Brontës

by Juliet Barker

  103. Wethersfield Tithe Award, 22 Dec 1842: MS D/CT 393A, lot 766–868, ERO. I am grateful to Rita Norman of Wethersfield for her assistance in identifying The Park today.

  104. Mary Burder to PB, 8 Aug 1823: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 64].

  105. PB to Mary Burder, 1 Jan 1824: MS n.l. [LRPB, 49].

  106. Mary Burder to PB, 8Aug 1823: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 64].

  107. Residence Register: MS C27.1, SJC.

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

  109. Patrick’s absence at Glenfield is suggested by the fact that Jowett had to get the curate of Finchingfield to take a marriage on 20 September and a burial on 21 September. Someone else deputized on 11 October but Patrick was back by 18 October when he took a burial service: Register of Baptisms and Burials 1801–12 and Register of Marriages 1754–1812, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R 132/3, ERO. Robert Cox was admitted as a sizar at St John’s in March 1803 but transferred to Queens’ College on 1January 1804, graduating from there in 1806: ordained in 1807 he became rector of Broughton Astley in Leicestershire: Venn, i, 161. John Barnwell Campbell, who came from South Carolina, was admitted as a pensioner at Queens’ in 1804 and graduated in 1808: ibid., 501.

  110. PB to Revd Mr Campbell, 12 Nov 1808: MS p.2, Princeton [LRPB, 24]. The quotation is from St Paul to the Corinthians, ch. 6, v.14. Significantly, Patrick used it again in his little book The Cottage in the Wood (1815): his pious cottager Mary rejects an atheist’s marriage proposal with these words: ‘I shall follow the directions of God, and he says, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath right-eousness with unrighteousness?” … Whatever religious person marries one that is not religious, breaks an express commandment of Scripture; and who can expect that God will make these labours end well, that have such a bad beginning? Every truly converted character, who would make advances in piety, and become wiser and happier, must have a partner of similar views and feelings, who, at all times, will prove a help rather than a hindrance’: PB, The Cottage in the Wood, 26–7[Brontëana, 111–12]. Campbell was an obvious confidant for Patrick who remarked in this letter, ‘In some things, our lots in life are nearly similar; both as respects our late love affairs, & our voluntary exile from our Dear Homes; though I believe, literally speaking, it is not voluntary’: PB to Revd Mr Campbell, 12 Nov 1808: MS p.2, Princeton [LRPB, 24].

  111. Although I cannot prove Mary attended Wethersfield Congregational chapel at this time the many Burders at Great Yeldham, Castle Hedingham and Finchingfield were all Nonconformists and her four daughters, born 1825–30, were all baptized there according to the Essex IGI. Mary herself married the Revd Peter Sibree, minister of the chapel, in 1824 and moved to the manse only a couple of doors down the village green from St George’s House.

  112. Mary Burder to PB, 8Aug 1823: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 64].

  113. PB to Mary Burder, 1Jan 1824: MS n.l. [LRPB, 49].

  114. PB to Revd Mr Campbell, 12 Nov 1808: MS p.2, Princeton [LRPB, 24].

  115. ‘Patrick Brontë was once my greatest friend’, Nunn told his niece Maria Tipton in 1857 when he learned she was reading Mrs Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë. The next morning he brought out a thick bundle of letters, telling her that they were from Patrick and referred to his spiritual state, that he had read through them again and would now destroy them: Clement K. Shorter, The Brontës: Life and Letters (London, 1908), i, 25 n.2.

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

  117. PB to Mrs Burder, 21 Apr 1823 and to Mary Burder, 28 July 1823: MSS n.l. [LRPB, 45, 47].

  118. Register of Baptisms and Burials 1801–12 and Register of Marriages 1754–1812, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R 132/3, ERO. L&D, 40 confuse the date of the burial with the date of registration.

  119. Pigot & Co., National Commercial Directory (1822), 378–9; Shropshire Gazetteer (Wem, 1824), 144, 671; George Evans, Wellington: A Portrait in Old Photographs and Picture Postcards (Market Drayton, 1990).

