BBC EXPLORE THE BRONTË SISTERS RATHFRILAND CONNECTION.

Presenter Aoife Hinds visits the birthplace of Patrick Brontë in Rathfriland, County Down, during filming for The Brontës: An Irish Tale to be shown on BBC One Northern Ireland, Tuesday 1 February at 10.35pm and also on BBC iPlayer

The Brontë sisters are widely considered to be quintessentially 19th century English, regional novelists. This is not, however, the whole picture. Dig a little deeper and there is another chapter to their story, rooted in Rathfriland, Co Down, that is every bit as epic as anything penned by the sisters.

In The  Brontës: An Irish Tale, presenter Aoife Hinds (Derry Girls, Normal People, The Last Call) will explore the surprising Irish connections that had a lasting impact on the Brontës, their work and their legacy in locations throughout Ireland and Yorkshire.

Aoife will visit Patrick Bronte's birthplace in Rathfriland, County Down and discover how a rural school teacher ended up studying in Cambridge. She will also explore the romance between Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholls, from County Antrim. 

Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls married after a long courtship and ended up honeymooning in Ireland. Aoife will also visit Banagher, County Offaly, where Arthur lived after Charlotte's death, and discover that it is thanks to Arthur much of the iconic Bronte memorabilia survives to this day.

The  Brontës: An Irish Tale, part of BBC NI’s Season Of Arts, is on BBC One Northern Ireland, Tuesday 1 February at 10.35pm, and on BBC iPlayer.

The documentary is a Clean Slate Television production for BBC Northern Ireland.

The foundation of the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the links with Dewsbury.

 The foundation of the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the links with Dewsbury, through William W Yates in The Dewsbury Reporter:

The new owners dispensed with the services of the paper’s long-standing editor, Mr William W Yates, who, aged 74, was probably deemed too old. Shame on them. However, his enforced retirement allowed him to complete a book he had been writing for 20 years about Patrick Bronte entitled “Father of the Brontës”. Patrick spent only two years in Dewsbury, as curate at Dewsbury Parish Church, from 1809 to 1811, and later became Vicar of Hartshead Church. During his stay here, Patrick made a great impression on the people, especially the poor, and Mr Yates would do the same, some 60 years after him. 

For Mr Yates took up his appointment with the Reporter in 1861, the same year as Patrick Brontë died.
And it was only after Mr Yates arrived here from Leicester that he discovered there was a Brontë connection with Dewsbury and district. Being an astute journalist, he realised how important it was for the paper to trace and talk to those who had known Patrick before they too would pass away.
He interviewed anyone who had known the Brontë family and he quickly realised there was a great need for a society to be formed to safeguard all he had discovered. He also saw the importance of finding somewhere to store all this history, along with the many Bronte artefacts which had been brought to his attention.

It was not long before he became instrumental in founding what is now the highly respected Brontë Society, and he arranged its first meeting in Dewsbury Town Hall. He also played an important part in founding the Brontë Museum in Haworth, where Patrick had been vicar for more than 40 years. While I was doing my own research of the Bronte Society and the part Mr Yates played in it, I was surprised to discover that the Brontë Museum very nearly started life in Dewsbury. For, when the newly formed Brontë Society was looking for somewhere to store their artefacts, the old Dewsbury Borough Council offered them Crow Nest Park. But before the offer could be accepted, Haworth Parsonage was put at their disposal, and this is where the museum still stands today. (Margaret Wilson) 

A final glimpse of Patrick Bronte, thanks to a letter he sent to his niece in Cornwall.

Nick Holland
A final glimpse of Patrick Bronte, thanks to a letter he sent to his niece in Cornwall:

Cottage Poems by Patrick Brontë

A new paperback edition of Patrick Bronté's Cottage Poems:

Cottage Poems
by Patrick Brontë
Paperback: 76 pages
Publisher: Leopold Classic Library (March 20, 2015)

Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.

