Collection of literary manuscripts by Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Darwin, a distant cousin of Elizabeth Gaskell.

The Library holds the world’s most important collection of literary manuscripts by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), including the only complete manuscript of one of her novels (Wives and Daughters) and her celebrated biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë. Her archive also contains nearly 400 letters from notable figures – including Brontë, Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, John Ruskin and many more – some of which were sent to Gaskell herself and some which she acquired for her own autograph collection. In addition there are artefacts (such as Gaskell’s inkstand) and famous portraits. Two related collections also contain significant Gaskelliana: the Jamison Family Archive, and the papers of Gaskell scholar and collector J.G. Sharps. Material from all of these collections has been digitised, along with some items which remain in the possession of Gaskell’s descendants. Together, these constitute an outstanding digital resource relating to Gaskell, her work and the circles in which she moved. luna.manchester

gaskells-novels

Elizabeth Gaskell knew Martineau and Newman, became friends with some American Unitarians, and definitely embraced the spiritual side of Unitarianism. She thought Priestley's brand of Unitarianism was cold and hard. Jesus, though not Christ, was a living presence, and the Bible remained an indispensable book. But Elizabeth Gaskell was also of the social reform school of Unitarianism, in company with Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale in England, and Theodore Parker and Dorothea Dix in this country.

Gaskell was writing at a time when the mill owners struggled against a social system in which the landowners were paramount and often charged exhorbitant rents to the industrialists. Thomas Malthus direly predicted that population would soon outstrip food supply. Utopian socialists planned alternative, cooperative societies. And Frederick Engels presented his dark picture of the situation in Manchester in "The condition of the Working Class in England." Gaskell's writing seems to us far from radical, and those on the left found her solutions paternalistic. But hers was a paternalism of aiding adult children and watching them become independent agents rather than the "Father Knows Best" paternalism prevalent at the time. In both Mary Barton and North and South she shows the folly of mill owners refusing to inform workers of even good reasons for their actions and assuming that workers wouldn't understand or had no right to know, anyway. Gaskell was one of the few writers with some sympathy for workers's unions. In North and South, she envisioned union leaders acting in an advisory capacity in the affairs of the mills.

Charles Darwin, a distant cousin of Elizabeth Gaskell, published On the Origin of Species, in 1859 and evolution was the center of the public debate throughout the 1860s. Unitarianism still was primarily the rational and scientific religion of Joseph Priestley despite the move toward more spirituality, and Unitarians welcomed the theories and as usual loved discussing Darwin's concepts. At the time, Oxford and Cambridge only allowed Anglican students, and studies concentrated there on ancient languages, literature and history. Science, as a discipline for study, was not valued. Gaskell, in Wives and Daughters illustrates the attitude with a vignette of two sons. The parents hail the eldest, a student of poetry, as the genius of the family, while they view the younger son, with a keen interest in science and nature, as slow-witted. Unitarians studied at other Universities, such as in Edinburg, that may not have been as prestigious, but had great science departments. They were among the Theory of Evolution's staunchest defenders in the early confrontations between science and religion. The Gaskells had two liberal Anglican friends at Oxford, Benjamin Jowett and Mark Pattison, who were charged with heresy for embracing Darwinism and denying the existence of hell. I'm not sure which outraged the Anglican establishment more, but a conviction of heresy was overturned on appeal. uufhc.net

wiki/Charles_Darwin

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

Unitarian theology of the 19th century

North and South is a novel defined by the resolution of binary conflicts: heroine Margaret Hale is presented with a number of divisions of sympathy, between industrialists and the working class, between conflicting views of Mr. Thornton, and even between her conflicting views of her own intelligence.

Mr. Hale’s decision to leave the church due to “painful, miserable doubts” A key insight into Mr. Hale’s reasoning is found during his discussion with Margaret and Higgins, when he states that “your Union in itself would be beautiful, glorious, —it would be Christianity in itself—if it were but for an end which affected the good of all, instead of that of merely one class as opposed to another”. This statement directly mirrors the sentiment of Unitarian theology of the 19^th century as primarily defined by 18^th century scientist and philosopher Joseph Priestley, who famously described the Trinity as foremost of the corruptions of Christianity.

Elizabeth Gaskell, whose husband and father were Unitarian Ministers, would no doubt have been familiar with Priestley’s writing and was known to hold strong Unitarian opinions,  so the statement of the protagonist’s father in this key scene of the novel holds special weight.

