Brontës

by Juliet Barker

  7. PB, notes accompanying his letter to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.2, Rylands [LRPB, 233]. Wright ‘found’ the birthplace at Emdale on a visit to the area and reproduced a photograph of it as his frontispiece, but there is no documentary evidence to support his identification.

  8. Patrick’s siblings, with their dates of baptism, were: William (6 Mar 1779); Hugh (27 May 1781); James (8 Nov 1783); Walsh (19 Feb 1786); Jane (1 Feb 1789); Mary (1May 1791). The twins Rose and Sarah were born c.1793 and Alice c.1795: their baptismal records are missing. I am grateful to the Revd William Seale, rector of Drumgooland, for checking the entries on my behalf. Sarah, the only one of Patrick’s sisters to marry, eloped with Simon Collins: one of her daughters, Rose Ann, lived in Bradford, England, after her marriage to David Heslip. There is no evidence of any contact between her and her cousins at Haworth: ‘A Relative of the Brontës’, Sketch, 10 Feb 1897 p.118; William Wright, ‘Mrs Heslip and the Brontës in Ireland’, ibid., 10 Mar 1897 p.288.

  9. It is possible that the Brontës only ever lived at Lisnacreevy and Ballynaskeagh if the Emdale cottage ‘birthplace’ is another of Wright’s fictions. The Drumballyroney baptismal records give Ballyroney as the birthplace for William (1779) and Lisnacreevy for Hugh, James, Walsh, Jane and Mary (1781–91). Alice, the youngest sister (see above n. 5), was apparently the source for the information that she was born at Ballynaskeagh: Brontëana, 284, 293–4. The farm at Ballynaskeagh remained the family home until at least the death of Hugh jnr in 1863: for a photograph see ibid., vii.

  10. ECG to John Forster, [Sept 1853] [C&P, 245].

  11. Patrick implies he stayed at school until he was sixteen in PB to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.1, Rylands [LRPB, 233] but in his eighties told John Greenwood, the Haworth stationer, that as a boy he had worked parttime helping a local black-smith, who had pointed him out to a client as ‘a gentleman by nature’, a statement which had profoundly affected him: L&D, 5–6. Both stories flatly contradict Wright, 227–30 that he was apprenticed to a linen weaver.

  12. Patrick was ‘educated at a school near Glascar’ according to the Banbridge Chronicle account of Alice Brontë’s funeral: Ramsden, The Brontë Homeland, 97.

  13. Paterson, ‘The Brontës and Co Armagh’: Armagh Guardian, 16 Aug 1957 p.3.

  14. Ibid. Officer posts were then only held by gentlemen.

  15. Wright, 231ff claimed Patrick was tutored and promoted by the local Presbyterian minister, Andrew Harshaw, but this is at odds with all the evidence which points solely to connections with the Episcopalian church at Drumballyroney where Thomas Tighe had been rector since 1778.

  16. Brontëana, 286–91.

  17. Patrick says he ran his school for ‘five or six years’, placing his appointment as tutor in 1798 or 1799: PB to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.1, Rylands [LRPB, 233].

  18. Brontëana, 286.

  19. See below, pp.183, 503–5.

  20. Venn, vi, 189–90.

  21. Patrick later wrote extensively on this subject: see, for example, PB, ‘On Conversion’, PV (1815), Feb, pp.11–12; Mar, pp.21–2; Apr, pp.26–9; July, pp.52–4, Sept, pp.70–1; Oct, pp.78–9.

  22. L&D, 11.

  23. Simeon was perpetual curate of Trinity Church, Cambridge from 1789 until his death in 1836. For a succinct account of his views see A. Pollard and M. Hennell, Charles Simeon (1759–1836) (London, 1959).

  24. Belfast Mercury, Apr 1855 [L&L, iv, 185]. The article is full of inaccuracies so there is no reason to credit this story.

  25. There were no other English or Irish universities at this time: Scotland boasted St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

  26. Venn, vi, 189–90.

  27. Alan Haig, The Victorian Clergy (London, 1984), 37–47. Henry Kirke White, Patrick’s contemporary at Cambridge, also chose St John’s for financial reasons, though Trinity College, Cambridge better suited his objectives: HKW, i, 160.

  28. PB notes accompanying his letter to ECG, 20 June 1855: MS EL B121 p.2, Rylands [LRPB, 235]. The gap between his arrival and admittance to the college, which is confirmed by Henry Martyn (see below n.31), may have been spent in reading and preparation for his course.

  29. Only 2–3 Irishmen were admitted each 1 year over the period of Patrick’s residence in Cambridge: there were 7 ‘gentlemen-commoners’ and 37 pensioners in his year: Admissions Register 1802–35: MS C4.5, SJC; University Matriculation Register, 20 Nov 1759–22 May 1818: MS Matr.4, ULC.

