Arthur Bell Nicholls goes to Lichfield Cathedral and Ripon Cathedral

 

Charlotte Bronte's true love - the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls - whom she described in a letter to her friend Ellen Nussey on Boxing Day 1854 as 'my dear boy'.

Lichfield is in Staffordshire.

On Trinity Sunday, 17th May, 1845, Arthur Bell Nicholls was ordained Deacon at the magnificent twin-spired Lichfield Cathedral, by the Bishop of Lichfield, The Right Reverend John Lonsdale .

The magnificent twin spires of Lichfield Cathedral from my visit in April 2018.

Interior of Lichfield Cathedral.

                                                    

                                                   

   

The Bishop of Lichfield The Right Reverend John Lonsdale who admitted Arthur Bell Nicholls into holy orders on Sunday, 17th May 1845

                                                   

From the Church and State Gazette - London - 23rd May 1845 

Below are some more photos of Lichfield Cathedral and the lovely city of Lichfield which is well worth a visit.
                                              

                                                      

                                                      

                                                       

                                                        

                                          

                                          





                                                     

         

                                            

      

                                        

                                                   

                                           

Following his ordination as deacon, Arthur sought a 'Title for Orders' in England, probably through answering an advertisement placed in the Ecclesiastical Gazette by Patrick Bronte who was seeking a curate. Arthur officially took up his first post as Curate to the Reverend Patrick Bronte at St Michael's and All Angels church in Haworth on 5th June 1845. Aged just twenty-six, Arthur arrived in Haworth, a place which would change his life forever. He would get to know the Bronte family and would eventually fall head-over-heels in love with his future wife Charlotte Bronte, three years his senior.

 Only one week after his ordination at Lichfield Cathedral, Arthur took his first service in Haworth on Sunday 25th May 1845, then he officiated at his first marriage on 28th May and took his first funeral on 29th May even though he officially only started at Haworth on 5th June!

Charlotte's first impressions of her dear papa's new curate were favourable...which for Charlotte was quite unusual!

  "he appears a respectable young man, reads well, and I hope will give satisfaction." 

                                      

                

The Liverpool Standard, 27 May 1845

University and Clerical News in the Liverpool Standard of 27 May 1845 announcing Arthur's posting to the curacy of Haworth.

Here we see Arthur's posting to the curacy of Haworth announced in the Liverpool Standard of 27 May 1845.

And so next to Ripon in North Yorkshire.

Ripon in North Yorkshire.

On 20th September 1846, Arthur was ordained priest by the first Bishop of Ripon Charles Thomas Longley at Ripon Cathedral . Ripon is a small cathedral city in North Yorkshire.

The Right Reverend Charles Thomas Longley, first Bishop of Ripon who ordained Arthur Bell Nicholls and his friend George Sowden as priests.


Ripon Cathedral.

Ripon Cathedral interior.

Ripon Cathedral from the attractive cobbled streets of Ripon.

                                       

Ripon Cathedral as night falls.

                                         

Ripon market square from my visit in October 2021.

The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser-
26 September 1846 listing the ordination as priests of both Arthur Bell Nicholls and his friend George Sowden, the brother of Sutcliffe Sowden who would officiate at Charlotte and Arthur's 1854 wedding, then again at Charlotte's funeral in 1855 and finally at Patrick Bronte's funeral in 1861.

The Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent - 26 September 1846 - announcing the ordination as priest of Arthur Bell Nichols by the Bishop of Ripon on 20 September 1846.

In 1894 Arthur's friend Reverend George Sowden wrote a short pamphlet called 'Recollections of the Brontës'. In it he recalls meeting for the first time with Arthur Bell Nicholls as they both went to Ripon Cathedral to be ordained priests.

                                               

He wrote: 

"In September 1846, I travelled to Ripon for the purpose of receiving priests' orders on the top of a coach, for there was no rail to Ripon in those day. As we were nearing the cathedral city, a young gentleman, clerically attired, hailed the coach and, when he had mounted, he sat down at my side. It was natural for me to ask if he was bound on the same errand as myself and he said he was. We soon wormed it out who each of us was and found that repute we were perfectly well known to each other. So a friendship at once struck up between us. We stayed in the same lodgings whilst at Ripon and walked continually together and then we were ordained priests leading side by side. I soon found him the gentlest and most affectionate of men. He was a genuine Irishman, and when you came to know him, with much Irish humour, although with strangers, he could be reserved, and, he was the connecting link between us: my brother, myself and all that we ever knew of the Brontes.

