FOUNDRY MASTHEAD





Thomas Lister (1810 – 1888)

 

Notes on the Barnsley postmaster and poet

who was a friend of Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law Rhymer

 

       Born at Old Mill Wharf, near Barnsley, on 11th February 1810, Thomas Lister was the youngest of fourteen children.  He was educated at the Quaker Friends' School, Ackworth, between 1821 and 1824 where he is said to have received a good English education.  He was admired for his athletic feats and physical courage.

      After leaving school he worked for his father, a Quaker gardener and small farmer, for several years enjoying a rustic and healthy lifestyle.  After Lister helped Lord Morpeth (later Earl Carlisle) in his election campaign for the old West Riding of Yorkshire, Lord Morpeth offered him in 1832 the position of Postmaster at Barnsley, but as a Quaker he could not take the oath that was required, so the offer was withdrawn. Politically, Lister was hardly a firebrand but he was interested in education, particularly the education of the working man through the mechanics' institutes.


       In 1837 he met Ebenezer Elliott, who was at the height of his fame. Note here that this accepted date may be wrong - further discussion later in this article. Also in 1837 Lister undertook a walking tour of the Lake District & then Scotland. In 1838 Lister visited France, Italy, Switzerland & the Netherlands sending his poems & translations (from the German, French & Italian) back home to Elliott who got them published by Tait in Edinburgh.

 
        In 1839 he was again offered the position of postmaster at Barnsley, which he accepted; the oath having been replaced with a simple form of declaration.  He retained this position until 1870 when he retired with a pension.  He was presented with a handsome testimonial at a large public meeting, presided over by the mayor of Barnsley.


      In 1840, there was a great occasion in London for progressive Quakers. The Friends organised the World Anti-Slavery Convention with 409 delegates attending including thirty or so people who  actually came over from the USA. Lister attended the  London convention and met two American quakers who are of interest to us. Henry Brewster Stanton (1805-1887) was a Quaker lawyer, activist, journalist and politician who visited the Convention and who travelled round the country meeting fellow Quakers. Stanton had just married a fellow Quaker who like her husband was a staunch abolitionist. The couple had their honeymoon in London and both attended the Convention. Stanton was a great admirer of Ebenezer Elliott and took the opportunity to visit him in his Sheffield workshop in 1840. The other delegate of interest was the anti-slavery campaigner, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). He was yet another Quaker poet - and a famous one at that! We can assume that Lister met Whittier at the convention through their common interest in the Corn Law Rhymer. (We can also assume that Lister met Stanton at the convention). Whittier was a huge admirer of the Corn Law Rhymer and wrote a poem about him after Elliott died. (It seems a missed opportunity for Whittier not to meet Elliott). Whittier  and Lister did meet again later on in life in the States.


         In 1841 the 31 year old Thomas married Hannah Schofield (1812-1882) but no children blessed the marriage.


        In 1884, aged 74, Lister visited Montreal & the main Canadian & American cities.  Lister was very elderly to be thinking of sailing to the States, so he had to be both brave & physically fit to consider it. (Lister's three brothers had emigrated to America in 1829/30 and then moved on to Canada. Lister was probably catching up on nephews, neices and their parents). The poem "The Home-expelled Britons" is thought to be one of the first written by Lister and relates to the emigration of his brothers.  When Lister visited the States, he is known to have called on John Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker poet and journalist who was an anti-slavery campaigner.  In a letter by Whittier dated June 1881, he mentioned that he had had a visit from Lister in the autumn of 1880. (Note the discrepancies in dates here: 1884 and 1880. Or could Lister have visited the States twice? He certainly was fond of travelling as we have already seen.)


      Thomas Lister was both poet and naturalist and contributed many articles on birds & weather to the Barnsley Chronicle. He was for a long time President of the Barnsley Naturalists’ Society. Gave many papers to the British Association.


Thomas Lister

1810 - 1888


lister


      A very amusing desciption of Lister appeared in a letter by Elliott to GeorgeTweddell. This was 25th February 1845. Tweddell was both poet and historian. The Corn Law Rhymer described his friend as: "You will find him in many respects remarkable - a courageous, energetic, gristle-bodied man, with a bump of "I'll have my own way," bigger than a hen's egg, on his summit ridge; his face is handsome, except the eyes, or rather their position, which is cavernous; the eyes themselves are keen and characteristic; his lips are beautiful. If there is truth in phrenology, his observant faculties should be strong and active, as his writings seem to prove."



