In 1824 Charlotte and Emily, together with their elder sisters
before their deaths, attended Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan
Bridge, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Lancashire. The fees were low, the
food unattractive, and the discipline harsh. Charlotte condemned the
school (perhaps exaggeratedly) long years afterward in Jane Eyre,
under the thin disguise of Lowood Institution, and its principal, the
Her father was Patrick Brontë (1777–1861), an Anglican
clergyman. Irish-born, he had changed his name from the more
commonplace Brunty. After serving in several parishes, he moved
with his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë, and their six small children
to Haworth amid the Yorkshire moors in 1820, having been awarded
a rectorship there. Soon after, Mrs. Brontë and the two eldest
children (Maria and Elizabeth) died, leaving the father to care for the
remaining three girls—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—and a
boy, Branwell. Their upbringing was aided by an aunt, Elizabeth
Branwell, who left her native Cornwall and took up residence with
the family at Haworth.