Both Lichfield and Ripon are grand places to visit. A true delight! Do go if you are ever in either of the areas. 

      

Wethersfield, Essex with Patrick Bronte.

Cambridge to Wethersfield is not far.

Having spent a day and a night, in July 2018, enjoying the delights of Cambridge, my Bronte travelling friend Alison and I next headed further east to Wethersfield in Essex to where Patrick had his first incumbency as a curate following his graduation in 1806 from Cambridge university. He had spent four years in Cambridge from 1802 to 1806. For us, it was only a 45-minute drive to cover the 28 miles / 45 kilometres to Wethersfield and we noted how agricultural the area was passing through pretty Finchingfield which Patrick probably would have done.

 

The area is very agricultural. A different landscape to the one that Patrick ended up in when he arrived in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

Pretty Finchingfield in Essex. No millstone gritstone cottages here as in Haworth.

Wethersfield is about 8 miles / 13 kilometres from Braintree and many of the redbrick and half-timbered buildings which Patrick would have seen are still standing, along with the village green and the church where he worked in a parish of about 1,200 or so inhabitants, 70% of whom worked locally in agriculture during Patrick’s time there from 1806 to 1809.

The village green in Wethersfield.

Wethersfield.

 

Patrick's first incumbency at St Mary Magdalene Church in Wethersfield. When we visited the tower was being repaired.

St Mary Magdalene Church without the scaffolding.

Built from the pretty flint stone typical of the area. 

Times of services.

We stood outside St George’s House opposite the church of St Mary Magdalene, and where Patrick had lodgings with spinster Miss Mildred Day.

St. George's House  (the peach coloured one) where Patrick lodged with spinster Miss Mildred Day.

 And of course, we visited his first church  and, oh joy of joys, it was open so we could get inside. There was nothing for it, but I had to walk exactly in Patrick’s footsteps all the way up to and into the pulpit!!!  I hope it was the same pulpit from his time there!

The altar at St Mary Magdalene Church, Wethersfield.

Very much in Patrick Bronte's footsteps! But is it the same pulpit? Apparently the church fell into disrepair in the 19th century and stood derelict for some years before being greatly renovated in the 1870s.

                                                     

Patrick’s landlady was often visited by her pretty 18-year-old niece, Mary Burder and, despite the age difference, (Patrick was 30), Mary and Patrick got on rather well and would walk out together and write letters to each other. Parishioners would lend Patrick their dogs to walk as he enjoyed the footpaths around the village with these canine companions and no, doubt Mary would join him too. 

 As Mary’s father had died and she had not yet come of age, her guardian was her uncle, and he noticed the friendship and, of course, wanted to know more about the prospects of this Irish curate. There are indications that Patrick proposed to Mary but later broke off the engagement, possibly because she was a Non-conformist, and he might have thought this could damage his future prospects of promotion within the Church of England.  But, whatever happened between them, Patrick eventually left Wethersfield in 1809 to take up his second incumbency in Wellington near Telford, Shropshire.

 However, 15 years later in Haworth and, after his wife, poor Maria Brontë had died leaving Patrick with 6 children (some commentators have postulated Maria may have died of uterine cancer and others from ovarian cancer...but this, obviously, cannot be confirmed), Patrick was then on the look out for a new wife and a mother for his children.

 He learnt that Mary Burder from Wethersfield was still single and wrote to her expressing his pleasure that she was still a spinster. She replied very curtly to say NO! Whatever had happened in 1809 had deeply embittered Mary and she would not entertain marrying Patrick. He was rejected outright!

On our visit to Wethersfield, I could imagine Patrick striding out along the many footpaths in the area enjoying this gentle, rural and agricultural location. It's a lot flatter in Wethersfield than in Haworth with its steep hills and valleys, where Patrick would later go on to walk whilst out visiting his parishioners. If you are ever in the area, Essex and Wethersfield are well worth a visit.