Elizabeth Brontë

[4] She was only a few months old when she and her family, along with her aunt and namesake Elizabeth Branwell, moved from Hartshead to Thornton, where her baptism took place.

A servant of the Brontë family, Nancy Garrs, recalled how the young Elizabeth would lead her younger sisters by their hands on their walks across the Yorkshire moors, stating that she was ‘very thoughtful’ in her treatment of them.

When Patrick Brontë asked Elizabeth what the best mode of education was for a woman, she responded “that which would make her rule the house well”.

[9][10] However, the school's fees soon proved to be too high for Patrick, who also wished his three younger daughters to receive a formal education.

The director and founder of Cowan Bridge, Reverend William Carus Wilson,[12] was a clergyman who was said to have been looked up to by Patrick Brontë.

Perhaps owing to this, Patrick did not pay an extra £3 a year so that Elizabeth might learn French, music and drawing, as he did with his other three daughters.

A few days later, Charlotte and Emily were brought home in good health and none of the family were ever to return to Cowan Bridge School.