Some poems by Thomas Lister


1830/1 (?) "The Home-expelled Britons" 

1834 “The Rustic Wreath”  

1837 “Temperance Rhymes”

1838 "Sunset Musings In Milan"

1862 “Rhymes of Progress”

"These Soulless Tools Of Tyranny" (date unknown?)

"Knowledge is Power" (see below)

"The First Found Flower" (see below)



      The  collection of poems called "The Rustic Wreath" was dedicated to Lord Morpeth. There was a pre-publication list of 1,000 subscribers including noted people such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, members of the nobility and members of parliament. (Subscribers were always wealthy people, and there was always a social gain in seeing one's name listed next to a high powered celebrity). The first printing sold 3,000 copies, so Lister was well regarded as a poet. The book is still available off the Internet. 




                Knowledge Is Power
A poem by Thomas Lister



Knowledge is power, have sages said,
True maxim! as of old:
Lo! o'er this earth her conquests spread-
Not waged for lands and gold.
What'er can lessen human woe,
Or add to labour's dower,
And bid the streams of plenty flow-
Prove knowledge still is power.

Great ends from small beginnings rise,
Drops feed the moving sea;
He who drew lightning from the skies
Hailed triumphs yet to be:
When winged words should traverse earth
Within the fabled hour;
And science in her newest birth
Sees knowledge still is power.

The kettle's hissing moving steam
An ampler power awoke:
Visions more rich than fancy's dream
On wondering mortals broke.
Our age with new inventions teems,
As fruit succeeds the flower,
When autumn's mellow ripeness gleams;
For knowledge still is power.

He who inspired the breath of life
Bade man progressive move;
Nor waste his powers in bootless strife,
But learn the law of love.
Live nobly then to Nature's laws,
Enrich each fleeting hour!
Success will smile upon your cause,
For knowledge still is power.

Though small your sphere of influence be,
Its limits none can bound;
Thoughts spread like winds, careering free
The seeds of wisdom round.
As falls upon the thirsty earth
The fertilising shower,
Waking the golden harvest's birth-
So, knowledge still is power.

Ye students! in the realms of mind,
Go on with added might,
walk in His steps who led the blind
From darkness into light.
Draw lessons from earth, sea, and stars,
From beast and bird and flower;
Point out what public welfare mars,
For knowledge still is power.

 







The First Found Flower
A poem by Thomas Lister


To thee! though not the first of spring's young race,
The earliest wild flower, greeting yet mine eye;
Ev'n ere the crocus bursts its golden dye,
Or primrose pale unveils its modest face -
To thee small celandine I yield first place.
For thou dost greet me, earliest of the band,
That comes as sweetness, after storms and cares.
Remembrance of past pleasures! moments bland,
Pledge of rich joys, the coming season bears!
Well might thy starry cup of golden bloom -
Thy lowly virtues - one pure mind awake
Who sought, before the art-emblazon'd dome,
The flower-crown'd mountain, and the reedy lake -
Thee! hallow'd Wordsworth sang - I love thee for his sake.


       The poem above has echoes of Ebeneze Elliott. This is not too surprising as Lister was a big friend of the Corn Law Rhymer. Clearly the two men would read and discuss each others poetry. Remember, too, that Elliott was a famed poet nationally. When they first met in 1837*, Elliott was 56 years old, nearly thirty years older than Lister. So Lister would have looked up to Elliott seeing him as a senior figure of some standing. Perhaps the influence of Elliott on Lister would be worth a thesis!
* There is a further note on this date later in the article


TO THOMAS LISTER ....

       Ebenezer Elliott wrote two poems about the postmaster of Barnsley. Both poems were called "To Thomas Lister" and are undated, though clearly they would have been written late in Elliott's life. Neither are outstanding but they are included here out of interest. Lister would no doubt have been very pleased to receive the poems from his famous friend.



To Thomas Lister
A Poem by Ebenezer Elliott


 

Bard of the Future! As the morning glows,

O’er lessening shadows, shine thou in this land.

Till the rich drone pays Labour what he owes,

“Strive unto death” against his plundering hand;

And bid the temple of free conscience stand

Roof’d by the sky, for ever. “As the rose,

Growing beside the streamlet of the field,”

Send sweetness forth on every breeze that blows;

Bloom like the woodbines where the linnets build;

Be to the mourner as the clouds, that shield,

With wings of meeken’d flame, the summer flower;

Still, in thy season, beautifully yield

The seeds of beauty; sow eternal power;

And wed eternal truth!  though suffering be her dower.

