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Elizabeth Brontë

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DoubleGrazing (talk | contribs) at 13:46, 13 March 2023 (Marking submission as under review (AFCH 0.9.1)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: The sources cited are all primary, with the exception of the Oxford Companion, which alone isn't enough to establish notability per WP:GNG.
    There has previously been an article on Elizabeth Brontë, which suffered from the same problem of lack of notability, and which was a couple of years ago replaced with a redirect to Brontë family. Therefore, unless sources can be found which establish notability beyond any doubt, my suggestion would be to add the salient points of this draft to the existing Brontë family article instead.
    I will also add a personal note: given that Elizabeth died at such a young age, I suspect she is genuinely not notable, despite coming from such a noteworthy family; alas, notability is WP:NOTINHERITED. DoubleGrazing (talk) 12:19, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Elizabeth Brontë
Born(1815-02-08)8 February 1815
Hartshead, Kirklees, West Riding of Yorkshire
Died15 June 1825(1825-06-15) (aged 10)
Haworth, West Riding of Yorkshire
NationalityEnglish

Elizabeth Brontë (/ˈbrɒnti/, commonly /ˈbrɒnteɪ/; 8 February 1815 – 15 June 1825)[1] was the second-eldest child of Patrick Brontë and Maria Brontë, née Branwell. A member of the literary Brontë family, Elizabeth was the younger sister of Maria Brontë, writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and poet and artist Branwell. Less is known about Elizabeth than all the other members of her family.

Early life

Elizabeth Brontë was born on 8 February in 1815[2] and was named after her maternal aunt, as was customary at the time.[3] She was only a few months old when she and her family, along with her aunt and namesake Elizabeth Branwell, moved from Hartshead to Thornton,[4] where her baptism took place. Elizabeth’s godmother was chosen to be Elizabeth Firth, one of the Brontës' new friends in Thornton.[5] By 1820, Patrick and Maria Brontë had had four more children during their years in Thornton and they decided to move again to Haworth where Patrick would become a pastor at the Parsonage. However, in 1821, Mrs. Brontë passed away – this led her sister, Elizabeth Branwell, to move into the Parsonage to look after the children. A servant of the Brontë family, Nancy Garrs, recalled how the young Elizabeth would lead her younger sisters by their hands on their walks across the Yorkshire moors, stating that she was ‘very thoughtful’ in her treatment of them. When Patrick Brontë asked Elizabeth what the best mode of education was for a woman, she responded “that which would make her rule the house well”.[6]

Education

In 1823, Elizabeth and her elder sister Maria were sent to Crofton Hall, a fashionable boarding school in Yorkshire.[7] However, the school’s fees soon proved to be too high for Patrick, who also wished his three younger daughters to receive a formal education.[8] Therefore, Maria and Elizabeth joined Cowan Bridge School, a newly opened boarding school for daughters of the clergy in Lancashire in July 1824 which was funded by, among others, William Wilberforce.[9][5][4] The school would later be immortalised in fiction as Lowood School in Jane Eyre. The director and founder of Cowan Bridge, Reverend William Carus Wilson,[9] was a clergyman who Patrick Brontë was said to look up to.[6] Maria and Elizabeth were followed by Charlotte and Emily two months later. There was a distinctive lack of sanitation in the school:[10][11] the food provided by the school was often poorly cooked and unhealthy, and the cook was reported as being "careless, dirty, and wasteful".[6] Both Maria and Elizabeth had recently recovered from measles and whooping cough, and they often could not eat despite the fact that they were hungry.[5]

“Reads little. Writes pretty well. Ciphers none. Works very badly. Knows nothing of grammar, history, geography or accomplishments.” — a school report received by Elizabeth.[8]

Elizabeth was not generally described as academic and instead was described as a practical girl with 'sound common sense' by her father; while school records showed that Maria, Charlotte and Emily were to be trained to be governesses, Elizabeth's future occupation was listed as a 'housekeeper'. Perhaps owing to this, Patrick did not pay an extra £3 a year so that Elizabeth might learn French, music and drawing, as he did with his other three daughters.[3]

Illness and death

In February 1825, Maria was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was transported back home. Possibly encouraged by bad conditions, in the early spring of that same year there was an outbreak of typhus in the school.[11] There is a possibility that this may have covered up symptoms of tuberculosis in Elizabeth. Over the following six months one girl was to die at school and 20 more were withdrawn ill with six dying soon afterwards. Elizabeth was sent home ill on 31 May, by which time Maria had already died. A few days later, Charlotte and Emily were brought home in good health and none of the family were ever to return to Cowan Bridge School.[6] Elizabeth died of her illness on 15 June in 1825,[10][12] with her school record stating she died of consumption.[1][13] Her other sisters and brother were to follow leaving her father without any grandchildren.[14] Elizabeth was buried in the Brontë vault at the Church of St Michael and All Angels.

References

  1. ^ a b "the Oxford Companion to the Brontës". oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  2. ^ "The Brontës in Context" (PDF). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b "More than a footnote – Elizabeth Brontë". annebronte.org. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Elizabeth Brontë". Find a Grave. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Bronte Parsonage Museum – Elizabeth Brontë". bronte.org.uk. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d "Elizabeth Brontë". sevenov.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  7. ^ "WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE BRONTËS: 10 FACTS ABOUT THE MOST INTERESTING LITERARY FAMILY". BookRiot. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Bronte Parsonage Museum – Maria Brontë". bronte.org.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  9. ^ a b "The Brontë sisters and Brontë School House". The Brontë School House. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  10. ^ a b "This is why the Bronte sisters died so young". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  11. ^ a b "School report on the Brontë sisters". British Library. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  12. ^ "The creative soul of Emily Bronte: a study of the role of self-reflective learning theory in the development of a writing genius". Gale Academic. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  13. ^ Smith Kenyon, Karen (April 2002). The Brontë Family: Passionate Literary Geniuses. Lerner Publications. ISBN 0-8225-0071-X.
  14. ^ "The Brontës didn't die from melancholy, weather or death wishes – they died from TB". The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
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