into the opportunities of religious worship and means of religious instruction in Scotland (ib. 1835, pt. ii. p. 199). On 19 Aug. 1836 he was appointed registrar-general of England and Wales (ib. 1836. pt. ii. pp. 319, 423), being the first to hold that office. He died on 5 June 1842 at Kent House, Knightsbridge, the mansion of his relative, the Earl of Morley. On 6 Nov. 1830 he married Maria Theresa, only daughter of the Hon. George Villiers. She married secondly in 1844 Sir George Cornewall Lewis [q.v., and see Lewis, Maria Theresa]. By her first marriage she had a son, Thomas Villiers Lister (b. 1832), who was appointed assistant under-secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1873, and was made a K.C.M.G. in 1885, and two daughters, of whom the elder, Marie Theresa (1835–1863), married in 1859 Sir W. G. G. V. Vernon Harcourt, and the younger, Alice Beatrice (b. 1841), married in 1870 Sir Algernon Borthwick (Foster, Yorkshire Pedigrees).
Lister, who was a refined, accomplished man, is still remembered by his clever society novel, entitled 'Granby,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1826. It was republished in 1838 as vol. xi. of Colburn's 'Modern Novelists,' with a portrait of the author prefixed, engraved by Finden after Wright, and a preface, in which Lister denies an assertion of the 'Quarterly Review' that 'Granby' was plagiarised from Lord Normanby's 'Matilda.' It was in fact completed four months previously.
His other novels include:
- 'Herbert Lacy,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1828.
- 'Romance of Real Life,' 3 vols.
- 'Flirtation,' 3 vols.
- 'Yes and No,' 2 vols., all of which were included in Colburn's 'Library of Modern Novelists,' 1833-4.
- 'Arlington,' 3 vols. 12mo, London (1832).
- 'Hulse House,' 12mo, London, 1860.
'Anne Grey, a Novel, edited by the Author of "Granby,"' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1834, was written by his sister Harriet, maid of honour to the queen, who afterwards married the Rev. Edward Hartopp Cradock (formerly Grove), principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. Lister's tragedy 'Epicharia,' founded on the history of Piso's conspiracy, was represented for the first time at Drury Lane Theatre on 14 Oct. 1829, was well received, was announced for repetition, and was printed during the same year (Gent. Mag. 1829, pt. ii. p. 362). Genest calls it 'a moderate play — called an historical tragedy, but the greater part of it, not historical, but fictitious' (ix. 499).
Lister was also author of 'The Life and Administration of Edward, first Earl of Clarendon, with Original Correspondence and authentic Papers never before published,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1837-8. The book was attacked by John Wilson Croker in No. cxxiv. of the 'Quarterly Review,' whereupon Lister published an 'Answer' to what he deemed Croker's 'misrepresentations' in 1839. He likewise contributed to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' and 'Edinburgh Review.'
[Information from Sir Thomas Villiers Lister; Gent. Mag. 1842, pt. ii. p. 323; Foreign Office List, 1891, p. 141; Walford's County Families, 1891, p. 635; Sir H. Taylor's Autobiography, i. 115-16; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. ii. 1106.]
LISTON, HENRY (1771–1836), writer on music, eldest son of Robert Liston, minister of Aberdour, Fifeshire, was born 30 June 1771. He studied for the ministry at Edinburgh University, and in 1793 was presented to the parish of Ecclesmachan, Linlithgowshire, where he remained till his sudden death at Merchiston Hall, Falkirk, on 24 Feb. 1836.
He was for many years clerk of the presbytery of Linlithgow, and became on 2 May 1820 conjunct clerk of the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. By his wife Margaret, daughter of David Ireland, town clerk of Culross, whom he married 21 Oct. 1793, he was father of Robert Liston [q. v.] and of David Liston, professor of oriental languages at Edinburgh.
Liston had a natural bias for mechanics and music, and became widely known as the inventor of the 'Eucharmonic' organ, designed to give the diatonic scales in perfect tune. The instrument, which was exhibited in London in 1811, was admittedly ingenious; but as he was more of a theorist than a mechanician there were practical difficulties in playing it, which prevented its general use. Its harmony, however, was superior to that of the tempered organs (for technical details see Henry Ward Poole, On Perfect Intonation; Rees, Encyclopædia, art. 'Organ;' Philosophical Mag. xxxvii. 273, 328). Liston's 'Essay on Perfect Intonation' (4to, Edinburgh, 1812) was intended to explain his theory of acoustics and the construction of his organ. He wrote the article 'Music' in the 'Edinburgh Encyclopædia,' and edited 'Horatii Flacci Opera Selecta' (1819), and the sixth book of Cæsar for use in schools. Liston also invented an improved form of plough, which was used in his district.
[Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ (Synod of Lothian), pt. i. p. 185; Presbytery and Synod Registers in Edinburgh University Library; New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1843; H. B. McCall's Some Old Families, 1890, 4to; information kindly supplied by Mr. H. B. McCall of Charlesfield, Livingston.]
