LOVING: GENTLEMAN JACK.
This HBO period drama series, created by Sally Wainwright, tells the incredible and true story of Anne Lister, considered by some historians to be the “first modern lesbian”. Like lots of modern lesbians, Anne enjoyed dressing like man, travelling with girlfriends, seducing ladies and not being told what to do by men. However, she lived in the 1800s, where being a modern lesbian was not as easy as it is today.
She was born into a wealthy, landed family in Halifax and lived at Shibden Hall. She eventually inherited the estate, which was unusual for a woman at the time, and ran it very successfully, expanding her business interests to city properties, roads and canals, stone quarries and early collieries. The series is shot on location at Shibden Hall, which is now an historic house.
Anne also kept diaries – a lot of them! They not only recorded her daily routine and business dealings, they also intimately described her lesbian affairs, often in explicit sexual detail. Wisely, she recorded all the entries about her romances and sex life in code – which were only revealed in 1988. In one entry she writes, “I know how to please the ladies.”
When one of her lovers ended their affair to marry a man (for his money), Anne
was heartbroken, but that didn’t stop her accompanying the newlyweds on their honeymoon and seducing the bride’s sister.
She travelled extensively across the Continent where she could live more freely and enjoy a sex life away from the prying eyes of her tenants, local gossips or disapproving peers. Her reputation as a seducer of ladies apparently earned her the colourful nickname, Tuft Hunter. At home her nickname was Gentleman Jack, which sounds better, however, in 19th Century Britain, the term “Jack” applied to a woman was slang for dyke.
The HBO series starring Suranne Jones as Anne Lister is set in the period in which she fell in love with and wooed Anne Walker (played by Sophie Rundle). Miss Walker was also a local lady who inherited a valuable estate. Both Annes were deeply religious and longed to marry and, despite there being no legal grounds on which this could happen, they created their own marriage on their own terms. Very modern lesbian!
On Easter Sunday, 1834 they took communion together in Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York and thereafter considered themselves married. The church has been described as “the site of the first lesbian marriage in Britain” and there’s even a commemorative plaque recording the fact.
The Annes lived together at Shibden Hall until Lister’s death in 1840.
Suranne Jones as Gentleman Jack has us tuning in and, hey, she’s so hot even we could be turned!
Some historians considered her to be the ‘first modern lesbian’.