Anne Lister, the inspiration behind the tv series Gentleman Jack, is now the subject of a University of York PHD scholarship.

Funded by York alumna Sally Wainright, who created the BBC tv series, along with Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, the scholarship will offer postgraduates the chance to study the life and works of 19th Century Yorkshire landowner, traveller and diarist.

Anne was born at Shibden Hall, Halifax, in 1791, though for a time, grew up at Skelfer House near Market Weighton and after a school in Ripon, attended Old King’s Manor School in Heslington Road, York.

Her other York connections include a marriage ceremony to Anne Walker in Easter 1834 at Holy Trinity Church in Goodramgate, York, in what is thought to be the UK’s first same-sex marriage. At the church, a plaque celebrates Anne’s life.

Anne Lister wrote her famous diaries from 1806 to her death in 1840. Totalling 26 volumes and more than 5 million words, they cover subjects including engineering, legal issues, tenants on her land, science and medicine, theology and political unrest.

Lister also wrote about her travels and love of mountain climbing and relations with other women, often in code.

UNESCO acknowledged the diaries as a pivotal document in British history, adding them to its ‘Memory of the World’ register in 2011.

Dramas about Anne’s life are often filmed in York.

Professor Helen Smith, from the University of York, said: “Anne Lister is a fascinating, but little-studied literary figure, and this scholarship, generously funded by Dr Sally Wainwright, will shed new light on her life, historical significance and writings.

“We hope that the successful PhD candidate will help us understand more about Anne Lister as a writer, and bring her incredible writings to new audiences.”

The University of York, which has an Anne Lister College, aims the research to foster research into Anne’s life and establish her place as a ‘canon of English literature,’

The successful student will have full access to the Lister diaries and other writings, currently held in the West Yorkshire archives in Lister’s native Halifax. 

Sally Wainwright said: “Anne Lister's diaries and other writings are a unique, fascinating, vast resource, lending themselves to study across a number of academic disciplines. Anne Lister was a profoundly clever and unusual woman whose writings need much greater analysis than they have yet received. 

“Above and beyond all her other talents, Lister was a prolific diarist, and it is my greatest hope that the scholarship will go some way towards helping establish her extraordinary output firmly within the canon of English Literature.”

The scholarship, open to both UK and overseas students, offers full tuition fees, plus an annual stipend of £20,000 for three years and a small sum for research expenses. Applications close on January 18.