Brontës
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43. Sarah J. Williams to J.A. Erskine Stuart, [c.1886–7]: MS BS xi, 67 p.1, BPM.
44. [PB], Winter Evening Thoughts: A Miscellaneous Poem (London, Longman, and Wakefield, J. Hurst, 1810). The partnership of the printer E. Waller and publisher J. Hurst was also responsible for Buckworth’s A Series of Discourses … Preached in the Parish Church of Dewsbury Yorkshire: see above n.38. I have been unable to locate Nunn’s copy referred to in L&D, 56. Though this is Patrick’s first identified publication I suspect he may have published at Wellington where he mixed in highly literate circles and work by his vicar, John Eyton, had been published by Edward Houlston, the Shropshire printer and publisher who lived and worked in the town: see above, p.994 n.123. Houlston later appears as one of the book’s sellers on the title page of PB, Cottage Poems (Halifax, P.K. Holden, 1811) [Brontëana, 17].
45. L&D, 56–7. The Latin phrase on the title page is ‘Dum, operosa parvus carmina fingo: me quoque, qui facio, judice, digna lini plurima cerno’. Patrick borrowed ‘oper-osa parvus carmina fingo’ from Horace, Odes, iv no.2, ll.31–2but apparently constructed the rest of the sentence himself.
46. The quotation is from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, ch. 9, v.22: Patrick used it again in The Rural Minstrel and The Maid of Killarney.
47. This quotation is from Patrick’s adaptation of the poem which was published as ‘Winter-Night Meditations’ in PB, Cottage Poems, 43–62, see esp. 51 [Brontëana, 40].
48. Ibid., 53 [Brontëana, 40].
49. Ibid., 7–8 [Brontëana, 19].
50. Ibid., xiv [Brontëana, 19–21].
51. Ibid., 1–13, 87–93 [Brontëana, 22–6, 51–3].
52. Robert Southey to CB, 12 Mar 1837: MS BS ix, S p.2, BPM [LCB, i, 166]. Southey is quoting Wordsworth.
53. PB, Sermon on the Gospel According to St Matthew, ch. 3, v.11 [1811]: MS MA 2696 R-V pp.11–12, PM.
54. PB, Sermon on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, ch. 2, vv.28–9 [c.1811]: MS BS 150 pp.2–3, 8, 19, BPM.
55. PB to Joseph Buckle, 31 July 1811: MS ADM 1811, Borthwick [LRPB, 28–9].
56. PB, Letters Testimonial from Dewsbury, 27 Aug 1811 and John Buckworth to the Archbishop of York, 30 Aug 1811: MS ADM 1811, Borthwick.
57. Lesley Kipling and Nick Hall, On the Trail of the Luddites ([Hebden Bridge, 1982]), 3.
58. Ibid., 7. L&D, 121 identify Patrick as ‘A Cottage Writer’, author of ‘A Letter to the Labouring Poor, on the Distresses of the Times’, The Cottage Magazine (1816), 382–5, an article condemning violence and telling the poor to look to God for comfort. Though the author is clearly an Evangelical Irishman with a Yorkshire parish and one would have expected Patrick to contribute to a magazine edited by his vicar, John Buckworth, I remain unconvinced because of the difference in style from Patrick’s usual work.
59. Kipling and Hall, On the Trail of the Luddites, 9.
60. Ibid., 31–6, 38–42. The best and most vivid account of the attack appeared in LM, 18 Apr 1812 p.3; Charlotte used this version when writing Shirley: see below p.656.
61. ‘A Testimonial presented to Mr William Cartwright of Rawfolds by the undersigned Inhabitants of the West Riding of the County of Yorkshire, approving of his conduct in defending his mill on the night of 11th April 1812’, 17 May 1813: MS BS ix, C, BPM. It cannot be proved that Patrick was one of the 25 signatories as the testimonial has long been illegible.