  120. R. M. Baxter, ‘A History of Wellington’ (1949): typescript in LSL, Shrewsbury.

  121. Shrewsbury Chronicle, 6 Jan 1809 p.2.

  122. Wellington Presentation Papers and Deeds: MS B/A/3, Lichfield; Venn, ii, 449. In Marjorie McCrea, A History of the Parish Church of All Saints Wellington, Shropshire (Wellington, 1987), 3, 23 Eyton is wrongly described as third son of Robert Eyton, vicar of Ryton [sic], Shifnal and his dates at Wellington as 1803–22 instead of the correct 1802–23.

  123. Venn, ii, 449; W[illiam] M[organ], ‘A Short Account of the late Rev John Eyton, A.M. Vicar of Wellington, Shropshire’, The Cottage Magazine (Apr 1823), 109–12; Charles Hulbert, The Manual of Shropshire Biography; Chronology and Antiquities (Shrewsbury, 1829), 17. Eyton’s ‘Sermon preached on the occasion of the late Naval Victory [Trafalgar]’ (1805) was the first publication of Edward Houlston, Wellington’s bookseller and printer: Philip A. Brown, ‘Houlstons of Wellington Shropshire – a well known publishing house in early Victorian times’, Shropshire Magazine, Apr 1959, 15.

  124. Evans, Wellington: a Portrait in Old Photographs and Picture Postcards, 55.

  125. McCrea, A History of the Parish Church of All Saints Wellington, Shropshire and personal observation.

  126. W[illiam] M[organ], ‘A Short Account of the late Rev John Eyton, A.M. Vicar of Wellington, Shropshire’, 112–13. Eyton’s ill-health obliged him to give up his formal duties and spend the winter of 1822–3con-valescing in Portsmouth where he died aged 45: his obituary, written in Bradford on 9 February 1823 by Patrick’s friend and fellow-curate, Morgan, was published by Patrick’s next vicar, John Buckworth, in The Cottage Magazine (1823), 109–14.

  127. Register of Baptisms and Burials 1801–12 and Register of Marriages 1754–1812, St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield: Microfilm T/R 132/3, ERO. The accent had now become ‘Brontēe’.

  128. Assessment for the Relief of the Poor of Eyton, 25 May 1809: MS at St Catherine’s Church, Eyton. Three baptisms and 10 marriages were carried out by John Eyton and William Morgan respectively: I am grateful to Miss McCrea for this information from the Eyton parish registers.

  129. Shrewsbury Chronicle, 10 Feb 1809 p.3; 26 May 1809 p.3; 9June 1809 p.3; 16 June 1809 p.3. The Revd John Waltham was a leading Evangelical: a memoir of his life stated ‘if the path of our reverend friend, both as a Christian and a Minister, was as the shining light; the end of his path was as the perfect day’: The Cottage Magazine (1815), 30–4.

  130. Shrewsbury Chronicle, 27 Oct 1809 p.3.

  131. Ibid., 3Nov 1809 p.3. A Lancasterian school was run along the lines established by the founder, Joseph Lancaster, and employed older pupils to assist the teacher by instructing younger ones.

  132. H.E. Forrest, Old Churches of Shrewsbury (Shrewsbury, 1920), 101.

  133. Ibid.; M. L. Charlesworth, A Choice of Churches (Shrewsbury, n.d.); Hulbert, The Manual of Shropshire Biography, 26.

  134. C. A. Hulbert to L. Hainsworth, 20 Aug 1885: MS BS ix, H p.1, BPM; Kenneth G. Kinrade, ‘The Remarkable Career of Charles Hulbert’, Shropshire Magazine (Nov 1956), 18–20 and (Dec 1956), 17–19.

  135. Prior to his ordination, Fennell was the first head of the newly established Woodhouse Grove School for the sons of Methodist ministers: see below, pp.54–5.

