Anne Bronte’s Early Years

Anne was born after her two more recognized sisters, Emily and Charlotte, and so became the youngest member of the Bronte family upon being born on 17th January 1820. When she was born her father, Patrick Bronte, was the curate of Thornton village near Bradford, where Anne was baptised on the 25th March.

The following month the whole family moved into the Haworth Parsonage which would become well-known as their lifelong home due to Patrick gaining a lifelong curacy there. The house possessed five bedrooms and today is a place of pilgrimage for literature tourists worldwide.

Anne’s childhood was traumatic, her mum, Maria Branwell, died on the 15th September 1821 when Anne was barely a year old, after suffering from what many now believe to be uterine cancer. While Patrick tried to remarry to provide a mum figure to the children, he was unsuccessful in his endeavours. Instead Maria’s sister and the children’s aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, moved into Howard Parsonage with the family to look after the children as well as nurse Maria in her final weeks.

Elizabeth was not much liked by the children, being rigid rather than loving, yet got on better with Anne than she did with Emily and Charlotte. This perhaps was due to Anne and Elizabeth sharing a room, moreover there is suggestion that Elizabeth might have played a key role in influencing Anne’s religious beliefs.

In the summer months of 1824 all Anne’s four sisters moved to Crofton Hall followed by the Clergy Daughter’s School in Cowan Bridge, Lancashire. Anne was left without sibling in Howarth, and would promptly be more hurt by the death of her two eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, from consumption in the Spring and early Summer of 1825.

The side effect of this was to cause Patrick to vow his daughters were home educated, and thus develop the lasting bonds between the remaining three sisters which led to their literary successes. Howarth Parsonage was quite distant from other areas, and the sisters become quite insular and largely only had each other for companionship.

Anne’s education was varied, from traditional Bible studies, to reading literature of the classics such as Homer and Virgil, as well as more current authors such as Bryon and Scott. She at the same time learned piano from the Keighley parish organist and art from John Bradley of the same community. While this education in the arts was taking place they were also educated in household management by their aunt.

While this formal learning clearly created the knowledge necessary for their later writings, it was more their imaginary world which set up the creative spark which was necessary to start their writing. This formed the fictional African kingdom of Angria, which they depicted in watercolor paintings and maps. The world was very developed, mirroring the real world, with kings, fugitives, schools and armies. The difference was that in the world of Angria it was the children who created novels, which were created in such tiny letters that a magnifying glass would be required by the inhabitants to read them.

Sean Spurr is a literature enthusiast and runs the only website dedicated to Anne Bronte which includes her novels and poems. He recommends that you read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as an introduction to the lesser known Bronte sister.

View Article_Source