Sir John Lister (1587-1640)

John Lister, wealthy merchant of Hull, Yorkshire, [=Kingston-upon-Hull?], one of a long line of John Listers, married Elizabeth Arwyn and had 11 children as follows:
Sir John Lister
John Lister was twice Mayor of Hull, and one of the Members of Parliament for the town in 1620-40. He entertained King Charles I at his house in High Street in 1639. After a sumptuous dinner, the king knighted John Lister for his services. (Three years later, on 23 April 1642 Sir John Hotham, the governor of Hull appointed by Parliament, refused Charles I entry into the town. This was one of the first acts that led to the start of the English Civil Wars.)

A John Lister, presumably Sir John's father, acquired a plot of land on High Street in 1590 and a house was built which may have been on the site of the current Wilberforce House. However, it was Sir John Lister's fourth son Hugh Lister (1619-1666) who had the present Wilberforce House built "new from the ground", circa 1660.

Wilberforce House remained in the Lister family until Lutton Lister, Hugh's grandson, sold it to John Thornton, merchant in 1709. In 1759, it was the birthplace of William Wilberforce, known worldwide for his fight to abolish slavery.

Hugh Lister, wealthy merchant and one of the shareholders of Hull's first waterworks company, had been sent as a young man for a year in Holland and a year in France "to learne his languages and bookes keeping there". During his stay in Holland, Hugh would have seen houses with elaborate decorative brickwork which no doubt inspired the design of Wilberforce House. The style known as artisan mannerism refers to the unsophisticated use of classical details such as pediments, pilasters and capitals.

Wilberforce House is a superb example of a Hull merchant's house of the seventeeth century. Hull was then a thriving port trading with the Baltic and Low Countries (Holland and Belgium). The merchants had their houses along High Street, with those on the east side having yards running back to the River Hull where there were landing places (called staithes). Goods were unloaded from the merchants' ships at the private staithes and stored in warehouses built in the yards. Their houses were business premises as well as homes. The offices would have been on the ground floor, and the main family rooms on the first floor.

Almost certainly Wilberforce House was built by William Catlyn, bricklayer, who was responsible for other similar buildings in Hull, the East Riding and North Lincolnshire. Similar detailing, including decorative stonework, is to be found in Crowle House (1664), tucked away behind 41 High Street, Hull, and Worlaby Hospital (almshouses, built 1663), near Brigg, North Lincolnshire.

Although the present Wilberforce House is not where King Charles I was entertained, it was the grandest house in Hull in the later 17th century and for a time it was the residence for the Earl of Plymouth, governor of Hull. It now also houses collections of dolls, clocks and the rare Hull Silver Collection.

Lister chimneypiece
The Lister family had a country estate at South Frodingham, in Holderness to the east of Hull. The ornate chimneypiece (left) in the banqueting room of Wilberforce House came from their country house. The carved oak overmantel bears the Lister coat of arms. Nearby is a portrait of Sir John Lister (see above).

A gravestone commemorating Sir John, his wife and son Hugh can be seen in Holy Trinity Church, Hull, and the City Council have a sword and sheath bearing the Lister shield with the initials of John Lister and the date 1613.

In the entrance hall of Wilberforce House is a plaque from the Lister Hospital, an almshouse founded by Sir John Lister.

See also:

www.hullcc.gov.uk/wilberforce/explore_banquet2.html
www.hullcc.gov.uk/wilberforce/explore_listers.html