  136. The date of Morgan’s appointment is deduced from his signatures in the Register of Marriages, All Saints’ Church, Wellington: MS at All Saints’, Wellington. For Morgan’s career see Michael Walker, ‘William Morgan, B.D. 1782–1858’, BST:30:3:213–30.

  137. For Fletcher I have followed the account of him given in the ‘Lives of Eminent Christians’ series published in The Cottage Magazine (1825), 9–18, 289–300, 325–32, 361–9, 397–404 and (1826), 1–9, 37–44, 73–81, 109–19, which draws largely on the biographies by Gilpin and Cox.

  138. Ibid. (1825), 368–9; (1826), 115; Joshua Gilpin, The Portrait of St Paul: or the True Model for Christians and Pastors, Translated fro
m a French Manuscript of the late Revd John William de la Flechère, vicar of Madeley, with an Account of the Author (Shrewsbury and London, 1790), 2 vols. Patrick dedicated a poem ‘To the Rev J Gilpin, on his improved edition of the Pilgrim’s Progress’: PB, Cottage Poems, 87–93 [Brontëana, 87].

  139. William Morgan, The Parish Priest: Pourtrayed in the Life, Character and Ministry of the Rev. John Crosse, A.M. (London, 1841), 8.

  140. Ibid., 8–9.

  141. W. Matthews, ‘Charlotte Brontë’, The Methodist New Connexion Magazine (London, 1889), 208; Morgan, The Parish Priest, 13, 130.

  142. Henry Martyn to William Wilberforce, 14 Feb 1804: MS Wilberforce d.14 p.17, Bodleian [LRPB, 318].

  143. PB to Mrs Burder, 21 Apr 1823: MS n.l. [LRPB, 45].

  144. L&D, 44 state that Patrick met Buckworth at St Chad’s in 1809 but Buckworth’s attachment there did not occur until 1813: Buckworth, 117–8, 55.

  145. James Wood’s Commonplace Book 1808–36, 6 Nov 1809: MS M1.3 p.214. I am grateful to Dr Peter Searby for drawing my attention to the entries in this ms.

  146. Ibid., 219, 223.

  147. Register of Marriages, All Saints’ Church, Wellington: MS, All Saints’, Wellington. Patrick’s letters testimonial from Wellington state that he resided there till 4 Dec 1809: MS ADM 1810, Borthwick.

  148. Morgan added two scriptural texts referring to brotherly love beneath his dedication: Sermons or Homilies Appointed to be Read in Churches (Oxford, 1802): HAOBP:bb57, BPM.

  149. PB, Letters Testimonial from Wethersfield, n.d. and from Wellington, 8 Dec 1809: MSS ADM 1810, Borthwick.

  CHAPTER TWO: THE PROMISED LAND

  1. Christopher Scargill and Richard Lee, Dewsbury As It Was (Nelson, 1983), intro., nos. 30, 36, 46, 47, 49.

  2. Ibid., intro., no. 50; A. Ronald Bielby, Churches and Chapels of Kirklees (Huddersfield, 1978), 30–2. The church has been rebuilt so many times that it is impos-sible to visualize it as it was in 1809, though the medieval parts of the interior and the 1767 tower remain.

  3. William Page (ed.), Victoria History of the County of York (London, 1974), iii, 525.

  4. Baines, i, 161–7; Scargill and Lee, Dewsbury As It Was, intro.

  5. Ibid. The Moravians were a Protestant sect originating in the Czech Republic: they had a strong following in the Gomersal and Pudsey area where they established Fulneck School. A Moravian minister, James La Trobe, would attend Anne Brontë when she fell ill at Roe Head in 1837: see below, 327, 331.

  6. Registers of Marriages, 1796–1812, and of Baptisms and Burials, 1796–1812, All Saints’ Church, Dewsbury: Microfiche D9/19 and D9/8, WYAS, Bradford. These figures do not include those for Ossett which are recorded separately but not comprehensively in the same registers. The name of the officiating clergyman is only recorded in the marriage register making it impossible to identify what proportion of the baptisms and burials Patrick carried out. Judging by the new-format registers, which came into use in 1813 and did record the officiating minister’s name, Buckworth relied on his curates to perform the vast majority of the duties. Patrick’s date of arrival is given in PB, Letters Testimonial from Dewsbury, 12 June 1810: MS ADM 1810, Borthwick.

