Lister, Thomas snr and jnr

Lancaster, Lancs.; cabinet maker (b.1739-d.1806/7)

There were two men of this name both, cabinet makers of Lancaster. The first Thomas Lister, a Roman Catholic, was the son of Robert Lister, yeoman of Bentham, Yorkshire, and born about 1739. He was apprenticed to Robert Gillow to serve from 11 May 1754 and in 1763-64 he became a Lancaster freeman. He worked for the Lancaster firm for many years as one of their regular journeymen. Together with other Gillows workmen he received payment in May 1761 and July 1762 when he received £1 16s. He made two lampstands with Gothic pillars and octagonal tops with frets which Gillows noted took him 5⅜ days to make. Lister took three weeks to make a splat back settle for Mr. Dowker of Kendal in 1761 (illus. Stuart (2008), pl. 82) which cost in £2 14s 7½d. About the time Lister finished his apprenticeship James Gillow sent a panel saw from London purchased for Lister in a box of items directed to Lancaster. Lister signed the Gillow’s workmen's price agreement in 1785. He was recorded in the Gillow’s Petty Ledgers from c.1760-96. In addition to making all sorts furniture Thomas Lister made several longcase clock cases. In 1791 he made an oak case with a square dial for which he was paid 15s 3d; this case is illustrated in the Gillow’s Estimate Sketch Book. He made other clock cases in mahogany with a round face and a scrolled pediment for which he received £1 7s 11d in 1793. Brian Loomes has reported a white dial clock signed ‘Thomas Lister Lancaster’ in a cartouche of classical drapery. The oak case is crossbanded with mahogany and the trunk door is arched in the typical style associated with Gillow and adopted by other Lancaster cabinet makers.

By 1766 Lister had a property/workshop on the Green Area, Lancaster, an area favoured by cabinet makers. Prior to 1767 he had married Elizabeth, aged twenty-nine years, and they had a one-year old daughter called Ellen. Thomas Lister had several sons who became Lancaster freemen: Robert in 1779-80, Thomas, a mariner, in 1789-90 and John, a London cabinet maker who became a Lancaster freeman in 1806-07 when his father was described as ‘deceased’.

By about 1792-93 Thomas Lister senior had been joined as a Gillow workman by another Thomas Lister, and consequently it is impossible to distinguish between them in citations between 1792 and 1806. For instance either man could be the Thomas Lister, cabinet maker, listed in the firm's Petty Ledger for 1802-04. The apprentices probably bound to Thomas Lister snr were: John Wainhouse 1766, Robert Lister 1768, William Jowett, Richard Borrow and Thomas Hull 1770, John Pinder 1774, William Slater 1789, William Bowman 1794, Anthony Turner and John Woodburn 1799. See Thomas Lister jnr.

Sources: DEFM; Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840 (2008), II, pp. 256-57.