Brontës (20 page)

The burden of Haworth was passed to his old friend Samuel Redhead, who was to fare no better. The vicar of Bradford, backed by the archbishop, seemed determined not to give in and Redhead's appointment, like Patrick's, was made without reference to the trustees. On 30 October, the
Leeds Mercury
carried the bald statement that he had been licensed to the perpetual curacy of Haworth ‘upon the nomination of the Rev. Henry Heap, vicar of Bradford'.
¹⁰¹

Mrs Gaskell gives the now famous account of the torments endured by Redhead at the hands of the congregation of Haworth: how the entire congregation walked out of his first service, how a man was driven, face to tail, on the back of an ass down the aisles in his second and how, at the third and last service, a drunken chimney sweep was prompted to climb into the pulpit, embrace the unfortunate preacher, chase him into the churchyard and then empty a bag of soot over him.
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This picturesque story has entered Brontë mythology but her information, supplied by Dr Scoresby, a later vicar of Bradford, and the landlord of the Black Bull, who claimed a leading role in helping Redhead to escape the wrath of the crowd, is almost completely untrue. After
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
appeared in print, Redhead's son-in-law wrote to the
Leeds Intelligencer
and, in defence of his father-in-law and the people of Haworth, quoted the relevant extracts
from Redhead's diary.
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He also confirmed the details himself, saying that he had heard Redhead's own account of the events when he had visited Haworth with him in 1844.

According to his diary, Redhead arrived in Haworth on 31 October to take his first duty, accompanied by Mr Rand, a prominent Bradford lay churchman. He was admitted to the church on producing his licence but the churchwardens refused to allow the bells to be rung for the service so that it began with a very small congregation which gradually increased to some 500. All went well till Redhead entered the pulpit, at which point ‘on a signal given by the churchwardens, trustees &c.' the whole congregation got to its feet and stomped out of church, shouting ‘Come out, come out'. No attempt was made to restrain the disorder and on leaving the church ‘Mr Rand and I were pursued and hooted and insulted by considerable numbers out of the village.'

The following Sunday, 7 November, Redhead tried again, this time taking Mr Crossley, a Bradford churchwarden, with him as witness and moral support. The large congregation was evidently restless, waiting for a signal from their own churchwardens who, on the minister entering the pulpit, immediately left their pew. Utmost confusion followed with people coming in and out of the church without any regard for the service.

The afternoon service commenced in the midst of uproar and confusion, all decency seemed thrown aside, and laughing, talking, and noise frequently interrupted the prayers … great numbers leaping over the tops of the pews, throwing to the pew doors with great violence, stamping with their feet, shouting and rushing out in the most outrageous and tumultuous manner. The whole scene was perfectly indescribable, and to the end of the prayers nothing but tumult prevailed.

Redhead retired to the comparative safety of the vestry, where he put himself under the protection of the churchwardens and demanded that if they could not control the tumult then they should call the respectable inhabitants of the town to assist them. The churchwardens refused, insisting that the respectable inhabitants would refuse to act, so strong was the feeling against the vicar of Bradford. Redhead insisted that the churchwardens should remain with him until he had interred a corpse, the funeral passing off in relative quiet; as he left, however, he was pursued out of the town with ‘hootings and pushing and shouting and insult'.

Matters were now so serious that the next day Redhead, accompanied by Mr Fawcett from Bradford, set out for a personal interview with the Archbishop at York and obtained from him a threat that, if the tumults did not cease, the church would be shut up and the whole affair laid before the Lord Chancellor.

Redhead was a persistent man. On Sunday, 14 November, he returned to Haworth with Mr Crossley, hoping that the archbishop's remonstrance would have ensured him a quieter reception. He was sadly mistaken.