62. Typically, ECG, Life, 471 and those following her, attribute the firing of the pistol out of the window to Patrick’s explosive temper and violent character. In fact the bullet could not be removed from the barrel of the gun except by discharging it.
63. LM, 25 Apr 1812 p.3.
64. Ibid., 2May 1812 p.3.
65. Kipling and Hall, On the Trail of the Luddites, 49.
66. Yates, 91–3quoting Thomas Atkinson.
67. Sarah J. Williams to J.A. Erskine Stuart, [c.1886–7]: MS BS xi, 67 p.3, BPM.
68. Yates, 86–7.
69. Morning Chronicle, 25 July 1811 p.1 contains an advertisement for the sale of the property by Mr Teale, surgeon, who was presumably father to the surgeon who attended Anne when she was dying of consumption: see below, 686–9.
70. MS Minute Book of the Wesleyan Academy, Woodhouse Grove: MS at WGS [19 Aug and 11 Sept 1811]. I am grateful to the headmaster of the school for allowing me to see this book and quote from it.
71. Ibid., [July 1812]; Slugg, 91; F.C. Pritchard, The Story of Woodhouse Grove School (Bradford, 1978), 16, 20. It is often stated that Patrick was examiner in the Scriptures at the school but this appointment was usually made in conjunction with the Wesleyan Conference: Patrick actually held a separate post as ‘examiner in Classical Learning’. L&D, 147 wrongly suppose that Patrick was never invited back as an examiner after the Methodists separated from the Church of England. The Minute Books reveal he was appointed again in 1823 and was ‘first reserve’ the following year.
72. C.W. Hatfield, ‘The Relatives of Maria Branwell’, BST:9:49:249–50. In 1841 the Branwells were still grocers in Market Square and flourishing, judging by the size of their establishment: Census Returns for Penzance, 1841: Microfiche in Redruth. See also Pigot & Co., Directory of Devon and Cornwall (1830), 157.
73. Edgar A. Rees, Old Penzance (Penzance, 1956), 105. The ‘Nelson Banner’, made for a public procession in Penzance to mark the occasion, is still displayed in the old parish church at Madron.
74. S. Richards and L. Oldham, ‘The Branwell Home in Penzance’, Old Cornwall, viii, no. 7 (1976), 324–5; P.A.S. Pool, ‘The Branwells of Penzance’, 2–3: unpublished typescript, 1990, in TLP.
75. Rees, Old Penzance, 69. Penzance was also one of the five coinage towns in the Duchy of Cornwall where tin was weighed, coined and an impost charged: W.G. Maton, ‘Observations on the Western Counties of England [1794–6]’ in R. Pearse Chope (ed.), Early Tours in Devon and Cornwall, reprint with a new introduction by Alan Gibson (Newton Abbot, 1967), 226.
76. Pool, ‘The Branwells of Penzance’, 5. ‘Aunt’ Branwell’s money was still invested in Bolitho’s Bank when she died in Haworth in 1842: see below, p.1067 n.95.
77. Rees, Old Penzance, 20, 28; Pool, ‘The Branwells of Penzance’, 2. Though no Branwells served as president, the Ladies’ Book Club purchased copies of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette and ECG, Life as each was published: see below p.1110 n.108
78. John Pearce (ed.), The Wesleys in Cornwall (Truro, 1964), esp. 165, 166–7, 170.
79. Hatfield, ‘The Relatives of Maria Branwell’, 247, 249; Eanne Oram, ‘A Brief for Miss Branwell’, BST:14:74:29; Pool, ‘The Branwells of Penzance’, 3. Jane was never reconciled to her husband, who was expelled from the Methodist movement for a serious moral lapse, and never regained her older children. She received a life annuity of £50 in her father’s will, from which her husband was excluded, and died in Penzance in 1855. For the Branwells’ role in building the chapel see P.A.S. Pool, The History of the Town and Borough of Penzance (Penzance, 1974), 93–4.