Read more"the-concept-of-unity-in-elizabeth-gaskells-north-and-south

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

Gaskell and Unitarianism:

A reaction from Anne  It was Kelli B. Trujillo, in the original article that said

( Gaskell, who was a Unitarian, further skews Bronte’s beliefs as she interprets them through her own less-than-orthodox theological lens.)

I said

Few also seem to ponder if Mrs G 's attack on Patrick Bronte was in part an attack on the Established church itself...I think that has to be considered. People don't know how bitter the dispute between different groups was.

The reaction of Anne makes me wonder about Elisabeth Gaskell and Unitarisme.

Gaskell and Unitarianism:

During her formative years Gaskell had been brought up amongst Unitarians of a Priestleyan cast. These included Turner, Robberds, and her husband. These "old school" Unitarians believed in a deterministic—called by Priestley "necessarian"—universe in which human error inevitably led to suffering, and suffering infallibly brought about reconciliation with God. The plots of her more serious novels conform to the necessarian pattern, sometimes apparently compromising the logic of her social messages. In a crucial scene in North and South she depicts three people, an Anglican, a Dissenter, and an "infidel," kneeling together in mutual tolerance and reconciliation. According to scholar R. K. Webb, "Mrs. Gaskell's Unitarianism is not to be found in her characters but in the dynamics of her narratives and in her comments upon her characters' actions." Not wishing to be identified as a "Unitarian novelist" as this would severely limit her readership, Gaskell was careful not to tell her stories in explicitly Unitarian terms. In her personal letters, however, there are many clear expressions of her religious opinions and affinities. In a letter to her daughter Marianne she wrote, "one thing I am clear and sure about is this that Jesus Christ was not equal to His father." Gaskell preferred devotional to doctrinal preaching. About doctrines, she wrote to Charles Eliot Norton, "I am more and more certain we can never be certain in this world." She rejected "dogmatic hard Unitarianism, utilitarian to the backbone" and protested that she was not "(Unitarianly) orthodox!" See wrote a friend how she had tried to avoid seeing James Martineau, whom she did not like personally and whose "new school" Unitarian theology differed from her own. Gaskell frequently attended Church (Anglican services) as well as Chapel. She enjoyed the spiritual feeling of the high church service. "I wish our Puritan ancestors had not left out so much that they might have kept in of the beautiful and impressive Church service," she confided to Marianne. "But I always do feel as if the Litany—the beginning of it I mean,—and one or two other parts did so completely go against my belief that it would be wrong to deaden my sense of its serious error by hearing it too often." In Gaskell's estimation, true Christianity was not to be found in organized denominations nor in liturgy nor in theology. She believed and acted on a religion of works, "the real earnest Christianity which seeks to do as much and as extensive good as it can." Local action for change by those most intimately concerned, not government legislation, was her solution to social problems. Those who have should help those who have not. For her such charity began at or near home. She took her motto from Thomas Carlyle, "Do the duty that lies nearest to thee." Unitarian rationalist feminist journalist Frances Power Cobbe, after reading a story by Gaskell, wrote, "it came to me that Love is greater than knowledge—that it is more beautiful to serve our brothers freely and tenderly, than to hive up learning with each studious year." The originals of Elizabeth Gaskell's surviving correspondence are scattered in many collections throughout Britain and America. They have been gathered and issued in print, however, in J.A.V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard, editors, The Letters of Mrs Gaskell (1966). The Knutsford Edition, The Works of Mrs. Gaskell, edited by A.W. Ward (1906), 8 volumes, is the most complete edition of Gaskell's works. It does not, however, include The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Gaskell's novels and Charlotte Brontë are readily available in many editions, notably those issued by Penguin and Oxford University Press. Works not mentioned above include a set of serialized stories, My Lady Ludlow (1858); an historical novel, Sylvia's Lovers (1863), and a short novel, Cousin Phillis (1864). Among Gaskell's short stories are "The Poor Clare" (1856), "Lois the Witch" (1859), and "The Grey Woman" (1861). These and some others are collected in Laura Kranzler, editor, Gothic Tales (2000). The contemporary critical response to Gaskell has been compiled by Angus Easson in Elizabeth Gaskell: The Critical Heritage (1991). Two valuable recent biographies of Gaskell are Winifred Gérin, Elizabeth Gaskell, a Biography (1976) and Jenny Uglow, Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (1993). Coral Lansbury, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Novel of Social Crisis (1975) and Angus Easson, Elizabeth Gaskell (1979) are works of criticism with a strong biographical emphasis. Easson has a treatment of Gaskell's Unitarian background and beliefs. More theologically sophisticated, however, is Robert K. Webb, "The Gaskells as Unitarians," in Joanne Shattock, Dickens and Other Victorians (1988). There are shorter treatments of Gaskell in Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Vol. 4: Victorian Writer, 1832-1890 and in Ruth Watts, Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760-1860 (1998). The fullest treatment of Gaskell's husband is Barbara Brill, William Gaskell, 1805-1884 (1984). The story of her relationship with Charles Dickens is briefly told by Sally Ledger in Paul Schlicke, editor, Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens (1999).
elizabethgaskell
wiki/Unitarianism

