‘The Remains of Henry Kirke White’

In 1783, Maria Branwell was born. She would later marry Patrick Brontë and was the mother of the Brontë siblings.

Her copy of ‘The Remains of Henry Kirke White’ was salvaged from a ship that was wrecked whilst transporting her belongings to Yorkshire. After her death, the Brontës treasured this book, filling it with annotations such as Patrick’s inscription, ‘…saved from the waves…’

Other markings include a doodle, possibly by Branwell, marginal notes exploring White's poetry, potentially by Emily, and Patrick's on thoughts on the work.

When the book was acquired by the museum in 2 016 it also contained many manuscripts found between its pages which we explored in the publication, 'Charlotte Brontë: The Lost Manuscripts'. facebook/thebrontesociety

Happy Birthday Maria Brontë, nee Branwell.

Maria’s father Thomas Branwell by James Tonkin

Today marks the 235^th birthday of a very special woman – Maria Brontë, born Maria Branwell, the mother of the Brontë siblings: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell, Emily Jane, and Anne.

What happened to her?

Read it all on the excellent blog of Nick Holland

annebronte/happy-birthday-maria-bronte-nee-branwell

Brontë Society acquires £200k book of unpublished Brontë manuscripts

The Brontë Society has acquired a book for its museum worth £200,000 containing unpublished Brontë manuscripts. The book, which will be displayed at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, is a copy of Robert Southey’s The Remains of Henry Kirke White that belonged to Mrs Maria Brontë and includes annotations by the Brontë children, including unpublished material by Charlotte Brontë.

The volume was bought from Randall House, a rare book dealer in California, at total cost of £200,000. It spent most of the last century in the US, after originally being sold at the Parsonage in 1861 following the death of Patrick Brontë, Maria Brontë's husband. The acquisition was made possible thanks to a £170,000 donation from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), in addition to funding from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries.

The book is one of the rare surviving possessions of Maria Brontë, whose property was shipwrecked off the Devonshire coast shortly before her marriage to Patrick Brontë in 1812. It contains Latin inscriptions in Patrick Brontë’s handwriting stating that this was "….the book of my dearest wife and it was saved from the waves. So then it will always be preserved".

In addition to annotations, markings and sketches by various members of the family, it also includes a poem and a fragment of prose by Charlotte Brontë and a letter by her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls written shortly after her death in 1855.

Members of the Brontë Society were allowed to view the book at their annual summer festival held
last month in June. It is currently available to view as part of the "Treasures Tours" organised by the museum and is due to go on public display at the Parsonage in 2017.

Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, said: "Mrs Brontë’s book is one of the most significant Brontë items to come to light in many years. It was clearly well-used and of great sentimental value to the Brontë children, who lost their mother while they were very young.  In addition, the unpublished writings by Charlotte offer new opportunities for research, which is really exciting.  This acquisition has been a wonderful addition to our celebrations marking Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary.”

Juliet Barker, historian and author of biography The Brontës (Abacus), said: "The book alone is a valuable acquisition because of its rare associations with Mrs Brontë before her marriage to Patrick, but its importance is immeasurably increased by the unpublished manuscripts tipped into it. There could be no better place for it to be preserved for the future than the Brontë Parsonage Museum.”
thebooksellers/bronte-society-acquires-200k-book-unpublished-bront-manuscripts

 Randall House

Established in 1975.
Randall House has a long tradition in the rare and collectible book world. Ronald R. Randall grew up in a home where his father, David A. Randall, already was established as head of the rare book department for Scribner's. His mother was an accomplished artist and book illustrator. He grew up in New York surrounded by literary figures, books and fine art. Eventually he settled into his bookselling career. Ron spent seven years at John Howell-Books in San Francisco where he further deepened and enhanced his knowledge of books. He even sold books to his father who by this time was Director of the Lilly Rare Book Library at Indiana University.

In 1975 Ron and a partner opened their own shop in San Francisco.  1985 saw Ron moved Randall House Rare Books to Santa Barbara while his partner stayed in San Francisco.  
biblio.randall-house-rare-books-santa-barbara
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Maria Branwell birth certificate.

Charlotte Bronte mother’s baptism from Madron 1783

Happy birthday Maria Bronte

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Maria Branwell, mother to the six Bronte children. We're sure she would have been very proud of this quilt sewn by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. It's too fragile to be displayed but staff have been fortunate enough to have a rare glimpse of it in the Library this morning. facebook./photos Facebook page of the parsonage.

