Frances Mary Richardson Currer collections of Richard Heber which were larger than Currer's. Heber and Currer had a close relationship and Heber was bailed out by Currer when he had financial difficulties. It has been speculated that Currer was a benefactor of the Brontë sisters and this is the reason that Charlotte Brontë chose the nom de plume of "Currer Bell" for her novel "Jane Eyre". It is thought that she gave the Brontë sisters' father £50 to assist them when he became a widower. Currer did donate money to the Clergy Daughter's School that the Brontë sisters attended as well as funding the
Bronte, Sicily of Bronte. Mount Etna nearly destroyed the town three times, in 1651, in 1832, and finally in 1843. In 1799, King Ferdinand III created Bronte as a Duchy, and rewarded admiral Horatio Nelson with the title of Duke for the help he had provided him in suppressing the revolution in Naples and so in recovering his throne. As well as being made a Duke, Nelson was given as a fief the Castello Maniace, which at the time was the remains of a Benedictine Monastery. The Castle passed into the Bridport family when the 1st Viscount Bridport married the then Duchess