Introduction

Introduction 

 

' They think her blue and masculine. She is called Frank Pickford'

'She is a regular oddity with, apparently, a good heart.'

'Are there more Miss Pickfords in the world than I have ever before thought of?'

                                          

    Well, what's not to like!

    And who is this woman?

Miss Frances Pickford is one of the women who appears in Anne Lister's diaries and they shared a friendship in England, in the 1820s, sporadically meeting and being part of many of the same social circles as the years progressed.

Anne Lister, who lived in Halifax, in Yorkshire (1791 - 1840) wrote several million words in her diaries during her lifetime and the many, many real life characters who spill out of these diaries are intriguing to follow.

The above fascinating glimpses of Miss Pickford are taken from The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister by Helena Whitbread and can be found on pages 255, 258 and 296, respectively, in the 2010 Virago Press edition. They were originally written by Anne in her diaries, in her crypthand, a code she created so that she could write her thoughts privately into her diary.

  Who is this Miss Frances Pickford?       Can we find out much about her life and her loves?

This blog is an ongoing record of the information I have been able to find out about Frances Pickford. The blog pages may be published in a rather random way as little snippets about her life are gradually uncovered. I started my search at the Bath Archives in the city of Bath, in England.

So, off we go in search of Miss Frances Pickford.....

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