Patrick Brontë's 230th birthday

The strong, intelligent man who allowed his children to develop his abilities to the fullest and who was ahead of his time in many respects has his birthday on St. Patrick's Day.

Our weekly quote is a tribute to him and very to the point.

I do not deny that I am, somewhat eccentrick [sic]. Had I been numbered amongst the calm, sedate, concentric men of the world, I should not have been as I now am, and I should, in all probability, never have had such children as mine have been.
Patrick Brontë to Elizabeth Gaskell, 30 July 1857

But this does not mean that every 'eccentricity' that Mrs Gaskell heard from a spiteful servant and later reported in her Life of Charlotte Brontë is necessarily true. Without this man and his approach to education and upbringing we might never have heard of family called Brontë.

Picture Source: Anne Brontë - The Scarborough Connection.

EDIT: The Australian Brontë Association celebrates this date with a talk:

Saturday 17th MARCH (St Patrick’s Day) 10:30am at the SMSA
Catherine Barker: Happy Birthday Patrick Brontë
The date of this meeting, 17th March, marks the 230th anniversary of the birth of Patrick
Bronte, the patriarch of the Brontës of Haworth. It is a fitting day therefore on which to look at
the life of this extraordinary man and to examine the influence that he had on his unique

Categories: Patrick Brontë, Reminder