Extracted from the District Probate Registry at York attached to Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice.
In the name of God. Amen. I, Charlotte Nicholls, of Haworth in the parish of Bradford and county of York, being of sound and disposing mind, memory, and understanding, but mindful of my own mortality, do this seventeenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, make this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following, that is to say: In case I die without issue I give and bequeath to my husband all my property to be his absolutely and entirely, but, In case I leave issue I bequeath to my husband the interest of my property during his lifetime, and at his death I desire that the principal should go to my surviving child or children; should there be more than one child, share and share alike. And I do hereby make and appoint my said husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, clerk, sole executor of this my last Will and Testament; In witness whereof I have to this my last Will and Testament subscribed my hand, the day and year first above written—Charlotte Nicholls. Signed and acknowledged by the said testatrix Charlotte Nicholls, as and for her last Will and Testament in the presence of us, who, at her request, in her presence and in presence of each other, have at the same time hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses thereto: Patrick Brontë, B.A. Incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire; Martha Brown.
The eighteenth day of April 1855, the Will of Charlotte Nicholls, late of Haworth in the parish of Bradford in the county of York (wife of the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, Clerk in Holy Orders) (having bona notabilia within the province of York). Deceased was proved in the prerogative court of York by the oath of the said Arthur Bell Nicholls (the husband), the sole executor to whom administration was granted, he having been first sworn duly to administer.
Testatrix died 31st March 1855.
It is easy as fruitless to mourn over ‘unfulfilled renown,’ but it is not easy to believe that the future had any great things in store. Miss Brontë’s four novels will remain for all time imperishable monuments of her power. She had touched with effect in two of them all that she knew of her home surroundings, and in two others all that was revealed to her of a wider life. More she could not have done with equal effect had she lived to be eighty. Hers was, it is true, a sad life, but such gifts as these rarely bring happiness with them. It was surely something to have tasted the sweets of fame, and a fame so indisputably lasting.
Mr. Nicholls stayed on at Haworth for the six years that followed his wife’s death. When Mr. Brontë died he returned to Ireland. Some years later he married again—a cousin, Miss Bell by name. That second marriage has been one of unmixed blessedness. I found him in a home of supreme simplicity and charm, esteemed by all who knew him and idolised in his own household. It was not difficult to understand that Charlotte Brontë had loved him and had fought down parental opposition in his behalf. The qualities of gentleness, sincerity, unaffected piety, and delicacy of mind are his; and he is beautifully jealous, not only for the
fair fame of Currer Bell, but—what she would equally have loved—for her father, who also has had much undue detraction in the years that are past. That Mr. Nicholls may long continue to enjoy the kindly calm of his Irish home will be the wish of all who have read of his own continuous devotion to a wife who must ever rank among the greatest of her sex.
FOOTNOTES
[8] Although so stated by Professor A. W. Ward in the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxi.
[14] ‘Mama’s last days,’ it runs, ‘had been full of loving thought and tender help for others. She was so sweet and dear and noble beyond words.’
[17] ‘Some of the West Ridingers are very angry, and declare they are half-a-century in civilisation before some of the Lancashire folk, and that this neighbourhood is a paradise compared with some districts not far from Manchester.’—Ellen Nussey to Mrs. Gaskell, April 16th, 1859.
[19] ‘To this bold statement (i.e. that love-letters were found in Branwell’s pockets) Martha Brown gave to me a flat contradiction, declaring that she was employed in the sick room at the time, and had personal knowledge that not one letter, nor a vestige of one, from the lady in question, was so found.’—Leyland. The Brontë Family, vol. ii. p. 284.