-
Robert Parker, Esq
Robert Parker (1798-1856) had a long and successful law practice in Halifax. This is an overview of his life and some of the clients he worked for. Early Years Robert Parker was the second son born in 1798 to Alexander North and Margaret (née Butler) Parker at Houghton Park, Lancashire England.1 His brother Alexr North Parker was born in 17952 and died in 1807.3 On 9th June 1815, at 17 years of age, Robert Parker became an articled clerk (an apprentice) to attorney Richard Nicholson of Ripon for five years. The document reads in part: “And during the same term the said Richard Nicholson is to teach and instruct the…
You May Also Like
Elizabeth Mackay Sinclair Wemyss (née Sutherland)
-
The Last Days of Ann Walker
By Diane Halford and Leitner Daleen (updated 21st February 2023) Ann Walker died on 25th February 1854 in her childhood home, Cliffe Hill. It is often said that not much is known about Ann Walker’s life before or after Anne Lister. But once more, if we dig more deeply into the archive, we can piece together some information about the last days of Ann Walker. Trigger Warning: illness, death After living at Shibden Hall with Captain Sutherland and his family and then, after his death, with long term friend Lydia Fenton, (nèe Wilkinson) Ann had moved back to her childhood home, Cliffe Hill, after her aunt died. It is mentioned…
-
Ann Walker’s Return to Shibden
By Steve Crabtree, March 2020 Following the death of Anne Lister on 22nd September, 1840, Ann Walker had the arduous and unenviable job of returning to England, bereft of her wife’s confidence, experience, and support. She also had a choice to make – was Anne Lister of Shibden Hall to be buried in a foreign land, or was her body to be repatriated to England, to join her kindred in the Lister vault at Halifax Minster? The decision is well known, and was taken almost immediately after Anne’s passing. An article in the Halifax Guardian carrying news of Anne Lister’s death also states that Miss Walker would return Anne Lister’s remains…
-
August 1843: Atkinson vs Walker
By Steve Crabtree, March 2020 Perhaps one of the most significant events in the build up to Ann Walker’s removal from Shibden is one of the least explored. At some point in the 1840’s, Ann Walker allegedly found herself indebted to a Jane Atkinson, for £77.3.00. Whatever the reason for this debt remains, at this point, unknown. It could be that Atkinson had provided some goods or services for Walker, or a rent dispute. The fact that Ann refuses to pay Jane what would have been a fairly inconsiderable sum to someone as wealthy as Walker suggests that Ann is making her stand on principle, rather than under any financial…
-
April 1843: Ann Walker and the ‘Durnford Incident’
By Steve Crabtree, March 2020 Cat Euler’s 1995 thesis on Anne Lister is an excellent read, and contains a chapter long post script on Ann Walker. In this chapter, Euler alludes to a letter written by Elizabeth Sutherland to Robert Parker. This document can be found in the MAC: 73 file of the West Yorkshire Archive Service. Euler, citing Elizabeth, writes: “In another, undated letter, which must have been written in the same period of time, Elizabeth Sutherland refers obliquely to some embarrassing incident which had occurred, which I would guess also involves the railway or the surveying of the railway. Again she expresses her approval of the committal process and…