80. The Universal British Directory, Devon and Cornwall (London, 1798), iv, 284; Maton, ‘Observations on the Western Counties of England [1794–6]’, 257.
81. Richards and Oldham, ‘The Branwell Home in Penzance’, 324–5. Prior to the building of St Mary’s Church, the parish church was at Madron, a steep one and a half mile walk inland.
82. Ivy Holgate, ‘The Branwells at Penzance’, BST:13:70:430; Thomas Branwell, Last Will and Testament, 26 Mar 1808: MS in TLP.
83. The disaster, caused by storms, claimed the lives of 850 men on the St George and 580 on the Defence. The loss of the ships was not confirmed till a month after they went down with all hands: Lieutenant Branwell is listed among those lost: West Briton, 24 Jan 1812 p.2.
84. They married at Madron Church on the same day as Maria and Patrick, 29 Dec 1812: Royal Cornwall Gazette, 9 Jan 1813 p.3.
85. Elizabeth Branwell’s only legatee outside the Brontë family was Jane’s daughter, Eliza Kingston, suggesting she had closer links with this
niece than with her brother’s children: see below, p.1067 n.94.
86. MB to PB, 26 Aug 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 8–9].
87. Ibid., 9.
88. MB to PB, 5 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 10–11].
89. Ibid, 11.
90. MB to PB, 11 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 12].
91. John Abbott to CB, 22 Feb 1851: MS pp.2–3, in private hands [LCB, ii, 577].
92. MB to PB, 11 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 12].
93. MB to PB, 18 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 13].
94. Ibid.
95. Ibid. The fact that the Bedfords had come about the blankets is referred to in Maria’s footnote to MB to PB, 21 Oct 1812: MS n.l. [LRPB, 330]. Patrick also acted as intermediary to secure some carpet: MB to PB, 5 Dec 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 23].
96. MB to PB, 18 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 14].
97. MB to PB, 23 Sept 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 16].
98. MB to PB, 3 Oct 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 17–18].
99. Ibid.; PB, Cottage Poems, 63–7 [Brontëana, 44–5]. L&D, 33–4 refer to this poem as Patrick’s ‘dolorous lines to Mary Burder’ but there is no evidence that they were addressed to her. All the other poems in the volume date from 1810–11, long after Mary’s eighteenth birthday. Nor would Patrick have committed the solecism of having Mary’s parents drinking her health on her birthday, since Mary’s father had died before Patrick came to Wethersfield.
100. MB to PB, 21 Oct 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 18–19].
101. PV (Oct 1816), 146. The Bibles had ‘no notes or comment’ to avoid sectarian clashes over interpretation; the other half of the subscription went to the parent society in London.
102. LM, 31 Oct 1812 p.3. The meeting was held on 28 October 1812.
103. MB to PB, 18 Nov 1812: MS p.2, Brotherton [L&L, i, 20–2]. This is the only one of Maria’s letters for which I have been able to trace an original ms.
104. Ibid., pp.2–3[L&L, i, 21].
105. MB to PB, 5Dec 1812: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 22–3].
106. Ibid.
107. Register of Marriages, 1803–12, St Oswald Church, Guiseley: MS p.122, WYAS, Leeds. The marriages were reported in LI, 4Jan 1813 p.3. For the story about the veil see BO, 14 July 1859 p.6 quoting Thomas Perceval Bunting, Life of Jabez Bunting, D.D. (New York, 1859), i, 180 n.
108. See above, n. 84.
109. Yates, the main source of contemporary stories, has no anecdotes about Maria: I have found only one reference to her at this period, wrongly stating that her ‘delicate state of health’ was the reason for the Brontës’ leaving Hartshead: Sarah J. Williams to J.A. Erskine Stuart, [c.1886–7]: BS xi, 67 pp.2–3, BPM.
