The Brontë Family
My lifelong fascination with this literary family has expressed itself in various forms over the years. Most notable is this digital restoration detailed further below. I have collected ephemera, relics, contemporary source material as well as many books written over the last century and a half about their intriguing lives. I help with research, write articles and help teachers and professors develop curriculum based on their work. I am available for lectures in person and via webcast.
A Bronte themed webcast is coming soon where I will feature my own collection, interviews with other enthusiasts and review Brontë related media and merchandise.
I have a collection of fabric and wallpapers inspired by their original artwork and my own that pertains to them available via the links below.
A blog is to follow soon!
A Bronte themed webcast is coming soon where I will feature my own collection, interviews with other enthusiasts and review Brontë related media and merchandise.
I have a collection of fabric and wallpapers inspired by their original artwork and my own that pertains to them available via the links below.
A blog is to follow soon!
The William Grimshaw Memorial Teapot Mystery
In my further research to determine the origins of my William Grimshaw teapot, I have discovered some new information.
In the of December 1916 issue of the Wesley Historical Society publication, an article titled "A Few Notes on Early Methodism in Haworth" by J. Conder Nattrass states that the Grimshaw teapot came to the Parsonage from the Richard Cockcroft family.
"In August last (1915) there was deposited in the Bronte Museum at Haworth a black porcelain teapot bearing on one side the words " William Grimshaw, A, B., Haworth," and on the opposite side his favourite text, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." It was presented by the executors of the late Richard Cockcroft, of Hebden Bridge, on behalf of the family, with whom it was an heirloom."*
I have confirmed that William Grimshaw was married to Elizabeth Cockcroft in 1741; she died in 1746. This would give the Cockcroft family sufficient reason to obtain a commemorative piece of funerary china when he died in 1763.
I cannot find it at this time, but I did read that the teapot was given to the Parsonage because they remembered it being in use there. I am eager to find this source. The teapot's fervent religious motto has often been used to portray Aunt Elizabeth's strong Methodist outlook, though this has been thought incorrect in recent years. It is still known as "Aunt Branwell's Teapot."
I obtained this teapot from an estate sale in Ireland via an internet auction wearhouse in New York. When I asked for information about the seller, the auction house could only tell me that they had obtained it from an estate sale in Ireland.
What was a Methodist teapot doing in Ireland? My theory is that Arthur Bell Nichols took it to Ireland when he returned there after Patrick Bronte's death. It is well known that he took several sentimental items with him, most famously Branwell's portrait of his sisters, known as the Pillar Portrait. I would think that a commemorative teapot of such a famous man of the cloth would have been something that appealed to him and so he took it with him.
The fact that the article says that the teapot had been an heirloom of the family gives my theory some credence. In the parlance of that time, heirloom had more of an official connotation, meaning that it was tied to an estate. This would indicate that it was more likely a long term possession of the Cockcroft family from ca. 1763 instead of the relatively short time between Arthur Bell Nichols dispersal of his household belongings when he returned to Ireland in 1861 and 1915, some 54 years.
*Article can be read online: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/10-8.pdf
In the of December 1916 issue of the Wesley Historical Society publication, an article titled "A Few Notes on Early Methodism in Haworth" by J. Conder Nattrass states that the Grimshaw teapot came to the Parsonage from the Richard Cockcroft family.
"In August last (1915) there was deposited in the Bronte Museum at Haworth a black porcelain teapot bearing on one side the words " William Grimshaw, A, B., Haworth," and on the opposite side his favourite text, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." It was presented by the executors of the late Richard Cockcroft, of Hebden Bridge, on behalf of the family, with whom it was an heirloom."*
I have confirmed that William Grimshaw was married to Elizabeth Cockcroft in 1741; she died in 1746. This would give the Cockcroft family sufficient reason to obtain a commemorative piece of funerary china when he died in 1763.
I cannot find it at this time, but I did read that the teapot was given to the Parsonage because they remembered it being in use there. I am eager to find this source. The teapot's fervent religious motto has often been used to portray Aunt Elizabeth's strong Methodist outlook, though this has been thought incorrect in recent years. It is still known as "Aunt Branwell's Teapot."
I obtained this teapot from an estate sale in Ireland via an internet auction wearhouse in New York. When I asked for information about the seller, the auction house could only tell me that they had obtained it from an estate sale in Ireland.
What was a Methodist teapot doing in Ireland? My theory is that Arthur Bell Nichols took it to Ireland when he returned there after Patrick Bronte's death. It is well known that he took several sentimental items with him, most famously Branwell's portrait of his sisters, known as the Pillar Portrait. I would think that a commemorative teapot of such a famous man of the cloth would have been something that appealed to him and so he took it with him.
The fact that the article says that the teapot had been an heirloom of the family gives my theory some credence. In the parlance of that time, heirloom had more of an official connotation, meaning that it was tied to an estate. This would indicate that it was more likely a long term possession of the Cockcroft family from ca. 1763 instead of the relatively short time between Arthur Bell Nichols dispersal of his household belongings when he returned to Ireland in 1861 and 1915, some 54 years.
*Article can be read online: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/10-8.pdf