Charlotte Brontes radical cour

From
todayschristianwoman/charlotte brontes radical cour:


I’m so thankful that Charlotte Bronte had the courage to follow her calling.
I could go on and on about Charlotte’s courage: her courage to reject two marriage proposals and remain single because of her convictions about love and equality; her courage to press through grief when both sisters and her brother died of illness in a relatively short time frame; her courage eventually to risk her heart and marry a friend she’d grown to love.
Bronte’s courage, both in her literary works and personal life, stemmed from her deeply-rooted faith.
Unfortunately, the spiritual aspects of Bronte’s work are often overlooked or misunderstood. Many movie versions of Jane Eyre seem to be stripped of the Christian themes driving the novel’s narrative (Bronte’s novel quotes Scripture, for goodness sake!). Further, James’s Secret Diaries and Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte both downplay and misstate her faith, portraying it as a fairly unimportant part of her life. (Gaskell, who was a Unitarian, further skews Bronte’s beliefs as she interprets them through her own less-than-orthodox theological lens.)
Yet we know, particularly from Bronte’s letters to her friend Ellen Nussey and correspondence from her eventual courtship and marriage to pastor Arthur Bell Nicholls, that her Christian faith was in fact a profoundly significant part of her identity. This faith in Christ, this deeply ingrained theology, this disciplined spiritual life drove and inspired what some scholars have dubbed Bronte’s “radical Protestant feminism.” Though her views seem tame to us 21st-century readers, it was in fact “radical” in her day to believe that there was an inherent God-given equality between men and women and to assert that women had something important to offer the world and the church.
Charlotte had much cause for discouragement in her life: she lived as a “spinster” in a culture in which singleness was less-than encouraged. She tragically lost close friends and beloved family members to death and disease. She dealt with entrenched gender-barriers as she sought to pursue her call to write. I’m certain—and we can see this in her letters—that Bronte faced periods of intense discouragement. Yet in her pattern of regular Bible reading and memorization, I like to imagine her reading and contemplating these lines: “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
I’m thankful that Bronte held such “radical” views about women. I’m glad she created Jane, a protagonist whose passionate personality and Christian virtue continue to inspire women across the globe. And I’m especially grateful that Bronte found the courage to answer God’s call to write—and to make a profound mark on literature that will continue to endure.
Kelli B. Trujillo is a contributing editor to Kyria.com. She is the author of Faith-Filled Moments: Helping Kids See God in Everyday Life and Busy Mom’s Guide to Spiritual Survival. www.kellitrujillo.com

Posted by Ashley Moore on December 6, 2011

Patrick Bronte and Mary Fletcher. The 'Madeley Circle'

 

Portrait of Mary Bosanquet, later Mary Fletcher (c1739-1815), who lived for 14 years at Cross Hall in Morley and was one of the pioneers of Methodism in the town; John Wesley is known to have been a visitor there. Born in London about 1739, Mary came to Morley in 1768 and bought Cross Hall as a home for the 14 orphan girls she had taken into her care. In 1781 she married the Rev. John Fletcher of Madeley in Shropshire and left Cross Hall to move there with him, but not before finding homes with local families for the orphans in her care. Photograph from the David Atkinson Archive.

leodis

Patrick Bronte left Cambridge in 1806 and, after being ordained, took up a curacy in Wethersfield, Essex. He arrived in Shropshire three years later in a move he may have secured through John Nunn (his former college room mate at Cambridge) the curate of St Chad's, Shrewsbury. In Wellington, Bronte served under the Rev John Eyton, a powerful preacher in the evangelist tradition whose sermons were among the first to be published by Houlston's printers. Eyton's own failing health ensured that Bronte was charged with a wide range of duties, both in the town itself and in the nearby parish of Eyton-Upon-The-Weald-Moors where, on one occasion, the young curate made an assessment for the relief of the local poor. During Bronte's short tenure at All Saints, the friendships of local schoolmaster John Fennell and William Morgan, his fellow curate at the church, proved particularly valuable.

