How Victorians were able to send coded messages in the post

The complexity of cross-written letters meant that coded messages could be sent between people. Two people who benefitted from this privacy were Ann Walker and Anne Lister (now more famously known as Gentleman Jack), a couple who found love in a time where same-sex relationships were illegal.

Cross-written letters

During the early 19th Century a form of writing letters called ‘cross-lettered’ or ‘cross-written’ was fairly popular, especially among the lower classes.

Before the introduction of The Penny Black in 1840, the cost of sending a letter on one sheet of paper from London to Edinburgh was 1 shilling and 1 pence, which is around £3-£4 in today’s money. This didn’t include extra costs of delivery, additional letters plus a half penny if it went via mail coach. Therefore, letter writing across several pages was seen as a privilege rather than something that everyone in society could access.

To avoid having to pay for of these costs, Victorians started ‘crossing’ their letters. This involved writing out your letter on a sheet of paper and instead of continuing on another page, the writer would turn the page and continue over the lines they previously wrote.

Cross-written letter, 1815 (2015-0004)

Cross-written letter, 1815 (2015-0004)

Some did it once, others did twice or even three times. This resulted in a complicated but very private letter.

Anne Lister’s letters

The privacy of cross-written letters was perfect for Queer people in the Victorian era when the Buggery Act of 1533 was still in full force. This meant that any person caught in the act of ‘sodomy’ or ‘buggery’ could be sentenced to prison time or even hanged.

One woman who benefited from this privacy was Anne Lister, a wealthy 19th century diarist. Anne was a prolific writer and so we know so much about her thanks to the diaries and letters she kept and wrote.

Anne Lister (c) Calderdale Museum

Even though they were both of a high class, Anne Lister and her future partner Ann Walker chose to send cross-written letters to one another in the early days of their relationship. In these letters they were able to communicate more openly then they might have in a regular letter.

The West Yorkshire archives have several remaining examples of these letters, we are going to look at three of them.

Ann Walker writing to Anne Lister: 

On August 26th 1820, 12 years before their relationship started, Ann Walker sent a cross-written letter to Anne Lister, signing it ‘Your very affectionate, Ann Walker.’ This letter results in Anne Lister musing if Ann Walker likes her or not in her diary.

To a postmaster who might have been able to decipher the letter it may just be seen as friendship between two ladies of high status, but the use of ‘your’ and ‘affectionate’ heavily implies that Walker has romantic intentions towards Lister.

Anne Lister to other female ‘friends’:

In the West Yorkshire archive there is also a cross-written letter from Anne Lister to her ‘friend’ Sibella Maclean of Tobermory.

In it she writes, ‘I am an enigma even to myself and do excite my own curiosity.’ These are the words of a woman who knows she is different to a lot of others in society, but she doesn’t yet have the language that we do now to describe herself.

It’s important to note that Anne Lister doesn’t shy away from being an enigma, she embraces it and wants to learn more about herself. Another important implication we can glean from this letter is that Sibella seems to accept Anne’s sexuality. Most importantly, Anne also feels safe enough to reveal this part of herself to her friend without fear of rejection.

We know from Anne’s diaries that she can write in length and that she also has money to spend on postage, so why does she write a cross-written letter? There seems to be a trend with Anne Lister that when she is writing about something with a subtle or even outright queer implication that it becomes a cross-written letter in order to protect herself from societal views and laws.

Ann Walker to her aunt:

The last example is a cross-written letter from Ann Walker to her aunt 1834, 2 years into her and Anne’s official relationship. Walker is telling her aunt about their travels across Europe and how, when on the ship, Anne has to stay down below because she gets seasick but Ann can be up on the deck because she doesn’t and she is quite pleased about that.

This letter is not as long as the others, but it gives us a view into the domesticity of their relationship and also how happy Ann is. It’s important to note she is speaking freely about her relationship to her aunt, who seems to accept it.

Unlike many historical accounts from the 19th century on Queer love, which often focus more on the hardship inflicted on Queer people, Walker and Lister’s story allows us to peek into the world of Queer Victorians who found a way to be in love and thrive.


The West Yorkshire archive holds the most material about Anne Lister and Ann Walker and ‘Female Fortune’ by Jill Liddington focuses on Anne Lister’s diaries and how she began to decode them.

A talk is available about both these topics in the museum although it is not on everyday, but you can request it if you wish.