Thomas Henry Lister (1800 – 5 June 1842) was an English novelist and biographer, and served as Registrar General in the British civil service.

His 1830 story entitled "A Dialogue for the Year 2130" might be described as an early example of science fiction or "futuristic" writing, of the kind later popularized by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells.

Published in The Keepsake, a literary annual, it looks forward to a world in which gentlemen go hunting on machines and shoot horses, while a certain Lady D. owns a troublesome automatic letter-writer and is served by a "steam-porter", which opens doors.

He set up the system of civil registration of births, deaths and marriages and organized the 1841 UK Census.

They had three children: Thomas Henry Lister died of tuberculosis in 1842, while living at Adelphi Terrace, London.