Haworth
Dear Miss Nussey
Mr. Brontè’s letter would prepare you for the sad intelligence I have to communicate1—Our dear Charlotte is no more—she died last night of Exhaustion.2 For the last two or three weeks we had become very uneasy about her, but it was not until Sunday Evening that it became apparent that her sojourn with us was likely to be short—We intend to bury her on Wednesday morn[in]g—.
Believe me
Sincerely yours
A. B. Nicholls
MS BPM B.S. 247.2.
1. On 30 Mar. Mr Nicholls had been too distressed to write. Mr Brontë had written to tell Ellen that his ‘Dear Daughter’ was ‘very ill and apparently on the verge of the grave—.. . the Doctors have no hope of her case, and fondly as we a long time, cherished hope, that hope is now gone.’ CB died early in the morning of 31 Mar.
2. Dr Amos Ingham signed the death certificate, giving the cause of death as ‘Phthisis’—wasting disease, a term most often used for the wasting accompanying tuberculosis, but in Charlotte’s case probably caused by excessive sickness during pregnancy (hyperemesis gravidarum). The funeral service on 4 Apr. was taken by Mr Nicholls’s friend, Revd Sutcliffe Sowden, and Charlotte was buried in the family vault within the church.