The Brontës’ cook and general servant from 1824. She soon became a center of warmth, story-telling and fun (often as their butt) for the Brontë children, supplying qualities that Aunt Branwell, for all her good intentions, lacked. Her place in the household, and the young Brontës’ affections, is evidenced in the early juvenilia, and in the Diary Papers of Emily and Anne, which also bear witness to the inspiration her broad Yorkshire dialect was to them. It is clear that in those early years she nagged them, nourished their imaginations, and treated them (as they treated her) as equals. They repaid her in 1836 by going on hunger strike when, she having broken a leg, Aunt Branwell wanted her out of the Parsonage. They won on that occasion, but Tabby did leave in 1839 to live with her sister, Susannah Wood. She returned to the Parsonage, probably in 1843 (though references in Charlotte’s letters of 29 May and 2 June 1843? suggest she had been living there for some time). She may have come back in part as company for Emily, but her lameness did allow her to do some of her old duties (probably including boiling the potatoes “to a sort of vegetable glue!”, CB to EJB, 1 Oct 1843); these she clung to tenaciously, and vigorously supervised Martha Brown in the work she herself could no longer manage. Her strong, simple mind, nourished on Methodism, meant she fulfilled her responsibilities.
According to Mrs. Gaskell, Tabby "abounded in strong practical sense and shrewdness. Her words were far from flattery; but she would spare no deeds in the cause of those whom she kindly regarded"(The Life of Charlotte Brontë 1857). Mrs. Brontë had been dead for 3 years when Tabby came to the Parsonage and the children were looked after by their mother's sister, Elizabeth Branwell. A year after Tabby's arrival, the two eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, died of consumption. Charlotte and Emily were only nine and seven years old at the time, and as they at least had only a formal relationship with their Aunt Branwell, they found physical and emotional warmth in the kitchen.
Tabby was fond of her "childers" and they were fond of her. As Charlotte later wrote, "she was like one of our own family". Tabby took the girls for their walks on the moors, and, with her old-fashioned ways and broad Haworth accent, she was sometimes the butt of their boisterous games. Tabby was a great storyteller. She knew all the local families, all their complex inter-relationships and disputes, and, despite her belief in the Christian teachings of divine reward and retribution, she held also to the ancient anthropomorphic traditions of the countryside, claiming (according to Mrs. Gaskell) to have known people who had seen the fairies. Emily, who spent more time working in the kitchen than either of her sisters, was particularly close to Tabby, and Tabby's influence permeates the landscape of Wuthering Heights. Tabby has also been identified as the model for Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights, and for the housekeeper Martha in Charlotte's novel Shirley.
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According to Mrs. Gaskell, Tabby "abounded in strong practical sense and shrewdness. Her words were far from flattery; but she would spare no deeds in the cause of those whom she kindly regarded"(The Life of Charlotte Brontë 1857). Mrs. Brontë had been dead for 3 years when Tabby came to the Parsonage and the children were looked after by their mother's sister, Elizabeth Branwell. A year after Tabby's arrival, the two eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, died of consumption. Charlotte and Emily were only nine and seven years old at the time, and as they at least had only a formal relationship with their Aunt Branwell, they found physical and emotional warmth in the kitchen.
Tabby was fond of her "childers" and they were fond of her. As Charlotte later wrote, "she was like one of our own family". Tabby took the girls for their walks on the moors, and, with her old-fashioned ways and broad Haworth accent, she was sometimes the butt of their boisterous games. Tabby was a great storyteller. She knew all the local families, all their complex inter-relationships and disputes, and, despite her belief in the Christian teachings of divine reward and retribution, she held also to the ancient anthropomorphic traditions of the countryside, claiming (according to Mrs. Gaskell) to have known people who had seen the fairies. Emily, who spent more time working in the kitchen than either of her sisters, was particularly close to Tabby, and Tabby's influence permeates the landscape of Wuthering Heights. Tabby has also been identified as the model for Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights, and for the housekeeper Martha in Charlotte's novel Shirley.
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