 

Maria Branwell (15 April 1783 – 15 September 1821) was the mother of British writers Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë and Charlotte Brontë, and of their brother, Branwell Brontë, who was a poet and painter.^[1]

 

Maria was the eighth of eleven children of Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne of Penzance, Cornwall, born April 15, 1783. Her father was a prosperous merchant with extensive property holdings in the town, and the family was involved in local politics as well as trade, Maria's brother Benjamin serving as the town's Mayor in 1809. The Branwells and Carnes were leading members of the Wesleyan Methodist community in Penzance cornwall-calling/methodism, and the Branwells were instrumental in building the town's first purpose-built Wesleyan chapel in 1814...

 

Maria was petite, plain, pious, intelligent and well-read with a ready wit. She made friends easily, and the friends she had made from Thornton remained life-long friends to Patrick and his children. Her only extant written work, apart from letters, is the unpublished tract The Advantages of Poverty In Religious Concerns. bronte.//family-and-friends/mrs-bronte

 

cornwalls/Penzance/chapel_street

 

 

Maria, let us walk, and breathe, the morning air,

And hear the cuckoo sing,-

And every tuneful bird, that woos the gentle spring.

Troughout the budding grove,

Softly coos the turtle-dove,

The primrose pale,

perfumes the gale

The modest daisy, and the violet blue,

Inviting, spread their charms for you.

15 april 1813

 Patrick Bronte for Maria Branwell

 

 

Artists, Faith, Methodism and the Brontës

A new art exhibition opens at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The exhibition explores the connections between the Brontës and Methodism. Reverend Patrick Brontë's career was nurtured by John Wesley's friend Thomas Tighe and his wife Maria Branwell's family were devout Methodists from Penzance in Cornwall. Perhaps the most significant connection is that Patrick met his future wife because he was invited to be the examiner for the Wesleyan Methodist Boarding School. Aunt Branwell was a strict Methodist and was a powerful influence in the family's lives. Charlotte Brontë describes the Methodist Magazine as 'mad... full of miracles and apparitions, of preternatural warnings, ominous dreams and frenzied fanaticism' and it is this sense of the supernatural that influenced the Brontës' early writing. Ghosts, apparitions, and supernatural communication are features of both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The exhibition has been curated by Nick Cass, a Research Associate in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds who is currently undertaking a research-based PhD on contemporary artistic responses to the Brontës' literary heritage. His selection for Artists of Faith makes thoughtful juxtapositions and reflections on the works. For example, Patrick Heron's Crucifix and Candles, highlights Patrick Brontë's fear of fire and concern for the safety of his family while Graham Sutherland's mediation on sacrifice, Deposition, highlights issues around mortality and loss. Professor Ann Sumner, Executive Director of The Brontë Society comments: "This exhibition coincides with new research on the Wesleyan Methodist Branwell and Carne families in Cornwall by Melissa Hardie-Budden. This summer our visitors will have the opportunity to view these outstanding paintings by major Modern British artists from this little known collection, within the unique setting of the Parsonage. We are delighted to be working with the Methodist Church in partnership for this exhibition as well as the University of Leeds'.Artists, Faith, Methodism and the Brontës

genealogy/Branwell

wiki/Woodhouse_Grove_School

A double wedding anniversary celebration

 

A double wedding anniversary celebration will be held at Haworth Parish Church tomorrow.
It will be 200 years since the Reverend Patrick Brontë, father of the famous sisters, married his wife Maria. He was vicar at Haworth from 1820 to 1861. It will also be 39 years since the current Priest-in-Charge, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith and his wife Eileen, were married.
To mark Patrick Brontë’s double-centenary the bell-ringers at the parish church will carry out a two-and-three-quarter- hour full peal.
Simon Burnett, the Haworth Church bell captain, said: “A full peal of bell involves 5,040 changes in various methods.”
Earlier in the day, the bell-ringers at Guiseley Parish Church, where Patrick and Maria were married, will also be attempting a full peal.The moors, my mistress
---------------------------
When her parents died, Maria had to look for a job. In 1812 her aunt Jane Fennell, who was housekeeper at the Woodhouse Grove School at Rawdon in Yorkshire, invited Maria to assist her. Maria accepted and left Penzance to start a new life. John Fennell, Jane's husband and Maria's uncle, was a methodist minister and the headmaster of the school. In 1812 he invited his former colleague Patrick Bronte to visit the school. Here, he met Maria and after a short courtship the couple were married on 29th December 1812. It was a double ceremony as John and Jane's daughter, Jane Branwell Fennell, also got married to the Reverend William Morgan. On that same day, but in Penzance, Joseph and Charlotte Branwell, two cousins of the brides, got married as well.
history and other thoughts
 

Branwell Family

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY ‘August 14th, 1840.

