Haworth and the Bronte parsonage

The first stop on our trip was Haworth. This is where the Bronte sisters grew up and wrote their novels and where Patrick Bronte, their father, had his parsonage. The family moved here in 1820.

There were four Bronte children, three girls--Emily, Charlotte, and Ann, and one boy--Branwell. There were two other girls but they died at a young age.

Their mother, Maria, died just a year after they moved and since the children were still very young her sister moved in to care for the family. The kids were very close and the sisters were incredibly loyal and loving to their brother. All four of the kids were artistically talented, especially Branwell and Charlotte. Growing up, they would write stories for each other, a habit that prepared the girls for the novels they wrote as "young ladies." The girls are all published novelists-- Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and Ann wrote Agnes Grey.

A lot of aspects of their childhood come through in their books, and the isolation that they must have felt growing up in such a remote location seems to be a theme in both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. (I haven't read Agnes Grey yet but I'm pretty sure it's about a lonely governess...much like Jane Eyre). The girls worked as governesses once they got older, and Charlotte also worked as a school teacher at the little school next to their house.

Branwell had a lot of pressure to follow in his fathers footsteps and was encouraged to be a professional artist. It is said that he found his father a hard act to follow and unfortunately he never really made it. After a string of about 12 failed careers (and love affairs) he turned to drinking and drugs and died in 1848 at the age of 31.

Emily also died in 1848, at the age of 30, from tuberculosis. Anne followed in 1849 at the age of 29.

Charlotte outlived all of her siblings, although she died in childbirth only 5 years later. She married Arthur Nicholls, her father's curate, and her dad was not very happy about it. They had a loving, happy marriage and Arthur and Patrick must have warmed up to each other because Arthur stayed in Haworth to care for his aging father-in-law. Patrick outlived all of his children, dying in 1861, after which Arthur moved back to Ireland.