Morgan was responsible for introducing Bronte to the 'Madeley Circle',
A group of like-minded individuals who met in the nearby town at the home of Mary Fletcher, the widow of prominent Methodist preacher Rev John Fletcher. It is probable that Bronte learnt of and successfully applied for the position of Curate at Dewsbury through the group, whose members included John Crosse, Vicar of Bradford. Yorkshire was regarded as a 'promised land' for those practicing the evangelical tradition and Bronte may eventually have ended up in the county at some point anyway. Indeed, it seems to have been a long-held ambition of the young curate. madeley_circle

The Methodists in Bradford
have, like other places around, opened their chapels for services in Church hours and are become wholly dissenters. What reason they had for so doing in Bradford, I could never learn: tho Mr [John] Crosse and his curates are acknowledged by the Methodists as preaching and acting as the Gospel requires, yet they have left us! We have our church as full as ever & the new church is rapidly rising with every appearance of being filled. I am sorry to say that the majority of the committee at Woodhouse Grove [School] did not act towards Mr Fennel as they ought to have done and as they promised to do. I shall not enter into detail on that subject . If however you wish to know the particulars, I have stated them in a letter to Revd. Mr Gilpin…Mr F. may perhaps write to you himself.’ archives

Letter from William Morgan in Bradford to Mary Fletcher.
Morgan is sending a few lines to inform her how he has been since leaving Shropshire. He has much to be thankful for. ‘I have great cause to bless God for my leaving Wellington. The means which led to that circumstance though crooked led me I trust strait forward in the way I should go. I see more and more that men, both good and bad, are instruments in God’s hands & that “He doth all things well”…’
He found that the Methodists at first were ‘remarkably shy; but now we go on well. The different denominations in Bradford act towards each other in a manner highly consistent with those whose religion is – love.’
[John] Crosse left him soon after he arrived, intending to go to Bath and London for two months, but he went no further than Manchester where he stayed to assist Dr [Cornelius] Bayley who has been very unwell for a long time. Crosse has returned but is to leave again for three weeks to help Bayley.
Morgan finds that his health is very good. He likes the people here very much and the work load is not heavy. ‘Religion is flourishing among us’ – Morgan has heard some speak of Fletcher and there are some now in Bradford who were once her ‘fellow pilgrims.’
Mr [Patrick] Bronte has got a living within seven miles of Bradford [Hartshead near Dewsbury, Yorkshire.] where he ‘resides very comfortably and is very useful among his people. He desired me to present his Christian regards…He and I often meet…’ [John] Crosse sends his regards and was pleased to hear how she is doing. Crosse is very ‘hearty’ in all respects other than his near blindness. Morgan boards with him at the Vicarage and they enjoy much conversation together. ‘He still retains all the correctness of a gentleman with the graces of a Christian. He is universally respected by rich and poor. And I fear that they will not fully learn his value, but by his loss.’
Morgan would be pleased to receive a letter from Fletcher. He will also write to Mr Walters. [The Anglican curate at Madeley]
His regards should be passed to [Mary] Tooth.
Annotated by Fletcher – ‘Letters to answer July 18 – [Anne] Tripp, [William] Morgan, [Eleanor] Dickinson’
[ Note: Notes William Morgan was born probably in Bradford, Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University and was ordained into the Anglican ministry. Morgan was the curate of Bradford between 1815 and 1851 and was closely associated with the noted evangelical Rector of the parish John Crosse, whose biography he wrote in 1841. Morgan was Rector of Hulcott in Buckinghamshire from 1851 to 1858 and vanished from the Clergy List in 1867. Source: Dictionary of National Biography under John Crosse and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (1951) John Crosse (1739-1816) was the son of Hammond Crosse, gent. of Kensington, London. He was educated at a school near Barnet, Hertfordshire. It is not known when and by whom Crosse was ordained into the Anglican Church but as a young man he occupied curacies in Wiltshire and the Lock Chapel in London. From 1765 for three years he traveled around Europe and then completed studies at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, from where he graduated B.A. in 1768. In 1776 Crosse was incorporated B.A. at Cambridge and later took the degree of M.A. at King's College. After graduation Crosse held several curacies in the north of England before being appointed Vicar of Bradford in 1784. Crosse was a well-regarded evangelical who despite being afflicted with blindness during the last years of his life, continued to perform the offices of the Church until a fortnight before his death. Under the terms of his will, Crosse founded three theological scholarships at Cambridge University and left money in trust for the promotion of the 'cause of true religion'. His life was made the subject of a book by Rev. William Morgan in 1841. Source: Dictionary of National Biography Cornelius Bayley (1751-1812) was born at Ashe near Whitchurch in Shropshire. His father was a leather breeches maker who appears to have moved to Manchester while Bayley was very young. Cornelius was educated at Whitchurch Grammar School and subsequently worked there as a master. He is referred to in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses and the Dictionary of National Biography as being a Methodist preacher, but he is not recorded in the printed lists of early itinerants. Bayley was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1780. He moved to Manchester and was the first incumbent of the 'proprietary church' of St James, which he built in 1787. The degree of B.D. was conferred on him at Cambridge in 1792, and that of D.D. in 1800. Bayley published an Hebrew grammar in 1792 and a preface to an edition of the 'Homilies' of the Church, published at Manchester in 1811. His other writings include sermons and pamphlets. Bayley's wife Rachel was a close friend of Mary Bosanquet-Fletcher. After her husband's death, she was involved in controversies regarding ministerial oversight of Manchester St James. Source: Fletcher-Tooth collection, Alumni Cantabrigienses compiled by J. A. Venn (1940) and Dictionary of National Biography Patrick Bronte (1777-1861) was born at Emnath, Drumballrooney, Ireland. He was educated at St John’s College Cambridge where he was supported financially by the evangelicals William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton. Bronte was ordained in 1806 and served a curacy in Essex until 1809, after which he became a curate at Wellington in Shropshire for a short time. During his time in Wellington, Bronte made the acquaintance of the prominent lay Methodist Mary Fletcher. In December 1809 he moved to West Yorkshire and occupied curacies in several parishes until 1820 when he was appointed Perpetual Curate of Haworth where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He maintained very friendly relations with Methodists and served for a time as examiner at Woodhouse Grove School near Leeds. During his visits to the school, Bronte met Maria Branwell who he later married. Bronte was a published poet in his own right but his chief claim to fame lies in his daughters, the famous Bronte sisters of Haworth. Source: Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, edited by Donald Lewis (1995) and The Story of Woodhouse Grove School by F. C. Pritchard (1978), 19-20. Eleanor Dickenson (1747-1815) was born at Horsforth near Leeds, Yorkshire, the daughter of Robert and Anne Thornton. Orphaned by the age of nine, Eleanor was converted at an early age and was a devout member of the Church of England. At the age of 21 she began to attend Methodist preaching and in 1773 married Abraham Dickinson (d.1804), a member of the Leeds Methodist Society. Eleanor was a close friend and regular correspondent of Mary Bosanquet-Fletcher. A generous giver to the poor, Eleanor acted as a class leader for many years and enjoyed a wide reputation for saintliness of character. Source: Methodist Magazine 1819, 683ff ] archives

