A Bishop, Bed and Breakfast, A Mystery Dessert and a Poignant Letter: Material Found among the Papers of Dr Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury

Abstract

While researching in the archives of Lambeth Palace library to find out just what Charlotte Brontë meant when she told Ellen Nussey that her conscience would not let her be ‘either a Puseyite or a Hookist’ (7 April 1840), I read the Library Committee’s Annual Report for 2004. Quietly the report announced that among the recently acquired papers of Dr Charles Thomas Longley, former Archbishop of Canterbury and one time Bishop of Ripon, there was a firsthand description of Charlotte Brontë (1853) and a ‘poignant letter from Patrick Brontë written after the death of Charlotte two years later’. This modest announcement led me to a remarkable clutch of letters written by the Bishop that add uniquely to our knowledge not only of Patrick Brontë’s diocesan bishop, but also of the remarkable parsonage family.