  30. William Wilberforce, with his tutor’s approval, wasted his days gambling instead of attending lectures; William Wordsworth, also a sizar at St John’s 1787–91, became a disillusioned ‘non-reading’ man: John Pollack, Wilberforce (London, 1977), 7; Juliet Barker, Wordsworth: A Life (London, 2000), 61ff.

  31. Henry Martyn to William Wilberforce, 14 Feb 1804: MS Wilberforce d.14 p.17, Bodleian [LRPB, 317].

  32. HKW, i, 172. Patrick is said to have acquired a copy of White’s poems, writing on the flyleaf that he had picked it up from a wreck on the Yorkshire coast and that he had known White at Cambridge: J.A. Erskine Stuart to unidentified, 17 Oct 1896: MS in Brotherton.

  33. HKW, i, 174. Payments made to the former occupant of a college room by the new man taking possession appear to relate to the purchase of furnishings. Patrick’s name does not appear on his tutor’s list of room allocations so he must have shared with another sizar or had garret rooms: James Wood, List of Pupils, 1791–1814: MS TU1.1.1, SJC.

  34. R.F. Scott (ed.), Admissions to St John’s College (Cambridge, 1931), vi, Appx i, 568–70.

  35. HKW, i, 173.

  36. William Carus, Memoirs of the Life of Charles Simeon (London, 1847); Pollard and Hennell (eds.), Charles Simeon (1759–1836).

  37. Ibid., 167. When Ellen Nussey offered to lend Patrick Carus’s biography of Simeon Charlotte replied, ‘I dare say Papa would like to see the work very much, as he knew Mr Simeon’: CB to EN, 3 May 1848: MS n.l. [LCB, ii, 62]. She later wrote ‘Papa has been very much interested in reading the book – there is frequent mention made in it of persons and places formerly well known to him – he thanks you for lending it him’: CB to EN, 18 Aug 1848: MS Gr. E13 pp.2–3, BPM [LCB, ii, 104].

  38. Sally Stonehouse, ‘Cambridge Echoes of the Brontës’, BST:19:5:211.

  39. Cambridge University Calendar (Cambridge, 1806), 143–5.

  40. HKW, i, 222; J. Lemprière, Bibliotheca Classica (London, 1798), inscribed on flyleaf in Patrick’s hand ‘The gift of Mr Toulmen, pupil – Cambridge, Price 12s.’: HAOBP:bb34, BPM. The only member of the university of this name I have been able to identify is Charles ‘Toulmin’, who was admitted as a pensioner to Caius in September 1800 but relocated to Christ’s within three weeks where he became a scholar in 1802 and resided till Michaelmas 1803. He was ordained deacon on 25 September 1803 and priest on 16 December 1804; curate of St Mary’s Church, King’s Lynn, he died in London in December 1805: Venn, v, 212.

  41. James Wood (1760–1839) was an eminent mathematician, a former grammar school boy from Bury, Lancashire, who came to St John’s as a sizar in 1778, became a D.D. and Master of the college in 1815 and Vice-Chancellor of the university in 1816. A fellow of the Royal Society, his books on algebra, mathematics, mechanics and optics became standard works: Dictionary of National Biography, lxii, 359–60; Scott (ed.), Admissions to St John’s College, iv, Appx i, 568–70. Joshua Smith was admitted as a sizar to St John’s in 1776, ordained in the Church of England and from 1789 was joint tutor of the college with Wood: he had to resign from the college in 1804 when he married. Patrick was sent instead to Thomas Catton, also a former sizar, who had become a fellow of St John’s in 1784, a tutor in 1787 and a B.D. in 1791. Catton was an eminent astronomer with responsibility for the college observatory, the only one in the university: ibid., iv, Appx i, 481; Venn, pt i, 540.

  42. Examination Book: MS C15.6, SJC. I am grateful to Malcolm Underwood, archivist of St John’s, for his identification of Beausobre and Dodderidge.

  43. White complain
ed ‘many men come up with knowledge enough for the highest honours, & how can a man be expected to keep up with them who starts without any previous fund?’: HKW, i, 169.

  44. Examination Book: MS C15.6, SJC.

  45. ibid. The college evidence is confirmed by the university records where Patrick appears as a Prizeman as a Freshman, Junior Sophomore and Senior Sophomore: Cambridge University Calendars (1804), 109; (1805), 190; (1806), 216.

  46. The books are now HAOBP:bb207 and bb208, BPM.

  47. Charlotte, for example, wrote on the wrapper of her reply from the Poet Laureate ‘Southey’s Advice to be kept forever’: CB, note on wrapper from Robert Southey, 21 Apr 1837: MS in private hands, on loan as BS 14.5, BPM.

