Maria Branwell
Maria Brontë was an English woman and the mother of the English writers Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë and of their brother Branwell Brontë, who was a poet and painter.
Born in Penzance, Maria Branwell was the daughter of a successful Methodist merchant and civic leader. After the deaths of her parents, at age 29, Branwell moved to Yorkshire to help her aunt with the domestic needs of Woodhouse Grove School. There she met Patrick Brontë, who also worked for the school as a classics examiner; they married after a brief courtship. Much of her married life was spent in Thornton. Maria Branwell gave birth to Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Patrick, Emily, and Anne. Shortly after Anne's birth, the family moved to Haworth. Within a year, Maria Branwell fell critically ill for eight months and died, aged thirty-eight. Maria's sister Elizabeth Branwell became ward for Maria's children.
Early life
Maria Branwell was born on 15 April 1783 to Anne Carne and Thomas Branwell in Penzance, Cornwall. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant in groceries and luxuries, owning properties and farmland nearby. Anne Carne was the daughter of a Penzance silversmith and watchmaker. Maria was the eleventh of twelve children: six died by the time of her birth: seven survived to adulthood.The family was close to civic affairs: Thomas Branwell held public office as one of 12 "Assistants to the Corporation". Maria's brother Benjamin also became a member of the corporation, and was elected mayor in 1809.
The family were prominent Methodists. Multiple women in the family married clergymen of Wesleyan leanings: Maria's aunt Jane married John Fennell in 1790; Maria's sister Jane Branwell married John Kingston in 1800; and Maria married Patrick Brontë in 1812. The first Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in Penzance in 1814, and the Branwells were instrumental in having this built.
Courtship and marriage
Maria met Patrick Brontë in 1812 when visiting her aunt Jane and uncle John Fennell in Yorkshire 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 and Wellington, Shropshire, was appointed headmaster of the newly opened Woodhouse Grove School at Rawdon, 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 at Guiseley Parish Church by mutual friend Reverend William Morgan, who, on the same day, married Jane and John Fennell's daughter, Jane Branwell Fennell.
File:St_Oswald_Guiseley._-_geograph.org.uk_-_417366.jpg|thumb|Branwell married Patrick Brontë at St Oswald's Church, Guiseley
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 of Madron in Cornwall.
Later life
Maria and Patrick's first home was Clough House in Hightown. Their first two children, Maria and Elizabeth, were born there in 1813/1814 and 1815. Their second home was in Thornton, where their remaining children were born:- Charlotte
- Patrick Branwell
- Emily Jane
- Anne
Maria died on 15 September 1821, after seven months of severe poor health. The cause of death was understood to be uterine cancer at the time, but contemporary scholars suggest either cervical cancer or a chronic pelvic sepsis and anaemia brought on by the birth of her youngest daughter Anne.
Maria was buried on 22 September 1821 at Haworth. William Morgan performed the burial ceremony.