Brontës

by Juliet Barker

  14. Firth, 12 June 1815. The diary references almost invariably refer to ‘Mrs Bronte’, ‘Miss Branwell’ or ‘Mr Bronte’s’, which I take to be shorthand for ‘Mr Bronte’s family’. On the rare occasions when Patrick called he is distinguished by his own reference e.g. ‘Mr & Mrs Bronte’, ‘Mr & Mrs Bronte & Miss Branwell’ and ‘Mr & Mrs Bronte’s family’ on 22 Aug 1815, 18 June 1816 and 9May 1817.

  15. Register of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/8/1, WYAS, Bradford [L&D, 169]; Firth, 26 Aug 1815.

  16. PV (July 1815), 52–3. For Morgan’s articles on the subject see ibid. (Feb. 1815), 11–12; (Mar 1815), 21–2; (Apr 1815), 26–9. For Patrick’s earlier writings on conversion see above, pp.49–50.

  17. Ibid. (July 1815), 53.

  18. Ibid. (Sept 1815), 71; (Oct 1815), 78–9.

  19. Patrick’s literary approach to the subject is discussed in Kate Lawson, ‘Patrick Brontë’s “On Conversion”’, BST:19:6:271–2.

  20. PB, The Cottage in the Wood, or The Art of Becoming Rich and Happy (Bradford, T. Inkersley, 1815), 5 [Brontëana, 102–3].

  21. Patrick himself still used ‘Bront¯e’ when signing registers or letters at this time.

  22. Brontëana, 100.

  23. PV (Aug 1815), 52–3.

  24. J[ane] B[ranwell] M[organ], ‘Things worthy to be considered by all persons who doubt about going to the Holy Sacrament’, ibid (July 1815), 54–5.

  25. MB, ‘The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns’, n.d.: MS in Brotherton [L&L, i, 24–7]. L&D, 128–9date the ms to the period of Patrick’s courtship of Maria but this is unlikely: the concerns of the piece which reflect those of Patrick, the access through Morgan to his newly-founded Pastoral Visitor and the fact that Jane Morgan had contributed to it make an 1815 date more probable.

  26. MB, ‘The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns’, n.d.: MS pp.1–2, Brotherton [L&L, i, 24–5].

  27. Ibid., p.6

  28. See, for example, L&L, i, 24; L&D, 129. I have been unable to locate a published version of Maria’s article but, as the ms was returned to Patrick, it seems likely it was rejected.

  29. Firth, 6Sept 1815.

  30. Ibid., 11–13 Oct 1815; LM, 30 Sept 1815 p.3; 14 Oct 1815 p.3; 3 Aug 1816 p.2.

  31. Ibid., 14 Oct 1815 p.3.

  32. Subscribers’ Lists, Bradford Library and Literary Society, 1815: MS 42D81/1/2/1/3, WYAS, Bradford. The list covers the period 1815 and 1817–28 but Patrick’s name only appears in 1815. Morgan and Mr Firth were both members.

  33. Firth, 18 Jan 1816.

  34. Ibid., 26 Mar and 21 Apr 1816; Register of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7/1, WYAS, Bradford. There was a tradition in the Franks family that the Atkinsons were Charlotte’s god-parents: L&L, i, 33 n.1.

  35. Firth, 12 July 1816.

  36. Ibid., 25 and 28 July 1816.

  37. Ibid., 29 and 31 July and 1 Aug 1816.

  38. BO, 29 May 1886 p.7. William Morgan, Mrs and Miss Fanny Outhwaite and John Crosse all had connections to the Bradford School of Industry.

  39. C.A. Binns, ‘Brontë Nurses’, The Dalesman (Aug 1986), 415. The author of this letter was the great-great-great-grand-child of Nancy’s sister Ruth.

  40. Venn, ii, 189; William Scruton, Pen and Pencil Pictures of Old Bradford (Otley, 1890, repr. 1985), 32–4; Morgan, The Parish Priest Pourtrayed.

  41. LM, 3June 1816 p.3.

  42. Morgan, The Parish Priest Pourtrayed, 166–7 quoting John Fennell.

  43. John Fennell, A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Rev. John Crosse, A.M. late Vicar of Bradford, on Sunday, the 23rd of June 1816 (Bradford, T. Inkersley, 1816); Morgan, The Parish Priest Pourtrayed.

