Patrick Brontë

Patrick Brontë was born Patrick Brunty on the 17th of March 1777 in the civil parish of Drumballyroney in County Down. He was the eldest of 10 children born to his parents, Hugh Brunty and Alice McClory. 

As a young man, Patrick undertook a number of different apprenticeships, without ever really settling on one. In 1798 he eventually became a teacher and in 1802 he moved to England so as to study theology. He would later go on to pursue a life in the Anglican clergy. 

At some stage in his life he changed his last name to Brontë. The reasons for this are unclear, though there have been a number of different theories on the matter. 

On the 29th of December, Patrick married Maria Branwell. Together the couple had six children, Maria, Elizabeth, Patrick, and of course their famous daughters Emily, Charlotte, and Anne. Their family life was to be one of great loss and tragedy. Patrick was widowed young when Maria died of cancer, and he soon buried each of his children, the longest living of whom survived only to 38. 

Patrick himself died on the 7th of June 1861. He is buried, along with his wife and children, in the family crypt at St Michael and All Angels Churchyard in Haworth, West Yorkshire.