BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, July 25th, 2011 (CUOPM) - If it seemed that Bermuda is nearly over-run by cousins and other kin of the Lister clan, well more have been coming this week for a family reunion from as far away as Europe, the United States and of course the West Indies. They are descendants of James Walton Lister or JWL.
Trinidad-born long time journalist, publisher and author, Mr. Ira Philip, in a feature on The Royal Gazette Online wrote: JWL was born in Sandy Point, St. Kitts around 1870. On July 18, 1897, he married Martha Elizabeth Warner who bore him four children, Wilhemina, Marion, Alvin and James, Jr.
James was a highly industrious and ambitious young man relentlessly seeking ways to better the life of his family. He had worked in the cane fields of his country, and around 1886, joined the thousands of West Indians who went to work on construction of the Panama Canal. As many as 22,000 of those workers died on the project through accident and disease.
Having survived the Panama experience and returned safely to St. Kitts, James set his focus on Bermuda in 1902.
That was the time frame when hundreds of West Indians were either recruited on contract or came on their own steam to capitalise on the economic boom created by the massive Walker Works project of expanding and modernising the old Royal Naval Dockyard.
That project ranged over the entire area from Watford Island, through Boaz and Ireland Islands. It started with the building of a Watford (Swing) Bridge and construction of a railway to carry tons of fill for the reclamation of land from the sea.
The plight of workers on that project is detailed in the book I authored called “Freedom Fightsers”, from Monk to Mazumbo,” relating how the Rev. Charles Vinton Monk, a pastor of Allen Temple AME Church, Somerset took up the cudgels for them and himself ended up in prison.
JWL’s first job was as a painter on Watford Bridge. In due course, he was able to bring his wife and children to Bermuda. And that’s how the next generation of Listers became rooted in Bermuda, many with household names impacting heavily on the political, religious and cultural life of the country.
They are the JWL grandchildren and great-grands including the President of the Bermuda Senate, Sen. Hon. Carol Bassett; former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly and Cabinet Minister, Hon. Walter Lister, his nephews, Transport Minister Hon. Terry Lister and former Minister Hon. Dennis Lister. MP and former Cabinet Minister Dale Butler rounds out the political descendants.
Also, pharmacist Norbert Seymour, scientist Dr. Kent Simmons, Director of Public Transport Jonelle Christopher; Commonwealth Games medalist Conrad Lister and Olympic swimmer Roy Allan Burch, late senior police officer Alan Lister and late businessman Wilbur Lister.
Those grands and their families, joined by the cousins from overseas, will attend church tomorrow at the White Hill Gospel Hall, followed by the main event at Commissioner’s House at Dockyard.
Now back to JWL. He was one of three children whose father was believed to have been of Scottish ancestry who arrived on the shores of St. Kitts in the mid- 1800s. Little is known about the mother of the children apart from her being obviously of African. They lived at Sandy Point.
The story of James Walton Lister became of particular interest when great grandson Terry Lister, while on vacation in St. Eustatius, by chance happened on a local family displaying what Terry said were physical traits “with an unmistakable Lister root.” Some reminiscing and research established the family to have been descendants of David “Lester,” the brother of JWL. The family name originally was “Lester” and for reasons yet to be established had become Lister.
David had emigrated to St. Eustatius around 1908 and from there his descendants had gone to Aruba, Saba and to Holland. Meanwhile Doris, sister to David and JWL, had emigrated from St. Kitts to Antigua.
In his early years in Bermuda, JWL lived in a small wooden house off West Side Road, Sandys, now known as Nursery Lane. After some 20 years of toil, he was able to purchase a sizeable piece of property to establish a farm. He had a choice between two properties, one in Sandys and the other at Salt Kettle, Paget. He chose Heathcote Hill for its farming potential.
James attended Somerset Methodist Church on Long Bay Lane and later the Gospel Hall Chapel on Cambridge Road. On December 1, 1946, James Walton Lister died, having been predeceased by his wife Martha Elizabeth on January 1, 1937. Both are buried at St. James Church yard in Somerset.
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