Growing Up As The Youngest Bronte

Anne was born after her two more well-known siblings

, Emily and Charlotte, and therefore became the youngest member in the Bronte household 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 next month the whole household moved into the Haworth Parsonage which would become famous as their lifelong residence as a result of Patrick gaining a lifetime curacy there. The home had five bedrooms and nowadays is a place of pilgrimage for literature tourists world wide.

Anne's early years 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 consider to be uterine cancer. While Patrick tried to remarry to provide a mother figure to the children, he was unsuccessful in his endeavours. As an alternative Maria's sister and the children's aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, moved into Howard Parsonage with the family to look after the children and nurse Maria in her final weeks.

Elizabeth was not much liked by the children, being stern 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, and there is suggestion that Elizabeth might have played a key role in influencing Anne's religious beliefs.

In the summertime 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 any sibling in Howarth, and would soon 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 insist his daughters were home educated, and therefore create the lasting bonds amongst 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 classic Bible studies, to reading literature of the classics such as Homer and Virgil, as well as more recent authors such as Bryon and Scott. She also learnt piano from the Keighley parish organist and art from John Bradley of the same town. While this instruction in the arts was taking place they were also educated in household management by their aunt.

While this formal studying obviously built the awareness vital for their later writings, it was more their imaginary world which created the creative spark which was essential to start their writing. This formed the fictional African kingdom of Angria, which they depicted in watercolour paintings and maps. The world was very developed, mirroring the real world, with kings, fugitives, schools and armies. The distinction was that in the world of Angria it was the children who wrote novels, which were written in such tiny letters that a magnifying glass would be required by the inhabitants to read them.

by: Sean Spurr

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