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Abstract
An account of the marriage settlement drawn up in May 1854, before the marriage of Charlotte Brontë to Arthur Bell Nicholls. Charlotte’s wealth was put in a trust to which her husband would not have access. The Trustee was Joseph Taylor, brother of Charlotte’s friend, Mary Taylor. A note of Charlotte’s wealth is given.
Notes
1 The Letters of Mrs Gaskell, edited by J. A. V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard (Manchester University Press, 1966), p. 289.
2 The Lives, Friendships and Correspondence of the Brontë Family, ed. by T. J. Wise and J. A. Symington (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Shakespeare Head Press, 1933), 4 vols, iv, 112–119, 122–5.
3 The Lives, iv, 114, 118.
4 The Letters of Mrs Gaskell, pp. 252–3, 277–8, 289, 299. As curate of Haworth Mr Nicholls received £90 per annum.
5 Brontë Parsonage Museum, MS. BS.X, B. A second document, releasing Joseph Taylor from his duties as Trustee and indemnifying him against any claims, is also at this number.
6 Nicholls left Haworth to become curate at Kirk Smeaton near Pontefract on 27 May 1853 and did not take up his curacy at Haworth again until after his return from honeymoon.
7 Joseph Taylor, third son of Joshua Taylor of the Red House, Gomersal. The family owned Hunsworth Mills in Cleckheaton.
8 Brontë Parsonage Museum, MS. 1982 S-G: 89, published in Brontë Society Transactions, 18: 113–4.
9 This seems a surprisingly large amount to have realized from the sale of railway shares alone. Could it include part of the £500 received for the copyright of Jane Eyre which is otherwise not accounted for?
10 See the letters from Charlotte Brontë to George Smith printed in Brontë Society Transactions, 18: 104–6 1982.
11 Writers in Yorkshire from Documents in the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York, compiled by C. C. Webb (Borthwick Institute, 1984). The Bronte Family, no. 4.