Charlotte Brontë

by Claire Harman

  Brontë, Patrick Branwell (CB’s brother): birth and childhood, 1.1, 2.1; imaginative life, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2; quizzed by father, 2.3; precocity, 3.3, 4.1; education, 2.4, 3.4, 4.2; and bog burst, 2.5; and deaths of sisters Maria and Elizabeth, 2.6; social isolation, 3.5 and n; toys, 3.6; contributions to Glass Town and Angrian sagas, 3.7, 3.8, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 9.1; appearance and manner, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 6.2; caricatured as “Wiggins” by CB, 4.7; thinks Rydings “Paradise,” 4.8; teaches at Sunday School, 4.9; perceived Irishness, 4.10, 6.3; lack of religious zeal, 4.11; trains in art, 4.12, 4.13; applies to Royal Academy of Art, 4.14 and n; career as professional artist, 5.3, 6.4; Freemason, 5.4; ambition to be writer, 5.5, 5.6, 6.5, 7.1; opium-taking, 5.7, 9.2, 9.3, 11.1; writes to Blackwood’s Magazine, 5.8, 5.9, 7.2; writes to Wordsworth, 5.10 and n; burnt in effigy after defending father at hustings, 6.6; moves to Bradford studio, 6.7; friendship with William Weightman, 6.8, 7.3; misleads Mary Taylor, 6.9; tutor to Postlethwaite family, 6.10; dissolute behaviour, 6.11, 6.12, 9.4, 10.1, 10.2, 11.2, 11.3; possibly fathers illegitimate child, 6.13; writes to Hartley Coleridge, 6.14; dismissed from job in Broughton, 6.15; takes job at Sowerby Bridge railway station, 6.16; sensibility, 6.17; transfers to Luddenden Foot, 6.18; publishes poems as “Northangerland,” 6.19, 7.4, 9.5; dismissed from job at Luddenden Foot, 7.5; unemployed at home, 7.6; distressed by aunt’s death, 7.7; takes up post as tutor to Edmund Robinson, 7.8; liaison with Lydia Robinson, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8; writing novel, 9.9; unaware of sisters’ literary activity, 10.3; hears news of Edmund Robinson’s death, 10.4; debts, 11.4; sets bed on fire, 11.5; increasing depression and psychotic symptoms, 11.6, 11.7, 11.8; last illness and death, 12.1

  WORKS:

  art works: Terror, 4.1; Queen Esther, 4.2; The Brontë Sisters, 4.3, 13.1; The Gun Group, 4.4 and n, 13.2; portraits commissioned in Bradford, 6.1; A Parody (caricature), 11.1 and n

  poems: “At dead of midnight—drearily,” 6.1; translations of Odes of Horace, 6.2; “Heaven and Earth,” 6.3; “Morley Hall,” 10.1 and n; “Penmaenmawr,” 14.1

  prose: “And the Weary are at Rest” (novel), 9.1; “The Wool is Rising” (story), 9.2

  Brookroyd, Birstall (home of Nussey family), 6.1, 11.1, 13.1, 13.2

  Broughton-in-Furness, Lancashire (now Cumbria), 6.1, 6.2, 6.3

  Brown, John (sexton): sponsors Branwell Brontë into Freemasons, 5.1; friendship with Branwell Brontë, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 9.1; anecdotes about Branwell Brontë, 6.3; Arthur Nicholls’s landlord, 10.1, 14.1; letter from Branwell Brontë, 11.1; and Branwell Brontë’s death, 12.1; disapproval of Arthur Nicholls, 14.2

  Brown, Martha (Brontë family servant): loyalty, 4.1; joins household, 6.1; and Brontë memorabilia, 8.1 and n; as servant, 9.1, 13.1; information given to Elizabeth Gaskell, 12.1, 14.1; initial antipathy to Arthur Nicholls, 14.2; and CB’s last illness and death, 14.3, 14.4; in Patrick Brontë’s will, bm1.1; moves to Banagher, bm1.2

