THE BRONTE SISTERS

                                   Bronte History
                                        

                Most people know that Yorkshire, England was the home of the Bronte sisters whose books are set in the Yorkshire moors. We visited the Bronte Parsonage where an informative exhibit gave us a lot of information.

            Their father, Patrick Bronte, came from a poor family.  He taught himself to read, and at age 16 was a schoolmaster.  Later he attended St. John’s College in Cambridge and changed his name from Prurty or Brunty to Bronte.

            In 1809 he moved to Yorkshire as curator at Dewsbury, then Hartshead. In 1815 he became vicar of Thorton where daughters Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and son Bramwell were born. Daughters Maria and Elizabeth were born prior to this move.

Statue of sisters outside home

      Mrs. Bronte was the daughter of a prosperous merchant. She and Patrick were married in 1812. She died of cancer in 1821. Her sister went to Haworth to care for the children. In1824 the girls were sent away to Clergy Daughters’ School.  Conditions were very poor and the children were not properly feed and became malnourished. Heating was also a problem. Maria and Elizabeth became ill and returned home. Elizabeth and Maria died within a month of each other. Patrick withdrew the other girls from the school.

      Bramwell became a struggling artist but never realized success. He took to drinking and died in 1848 at age 31 of TB complicated by alcoholism.

        Emily died in 1848 at home on the sofa still in the home. Anne died at 28 in 1849.

          Charlotte was the only one to marry. She fell in love with Rev. Arthur Nicholls who had come to the vicarage to assist her dad. Patrick Bronte did not approve of his daughter’s marriage and did not attend the wedding. Charlotte died nine months later from complications of pregnancy. Arthur survived another 51 years and did eventually remarry.

            All the Bronte girls were artistically talented. A self published book of  selected poems only sold two copies, but this did not deter the girls from writing and all went on to write several novels, perhaps the best known are Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.

            The girls all played on the moors. It is speculated, as was the custom in those days, that they had been  told family stories over  the years,  and that is where they got much of the information and imagination for their stories. None of the children lived to see 40.

            Patrick Bronte lived to 84, but was ill and nearly blind in his later years. A large type book and a huge thick magnifying glass sit on a table in his study. Dying in 1861, he outlived his wife and all six of his children.

            We all agreed that the Bronte family history was a very sad one indeed.