St. Michael & All Angels Parish Church

More beautiful photo's of Mick Midgley ‎I love Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage

 

 

 

Patrick Bronte had first been asked to come to Haworth in 1819 by the Bishop of Bradford. However, the Bishop had gone over the church trustee’s heads in appointing Bronte, so they were against the idea. Feeling he could not become incumbent of Haworth without the trustee’s support, Bronte declined the position and Samuel Redhead was appointed in his place. As Redhead had also been appointed without consulting the trustees, the parishioners of Haworth were understandably riled, and their unruly behaviour lead to Redhead becoming the shortest serving incumbent in the church’s history, lasting only 6 weeks.

 

In 1820, with the trustee’s agreement, Patrick began the 41 years he would spend as Vicar of Haworth Parish Church. Patrick was a conscientious priest, carrying out his duties as well as directing the National and Sunday Schools. Patrick’s Sunday School is still standing today, you can find out more information about it here. He was a talented preacher and this combined with the high birthrate meant he baptised around 290 children a year. Unfortunately due to the fact that at that time, the life expectancy in Haworth was only around 22 years of age, and 40% of children dying before their 6th birthday, Bronte also held many funerals.

 

Patrick Bronte’s memory is sometimes overshadowed by that of his famous and talented children. Yet in Haworth, then a small, busy, over-crowded mill town, he made a lasting difference to the population with his improvements in education and sanitation as well as performing the role of a popular rural vicar. Text: haworthchurch/the-brontes

 

 

See also: haworthchurch
haworth-village/church/
WilliamGrimshaw 

Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown, Liversedge

Patrick Bronte first came as minister to St Peter's Church, Hartshead from Dewsbury in 1810. At first he lodged at Thornbush Farm, known in those days as Lousy Thorn Farm, at Windybank Hightown (picture next to Patrick Bronte). He moved to Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown (pictured above), on his marriage to Maria Branwell in 1812. The most  famous Brontes were born after the family moved to Thornton, Bradford in 1815. Charlotte (pictured above left) was born there in April 1816.

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.

Despite arriving at Hartshead Church (now St Peter’s) in 1810, Patrick wasn’t officially inducted until July of the following year. He was incumbent there until 1815 when he exchanged parishes with the vicar of Thornton in Bradford. spenboroughguardian

A DOOR which once graced the Spen residence of the Rev Patrick Bronte has found a new home in Dewsbury Minster. 2004
The front door, which is at least two centuries old, was in place at Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown, until about five years ago.  However, its condition had deteriorated so much it had to be removed, though it has been kept in storage at the listed building ever since. Some time ago the owner, Mrs Mary Crowther, offered it to the Bronte Society, who found a suitable home for it at Dewsbury MInster. Imelda Marsden, from the Society, said: "I'm really delighted because it is going back to where Patrick preached. This door has seen a lot of history and the Luddites would have walked past it. I'm thrilled we have found a home for it." dewsburyreporter

HARTSHEAD, to which living Patrick was presented July 20th, 1810, by the Rev. John Buckworth, vicar of Dewsbury, is a small hamlet situated on a commanding eminence overlooking Calderdale, about four miles west of Dewsbury. Hartshead has now been created a parish, but up till a comparatively recent date, it was a chapelry in the parish of Dewsbury, the gift of the living being, as it is at the present day, in the hands of the vicar of Dewsbury. When Bronte came here, there was no parsonage house, so he put up, after his marriage, at a tall house at the top of Clough Lane, in Hightown, a neighbouring hamlet in the parish of Birstall. No doubt all round this commanding height the eye could range for many miles over an open, well wooded and well watered

The Eev. Patrick Bronte entered on his incumbency here on July 20th, 1810. He remained at Hartshead for five years, during which time he became deservedly popular as a preacher, so much so that when he exchanged with the Eev. Thomas Atkinson, incumbent of Thornton, the Hightown folks used often to walk over on a Sunday to hear their old clergyman preach. Mrs. Gaskell tells us that daring his stay here he was reputed as being a " very handsome fellow, full of Irish enthusiasm, and with something of an Irishman's capability of falling easily in love."


