The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte (41 page)

Antimony was a very popular poison in Victorian times, for a variety of reasons. It is colourless, odourless, practically tasteless and easily soluble in water. Also it was cheap, costing only twopence an ounce in the late nineteenth century [about 33p in today's values], and it should be borne in mind that a mere two grains might be a fatal dose. Even Nicholls could afford it! The main symptoms of antimonic poisoning are also those of gastroenteritis, and it was frequently diagnosed as such in those days.

One of the symptoms is that the victim has a great thirst, and I am reminded that that was something of which Emily often complained. Antimony is an irritant, and a depressant. The irritant nature is such that if a little is applied to the skin a pustular rash will appear, just as was visible in Charlotte's mouth and, almost certainly, in Maud Marsh's throat. Certainly antimony is known to
irritate
the throat, resulting in the same persistent coughing which affected Branwell and Emily.

All in all, therefore, it would seem that antimony was the principal poison which Nicholls used. It is possible, though, that on occasion, and especially in Branwell's case, he employed a cocktail of poisons which included antimony – as did Palmer.

Almost certainly, we shall never know the precise causes of the Brontë deaths. All that I can hope is that Martha Brown and I have established sufficient reason to doubt those given on the death certificates. Only exhumation of the bodies, and analysis of the internal organs, offer any possibility of accurate diagnoses. I am not, of course, suggesting that anybody should rush out and dig up the Brontës! However, churches and cemeteries are often disturbed for building, road-widening and other reasons. Should anything of the sort occur at Haworth or Scarborough, I would hope that the opportunity would be seized to try to establish, once and for all, how the Brontës
really
died.

Such a disturbance would not be without good precedent. So many changes have taken place at the Parsonage, the church and Haworth village since the time of the Brontës.

Mr Brontë's successor, the Rev. John Wade, did not have a very high opinion of the Brontës and deplored the literary pilgrims who kept appearing at the Parsonage. He had the house cleaned up, decorated and enlarged, after stating flatly that he refused to live in ‘a pigsty'. Later additions were the lawn and trees, in place of the sparse clumps of grass and the few blackcurrant and lilac bushes which the Brontë children knew. The gate through which the family coffins passed is no longer in use, and the Parsonage itself is now a museum, run by the Brontë Society.

Mr Wade also had the church, or more properly the chapel, demolished, with the exception of the tower – to which a storey was added to accommodate a clock. The new chapel was built in 1879 and, at Mr Wade's behest, trees were planted in the churchyard.

The Black Bull has been altered somewhat, but Branwell would still recognize it. He might, however, have a little more difficulty with the village. Generally speaking, the centre of Haworth retains its original outline, but it has become a literary shrine to the memories of the Brontës, with the usual souvenir shops and the like.

So there have been many changes, but they are not so apparent at night. Only then is it that one feels fully the atmosphere of the place. Branwell complained to Francis Grundy about ‘having nothing to listen to except the wind moaning among the old chimneys and older ash trees . . .', and Mrs Gaskell observed: ‘The wind goes piping and wailing and sobbing round the square unsheltered house in a very strange unearthly way.'

Go to Haworth in the winter, on one of those dark nights when the black clouds seem to touch the hills, and the wind comes screeching off the moors. Stand in the graveyard, amongst those close-packed headstones, and watch the trees being bent and twisted in all directions. Then look at the darkened Parsonage, and imagine what could be happening there.

Do the spirits of the Brontës still linger in their old home, I wonder? Do those of Anne and Nicholls return from their distant graves? Does Branwell still tap, vainly, at the windows to be allowed in? Are all those long-gone characters now reconciled in death, or do the recriminations which were hurled back and forth well over a century ago still continue? Perhaps the publication of the secret truths revealed in this book will allow them all, and especially Martha Brown, to rest in peace.

T
o those already familiar with the story of the early life of the Brontë family this appendix will add little to their sum knowledge – although I shall make some comments which are pertinent to Martha's story.

For readers who come fresh to the tale it will prove sufficient for the purposes of this book. If they then wish to explore the subject in greater detail there are innumerable sources to which they can refer, the most important of which are listed in Appendix B.