When we entered the village we were saluted with shoutings and insults, and pursued with the most indecent insolence. The same irreverent conduct was displayed all the way to the church, and we had no prospect but of the greatest disorder. Indecency and impiety marked their conduct during the prayers, and when I entered the pulpit all was uproar and confusion. I felt obliged to close the service without preaching. I gave directions to the churchwardens to shut up the church till they received instructions from the Archbishop, as I should lay the whole matter before him on the following day. I further told them that I should expect their protection through the town, with which they complied, and we went as we came, pursued more like wild beasts than human beings. Their shoutings continued, and we heard them for more than a mile and a half. The day after, Monday, 15, I wrote to the Archbishop and obtained his consent to my resignation.

This was a scandal that would not go away. The
Leeds Intelligencer
took Haworth to task:

We regret to learn from a Correspondent, that scenes, scarcely possible in an heathen village, have been witnessed on three successive Sundays, in the church of Haworth, merely in consequence of the minister officiating under the appointment of the Vicar of Bradford, and the licence of the Archbishop of York. The churchwardens are certainly liable to a prosecution for the wilful neglect of their duty and deserve to feel, that the house of God, and the hallowed ground of a church-yard, are not proper places in which to allow, by disturbance and howlings, the loudest and lowest marks of irreverence and insult.
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Patrick must have felt some relief that he had not pursued his own appointment with as much vigour as his unfortunate friend. As one of the ministers living nearest to Haworth, however, he could not escape all
contact. On 17 November, the Wednesday following Redhead's last attempt to take duty there, Patrick had to go to Haworth to perform two funerals and a baptism; eleven days later he had to go again, this time to perform a marriage.
¹⁰⁵
No doubt he went with some reluctance and one can only guess what sort of reception he received. Perhaps the trustees took the opportunity to talk to him again, but to no effect, for he did not perform any more duties until he finally agreed to become minister of Haworth. He returned to Thornton to take up the threads of his old life, though the increased frequency of his visits to Kipping House
¹⁰⁶
suggests that he was unsettled and still considering his position with regard to the continuing vacancy at Haworth. Through the Firths, he could maintain a suitably distant line of communication between himself and the Haworth trustees.

On 17 January 1820, the last of the Brontë children was born while her brother and sisters spent the day safely out of the way at Kipping House. The fifth of five daughters, the new baby was named Anne, after her maternal grandmother, and Elizabeth Firth called round the next day to see mother and baby.
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Anne's birth seems to have precipitated a small crisis. The little house in Market Street must have been bursting at the seams with six children, their parents and two young servants all living under one roof. The promise of a larger house and greater income at Haworth had appeared as the answer to prayer, only to be taken away, and Patrick was left feeling decidedly hard done by. If he could not improve his family's standard of living by relocating, then something would have to be done to supplement his income at Thornton. Ten days after Anne's birth, he wrote miserably to the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, a charity which augmented the salaries of underpaid clergymen.

Thornton, has generally been returned for one hundred and forty pounds a year; but in this have been included, the dues, which average about five pounds, and a voluntary contribution, frequently made under exceedingly unpleasant circumstances – amounting for the most part to seven or eight pounds. Nothing arises from Pews, or from any other source. The Inhabitants, too, are so poor, in general, that presents, which in some situations are very considerable, are here, not worth mentioning. So that all things truly weighed, and the proper deductions being made, the regular and certain salary of the Living, is not more than one hundred and twenty seven pounds yearly.

Patrick pointed out the size of his chapelry and that it ‘swarms with disaffected people, who omit no opportunity that offers, to bring our excellent Establishment into contempt'. Though he had often felt inclined to give up the yearly voluntary contribution towards his salary, the respect due to his position had induced him to continue with it.