‘My dear Ellen,—As you only sent me a note, I shall only send you one, and that not out of revenge, but because like you I have but little to say.  The freshest news in our house is that we had, a fortnight ago, a visit from some of our South of England relations, John Branwell and his wife and daughter.  They have been staying above a month with Uncle Fennell at Crosstone.  They reckon to be very grand folks indeed, and 
talk largely—I thought assumingly.  I cannot say I much admired them.  To my eyes there seemed to be an attempt to play the great Mogul down in Yorkshire.  Mr. Branwell was much less assuming than the womenites; he seemed a frank, sagacious kind of man, very tall and vigorous, with a keen active look.  The moment he saw me he exclaimed that I was the very image of my aunt Charlotte.  Mrs. Branwell sets up for being a woman of great talent, tact, and accomplishment.  I thought there was much more noise than work.  My cousin Eliza is a young lady intended by nature to be a bouncing, good-looking girl—art has trained her to be a languishing, affected piece of goods.  I would have been friendly with her, but I could get no talk except about the Low Church, Evangelical clergy, the Millennium, Baptist Noel, botany, and her own conversion.  A mistaken education has utterly spoiled the lass.  Her face tells that she is naturally good-natured, though perhaps indolent.  Her affectations were so utterly out of keeping with her round rosy face and tall bouncing figure, I could hardly refrain from laughing as I watched her.  Write a long letter next time and I’ll write you ditto.  Good-bye.’
------------------------
Maria Brontë and Elizabeth Branwell were the daughters of Thomas Branwell, a successful property owner and merchant of Penzance, and his wife Anne, née Carne. The marriage of 1768 seems to have produced eight daughters and three sons, though four of these children died in infancy. Thomas died in 1809, Anne the next year. Among the sisters of Maria and Elizabeth were Anne, Charlotte (who married a Branwell cousin in Penzance on the same day as Maria married Patrick, and who CB was said to resemble), and Jane, who married unhappily a prominent but peccant Methodist preacher, John Kingston. Among the brothers was Benjamin, who became Mayor of Penzance in 1809. Branwell visitors stayed with the Brontës on at least two occasions. In 1840 they were visited by John Branwell Williams and his family, cousins of their aunt, and Charlotte as usual preferred the male to the female – “Mr Williams himself was much less assuming than the womanites” (to EN, 14 Aug 1840?). Thomas Brontë Branwell, son of Charlotte Branwell, visited in September 1851, and Charlotte’s “the coast is now clear” (in a letter to MW, 22 Sep 1851?, proposing a visit) suggests that he wasn’t someone she was anxious her friend should meet.
Penlee house history-of-penlee
family.rootsweb.ancestry branwell 

THE MATERNAL RELATIVES OF THE BRONTËS

By J. Hambley Rowe, M.B., F.S.G.,
Chairman of the Council, Brontë Society.

While much has been written and more conjectured regarding the ancestry of the Brontës on the paternal side, their maternal forbears have been uniformly neglected. This seems the more inexplicable as it is generally considered that the distaff influences are the more important in the moulding of capabilities and temperament. In point of intrinsic interest, also, the history of the mother's family is quite as attractive as that of the father's.
Maria Branwell, who, at Guiseley, on December 29th, 1812, became the wife of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, was the daughter of Thomas Branwell and Ann Carne, his wife, both natives of Penance. The Branwells resided in that neighbourhood for two centuries before Thomas Branwell's day, and their name, under the various guises of Bramwell, Bramble and Bromwell, is to be found in the registers of the parishes adjoining Penzance.
The earliest mention of this name that I can trace in Cornwall occurs in the Parish of Sancreed in 1605. A former incumbent of the adjoining parish of Paul, John Trernearne, saw his church in the hands of the Spaniards in 1595, when four of their warships made a raid on the Cornish coast. From him was descended Jane Tremearne, who, on July 2nd, 1705, married Martyn Bremble, presumably the son of John Bromwell, whose marriage to Constance is recorded on March 13th, 1657-8, at Madron.
 Read more: genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry Branwell

Maria Bronte

When Maria was six years old, she was characterised as "grave, thoughtful, and quiet, to a degree far beyond her years".

Soon after their mother's death in 1821, Maria and her sisters grew up largely with one another, staying away from society. Maria read the newspaper and revealed her findings to her sisters,

Maria was said to have been a precocious child. According to her father, when he asked 10-year-old Maria "what...the best mode of spending time [was]", she answered, "By laying it out in preparation for a happy eternity.  He later said that he could speak with Maria on any popular topic of the day as fluently as with an adult, and regretfully recalled her "powerfully intellectual mind".