  Brown, Tabitha, 12.1, 14.1

  Brunty, Alice, or Eleanor (née McClory, CB’s paternal grandmother), 1.1, 1.2

  Brunty, Hugh (CB’s paternal grandfather): alternative spellings of name, 1.1; family background, 1.2; domestic life, 1.3

  Brunty, Hugh (Patrick Brontë’s brother)

  Brunty, William (Patrick Brontë’s brother)

  Brussels, Belgium, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

  Buckworth, Reverend John, 1.1, 2.1

  Burder, Mary, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2

  Burdett-Coutts, Angela, 11.1, 14.1

  Burns, Helen (Jane Eyre), 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 2.3, 11.1, 11.2 and n

  Burns, Robert

  Butterfield, Francis, 11.1 and n

  Button, Sarah

  Byron, George Gordon, prl.1th Baron, 3.1, 3.2, 8.1

  Cairnes, John Elliot

  Carroll, Lewis see Dodgson, Charles

  Cartwright, William

  Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton)

  Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, 10.1

  Chapel Royal, Brussels, 7.1, 7.2

  Chapelle, Monsieur (teacher, Brussels), 7.1, 8.1, 8.2

  Coffee House, London, 7.1, 7.2, 11.1, bm1.1

  Chartism, 6.1, 11.1, 11.2, 13.1

  Châteaubriand, René, Vicomte de, 7.1, 7.2

  Chatterton, Thomas

  Chénier, André

  Chitham, Edward, 10.1, bm1.1

  cholera, prl.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

  Christian Remembrancer (periodical), 13.1

  Clayton, A. B.

  Clergy Daughters’ School, Cowan Bridge: establishment and situation, 2.1; trustees, 2.2, 10.1; curriculum, regime and fees, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, nts.1; identification with Lowood School in Jane Eyre, 2.6, 2.7, 13.1; food, 2.8; blamed for CB’s ill-health, 2.9; typhus outbreak, 2.10

  Cockill, Elizabeth, and sisters

  Colburn, Henry

  Coleridge, Hartley, 6.1, 9.1, 9.2, 11.1

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

  consumption (tuberculosis), 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 12.1, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 14.1, 14.2

  Conwy, Wales

  Cook, Ann

  Corn Laws and political unrest

  Crimean War

  Crimsworth, William (The Professor), 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 13.1

  Critic (magazine), 10.1, 11.1

  Crosby, Dr.

  Cuba House, Banagher, and n

  “Currer Bell” (pseudonym) see Brontë, Charlotte

  Currer, Miss, n

  Daily News, 14.1, bm1.1

  De Quincey, Thomas, 5.1, 6.1, nts.1; Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 5.2

  De Renzy, Reverend George

  Delavigne, Casimir Jean-François

  Desart, Earl and Countess of

  Dewsbury (West Yorkshire), 1.1, 6.1

  Dickens, Charles: and Jane Eyre, 2.1, 13.1, nts.1; as possible model to CB, 12.1, 14.1; opportunities to meet, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5; as a social commentator, 13.6, 14.2; Nicholas Nickleby, 2.2 and n, 13.7, nts.2; David Copperfield, 13.8; Sketches by Boz, 14.3; Oliver Twist, 14.4; Barnaby Rudge, 14.5

  Dixon family of Brussels, prl.1, prl.2, 8.1, 8.2

  Dixon, Mary, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3

  Dodgson, Charles (Lewis Carroll), n

  Douglas Jerrold’s Weekly (periodical), 11.1

  Douglas, Marion

  Drumballyroney, County Down, 1.1, 1.2, 4.1

  Dublin University Magazine, 10.1

  Dunloe, Gap of

  Dury family

  Dury, Isabella

  Dury, Reverend Theodore, 2.1 and n, 2.2

  Earl of Liverpool (steamship), 7.1

  Earnley, Sussex

  Earnshaw, Catherine (Wuthering Heights), 10.1, 11.1, bm1.1

  Eastlake, Lady see Elizabeth Rigby

  Easton, Yorkshire

  Edinburgh Review (periodical), 13.1

  Edinburgh, 13.1, 13.2

  Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans)