110. ECG, Life, 39 says the living was worth £202 but see below, n.111.
111. Patrick had to rent a house in Hightown because, as he explained in the first of several failed attempts to persuade the Governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty to invest in various schemes to build a vicarage at Hartshead, ‘The Living, being but small, only about sixty five pounds a year, no clergyman, could afford to live at a distance, and to keep a horse, and it was impracticable to get Lodgings, even for a single man, in the parish.’: PB to John Paterson, 24 Oct 1811. See also PB to John Paterson, 5Oct 1812, and to Richard Burn, 8 Apr 1813, 29 June 1813 and 16 May 1814: MSS QAB file F 2183, CERC [LRPB, 31–4].
112. PB, The Rural Minstrel: A Miscellany of Descriptive Poems (Halifax, P.K. Holden, 1813), ix-x [Brontëana, 71]. An advertisement for the book, describing it as ‘just published’, costing 3s. and being by the author of Cottage Poems, appeared in LI, 27 Sept 1813 p.2.
113. PB, The Rural Minstrel, 55–61, 71–6[Brontëana, 85–7, 89–91].
114. Ibid., 1–15, 97–108 [Brontëana, 72–6, 96–9].
115. Ibid., 17–33 [Brontëana, 76–80]. ‘Kirkstall Abbey’ is subtitled ‘a fragment of a romantic tale’, which implies it was originally part of a longer prose story, like the poetry sections in The Maid of Killarney; it may, of course, simply be a literary device. I have been unable to find a contemporary reference to Kirkstall Abbey being the scene of Patrick’s proposal to Maria though it is not unlikely, given the fact that it was a frequent destination on their walks.
116. Ibid., 47–8[Brontëana, 83].
117. Ibid., 77–9[Brontëana, 91].
118. Juliet Barker, ‘Poetic Justice: The Importance of Poetry in the Lives and Literature of the Brontës’, Brontë Society – Gaskell Society Joint Conference, 1990: Conference Papers (Keighley, 1991), 7–8.
119. Register of Baptisms, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead: Microfiche D31/4, WYAS, Kirklees. Despite Patrick’s views on the importance of baptism, his own children were baptized anywhere between 21 days (Emily) and 199 days (Elizabeth) after birth.
120. MS Minute Book of the Wesleyan Academy, Woodhouse Grove: MS at WGS [28 Apr, 3Dec and 22 Dec 1813]; Pritchard, The Story of Woodhouse Grove School, 20–2. Fennell was given an additional month’s salary when he left but it was the end of the year before his expenses had been repaid and his accounts with the school were finally settled.
121. LI, 11 July 1814 p.3.
122. Circular for the Bradford Church Missionary Association, enclosed in William Morgan to Revd Josiah Pratt, [pm 21 Oct 1813]: MS in ACMS.
123. Ibid., and enclosed minutes of a meeting in Bradford on 11 Oct 1813 to form a Church of England Missionary Society for Africa and the East in the same letter; LI, 3 Oct 1814 p.3.
124. LM, 22 Oct 1814 p.2; PV (Oct 1816), 146–9.
125. LI, 10 Apr 1815 p.3. Patrick is not mentioned by name but must be one of the ‘large number of clergy’ at the meeting.
126. PB to Richard Burn, 27 Jan 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 38–9]. Patrick complained that the living was usually valued at £140 p.a. but realistically it was worth only £127.
127. G.C. Moore Smith, ‘The Brontës at Thornton’, The Bookman (Oct 1904), 18 where it is stated that the baby was named after her other godmother Elizabeth Firth: this is unlikely as she would have remained nameless for at least five months before her parents met Elizabeth Firth. The four eldest Brontë children were all named after Branwells.
128. Venn, i, 95; Yates, 89. According to Venn, Atkinson, son of the vicar of Kippax, took his B.A. from Magdalene College in 1802 and an M.A. in 1814; he had been perpetual curate of Thornton since his ordination as priest in 1804. He married Frances Walker and remained at Hartshead till his death in 1866.