A printer from Thornton also remembered Maria correcting the proofs of one of Mr. Brontë's long poems.
According to Charlotte, she was rather serious and silent than otherwise, and Mrs. Gaskell described her as "delicate, unusually clever and thoughtful for her age, gentle, and untidy".

photos cowan bridge

On 1 July 1824, Maria, 10, and Elizabeth, joined the Cowan Bridge School with Charlotte and Emily following soon after in September. The food provided by the school was generally poorly cooked and unhealthy, and the cook was reported to be "careless, dirty, and wasteful". Both Maria and Elizabeth had just recovered from measles and whooping cough, and despite hunger, they often did not eat. The school register read: Maria Brontë, aged 10 ... reads tolerably. Writes pretty well. Ciphers a little. Works badly. Very little of geography or history. Has made some progress in reading French, but knows nothing of the language grammatically. Miss Andrews, a teacher there, admitted that Maria had a "fine imagination and extra-ordinary talents
In spring 1825, a typhoid epidemic swept through the school, causing the departure of almost a sixth of the students, between February and June 1825. By the winter of 1824, Maria's health was already deteriorating due to consumption. On 14 February 1825, Maria was withdrawn from the school., She lived at Haworth for three months before dying at the age of 11.

Patrick attributed Maria's death to a divine aspect: "She exhibited during her illness many symptoms of a heart under Divine influence. Died of decline".

According to Elizabeth Gaskell, Maria inspired the pious character Helen Burns in Jane Eyre, and a teacher on whom Miss Scatcherd was modeled subjected Charlotte's "gentle patient dying sister [Maria]" to "worrying and cruelty".

One of these fellow-pupils of Charlotte and Maria Bronte's, among other statements even worse, gives me the following:--The dormitory in which Maria slept was a long room, holding a row of narrow little beds on each side, occupied by the pupils; and at the end of this dormitory there was a small bed-chamber opening out of it, appropriated to the use of Miss Scatcherd. Maria's bed stood nearest to the door of this room. One morning, after she had become so seriously unwell as to have had a blister applied to her side (the sore from which was not perfectly healed), when the getting-up bell was heard, poor Maria moaned out that she was so ill, so very ill, she wished she might stop in bed; and some of the girls urged her to do so, and said they would explain it all to Miss Temple, the superintendent. But Miss Scatcherd was close at hand, and her anger would have to be faced before Miss Temple's kind thoughtfulness could interfere; so the sick child began to dress, shivering with cold, as, without leaving her bed, she slowly put on her black worsted stockings over her thin white legs (my informant spoke as if she saw it yet, and her whole face flashed out undying indignation). Just then Miss Scatcherd issued from her room, and, without asking for a word of explanation from the sick and frightened girl, she took her by the arm, on the side to which the blister had been applied, and by one vigorous movement whirled her out into the middle of the floor, abusing her all the time for dirty and untidy habits. There she left her. My informant says, Maria hardly spoke, except to beg some of the more indignant girls to be calm; but, in slow, trembling movements, with many a pause, she went down stairs at last--and was punished for being late.

A very young Elisabeth Taylor as Helen Burns

• Lowood School's headmaster and treasurer is Mr. Brocklehurst, a grim and pious man who runs the institution as cheaply as possible. When Jane first encounters him the fleeting impression she gets at first glance is that of "a black pillar!" (I, 4, p.31). Mr. Brocklehurst has an original in the Reverend William Carus-Wilson (1791-1859), the founder of The Clergy Daughters' School. Carus-Wilson was a Calvinist Evangelist, ordained in 1816. He was also the son of a prosperous landowner. Revelations concerning Carus-Wilson's running of the school caused much controversy in later years.
  The kindly superintendent Miss Temple who Jane develops a close friendship with has a real life counterpart in Ann Evans, who was the superintendent at Cowan Bridge school. Charlotte's favourable depiction of Miss Temple is considered a 'just tribute' to Ann Evans's character.
  
  Another Lowood staff member who was modeled on an actual person is Miss Scatcherd, the History and Grammar teacher who mercilessly bullies Jane's friend Helen Burns. Miss Scatcherd is apparently based on a Miss Andrews, who taught at Cowan Bridge school when the Bronte sisters attended, and Charlotte's portrayal of her is quite the opposite to that of Ann Evans. In fact, along with John Reed, Miss Scatcherd is arguably the most unpleasant character in the novel. In her Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell alludes to the harsh behaviour of Miss Andrews, cruelties echoed in the Lowood section of Jane Eyre, such as when Helen is birched by Miss Scatcherd for having dirty fingernails, despite being unable to wash them due to the water being frozen that morning. Jane-Eyre---Charlotte-Brontes-Inspirations-for-Lowood-School&id=5778074
•  Rebecca Fraser also quotes in her biography on Charlotte Brontë (Vintage, 2003, p. 41), that the original Miss Scatcherd was also the writer (by the name A.H.) of one of the letters that the supporters of Carus-Wilson published around 1857 to discredit the way Charlotte Brontë had portrayed Cowan Bridge as Lowood School in Jane Eyre.
• More info: Brett Harrison, 'The real "Miss Temple'' ' BST 85 (1975)
• blackwell reference
• Susan (Susanna) Harben, born 16 June 1785. Christened 27 June 1785 at St Thomas in the Cliffs, Lewes. Died February 1848, "dear old aunt Sue" who did not marry and became matron of the Clergy Daughter's School at Kirkby, Lonsdale. This was the school Charlotte Bronte was sent to and, according to "Notes on the families of Chamberlain and Harben", Matron Harben was apparently the model for the Matron in "Jane Eyre". The picture to the right of Susan Harben is from "Notes on the families of Chamberlain and Harben".
  http://www.austenfamily.org/harben_main.html