  Elliott, Ebenezer

  “Ellis Bell” (pseudonym) see Brontë, Emily

  Emanuel, Paul (Villette), prl.1, 8.1, 8.2, 13.1, 14.1

  Engels, Friedrich: Condition of the Working Class in England, 9.1

  Enoch, Frederick

  Evans, Ann (teacher at Cowan Bridge)

  Evans, Mary Ann see Eliot, George, 14.1

  Examiner (periodical), 11.1, 14.1

  Eyre family of Hathersage

  Eyre, Jane (Jane Eyre), 2.1, 3.1, 6.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 10.1, 11.1, 14.1

  Eyton, Reverend John, 1.1, 2.1

  Factory Bill 1843

  Félix, Eliza see “Rachel”

  Fennell family

  Fennell, Jane (née Branwell, first Mrs. John Fennell), 1.1, 1.2

  Fennell, Jane see Morgan, Jane

  Fennell, John, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1 and n, 9.1

  Firth, Elizabeth see Franks, Elizabeth

  Firth, John Scholefield, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2 and n

  “Flossy” (spaniel), 6.1, 8.1, 12.1, 12.2, 14.1

  Foister, Susan R., n

  Fonblanque, Albany

  Forbes, Dr. John

  Forçade, Eugène

  Forster, John,
11.1, 14.1

  Franks, Elizabeth (née Firth), 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1

  Fraser’s Magazine, 11.1, 13.1

  Garrs, Nancy, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1

  Garrs, Sarah, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 12.1

  Gaskell family

  Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn: research for, and writing of, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, bm1.1, nts.1; impressions of Patrick Brontë, 1.2, 2.3, 4.1, 14.1, bm1.2; and criticisms of Life, 2.4; first access to Brontë juvenilia, 3.1; shown Branwell’s portrait of CB and sisters, 4.2; and opium, 5.1; and CB’s letters to Heger, 9.3, 9.4, bm1.3, bm1.4; fascination with CB, 11.1, 13.1, 13.2; view of CB’s feelings for Arthur Nicholls, 10.1; second thoughts about Emily Brontë, 12.1; writes to CB about Shirley, 13.3; meets CB, 13.4; friendship with CB, 14.2; has CB to stay in Manchester, 14.3; visits Haworth in 1853, 14.4; schemes to further CB’s romance, 14.5; thoughts on CB’s pregnancy and illness, 14.6; hears of CB’s death, bm1.5; Life of Charlotte Brontë, 2.5, 2.6, 5.2, 13.5, bm1.6, bm1.7; Mary Barton, 12.2, 13.6, 13.7; Ruth, 13.8; Cranford, 14.7

  Gaskell, William, 14.1, 14.2

  Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire, 13.1, 14.1

  Gérin, Winifred, 8.1; Charlotte Brontë, 8.2

  Gomersal, West Yorkshire, 4.1, 4.2, 7.1

  Gore, Catherine

  Graham, Dr. Thomas John: Modern Domestic Medicine, 6.1 and n, 12.1

  Grant, Reverend Joseph, 9.1, 9.2, 14.1

  Great Barr, Birmingham

  Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace

  Greene, Thomas

  Greenwood family of Springhead

  Greenwood, John, 4.1, 10.1, bm1.1, bm1.2

  Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, 2.1, 6.1

  Grimshaw, Reverend William, 1.1, 2.1

  Grundy, Francis, 2.1, 4.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 9.1, 11.1

