Margaret was headmistress and
part-owner of Roe Head School in Mirfield where a
nervous tearful 14-year-old Charlotte Bronte began studying in 1831. Charlotte
was her star pupil and four years she was invited back as a teacher. Outside
school life a friendship was formed that lasted until death.
When Margaret heard Charlotte was taking her
ailing (dying) sister Anne to Scarborough in the hope the sea air would combat
her tuberculosis she offered her free use of her home (instead she stayed/died
in a board house.) When she heard of Anne’s death she was one of the few
mourners at the funeral in Scarborough. When Charlotte married Margaret gave
the famous novelist away.
After Charlotte’s death she was much in demand to
talk about the famous novelist. She lived near to and kept in touch with two of
Charlotte’s best friends - Ellen Nussey and Mary
Taylor. She died a week short of her 93rd birthday. The only surviving photograph
shows her in old age.