129. PB, Assignation of Dues to Bradford, 13 Mar 1815: MS BS 151, BPM. This document states that Patrick has been ‘nominated and appointed’ by Crosse. The accustomed dues payable to the vicar of Bradford were 20d. per adult burial, 10d. per infant burial and 6d. for every baptism or churching.
130. Registers of Marriages, 1813–68, of Baptisms, 1813–72, and of Burials, 1813–36, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead: Microfiche D31/3, WYAS, Kirklees. L&D, 157, misled by Yates, 89, state that Patrick’s last service was the marriage on 15 May 1815: this was only his last marriage. The new format of the registers from 1813 reveals Patrick’s unusual level of commitment in performing his church duties: he required deputies only 6 times in 1813 and twice (once for his own daughter’s baptism) in 1814. For the Brontës’ arrival in Thornton see Firth, 19 May 1815.
CHAPTER THREE: GOOD NEIGHBOURS AND KIND FRIENDS
Title: ‘I can fancy, almost, that we are still at Thornton, good neighbours, and kind, and sincere friends, and happy with our wives and children’: PB to Revd Robinson Pool, 18 Mar 1858: MS BS 206 p.1, BPM [LRPB, 272].
1. Firth, 23 July 1815.
2. Ibid., 18 Jan 1816.
3. Revd G. Thomas to Revd William Scoresby, 8 Dec 1840: MS in unsorted bundle, 1840, Whitby. This letter from the incumbent of Thornton to the vicar of Bradford protests against proposals to form new parishes at Clayton and Denholme: ‘When I entered on the incumbency of Thornton, by your appointment, it was on the understanding that the incumbency included the hamlets of Clayton and Denholme.’ The parish registers demon-strate that Patrick ministered regularly to the peo
ple of Allerton and Wilsden: the latter, being equidistant from Thornton and Bingley, was divided informally between the two parishes: Registers of Baptisms, 1813–27, and of Burials, 1813–39, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/8/1, WYAS, Bradford. There is no extant marriage register for this period.
4. ECG, Life, 40.
5. Scruton, 16, 21–3, 27–30.
6. Baines, i, 619; Page (ed.), Victoria History of the County of York, iii, 533. My figures do not include Wilsden which was split between several parishes. The population figures for 1811, with the 1821 figures in brackets, are as follows: Thornton chapelry 3016 (4100); Allerton township 1093 (1488); Clayton township 2469 (3609); and Wilsden 1121 (1711). Patrick accurately estimated the population of the chapelry as 9000 in 1820: PB to Richard Burn, 27 Jan 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 39].
7. Firth, 1812–25. Incomplete and inaccurate transcripts are given in Moore Smith, ‘The Brontës in Thornton’, 19; L&L, i, 39–45; L&D, 158, 166–9, 173–7, 181, 190–1, 196–7, 199, 201–2.
8. PB to Richard Burn, 27 Jan 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 39]. The parsonage was ‘situated in the village of Thornton, consisting of six rooms, three on the ground floor, and three bed-chambers, having a stand for a cow and horse at one end, and a cottage at the other – All built of stone and lime … There is a road round the West End into a garden at the back of the house – which is enclosed by a stone wall’: PB, Thornton Terrier, 31 July 1817: MS in Borthwick.
9. Leyland, i, 16–7.
10. Burials at Thornton averaged 55 a year, baptisms 43: Registers of Burials, 1813–39, and of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/8/1, WYAS, Bradford.
11. See, for example, L&D, 162 ff.; Edward Chitham, A Life of Emily Brontë (Oxford, 1987), 11–13.
12. Firth, 6, 7, 9 and 11 June 1815. Allerton Hall was built by Elizabeth Firth’s uncle Joshua who died in 1814; it was then purchased by the Kayes: Holgate, 330.
13. Firth Family Pedigree: MS 58 Ci and E, Firth Papers, University of Sheffield; W.B. Trigg and G. Dent, ‘City Fold, Wheatley’, THAS (1934), 182–4.