The father of the family, Patrick, was born on 17 March 1777, at Emdale, in the parish of Drumbally Roney, County Down, Northern Ireland. His parents, Hugh and Eleanor, were poor peasant farmers whose surname was Brunty, Prunty or Bruntee.

Patrick was apprenticed first to a blacksmith, then to a weaver. However, he must have acquired some education along the way because he was teaching in a local school by the time he was sixteen. Later he became the tutor of the children of the Reverend Thomas Tighe, who was the vicar of a nearby village.

Mr Tighe encouraged young Patrick to go to university in England, and it is possible that the vicar, or one of his friends, lent him enough money to do so or provided an annuity.

In 1802, at the age of twenty-five, Patrick became an undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was enrolled as Patrick Branty. He received financial help from his college, and from some wealthy fellow students, but he also earned a little by coaching others.

It was at that time that he affected the name of Bronte, or Bronté, and it is perhaps worth noting that Lord Nelson had been created Duke of Brontë only a few years earlier. However, it was not until much later in life that Patrick went a step further and adopted the diaeresis which was to make the name Brontë.

He graduated in 1806, and was ordained as a minister of the Church of England. After holding several curacies, in Essex, Shropshire and Yorkshire, he became the minister at Harts-head-cum-Clifton, near Bradford, Yorkshire, and it was while he was there that, in 1812, he met Maria Branwell. She was from Penzance in Cornwall, but was staying locally with her uncle and cousins. On 29 December 1812, they were married in Guiseley Church, Maria being twenty-nine years of age and Patrick thirty-five.

Their two eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, were born at Hartshead, but then Patrick was appointed perpetual curate at Thornton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and it was there that the now famous children appeared on the scene. (‘Perpetual curates' enjoyed much the same status as vicars.)

Charlotte arrived on 21 April 1816; Patrick Branwell – known always as ‘Branwell' – on 26 June 1817; Emily Jane on 30 July 1818, and Anne on 17 January 1820.

Within only a few weeks of Anne's birth, Mr Brontë was appointed to the perpetual curacy of Haworth, roughly fifteen miles away, and the family moved into the Parsonage there.

Mrs Brontë died on 15 September 1821, of an internal cancer. During her illness she had been nursed by her sister, Miss Elizabeth Branwell, who also cared for the children to whom she was known as ‘Aunt Branwell'.

With six young children on his hands, Mr Brontë made strenuous efforts to remarry, but with no success. Therefore, in 1823, Aunt Branwell returned from Penzance to manage the house.

Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily were later sent away to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, some twenty miles from Haworth. By all accounts, it was a very austere place, with few comforts.

In February 1825, Maria was sent home because she was ill. She died on 6 May from what was diagnosed as tuberculosis. Elizabeth died on 15 June, supposedly from the same disease.

Not surprisingly, Mr Brontë removed the other two girls, Charlotte and Emily, from the school and brought them back to the Parsonage.

A middle-aged widow from the village, Tabitha Aykroyd, was engaged as cook and general servant, and was to stay with the family for thirty years. She was also something of a nurse to the children, who called her ‘Tabby', and it has been whispered that, in addition, she enjoyed a more than friendly relationship with their hot-blooded father!

For the next six years they all lived at Haworth Parsonage. Mr Bronté gave Branwell some tuition, and Aunt Branwell taught the girls. They also received drawing and music lessons from outside tutors.

It was during that period that the children invented dream worlds about which they wrote miniature books. Branwell and Charlotte created the imaginary kingdom of ‘Angria', while Emily and Anne conceived ‘Gondal'.

In 1831, Mr Brontë decided that the girls needed more advanced tuition and Charlotte, who was then nearly fifteen, was despatched to a school which had recently been started by a Miss Wooler. It was in a large house named ‘Roe Head', at Mirfield, about fifteen miles from Haworth, and it was there that Charlotte made her two lifelong friends, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. Much of what we know about Charlotte comes from the letters which she wrote to Ellen, who kept them all.