 

Don whispers audibly; but Wharncliffe’s dread,

Like speechless adoration, hymns the Lord;

While, smiting his broad lyre, with thunder stored,

He makes the clouds his harp-strings. Gloom is spread

O’er Midhope, gloom o’er Tankersley, with red

Streak’d; and noon’s midnight silence doth afford

Deep meanings, like the preaching of the Word

To dying men. Then, let thy heart be fed

With honest thoughts! and be it made a lyre,

That God may wake its soul of living fire,

And listen to the music. O do thou,

Minstrel serene! to useful aims aspire!

And, scorning idle men and low desire,

Look on our Father’s face with meek submitted brow.

 

Yes, Lister! bear to him who toils and sighs

The primrose and the daisy, in thy rhyme;

Bring to his workshop odorous mint and thyme;

Shine like the stars on graves, and say, Arise,

Seed sown in sorrow! that our Father’s eyes

May see “the bright consummate flower” of mind;

Sing in all homes the anthem of the wise:

“Freedom is peace! Knowledge is Liberty!

Truth is religion." O canst thou refuse

To emulate the glory of the sun,

That feedeth ocean from the earth-fed sky;

And to the storm, and to the rain-cloud’s hues,

Saith, “All that God commandeth shall be done!”

 

 

 


      In the above poem, Elliott encouraged Lister referring to him as "Bard of the Future" and "Minstrel serene." This was something that Elliott was noted for: making positive remarks about upcoming poets, whether or not they displayed any talent. Another thing that we often note with Elliott is the use of local names: here we see the River Don, Midhope Moor, Wharncliffe Side and Tankersley. And we always expect to see  religious references (last line) and political comment (lines 3 and 4 for instance).






To Thomas Lister
A Poem by Ebenezer Elliot



FRIEND, I return your English Hexameters, thanking you for them.

More than forty years since, I constructed such verses,

Choosing a lofty theme, too often worded unsimply.

Even now, I remember one stol’n line of the anthem:

“Thou for ever and ever, God, Omnipotent, reignest!”

Though my verbiage pleased me, long ago did it journey

Whither dead things tend. For Homer’s world-famous metre

Cannot in English be pleasing. Saxon may write it in Saxon,

Oft for dactyl and spondee using iambic and trochee,

Pleased – and making a boast of his wasted labour and lost time;

But with grace and simplicity none can write it in our tongue,

Though the sturdy gothic oft runs into it promptly,

As it grandly does in these fine lines from the Bible:

“How art thou fall'n from heav’n, oh, Lucifer, son of the Morn!” and

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”

Not unpleasing always, mostly ‘tis feeble, yet stilted,

Wanting, in wanting ease, the might which is mightiest, beauty

Yet can it finely paint the beauty of form and of colour;

Skies, and the sea; or mountains cloud-like in distance, and stealing

Azure from heav’n; or the daisy fresh in the dew-gleam of dawn; or

Young June’s blush-tinted hawthorn, that scatters the snow of its dropped flowers

Over the faded cowslip, and roses embraced by the woodbine,

Under the mute, or songful, or thunder-whispering forest;

But from man’s heart seldom it brings the tear, which the angels,

Knowing not sorrow, might almost in their blessedness envy.

Slow or rapid, sweet or solemn, in Greek and in Latin,

It is in English undignified, loose, and worse than the worst prose.

One advantage it has – it must be utter’d as prose is;

And as it may be wanted, if only as changes are wanted,

I subjoin the rule for its fitting or modern construction:

Every line must consist of six feet, dactyls and spondees,

Dactyls and trochees, or dactyls and both: A dactyl the fifth foot

Must be; a spondee or trochee the sixth: Each line must contain not

More than sixteen syllables, and not fewer than thirteen.

 



      The poem above is the more interesting poem of the two. Firstly it is surprising that Elliott didn't write a letter to Lister instead of  sending the poem. Elliott wrote many, many letters and the fact that he composed a poem in reply to Lister's verses shows how much Elliott valued his friend. Secondly, the opening lines confirm that the two poets submitted poems to each other for discussion & improvement. One wonders which poem Lister had posted to the Corn Law Rhymer? That's a good topic for Lister researchers! The opening few lines suggest that Elliott did not rate the poem since he compares it with his early poems which went "Where dead things tend." Then much of the poem sees the Rhymer expounding his views on verse forms; something he liked to do. See, for instance, the preface to "Etheline" and the opening (and ending) lines to the collection "The Years of Seeds." Again, we witness the older, experienced poet using his knowledge to the benefit of the young Barnsley postmaster.