  44. Scruton, Pen and Pencil Pictures of Old Bradford, 34.

  45. LM, 9Nov 1816 p.3; Firth, 19 Nov 1816. Both L&D, 175 and L&L, i, 41 run this entry together with the one for the previous day, 18 November, creating the false impression that the Firths and Brontës watched the eclipse together over tea at the Brontës’.

  46. L&D, 176.

  47. Kipling and Hall, On the Trail of the Luddites, 51.

  48. LM, 14 June 1817 p.3; 21 June 1817 p.3.

  49. Firth, 18 Mar 1817. L&D, 177 suggest she had come to help with Maria’s latest confinement. The only potential Thomas I have been able to trace is Nancy Thomas who, in 1841, was a 60-year-old lodging-house keeper living in Chapel Street, Penzance, next door to Jane Branwell, widow of Maria’s cousin Robert (1775–1833): Census Returns for Penzance, 1841: Microfiche in Redruth.

  50. Firth, 11 and 18 May 1817.

  51. PB, National Society Questionnaire, [c.1817]: MS Y/A Mic 63, Borthwick. The other Sunday School pupil figures were 430 (Independent Dissenters), 250 (Baptist) and 90 (Methodist).

  52. LM, 17 May 1817 p.3; Firth, 13 May and 12 July 1817. Patrick and Firth stayed with the Haighs at Longlands, a house in Batley: the Haighs were friends of the Firths and the Brontës had dined at least once with Miss Haigh at Kipping House. A Hannah Haigh, who was a fellow-pupil of Charlotte’s at Roe Head, may have belonged to the Longlands family: J.T.M. Nussey, ‘Notes on the Background of Three Incidents in the Lives of the Brontës’, BST:15:79:331–3.

  53. Firth, 26 and 27 June 1817. Recording his birth Elizabeth calls him ‘Branwell Patrick’.

  54. Register of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7/1, WYAS, Bradford; PB to Mrs Franks, 6 July 1835: MS BS 184 p.1, BPM [LCB, i, 141], where he refers to Mr and Mrs Firth acting as Branwell’s ‘sponsors’. It is possible that Branwell’s godparents were Maria’s sister Charlotte or her husband Joseph Branwell, particularly as their own son, also born in 1817, was named Thomas Bronte Branwell, suggesting that Patrick and Maria were his godparents. L&D, 176–7 state that Fennell, who baptized Branwell, had just been appointed minister of Cross Stone, John Crosse’s old church between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. In fact Fennell was then his son-in-law’s curate at Christ Church, Bradford: he was nominated to Cross Stone by the vicar of Halifax in April 1819 and did not take up the post till that year: LM, 24 Apr 1819 p.2; Ian and Catherine Emberson, ‘Turns in the Circle of Friendship: “Uncle Fennell”, 1762–1841’, BST:30:2:145.

  55. LM, 8Nov 1817 p.2; 15 Nov 1817 p.3; 22 Nov 1817 p.3. The death and funeral of the ‘ever to be lamented Princess Charlotte’ are noted in Firth, 6and 19 Nov 1817.

  56. Firth, 7and 8Nov 1817.

  57. Ibid., 12 Nov 1817. James Clarke Franks was to win the Norrisian Prize at the University of Cambridge for the fourth year running in May 1818, which was an out-standing achievement. He became chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge and was appointed deputy Hulsean Lecturer in 1821: LM, 16 May 1818 p.3; 7Apr 1821 p.3.

  58. Firth, 23 Dec 1817. There is a photograph of Green House, which is now demolished, in Pobjoy, The Story of the Ancient Parish of Hartshead-cum-Clifton.

  59. LM, 7Feb 1818 p.3. The festivities began on Shrove Tuesday (3 February).

  60. BM, iii (April 1818), 102.

  61. PB, The Maid of Killarney; or, Albion and Flora: a modern tale; in which are interwoven some cursory remarks on Religion and Politics (London, Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1818). The book was printed in Bradford by Thomas Inkersley who had previously printed Patrick’s The Cottage in the Wood.

