Who was Emily Bronte?
Novelist and Poet.
Date and Place of Birth:
30th July 1818, The Vicarage, 74 Market Street,
Thornton, Yorkshire, England.
Family Background:
Daughter of a Cleric, Patrick Bronte and sister
to Branwell, Charlotte and Anne
Bronte.
Education:
Clergy Daughter's School, Cowan Bridge. Miss
Wooler's School, Roe Head and at home at Haworth.
Chronology/Biography of Emily Bronte:
1820: (March 25th
) Anne Baptised in the "Old Bell Chapel" at Thornton.
(April) Bronte family move to Parsonage at Haworth.
1821: (September
15th) Death of her mother.
Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire where Emily lived and died
(© Anthony Blagg)
1825: (May 6th)
Death of her sisters Maria (aged 11) and (June 15th) Elizabeth (aged
10) from consumption.
1826: (June) Mr
Bronte gives Branwell some model soldiers which help the girls form
there own fantasy world of little people.
1829: All the Bronte
children receive art lessons from John Bradley of Keighley.
1831: Emily and
Anne develop the fantasy world of
Gondal.
1834: (November
24th) The earliest surviving Gondal manuscript is written describing
Caaldine.
1835: Sent home
permanently from school after feeling unwell and emaciated.
1836: (July 12th)
Writing of the earliest dated poem.
1837: Goes to Halifax,
Yorkshire to teach at Law Hill School for a short period.
1839: She abandons
her post at Law Hill which Charlotte
describes as "hard labour from six in the morning to eleven
at night."
1842: (February)
Goes to Brussels with Emily to study at the Pensionat Heger. (November)
Death of her Aunt Elizabeth and they return home.
1843: Remains at
home alone with her father and begins a period of major creativity.
1844: Divides her
Gondal work from her non-Gondal work in two separate notebooks.
Tries to open a school in Haworth with Charlotte but there are no
takers for such an isolated spot.
1845: Branwell suggests
to his sisters that novel writing is a profitable business. (October)
Charlotte stumbles across her poems much to her annoyance but convinces
her that they should publish some poems together.
Top Withens farmhouse on the Penine Way.
Emily is thought to have used the location for Wuthering Heights
although the decription of the house differs susbstantially
(© Anthony Blagg)
1846: (May)
"Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell" (The sister's
pseudonyms) published with the family paying the costs. (July) "Wuthering
Heights" is finished and is sent to several publishers along
with Anne's "Agnes Grey"
and Charlotte's "The Professor".
1847: The publisher
Thomas Cautley Newby accepts "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes
Grey" but not The Professor". (December) Delays publishing
until Charlotte's "Jane
Eyre" arouses interest in the "Bells".
1848: The literary
world, including their publisher, think that the three "Bells"
are in fact the same author. Anne
publishes the "Tenant of Wildfell Hall". Emily withdraws
from life. (24th September) Death of brother Branwell from Consumption.
(October 1st) Emily leaves the Parsonage for the last time to attend
Branwell's funeral and catches a severe cold which becomes an inflammation
of the lungs.
(1850): "Wuthering
Heights" is re-issued with some of Emily's poems and an introduction
by Charlotte.
(1893): The Bronte
Society Established.
Written Works:
- 1846: “Poems
by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell”.
- 1845-6: “Wuthering
Heights”.
- (1941): "The
Complete Poems of Emily Jane Bronte".
St Michael and All Angels Church Haworth, and a sign showing
the gate
used by the family to access the church from the parsonage
(© Anthony Blagg)
Marriage:
Never Married.
Date and Place of Death:
19th December 1848, Haworth, Yorkshire, England,
of consumption.
Age at Death:
29.
Site of Grave:
St. Michael and All Angels Church, Haworth,
Yorkshire, England.
h 
Memorial Plaque to Emily and Charlotte
in St Michael and All Angels Church
and engraving above the family vault
(© Anthony Blagg)
Places of Interest:
YORKSHIRE:
Brontë Parsonage Museum
Haworth, Keighley
West Yorkshire BD22 8DR.
www.bronte.info/
