Emily Jane BrontëEssays, field notes, and archival encounters.

Family tree

Emily, among her own.

A working map of the immediate family and household relationships around Emily Brontë. Each name leads to a short, sourced record.

Immediate family

The Parsonage household

The map begins with documented family and household relationships.

Maternal aunt · in the household from 1821

Maternal auntElizabeth Branwell1776–1842

Parents

MotherMaria Branwell Brontë1783–1821m.FatherPatrick Brontë1777–1861

Their children, in birth order

Eldest sisterMaria Brontë1814–1825Older sisterElizabeth Brontë1815–1825Older sisterCharlotte Brontë1816–1855BrotherPatrick Branwell Brontë1817–1848Poet and novelistEmily Jane Brontë1818–1848Younger sisterAnne Brontë1820–1849

By marriage

Charlotte’s husbandArthur Bell Nicholls1819–1906

People in the record

Names, relationships, traces

Each entry gives the name somewhere to land when it appears elsewhere in the publication. The record will remain concise unless the evidence requires a fuller page.

Father

Patrick Brontë

1777–1861

An Irish-born Anglican clergyman and the incumbent at Haworth. The Brontë Parsonage Museum credits him with encouraging his daughters’ education.1

Mother

Maria Branwell Brontë

1783–1821

Born in Cornwall, she married Patrick Brontë in 1812 and was the mother of their six children. She died while they were still young.1

Maternal aunt

Elizabeth Branwell

1776–1842

Maria’s elder sister. After Maria’s death, Aunt Branwell moved from Cornwall to the Parsonage and helped care for the children until her own death in 1842.1

Eldest sister

Maria Brontë

1814–1825

The first Brontë child. She and Elizabeth were Emily’s two eldest sisters; both died in 1825 after attending the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge.1

Older sister

Elizabeth Brontë

1815–1825

The second Brontë child. Her death followed Maria’s in 1825, leaving Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne as the surviving sibling group at Haworth.1

Older sister

Charlotte Brontë

1816–1855

Writer, collaborator in the siblings’ childhood worlds, and the sister who persuaded Emily and Anne to publish with her. She married Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854.1

Brother

Patrick Branwell Brontë

1817–1848

Writer, artist, and participant in the siblings’ early imaginary worlds. His family portraits sit at the centre of the surviving visual record of Emily.2

Related: What Did Emily Brontë Look Like?

Writer and subject

Emily Jane Brontë

1818–1848

Poet, novelist, and author of Wuthering Heights. This map is organized around her documented family and household relationships.3

Younger sister

Anne Brontë

1820–1849

Writer and Emily’s partner in the imagined kingdom of Gondal. The two sisters separated their world from Charlotte and Branwell’s Angria before November 1834.4

Brother-in-law

Arthur Bell Nicholls

1819–1906

Patrick Brontë’s curate and Charlotte’s husband. He inherited family manuscripts after Charlotte’s death, making him part of the later history of Emily’s surviving record.5

Sources

Starting points

  1. Brontë Parsonage Museum, “The lives of the Brontës”, checked 23 August 2026.
  2. National Portrait Gallery, Patrick Branwell Brontë, The Brontë Sisters, NPG 1725, checked 23 August 2026.
  3. University of Leeds Special Collections, “Emily Brontë (1818–1848), Author, Poet”, checked 23 August 2026.
  4. University of Leeds Special Collections, “Branwell Brontë Angrian manuscripts”, including the documented division of Gondal and Angria, checked 23 August 2026.
  5. British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue, Emily Brontë, The Gondal Poems, Add MS 43483, including its ownership history, checked 23 August 2026.