 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our Bront� Corner # 4 - and again more Bront�-connected Haworth Treasures |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charlotte's father - The Revd. Patrick Prunty (Brunty) -later changed to Bront� |
|
|
|
|
|
The Early Life of the Bront� sisters' father
Patrick Prunty (or Brunty) was born in 1777 on St Patrick's Day in a simple whitewashed cottage in County Down in Ireland. He was one of 10 children, but very soon showed talent, and at the age of 16 he was already the schoolmaster of the local village school. He then became tutor to the children of a Rector, who encouraged him to aim at going to Cambridge University. In due course Patrick Prunty attended St John's College Cambridge. He became a Church of England curate, first in Essex and later in the county of Yorkshire where he was to spend the rest of his life. |
|
|
|
A change in Patrick's own surname - and his marriage (but not at the time of the wedding!)
While Patrick was serving as a curate at Hartshead near Dewsbury, he married a Cornish woman called Maria Branwell , and he was by this time spelling his name Bront�. The reason for the name-change was due to the fact that Patrick's hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson, had been honoured with the title of "Duke of Bront�", so Admiral Nelson's admirer adopted the same surname for himself !! |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The List of the Incumbents of the Parish Church at Haworth - from 1653 to 1967 |
|
|
|
|
|
The list of incumbents shows that Mr Bront� gave the longest service of all to the parish. The 2nd and the 3rd incumbents on the list were Puritan Ministers brought in during Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth to serve the parish during the years intervening between two separated terms of office of the Royalist clergyman, the Revd J Collier, who had been expelled in 1654, but then afterwards reinstated in the year 1662.
The shortest stay of all was that of Mr Samuel Redhead, who preceded Patrick Bront�. Mr Redhead's stay was violently curtailed because the Patron had failed to consult the local Trustees about the new clergyman's appointment, with the result that the parishioners reacted violently. History records that "On Mr Redhead's 1st three sundays, the church services were completely disrupted by 'horseplay' , and finally Mr Redhead had to be rescued from danger to life and limb by the protection of the friendly landlord of the 'Black Bull' Inn, which still stands beside the church." |
|
|
|
Moving from Parish to Parish within the County of Yorkshire
Patrick and Maria soon had two children, Maria and Elizabeth. Then after an exchange of "livings" with the curate of Thornton, also in Yorkshire, there were born Charlotte, (Patrick) Branwell, Emily Jane and Anne.
It was in February of 1820 that the Bront�s moved to Haworth with their 6 children. And so they began their stay which was destined to make the little moorland township famous. Mrs Bront� was not in good health. It was hoped that conditions at breezy Haworth upon the edge of the moors would be much healthier for her than at Thornton, but instead she found the place cold and bleak, and in September 1821 she died of cancer. |
|
|
|
After Mrs Bront�'s death, Patrick seems to have been greatly distressed by the prattling of his children. He was heard to say that they constantly reminded him of his dead wife, which immediately make's one think that the marriage cannot have been all that happy. Apparently the only meal of the day at which he joined his children was breakfast, when he used to tell them blood-curdling tales of Ireland, about Methodism and about the cotton riots! |
|
|
|
The Bront� children were cared for by their Aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, and by a servant called Tabitha Ackroyd, and although they were brought up fairly strictly, their father encouraged them to think, and the discipline was not harsh. Patrick Bront� was later to become very proud of the children. He was extremely appreciative of their many talents even though they themselves had imagined that he would disapprove, so had their writings published under assumed names. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The Bront� Family Monument was originally in the Old Church, near the family vault. The inscription was cut by Branwell's friend John Brown, who was not only a stonemason by profession, but also the sexton of the church. |
|
|
|
|
|
The Beginning of Schooldays and Times of Tragedy
When Emily was 6-years-old, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily all went to the newly-opened "Clergy Daughters' Boarding School" at Cowan Bridge, about 60 or 70 miles away in Lancashire on the other side of the Pennine Hills. |
|
|
|
It was about this boarding school that Charlotte provides us with her recollections in the "Lowood" of her "Jane Eyre". The school was founded and run by the Revd William Carus Wilson. He was an evangelical with an autocratic temperament, who was determined to provide an adequate education at a low cost for the daughters of his fellow-clergy. But his good intentions were not enough to make it a good school, and not only was the discipline harsh but the conditions were unhygienic and the food was poor. |
|
|
|
Maria was the eldest child and she suffered a great deal from the very harsh discipline. She contracted tuberculosis and was sent home at the age of 11. She died shortly afterwards. Then "low fever" broke out in the school and Elizabeth Bront� died of it just one month after the death of Maria, in the June of 1825. Mr Bront� was so alarmed that he brought home Charlotte and Emily from the school, and they remained there at home for some years. |
|
|
|
[See page 5 of my Bront� Corner for more details and pics about the Cowan Bridge time in their lives.] |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Marriage Certificate from June 1854, of Charlotte Bront� to Mr Arthur Bell Nicholls, who was Patrick Bront�'s curate |
|
|
|
|
|
There are 2 things which interested me on Charlotte's marriage certificate. The first thing is that both their ages were given as "Full Age". And the second thing is that both Mr Nicholls the curate, and Mr Bront�, the clergyman of the parish, described their professions as "Clerk". |
|
|
|
There are a number of other interesting items in a showcase beside the Memorial Chapel.
The record of Emily Jane Bront�'s burial, entered by Mr Nicholls
Mr Bront�'s signature recording the burial of a parishioner
An older 18th Century register in which the death of Revd William Grimshaw is recorded
The 16th Century chained Pulpit Bible from the Old Church |
|
|
|
Musical Background: Sanctus from Requiem by Gabriel Faure |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Number of visits to Tigger & Eeyore n Pooh's "Bronte # 4 Page since
October 28th 2000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SITE MAP
powered by FreeFind |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
by Tigger & Eeyore n Pooh on
August 2nd 2005 |
|
|
Click "Site Map" for details of the 29 pages on Tigger & Eeyore n Pooh's Website |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tigger & Eeyore n Pooh invite you to send a free musical greeting Card of the Day from
CARDS BY MOUSE
Click on the square below, or for the full card menu, click and then scroll right down to the end of the page |
|
|
|
Email Tigger, Eeyore & Pooh at:[email protected] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|