The Thorp Green Scandal The Brontë children were, for different reasons, unable to hold down any job. Charlotte failed as a governess, Emily as a school teacher and Branwell wasted his talents in several positions. The exception was Anne, the youngest of the family, who managed to retain her second appointment as Governess to the daughters of the Robinson family. She joined them at Thorp Green, near York in the summer of 1840. Returning home to the Haworth parsonage, Anne fell under the spell of the new curate, William Weightman, who had something of a reputation with the ladies. He died of cholera. Two years later, Branwell joined his sister as tutor to the young Edmund Roninson, but became besotted with Mrs Lydia Robinson, seventeen years his senior. They had a three-year affair before Branwell was dismissed by her husband. Anne resigned her post, writing that she had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of experiences of human nature during her five years at Thorp Green. Branwell took to drugs and drink, fell into a decline, eventually drinking himself to death at the age of thirty-one. He died in his fathers arms.