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Eliza Ainsworth (née Bentley)
Reproduced with permission from Lancashire Archives, Lancashire County CouncilWCW/Supra/C950/7 / Signature on Eliza Ainsworth’s Will The name Mrs Ainsworth will be familiar to those who have seen the television series “Gentleman Jack”, as the wife of Rev Thomas Ainsworth. This blog will fill in some of the blanks surrounding Eliza and her friendship with Ann Walker. Family Eliza was the…
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Young Ann’s Note
Ann Walker knew Anne Lister from long before they reconnected and began a relationship in 1832. The Lister and Walker families had known each other for many years, even before Ann or Anne were born. A Lister family history notebook states that one of the Listers (John) had died while riding his horse alongside William Walker of Crownest in 1759,…
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Elizabeth Mackay Sinclair Wemyss (née Sutherland)
West Yorkshire Archives, Calderdale WYC: 1150/74/38 Elizabeth Wemyss signature The Middle Child Elizabeth Mackay was the third child of George and Elizabeth Sutherland. She was born on 21 October 1832 in Resolis, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. (1) Early Life and in Ann’s Letters Elizabeth was christened in November 1832 and there is a sense in a letter to Elizabeth, her…
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Ann’s Mourning of Anne
This blog seeks to show the ways in which Ann Walker explicitly and implicitly mourned her wife after her death in 1840. She would not have been able to grieve in the way we would expect a widow to do so due to the lack of acknowledgment and acceptance of the true nature of their relationship within wider society. These…
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The Sinking of the Comet
In 1835 Anne Lister made an oblique reference to the “Comet steamer” in her journal:1 “[…] A- had letter from Captain Sutherland this evening – good account of her sister & the little boy (born on the 13th) to be called Ewen Charles after Captain S-‘s 2 brothers one lost at sea one in the Comet steamer & another has…
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George Sackville Sutherland
George Sackville Sutherland was Ann Walker’s eldest nephew and the second child of George Mackay Sutherland and Elizabeth Sutherland (née Walker). He was often known as Sackville, and to avoid confusion with his father, George Mackay Sutherland, I will refer to him as Sackville throughout this blog. Birth and Baptism Sackville was born on 11 March 1831 – the date…
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John Walker Sutherland
Shortly before the birth of John, Ann wrote to encourage her sister, with an enthusiastic hope that the birth of Elizabeth’s baby – and future children – would be easier than the last. “I sincerely trust dearest Elizabeth, that you will have quite as good a time as the last, […] you know it is always said that every successive…
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Myth Buster: Ann Walker’s Drinking Habits
Was Ann Walker prone to drinking? Short answer: no. There is very little evidence to substantiate this myth. But what do we actually know about Ann Walker’s drinking habits? In her own diary, Ann only sporadically mentions alcohol, mostly when she was travelling in France with Anne Lister. Ann, for example, comments on the good wine they had for dinner:…
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Elizabeth Sutherland’s Will
Elizabeth Sunderland, née Walker wrote her will in 1842; it can be found in her son-in-law’s (Stansfeld) family archive in Wakefield.1 Elizabeth Sutherland died on December 28, 1844, leaving husband George Mackay Sutherland and four surviving children: Mary (who would die the following year), Elizabeth (1832-1872), Ann Walker “Annie” (1837-1917), and Evan Charles (1835-1913), the eventual heir to the Walker…
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Ann Walker’s Humour
The discovery of Ann Walker’s humour is one of the reasons I have enjoyed transcribing her letters and diary so much. Even in Anne Lister’s diary, which purpose was not necessarily to record all the funny things her wife said, there are a few instances described that either made Ann Walker laugh or elicited a snarky comment from her. Humour,…
