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

by Juliet Barker

Given the scarcity of written records in Ireland at this time, it is all the more remarkable that there is confirmation of Patrick’s startling claim to have established his own school at the age of only sixteen. In November 1793, when Patrick was indeed sixteen, John Lindsay of Bangrove, Rathfriland, recorded the payment of one pound to ‘Pat Prunty for David’s school bill’ in his account book.13 Nothing else is known about Patrick’s school, not even its precise location, though the fact that it must have catered for the sons of the gentry, rather than village children, is indicated by the size of the fee charged and by David Lindsay’s subsequent appointment as an officer in the local militia.14 If this was the case, then Patrick must have been able to offer more than the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic to his young pupils. Whether he was self-taught or whether his evident talents had already attracted the attention of local clergymen, who alone were in the position to give him higher education, is not known.