Patrick and Maria Brontë’s strong religious faith

Maria Branwell was the eighth child of twelve born to Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne in Penzance, Cornwall, England, 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.

 He moved to England in 1802 to study theology at St. John's College, Cambridge, and received his BA degree in 1806. he was then appointed curate at Wethersfield, Essex, where he was ordained a deacon of the Church of England in 1806, and into the priesthood in 1807.^[3]

Read: google.nl/brontes and religion 

Patrick Brontë’s strong religious faith was firmly based on the King James Bible, quotations from which are freely found in his correspondence and fictional works. Doubts about the reliability of this version or the veracity of some of its statements do not seem to have troubled him. Unlike his daughters he seems to have had no difficulty with the Old Testament doctrine that the wicked will be punished in this world or the New Testament doctrine of eternal punishment hereafter, but he did reject predestination to damnation and was no mean bigot in dealing with Catholics or Nonconformists. Nor would he have approved of the facile optimism of some modern Christian thinking which he would have dismissed as unscriptural.  ingentaconnect

1806 April - Graduated as Bachelor of Arts. Aug - Ordained deacon by The Bishop of London. Oct - Took his first duties as curate in Wethersfield, Essex.
1807 Ordained priest by the Bishop of Salisbury at St. James' Palace
1809 Jan - Started curacy at Wellington, under the Rev'd John Eyton. Nov - Offered the post of chaplain to the Governor of Martinique. Dec - Started curacy at All Saints', Dewsbury, under the Rev'd John Buckworth. Proceeded to an active, caring ministry
 

When I read about the Brontes and the religious influences of their time it dazzles me: What are Wesleyans, Methodists, Nonconformists?