  Hale, Charles

  Halifax Guardian (newspaper), 6.1, 8.1, 9.1

  Halifax, West Yorkshire, 6.1, 10.1, 12.1

  Hardshaw, Reverend Andrew

  Hartley, Margaret (Isaac Kirby’s niece), 6.1, nts.1

  Hartshead-cum-Clifton, Yorkshire, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

  Hathersage, Derbyshire, 9.1, 9.2

  Haworth Parsonage, 2.1, 6.1, 8.1

  Haworth Temperance Society, 8.1, 11.1

  Haworth, West Yorkshire, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 5.1, 10.1 and n; Haworth Moor, 2.3, 4.1, 14.1; bog burst, 2.4; 1837 election, 6.1, 8.1; day school opens, 9.1; post office, 9.2, 10.2, nts.1; pub (The Black Bull), 5.2, 6.2, 7.1, 11.1, bm1.1

  Hayne, Mellaney

  Hayter, Alethea

  Heald’s Hall, Liversedge, Yorkshire

  Heald’s House (school), Dewsbury Moor, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3

  Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), 6.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1

  Heaton family of Ponden Hall

  Heaton, William, 6.1

  Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, n

  Heger family, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4; possession of Brontë papers and memorabilia, 8.5 and 8.6, 9.1, 13.1, bm1.1 and n

  Heger, Claire

  Heger, Constantin Georges Romain: object of CB’s affection, prl.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 14.1; used as a model in CB’s fiction, prl.2, 8.4, 11.1, 11.2, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 14.2, bm1.1; encourages wife to accept Brontë sisters as pupils, 7.1; background, 7.2; characteristics and manner, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 8.5; gives separate lessons to Brontë sisters, 7.6; teaching methods and literary taste, 7.7, 7.8, 8.6; and Emily Brontë, 7.9; advice to CB, 7.10, 8.7, 9.2; behaviour towards favoured pupils, 7.11, 7.12, bm1.2; writes to Patrick Brontë, 7.13, 7.14; feelings for CB, 7.15, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 9.3; reprimands CB’s pupils, 8.12; takes English lessons from CB, 8.13; chill in relations, 8.14; CB describes as “the black Swan,” 8.15; gifts to CB, 8.16, 8.17, 8.18; encourages CB’s plan to set up a school, 8.19; sorrow at parting, 8.20; letters to CB, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, bm1.3; letters from CB, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, bm1.4; and Elizabeth Gaskell, 9.12, bm1.5; CB’s ideal reader, 10.1; and Ellen Nussey’s letters from CB, bm1.6

  Heger, Louise, 9.1, bm1.1 and n

  Heger, Zoë Claire (née Parent): accepts Brontë sisters as pupils, 7.1; background and family life, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1; as proprietress of Pensionnat, 7.4; care of charges, 7.5; offers Brontë sisters a second term, 7.6; goodwill towards Brontës, 7.7, 7.8, 8.2; growing wariness concerning CB, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 9.1; surveillance techniques, 8.6; appearance, 8.7; accompanies CB to Ostend, 8.8; used as model in CB’s fiction, 9.2, 9.3, 11.1, 13.1; and fate of CB’s letters, 9.4, bm1.1, bm1.2; reads Villette, bm1.3; death, bm1.4

  Helstone, Caroline (Shirley), 2.1, 11.1, 13.1, bm1.1

  Henri, Frances (The Professor), 7.1, 9.1, 11.1, 11.2

  Herschel, Sir John, 11.1, 11.2

  Hodgson, Reverend William

  Hogg, James: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, 5.1

  Horsfall, William

  Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, 1.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1

  Hudson, George

  Hugo, Victor

  Hunsworth Mill, 4.1, 6.1, 6.2

  Hunt, Leigh, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3

  hyperemesis gravidarum (illness of pregnancy)