• CB remembered Miss [Ann] Evans with gratitude and regard and pictured her as "Miss Temple" in Jane Eyre. Like Miss Temple, Miss Evans left school to be married on 6 July 1826 at Tunstall Church (...) Miss Evans was succeeded as superintendent of the school by Miss -or Mrs.- Harben, a close friend of Carus Wilson. The courtesy title of "Mrs." was given her of the tragic circumstance of her bridegroom having died in church on her wedding day. Mrs. Harben remained at school until 1843.
• This was the charge, too, that lay at the heart of Elizabeth Gaskell's epistolary feud with Rev Carus Wilson 20 years later. In 1857, Gaskell's biography of her late friend Charlotte Brontë suggested that Lowood, the nightmare school described in the early chapters of Jane Eyre, was a direct transcription of Cowan Bridge, the establishment attended by the Brontë sisters in the 1820s. Gaskell had since visited the place and found it dirty, serving up sour milk in which dust, dirt and goodness knows what floated. It was this "want of cleanliness", implied Gaskell, which had been responsible for the deaths of the two eldest Brontë girls.
  With a howl of indignation, the family of the school's founder, Rev Wilson, conducted a vicious letter campaign against Mrs Gaskell in which she was accused of being a fantasist. Battle lines were drawn, and a teary Mrs Gaskell marshalled her troops, including Charlotte Brontë's clerical widower, into responding on her behalf.  -Guardian-UK-news-

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Maria made the best of it in silence. Like all the members of her family she was endowed with unlimited power of resignation, and never did a complaint escape her lips; but she had an incurable disease. To add to her sufferings she was a prey to the malevolence of one of the teachers, who suspected her wrongly of affecting a mournful air to gain the compassion of her comrades. Maria died ten months after her arrival at Cowan Bridge and Elizabeth a few weeks later. Both sisters had succumbed to tuberculosis.

Charlotte and Emily returned to Haworth towards the end of 1825.
They, were two timid and studious little girls, happy only at home. Charlotte was the gayer and played and talked willingly when she felt at ease. Emily, almost never spoke, but she had so attentive and serious an air that it was difficult to forget her presence. They found at home their brother Branwell, already admired for a very precocious artistic sense, and Anne, who, in her gentleness and her gravity, must have reminded them of the sister Maria whom they had lost.
charlotte-bronte
Years later Mary Taylor told:

Charlotte used to speak of her two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died at Cowan Bridge. I used to believe them to have been wonders of talent and kindness. She told me, early one morning, that she had just been dreaming; she had been told that she was wanted in the drawing-room, and it was Maria and Elizabeth. I was eager for her to go on, and when she said there was no more, I said, 'but go on! Make it out! I know you can.' She said she would not; she wished she had not dreamed, for it did not go on nicely; they were changed; they had forgotten what they used to care for. They were very fashionably dressed, and began criticising the room, etc.

15 april 1813 Patrick Bronte for Maria Branwell

Maria, let us walk, and breathe, the morning air,

And hear the cuckoo sing,-

And every tuneful bird, that woos the gentle spring.

Troughout the budding grove,

Softly coos the turtle-dove,

The primrose pale,

perfumes the gale

The modest daisy, and the violet blue,

Inviting, spread their charms for you.

15 april 1813

 Patrick Bronte for Maria Branwell

This day is the birthday of Maria Branwell 15th April 1783

Maria Branwell was born at Penzance, Cornwall.

Maria Branwell was the eighth child of twelve born to Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne in Penzance, Cornwall, though only five daughters and one son grew to adulthood. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant and owned many properties throughout the town. The Branwell family was involved with local politics, several serving as Mayor in the 19th century and other civic offices. The family were prominent Methodists,Thomas's sister and two of his daughters marrying clergymen of Wesleyan leanings. With the Carne family and others, they initiated and developed the first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Penzance.

/methodism-cornwall[

Branwell Family House

At the seaward end of Chapel Street is Branwell House. This house was the Branwell family home, the mother and aunt of Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell.

