seemed prone to remaining unmarried or at least childless and the inheritance pattern is complex. Shibden eventually passed to Samuel Lister’s great grandson, Dr James Lister of Upperbrea, Halifax, who was an apothecary with premises at Hall End, Halifax. James took possession of the estate in 1709. On his death, the estate passed to his eldest surviving son, the Reverend John Lister.
Rev. John Lister (1703-1759) was the eldest son and heir of Dr. John Lister and was born at his father’s shop at Hall End. He read divinity at St John’s College Cambridge and became headmaster of Bury Grammar School. He was curate at Doncaster Parish Church in 1727 and in 1729, he inherited Shibden estate. John didn’t marry and died without issue. The estate then passed to James Lister (1748-1826), the eldest child of Dr John’s younger brother Jeremiah Lister (1713-1788).
James Lister (1748-1826) lived at Shibden along with his unmarried sister Anne (1768-1836), neither leaving any issue.
The younger brother of James and Anne was Jeremy Lister (1752-1836), a soldier, who was the father of Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack). Jeremy Lister (born 28 September 1752 at Shibden Hall – died 3 April 1836 at Shibden Hall) was a British officer during the American Revolutionary War. In 1770, Jeremy was commissioned an ensign with the 10th Regiment of Foot and sailed for Canada. He saw action at Lexington and Concord Massachusetts and was a wounded in the elbow. After being promoted to captain, he sold his commission in 1783, settled in Market Weighton, Yorkshire and later moved his family to Halifax.
Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) (1791-1840) and her family
Anne Lister was born on 3 April 1791 at Welton, her mother’s birthplace in East Yorkshire. She was baptised at Halifax on 12th September 1791, at the church of St John the Baptist, Halifax. Anne was one of six children of Captain Jeremy Lister (1752-1836) and Rebecca Battle (1770-1817). Her father Jeremy resigned his Commission and began farming on his family estate in 1783, but later moved to live at Shibden Hall, where he died in 1836 aged 83.
Anne’s brothers were John (born 1789 and died in infancy), another John, who also died young (1795 – 1810), Jeremy (1801-1802, died aged 5 months) and Samuel (1793-1813), who survived to adulthood. Her younger sister was Marian (1798-1882).
Siblings Anne and Samuel lived modestly in Halifax with their parents, brother John and sister Marion, not far from the Shibden estate. Being only two years apart, Samuel and Anne were very close, and both had an interest in flora and fauna. Young Anne was sent to boarding school in York and wrote home regularly. Sadly, their brother John died on 24th January 1810, aged 14 or 15. Sam wrote to Anne in July 1810, describing his visit to a fair in Halifax:
There was a crowded fair at Halifax this year, and the largest and best collection of beasts and birds that have been in the town for many years; we all went to see them in the day after the fair; there was an Elephant; a sea lion; a very large Tiger, two Orang-Utans, Leopards, Panthers, and a great number of Monkeys etc. Some of the birds were very beautiful, the keeper gave my aunt some feathers from a bird, called the Cassawary.
Sam was reported to have been serious-minded (perhaps a little dull), interested in the world around him, ambitious and popular. Despite the reservations of his mother and her friends, Sam enlisted in the 84th (York & Lancaster) Regiment of Foot of the British Army in 1811, following in his father’s footsteps. Anne wrote and encouraged Sam to keep a journal and to “Take every possible care of your health”.
Sam briefly became Orderly Officer of the 19th Dragoons quartered in Halifax in 1813 (had they come to quell the Luddite uprisings?), before being posted to Fermoy in Ireland. Tragically, he died on Saturday afternoon June 19th, 1813, while bathing in the River Blackwater, when the current carried him away and all efforts to rescue him failed. Sam was buried four days after his death, on June 23rd, 1813, in Fermoy Churchyard.