Hartshead Churcli, dedicated to St. Peter, with its weather-beaten Norman tower, and its old yew tree
is well worth a careful study. When the second Earl of Warren granted the living of Dewsbury to the priory of Lewes, this church was then in existence, that is, about 1120. It has been restored quite recently, but it still retains its Norman characte-
ristics in a striking manner. Its doorway and chancel arch, although not so highly adorned as the church at Adel, are well worthy of inspection. The old candelabrum of brass suspended from the ceiling, the finely carved reredos, and the quaint stained windows in great part erected to commemorate members of the Armytage family buried here, all take one's attention. The Armytage vault with their crest, a hand grasping a dagger, and the motto " Semper paratus," is seen in the floor of the church. In the vestry, Patrick Bronte's minute signature can be inspected in the register books which date back as far as 1612. The churchyard has nothing very notable in it. The oldest stone is one to the memory of the Hilleley family of Clifton, and bears the date 1614. archive/brontecountry

Temperance reformation and Catholic Emancipation.

Although a strong Tory Patrick Bronte was sympathetic to many Whig ideas. He supported Roman Catholic Emancipation, was against the death penalty for minor crimes, like stealing a loaf of bread, against the workhouse system where families were separated, a man from his wife and parents from their children, and against rotten boroughs where the few voters were bribed to vote for particular members of Parliament. Patrick was one of the few Tories in Haworth, a great believer in the established (Church of England) church among a majority of Dissenters. In Haworth he was a founder member, as was Branwell, of the Haworth Temperance Society.  He was a great believer in education and fought hard to raise money for, first of all a Sunday School and later a day school. He raised money for the poor when there was little work. He raised a subscription to replace the three bells of the church by six new ones so the bell ringers could take part in competitions. brusselsbronte 

Temperance reformation
During 1830, at the beginning of the temperance reformation, twenty temperance societies were founded, totalling between two and three thousand members. The first period of the temperance movement was focused on controlling drunkenness rather than abolishing all alcoholic beverages. history/journal

This photograph proudly displayed alongside other Brontë mementos at the Temperance tea rooms in the family's home village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, the picture was auctioned by Sotheby's in 1898 when the Museum of Brontë Relics closed down and sold off everything it owned. It has not been seen since, although copies of the picture are known to exist. independent

Catholic emancipation

Catholic emancipation was the subject of political debate in the United Kingdom, which intensified in the 19th Century after the Act of Union in 1801. Catholics were not allowed to sit in Parliament¹ and therefore were represented by Protestants. Catholic emancipation — Catholic relief — was designed to give Catholics the right to sit in Parliament.

O'Connel

In 1823, Daniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic lawyer and politician, began a campaign for Catholic emancipation. He was widely successful and raised a great deal of money through 'Catholic Rent', a subscription to an association which cost only one penny a month. His popularity led to his election for the county of Clare in Ireland, even though he could not take his seat in Parliament. Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington felt that the threat of insurrection in Ireland surpassed the threat of allowing Catholics to sit in Parliament⁴. The Catholic Relief Act was passed on 24 March, 1829. It contained a number of securities for the Protestants, including not allowing Catholics to attain certain positions and disenfranchising the 40-shilling freeholders. This meant that people who owned or lived on property worth more than forty shillings had previously been allowed to vote in Ireland, but that the property requirement would now be ten pounds.

Opposition to Catholic Emancipation
The Duke of Wellington, famous for his successes in the Napoleonic Wars, was the Prime Minister of Britain from 1828 - 1830 and the leader of the Tory party, which generally stood for the defence of the status quo. Both Wellington and his second-in-command and future Prime Minister Robert Peel had been against Catholic emancipation in the past, and their about-turn was seen as deceitful and disloyal. Wellington and Peel were of the opinion that the potential unrest in Ireland was preventable only by allowing Catholic emancipation. Many members of their own party opposed the measure, which was only passed with Whig support. The Duke of Newcastle was a strong opponent of Catholic emancipation, and in his diary described how Wellington and Peel 'betrayed their country'. He also attributes this speech to the Duke of Cumberland:

Nothing shall induce me to abandon the principles which I have always maintained and what is more to do my utmost to defeat measures which in my conscience I believe to be destructive of the Throne, the altar and the Protestant Constitution.