This house was built in the 1780s. It has a brick front which has not been painted but kept as a feature. It must remembered that at that time using granite for the facade was considered vulgar. Brick frontage displayed social standing. Having five rooms at each floor,two attic rooms and a south facingwalled garden. The impression one gets of the life there, when Maria and her sisters were young, is of a whirl of social entertainment and visiting of the sort  so vividly discribed by Jane Austin.

St/chapel_Street.

http://st-marys-church.chapelstreet.co.uk/

Maria was petite, plain, pious, intelligent and well read with a ready wit. She made friends easily, and the friends that the Brontë's made in Thornton remained life-long friends to Patrick and his children. Her only extant written work, apart from letters, is the tract, The Advantages of Poverty, In Religious Concerns, but it was never published.

Between 1808 and 1811 four family deaths (including Maria's mother and father) effectively broke up Maria's immediate family and she looked for employment. Her father's sister Jane was the wife of John Fennell, a Methodist minister who, in 1812, was appointed Headmaster of the newly opened Woodhouse Grove School at Rawdon, between Leeds and Bradford in Yorkshire. Jane Fennell acted as housekeeper at the school and she invited her niece to assist her. In the summer of 1812 Maria Branwell travelled to Yorkshire to start a new life.

Maria in a letter to Patrick Bronte

Surely after this you can have no doubt

 that you posess all my heart.

Two month ago

 I could not possibly have believed
that you would ever engross so much

of my thoughts and effections

and far less could I have thought

that I should be so forward

as to tell you so

I feel that my hearth

is more ready to attach itself

to earth than heaven.

Maria had an annuity of £50 a year, which would have been a great help to Patrick Brontë who had nothing but his stipend. Their first home was Clough House, Hightown, near Hartshead, and their first two children, Maria and Elizabeth were born there in 1814 and 1815. In 1815 Mr. Brontë moved to a larger living at Thornton, three miles north of Bradford, where, in a house in Market Street, the other four children were born, Charlotte (1816), Patrick Branwell (1817), Emily Jane (1818) and Anne (1820). In 1820 the family moved to Haworth, and within a year Maria developed cancer (probably of the uterus), and after a harrowing seven and a half month illness, she died on the 15th September 1821.

 

Patrick Bronte preserved the letters Maria had written during their courtship. And long after Maria's death, he gave Charlotte some of her mothers letters. An experience she founddeeply moving.

Feb. 16th, 1850, writing to one of her friends, Charlotte Bronte wrote:

'A few days since, a little incident happened which curiously touched me. Papa put into my hands a little packet of letters and papers, telling me that they were mamma's, and that I might read them. I did read them, in a frame of mind I cannot describe. The papers were yellow with time, all having been written before I was born. It was strange now to peruse, for the first time, the records of a mind whence my own sprang; and most strange, and at once sad and sweet, to find that mind of a truly fine, pure, and elevated order. They were written to papa before they were married. There is a rectitude, a refinement, a constancy, a modesty, a sense, a gentleness about them indescribable. I wish she had lived, and that I had known her.'

Here is one of them:

TO REV. PATRICK BRONTE, A.B. HARTSHEAD.

'Wood House GROVE, September 18, 1812.

'How readily do I comply with my dear Mr. B's request! You see, you have only to express your wishes and as far as my power extends I hesitate not to fulfil them. My heart tells me that it will always be my pride and pleasure to contribute to your happiness, nor do I fear that this will ever be inconsistent with my duty as a Christian. My esteem for you and my confidence in you is so great, that I firmly believe you will never exact anything from me which I could not conscientiously perform. I shall in future look to you for assistance and instruction whenever I may need them, and hope you will never withhold from me any advice or caution you may see necessary.

'For some years I have been perfectly my own mistress, subject to no control whatever-- so far from it, that my sisters who are many years older than myself, and even my dear mother, used to consult me in every case of importance, and scarcely ever doubted the propriety of my opinions and actions. Perhaps you will be ready to accuse me of vanity in mentioning this, but you must consider that I do not boast of it, I have many times felt it a disadvantage; and although, I thank God, it never led me into error, yet in circumstances of perplexity and doubt, I have deeply felt the want of a guide and instructor.

'At such times I have seen and felt the necessity of supernatural aid, and by fervent applications to the throne of grace I have experienced that my heavenly Father is able and willing to supply the place of every earthly friend. I shall now no longer feel this want, this sense of helpless weakness, for I believe a kind Providence has intended that I shall find in you ever earthly friend united; nor do I fear to trust myself under your protection, or shrink from your control. It is pleasant to be subject to those we love, especially when they never exert their authority but for the good of the subject. How few would write in this way! But I do not fear that you will make a bad use of it. You tell me to write my thoughts, and thus as they occur I freely let my pen run away with them.

