Emily Jane Brontë (1818 - 1848)

Born 30 Jul 1818 in Thornton, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Died 19 Dec 1848 at age 30 in Haworth, West Yorkshire, England

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Biography

Emily Brontë is Notable.

Emily Brontë has Irish ancestors.

Emily was born 30 July 1818 and christened on 20 August 1818 at Thornton by Bradford.^[1] She was the fifth of six children born to Rev. Patrick Brontë and his wife, Maria Branwell, and was the middle of the three Brontë sisters who became famous authors. Emily was about two years old when her father obtained the living at Haworth in 1820 ^[2] and just three when her mother died the following year. The children's aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, who had been nursing their mother then took over the management of the family and remained at Haworth for the rest of her life.

In August 1824 Rev. Brontë sent his four eldest daughters to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Maria and Elizabeth were enrolled in July, Charlotte on 10 August and Emily on 25 November.^[3]In 1825 an outbreak of typhoid at the school resulted a number of girls becoming ill including Maria and Elizabeth. Maria was taken home in February 1825 and died at home on 6 May. ^[4] Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily were brought home on 1 June and Elizabeth died on 15 June.^[4] Emily, her sisters and brother were then schooled at home by their father and their aunt Elizabeth Branwell.^[5]

At seventeen, Emily attended Miss Wooler's Girls' School at Roe Head in Mirfield, where her older sister, Charlotte, was a teacher, but stayed only three months. Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September 1838, but returned home in April 1839, this being her only experience of paid employment. She spent the next three years at Haworth ^[6] and, besides writing, Emily filled her time with household duties, piano playing and with her pet dog, cat, hawk and geese.^[5]

In 1842 Emily embarked on her fourth and final sojourn away from Haworth. With her sister Charlotte she travelled to Pensionnat Heger, a large boarding school in Brussels to gain an education in languages in preparation for establishing their own school. Their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, financed some of costs of their trip, with Charlotte teaching English and Emily music in return for their board and tuition.^[7] Nine months later Elizabeth died ^[8] and the girls were summoned home to Haworth. Charlotte returned to Brussels the following year but Emily was to remain at Haworth for the remainder of her life.^[5]

In May 1846 Charlotte, Emily, and Anne published a joint collection of their poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' gender while preserving their initials. The sisters did most of their writing at the dining table in the parsonage. Emily Brontë's only novel, Wuthering Heights, was first published in London by Thomas Cautley Newby in December 1847 under her pseudonym, Ellis Bell. ^[9] The novel, which has become a classic of English literature, was not well received though acknowledged to be powerful. Having no moral purpose and peopled by coarse and passionate characters with no redeeming features the novel failed.

Emily died of tuberculosis one year later on 19 December 1848.^[10]. She was buried in the family crypt in the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth, on 22 December 1848. ^[11]

Find A Grave: Memorial #1709 Emily Bronte

On 22 May 1850, Charlotte wrote of her deceased sister Emily,

"For my part I am free to walk on the moors - but when I go out there alone - everything reminds me of the times when others were with me and then the moors seem a wilderness, featureless, solitary, saddening - My sister Emily had a particular love for them, and there is not a knoll of heather, not a branch of fern, not a young bilberry leaf, not a fluttering lark or linnet but reminds me of her."^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3V1-HBZ : 11 February 2018, Emily Jane Bronte, 20 August 1818); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 990,544.
2. ↑ Venn Cambridge Alumni: Patrick Bronte
3. ↑ Thormählen, Marianne, ed. The Brontës in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, p.xxi.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Chitham, Edward. A Life of Emily Brontë. Rev. ed. Stroud: Amberley, 2010. Google Books preview
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Barker, Juliet. 2004 "Brontë, Emily Jane [pseud. Ellis Bell] (1818–1848), novelist and poet." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
6. ↑ 1841 Census of England
   Parsonage House, Haworth, Bradford, Yorkshire, England

   First Name	Last Name	Relationship	Marital Status	Gender	Age	Occupation	Birth Place
   Patrick	Bronte	-	-	Male	60	Clergyman	Ireland
   Elizabeth	Branwell	-	-	Female	50	-	Cornwall
   Emily Jane	Bronte	-	-	Female	20	-	Yorkshire
   Ann	Bronte	-	-	Female	19	Governess	Yorkshire
   Martha	Brown	-	-	Female	15	FS	Yorkshire

7. ↑ “Constantin Héger.” Wikipedia, December 21, 2017. Constantin Héger
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Branwell
9. ↑ Wikipedia: Wuthering Heights
10. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2J9Q-DFT : 31 December 2014), Emily Jane Bronte, 1848; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Keighley, Yorkshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
11. ↑ St Michael and All Angels, Haworth (22 December 1848 Emily Jane Bronte 29 years)
12. ↑ Haworth Village Charlotte Brontë

• Austin, Linda M. "Emily Brontë's Homesickness." Victorian Studies 44, No. 4 (2002): 573-96.
• Chitham, Edward. A Life of Emily Brontë. Rev. ed. Stroud: Amberley, 2010. Google Books preview
• “Emily Brontë.” Wikipedia, July 13, 2018. Emily Brontë
• “Emily Bronte Biography.” Accessed July 17, 2018. Howard Village website
• “Emily Bronte | Biography, Works, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte.
• Robinson, A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances). Emily Brontë. London : W.H. Allen, 1883. Archive.org
• Wikidata: Item Q80137, en:Wikipedia
• The works of Emily Brontë on Project Gutenberg

See also:

• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell

• 'Jane Austen's Family through Five Generations' by Maggie Lane, published by Robert Hale Limited, London. ISBN 0 7090 4832 7. Includes extensive family trees. Details of contemporaries and other connections are also mentioned in the text.Jane Austen's Family through Five Generations