The History of the Bronte Family: From Ireland to Wuthering Heights, Revised Edition

This account of the Bronte family traces their Irish ancestry from its murky origins around 1710, to 1820 when the Bronte family arrived at Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire. Patrick Brunty was the eldest of a family of ten from Ballynaskeagh near Newry in County Down. His parents were uneducated and impoverished, but his father, Hugh, was known locally as a storyteller whose repertoire included the strange tale of Welsh Brunty, almost certainly a prototype for Heathcliff. Through an enormous act of will, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, when he changed his name to Bronte. After graduation, Patrick was ordained a Church of England priest and held various ministries until finally he arrived in Haworth with his wife suffering from cancer and six young children. He cherished literary ambitions which he passed on to Charlotte, Emily and Anne; and this book points out certain themes and stories in their novels which could only have come from a profound knowledge of their Irish roots.