'Sat. Morn. -- I do not know whether you dare show your face here again or not after the blunder you have committed. When we got to the house on Thursday evening, even before we were within doors, we found that Mr. and Mrs. Bedford had been there, and that they had requested you to mention their intention of coming-- a single hint of which you never gave! Poor I too came in for a share in the had words which were bestowed upon you, for they all agreed that I was the cause of it. Mr. Fennell said you were certainly mazed, and talked of sending you to York, etc. And even I begin to think that this, together with the note, bears some marks of insanity! However, I shall suspend my judgement until I hear what excuse you can make for yourself, I suppose you will be quite ready to make one of some kind or another.

'Yesterday I performed a difficult and yet pleasing task in writing to my sisters. I thought I never should accomplish the end for which the letter was designed; but after a good deal of perambulation I gave them to understand the nature of my engagement with you, with the motives and inducements which led me to form such an engagement, and that in consequence of it I should not see them again so soon as I had intended. I concluded by expressing a hope that they would not be less pleased with the information than wew my friends here. I think they will not suspect me to have made a wrong step, their partiality for me is so great. And their affection for me will lead them to rejoice in my welfare, even though it should diminish somewhat of their own. I shall think the time tedious till I hear from you, and must beg you will write as soon as possible. Pardon me, my dear friend, if I again caution you against giving way to a weakness of which I have heard you complain. When you find your heart oppressed and your thoughts too much engrossed by one subject, let prayer be your refuge-- this you no doubt know by experience to be a sure remedy, and a relief from every care and error. Oh, that we had more of the spirit in prayer! I feel that I need it much.

'Breakfast time is near, I must bid you farewell for the time, but rest assured you will always share in the prayers and heart of your own

MARIA.

'Mr. Fennell has crossed my letter to my sisters. With his usual goodness he has supplied my deficiencies and spoken of me in terms of commendation of which I wish I were more worthy. Your character he has likewise displayed in the most favourable light; and I am sure they will not fail to love and esteem you though unknown.

'All here unite in kind regards. Adieu.'

21-01-1821 Maria Bronte wife of Patrick Bronte was diagnosed with cancer.

Maria was petite, plain, pious, intelligent and well read with a ready wit. She made friends easily, and the friends that the Brontë's made in Thornton remained life-long friends to Patrick and his children. Her only extant written work, apart from letters, is the tract, The Advantages of Poverty, In Religious Concerns, but it was never published. The essay can be found in the book Life and Letters by Clement Shorter.

Maria Branwell was the eighth child of twelve born to Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne in Penzance, Cornwall, though only five daughters and one son grew to adulthood. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant and owned many properties throughout the town. The Branwell family was involved with local politics, several serving as Mayor in the 19th century and other civic offices. The family were prominent Methodists,Thomas's sister and two of his daughters marrying clergymen of Wesleyan leanings. With the Carne family and others, they initiated and developed the first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Penzance.
 

Maria had an annuity of £50 a year, which would have been a great help to Patrick Brontë who had nothing but his stipend. Their first home was Clough House, Hightown, near Hartshead, and their first two children, Maria and Elizabeth were born there in 1814 and 1815.
Clough House, which is in Halifax Road just above Quaker Lane. This is also a 17th century house.

The Peters Church, Heartshead, near Brighouse

See also: hartshead

 

 

Thornbush Farm, known in those days as Lousy Thorn Farm, at Windybank Hightown

 

Patrick Bronte was the minister at St Peter’s from 1811 to 1815 and had lodged at Thornbush Farm near the end of Miry Lane before this.

Clough House, Hightown, near Hartshead 

 

Maria and Elizabeth were born here

 

He moved to Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown (pictured above), on his marriage to Maria Branwell in 1812.

He was at Clough House when the croppers banded together to try to destroy the cropping machines being installed in the large mills. They called themselves Luddites, and met at the Shears inn in Halifax Road to plan the attack. The Shears inn was built in 1773.

Thornbush Farm (Hightown)

The village of Hartshead was the model for Nunneley in “Shirley” by Charlotte (1849).

Left: Market Street, Thornton

In 1815 Mr. Brontë moved to a larger living at Thornton, three miles north of Bradford, where, in a house in Market Street, the other four children were born, Charlotte (1816), Patrick Branwell (1817), Emily Jane (1818) and Anne (1820).

 

In 1820 the family moved to Haworth. Soon after the move to Haworth, Maria Branwell Brontë, exhausted from bearing six children in seven years, died of cancer after a long illness. A servant heard her cry, "Oh God, my poor children!" Charlotte was only five years old. The youngest, Anne, was less than a year old.

