 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Maria Branwell" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Maria Branwell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1783-04-15)15 April 1783 |
| Died | 15 September 1821(1821-09-15) (aged 38) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Elizabeth Branwell (sister) |
Maria Branwell (15 April 1783[1] – 15 September 1821) is best known as being the mother of British writersEmily Brontë,Anne Brontë,Charlotte Brontë and of their brotherBranwell Brontë, who was a poet and painter. Maria marriedPatrick Brontë on 29 December 1812.
Maria Branwell was the eighth child of 12 born to Anne Carne and Thomas Branwell inPenzance,Cornwall,[2] although only five daughters and one son grew to adulthood. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant and owned many properties throughout the town. The men of the Branwell family took part in the town's public life. Maria's brother Benjamin was mayor in 1809.[2]
The family were prominentMethodists. Thomas' sister and two of his daughters married clergymen of Wesleyan leanings: his sister Jane married John Fennell in 1790; his daughter Jane Branwell marriedJohn Kingston in 1800; and Maria marriedPatrick Brontë in 1812. The firstWesleyan Methodist chapel was built in Penzance in 1814, and the Branwells were instrumental in having this built.
Maria met Patrick Brontë in 1812 when visiting her aunt Jane (her father's sister) and uncle John Fennell inYorkshire after four family deaths between 1808 and 1812, including both of her parents. Maria moved to Yorkshire to help her aunt with the household management of a new Methodist training school. John Fennell, a former schoolmaster and Methodist class leader in Penzance andWellington, Shropshire, was appointed headmaster of the newly openedWoodhouse Grove School atRawdon, for the sons of Methodist ministers in 1812. Patrick, during his curacy in Wellington, had known John Fennell in Shropshire's Wesleyan circles.
When Fennell was invited to the Yorkshire headship, he needed external examiners for his students and invited Patrick to serve in that capacity at Woodhouse Grove. Maria and Patrick 'loved at first sight' and married within the year. They were married on 29 December 1812 atGuiseley Parish Church by mutual friend ReverendWilliam Morgan, who, on the same day, married Jane and John Fennell's daughter, Jane Branwell Fennell.[3]
Befitting the close family that the Branwells were, also married on that day at the same hour were Maria's youngest sister, Charlotte, to her cousin Joseph Branwell at the parish church ofMadron in Cornwall.[citation needed]
Maria and Patrick's first home was Clough House inHightown. Their first two children,Maria andElizabeth, were born there in 1813/1814 and 1815.[4] Their second home was inThornton, where their remaining children were born:
In 1820 the Brontës moved toHaworth. After moving to Haworth, Maria sickened with what may have beenuterine orovarian cancer, or chronicpelvic sepsis andanaemia brought on by the birth of her youngest daughter Anne.[6] Whatever the cause, Maria died seven and half months later, suffering a long agony; Anne was only twenty months old.
Maria was buried on 22 September 1821 at Haworth.William Morgan performed the burial ceremony.[7]
The only work besides letters that Maria wrote was the essay "The Advantages of Poverty, In Religious Concerns." The essay can be found in the bookLife and Letters byClement Shorter.
| Charlotte |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Emily |
| |
| Anne |
| |
| Collaborative work | ||
| Juvenilia | ||
| Family |
| |
| Locations |
| |
| Associates |
| |
| Cultural legacy | ||
