The Reverend Patrick Brontë (/ˈbrɒnti/, commonly /ˈbrɒnteɪ/; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish-English priest and author who spent most of his adult life in England and was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë and of Branwell Brontë, his only son. Patrick outlived all his children and outlived his wife, the former Maria Branwell, by forty years.