29-12-1812 Maria Branwell and Patrick Bronte get married

Between 1808 and 1811 four family deaths (including Maria's mother and father) effectively broke up Maria's immediate family and she looked for employment. Her father's sister Jane was the wife of John Fennell, a Methodist minister who, in 1812, was appointed Headmaster of the newly opened Woodhouse Grove School at Rawdon, between Leeds and Bradford in Yorkshire. Jane Fennell acted as housekeeper at the school and she invited her niece to assist her. In the summer of 1812 Maria Branwell travelled to Yorkshire to start a new life.

John Fennell and Patrick Brontë had been curates together in Wellington, Shropshire in 1808. In 1812 Patrick Brontë was the curate at Hartshead, 12 miles from Rawdon, and John Fennell invited his former colleague to visit Woodhouse Grove School to inspect the teaching of Classics. During his visit, Patrick Brontë was introduced to the newly arrived Maria Branwell, and after a short but determined courtship (Patrick Brontë walking the 24 mile round trip to take Maria out walking!) the couple were married in nearby Guiseley Parish Church on the 29th December 1812. The ceremony was a double wedding sanctioned by special licence. A mutual friend of Fennell and Brontë, The Reverend William Morgan of Bradford, was engaged to Jane, the daughter of John and Jane Fennell.

At the double ceremony, Patrick Brontë solemnised the marriage of William Morgan and Jane Fennell, and then William Morgan solemnised the marriage of Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. John Fennell gave away both his daughter and his niece, and the brides stood bridesmaid to each other. On the same day in Penzance, two cousins of the two brides, Joseph and Charlotte Branwell, were also getting married.

The ceremony taking place on 29 December 1812 at St. Oswald's Church, Guiseley (near Leeds)

Huis van Maria Bronte

Even verderop in Chapel Street, het unieke Egyptian House in oosterse art deco stijl en de Turk's Head Inn, die al meer dan 800 jaar een herberg is. De nieuwe thuis van Louise en de andere samenlevende Heistenaars was een gebouw in Georgian Style, zoals nog een fiks aantal in de straat. Bij het eind van de 19de eeuw werd het pand bewoond door de oude rijke weduwe Hester Kingwell en haar dochter. Daarna, in 1893, werd het de dokterspraktijk van Richard Hosking, die er vervolgens ook met rust ging. Jaren voor Louise en haar gezin in de straat neerstreken, woonde even verderop in het nummer 25 niemand minder dan Maria Branwell, de moeder van de auteurszusjes Bronte!

lees verder  vluchtnaarpenzance

Hair and comb

Sample of Mrs. Maria Brontë's hair (dated 1824).

Emily's comb

Gedichten en brieven

"The primrose pale

Perfumes the gale

The modest daisy, and the violet blue"

Uit een gedichtje dat Patrick Bronte voor zijn vrouw Maria schreef.

Maria schreef hem

"Ik weet zeker

dat niemand ooit van u hield

met een even

 zuivere

 constante

tedere

 en

vurige genegenheid

 als ik voel''

Maria Brontë (nee Branwell)

This is one of the only two known portraits of Anne's mother. She was born, and spent her early life, in Penzance, Cornwall; but met Patrick in Hartshead, Yorkshire, while she was in the area helping her aunt with the domestic side of running a school. Maria was 29 when she married Patrick; the wedding taking place on 29 December 1812 at Guiseley's parish church. Between the years 1814 and 1820 she gave birth to their six children, the last one being Anne; and died, of cancer (believed to be of the uterus), on 15 September 1821 aged 38. Anne was only 20 months old at this time.
_

Penzance en Maria Branwell.

Na de dood van haar vader werd Chapel street eigendom van haar broer Richard, de eigenaar van de Golden Lion Inn.
Het gezin van zijn broer mocht er blijven wonen, zelfs toen zijn schoonzuster een jaar later oerleed. De drie zussen bleven er wonen
(Maria 26 jr, Elisabeth 33 jr en Charlotte 18 jr). In 1812 overleed Richard. Charlotte trouwde haar neef, Richard's zoon Joseph en Maria verhuisde naar Yorkshire om bij een oom en tante te gaan wonen.
_____________________________________

The oldest part of Penzance is the quay. From here it extended up what is now Chapel Street which is rich in history and contains an eclectic mix of buildings and businesses. Most of the street dates back to the mid 18th century but there are a few reminders of the more distant past.

Just up from St Mary's is a small row of houses - what makes these unusual is they are constructed from bricks and not granite as most of the buildings in Penzance are. They were built in the late 18th century and referred to as Rotterdam Buildings as it is said they were built with money from Dutch prizes taken by a Penzance privateer. At the time brick was regarded as being of higher status than granite.

It is in one of these houses(no. 25)


that Maria Branwell lived - she was the mother of  Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell Bronte. Chapel Street has the old inns, The Turks Head and the Admiral Benbow, it is also the street where Maria Branwell, the aunt of the Bronte sisters was born.


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