  62. Ibid., v [Brontëana, 133]. The first quote, from Horace, Satires, bk i, no. i, ll.24–6, translates roughly as ‘and yet what harm can there be in presenting the truth with humour; as teachers sometimes give children biscuits to coax them into learning their ABC’; the second, from Horace, Ars Poetica, ll.343–4, was ‘the man who has managed to blend profit with delight wins everyone’s approbation, for he gives his reader pleasure at the same time as he instructs him.’

  63. Ibid., v-vi [Brontëana, 133].

  64. PB, Cottage Poems, xiv [Brontëana, 21].

  65. PB, The Maid of Killarney, 121 [Brontëana, 180].

  66. Ibid., 72–3, 52–5 [Brontëana, 152–3, 160–1].

  67. Ibid.
, 24–6, 19 [Brontëana, 141–2, 139].

  68. Patrick is likely to have attended the meeting of West Riding clergymen called at Wakefield on 21 April 1819 to petition Parliament against granting further immunities to Roman Catholics: LM, 24 Apr 1819 p.2. For Patrick’s opinions on Roman Catholic Emancipation see below, pp.182–3. His children were more hard-line: Charlotte, for instance, savagely attacked the ‘Romish Religion’ and ‘necromancy’ of Irish Catholic priests in CB, Tales of the Islanders, vol ii, 21 Nov–2 Dec 1829: MS in Berg [JB CBJ, 25–6, 28–30].

  69. PB, The Maid of Killarney, 49–50 [Brontëana, 150–1].

  70. See below, pp.184, 195.

  71. Charlotte’s first romantic heroine, Marion Hume, in particular, is a carbon copy of Flora, even to the point of playing the harp. For a description of her, culled from various sources, see CA EW, 71.

  72. Firth, Cash Account at end of 1818 diary [May 1818]; Firth, 20 Oct and 19 and 22 May 1818.

  73. Ibid., 30 July 1818; Register of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7/1, WYAS, Bradford. L&D, 180 and WG EB, 1 name Emily’s godparents as Jane Morgan and the Fennells, WG citing it as one of the 2‘facts’ known about Emily’s infancy, but I can find no contemporary source which identifies them. The christening mug, now in the BPM, was purchased from Arthur Bell Nicholls’ niece and would therefore appear to be genuine: HAOBP:H6, BPM [JB ST no.44].

  74. Firth, 19 Aug 1818.

  75. Binns, ‘Brontë Nurses’, 415.

  76. LM, 3 Oct 1818 p.3; Firth, 19 Oct and 9 Nov 1818.

  77. Holgate, 327; Churchwardens’ Books for the Chapelry of Thornton, 27 Dec 1817: Microfiche 81D85/12/2, WYAS, Bradford; Firth, 9Dec 1818.

  78. Ibid., 10 Nov and 6 Dec 1818. Almost £27 had been spent on joinery and interior decoration by the time the chapel reopened on 6December; a further £10 8s 4d was spent over the next 3months: Churchwardens’ Books for the Chapelry of Thornton, 28 Dec 1818, 7 May 1819: Microfiche 81D85/12/2, WYAS, Bradford.

  79. Holgate, 336. Holgate speculates that Patrick gave Thomas Driver the name ‘Rembrandt’ but the man came from a family of painters and they undoubtedly chose his name, just as the sons of Abraham Parker of Oxenhope were named after famous musicians: the best known was Handel Parker (1854–1928), conductor of Haworth Band for fifty years and composer of ‘Deep Harmony’: Kenneth Denton, Yorkshire Post, 4Jan 2008.

  80. LM, 21 Nov 1818 p.2; 5 Dec 1818 pp.2–3. Funeral sermons were preached in the parish church and at Christ Church, Bradford, on 2December but the Old Bell Chapel did not reopen till the 6th. Official mourning ended on 29 December: ibid., 2 Jan 1819 p.3.

  81. Firth, 8 Jan 1819.

  82. Scruton, 59. Scruton’s reliability is extremely suspect (see, for example, his demonstrably untrue story about Patrick’s courtship of Maria) but the churchwardens’ accounts do show a payment of 9s. 10d. for ‘treating Abm Sharp and Clerk paid for Children at Bradford when Bishop was on confirmation’: Churchwardens’ Books for the Chapelry of Thornton, 27 Dec 1819: Microfiche 81D85/12/2, WYAS, Bradford. Both sources refer to the ‘bishop’ taking the confirmation but the bishopric of Ripon was not created until 1832; in 1819 the parish of Bradford was still directly under the authority of the Archbishop of York. L&D, 178 fancifully and without a shred of evidence suggest that Patrick downed an Irish whiskey while the young people were eating.

  83. LM, 24 Apr 1819 p.2. L&D, 176 wrongly state that Fennell was appointed in April 1817: see above, n.54.

  84. Burials, Haworth. Charnock was buried on 31 May 1819.

  85. PB to Stephen Taylor, 8July 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 35].

  86. Michael Stocks to Mr Greenwood, 1June 1819: MS BS, xi, S p.1, BPM [L&D, 182]. Patrick was later to return the favour by signing a petition testifying to Stocks’ good character: see below, p.207. L&D, 182 wrongly describe Stocks as a ‘clerical friend’ of Patrick’s.

  87. A photocopy of this deed was kindly made available to me by Mr Jack Wood, Treasurer to the Church Trustees, Haworth [L&D, 210–11].

  88. L&D, 211–12.

  89. Anthony Moss to Revd Edward Ramsden, 15 June 1819: MS RMP 392, WYAS, Calderdale.

  90. Henry Heap to the Archbishop of York, 2June 1819: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick.

  91. LI, 14 June 1819 p.3.

  92. Holgate, 330.

  93. PB to Stephen Taylor, 8July 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 35]. Patrick is said to have gone to see Taylor and introduced himself as the new incumbent whereupon Taylor took him aside and informed him in no uncertain terms that this was not the case: Joseph Craven, A Brontë Moorland Village (Keighley, 1907), 58 quoting Miss Mariner.

  94. PB to Stephen Taylor, 8July 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 35–6].

  95. PB to Stephen Taylor, 14 July 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 36]. Though Patrick may have gone to Haworth to take one of the three services on 12 July, he also performed 2 baptisms in Thornton that day: William Anderton like-wise carried out 2baptisms in Haworth on 12 July: Register of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7/1, WYAS, Bradford; Baptisms, Haworth.

  96. PB to Stephen Taylor, 21 July 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 37].

  97. Ibid.

  98. LM, 23 Oct 1819 p.2.

  99. PB to Stephen Taylor, 9 Oct 1819: MS n.l. [LRPB, 38].

  100. Holgate, 337 quoting ‘a record book’ in Bradford Cathedral.

  101. LM, 30 Oct 1819 p.3.

  102. ECG, Life, 28–30.

  103. LI, 18 Apr 1857 p.7. Gaskell dismissed this version of ‘the Haworth commotions’complaining ‘I don’t see any great difference’: ECG to EN, 16 June [1857] [C&P, 453]. Redhead preached at the afternoon and evening services at Haworth on 21 July 1844, this presumably being the occasion on which he was accompanied by his son-in-law: BO, 25 July 1844 p.5; Haworth Church Hymnsheets, 21 July 1844: MS BS x, H, BPM.

  104. LI, 22 Nov 1819 p.2.

  105. Burials, Baptisms, and Marriages, Haworth. These were the only recorded occasions when Patrick officiated at Haworth before taking up the perpetual curacy in April 1820. ECG, Life, 28 says that Redhead had given ‘occasional help’ to the previous incumbent during his long illness: he took 7 baptisms and 2marriages on 4 November 1819 and a funeral three days later. The bulk of the services during the vacancy at Haworth, and many of those during the 18 months prior to Charnock’s death, were taken by William Anderton.

  106. Firth, Nov–Dec 1819.

  107. Ibid., 17–18 Jan and 25 Mar 1820. Anne’s maternal grandmother was Anne Branwell, née Carne.

  108. PB to Richard Burn, 27 Jan 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 39].

  109. PB to the Archbishop of York, 4Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 38].

  110. Henry Heap to the Archbishop of York, 9Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [L&D, 200].

  111. Ibid.

  112. PB, Nomination to Haworth, 8 Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick.

  113. PB, Letters Testimonial for Haworth, 8Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick.

  114. PB, Assignation of Dues to Bradford, 8Feb 1820: MS n.l. [L&D, 199–200].

  115. PB to the Archbishop of York, 9Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [LRPB, 40]. The licence did clearly state the joint nomination by vicar and trustees as this was how the appointment was reported in LI, 13 Mar 1820 p.2.

  116. Henry Heap to the Archbishop of York, 9Feb 1820: MS ADM 1820, Borthwick [L&D, 200].

  117. Firth, 25 Feb 1820.

  118. Registers of Baptisms, 1813–27, and of Burials, 1813–39, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7and 8/1, WYAS, Bradford. According to the registers, Patrick did not officiate in Haworth between his appointment and taking up residence, though he may have taken some Sunday services.

  119. LM, 5Feb 1820 p.2; 12 Feb 1820 p.3.

  120. Ibid., Jan–Mar 1820 passim.

  121. Firth, 31 Mar 1820; J. Firth Franks to G.C. Moore Smith, n.d.: MS 58 (MS Q 091 F), C, vi, University of Sheffield.

  122. Firth, 25 Mar 1820; Registers of Baptisms, 1813–27, Old Bell Chapel, Thornton: Microfiche 81D85/7/1, WYAS,
Bradford.

  123. Firth, 5Apr 1820; Joyce Eagleton, The StoryTellers (Bradford, 1990), I quoting her great-grandfather who was an eyewitness of the Brontës’ departure from Thornton.

  CHAPTER FOUR: A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

  Title: PB to John Buckworth, 27 Nov 1821: The Cottage Magazine (1822), 245 [LRPB, 43].

  1. ECG, Life, 15.

  2. Jane Eyre: Christian Remembrancer (Apr 1848); North American Review (Oct 1848); Quarterly Review (Dec 1848) [Allott, 89, 98, 111]. Wuthering Heights: Examiner (8Jan 1848); Britannia (15 Jan 1848), American Review (June 1848) [Allott, 222, 225, 236]. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: North American Review (Aug 1849) [Barbara and Gareth Lloyd Evans, Everyman Companion to the Brontës (London, 1985), 384].

  3. G.H. Lewes, unsigned review in Leader (28 Dec 1850) [Allott, 292].

  4. CB, Biographical Notice, 359.

  5. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Harmonds-worth, 1977), 186.

  6. ECG, Life, 15–27.

  7. Unsigned review, Christian Remembrancer (July 1857) [Allott, 365]; ECG to unidenti-fied, 23 Aug [1855]: [C&P, 369].

  8. Babbage, 7.

  9. Robin Greenwood, ‘Who was Who in Haworth during the Brontë Era, 1820–61’, (2005), 3, 24–46, unpublished typescript, BPM; Michael Baumber, A History of Haworth from Earliest Times (Lancaster, 2006), 97–109; Juliet Barker, ‘The Haworth Context’, The Cambridge Companion to the Brontës, edited by Heather Glen (Cambridge, 2002), 16. Baines i, 519 lists 3 wool staplers, 5 worsted manufacturers, 2 worsted top manufacturers, 1worsted spinner, 1worsted yarn manufacturer and 1cotton spinner and manufacturer in 1822.

  10. The Babbage report of 1850 stated: ‘Many of the inhabitants of Haworth, pursue the occupation of combing wool for the factories. This business is carried on in their houses. In order to obtain the proper temperature for this operation, iron stoves are fixed in the rooms where it is carried on, which are kept alight day and night, and the windows are seldom, if ever, opened, excepting in the height of summer. In some cases I found that this business was carried on in bed-rooms, which consequently became very close and unhealthy, from the high temperature maintained by the stoves, and the want of ventilation.’: Babbage, 6.

  11. Babbage also noted ‘huge hollows and vast spoil heaps’ on the moors round Haworth, marking the extensive workings for flag-stones and ashlar blocks: ibid., 4. The state of the oat crop is annually reported in the local newspapers and the accounts of the Keighley Agricultural Show, which began in 1843, reveal that Haworth was renowned for its pigs: see, for example, HG, 15 Oct 1846 p.7. For the trades and professions see Baines, i, 519.