Patrick Bront: Father of Genius

About this book

Patrick Bront (17771861) was the father of the famous "Bront Sisters"Anne Charlotte and Emilythree of Victorian Englands greatest novelists but he was also a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly as unsympathetic a character as Elizabeth Gaskells Life of Charlotte Bront would have us believe. Born into poverty in Ireland he won a scholarship to St. Johns College Cambridge and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for 41 years bringing up four children founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply. Although often portrayed as a somewhat forbidding figure he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry. Dudley Greens scrupulously researched biography reveals the man behind the myths.