The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family

by Juliet Barker

With the death of Aunt Branwell, the girls, together with their cousin in Penzance, Eliza Kingston, had all inherited an equal share in their aunt’s estate. She had left each of the Brontë children – including Branwell – a personal memento, but she chose to leave her money to the four nieces who stood most in need of it.94 Probate and administration was granted in December and, according to an inventory of the residue of Aunt Branwell’s property, the girls could expect to get just under £300 each.95 Most of the money was invested in shares in the York and North Midland Railway, but as the youngest niece, Anne, had already passed her twenty-first birthday, they could be cashed in. Though not a sum which would transform their lives, the Brontë girls now had at least the benefit of a cushion against immediate financial hardship should their father die.