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church^[2][3][4][5] in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597.
As a result of Augustine's mission, the church in England came under the authority of the pope. Initially prompted by a dispute over the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and became the established church by an Act of Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation.^[6] During the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, the church was fully restored under Rome in 1555. Papal authority was again explicitly rejected after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I when the Act of Supremacy of 1558 was passed. Catholic and Reformed factions vied for determining the doctrines and worship of the church. This ended with the 1558 Elizabethan settlement, which developed the understanding that the church was to be both Catholic and Reformed:

• Catholic in that it views itself as a part of the universal church of Jesus Christ in unbroken continuity with the early apostolic church. This is expressed in its emphasis on the teachings of the early Church Fathers, as formalised in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds.^[7]
• Reformed in that it has been shaped by some of the doctrinal principles of the 16th century Protestant Reformation, in particular in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer.^[7]

During the 17th century, political and religious disputes raised the Puritan and Presbyterian faction to control of the church, but this ended with the Restoration. The contemporary Church of England still continues to contain several doctrinal strands, now generally known as Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical. This reflects early divisions. In recent times, tensions between theological conservatives and progressives find expression in debates over women's ordination and homosexuality within the church. The Church of England has ordained women as priests since 1994. A proposed measure which would have allowed the consecration of female bishops was lost by a narrow margin in the General Synod of the Church in 2012.^[8]
Since the Reformation, the Church of England has used an English liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer was based on original writings and translations from the Latin services by Thomas Cranmer. This liturgy has been updated and modernised at various times. The church also adopted congregational singing of hymns and psalms.
The governing structure of the church is based on the traditional parishes which are gathered into dioceses presided over by a bishop. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of All England and a focus of unity for the whole Anglican Communion worldwide. The General Synod is the legislative body for the church and comprises bishops, clergy and laity. Although it is only the established church in England, its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament including the non-English members.
The Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales separated from the Church of England in 1869^[9] and 1920^[10] respectively and are autonomous churches in the Anglican Communion; Scotland's national church, the Church of Scotland, is Presbyterian but the Scottish Episcopal Church is in the Anglican Communion.^[11]

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements. "Wesleyan" was added to the title to differentiate it from the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, founded by George Whitefield who like Wesley and his brother Charles had been a member of the Holy Club in Oxford to which the (originally derogatory) epithet "Methodist" was first applied, and from the Primitive Methodist movement which separated from the Wesleyans in 1807.^[1] The Wesleyan Methodist Church followed the Wesleys in holding to an Arminian theology, as against Whitefield's Calvinism; its Conference was also the legal successor to John Wesley as holders of the property of the original Methodist Societies.^[2]
The title "Wesleyan Methodist Church" remained in use until the Methodist Union of 1932, when the church re-united with the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church to form the current Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Nonconformist, also called Dissenter, or Free Churchman,  any English Protestant who does not conform to the doctrines or practices of the established Church of England. The word Nonconformist was first used in the penal acts following the Restoration of the monarchy (1660) and the Act of Uniformity (1662) to describe the conventicles (places of worship) of the congregations that had separated from the Church of England (Separatists). Nonconformists are also called dissenters (a word first used of the five Dissenting Brethren at the Westminster Assembly of Divines in 1643–47). Because of the movement begun in the late 19th century by which Nonconformists of different denominations joined together in the Free Church Federal Council, they are also called Free Churchmen.
The term Nonconformist is generally applied in England and Wales to all Protestants who have dissented from Anglicanism—Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Unitarians—and also to independent groups such as the Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, English Moravians, Churches of Christ, and the Salvation Army. In Scotland, where the established church is Presbyterian, members of other churches, including Anglicans, are considered Nonconformists.
Nonconformist

Churches in the neighbourhood of Haworth in the time of the Brontes II

From the interesting website: valendale


Devonshire Street New Church The society's first place of worship in a house in Beckside which was then situated in green fields. The most well known minister of Keighley New Church was the Rev. Joseph Wright who was ordained as the third minister of the New Church in 1790 - the other two being Hindmarsh and Samuel Smith. who had also served in the Great Haworth. Round. The New Church opened its first Sunday school in 1791. In 1805 the society built its first chapel in King Street, on the 1852 map we see it with a grave yard and titled "The Lords Church".  The premises in Devonshire Street were opened in 1891.


