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

by Juliet Barker

William Morgan, who had at last secured his own promotion to Yorkshire, becoming curate to John Crosse at Bradford Parish Church.

Joshua Gilpin, the vicar of Wrockwardine in Shropshire,

Without inner conversion, adherence to the mere formalities of religion was useless:

Faith will enable the converted soul to get the victory over the world; to evade its snares, overcome its temptations, to live above its fears and desires, and to get comfortable views of another and a better <world> country.

Almost a month later, having obtained a new set of letters testimonial from Dewsbury and a new nomination to the perpetual curacy of Hartshead-cum-Clifton from John Buckworth, Patrick was relicensed, read himself in properly and took lawful possession.

Caught in a terrible trap of inescapable poverty, the working classes of the industrial West Riding had little hope of relief.

The cottage-based industries were being forced out of business by the introduction of new, more efficient machinery in the mills which produced more cloth, of a more consistent quality, at a much reduced cost in terms of labour.

Calling themselves Luddites, after Ned Lud, the semi-mythical Leicestershire man who had led the first rioters in the destruction of machinery, they took revenge on the only identifiable cause of the problems which was close at hand: the new machines.

William Cartwright, the mill owner, had been a leading light in introducing new machinery

The Luddites, then as now, attracted both sympathy and hostility.

he acquired his lifelong habit of keeping a loaded pistol in the house overnight.

The Reverend Thomas Atkinson, Patrick’s successor at Hartshead,

a belief in Hartshead that Patrick was not totally without

sympathy for the Luddite cause.

Fortunately, Patrick was to find a woman who possessed all the qualities he held most dear.

Woodhouse Grove, an elegant, stone-built Georgian mansion at Rawdon,

Bradford

L...

John Fennell, Patrick’s friend from Wellington;

Maria was twenty-nine years old, petite and elegant though not pretty; pious and something of a blue-stocking but also of a bright, cheerful and witty disposition. She was the daughter of a successful, property-owning grocer and tea merchant of Penzance, Thomas Branwell, who had died in 1808;

Maria had enjoyed all the benefits of belonging to a prosperous family in a small town.

Equally important in the life of the town was the Wesleyan Methodist community, of which the Branwells and the Carnes were prominent members.

The oldest part of the town is Chapel Street, where the Branwell home lay within a few hundred yards of the sea to front and rear.

The old heart of Penzance, centred around Chapel Street and Market Jew Street, is also relatively unchanged though engulfed by the larger modern town. Chapel Street itself is like something out of a picture book, steep, narrow and cobbled, winding up from the quay to the Market Place and lined with higgledy-piggledy eighteenth-century cottages. Most are built of granite though some, like number 25 where the Branwells lived, are faced with brick.

Maria herself decided to leave Penzance and travel to Yorkshire to live with her aunt and uncle.

From the softness of the Cornish climate and the comfortable, close-knit social world of Penzance, Maria travelled over 400 miles to the comparative austerity and friendlessness of a boys’ boarding school in the heart of a depressed and restless industrial West Riding.

Patrick lovingly preserved the series of letters written to him by Maria at this period; his side of the correspondence is unfortunately lost, but hers provides a unique and touching insight into the growing intimacy and affection between them.

26 August 1812, Maria wrote her first letter to Patrick, having agreed, at their last meeting, to become his wife.

In giving you these assurances I do not depend upon my own strength, but I look to Him who has been my unerring guide through life, and in whose continued protection and assistance I confidently trust.

Oh, what sacred pleasure there is in the idea of spending an eternity together in perfect and uninterrupted bliss!’

you possess all my heart.

I trust in your hours of retirement you will not forget to pray for me. I assure you I need every assistance to help me forward; I

feel that my heart is more ready to attach itself to earth than heaven. I sometimes think there never was a mind so dull and inactive as mine is with regard to spiritual things.98

yet the anticipation of sharing with you all the pleasures and pains, the cares and anxieties of life, of contributing to your comfort and becoming the companion of your pilgrimage, is more delightful to me than any other prospect which this world can possibly present.

For this was to be no ordinary wedding, but a double one, shared with Jane Fennell and William Morgan,

Real love is ever apt to suspect that it meets not with an equal return;

Oh let us pray much for wisdom and grace to fill our appointed stations with propriety, that we may enjoy satisfaction in our own souls, edify others, and bring glory to the name of Him who has so wonderfully preserved, blessed, and brought us together.106

Who could doubt, on reading this letter, that Patrick had won a woman of superlative qualities?

1812

29 December 1812,

in the ancient parish church at Guiseley,

At some stage, either on their marriage or possibly before the birth of their first child, they moved from Lousy Thorn to a home of their own.

it was in the village of Hightown

The whole tone is much more sympathetic and sensitive to the plight of the poor; it seems that the terrible winters of 1811 and 1812 had left their mark on Patrick and influenced his poetry as well as his heart.

life is short and he must make time to repent his sins if he is to win eternal life.

Kirkstall Abbey had been the objective of several of the family walks

The beauties of the natural world were, to Patrick, the manifestation of God; it was a belief that he was to pass on to his children, who would all share the passion for nature which he first expressed in these verses.

the influence of the poems in The Rural Minstrel can be traced through to their work, particularly the poetry of Branwell and Emily.

St George’s Day, 23 April 1814,

the Methodist Conference to separate from the Established Church in 1812.