This is a happy day of celebration for many in the United Kingdom, for it is Father’s Day. In the ever recurring Brontë calendar, however, today marks one of the saddest anniversaries. In today’s new Brontë blog post we remember Elizabeth Brontë who died aged just ten years old on this day in 1825, exactly two hundred years ago today.
When we look for tangible evidence of Elizabeth Brontë now all we have is this beautiful sampler made by Elizabeth when she was seven years old. She would have been expected to produce further samplers in her youth to showcase her prowess as a seamstress, at the time an essential skill for a governess or housekeeper. Alas, fate put paid to those plans for a future career for Elizabeth as she died from tuberculosis contracted at Cowan Bridge School – the school searingly recreated as Lowood in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Elizabeth was born in a time of hope for the Brontë family. The second child to Patrick and Maria she would form a close bond with sister Maria, the eldest Brontë sibling, and be sent to Cowan Bridge school alongside her. We know the two sisters had different characters and different academic abilities, Elizabeth was more practical whereas Maria was a prodigious talent, but hopefully they could provide some solace and comfort to each other during those terrible months which saw both Maria and Elizabeth die in the first half of 1825.
It is to Cowan Bridge that we turn now for a telling recollection of Elizabeth. A Miss Evans was the Supervisor at the school, and she later stated: “The second, Elizabeth, is the only one of the [Brontë] family of whom I have a vivid recollection, from her meeting with a rather alarming accident, in consequence of which I had her for some days and nights in my bed-room, not only for the sake of her greater quiet, but that I might watch over her myself. Her head was severely cut, but she bore all the consequent suffering with exemplary patience, and by it won much upon my esteem.”

Elizabeth, like Maria and later all of her siblings but for Anne Brontë, was buried beneath the stone floor of Haworth church. Her name appeared on the memorial inside the church, but it has been all too easy to forget this young child who was such an integral part of the close-knit group of Brontë siblings.
Today, however, there is great interest in Elizabeth Brontë. My earliest post on Elizabeth, which I wrote in 2016, is still year after year the most visited of the many hundreds of posts on my blog. My video looking at the life of Elizabeth Brontë for my House Of Brontë YouTube channel is the most viewed video I’ve made.
It is clear that a growing number of people do remember Elizabeth Brontë, and they hold her in high esteem. Her loss was a great tragedy in the Brontë story, so let us remember her today and every day.
To all the fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers and pet fathers out there I hope you have had a happy and love filled day. I hope you all can join me next week for another new Brontë blog post.