Hainworth Wesleyan Methodist Chapel built 1847
Taken from Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education: Volume 2: This is at the little hamlet of Hainworth, two miles up a packhorse route, along; the moors from Keighley towards Halifax, and is in circumstances somewhat similar to the preceding, being used only for a chapel and Sunday-school. It is conveyed to trustees expressly for chapel purposes, with a proviso that it may also be used for a day-school, under the direction of the trustees and the superintendent preacher, unless they should think well to remove the school to some other place. It has never, however, from the first been opened for the purposes of a day-school; and other day-schools having arisen in neighbouring localities, it is not now contemplated to open it for them. The last service at Hainworth Chapel was on 10th April 1977

New Jerusalem Church,  King-street 

Emanuel Swedberg,  scientist and philosopher  Formed the first New Jerusalem Society in Yorkshire. The temple was built in 1805 in King Street adjoining Acers Mill, owned by Barry Smith, who was a member.   See entry for The Lords Church NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named New Jerusalem Church, situated at King Street, Keighley, in the parish of Keighley, in the county of York, in the district of Keighley, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 13th day of January, 1870, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Witness my hand this  21st of January, 1870. Geo. Spencer, Superintendent Registrar.  Quaker Meeting House   Mill Street building bore the date 1709 yet in the Keighley year book for 1950 we find an entry which says it was established in 1690, demolished in 1938. The Upper green Congregational Chapel shared the same yard was not demolished in the clearance. The Society of Friends moved into their Skipton Road meeting house in 1936. Briggs opened a grave yard for friends on land just off North Dean Road which still exists. There used to be a friends burial ground near the Independent Chapel, the 1852 shows their grave yard to be a separate entity. The first one was established in 1690 on Mill Lane and demolished in 1937, the replacement built on Skipton Road in 1936. A reader send me an email about the two different dates. Thank you very much for letting me know.    I was browsing through your blog and noticed the part about Keighley Quakers and your comments about the dates. The first date was when they started using  the first existing building on the site, the second date was the rebuilt building on the same site.   This seemed to be common practice for them, sometimes they would use material  from another building, including the date stone, which can cause confusion later.

Churches and other places of believe in the time of the bronte family in Haworth I

brontesremembered

St Michael and All Angels

In 1742 William Grimshaw, who was a close friend of John Wesley, became curate at Haworth. He was an enthusiastic and hard working curate, preaching as many as 30 times a week. He was also not averse to leaving his services and driving men out of the many public houses at the top of Haworth to listen to his long sermons. Haworth legend says that he even used a whip in order to encourage people out of the pubs into the church. Grimshaw attracted huge congregations with up to 500 communicants and in 1755 the church was enlarged to accommodate the many people who wanted to attend.

In 1820 Patrick Bronte accepted to living of Haworth and moved to the Parsonage with his family. He was a conscientious parish priest who walked many miles a day to tend to his large flock in the neighbouring villages as at the time many people would have come to the services in Haworth from the nearby villages. He baptised an average of 290 people per year, but due to the high mortality rate and the fact that the average life expectancy was just 22 years of age with 40% of children dying before the age of 6, Bronte also performed over 100 funerals per year. There are estimated to be 42,000 burials in the graveyard, many of the graves from the time of the Bronte family hold entire families including a number of infants.
In 1845 Arthur Bell Nicholls, who would later marry Charlotte Bronte, arrived in Haworth. He was appointed as a curate, and due to Patrick’s failing eyesight he soon took over the bulk of the official church duties. Patrick Bronte died in 1861 at the age of 84, having outlived his entire family and having served the Parish of Haworth for 41 years. He is still the longest serving incumbent of Haworth Parish Church. Read more: haworthchurch

Hall Green Baptist Church

The village of Haworth was a major centre of the 18th Century Evangelical Methodist Revival. The Wesley Brothers, Henry Venn and John Newton came to Haworth to preach along with the local Anglican minister, William Grimshaw.
The impact of the revival saw thousands of people from Haworth and the surrounding areas being transformed by the message that they heard. Among those affected by the Gospel ministry in the village were a group of Baptists who initially met some 10 miles away in the village of Sutton-in-Craven. Encouraged by Grimshaw, the Baptists began to meet in Haworth in 1752 at West Lane.
By 1785 some of the Baptists had begun to meet in the barn at the bottom of Brow Road in Haworth. In doing so they began to become established as an integral part of the village community.
The barn was convenient in that it was adjacent to the premises of local mill owner and Baptist John Greenwood as well as being near to Bridgehouse Beck, which was most likely used by the Baptists for the total immersion baptism of believers. hallgreenchapel

The Masonic Lodge of the Three Graces

Haworth itself is composed of the Main Street, plus cobbled roads lined with 18th and 19th century stone cottages.

“Lodge Street, leading off Main Street, takes its name from the fact that meetings of the Masonic Lodge of the Three Graces, to which Branwell was initiated in 1836, took place here,” writes Dinsdale in regards to the photo above. “The house facing was the home of William Wood, joiner and cabinet maker. The blocked-up doorway formerly led to his workshop on the second floor.”
masonic
 

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

Anne Bronte at Roe head.