If I were a single man, I might find what I have sufficient, but as I have a wife, and six small children, with two maidservants, as well as myself to support, without I can obtain something more, in a just and honourable way, I greatly fear, that with the most rigorous economy, I shall be unable, any longer to uphold in appearance the due degree of Clerical respectability.
¹⁰⁸

A week later, he sent a copy of the letter to the Archbishop of York with a request that he would use his influence on Patrick's behalf to secure a grant.
¹⁰⁹
Perhaps it was the receipt of this letter which stung the conscience of the archbishop and prompted him to a final resolution of the problem of Haworth. He had, too, just received a letter from Henry Heap suggesting that he, as vicar of Bradford, should hold Haworth himself, together with Bradford, in an attempt to bypass the problem of the appointment. The archbishop replied, pointing out the insuperable difficulties of this solution and suggesting that there should be a meeting between the vicar and trustees to settle the business.
¹¹⁰
A meeting was arranged.

After
many Altercations
they have at last agreed to take Mr Brontè on my permitting them
to join with me
in a Nomination similar to what was done by Mr Kennett late Vicar of Bradford, when Mr Grimshaw was appointed to Haworth – I had offered to do this some time ago, but the Trustees
positively refused
then to have Mr Brontè –
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Just four days after Patrick had written to the archbishop, not suspecting the sudden change in his fortunes, he was offered the perpetual curacy of Haworth once more, this time with the assurance that his appointment would have the blessing of all the parties concerned. On 8 February, a new nomination was drawn up and witnessed by Richard Lambert, a Bradford attorney, and William Tetley, the parish clerk: Henry Heap, the vicar of Bradford, jointly with William Greenwood, John Beaver, James Greenwood, Stephen Taylor and Robert Heaton, the trustees of the church lands at Haworth, nominated Patrick to the cure of Haworth and requested
the archbishop's licence on his behalf. A codicil provided the necessary element of face-saving, establishing that the manner of this appointment did not set a precedent for future ones and did not prejudice the claims of either party.
¹¹²
A rather more Christian spirit of reconciliation prevailed in Patrick's letters testimonial, which were also drawn up on 8 February: Samuel Redhead, despite his own claim to Haworth, added his signature to those of Henry Heap and William Morgan.
¹¹³

Though the vicar had been forced to back down in his claim, he ensured that Patrick, if not the trustees, was in no doubt of his subjection to Bradford: as at Thornton, he was required to pay half the dues he received for marriages, funerals, baptisms and churchings (the ritual purification of women after childbirth) to the vicar and, if required to do so by the vicar, had to preach a sermon in the parish church every Trinity Sunday ‘as a mark of
Reverence
to the Mother Church'.
¹¹⁴

The day after the formalities had been completed, both Patrick and Heap wrote to the archbishop. Patrick's letter was simply a prudent request that the archbishop would include the names of both vicar and trustees in his licence: ‘for if the Vicar's name only, were to be inserted; on my reading myself in, it would in all probability give rise to very serious tumults in the Church, and might ultimately lead to the necessity of my resignation'.
¹¹⁵

Heap's letter was a report on the satisfactory resolution of a quarrel which had left the ministry of Haworth vacant for over eight months. Perhaps feeling his own share of guilt in the trouble caused to Patrick, he asked that the archbishop would allow Patrick to take his oath for his licence before him, in Bradford, instead of having to trail all the way to York:
‘some expense
would be saved by this means, which to Mr Brontè with six small Children, is certainly
an object'
.
¹¹⁶
The licence was finally granted on 25 February and Patrick was, in name at least, perpetual curate of Haworth once more.
¹¹⁷
Whether or not the inhabitants would be prepared to accept him this time remained to be seen.

No doubt it was the uncertainty about Patrick's welcome in Haworth that delayed the Brontës' removal for nearly two months. It would be fruitless to uproot the whole family to a new home if Patrick was to face opposition and ultimately a second resignation. For the moment, therefore, Patrick alone made the journey of some five or six miles over the moorland hills to Haworth to take duty as and when required – a testament to the strength of his constitution as well as his commitment. Patrick took his last baptism in Thornton on Sunday, 13 February 1820, and performed his last
burial there on 10 April; thereafter, the duties at Thornton were taken by officiating ministers, including William Bishop, Henry Heap's curate, who was finally to be appointed in Patrick's stead in July.
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