Sam and Annes’ aunt, Anne Lister (sister of James of Shibden) wrote to her friend Eliza Raine:
…you, who so well knew the fond affection we all bore towards the dear departed Samuel, may have some faint idea of what are our present sufferings … he was beloved and respected by the whole regiment whilst living, and as sincerely bewailed and lamented since dead; if such are the feelings of strangers, what must his friends and relations endure, his poor Father is indeed quite overwhelmed with grief, his Mother has more fortitude … when Anne came yesterday, her Mother received her alone, and broke the dreadful tidings to her by degrees, but when the worst was told, her (Anne’s) sorrow and anguish of mind was extreme, my Brother and I went to her and after our feeble endeavours to console along with those of her Mother she at length became sufficiently collected to go upstairs to her father, who, with dear Marian was waiting in a state of mind I cannot describe. N- one witnessed their meeting, but, after continuing half an hour together, they joined us below stairs, and we were all tolerably composed and prevailed upon your poor afflicted friend to lay down in the afternoon, I sat by her till tea … I know not how we are to endure this trouble, but time may, and, I hope, will, with the assistance of that all wise Being who orders all things for the best alleviate our distress, and reconcile us to our irreparable Loss.
Sam would have become the natural heir to Shibden, and his death was a great blow to their uncle James Lister, who could not decide, for some years afterwards, how to bequeath the Shibden Estate on his death, there being no young male heir to take it on.
After attending school in York, Anne came to live with her aunt and uncle at Shibden in about 1815, where she started to write her diaries. The diaries consist of 27 volumes, 6600 pages and almost 4 million words. Her sad recollections of her brother Samuel are included. The diaries detail her eccentric and risqué lifestyle as a lesbian woman living in an intolerant age and included intimate details of her scandalous love affairs, written in a secret code.
James must have seen the potential in his niece Anne. She was passionate, strong, intelligent and capable and had an independent spirit. As her uncle became infirm, Anne took sole charge of running the estate and managing contractors and tenants as a landlord and employer would, giving her the power and status that her position deserved.
Observing her success, James at last decided on the future of the estate. When the will was finally executed, the estate was bequeathed to Anne, with life interests in income bequeathed to her father (Jeremy) and her aunt (Anne senior).
Anne takes over Shibden Hall
Anne took ownership when James died in 1826, sharing the management with her aunt until 1836, when Anne took full control. During her tenure, she developed the coal mining on the property, naming the pit for her lover, Ann Walker.
Anne Lister made many improvements to the house and gardens. However, the tall square tower she added to the left side of the house, which Anne used as her library is, in my opinion, rather ugly. Opinions may differ! In 1839, Anne persuaded her lover and “wife”, Ann Walker, to take a trip with her through Russia to Persia, but Anne Lister died of a fever en-route. Ann Walker brought her lover’s body back to be buried at Halifax, a journey that took 7 months. Ann Walker inherited Shibden Hall but suffered from mental ill-health and was removed from ownership, labelled as incapable, in 1843. After her death, Shibden reverted to a cousin of Anne’s in the Lister family.
Anne Lister is remembered for her scandalous lifestyle and her nickname “Gentleman Jack”, given because of her masculine appearance and behaviour. The personal contents of her diaries were so dangerous that they had to be written in code. Living as she did, there was always the chance of being discovered by the authorities and same sex relationships of the time were subject to criminal prosecution.
However, Anne’s sexuality should not define her whole life. She was a capable manager of the Shibden Estate and left it in a better state than when she inherited it.
The last Listers at Shibden included Dr John Lister, who made further changes and improvements to the Hall and gardens. His three children remained unmarried, and so the last Lister at Shibden was John Lister Junior, who discovered Anne’s diaries and began to publish extracts from them in a local newspaper in 1887, but he was unable decipher the parts that were in code.
John fell into debt in the 1920s and had to sell the estate. but was allowed to continue to live at the Hall until he died in 1933. Anne’s diaries were later transferred to a local archive and had gradually been translated.
Shibden Hall was home to the Lister family for more than 300 years and is now in Council ownership as a museum. It is free to visit and is immortalised in Sally Wainwright’s dramatisation of the life of Anne Lister.