At fifteen, it was Anne's first time away from home. She was quiet and hard working, and determined to stay and get the education that would allow her to support herself.^[33][34] Anne stayed for two years, winning a good-conduct medal in December 1836, and returning home only during Christmas and the summer holidays. Anne and Charlotte do not appear to have been close during their time at Roe Head (Charlotte's letters almost never mention Anne) but Charlotte was concerned about the health of her sister. At some point before December 1837, Anne became seriously ill with gastritis and underwent a religious crisis.^[35]

Towards the end of 1837, and while still at Roe Head School, the 17 years old Anne suffered a very serious illness. Charlotte described her symptoms as 'pain' and 'difficulty of breathing', the latter was assumed to be a symptom of asthma, from which she had suffered since early childhood. Concurrent with her illness, she also underwent a religious crisis: 56  she was experiencing deep depression and fear on account of the hard-line preachings of the local churches: a circle of clergy that tended to follow the scriptures to the letter, and made great emphasis on the Calvinist doctrines of hell-fire and eternal damnation, with the suggestion that only the 'elect few' would earn themselves a place in heaven. This was far removed from the much milder convictions of her Wesleyan aunt, and those preached by her father; whose emphasis was on the 'goodness and infinite mercy of God', and the belief that salvation was attainable by anyone who sought it. With the acute illness she was experiencing, Anne must have felt that death was near, and desperately needed reassurance on these religious matters. In the event, she did not turn for help to the local Methodist churches, of whose clergy were known to her and her father, but to a stranger.

James La Trobe
 

The stranger in question was one reverend James La Trobe - the minister of the Moravian chapel at Wellhouse in Mirfield. The Moravian sect preached doctrines more akin to Patrick Brontë's, than those being advocated at Roe Head. They firmly believed in Universal Salvation, where, 'after a period of purifying purgatory, all men, however wicked, could attain heaven'. Many years later, in 1897, La Trobe sent a letter to his friend and Brontë biographer, William Scrutton of Thornton, and in it recited the occasions he had attended Anne at Roe Head so many years earlier. The extract relating to Anne reads: 'She was suffering from a severe attack of gastric fever which brought her very low, and her voice was only a whisper; her life hung on a slender thread. She soon got over the shyness natural on seeing a perfect stranger. The words of love, from Jesus, opened her ear to my words, and she was very grateful for my visits. I found her well acquainted with the main truths of the Bible respecting our salvation, but seeing them more through the law than the gospel, more as a requirement from God than His gift in His Son, but her heart opened to the sweet views of salvation, pardon, and peace in the blood of Christ . . . and, had she died then, I should have counted her His redeemed and ransomed child. It was not till I read Charlotte Brontë's 'Life'that I recognised my interesting patient at Roe Head, where a Christian influence pervaded the establishment and its decided discipline.' 57

In December Patrick withdrew Anne from the school, and back at home she made a gradual recovery. James La Trobe went on to attain 'bishop' status: he died in 1897 at the age of 95.
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A Word To The Calvinists

You may rejoice to think yourselves secure, You may be grateful for the gift divine, That grace unsought which made your black hearts pure And fits your earthborn souls in Heaven to shine. But is it sweet to look around and view Thousands excluded from that happiness, Which they deserve at least as much as you, Their faults not greater nor their virtues less? And wherefore should you love your God the more Because to you alone his smiles are given, Because He chose to pass the many o'er And only bring the favoured few to Heaven? And wherefore should your hearts more grateful prove Because for all the Saviour did not die? Is yours the God of justice and of love And are your bosoms warm with charity? Say does your heart expand to all mankind And would you ever to your neighbour do, -- The weak, the strong, the enlightened and the blind -­ As you would have your neighbour do to you? And, when you, looking on your fellow men Behold them doomed to endless misery, How can you talk of joy and rapture then? May God withhold such cruel joy from me! That none deserve eternal bliss I know: Unmerited the grace in mercy given, But none shall sink to everlasting woe That have not well deserved the wrath of Heaven. And, O! there lives within my heart A hope long nursed by me, (And should its cheering ray depart How dark my soul would be) That as in Adam all have died In Christ shall all men live And ever round his throne abide Eternal praise to give; That even the wicked shall at last Be fitted for the skies And when their dreadful doom is past To life and light arise. I ask not how remote the day Nor what the sinner's woe Before their dross is purged away, Enough for me to know That when the cup of wrath is drained, The metal purified, They'll cling to what they once disdained, And live by Him that died. Anne Bronte