The opposition to Wellington and Peel's Catholic emancipation split the Tory party and led to the Whigs taking power for the first time in more than twenty years.
bbc.co.uk

His mother was listed as ‘spinster’ by the hand of Rev'd Patrick Bronte

 This rather grainy picture is of a William Bancroft [1821-1914], a well known resident of the village of Oxenhope near Keighley,showing him in old age.He was born on the 12^th December 1821, the illegitimate son of Mary Bancroft.

The Haworth parish records confirm William’s status as illegitimate, because at his baptism at Haworth Parish Church on 19^th February 1822, his mother was listed as ‘spinster’ by the hand of Rev'd Patrick Bronte.

Read more on: bancrofts from yorkshire

 William's Baptism Record from Haworth

On this day in 1809

 

Patrick Bronte began his curacy at Dewsbury

 

What brought Patrick Brontë to Dewsbury in the first place? Amateur local historian Graham Hardy explains that back in 1809 it seems that he was facing a choice between working in the West Riding or the much warmer climes of the West Indies. Perhaps surprisingly, Patrick chose Dewsbury! Why he made that decision to come here we'll perhaps never really know, but Graham believes it could be because Patrick and others believed it was fertile ground for 'spreading the word' of the Gospel: "They regarded Yorkshire - which was just going through the throes of the Industrial Revolution at that time - as The Promised Land, the land where they were going to save souls."

dewsbury-minster-church-of-all-saints-patrick-bronte

 

It wasn't long before Patrick Brontë made his mark on Dewsbury, according to Graham. He says there are many tales told about this young curate who certainly lived up to his reputation as "clever and good-hearted, but impetuous and hot-tempered" - as one Dewsbury lawyer described him at the time. Graham says: "There was the occasion when a drunk tried to stop a Sunday School procession and Patrick Brontë unceremoniously threw the drunk into the ditch at the side of the road. There was also another occasion when Patrick was doing his Sunday evening meditation in the old vicarage by the side of the Minster and the church bell ringers decided to have an extra practice. Patrick was so upset about this that he seized his shillelagh [a large stick], dashed up to the belfry and actually drove them out!" And Denis Ripley adds that as well as saving souls, Patrick also saved someone's life: "He was walking along the River Calder and he met a group who were acting silly. One boy pushed another into the river. Now, in spite of the fact that he couldn't swim, he jumped in and saved the boy. It was quite a famous incident."

"It was as a result of him coming here that the Yorkshire connection was launched and became famous worldwide!"
Denis Ripley on Patrick's legacy

Patrick Brontë was clearly no shrinking violet, but he was also - even in his early days in Dewsbury - a man of influence who wanted to right any wrongs which took place in the town. Graham explains: "There was a young man called William Nowell who was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. It was claimed by another young man that William had enlisted in the army at Lee Fair - a gathering just outside Dewsbury. William denied this...but he was hauled before the magistrates and flung into prison as a deserter. Patrick was very upset about this so he got together some of the prominent members of the town, credible witnesses, and he wrote to Lord Palmerston, who was Secretary of State for War but who Patrick had known at Cambridge. Palmerston intervened, as well as [social reformer and anti-slave trade supporter] William Wilberforce. Between them the case was reviewed, William Nowell was freed and the chap who'd given the false evidence was transported to the colonies!"

Graham Hardy says that as curate, Patrick Brontë was also well-known for travelling to all corners of his Dewsbury parish in an effort to spread the word on people's doorsteps: "He used to go around to people's houses and he used to preach there. In those days, of course, most churches in the outlying districts like Hanging Heaton, Dewsbury Moor and Batley Carr hadn't even been built. The Dewsbury parish was quite big so there were often important meetings held in people's houses."
It's obvious, then, that Patrick Brontë was an important figure in his own right - never mind the fact that his time in Dewsbury firmly established the roots of the Brontë family in West Yorkshire.

 

Patrick’s Notebook

Bronte Parsonage Museum

From the Treasure Trove: Patrick’s Notebook. This small leather notebook containing details of financial transactions was kept by Mr Bronte. He writes that he should ‘Keep every page of this book for the sake of reference’, and ‘Always when necessary, get receipts’.

Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?

And at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:


Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?
Join us for a short talk on the world's most famous literary father
June 16th 2013 12:00pm - 02:20pm

Charlotte's biographer Elizabeth Gaskell painted him as a stern authoritarian who destroyed his wife's dresses and denied his daughters meat with their meals. We now know, though, that the Gaskell biography was far from reliable. Evidence may, in fact, point to a man who was loving and tolerant, and encouraged his daughters' education in a way that was completely out of step with the attitudes of the time.
To celebrate Fathers' Day we're offering a short talk on the phenomenon of the astonishing self-made Patrick Brontë, father's of the world's most famous literary family, 'Tyrant, or Teddy Bear?'
Here you can read what kind of a man Patrick Bronte really was.

On this day in 1837 Hall Green Baptist Chapel held a meeting calling for the abolition of church rates. Patrick & Branwell Bronte attended and disapproved of the resolution.

bradforddistrictfaithsforum

 

The Hall Green Baptists were active in the movement to abolish Church rates. Patrick attended a meeting there on the subject in February 1837, at which he and his companion “prudently contented themselves with holding up their hands against the resolution” ( Bradford Observer, 2 Mar 1837)
blackwellreference

On this day in 1837/ Meeting held in the Sunday School rooms and chaired by Patrick Bronte to repeal the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, sometimes abbreviated to PLAA,^[1] was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system (with the exception of Scotland, which reformed their poor law in 1845). It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Law of 1601. With reference to this earlier Act the 1834 Act is also known as the New Poor Law.^[2]

Read more on: wikipedia

Patrick Brontë (1777–1861)

Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.
Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.
.kleurrijkbrontesisters/1834-poor-law-amendment-act

In February 1837 Patrick chaired a meeting in Haworth so large it eventually had to take place in the open, calling for the Act to be repealed. Two months later he wrote a powerful letter to the Leeds Intelligencer pleading that the Act could not be tinkered with but must be repealed:

“It is a monster of iniquity, a horrid and cruel deformity”

 he wrote, and followed Dickens in his indignation at the starvation diet prescribed for paupers:

 “ We will not live on their water gruel, and on their two ounces of cheese, and their fourteen ounces of bread per day”

 He imagined them saying. blackwellreference
 

On this day in 1953

Patrick Bronte wrote a reference on behalf of A.B. Nicholls to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He said that Nichols had been his curate for seven years and had ‘behaved himself wisely, soberly and piously.’
Nicholls had applied to the SPG for a missionary post in Australia after Charlotte turned down his proposal of marriage.

William Wilberforce and Patrick Bronte.

On 12-07-1827, William Wilberforce arrived at Keighley for a four-day visit to Theodor Dury. Given his friendship with Dury and his own connections with Wilberforce, it seems more than likely that Patrick Bronte was one of those fortunate  enough to be invited to Keighley vicarage to meet the great man.

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician,philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native ofKingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian, resulting in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform. In 1787, he came into contact withThomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave-trade activists, including Granville Sharp,Hannah More and Charles Middleton. They persuaded Wilberforce to take on the cause of abolition, and he soon became one of the leading English abolitionists. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. wiki/William_Wilberforce

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It was this connection that led Bronte to St John's College (renowned for its evangelical tradition) where he was personally sponsored by William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton.

discover/ancestors_bronte

----------------------------

Patrick Bronte, Emily’s father, was a friend of William Wilberforce’s and joined the campaign to end slavery. wuthering heights

------------------
Wilberforce’s concerns consolidated into 10 categories.

Human rights

1. Literacy programs
2. Universal education
3. Arts
4. Encouraging the talents and gifts of others
5. Science
6. Health care
7. Prisoner Rehabilitation and Re-entry
8. Broadening Philanthropy
9. Faith Leadership the better hour

On this day in 1817 Patrick Branwell Bronte fourth child of the Bronte family was born at Thornton.

As a young man, Branwell Brontë was trained as a portrait painter in Haworth, and worked as a portrait painter in Bradford in 1838 and 1839. His most famous portrait is of his three sisters: he seems to have painted himself out, though a legend holds that after an argument his father rubbed the image out with turpentine.

