December has begun, a busy month for most of us, but especially for a certain couple back in December 1812. Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell had first met just months earlier, but already their wedding was fixed for 29th December – with that came not only the vows which would tie them together forever, and set literary history in process, but also a change of home. Patrick Brontë would be saying goodbye to Lousy Thorn Farm.
Both these people had already travelled a long way from the place of their birth, especially by early 19th century standards – the railway had yet to be invented, and long journeys were expensive and made by coach, ship or a combination of the two. Journeys such as the 400 miles or so that Maria made from Cornwall to the West Riding of Yorkshire were arduous and sometimes perilous – it was common for people to make their will before undertaking such a journey.
Maria Branwell herself experienced just how dangerous the journey could be – although she, thankfully, arrived safely, her belongings which were sent after her in a trunk were lost at sea when the ship carrying them was wrecked in a storm.
Patrick had crossed the sea on his journey from County Down, in what is now Northern Ireland, to England, via Cambridge, and although he remained in close contact with his relatives he never saw the country of his birth again. By 1812 he was in his mid thirties and Maria in her late twenties, but when they met they realised that their life had changed forever. We can see this in a moving letter sent by Maria to her fiance on 24th October:
‘Unless my love for you were very great how could I so contentedly give up my home and all my friends… Yet these have lost their weight… the anticipation of sharing with you all the pleasures and pains, the cares and anxieties of life, of contributing to your comfort and becoming the companion of your pilgrimage, is more delightful to me than any other prospect which this world can possibly present.’
As December opened, plans for the wedding were heading into overdrive. As Brontë fans and regular readers of my blog may remember this wasn’t any old wedding – it was a triple wedding! At the same ceremony that would see Maria and Patrick wed, Maria’s cousin Jane and Patrick’s best friend William also wed. On the same day and at the same time, although in distant Cornwall, Maria’s sister (and Jane’s cousin) Charlotte Branwell was marrying yet another cousin Joseph Branwell. In 1884 this Charlotte Branwell’s daughter, another Charlotte Branwell, later gave this summary to a Cornish newspaper:
‘It was arranged that the two marriages [Patrick and Maria and William and Jane] should be solemnized on the same day as that of Miss Charlotte Branwell’s mother, fixed for 29th December in far off Penzance. And so, whilst the youngest sister of Mrs. Brontë was being married to her cousin, the late Mr Joseph Branwell, the double marriage, as already noted, was taking place in Yorkshire. Miss Charlotte Branwell also adds that at Guiseley not only did the Rev. Mr Brontë and the Rev. Mr Morgan perform the marriage ceremony for one another, but the brides acted as bridesmaids for each other. Mr Fennell, who was a clergyman of the Church of England, would have united the young people, but he had to give both brides away. Miss Branwell notes these facts to prove that the arrangement for the three marriages on the same day was no caprice or eccentricity on the part of Mr Brontë, but was made entirely by the brides. She has many a time heard her mother speak of the circumstances. “It is but seldom,” continues Miss Branwell, “that two sisters and four cousins are united in holy matrimony on the same day. Those who were united on that day bore that relationship to each other. Mrs. Brontë (formerly Maria Branwell) and my mother, Charlotte Branwell, were sisters; my father was their cousin; and Jane Fennell was a cousin to them all, her father, the Rev. J. Fennell, having married a Miss Branwell of a former generation. If the account I have given you is likely to be of any interest you are quite at liberty to use it as you think proper. I really think a deal of eccentricity has been ascribed to Mr Brontë which he never possessed, and from his letters to my dear mother, of which there are some still in existence, I should say he was a very worthy man, but one who had to pass through some great trials in the early death of a truly amiable wife and of a very gifted family.”’
That’s all clear as mud isn’t it, but what is clear is that the start of December 1812 must have seen lots of excitement and lots of planning. In another letter, dated 5th December, we hear that Maria is anticipating the baking:
‘We intend to set about making the cakes here next week, but as fifteen or twenty persons whom you mention live probably in your neighbourhood, I think it will be most convenient for Mrs Bedford to make a small one for the purpose of distributing there, which will save us the difficulty of sending so far.’
Mrs Bedford was presumably Patrick’s landlady for at the time he, as vicar of the parish of Hartshead cum Clifton (near Mirfield, which Anne Brontë would come to know so well), was renting accommodation at the less than delightfully named Lousy Thorn Farm in Hartshead.
What Patrick’s accommodation looked like we have little way of knowing – the building fell into disrepair, but it is now being restored and is currently called Thornbush Farm. The plan is to turn it into a Brontë visitor attraction, so I hope that comes to fruition!
After their marriage Patrick and Maria Brontë began their married life in a new home together – and this building still stands today. It is Clough House in Hightown near Liversedge, and the site bears a plaque remembering its illustrious former residents. The building itself can be seen at the head of this post.
Whatever your December plans are, I hope they progress smoothly and happily, and I hope to see you next week for another new Brontë blog post – on Sunday at the usual time, I’m sorry that today’s post was a day later than usual, December can be a hectic month for all of us!