This year, 2017, is the bicentenary of the birth of Branwell Brontë, the wayward artistic brother of the literary trio Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The circumstances of his death at Haworth parsonage on 24 September 1848 (at just 31), has been a source of fascination for historians and members of the public alike. For while Branwell’s death certificate clearly states that he died from ‘chronic bronchitis-marasmus,’ a veritable storm-cloud of other possibilities swirled around his last years and months.

‘Bronchitis-marasmus,’ is the disease that is nowadays better known as tuberculosis. It was also known colloquially as ‘consumption’ and it is the same killer that finished off two of Branwell’s sisters (Emily and Anne) within months of his death. Branwell certainly had the pain in his side and the wheezing cough that were commonly recognized symptoms of tuberculosis, but many other reasons – ironically involving excessive consumption of other kinds – have been suggested for his untimely death. Piecing together the story of these other contributory factors should remind us that, in the cases of the deaths of our own ancestors too, certificates do not always tell the whole story.

Theory 1: Sex
It has been suggested that Branwell died after having his heart broken by a woman with whom he had a passionate affair. In early 1843, he began to work as a tutor in the Robinson household at Thorp Green. This was just two months after Aunt Branwell – the woman who had brought him up since the age of four – died. He was employed to teach the young son of the Robinson household but it was the mistress, Lydia, a woman some 17 years his senior, who came to occupy most of his time. When her husband became aware of the affair, in July 1845, Branwell was summarily dismissed from the house to return shamefacedly to Haworth. Here his father, Patrick, dubbed Mrs Robinson Branwell’s ‘diabolical seducer.’

The Brontës’ only brother undoubtedly had a rather Romantic notion of himself. It is possible that he had already fathered a child before the affair with Mrs Robinson on an earlier sojourn as a tutor in the Lake District and that he had learned that child had subsequently died. Now he considered himself the tragic hero once again, this time for being spurned by the woman he loved. His father and sisters would have been concerned about the stigma that now hung over his head and its consequences for his future career chances. When Branwell’s former employer, the Rev Robinson died, less than a year after Branwell’s dismissal, the young man assumed that the path would now be clear for him to marry Mrs Robinson – a solution which would not only have repaired his broken heart but also remedied the financial difficulties of the Brontë family as a whole. It was not to be. A message arrived in Haworth that Mrs Robinson could not marry Branwell because her husband’s will expressly forbade it. The message also claimed that Mrs Robinson had been driven mad by shame, guilt and grief. Both claims were probably lies. Mrs Robinson never saw Branwell again, and, in fact, remarried very soon after his death. The end of Branwell’s affair plunged the young man into new depths of debauchery.

In our own family histories there are sometimes stories passed down orally through the generations of individuals ‘dying from a broken heart’ within a short time of an upsetting experience or a bereavement. There is now even a recognised medical condition known as ‘broken-heart’ syndrome, which some believe can be brought on by any stressful situation. According to the British Heart Foundation, unlike ordinary heart attacks which tend to be caused by clots and arterial blockages, this is ‘a temporary condition where your heart muscle becomes suddenly weakened or stunned. The left ventricle, one of the heart’s chambers, changes shape’. Even in the 21st century, however, such an explanation for death would rarely be given on a death certificate. And in the early Victorian era, the idea that Branwell had died from a broken heart – which might well have had currency amongst the locals of Haworth – would certainly have been considered too embarrassing and shameful to have been recorded on his death certificate.

Theory 2: Drink
A second legend has it that Branwell drank himself to death.

Branwell often depicted his childhood heroes (in his imaginary worlds of Glasstown and Angria) drinking alcohol – usually whisky. When he grew up it became his favourite drink, though he also loved beer and gin. Both and grain and grape acted as a stimulant to Branwell’s work as a poet, artist and sculptor. And many of the accounts of his working life show him drinking alcohol of some sort or other (for example, on the eve of his first ill-fated tutoring job in the Lake District, during his stint working as a railway clerk, and later after his dismissal from his second tutoring job at Thorpe Green house). The story of how he would potentially entertain anyone who would pay for his drinks in the Black Bull public house in Haworth is also well known.

Today alcoholism is a recognised cause of death often recorded on certificates. In 2014, there were, according to www.alcoholconcern.org.uk, 8697 deaths registered in England and Wales that were related to alcohol consumption and it is now known that alcohol can be a causal factor in more than 60 medical conditions affecting the mouth and throat, the stomach and liver. It can also contribute to breast cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, cirrhosis and depression. The term ‘alcoholic,’ however, did not exist in 1848. It was actually coined by the Swedish physician Magnus Huss some four years later in 1852. Instead, those with a morbid and uncontrollable craving for alcohol were known (in the early 19th century) as ‘dipsomaniacs,’ or more colloquially, ‘habitual drunkards’. Such terms differentiated hard drinkers from those who merely drank at times of celebration. Additionally, registrars and doctors did occasionally use euphemisms or synonyms for alcoholism on death certificates (see www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/Alcoholism.htm). But if Branwell was still drinking to excess in the days and hours before his death, this potential contributory factor to his demise – of course, one that again might be highly detrimental to the reputation of the Brontë family – went unrecorded at its registration.

Theory 3: Drugs
A third theory has Branwell down as a drug addict. Certainly opiates flooded Britain in the first part of the 19th century, coming into the country, at that point, mainly from Turkey. Like many people of all classes in the early 19th century, Branwell used opiate drugs and particularly ‘laudanum’ to cure a range of ailments. The drug, usually taken in drop form and in small quantities, was viewed in the same way as aspirin is now, and as such his use of it might have gone unnoticed for some time. Later, however, after his drinking escalated, Branwell started to use laudanum to banish his delirium tremens and to dull the pain of nightmares he had been experiencing. He may also have used it for recreational purposes as did many pre-Victorian and Victorian artists and writers. As he grew more dependent on the drug he demanded more and more money both from Mrs Robinson and from his father to pay for it.

Deaths caused by drug-poisoning only started to be properly recorded in England and Wales from 1993. In 2014, 3346 deaths were registered that were attributable to drug-related causes (NB these were the deaths registered in 2014, they might actually have occurred months or years before). Males are approximately 2.5 times more likely to die from drug abuse than females. Many death certificates, even today, do not record exactly which drugs were being consumed around the time of death and on modern day death certificates you will still find vague descriptions such as ‘drug overdose’ or ‘multiple drug toxicity’. This lack of specificity, of course, affects the accuracy of any statistical analysis, but, nevertheless, it is clear that many, many deaths (an estimated 1786 out of the overall total in 2014) were down to the abuse of opioid drugs (now most usually morphine and heroin). These drugs have become increasingly more easily available in recent years.

Without question, many young men also died from overdosing on opiates in the 19th century. Drug ‘habituation,’ as such abuse was known in the first half of the 19th century, was rarely, if ever, recorded as a cause of death on certificates. It was, in fact, only in the latter part of the century that terms such as ‘opiomania’ and ‘morphine inebriety’ were coined and given as causes of death. If Branwell Brontë was amongst the morbid addicts, his death certificate does not provide any evidence of it.

Useful books and websites
Winifred Gerin, Branwell Brontë, T. Nelson, 1961
Daphne Du Maurier, The Infernal World Of Branwell Brontë, Penguin Books, 1972.
Jane Eastoe, Victorian Pharmacy: Rediscovering Home Remedies and Recipes, Pavilion, 2010
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis, O.U.P. 2015

On Victorian drug use:
http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/science/addiction/addiction2.html

On alcohol addiction in Victorian Britain:
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/alcoholism.html

List of terms used for alcohol and drug addiction on death certificates:
http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/Alcoholism.htm