Charlotte Bronte Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire

Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the third of six children. In 1820 her family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth.Her mother died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and a son Branwell to be taken care of by her sister, Elizabeth Branwell.

In August 1824, Patrick Bronte sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria and Elizabeth to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who died of tuberculosis in June 1825. After the deaths of her older sisters, her father removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in Jane Eyre. The Clergy Daughters' School

Roe Head In 1831 Charlotte became a pupil at the school at Roe Head, but left school the following year to teach her sisters at home. She returned to Roe Head School in 1835 as a governess. She left Roe Head in 1838 to become a governess to a family.

Brussels The three sisters decided toopen their own school. In 1842 Charolotte and Emily went to Brussels to ocomplete their studies. After a trip home to Haworth, Charlotte returned alone to Brussels where she remained until 1844. She became infatuated with a married school headmaster.

Bronte Sisters’ Publications Upon her return home from Brussels, Charlotte discovered Emily’s poems. They decided to publish a selection of the poems of all three sisters. In 1846, they published Poems, written under the pseudonymns of Currer, Ellis and Acton Belle. Charlotte completed The Professor which was rejected for publication. In 1847, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s Agnes Grey were published under the Bell pseudonyms.

London In 1848, Charlotte and Ann visited their publishers in London and revealed their true identities. In 1849, Charlotte visited London and began to move in literary circles. She met Elizabeth Gaskell and Thackery. Gaskell published The Life of Charlotte Bronte in 1857. Bronte dedicated Jane Eyre to Thackery. In 1848, her brother Patrick and her sisters Emily and Anne died.

Marriage The Rev. A.B. Nicholls, curate of Haworth, proposed marriage to Charlotte in 1852. Her father opposed the marriage, and in 1854 they were married.

Illness and Death In 1854 Charlotte, expecting a child, caught pneumonia. She died on March 31, 1855.