Early Childhood

In 1821, the Bronte children's aunt, Aunt Branwell, moves in with the family and helps to take care of Anne(1), Emily(3), Branwell(4), Charlotte(5), Elizabeth(6), and Maria(7). In September of that same year, the children's mother passes away and the children remain under the care of their Aunt Branwell. In 1824, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Emily are enrolled in Clergy Daughter's School, an abusive and neglectful all girl's school, where the Bronte sisters remain until Maria and Elizabeth come down with an illness contracted at the school. All four girls are sent home and Maria and Elizabeth pass away in 1825, only a year after starting classes at the school. This leaves Charlotte the oldest child at nine years old and she eventually goes on to create the fictional school, Lowood, to represent Clergy Daughter's School in her novel Jane Eyre. 

 
Hoeveler, Diane Long, and Lisa Jadwin. "Chronology." Charlotte Brontë, Twayne Publishers, 1988, pp. xi-xii. Twayne's English Authors Series 541. Gale eBookslink.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2328600010/GVRL?u=viva_vcu&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=4e9a2a09. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.

Stoneman, Patsy, and Patricia Ingham. Charlotte Bronte, Liverpool University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vcu/detail.action?docID=5520625.

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

1821 to 1825