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[1], 91, [3], (187pp). Oblong 4to. Ledger with printed headings, completed in black ink in a uniform attractive & legible hand. Contemp. reddish-brown sheep; somewhat rubbed & worn, paper label defective, spine cracking & chipped at head & tail, but still a sound binding. A fascinating ledger and important primary source offering insight into the social makeup of the Brontė family's wider community in Haworth during a particularly important period for them. During the timeframe covered in this volume, all of the surviving Brontė children, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne, were at home with their father at the Haworth Parsonage. Anne and Branwell had recently left their employment, as governess and tutor respectively, at Thorp Green - Branwell dismissed and Anne resigned - likely following an affair between Branwell and the Lady of the house. Charlotte had been back in Haworth since January 1844, having discovered she was homesick in Brussels without the company of her sister Emily who had remained in Yorkshire following their aunt Elizabeth's death in October 1842. The sisters attempted to set up a school for girls in the Parsonage in the mid 1840s, but had trouble attracting students because of their rural location. In early 1846, having given up on their home school, Emily, Anne and Charlotte decided to use the inheritance from their aunt Elizabeth to publish a collection of poems through London publishers Aylott & Jones. Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell was published in the spring of 1846. Though it was (famously) a commercial failure - with Charlotte recounting in a letter that it only sold two copies the first year - it did mark the first appearance of the sisters in print. Despite not achieving the immediate success they had hoped for, the months following the publication of Poems was a productive time for them all. Indeed, it was during the period covered by this ledger, with the girls at home at Haworth, that they wrote their most enduring works: Jane Eyre was published in October 1847, with Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey appearing in December of the same year. The Brontė sisters were hugely influenced and inspired by their home environment, and this ledger captures a snapshot of their immediate community during the most creatively fruitful period of their lives. Patrick Brontė's entry appears on the verso of folio 20, where his name is recorded as 'Rev.nd P. Bronte'. His 'land, house and garden' are listed as being owned by the 'Trustees of the Church' and are rated at £7 13s 6d; he had paid his poor-rate liability of 11s 6d in full. Other familiar names appear as well, including John and Joseph Earnshaw, and many family members of the mill-owning Greenwood family, who would have been well-known to the Brontės. Printed headings include: Name of Occupier, Name of Owner, Description of Property, Name or Situation of Property, Estimated Extent, Gross Estimated Rental, Rateable Value, Rate, Arrears due, or if excused, Total Amount to be collected, Date, Amount Actually Collected, Present Arrear, Amount not recoverable, or legally excused. The final two leaves include a 'Declaration of the Overseers and Churchwardens' with the signatures of William Greenwood, John Dugdale, and George Feather, and Justices of the Peace William Meis (?) and Joseph Greenwood. 1847 is the final year that the Brontė family would all be together. Branwell, whose mental and physical health had been in decline since his return to Haworth and exacerbated by opiate and alcohol addiction, died in September 1848. Emily caught a terrible cold at Branwell's funeral, and died from complications of tuberculosis just three months later. Anne, deeply affected by the death of her brother and sister, was diagnosed with advanced consumption in January of 1849 and was dead by May. This ledger is a record of the home and neighbours of the remarkable Brontė sisters during the most productive years of their literary lives, as well as the people and pla.
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