Author: BRONTE, Patrick
Biography:
BRONTË, Patrick, formerly Brunty or Prunty (1777-1861: ODNB)
The eldest child of Hugh Brunty or Prunty and his wife Eleanor McClory, he was born in Emdale, County Down, Ireland, on 17 Mar. 1777. He changed his name to Bronte when he was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, in Oct. 1802 (BA 1806); later he used Brontë. He was ordained deacon in 1806 and priest in 1807. He had a string of brief appointments as curate: in Wethersfield, Essex; Wellington, Shropshire; Dewsbury, Yorkshire; and Hartshead, Yorkshire. He was living at Dewsbury when he published his first books of verse and married Maria Branwell at St. Oswald’s church in Guiseley, Yorkshire, on 29 Dec. 1812. They had two daughters—Maria and Elizabeth—born at Hartshead, and four children—Anne, Charlotte, Emily, and Branwell—born at Thornton where they lived from 1815. On 20 Apr. 1820 the family moved to Haworth where Brontë was the perpetual curate. On 15 Sept. 1821 his wife died and her sister, Elizabeth Branwell (d 1842), moved to Haworth to care for the children and household. In 1825 the two eldest daughters died after they became ill at a boarding school. The other children were mainly educated at home where they began writing the stories which laid the groundwork for their later published works. Brontë travelled with his daughters to Brussels in 1842 where they were to study French in preparation for a school they hoped to open in Haworth. No such school was ever successfully established but Anne, Charlotte, and Emily published novels under pseudonyms in 1847. Within a year Anne, Emily, and Branwell had all died, leaving Brontë alone with Charlotte. Against his objections, she married his curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, in 1854 and died a year later in the early stages of pregnancy. Nicholls continued living in the Haworth parsonage until Brontë’s own death on 7 June 1861. He was buried in the family vault in his church of St. Michael and All Angels in Haworth. Nicholls was the executor of his will which distributed effects of under £1500. (ODNB 15 Sept. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 15 Sept. 2023) SR
Other Names:
- P. Bronte
- the Rev. P. Bronte