  Ingham family of Blake Hall

  Ingham, Dr. Amos, 14.1, 14.2

  Irish insurgence, 1.1, 1.2

  Jane Eyre (CB): autobiographical elements, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 8.1, 9.1, 11.1, 11.2, 12.1, bm1.1; originality of, 2.5, 9.2, 11.3, 11.4; suggested illustrations, 4.1; inspiration and composition, 8.2, 9.3, 10.1, 10.2, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7; self-portrait in, 8.3; publication, 11.8; critical reception, 11.9, 12.2, 13.1; dedication of second edition to Thackeray, 11.10; third edition, 11.11; “A Word to The Quarterly,” 13.2

  Jenkins family (Brussels), 7.1, 7.2

  Jenkins, Reverend Evan

  Johnson, Samuel

  Kavanagh, Julia

  Kay-Shuttleworth, Lady Janet, 2.1, 13.1, 14.1

  Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir James, 13.1, 14.1

  Keeldar, Shirley (Shirley), 13.1; modelled on Emily Brontë, 11.1, 13.2

  “Keeper” (mastiff), 5.1, 6.1, 8.1, 12.1 and n, 12.2, 14.1

  Keighley Mechanics Institute, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1

  Keighley, West Yorkshire, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 11.1, 13.1

  Kellett, Jocelyn

  Kilkee, County Clare

  Kingston, Eliza, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1

  Kingston, Jane (née Branwell), 7.1

  Kirby family of Bradford; see also Hartley, Margaret

  Kirk Smeaton, West Yorkshire, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3

  Kirke White, Henry

  Kirkstall Abbey, 1.1, 4.1

  Koekelberg, Brussels, 7.1, 7.2

  La Fontaine, Jean de

  La Trobe, James

  Lamartine, Alphonse de, 7.1, 7.2

  Lascelles, Viscount

  Law Hill (school, Halifax)

  Law, William

  Lawton, Marianna

  Lebel, Joachim-Joseph

  Leeds Intelligencer (newspaper), 6.1, 8.1, 8.2

  Leeds Mercury (newspaper), 2.1, 11.1

  Leeds, West Yorkshire, 4.1, 6.1, 7.1, 11.1

  Leopold I, King of Belgium

  Lewes, George Henry, 11.1, 11.2, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 and n, 14.1

  Leyland, Francis, 4.1, 6.1

  Leyland, Joseph Bentley, 6.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 12.1

  Liddington, Jill

  Lister, Anne, 6.1, 6.2

  Lister, Miss (pupil at Roe Head), 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

  Literary Gazette (periodical), 11.1, 14.1

  Liverpool, 6.1, 9.1

  Lockhart, J. G., 11.1, 11.2, 13.1, 13.2

  London, 7.1, 11.1

  Lowood School (Jane Eyre), 2.1, 2.2, 11.1, 12.1, 13.1

  Luddism, 1.1, 4.1, 11.1

  Macdonald, Frederika, 8.1 and n, 9.1; “The Brontës at Brussels,” 8.2, 8.3

  Macready, William

  MacTurk, Dr

  “The Master” (CB) see The Professor

  Magdalene College, Cambridge

  Manchester, 2.1, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2 and n, 14.1


  Marie, Mademoiselle (teacher, Brussels)

  Martin, John, 3.1, 6.1; Belshazzar’s Feast, 3.2; Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still, 3.3; The Deluge, 3.4; St. Paul Preaching at Athens, 3.5; Queen Esther, 4.1

  Martineau, Harriet: recalls CB’s view of heroines in fiction, 10.1; intrigued by the identity of “Currer Bell,” 13.1; meets CB, 13.2; invites CB to Ambleside, 13.3; criticises Villette, 14.1; obituary of CB, bm1.1; Illustrations of Political Economy, 13.4; Deerbrook, 13.5; Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development, 13.6

  Martineau, James

  Marx, Karl

  Methodism, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1

  Middleton, Kate see Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

  Miller, Lucasta, n

  Millevoye, Charles Hubert, 9.1; “La Chute des Feuilles,” 8.1