In 1840, Brontë became a tutor to a family of young boys in Broughton-in-Furness but was dismissed within six months. During this time he did a translation of Horace. He was then employed by the Manchester and Leeds Railway, initially as 'assistant clerk in charge' at their Sowerby Bridge station, being appointed to that post in August 1840, his salary being £75 per annum paid quarterly;^[2] neither the station nor the line had opened – this event took place on 5 October 1840.^[3] Brontë's salary was increased to £130 when he was transferred to Luddendenfoot railway station as 'clerk in charge' on 1 April 1841.^[2] He was dismissed in 1842 due to a deficit of eleven pounds, one shilling and sevenpence in the accounts, probably stolen by Watson, the porter, who was left in charge when Brontë went drinking.^[2] This was attributed to incompetence rather than theft, and the missing sum was deducted from Brontë's salary.^[2] During his period of employment both as a tutor and on the railways he harboured literary ambitions and published poetry under various pseudonyms in the Yorkshire press. Read more: wiki/Branwell_Bronte-

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On the whole, Branwell's critical reputation was cemented by Charlotte's exceedingly unfavorable judgment of him, revealed in a number of bitter letters sent to her publisher just after Branwell's death. According to Brontë scholar Robert G. Collins, Charlotte's assessment “was the sentence of death upon Branwell's reputation.” Charlotte had not spoken to Branwell for about two years before his death, and days after his funeral wrote: “I do not weep from a sense of bereavement … but for the wreck of talent, the ruin of promise, the untimely dreary extinction of what might have been a burning and a shining light. … There is such a bitterness of pity for his life and death, such a yearning for the emptiness of his whole existence as I cannot describe.” Elizabeth Gaskell, whose 1857 biography became the basis for subsequent Brontë studies, received most of her information about the family from Charlotte, who described the sad but welcome death of her brother. In 1886 Francis A. Leyland, a friend of Branwell's, attempted to restore Branwell's character with the publication of The Brontë Family, with Special Reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Claiming that Branwell had been unfairly characterized, Leyland attempted not to clear Branwell of his wrongs but to depict him as a man to be admired in spite of his flaws. Many critics found the book to be dull, however, and continued to maintain their earlier perception of Branwell.

The practice of condemning Branwell continued into the 1940s and 50s, with critics generally claiming that his work showed very little, if any, signs of genius. In 1960, the critical tide turned somewhat when Daphne Du Maurier, in her study The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë, argued that Branwell's reputation had been maligned. A year later Brontë scholar and biographer Winifred Gerin made a case for the need to study Branwell's works as a whole in order to understand his tortured and disappointing life and to comprehend the emotional outlook of the writer. The most recent scholarship echoes Gerin's argument, acknowledging the futility of trying to assess Branwell's overall purpose and qualifications when most editions of his works either include outdated or unreliable information, contain inaccuracies due to difficulties in dating or assigning authorship, or simply bring together fragments of his work. For a proper critical assessment of Branwell's merits as a writer, recent critics contend that a complete and accurate source of all of Branwell's known writings is needed.

Read all the article: enotes.com/patrick-branwell-bronte-criticism/bronte-patrick-branwell

Patrick Brontë

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is partly manned by volunteers who did not disappoint in their dedication and friendliness. Predictably too, Haworth is packed with Bed and Breakfasts; ye OldeTeashops and so on. Nonetheless, a suggestion of tweeness is effectively counteracted by the weight of the history of Brontë family; and the magnificence of the moors. A wide variety of accommodation is on offer (in some cases at top prices) by the locals in the absence- thank goodness - of modern hotel chains. Great efforts are made to create an old world atmosphere in line with theBrontë story. Especially the standard of breakfasts and bakery is high (waist watchers be warned).................

