BRONTË, CHARLOTTE (1816-1855), afterwards Nicholls, novelist, was the daughter of Patrick Brontë (1777-1861), and sister of Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848), Emily Jane Brontë (1818-1848), and Anne Brontë (1820-1849). Patrick Brontë, born on 17 March 1777 at Ahaderg, co. Down, was one of the ten children of Hugh Prunty or Brontë. He changed his paternal name to Brontë shortly before leaving Ireland. At the age of 16 he had tried to make his own living by opening a school at Drumgooland in the same county. The liberality of Mr. Tighe, vicar of Drumgooland, enabled him to go to Cambridge, with a view to taking orders. He entered St. John's College in October 1802, and graduated as B.A. in 1806. He was ordained to a curacy in Essex, and in 1811 to the curacy of Hartshead in Yorkshire. His improved means enabled him to allow 20l. a year to his mother during her life (Leyland, Brontë Family, 9). At Hartshead he met Maria, third daughter of Thomas Branwell of Penzance, then on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. J. Fennel, head-master of a Wesleyan academy near Bradford, and afterwards a clergyman of the church of England. They were married on 29 Dec. 1812 by the Rev. W. Morgan, who was at the same time married by Brontë to Fennel's daughter (Gent. Mag. 1813, p. 179). Brontë published two simple-minded volumes of verse, 'Cottage Poems' (Halifax, 1811) and the 'Rural Minstrel' (Halifax, 1813), and a tract called 'The Cottage in a Wood, or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy' a new version of the Pamela Story (reprinted in 1859 from the 2nd edition of 1818). In 1818 he also published the 'Maid of Killarney.' These, and some letters upon catholic emancipation, which appeared in the 'Leeds Intelligencer' for January 1829, were his only publications. After five years at Hartshead, Brontë became perpetual curate of Thornton. His eldest child, Maria, was born at Hartshead.
