12 February 2010

The Brunty Sisters

From a discussion of talismanic Napoleonic War hero Horatio Nelson:

While in Naples, Nelson began an affair with Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador. Her father had been a blacksmith and she a teenage prostitute in London before marrying Sir William. She was enormously fat and had a Lancashire accent. Another admirer of Nelson was Patrick Brunty, a Yorkshire parson of Irish descent, who changed his surname to Bronte after the King of Naples created Nelson Duke of Bronte. Had he not done so, his famous daughters would have been Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brunty.


- John Lloyd & John Mitchinson, The Book of General Ignorance, London, 2006

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