Apart from the moors, Patrick Brontë remained a dominant – one has to say - presence. Over the weekend, one becomes quickly reacquainted with his strong personality; the many tragic aspects of his life; and his energetic commitment to carrying out his pastoral ministry including as Vicar of Haworth, against the background of the lively theological debates raging at the time. Some might   wonder then that the summing up accolade paid to him in the parish church in Haworth in the ceremony to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his marriage to Maria Branwell as well as his Faith, was that  Patrick Brontë was a great British hero - (Oh well; it is the Jubilee  Year!!)................................
Brussels Bronte

1834 Poor Law Amendment Act

When Patrick Brontë opposed the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act little could he imagine that more than 170 years later his words would be so adequate for the current economical situation of his native Ireland. He wrote in 1837 to the Leeds Intelligencer.

Liberty or Bondage
To the Labourers, Mechanics, and Paupers or Slaves of England

(...) A law has lately been passed called the Poor Law Amendment Bill - a great misnomer I never read nor heard. It is a monster if iniquity, a horrid and cruel deformity, even in regard to what before was no very shapely or symmetrical representation. I know a comittee is sitting to amend the bill - but let me tell you, my dear friends, that it cannot be amended; it must be repealed altogether. (...)

We are told in the five books of Moses that the poor shall never cease from the land, and are exhorted to open our hands wide to relieve them. And the eternal God says multiply and replenish the earth. The blessed Saviour, also, follows up these injunctions with still more forcible admonitions. But a set of unfeeling, antiscriptural men, have lately arisen, who, being themselves only paupers on a larger scale, (as they are, in mnay instances supported by the country, and in a great measure, by the very men whom they wish to oppress) - who, nevertheless, teach doctrines in direct opposition to the law and to the gospel. What, then, my friends, are we to do under these circumstances? Why, verily, I see no plan better for us than that adopted by the Apostles, namely, to obey God, rather than man. (...) Then let me request you to do your duty - petition, remonstrate, and resist powerfully but legally, and God, the father and friend of the poor, will crown all your efforts with success. (Patrick Brontë to the Editor of the Leeds Intelligencer, 22 April 1837)

http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/

Patrick Bronte and Wethersfield, Hartshead and Woodhouse Grove School,

 

St Mary's, Wethersfield

 

Patrick Bronte served his first curacy in Wethersfield from 1806 to 1808. He lived in St George’s House, which still stands opposite the Church. He moved to Yorkshire where Branwell, Emily Aime and Charlotte were born.  stepneyrobarts/wethersfield-essex

The register of the parish church of St Mary Magdelene records his stay.  history detail 

Reverend Patrick Bronte (1777-1861)  was appointed curate at Wethersfield, Essex, where he was ordained a deacon of the Church of England, and ordained into the priesthood in 1807. In 1809 he became assistant curate at Wellington in Shropshire and in 1810 he published his first poem Winter Evening Thoughts in a local newspaper, followed in 1811 by a collection of moral verse, Cottage Poems. 

Woodhouse Grove School

The following year (1812) he was appointed a school examiner at a Wesleyan academy, Woodhouse Grove School, near Guiseley. At Guisely Brontë met Maria Branwell (1783–1821), whom he married on 29 December 1812. wiki/John_Wesley

The first inspector at the Woodhouse Grove School was the Rev. Patrick Bronte, who examined the pupils at the end of the summer term. It is probable that the Rev. William Morgan knew that Patrick Bronte had been a successful teacher in County Down. His report on the school has never been quoted and research has failed to find it.  The Woodhouse Grove Academy, or school as it is now called, is on the north bank of the Aire, just below the bridge ; it is delightfully situated in its own grounds, and the governor's house adjoins the school. Whether Patrick Bronte had been to Woodhouse Grove Academy before he went as an examiner we are not told, but before August, 1812, was out, he was sending love letters to the Headmaster's niece, Maria Branwell daughter of Mr. Fennell's wife's brother. Evidently Mr. Bronte's warm-hearted Irish temperament would not allow him to remain a woman-hater for long. The engagement appears to have taken place in July, and the nine letters which have been published point to times of happiness and pleasure, referring to country walks to the historic spots around Apperley, to Calverley and to Kirkstall Abbey; the latter place inspired Patrick Bronte to write a poem on the old abbey. editor/target=post;post

