Agnes Lister

From Scotland's People Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms

• 23 November 1834 birth or baptism of Agnes Syme, daughter of James Syme and Anne Willis [child 1], in the parish of Edinburgh

From MyHeritage: James Syme: 1851 Scotland Census (transcription only)

30 March 1851 Census for residents of Whitehouse Loan, Millbank House, Edinburgh, Parish of St Cuthbert's, Scotland Millbank House, now Millbank Pavilion, Astley Ainslie Hospital, Grange Loan, Edinburgh 55.92972, -3.20056

• James Syme, head, married, male, aged 51 [born about 1800], in St Cuthbert's, Midlothian; Professor Of Clinical Surgery & Surgeon
• Jemima Syme, wife, married, female, aged 40 [born about 1811], in St Cuthbert's, Midlothian
• Agnes Syme, daughter, unmarried, female, aged 16 [born about 1835], in St Cuthbert's, Midlothian; At Home
• 4 siblings, 1 governess, 8 servants

From Scotland's People: Marriages

• 1856 marriage of Agnes Syme to Joseph Lister, in the district of Newington and Grange

From British Newspaper Archive: Morning Chronicle Saturday, 26 April 1856 Page 8 Marriages

Marriages: On Wednesday, 23 April 1856 [inst.], at Millbank House, Joseph Lister, Esq., F.R.C.S, England [Eng.] and Edinburgh, son of Joseph Jackson Lister, Esq., F.R.S., of Upton House, Essex, to Agnes Syme, eldest daughter of James Syme, Esq., Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh.

From British Newspaper Archive: Dublin Daily Express Tuesday, 18 April 1893 Page 1 Deaths

Deaths: Lister — Wednesday, 12 April 1893 at Rapallo, Italy 44.350, 9.233. Agnes, the wife of Sir Joseph Lister, Bart, of [12 Park Crescent, Marylebone, London W1B 1PG 51.5229843, -0.1454299], Portland Place, London.

From findagrave: Agnes Syme Lister (1834-1893)

• Name: Agnes Syme Lister
• Born: Sunday, 23 November 1834, [ERROR England]
• Died: Wednesday, 12 April 1893 (aged 58), Italy
• Buried: Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green Road, Hampstead, London NW6 1DR 51.55528, -0.20000
• Plot: WA. 432
• About: Daughter of James Syme (1799-1870), surgeon of Edinburgh.
• Buried on Thursday, 20 April 1893.
• Inscription:
  • Baron Joseph Lister, Born Thursday, 5 April 1827, died Friday, 10 February 1911.
  • Agnes Lister, wife of Sir Joseph Lister, Bart. Born Sunday, 23 November 1834, died Wednesday, 12 April 1893.

From Astley Ainsley Community Trust

James Syme’s daughter by his first wife, Anne Willis, was Agnes Syme (1834-1893). She was evidently well-educated, and probably gained painful experience of nursing within her own family. Her mother died in 1841, after bearing ten children, seven of whom died young. In 1856, Agnes married the young surgeon, Joseph Lister (1827-1912), in the drawing room at Millbank. Lister had been particularly encouraged in his career by James Syme, and maintained a great admiration for him. It might be thought that Lister, in marrying the boss’s daughter had an eye to his professional future, but he wrote lyrically of her as his ‘precious Agnes’, and said ‘There is in her countenance an ever varying expression that artlessly displays a peculiarly guileless, honest, unaffected and modest spirit’, and he added that she had no lack of sound and independent intelligence’ with ‘a very warm heart’. Through her marriage, Agnes Lister became a leading figure in the improvement in medical knowledge in her time. After her death, it was said of her that she was ‘one, who throughout her life, awarded [Lister] unwearied help in the pursuit of his investigations and experiments. Indeed, of them it might be truly said they “walked this world yoked in all exercise of noble ends.”’ Having worked with James Syme and having both respected and loved him, Lister would often be found at Millbank with his wife’s family.

From casemine