  7. Buckworth, 178–9.

  8. Ibid., 52–3.

  9. Ibid., 114–17. Though Patrick was influenced by Buckworth’s example, he never adopted his ‘moderate Calvinism’: ibid., 184.

  10. Frederick W. Smith, ‘Notes Towards a History of Dewsbury’: unpublished type-script, 1967, in LSL, Dewsbury; Buckworth, 17, 195.

  11. Yates, 47 quoting Mr Senior.

  12. Buckworth, 49–52.

  13. Mrs Hepworth, quoted in Revd Thomas Whitby to J.A. Erskine Stuart, 13 Dec 1886: MS BS xi, 63 p.2, BPM.

  14. Yates, 31–4.

  15. Ibid., 42 and L&D, 64 say that it was the vicar’s ill-health which prevented him attending the procession but according to Patrick his vicar was in Oxford taking his M.A. only five days before the Whit walks: PB to Thomas Porteus, 6June 1810: MS ADM 1810, Borthwick [LRPB, 25].

  16. Yates, 42–9 quoting Mr Senior and Miss Wilson, apparently as eye-witnesses. See CB, Shirley, 303–5 for Charlotte’s fictional version of this incident.

  17. Yates, 74–7 quoting Joseph Tolson’s daughter-in-law and grandson.

  18. Patrick later worked closely with him to free William Nowell: see below pp.42–4.

  19. Yates, 29 quoting Marmaduke Fox.

  20. Ibid., 35–7; Mrs Hepworth, quoted in Revd Thomas Whitby to J.A. Erskine Stuart, 13 Dec 1886: MS BS xi, 63 pp.2–4, BPM. The way the bell-ringing incident is reported, as an example of Patrick’s ill-temper, rather than his faith, is typical of the misrepresentations of him which proliferated after publication of ECG, Life in 1857.

  21. L&D, 66 following Yates, 37–9: but Buckworth, 49–52 says that the young men were taught in evening classes twice a week and does not mention their residence at the vicarage. I suspect Patrick had to give up his place to the new curate David Jenkins who was appointed in anticipation of Patrick’s preferment to Hartshead.

  22. PB to Thomas Porteus, 6June 1810: MS ADM 1810, Borthwick [LRPB, 25].

  23. The dating of the letters testimonial is confused: those from Wethersfield are dated 8 May 1810; those from Wellington 8May 1809 though they must date from 1810 as they testify to Patrick’s having left Wellington on 4 December 1809; those from Dewsbury are dated 12 June 1810: all are in MS ADM 1810, Borthwick.

  24. John Buckworth to the Archbishop of York, 19 July 1810: MS ADM 1810, Borthwick.

  25. Registers of Marriages, 1796–1812, and of Baptisms and Burials, 1796–1812, All Saints’ Church, Dewsbury: Microfiche D9/19 and D9/8, WYAS, Bradford; Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1798–1812, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead-cum-Clifton: Microfiche D31/3, WYAS, Kirklees [Edith B. Armytage (ed.), The Parish Registers of Hartshead (Yorkshire Parish Register Society, 1903), 280, 282–3, 292–3, 306–9].

  26. Jenkins first signed the Dewsbury marriage register on 6August 1810; he carried out nine marriages at Hartshead between 9 August 1810 and 28 March 1811: Joseph Ogden had officiated at all the previous marriages, assisted infrequently at Dewsbury and also occasionally when Patrick was minister at Hartshead: Register of Marriages, 1798–1812, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead-cum-Clifton: Microfiche D31/3, WYAS, Kirklees. L&D, 69 claim that the failure of the new curate to arrive delayed Patrick’s removal to Hartshead but Jenkins was already officiating as early as August 1810. L&D, 68–9, 84, 90–1 also gloss over the fact that Patrick was appointed in 1810 but did not take up his duties until 1811.

