<p>Patrick Bronte (1777-1861) was the father of the famous Bronte Sisters; Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England's greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte would have us believe.<br>Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He ...