Do you enjoy visiting historic houses? From Versailles to Mount Vernon, samurai homes in Takayama to farmhouses in Sognefjord, these places can whisk us back in time like nothing else. Last year, I was thrilled to be a finalist in the Historic House Short Story Competition sponsored by Corazon Books and the Historic Houses Association. Now, all ten winning stories, including mine, have been published in a slim volume titled “Come into the House,” available exclusively on Amazon. Despite its size, the book offers an incredible variety of tales. You’ll find an old woman chatting with Dracula on a park bench outside Bram Stoker’s home in Dublin, the story of the tiny spark that started the Great Fire of London in 1666, a visit to the Bronte parsonage that makes a girl question reality, and even a classic locked-room mystery. These stories celebrate the best of British and Irish historic houses.
My own story, “The Yorkshire Defiance,” was inspired by Shibden Hall in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Known outside the local area primarily as the home of 19th-century lesbian diarist and landowner Anne Lister, Shibden Hall has much more to offer. During my visit to Shibden Hall to write my entry “in situ,” I drew inspiration from the 18th-century family portraits in the Great Hall and earlier members of the Lister family.
One notable character was Martha Lister, who grew up in the Hall with her sisters. They attended a local dame school and were taught by a dancing master and a pastry chef. In the 1720s-30s, Martha eloped with William Fawcett, who later abandoned her, forcing her to return to Shibden Hall with her baby, William. During the 18th century, such an event would likely end any social life Martha might have had, and she became the central inspiration for my story.
I was also fascinated by the careers of her three brothers: Thomas, William, and Jeremy. They invested in a ship named The Yorkshire Defiance, trading with the American colonies. Unfortunately, they weren’t successful businessmen. They bought deer skins that arrived in Britain ruined and unsaleable. Thomas bought and sold 15 slaves, although his brothers did not understand why. William eventually moved to Virginia, and later Carolina, where he married and acquired property but was lost at sea in 1743.
The Listers seemed to have a rather tragic history, which made me sympathize with them. I also saw a parallel between the failure of the ship, The Yorkshire Defiance, and Martha’s unsuccessful elopement.
More recently, I found a potential link between my story and the TV documentary “Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners.” When slavery was fully abolished in Britain with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, the same act that freed 800,000 Africans who were legally considered property also provided financial compensation to the slave owners for their “losses.” The total payout was £20 million, which is roughly equivalent to £16-17 billion today. University College London has set up an online database where the public can search these records.
Upon searching Halifax records, there was one payout to Shibden Hall and Louisa Ann Grant, who received £12,765 13s 8d for the loss of 485 enslaved workers in St Vincent. Could this be a legacy of The Yorkshire Defiance? And might this money have funded Anne Lister’s extensive improvements to the Hall and grounds in the 19th century? It’s another intriguing historic house mystery.