  27. LM, 15 Dec 1810 p.3.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Mary Burder to PB, 8Aug 1823: MS n.l. [L&L, i, 64].

  30. LM, 15 Dec 1810 p.3. I disagree with most biographers who, following L&D, 74–5, assume Patrick wrote the long letter about Nowell’s case under the pseudonym ‘Sydney’. There would be no point in going to the trouble of adopting a pseudonym then giving away the identity by including a letter addressed to the ‘Rev. P. Bronte’ at the end unless the pen name belonged to some-one else. Patrick never used a pseudonym in any other newspaper correspondence, nor does this letter display his characteristic traits: the most obvious omission is quotation from Scripture but Patrick, who was proud of his Irish ancestry, would not have written ‘we Englishmen’. I do not therefore believe that Patrick wrote the ‘Sydney’ letter. Nor have I found any evidence to support the assertion in L&D, 89 that Patrick had ‘already contributed a number of articles’ to the newspapers by 1811. The fact that the ‘Sydney’ letter is the only one before 1824, after which Patrick wrote fairly frequently, confirms my belief that it was not written by him.

  31. LM, 17 Aug 1811 p.3. An angry exchange of letters followed between Dawson and Rylah concerning the correctness of Dawson’s behaviour as examining magistrate: ibid., 24 Aug 1811 p.3; 7 Sept 1811 p.3.

  32. See above, p.37.

  33. Bielby, Churches and Chapels of Kirklees, 12–14; ECG, Life, 12.

  34. H.N. and M
. Pobjoy, The Story of the Ancient Parish of Hartshead-cum-Clifton (Driffield, 1972), 124, 111–12, 75–6. The occupations are cited from the parish registers: Armytage (ed.), The Parish Registers of Hartshead, 280–3, 292–3, 306–9.

  35. I have adopted the contemporary spelling of the name, though modern sources tend to use ‘Armytage’.

  36. Margaret M. Wood, Hartshead and District in Times Past (Chorley, 1985), 11–12.

  37. Sarah J. Williams to J.A. Erskine Stuart, [c.1886–7]: MS BS xi, 67 p.1, BPM.

  38. John Buckworth, A Series of Discourses … Preached in the Parish Church of Dewsbury Yorkshire (Wakefield, 1809): MS HAOBP:bb11, BPM. Buckworth added copies of two more recent sermons to this book: a funeral sermon for Joseph Hutchinson, who died on 12 July 1809, and a sermon for the Day of National Humiliation on 28 February 1810.

  39. See above, n. 25.

  40. Registers of Marriages, 1798–1812 and 1813–68, of Baptisms, 1798–1812 and 1813–72, and of Burials, 1798–1812 and 1813–36, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead: Microfiche D31/3, WYAS, Kirklees [up to Dec 1812, Armytage (ed.), The Parish Registers of Hartshead, 292–3, 280–3, 306–9]. In January 1813 all the parish registers were taken out of the clerk’s hands and filled in by the officiating minister, so it is possible to see exactly how many services Patrick performed.

  41. Patrick officiated at marriages, for example, on 20 May, 16 June, 7July, 25 September and twice on 25 December 1811, signing the register ‘P. Brontēe Minister’: Register of Marriages, 1798–1812, All Saints’ Church, Dewsbury: Microfiche D9/19, WYAS, Bradford.

  42. All three took occasional duties for Patrick: For Jenkins see above, n. 26; Roberson performed 3 baptisms on 28 August 1814 and 2 baptisms and a burial on 11 September 1814; Morgan performed 3burials on 21 March 1813 and Maria Brontë’s baptism on 23 April 1814: Registers of Baptisms, 1813–72, and of Burials, 1813–36, St Peter’s Church, Hartshead: Microfiche D31/3, WYAS, Kirklees. For Roberson as a model for Mr Helstone see below, pp.719,740.