The seduction of Elizabeth Lister and its implications for the worsley family

Abstract

Family papers provide a rich and still largely untapped source for the study of gentry and aristocratic women in eighteenth-century England. This documentary article draws on correspondence and estate accounts in the Worsley Archives at Hovingham Hall to piece together the unusual life story of Elizabeth Worsley (née Lister), who arrived at the hall at the age of fifteen to work as a maid for the Worsley family. Three years later she eloped with the eldest son, whom she subsequently married, becoming the mistress of Hovingham in 1751. The family papers highlight the problems faced when women married above their social rank, the impact of widowhood and of lunacy on family affairs, and women's experience of estate management. Detailed quotation from the family correspondence is used to shed light on the dynamics of family relationships and the significance of matrimonial alliances amongst the eighteenth-century elite. It is argued that the implications of the Lister/Worsley marriage were both social and financial, affecting family affairs for at least a generation.