  48. Exhibitions Book, 1800–23: MS SB9.14, SJC. My figures are considerably less than those given in L&D, 17 which are, presumably, based on Wright, 263–4, who got his information from the college Admissions Book. The Exhibitions Book is a more accurate guide as it records the actual sums handed over to each exhibitioner.

  49. Venn, iv, 347. A Senior Wrangler was the man who had been placed first in the order of merit in the Mathematical Tripos.

  50. Henry Martyn to John Sargent, [c.Jan–Feb 1804]: MS Wilberforce d.14 p.16, Bodleian. Sargent, vicar of Graffham, Sussex, was married to Wilberforce’s cousin: Pollack, Wilberforce, 170.

  51. Henry Martyn to William Wilberforce, 14 Feb 1804: MS Wilberforce d.14 p.16, Bodleian [LRPB, 317].

  52. See above, nn. 50 and 51.

  53. See, for example, his letters suggesting alterations to service equipment: PB to Master General of the Ordnance, 19 and 29 Nov 1841 and 4 July 1848: MSS WO44/621, NA [LRPB, 130–1, 132–4, 193–4].

  54. Cambridge Chronicle, 10 Sept 1803 p.3 and 29 Oct 1803 p.3.

  55. Ibid., 25 Feb 1804 p.4. Of 154 men enlisted, 40 were from Trinity which had fewer ordained undergraduates than St John’s, 35 from St John’s, 21 from Jesus, 18 from Caius and single figures from each of the 10 remaining colleges and halls.

  56. Admissions Register, 1802–35: MS C4.5, SJC.

  57. Cambridge Chronicle, 10 Sept 1803 p.3.

  58. Stonehouse, ‘Cambridge Echoes of the Brontës’, 211.

  59. Cambridge University Calendar (1808), 253–6. See ibid., 258–74 for the written questions set for B.A. Honours candidates in January 1806.

  60. Thomas Tighe, Certification of PB’s age, 30 Dec 1805: MS 10326/137 no.6 item 6, Guildhall [L&D, 21].

  61. J. Fawcett, Certification of attendance at lectures, 22 Mar 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6item 7, Guildhall [L&D, 21]. Curiously, though it anticipates Patrick’s graduation by a whole month, it refers to him as ‘Patrick Bronte B.A.’

  62. Subscriptions Register 1803–24, MS in ULC.

  63. Ibid.; Book of College Supplications to the University, no. 201, SJC.

  64. The midsummer accounts for 1806 show that Patrick, who is listed separately from the other 12 graduates because he took his degree slightly later, received £4: Exhibitions Book 1800–23: MS SB9.14, SJC. Patrick’s copy of Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (London, 1806) is HAOBP:bb54, BPM.

  65. HKW, i, 94.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Residence Register: MS C27.1, SJC; Cambridge University Calendar (1806), 13–14.

  68. PB, Nomination to Curacy of Wethersfield, 28 June 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6item 1, Guildhall.

  69. PB, Notice of Candidature for Holy Orders, 29 June 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6item 3, Guildhall.

  70. PB, Letters Testimonial, 2 July 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6item 8, Guildhall [L&D, 22].

  71. PB to the Secretary of the Bishop of London, 4July 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6item 4, Guildhall [L&D, 22].

  72. PB, Ordination Papers, 10 Aug 1806 [L&D, 23].

  73. Bishop of Lichfield’s Subscription Book 1805–9: MS B/A/4/41, Lichfield.

  74. The evidence is tenuous and unreliable: Patrick’s niece Rose Heslip (see above n.8) at first denied he had ever returned to Ireland and then ‘remembered’ her mother telling her he had preached at Drumballyroney after his ordination: ‘A Relative of the Brontës’, Sketch, 10 Feb 1897 p.118; Wright, ‘Mrs Heslip and the Brontës in Ireland’, ibid., 10 Mar 1897 p.288.

  75. Hugh Brontë, Certification of age, 25 Sept 1806: MS 10326/137 no.6items 2and 5, Guildhall. Patrick did not need to be present when his father wrote the letters: he may have simply sent a request for them or even drafts for Hugh to copy out. The fact that both certificates are written in the same hand as Hugh’s signature, not that of the witness John Fury, is evidence that Hugh was not illiterate as is often suggested. Patrick, incidentally, was 29 not 28.

  76. Most biographers, relying on Wright, 264–5, repeat that Patrick always sent £20 a year home to his mother until she died in c.1822. This is inconceivable. At Cambridge his own income hardly amounted to £20; at Wethersfield, though he had £60 p.a., he now had to find board and lodging. By the time he was a minister and in a position to afford the sum he was married with a growing family to support and so short of money himself that he was writing to various charities for additional income. He clearly did send occasional sums, however, as in his will he left £40 to be equally divided amongst his brothers and sisters ‘to whom I gave considerable sums in times past’: PB, Last Will & Testament (Probate copy), 20 June 1855: MS Bon 75, BPM [L&L, iv, 246]. For £1 sent to his sister Sarah when she was ill see PB to Mary Brontë, 1Feb 1859: MS n.l. [LRPB, 278].

  77. Though Charlotte visited her husband’s relations on honeymoon in Ireland she did not use the opportunity to see her own Irish relatives: see below, p.895.

  78. Copy of the Diocesan Return for Wethersfield for 1801–10 in the Register of Baptisms and Burials, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R/132/3, ERO. According to this return there were 280 families in Wethersfield, 29 employed in agriculture, 165 in labouring jobs and 63 in trade. The population remained static over the ten years, increasing by only 68.

  79. 6–inch 2nd edition Ordnance Survey Map, 1898. Most of the buildings marked on this map are still there and are described from my own observations.

  80. The Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalene: Some Notes for Visitors, 1–2: typescript notes available at the church.

  81. I have been unable to trace any contemporary references to Miss Davy. Henry Dixon’s memoirs state that Jowett had rooms in a house hired by his master (the doctor) and that Patrick occupied these in Jowett’s absence: H.N. Dixon, ‘Reminiscences of an Essex Country Practitioner a Century Ago’, Essex Review, xiv (1915), 6.

  82. The Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalene: Some Notes for Visitors, 4.

  83. Wethersfield United Reform Church, 2pp. typescript notes: MS D/NC 31/2, ERO.

  84. Dixon, ‘Reminiscences of an Essex Country Practitioner a Century Ago’, 6. The parish registers confirm that Jowett only officiated in church between late July and early October each year unless he was without a curate and unable to find a substitute.

  85. Registers of Marriages 1754–1813 and of Baptisms and Burials 1801–12, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R 132/3, ERO.

  86. Ibid.

  87. Ibid.; Dixon, ‘Reminiscences of an Essex Country Practitioner a Century Ago’, Essex Review, xiii (1914), 195. Patrick’s first burial, a 12–year-old boy, took place on 26 October 1806; thereafter he performed an average of 3a month, rising to 8 during the typhus epidemic in December: Registers of Baptisms and Burials 1801–12, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R 132/3, ERO.

  88. A board in the church at Wethersfield records details of the Dorothy Mott charitable fund which was set up in 1759. Patrick’s presence is not recorded at any of the meetings of the vicar and churchwardens regarding the charity lands, distribution of coals etc.: Churchwardens’ Books, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: MSS D/P 119/8/5 and D/P 119/8/6, ERO.

  89. ‘Reminiscences of an Essex Country Practitioner a Century Ago’, Essex Review, xiii (1914), 198.

  90. Venn, iv, 573.

  91. ‘Georgian Colchester: Social History’, Victoria
County History of Essex, ix, The Borough of Colchester (1994), 169–75. I am grateful to Beryl Board for making her material available to me before publication.

  92. Register of Marriages, St Peter’s Church, Colchester: Microfilm D/P 178/1/8, ERO. Only the marriage register contains the officiating minister’s name: Patrick’s name does not appear there but L&D, 31 say he took duty there. Storry signed the Letters Testimonial Patrick needed for his promotion to Dewsbury: see below, p.34.

  93. PB, Si Quis, 26 July 1807: MS 10326/138 no.5item 3, Guildhall [L&D, 31]; Joseph Jowett, Certificate, 14 July 1807: MS 10326/138 no.5item 1, Guildhall [L&D, 31].

  94. PB, Letters Testimonial, n.d.: MS 10326/138 no.5item 3, Guildhall [L&D, 30–1].

  95. Patrick sent the papers expressing the vain hope that ‘his Lordship will not look upon it as too late’: PB to the Secretary of the Bishop of London, 29 July 1807: MS 10326/138 no.5item 5, Guildhall [L&D, 31–2].

  96. I have been unable to find any contemporary reference to Mary Burder. For the facts I have therefore followed the account given by her daughter Mrs Lowe in Augustine Birrell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (London, 1887), 18–23, though I have reservations about its accuracy.

  97. Ibid., 20.

  98. PB to Mary Burder, 1Jan 1824: MS n.l. [LRPB, 50].

  99. PB to Mary Burder, 28 July 1823: MS n.l. [LRPB, 47].

  100. Birrell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 22–3.

  101. Mary Burder to PB, 8Aug 1823: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 65; LRPB, 343, wrongly dated to 18 Aug].

  102. I am indebted to Donald Hathaway, who lived at Broad Farm until he was 18, for the description of the house which was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a now-abandoned American air base. £230 10d was the capital valuation of the farm: Wethersfield Tithe Award, 22 Dec 1842: MS D/CT 393A, lot 791–841, ERO. Haworth Parsonage, by comparison, was revalued at £10 13s in 1851, having previously been worth only £7: PB, Account Book, [c.1845–61]: MS BS 173 p.12, BPM.