Honestly, most of us only think of Elizabeth Barrett Browning as the woman who wrote "How do I love thee?" and then vanished into a romantic Italian sunset with Robert Browning. It's a great story. But her life back in England wasn't just some solitary confinement in a dusty room. She was actually the oldest of twelve children. Yes, twelve.
Think about that for a second. While she was tucked away at 50 Wimpole Street, there was this massive, chaotic, and often heartbreaking network of Elizabeth Barrett Browning siblings moving through the house around her. Her father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, was basically a Victorian dictator who forbid any of his kids from marrying. It’s wild to think that a house full of eleven grown adults were living like teenagers under a roof where "romance" was a forbidden word.
The Full List: Meet the Barrett Siblings
Before we get into the drama—and there was plenty of it—here is the literal roll call. You've got to wonder how they even kept the names straight at the dinner table.
- Edward (Bro): Born 1807. Her absolute favorite.
- Henrietta: Born 1809. The "fun" sister who loved a good party.
- Mary: Born 1810. Sadly, she passed away at just three years old.
- Samuel: Born 1812. He eventually went to Jamaica to handle the family's slave-labor plantations.
- Arabella (Arabel): Born 1813. The loyal sister who stayed by Elizabeth’s side until the elopement.
- Charles John (Stormie): Born 1814.
- George: Born 1816. The lawyer of the bunch.
- Henry: Born 1818.
- Alfred: Born 1820.
- Septimus (Sette): Born 1822.
- Octavius (Occy): Born 1824. The baby of the family.
It’s a lot of people. And because their mother, Mary Graham-Clarke, died relatively young in 1828, Elizabeth often felt a heavy sense of responsibility for this pack of brothers and sisters, even as her own health was failing.
"Bro" and the Tragedy that Changed Everything
If you want to understand why Elizabeth became such a recluse, you have to look at her brother Edward, whom everyone called "Bro." He was only a year younger than her. They were inseparable as kids. When Elizabeth’s health took a turn for the worse and she was sent to the coast at Torquay for the "sea air" (a classic Victorian prescription), Bro went with her.
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Then, the unthinkable happened.
In July 1840, Edward went out sailing in Babbacombe Bay. A sudden storm hit. He drowned. Elizabeth was devastated. She actually blamed herself for his death because he only stayed in Torquay to be with her. This wasn't just "sad" for her; it was a total psychological break. She crawled into her room at Wimpole Street and basically didn't leave for five years. When she mentions "lost saints" in her poetry, she’s talking about him.
The Secret Lives of Henrietta and Arabel
While the boys were often away at school or dealing with family business in Jamaica, the sisters were Elizabeth’s lifeline. Henrietta was the rebel. She wanted the balls, the music, and the suitors. Their father was a nightmare about this. He literally kicked suitors out of the house. Henrietta eventually followed in Elizabeth's footsteps and eloped with a man named William Surtees Cook in 1850. Just like Elizabeth, she was instantly disowned and never seen by her father again.
Arabella, on the other hand, was the rock. She was the one who helped smuggle letters between Elizabeth and Robert Browning. She was the "quiet" one who did charity work and looked after their father. Honestly, without Arabella, the most famous romance in literary history might never have happened. She was the gatekeeper.
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The Brothers and the Jamaican Connection
Most people skip over the brothers, but they’re pretty important for context. The family wealth came from sugar plantations in Jamaica. This is the dark side of the Barrett story. