Wedding proposal Charlotte Bronte nr II. I have heard of love at first sight, but this beats all.

 

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘August 4th, 1839.

‘My dearest Ellen,—I have an odd circumstance to relate to you—prepare for a hearty laugh!  The other day Mr. Hodgson, papa’s former curate, now a vicar, came over to spend the day with us, bringing with him his own curate.  The latter gentleman, by name Mr. Price, is a young Irish clergyman, fresh from Dublin University.  It was the first time we had any of us seen him, but, however, after the manner of his countrymen, he soon made himself at home.  His character quickly appeared in his conversation: witty, lively, ardent, clever too, but deficient in the dignity and discretion of an Englishman.  At home, you know, Ellen, I talk with ease, and am never shy, never weighed down and oppressed by that miserable mauvaise honte which torments and constrains me elsewhere.  So I conversed with this Irishman and laughed at his jests, and though I saw faults in his character, excused them because of the amusement his originality afforded.  I cooled a little, indeed, and drew in towards the latter part of the evening, because he began to season his conversation with something of Hibernian flattery, which I did not quite relish.  However, they went away, and no more was thought about them.  A few days after I got a letter,  of which puzzled me, it being in a hand I was not accustomed to see.  Evidently, it was neither from you nor Mary Taylor, my only correspondents.  Having opened and read it, it proved to be a declaration of attachment and proposal of matrimony, expressed in the ardent language of the sapient young Irishman!  Well! thought I, I have heard of love at first sight, but this beats all.  I leave you to guess what my answer would be, convinced that you will not do me the injustice of guessing wrong.  When we meet I’ll show you the letter.  I hope you are laughing heartily.  This is not like one of my adventures, is it?  It more nearly resembles Martha Taylor’s.  I am certainly doomed to be an old maid.  Never mind, I made up my mind to that fate ever since I was twelve years old.  Write soon.

‘C. Brontë

 

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

‘January 24th, 1840.

‘My dear Ellen,—Mr. Price is dead.  He had fallen into a state of delicate health for some time, and the rupture of a blood-vessel carried him off.  He was a strong, athletic-looking man when I saw him, and that is scarcely six months ago.  Though I knew so little of him, and of course could not be deeply or permanently interested in what concerned him, I confess, when I suddenly heard he was dead, I felt both shocked and saddened: it was no shame to feel so, was it?  I scold you, Ellen, for writing illegibly and badly, but I think you may repay the compliment with cent per cent interest.  I am not in the humour for writing a long letter, so good-bye.  God bless you.

‘C. B.’

 

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEM from Charlotte bronte

Today's the day when Charlotte Brontë's manuscript poem is going under the hammer at Bonhams. La Stampa (Italy) features the poem.

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEM WRITTEN IN HER MINUSCULE HAND SIGNED 'C. BRONTE', dated by her 14 December 1829 and with the autograph note 'from the Young Mans Intelligencer', on a small slip of paper (c. 3 x 3 inches, formerly part of the address leaf of a letter - on the verso survive 'Miss Br' and 'Rev' with a hand-inscribed postal rate), [Haworth Rectory], 14 December 1829

 

 

 

I've been wandering in the greenwoods
And mid flowery smiling plains
I've been listening to the dark floods
To the thrushes thrilling strains

I have gathered the pale primrose
And the purple violet sweet
I've been where the Asphodel grows
And where lives the red deer fleet.

I've been to the distant mountain,
To the silver singing rill
By the crystal murmering mountain,
And the shady verdant hill.

I've been where the poplar is springing
From the fair Inamelled ground
Where the nightingale is singing
With a solemn plaintive sound.

 

Juliet Barker explains that it was probably the expense and shortage of supply of paper that led to the tiny writing adopted by the Brontë children -- 'they developed a minuscule hand, designed to look like bookprint, which allowed them to write many more words to the page. The writing cannot be read without a magnifying glass but as all the young Brontës were shortsighted, this would not have been so much of a problem to them. The tiny hand also had the advantage of being illegible to their father and aunt, so the children enjoyed the delicious thrill knowing that the contents of their little books were a secret shared only among themselves.' The present manuscript is written on the recto of an address leaf addressed to Miss Br[ontë].

This poem is one of her earliest (which date from July to December 1829). In all she wrote about 200 and in 1836, when she wrote to Southey asking for his opinion of her talents, she told him that she wished 'to be for ever known' as a poetess. Southey infamously told her she possessed 'in no inconsiderable degree...the faculty of verse... But it is not with a view to distinction that you should cultivate this talent, if you consult your own happiness.'

 

Henry Nussey finally married

In 1839 Henry Nussey proposed marriage to several young women of his acquaintance, including Charlotte Brontë. “I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you,” she wrote in her unenthusiastic reply, but she claimed to refuse him for altruistic reasons: “mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you” (to HN, 5 Mar 1839). When he was – or thought he was – engaged later in the same year, she wrote honoring him for “not hunting after wealth” (to HN, 28 Oct 1839), but when he actually got engaged she told Ellen “I am glad . . . to hear that Henry is really going to be married, and still more so to learn that his wife elect has a handsome fortune” (to EN, 14 Nov 1844). blackwellreference

Emily Prescott was the daughter of a gentleman of Hampshire origins, and a citizen of Everton, whence she was married, with Ellen as bridesmaid. The latter’s first impressions were favorable: “She is very pious but very agreeably so and quite free from all affectation” (EN to Mary Gorham, 6 Aug 1845). These impressions proved false. “I could not live with one so cold and narrow,” Charlotte was soon writing, though she adds, unflatteringly for Ellen’s brother, “still I think she is just the person for Henry – she will obtain influence over him and keep it” (to EN, 8 Sep 1845).

Ellen Nussey was at Hathersage to prepare a home for her  brother, Henry Nussey, who had been appointed Vicar of  Hathersage, and had married Emily Prescott. His sister stayed at the Vicarage whilst he was on his honeymoon; she even had to select some of the furniture,  and engage the servants, and have everything in readiness for  the return of the bride and bridegroom. So anxious was she to persuade Charlotte Bronte to be with her at this time that she got her brother to write to Charlotte whilst he was on his honeymoon, " for which you deserve smothering," wrote Charlotte to Ellen Nussey in reply.

In Jane Eyre we can read a discription about this happening :

The three days were, as she had foretold, busy enough. I had thought all the rooms at Thornfield beautifully clean and well arranged; but it appears I was mistaken. Three women were got to help; and such scrubbing, such brushing, such washing of paint and beating of carpets, such taking down and putting up of pictures, such polishing of mirrors and lustres, such lighting of fires in bedrooms, such airing of sheets and feather-beds on hearths, I never beheld, either before or since. Mrs. Fairfax had pressed me into her service, and I was all day in the storeroom, helping (or hindering) her and the cook; learning to make custards and cheese-cakes and French pastry, to truss game and garnish desert-dishes.

Emily Prescott seems to have tried to make Ellen pay for her own washing while she remained with them at Hathersage after their return from their honeymoon, suggesting she was the sort of rich person who is bent on holding on to what she has. She and Henry did not remain long at Hathersage. He seems to have got on the wrong side of people in his new parish, including the Duke of Devonshire. Henry ceased to be a practicing clergyman (like many others in the Brontë story), and he and his wife lived for a time in the South of France. She died in Nice in 1907. The notion that they were unhappy in their marriage and separated seems to be untrue. ... blackwellreference

jane-eyre-hathersage-and-the-apostles-cupboard
---------------------------

Charlotte Bronte visited Hathersage in 1845 and used it as the 'Norton' of the story 'Jane Eyre' - taking the heroine's surname from the local family. She also used North Lees Hall, an Elizabethan manor house 2km north of Hathersage as the house where Mrs Rochester jumped from the roof to her death. North Lees is one seven halls built by Robert Eyre of Highlow (there were many local Robert Eyres) for his seven sons and is one of the finest Elizabethan buildings in the region - a tall square tower with a long wing adjoining.
 

Wedding proposal Charlotte Bronte nr 1. "I am not the serious, grave, cool-hearted individual you suppose; you would think me romantic and eccentric."

 

Charlotte Brontë turned down four separate marriage proposals as she was determined not to live with a man she did not think her intellectual moral equal.

 

On March 5, 1839, Charlotte Bronte writes to the Reverend Henry Nussey, declining marriage.

"Before answering your letter, I might have spent a long time in consideration of its subject; but as from the first moment of its reception and perusal I determined on which course to pursue, it seemed to me that delay was wholly unnecessary. You are aware that I have many reasons to feel gratified to your family, that I have peculiar reasons for affection towards one at least of your sisters, and also that I highly esteem yourself. Do not therefore accuse me of wrong motives when I say that my answer to your proposal must be a decided negative. In forming this answer -- I trust I have listened to the dictates of conscience more than to those of inclination; I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you -- but I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you. It has always been my habit to study the character of those amongst whom I chance to be thrown, and I think I know yours and can imagine what description of woman would suit you for a wife. Her character should not be too marked, ardent and original -- her temper should be mild, her piety undoubted, her spirits even and cheerful, and her 'personal attractions' sufficient to please your eye and gratify your just pride. As for me, you do not know me, I am not this serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose -- You would think me romantic and eccentric -- you would say I was satirical and severe. However, I scorn deceit and I will never for the sake of attaining the distinction of matrimony and escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy."
"Before I conclude let me thank you warmly for your other proposal regarding the school near Torrington...the fact is I could not at present enter upon such a project because I have not the capital necessary...It is a pleasure to me to hear that you are so comfortably settled...let me say also that I admire the good sense, and absence of flattery and cant which your letter displayed --! I shall always be glad to hear from you as a friend." manuscripts/bronte-charlotte-autograph

Charlotte's polite demurral seemingly aroused no apparent resentment on the part of the Nusseys, nor does it seem to have weighed on Charlotte's mind, for she remained on companiable terms with Henry for many years, as attested by the following two letters. Published in Letters ed. T.J. Wise and Symington, no.72.

To Ellen Nussey:

You ask me, my dear Ellen, whether I have received a letter from Henry.  I have, about a week since.  The contents, I confess, did a little surprise me, but I kept them to myself, and unless you had questioned me on the subject, I would never have adverted to it.  Henry says he is comfortably settled at Donnington, that his health is much improved, and that it is his intention to take pupils after Easter.  He then intimates that in due time he should want a wife to take care of his pupils, and frankly asks me to be that wife.  Altogether the letter is written without cant or flattery, and in a common-sense style, which does credit to his judgment.
‘Now, my dear Ellen, there were in this proposal some things which might have proved a strong temptation.  I thought if I were to marry Henry Nussey, his sister could live with me, and how happy I should be.  But again I asked myself two questions: Do I love him as much as a woman ought to love the man she marries?  Am I the person best qualified to make him happy?  Alas! Ellen, my conscience answered no to both these questions.  I felt that though I esteemed, though I had a kindly leaning towards him, because he is an amiable and well-disposed man, yet I had not, and could not have, that intense attachment which would make me willing to die for p. 297him; and, if ever I marry, it must be in that light of adoration that I will regard my husband.  Ten to one I shall never have the chance again; but n’importe.  Moreover, I was aware that Henry knew so little of me he could hardly be conscious to whom he was writing.  Why, it would startle him to see me in my natural home character; he would think I was a wild, romantic enthusiast indeed.  I could not sit all day long making a grave face before my husband.  I would laugh, and satirise, and say whatever came into my head first.  And if he were a clever man, and loved me, the whole world weighed in the balance against his smallest wish should be light as air.  Could I, knowing my mind to be such as that, conscientiously say that I would take a grave, quiet, young man like Henry?  No, it would have been deceiving him, and deception of that sort is beneath me.  So I wrote a long letter back, in which I expressed my refusal as gently as I could, and also candidly avowed my reasons for that refusal.  I described to him, too, the sort of character that would suit him for a wife.—Good-bye, my dear Ellen. gutenberg.org/files

Beautiful Photograph Bronte Bridge

tea-drinking book lover diary.

Did a rainbow mean an end?

I received this message from annie-stay at home artist :

""Oh my...did a rainbow mean an end? I hope not, but you haven't been posting.
Where I am it's March 31st...which of course is the date of Charlotte's passing...158 years ago today :("

No Anne, the rainbow isn't the end. I was ill for 2 weeks and didn't have the energy to post. I even did'nt follow what happened in Bronteland. And for me this is very strange.

But.....I am much better now and take up the pen again. Anne, I like it that you missed me!!!!
I am looking now on the internet, what did I miss?????

• 158 years ago. March 31st marks the anniversary of Charlotte's death and it's always a date to pause and reflect on her works, her life, her afterlife.
• Actress Sheila Hancock travelled to Haworth to make a new documentary about the Bronte sisters, and made an “important new discovery” among the love letters written by Charlotte to her married tutor. Read more: thetelegraphandargus
• Actor David tells of horrible history of ‘dirty’ Haworth village. keighley news
• The Emily and Charlotte Bronte pens are made out of wood from the church where the authors are buried, reclaimed from a pew in the church. The Anne Bronte pen is crafted from wood from the Bronte schoolhouse, removed when the building’s window frame needed replacing. thetelegraphandargus
• The parsonage in the snow. facebook.com/#!/groups/

 

 

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre - Teaser Trailer

Jane's story will be told through many different digital platforms - which will develop alongside the story.

You Tube Channel (Next episode is announced for April 3rd)
Jane's Tumblr​
​Jane's Instagram

The Official Twitter of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre.
Facebook of The Autobiography of Jane Eyre

Rainbow

Beautiful picture of a rainbow Rainbow

From Thornton to Haworth by Google Earth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carts laden with the minister's furniture moving to Haworth

Charlotte Bronte was a  girl of six years of age when her father exchanged Thornton for Haworth. We have no glimpse of her at Thornton; we have little enough glimpse of the child and her brother and sisters in the first years at Haworth. When Mrs. Gaskell wrote, there were people who well remembered the departure of Mr. Bronte and his family — die carts laden with the minister's furniture, the delicate mother and her six little children, the eldest, Maria, only seven years of age. The change, if change were helpful, was all to that mother's advantage. The house was much better situated, at a healthier altitude, and pleasantly jutting on the glorious moors. Given genuine health, Mrs. Bronte could have been happy enough at Haworth — hapiner than at Thornton. Bat physical health she had not. She and her family arrived at the vicarage somewhere in April 1820. charlottebronte

Interesting, read: bradford.gov.uk-HaworthRevised

 History: What could the Brontes had seen when they arrived?

 

hawortholdhall

 

It is interesting to note that the four earliest domestic buildings to survive in Haworth conservation area - the only ones clearly pre-dating the 18th century - are located at these 'greens'. At Hall Green there is The Old Hall itself, said to stand on earlier foundations, which is probably of late 16th-century date, as well as No.8 Fern Street, a 17th century farmhouse. At Town End there is No.26 North Street, which can be dated to the late 16th century on architectural grounds, along with Cook Gate farmhouse which formerly had recessed chamfered mullioned windows similar to those in the Fern Street building.

geograph.org.uk

 

Bridgehouse, where the original crossing of the beck was perhaps a ford. The routeway from this

crossing to Hall Green, and thence to Town End, articulated the plan of the industrial village that developed during the late 18th and 19th centuries between these earlier foci.

hallgreenchapel

Haworth was already developing as a centre for the textile industry during the late 17th and 18th centuries, when probate inventories record five pairs of looms and six pairs of combs there, but it reached its most productive period in the mid-19th century. The rise of textile crafts brought a massive increase in the density of housing between the earlier settlement foci, especially along the lane between Hall Green and Town End that became Main Street. In 1851,

 

 

Main Street was recorded as the home of over 130 people involved in woolcombing, weaving and spinning. Additional industrial housing developed in association with the opening of the first water-powered textile mill: the cotton-spinning mill at Bridgehouse, built about 1790. Further textile mills erected along Bridgehouse Beck and the river Worth, including the architecturally important Ivy Bank Mill, together with their associated housing, are outside the conservation area.

 

flickr/ ivy bank mill

 

The nonconformist denominations attracted members of the most prominent families in Haworth. Among these were the Greenwoods, owners of Bridgehouse Mill. They occupied Bridge House, a late 18th-century house next to the mill, until the 1840s when they moved out to Woodlands, a larger

house at the southern end of the conservation area; they were Baptists, and gave financial support to the movement along with the Midgleys, lords of the manor. The Greenwoods' successors at Bridgehouse Mill, R.S. Butterfield and J.R. Redman, were Methodists. archaeology/ConsHaw

britishlistedbuildings/england/bradford/haworth

 

 

And then they reached the Parsonage

 

 

Something About Arthur

 

Few of Emily and Anne’s Gondal-related texts survive. Charlotte and Branwell’s Angria works have fared better. Charlotte’s Something About Arthur is one of these miniature volumes, and is held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
The pages of Something About Arthur, which Charlotte wrote in 1833 at age 17, measure 2.25 by 3.6 inches. The book is 25 pages in length, and some of that scant real estate is claimed by a 42-line poem. In a foreshadowing of the Brontë sisters’ later interest in love and the class system, its plot follows two aristocratic brothers, one of whom narrates the story of the other’s romantic encounter with a poor, but worthy, peasant girl.
 (Rebecca Onion)  bronteblog/something-about-brontes

Heaven is a Home

 

The new exhibition of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Heaven is a Home will open next March 22:
A new collection of photographs and artefacts reveals the secret life of Parsonage through the stories of all those who lived there.
‘Heaven is a Home’ tells the story of all those who lived at the Parsonage both before and after the Brontës, as well as giving fascinating domestic details of the Brontës’ own time at the house.
Built in 1778, the Parsonage was home to clergymen and their families both before and after the Reverend Patrick Brontë’s incumbency. From the Brontës’ time living in the house we have fascinating evidence in the form of letters, sketches and documents, detailing how the house was organised and decorated, what kind of lighting and heating they used and what housework they did.
Read more: heaven-is-home

Diary of Elisabeth Firth

One Miss Elizabeth Firth, who was in 1824 to become the wife of the Rev. James Franks^ Vicar of Huddersfield, was eighteen years of age when, in 18 15, the Rev. Patrick Bronte removed from Hartshead to Thomton. She was living with her father at Kipping House, Thornton. She had been, by the way, a pupil of Miss Richmal Mangnall, the author of the once famous Mangnall' s Questions. That lady was for many years a schoolmistress in the neighbourhood of Wakefield. Miss Firth made speedy acquaintance with Mrs. Bronte, and, as we have seen, became one of the child Elizabeth's godmothers. Miss Firth kept a diary, a diary all too scanty.

It oonsisted the merest notes in a pocket-bode. "We drank tea at Mr. Bronte's, ' is one day*s item, and "" Mr. Bronte and Mrs. Morgan drank test bene,"" is another; and so on through the five years. Mr. Bronte is seen as a most sociable in- dividual, and constant records of tea-drinking are noted. On July 26, 18 16, we learn that "Miss Branwell returned to Penzance," so that we know from this and from no other source that she was in attendance on the young mother when Charlotte was bom. From one entry we learn that Miss Firth had a mind of her own in literature. " Read Old Mortality. Didn't like it," she says in her diary. But she is kinder to some of Sir Walter Scott's later books.

It is to Miss Firth alone that we are indebted for the actual dates of birth of all the Bronte children. On January 17,1820, we find the announcement of another accession to the Bronte family. This was the day that Anne was bom. In that month also the record, '' Gave at Anne's christening, one pound." Altogether, one sighs over the fact that Mistress Elizabeth Firth was not a more voluble person. One real glimpse of Mrs. Bronte as she impressed a sister woman, one vivid picture of these years relative to the birth of Charlotte or Emily, one saying of the poor mother pitilessly hurrying to her doom, would have been pathetically interesting. Two months after Anne's birth we find the entry, " Mr. and Mrs. Bronte came to dinner," and so it seems that both husband and wife had their share of social life in those days, to say nothing of the companionship of the sister from Penzance.
　

Mr. Bronte, it is true, took the Haworth services from February, but it is clear that he left his family behind him then as the guests of the Firths, at Kipping House. As a stalwart walker, the journey to and fro could never have troubled him. His visits to Thornton continue to be recorded in Miss Firth's diary many times during this year 1820. charlottebronte

Elizabeth Firth

Elizabeth Firth, born in 1797, welcomed the Brontës to Thornton when they arrived in 1815: the Firths subsequently formed a close friendship with Patrick and Maria. Elizabeth became one of the two godmothers of Anne (the other was Elizabeth's friend, Fanny Outhwaite). After Maria's death, Patrick made a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth: she declined, but the family friendship remained intact, and she continued to take an active interest in the Brontë children's welfare. In September 1825 she married the Reverend James Franks, vicar of St. Paul's church in Huddersfield. This was only about five miles away from Roe Head School, and on 17 June 1836, at the commencement of the girls' summer holidays, Charlotte and Anne went to stay, for a week, with the Franks at the Huddersfield vicarage. The girls were not totally enthusiastic about the visit as, naturally, they were anxious to return home to Haworth. Patrick pressured them a little to accept the Franks' invitation: he had earlier written to the Franks over his daughters' visit: 'I esteem it a high privilege that they should be under your roof, for a time - where, I am sure, they will see, and hear nothing, but what, under Providence, must necessarily tend, to their best interest, in both the worlds . . .'. Juliet Barker reports: 'The eldest child, John Firth Franks, recollected that Charlotte never spoke to him during the whole time she was there though Anne brought toys to him in the nursery.' ⁵⁵ⁿ Elizabeth Franks died in September 1837 at the age of 40. mick-armitage

Elizabeth Firth Manuscripts
The diaries which form the bulk of the collection are of the simplest kind: brief day-to-day records of social and church occasions in the life of a young girl in the Yorkshire village of Thornton in the 1810s and 1820s. Their principal interest lies in the references to members of the Brontë family with whom Elizabeth was acquainted, and the collection includes a letter from Charlotte Brontë to Elizabeth Firth.

Miss Elizabeth Firth lived at Kipping House at Thornton, near Bradford, to which village the Brontë Family moved in 1815 when Patrick Brontë became curate there. Elizabeth was then 18 years old; her father, John Scholefield Firth, was a doctor; her mother had died in an accident the previous year. A friendship rapidly developed between Elizabeth and Maria Brontë, and both father and daughter were asked to become godparents to the Brontës daughter Elizabeth. In 1820 the Brontës moved to Haworth, and the following year Maria died. In December 1821 Patrick Brontë proposed marriage to Elzabeth Firth, a proposal which is thought to have led to a rupture in her relations with the Brontë family of almost two years before the relationship was resumed. Elizabeth married the Rev. James Clarke Franks in September 1824.

The collection also includes a pedigree of descendants of Elizabeth Firth (Mrs. James Clarke Franks), the Moore Smith and Franks families, compiled by George Charles Moore Smith, her grandson, who became Professor of English Language and Literature from 1896 to 1924, successively at Firth College, University College, and the University of Sheffield as the institution progressed to full university status in 1905. library/special/efirth

On this website you can  see pictures of the house inside. roperties//kipping-house

 

Crofton Hall at Wakefield

  

The Wakefield Express informs of the unveiling of a new blue plaque by the Wakefield Civic Society with Brontë connections:

Brontë fans could soon be making a detour from Haworth to visit Crofton after a blue plaque was unveiled this week in honour of a lady who links the village to the famous family.
The plaque was unveiled at the Young People’s Centre on High Street, which sits on the site where part of Crofton Hall School once stood – the school where Elizabeth and Maria Brontë were once pupils.

Richmal Mangnall was the school’s headteacher in 1802, and author of one of the country’s best-selling books of the time, called Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People. Charlotte Brontë’s copy is on display at the Brontë parsonage in Haworth.

Bonnell43
Title	HISTORICAL/ AND/ MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS, / FOR THE USE OF YOUNG PEOPLE
Description	hardback; brown leather covers and spine; gilt tooling to spine; 442 pages; incomplete; fair; 180mm l x 105mm w x 32mm d
Production place	London
Production dating	1813 - 1813
Material	leather, paper, gilt
Dimensions	whole 180 mm whole 105 mm whole 32 mm bronte.adlibsoft.

 Miss Mangnall was born in Manchester in 1769, but came to Crofton in 1780 to attend Crofton Hall School for young ladies. She stayed on as a teacher when she finished her education, before becoming its owner and headteacher.

Her book was used by teachers, tutors, governesses and parents to educate and inspire children.

Maria and Elizabeth attended the school in 1823.  bronteblog

In summer 1824, Patrick sent Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily to Crofton Hall in Crofton, West Yorkshire  wiki/Anne_Bronte

In 1823 Elizabeth and her older sister Maria were sent to the fashionable girls' boarding school Elizabeth Firth had attended, Crofton Hall at Wakefield. Fees were high, and it is believed Elizabeth Firth may have helped pay them. Mr Brontë had three other daughters, though, and could not afford to educate them all at Crofton Hall on his small stipend. bronte.org.uk

Richmal Mangnall (1769–1820) was an English schoolmistress and writer of a famous schoolbook.

Richmal Mangnall by John Downman watercolour, 1814 collections//Richmal-Mangnall

Richmal was born on 7 March 1769, probably in London. She was one of seven children of James Mangnall of Hollinhurst, Lancashire, and London, and Richmal, daughter of John Kay of Manchester to survive infancy. One brother, James, became a London solicitor, another, Kay, died in the East Indies in 1801. Her parents died about 1781, when she was adopted by an uncle, also John Kay, a Manchester solicitor.^[1] 

Richmal Mangnall began to attend a successful school of about 70 pupils, at Crofton Hall, a Georgian mansion near Wakefield, Yorkshire, built in about 1750.^[2] There it was found possible for a teacher or senior pupil to teach big classes using a system of question and answer. She herself graduated from being a pupil to being a teacher there. The first edition of her Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People (1798) was printed privately and anonymously for use in the school. It was then taken up by the London publishing firm Longman, whose still anonymous 1800 edition was dedicated to John Kay.^[3]
The book became generally known as Mangnall's Questions and was "the stand-by of generations of governesses and other teachers." It had appeared in 84 editions by 1857. Its "level, plain, humane" judgements have been associated with the Age of Enlightenment, and became more open to criticism in the Victorian age, although the catechism type of textbook remained dominant. The British Constitution met with her approval, as did her country's abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, but Wellington was rebuked for vanity and egotism, and Rabelais for lacking "that delicacy without which genius may sparkle for a moment, but can never shine with pure, undiminished lustre."^[4]
Miss Mangnall took over at Crofton about 1808 and supported two unmarried sisters from her highly successful school and publishing earnings. She continued to head it until her death there on 1 May 1820 "after a severe illness, which was borne with the utmost Christian resignation."^[5] She was buried in Crofton churchyard.^[6]
Details of life at Crofton House school appear in an unpublished childhood diary of Elizabeth Firth (born 1797 at Thornton, near Bradford). It was her recommendation that persuaded Patrick Brontë to send his daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Charlotte, and Anne there for a short while in 1823.^[7] A later account of English social history recalls it as "one of the best known girls' schools" and states, "Here the girls learnt some literature, which consisted of Scott's longer poems and The Vicar of Wakefield, read aloud by Miss Mangnall herself, geography, spelling, the catechism, and a little pencil drawing. For bad spelling the young ladies were invariably sent to bed."^[8]