Liston, Lady Henrietta, 1751-1828

Born to a long line of planters and merchants in Antigua on December 19, 1751, Henrietta Marchant’s life consisted of voluminous writings capturing her wide-ranging travels.

Marchant was the only surviving daughter of Sarah Nanton and Nathaniel Marchant. However, her father and mother died before Henrietta reached the age of ten. Her journals suggest that Marchant was primarily reared by an enslaved maid. Upon her father’s death in January 1761, Marchant received four enslaved people. Her extensive travels through the West Indies and in North America made her a frequent witness to – and participant in – enslavement.

Henrietta Marchant was sent to live in Glasgow, Scotland, after her father’s death where she lived with her maternal aunt. On February 27, 1796, at the age of forty-four, she married Scottish diplomat and Minister to the United States, Robert Liston. Liston described his new wife as “an excellent Traveller.” Indeed, Henrietta Marchant Liston traveled across sixteen states of the United States by stagecoach, carriage, boat, canoe, cart, and horseback.

Henrietta Marchant Liston and her husband lived in Philadelphia between 1796 and 1800. Her main connection with the Teackle family likely comes through their mutual friend and fellow Scot, Andrew Donaldson Campbell. Campbell implored Littleton Dennis Teackle to see his friend “Mrs. Liston” during Teackle’s 1800 visit to Philadelphia. Teackle seems to have not taken the opportunity.[1]

Henrietta Marchant Liston became Lady Liston when her husband was knighted in October 1816. Lady Liston died twelve years later on October 6, 1828.[2]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Andrew D. Campbell to Littleton Dennis Teackle, 01 May 1800; “A Diplomat's Wife in Philadelphia: Letters of Henrietta Liston, 1796-1800,” The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4 (October 1954) 592-632.
  2. ^ Except where otherwise noted, the information for this biography was sourced from, “Lady Henrietta Marchant Liston, 1751-1828,” National Library of Scotland, accessed 31 March 2024, https://digital.nls.uk/travels-of-henrietta-liston/listons/henrietta.html.

Mentioned in these documents

[Letter from Andrew D. Campbell of Glasgow to Elizabeth Upshur Teackle - May 1, 1800]

Letter from Andrew D. Campbell to Elizabeth Upshur Teackle. He teases her about flirting with boys in Virginia, discusses their shared acquaintances, including Henrietta Liston, wife of the British Prime Minister to the U.S. He talks about his family and the news of the wedding of Elizabeth's cousin Sarah Custis Handy to Ephraim King Wilson. He also talks about the marriage of Anna Teackle Smith to John Donnell of Baltimore and his dislike of her husband. He discusses the death of George Washington: "With you, I grieve for the loss your country has sustained in the death of your great Hero. Few are the ages that produce such characters, but we shall hope, as America is yet in her infancy, that she will produce many who will emulate him. Imagination can hardly picture one to surpass him. It is also a matter of consolation to reflect that he died in the zenith of his glory, in the possession of the noblest faculties of man to his last breath, and without experiencing any of those vicissitudes to which human nature, particularly in the high ranks of life, are so subject. In how few nations do we find men distinguished by their military and political career who retain their honors, as Washington did, while they live." He also mentions his friend, Congressman John Stratton and Henry Parker.