Patrick Brontë and Mary Burder

St George's House, where Patrick Brontë met Mary Burder in 1807 A CHANCE encounter in a Wethersfield kitchen in 1807 almost changed the face of English literature. When Patrick Brontë, the poorly paid and poorly respected curate of St Mary Magdalene walked into the room in St George’s House where his landlady’s eligible young niece Mary Burder was preparing dinner he was instantly smitten. Had the course of true love run smooth perhaps the world would never have had “Jane Eyre”, “Wuthering Heights” or “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” for Patrick might never have become the father of novelists Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. As it was, the romance between the impecunious red-haired Irishman, already aged 30, who had gained his BA at St. John’s College Cambridge through hard graft and the help of some well-placed friends and the 18-year-old daughter of a prosperous local farming family, never ended in marriage. No-one is quite sure why. Not even perhaps the enamoured couple themselves.  The Congregational Chapel where Mary Burder worshipped   The Congregational Chapel on the other side of Wethersfield village green to the church could have had a lot to do with it. Mary Burder’s father had died just before Patrick’s arrival in Wethersfield and the responsibility for her widowed mother and the four children in the family had been taken by her uncle who lived not some miles away in Great Yeldham. Mary’s father had been a churchman, though he shelled out a hundred pounds to help the case of the Congregational minister when he was arraigned, wrongly it transpired, for unmentionable crimes. Her uncle’s family were, however, non-conformists and didn’t look kindly on a match with an Anglican curate. That he was an Irishman didn’t help either. Mary, was whisked off to Great Yeldham.

St Mary's, Wethersfield where Patrick was curate

In fact a marriage to Mary Burder wouldn’t have been too great for Patrick Brontë either. Preferment in the Church of England for a man with a wife who did not share his beliefs would have been difficult to obtain. At any rate Patrick decided that nursing a broken heart in Wethersfield was less attractive than a busy life at a new church in Wellington in Shropshire. He continued to write to Mary for a couple of years but by the time she was 21 and therefore free to wed without her family’s permission, Mary became embittered as the prospect of marriage faded. Somehow Patrick’s letters, and his failure to return to Wethersfield to claim her hand, had turned her love to hatred and she saw herself as a jilted woman. Patrick for his part was coping with a far greater workload than ever the tiny parish of Wethersfield had imposed upon him, and, furthermore, no letters were forthcoming from Mary or her family. He began expressing his admiration of those ministers who could serve God without the distraction of unrequited earthly love. He admitted it was not easy for him but he doesn’t seem to have realised that Mary, too, might have found it hard to understand the situation. Eventually the matter was resolved by Patrick’s meeting, in his new Yorkshire parish of Hartshead, 29-year-old Maria Branwell the petite, though not particularly pretty, daughter of a prosperous Penzance grocer who had gone north to help in her aunt and uncle’s boarding school. Patrick and Maria were married in 1812 and over the next few years five girls and one boy were born to the couple. It was not to be a long marriage. Less than 10 years after the wedding Maria was found to have cancer; her death at 38 after a few months illness left Patrick with six small children aged between two and seven. 

He was in a sad predicament. Although he was now in a permanent benefice at Haworth on the Yorkshire moors he was not well off and no catch for a genteel woman of that period. He proposed to the godmother of some of his children but was brusquely turned down. His wife’s sister had been a tower of strength during his wife’s illness but there was no hope there – in those days marriage to the sister of a deceased wife was not permitted. A further proposal to a

friend’s sister was also rejected.

In desperation Patrick remembered Mary Burder. Was she married? Was there hope of a reconciliation? He wrote to Mary’s mother and received a reply from Mary herself. Yes, she was still single but she wanted nothing to do with a 47-year-old with a family of six to look after. She declined his suggestion of a meeting in Wethersfield.
Patrick, still hopeful, wrote again but there was no reply.

The Manse at Wethersfield where Mary went to live.
 

And Mary? A year or two later she married the minister at Wethersfield Congregational Church, Rev Peter Sibree who declared that in marrying her “he had found that blessing of which I can never sufficiently appreciate the importance – a prudent wife, which is from the Lord.”  They lived in the Manse by the chapel. Wethersfield/lovepages