Mother of the Bronte sisters (1783?1821)
Maria Branwell
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Born
| (
1783-04-15
)
15 April 1783
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Died
| 15 September 1821
(1821-09-15)
(aged 38)
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Spouse
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|
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Children
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Relatives
| Elizabeth Branwell
(sister)
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Maria Branwell
(15 April 1783
[1]
? 15 September 1821) is best known as being the mother of British writers
Emily Bronte
,
Anne Bronte
,
Charlotte Bronte
and of their brother
Branwell Bronte
, who was a poet and painter. Maria married
Patrick Bronte
on 29 December 1812.
Early life
[
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]
Maria Branwell was the eighth child of 12 born to Anne Carne and Thomas Branwell in
Penzance
,
Cornwall
,
[2]
although only five daughters and one son grew to adulthood. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant and owned many properties throughout the town. The men of the Branwell family took part in the town's public life. Maria's brother Benjamin was mayor in 1809.
[2]
The family were prominent
Methodists
. Thomas' sister and two of his daughters married clergymen of Wesleyan leanings: his sister Jane married John Fennell in 1790; his daughter Jane Branwell married
John Kingston
in 1800; and Maria married
Patrick Bronte
in 1812. The first
Wesleyan Methodist
chapel was built in Penzance in 1814, and the Branwells were instrumental in having this built.
Courtship and marriage
[
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]
Maria met Patrick Bronte in 1812 when visiting her aunt Jane (her father's sister) and uncle John Fennell in
Yorkshire
after four family deaths between 1808 and 1812, including both of her parents. Maria moved to Yorkshire to help her aunt with the household management of a new Methodist training school. John Fennell, a former schoolmaster and Methodist class leader in Penzance and
Wellington, Shropshire
, was appointed headmaster of the newly opened
Woodhouse Grove School
at
Rawdon
, for the sons of Methodist ministers in 1812. Patrick, during his curacy in Wellington, had known John Fennell in Shropshire's Wesleyan circles.
When Fennell was invited to the Yorkshire headship, he needed external examiners for his students and invited Patrick to serve in that capacity at Woodhouse Grove. Maria and Patrick 'loved at first sight' and married within the year. They were married on 29 December 1812 at
Guiseley Parish Church
by mutual friend Reverend
William Morgan
, who, on the same day, married Jane and John Fennell's daughter, Jane Branwell Fennell.
[3]
Befitting the close family that the Branwells were, also married on that day at the same hour were Maria's youngest sister, Charlotte, to her cousin Joseph Branwell at the parish church of
Madron
in Cornwall.
[
citation needed
]
Later life
[
edit
]
Maria and Patrick's first home was Clough House in
Hightown
. Their first two children,
Maria
and
Elizabeth
, were born there in 1813/1814 and 1815.
[4]
Their second home was in
Thornton
, where their remaining children were born:
In 1820 the Brontes moved to
Haworth
. After moving to Haworth, Maria sickened with what may have been
uterine
or
ovarian
cancer, or chronic
pelvic
sepsis and
anaemia
brought on by the birth of her youngest daughter Anne.
[6]
Whatever the cause, Maria died seven and half months later, suffering a long agony; Anne was only twenty months old.
Maria was buried on 22 September 1821 at Haworth.
William Morgan
performed the burial ceremony.
[7]
Works
[
edit
]
The only work besides letters that Maria wrote was the essay "The Advantages of Poverty, In Religious Concerns." The essay can be found in the book
Life and Letters
by
Clement Shorter
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
"Chapter 8. People called Branwell."
BRONTE TERRITORIES: CORNWALL AND THE UNEXPLORED MATERNAL LEGACY, 1760-1860
, Melissa Hardie, 2019. Edward Everett Root; Illustrated edition (30 November 2019), p.134. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
- ^
a
b
"Mrs Bronte | Bronte Parsonage Museum"
.
www.bronte.org.uk
. Retrieved
21 November
2019
.
- ^
"West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1512-1812 for Maria Branwell."
Guiseley, St Oswald: Marriages 1812, p.122. West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; New Reference Number: WDP29/3/3. Ancestry.com, 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
- ^
Patricia Ingham (2006):
The Brontes
(Oxford University Press), p. xii.
- ^
Glen, Heather. The Cambridge Companion to the Brontes. Cambridge companions to literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- ^
"Remembering Maria: Mother Of The Brontes"
.
www.annebronte.org
. 17 April 2017
. Retrieved
13 August
2020
.
- ^
"Maria, the wife of Patrick Bronte A.B, Minister of this Church."
Haworth, St Michael and All Angels: Burials 1821, No.740, p.93.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1985,
West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. Ancestry.com, 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
External links
[
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]