Editing Anne Brontë (section)

==Family background==
[[File:Anne Brontë by Patrick Branwell Brontë restored.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Anne, from a group portrait by her brother [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]]]]
Anne's father was [[Patrick Brontë]]. Patrick Brontë was born in a two-room cottage in Emdale, [[Loughbrickland]], County Down, Ireland.<ref name="Fraser 4">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 4</ref><ref name="Barker 3">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 3</ref> He was the oldest of ten children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor McCrory, poor Irish peasant farmers.<ref name="Barker 2">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 2</ref> The family surname, ''mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh'', was [[Anglicisation|Anglicised]] as Prunty or Brunty.<ref name="Fraser 4"/> Struggling against poverty, Patrick learned to read and write, and from 1798 taught others. In 1802, at 25, he won a place to study theology at [[St. John's College, Cambridge]]. Here he changed his name, Brunty, to the more distinguished sounding Brontë. In 1807, he was ordained in the priesthood in the Church of England.<ref name="Barker 14">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 14</ref> He served as a [[curate]] in Essex and then in Wellington, Shropshire. In 1810, he published his first poem, ''Winter Evening Thoughts'', in a local newspaper.<ref name="Barker 41">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 41</ref> In 1811, he published a collection of moral verse, ''Cottage Poems''.<ref name="Barker 43">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 43</ref> Also in 1811, he became vicar of St. Peter's Church in [[Hartshead]], Yorkshire.<ref name="Barker 36">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 36</ref> In 1812, he was appointed an examiner in Classics at [[Woodhouse Grove School]], near [[Bradford]]. This was a [[John Wesley|Wesleyan]] academy where, at 35, he met his future wife, the headmaster's niece, [[Maria Branwell]].

Maria Branwell, Anne's mother, was the daughter of Anne Carne, the daughter of a silversmith, and Thomas Branwell, a successful and property-owning grocer and tea merchant in [[Penzance]].<ref name="Fraser 12 -13">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', pp. 12–13</ref> Maria was the eleventh of twelve children and enjoyed the benefits of a prosperous family in a small town. After the death of her parents, Maria went to help her aunt with housekeeping functions at the school. Maria was intelligent and well read,<ref name="Fraser 15">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 15</ref> and her strong [[Methodist]] faith attracted Patrick Brontë, whose own leanings were similar.<ref name="Barker 48">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 48</ref>

Within three months, on 29 December 1812, though from considerably different backgrounds, Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell were married.<ref name="Fraser 16">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 16</ref> Their first child, Maria (1814–1825), was born after they moved to [[Hartshead]]. In 1815, Patrick was appointed curate of the chapel in Market Street [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]], near [[Bradford]]. A second daughter, Elizabeth (1815–1825), was born shortly after.<ref name="Barker 61">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 61</ref> Four more children followed: [[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte]] (1816–1855), [[Branwell Brontë|Patrick Branwell]] (1817–1848), [[Emily Brontë|Emily]] (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849).