      Note, too, the fine image of the red hawthorn shedding its blossom, showing Elliott's love of nature. In his destitute years, Elliott distracted himself by going out in the coutryside and perfecting* the art of painting. His poetic work often displays lines  showing him having the eye of a painter, as we see in the middle of the verse. Not sure what effect  though Elliott has in mind with the confusing phrase "thunder-whispering forest."
*Note here that none of Elliott's paintings have apparently survived, so the words here may be an exaggeration!


"Remarks Upon Elliott’s Poetry & Memoranda Of The Poet"

by Thomas Lister

 

      This 26 page article by Lister appeared in a book by January Searle called  “Memoirs of Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law Rhymer, with Criticisms upon his Writings.” The book was published in 1852, three years after Elliott died. January Searle was a pseudonym for G. S. Phillips, a friend of both Elliott and Lister.

      Lister’s article began on page 215 of Searle‘s book. The Barnsley poet started by describing how Elliott saw  scenery with the eye of a painter as they rambled around the Dearne Valley.  He then described trips the two men made to Grimethorpe, Thurnscoe, Sprotborough, Wath and Darfield. Poetry with music was the next topic with particular reference to the poem “Ribbledin,” an Elliott poem set in Sheffield’s  Rivelyn Valley. Lister then added a description of the Rivelyn Valley by the noted author and journalist William Howitt, owner of Howitt’s Journal. Lister went on to review several of Elliott’s poems especially ‘Etheline” which Lister praised highly and revealed that the poem was stimulated by a hike the two friends made to Conisborough Castle. Both Elliott and Lister thought highly of “Etheline” which showed a lack of judgment from the pair since critics were unimpressed by the poem. Lister then commented briefly on Elliott as a public speaker and how his politics made him unpopular in some quarters.

      The Appendix to Searle’s book contains even more by Lister. Pages 183 to 199 are relevant now. We learn that the two poets lived only seven miles apart and that Lister was a frequent visitor to Elliott ‘s home. Searle then wrote a short sketch of Lister’s life and made a comment about “The Rustic Wreath” – “Some of the poems are beautiful; and they are all above mediocrity. In character they are simple and descriptive, sometimes pathetic and humorous. The ‘Yorkshire Hirings’ is full of fun, and hits off the provincial dialect in admirable style. Since his duties commenced as post-master, Mr. L. has written no more poems.” Was that because he was too busy or did the official status of postmaster mean he was above writing verses? He retired as postmaster in 1870 when he was sixty years old.

      The next few pages of the Appendix (page 187 on) were used to quote a very long letter from Lister headed:  "Post Office, Barnsley, 4th mo. 21st, 1850." In the letter, Lister lamented the death of his friend and reminisced about the life and work of the Corn Law Rhymer.

      After the end of Lister's letter, Searle then used a two page extract from "Mr. Lister’s note-book for the year 1836." In the extract, Lister revealed that he had actually met Elliott earlier than 1837. They were introduced by Charles Pemberton, the famous Shakespearean actor and fiery orator. This happened in 1836 or even the previous year. (In fact, Searle implied the two poets met in 1835, and Pemberton is known to have visited Sheffield in 1834 and twice in 1835. So 1835 was the date Elliott and Lister first met and not in 1837). Lister then recounted his first visit to Elliott’s Hargate Hill home and told of how Elliott bought the house. Lastly, Lister gave details of the two friends climbing a hill at Shirecliffe (now a district of Sheffield)  where Elliott had set “The Ranter,” the poem that made the Corn Law Rhymer famous.

 


Further information

      Barnsley Library has a manuscript day book, mainly about birds & wildlife.  Article on Lister in “Sketches of Remarkable People” by Spencer T. Hall who Lister had met before 1837. Obituaries in Barnsley Chronicle (31 Mar 1888 p8) and in Barnsley Independent (31 Mar 1888 p6). This is not meant to be a comprehensive nor an up-to-date summary of information on Lister since the the information was simply noted down around 2010 when I was looking for information on Ebenezer Elliott. Consult Barnsley Archives for details of more recent files  archives@barnsley.gov.uk



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