Charlotte left ‘Roe Head' after eighteen months, and for the next three years the children were all at home together again, with Charlotte giving her sisters lessons.

In 1835, Charlotte became a teacher at ‘Roe Head', and took Emily with her as a free pupil. Within three months Emily was back at the Parsonage. She had lost both weight and colour, and was said to be homesick. Anne took Emily's place at the school.

Until that time, Branwell had been receiving painting lessons from William Robinson of Leeds, but early in 1836 he set off for London and the Royal Academy School. However, he was back in Haworth in only a couple of weeks. The story was put about that he had been robbed on his journey, but the truth was that he had indulged in riotous living at an inn in Holborn – for he was already drinking and gambling. In that particular instance, though, there is reason to believe that the explanation for his conduct was that he became unsure of himself and his talent after seeing the famous paintings in the London galleries.

Upon his return to Haworth, Branwell was persuaded to become a Freemason, and was initiated into the Lodge of the Three Graces in Haworth. The Worshipful Master of the Lodge was Branwell's friend John Brown. Brown, a stone mason, was also Mr Brontë's sexton, and the father of Martha Brown. Branwell was secretary of the Lodge for a year, and it is amusing to note that he was also the secretary of the local temperance society.

In 1837 Miss Wooler moved her school from ‘Roe Head' to Dentsbury Moor. Anne left in December of that year, and Charlotte twelve months later.

As for Emily, in September 1838, she took a teaching job at a girls' boarding school, Miss Patchett's, at Law Hill, near Halifax. She stayed for only six months.

Meanwhile, Branwell, financed by Aunt Branwell, had, in June 1838, rented a studio at 3, Fountain Street, Bradford, and had set up as a portrait painter. The venture was not a success, and Mr Brontë called him home in May 1839 – probably because he had heard of his son's excesses. Certainly Branwell was heavily in debt.

In April 1839, Anne was engaged as a governess by a Mrs Ingham, of Blake Hall, Mirfield – a position she was to hold until December of the same year. Charlotte secured a similar situation a month after her sister – with a Mrs Sidgwick of Stonegappe, Lothersdale, about eight miles from Haworth – but she was back home within two months.

Just for a short time, therefore, they were all at the Parsonage together again. Then, in January 1840, Branwell was employed as a tutor by a Mr Postlethwaite, of Broughton-in-Furness, but he lasted for only six months.

May 1840 saw Anne installed as governess to a family named Robinson, of Thorp Green Hall, Little Ouseburn, near York. Indirectly, that appointment was to have far-reaching and damaging consequences for the Brontës.

After kicking his heels at home for a couple of months, Branwell managed to be taken on as a clerk by the new Leeds-Manchester Railway in September 1840. Initially he was based at Sowerby Bridge, Halifax, but in the following April he was promoted and sent to Luddenden Foot, also near Halifax, as clerk-in-charge.

During March 1841, Charlotte took another position as a governess. This time it was with a Mrs White, of Upperwood House, Rawdon – about fifteen miles from Haworth – and on this occasion she held the post for nine months.

In 1841, therefore, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell were all away from home, leaving only Emily at the Parsonage with her father, but that situation was soon to change.

In the autumn of 1841, Charlotte persuaded Aunt Branwell to finance some tuition abroad for her and Emily, in order that they might become reasonably fluent in some foreign language. The intention was that they would then return to England and open their own school.

Thus it was that, in February 1842, the two sisters became boarders at Le Pensionnat Héger, in Brussels. Charlotte was twenty-five and Emily twenty-three.

The future looked quite promising for them, but not so for Branwell. In April 1842, he was dismissed by the railway company because of his frequent absences, and some question over his keeping of the accounts.

That, however, did not bother his sisters overmuch – especially Charlotte and Emily, who were making good progress. Originally they had intended to stay at Le Pensionnat Héger for about six months only but, in September, the Hégers suggested that they stay on for a similar period as teachers. Charlotte would give instruction in English and Emily in music and, although they would receive no pay, their board and lodging would be free and there would be no charge for any tuition which they received.