Patrick Brontë (, commonly ; born Patrick Brunty; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish Anglican clergyman and author who spent most of his adult life in England. One of ten children from a very poor family, he managed to secure a scholarship to study theology at St John's College, Cambridge, and went on to take holy orders. In 1811 he published a collection of poetry, Cottage Poems. He continued to write and publish throughout his life. In 1812 he married Maria Branwell, and they had six children, including the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, and Branwell Brontë, their only son.
In 1820, the family moved to Haworth, where Patrick had been offered the role of perpetual curate. In 1821, Maria Branwell died, leaving Patrick to care for six children under eight. After the deaths of his two eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, who had fallen ill at boarding school, Patrick looked after his children at home, with the help of his late wife's sister, Elizabeth Branwell, and the house servants.
Patrick was an abolitionist and a keen advocate for social reform. He died in 1861, aged eighty-four, having outlived all of his children.
Patrick Brontë was born on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1777 at Imdel (or Emdale) in the parish of Drumballyroney, County Down. He was the eldest of ten children. His parents were Hugh Brunty (or Prunty), an Anglican, and Elinor Alice (née McClory), an Irish Catholic. His father was described as a "farmhand, fence-fixer and road-builder". The family was very poor, owning four books (including two copies of the Bible) and subsisting on a restricted diet of porridge, buttermilk, bread, and potatoes, to which Patrick attributed his lifelong digestive issues.
Patrick had several apprenticeships (to a blacksmith, aged twelve, then to a linen draper, and a weaver), until he was befriended by a local clergyman, who saw his potential and provided him with an education. In 1798 he became a teacher, then in 1802 moved to England, having won a scholarship to study theology as a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge. He first registered his name as "Branty" or "Brunty", then later as Brontë, receiving his BA degree in 1806. While the reason for this change of spelling remains unclear, there are a number of prominent theories to explain it, including that it may have been in tribute to his hero, Lord Nelson, who had received the title of Duke of Bronte.
in 1806 Patrick Brontë was ordained deacon in the Church of England, and became a priest in 1807. His first post on ordination as deacon was as curate at St Mary Magdalene Church, Wethersfield, Essex where the vicar was Joseph Jowett, Regius Professor of Law at Cambridge. Here in 1807 he met and fell in love with Mary Burder, the 18-year-old niece of his landlady. Mary's family were members of the dissenting or non-conformist Congregational Church, and objected to the connection. After a disagreement with Mary's uncle, who was her legal guardian, Patrick ended the relationship. Mary was sent away, and Patrick decided it was best to take a new curacy.
In 1809, Patrick became assistant curate of Wellington, Shropshire, and in 1810 his first published poem, the 256-line Winter Evening Thoughts, appeared in a local newspaper. In 1811 he published a collection of moral verses, Cottage Poems, intended for ordinary people. In her biography of Charlotte Brontë, Claire Harman recounts that one of the Cottage Poems had been written to Mary Burder, and praised her sparkling blue eyes. Patrick later gave a copy of the book, with an annotated version of the poem, to another young lady, changing the line to "sparkling hazle eye". In 1813 he published The Rural Minstrel: A Miscellany of Descriptive Poems, and went on to publish The Cottage In the Wood in 1816, then a novel, The Maid of Killarney (1818) and The Signs of the Times (1835).
In December 1809, Patrick moved to the West Riding of Yorkshire as curate at All Saints, Dewsbury (now Dewsbury Minster). The area was undergoing an evangelical revival under the incumbent vicar, John Buckworth. Brontë taught reading and writing at Dewsbury's Sunday School and was deputed by Buckworth to attend twice-weekly meetings of the Church Mission Society on his behalf. A memorial plaque to Brontë can be found in the south aisle of Dewsbury Minster.
Buckworth appointed Patrick as perpetual curate of the Church of St Peter, Hartshead, a daughter church of Dewsbury, in 1811. He served there until 1815. In 1812 he was appointed school examiner at a Wesleyan academy, Woodhouse Grove School, near Guiseley. In 1815 he moved again to become perpetual curate of Thornton.
At Guiseley, Patrick met Maria Branwell (1783–1821), the daughter of a wealthy merchant and civic leader from Penzance. Maria was twenty-nine, and Patrick six years her senior, and they rapidly fell in love. Patrick is reported to have frequently made the twenty-four-mile (39 km) round trip from Hartshead to visit Maria, and Maria often wrote to Patrick, addressing him in one letter as "my dear saucy Pat".
The couple were married on 29 December 1812 in the Church of St Oswald. They moved into a house on Halifax Road, Liversedge, where their first two children, Maria (1814–1825) and Elizabeth (1815–1825), were born. In 1816 they moved to Thornton, where their four other children, Charlotte (1816–1855), Patrick Branwell (1817–1848), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), were born.
in June 1819, Patrick Brontë was offered the perpetual curacy of St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth, and in April 1820 he moved with his young family into the eight-roomed Haworth Parsonage. At this time, Haworth was notorious for its high death rate and poor sanitation; in 1850 Benjamin Babbage released a damning report, with accounts of appalling conditions, including open sewers, refuse in the streets and a water supply that was contaminated by run-off from the overcrowded cemetery. Throughout his years in Haworth, Patrick campaigned – against some opposition – for reform, calling for better sanitation, education and working conditions.
Death of Maria Branwell Brontë
In 1821 Patrick's sister-in-law Elizabeth Branwell (1776–1842), who had lived with the family at Thornton in 1815, joined the household to help to look after the children and to care for their mother, who had fallen seriously ill soon after their arrival. In September, after a long illness, Maria Branwell Brontë died from what may have been uterine cancer or ovarian cancer, leaving Patrick a widower with six children, all under eight years old, and with significant debts incurred from the doctors' fees and nursing expenses during Maria's illness. Maria's annuity of £50 a year had ceased with her death, and Patrick's salary amounted to only £170 a year. Friends and benefactors raised money to enable Patrick to pay his debts, but Elizabeth Branwell did not intend to remain in Haworth, which would leave only the house servants, Nancy and Sarah Garrs, to care for his children.
Three months after Maria's death, Patrick proposed marriage to Elizabeth Firth, the twenty-four-year-old daughter of a wealthy friend from Thornton, and godmother to two of his daughters. Elizabeth was deeply offended by the proposal and severed ties with the family. Patrick then sought out Mary Burder, whom he had jilted fifteen years previously, offering marriage and describing his circumstances. Burder, who was still single, declined his offer. Although the refusal had been decisive, Patrick persisted, writing to her: You may think and write as you please, but I have not the least doubt that if you had been mine you would have been happier than you now are, or can be as one in single life.Other attempts to find a new wife were equally unsuccessful, and Patrick finally came to terms with widowhood at the age of forty-seven. He spent his time visiting the sick and the poor, giving sermons and communion, leaving the six children in the care of their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had agreed to stay on to help, and a maid, Tabitha "Tabby" Ackroyd, who recounted local legends in her Yorkshire dialect while preparing the meals.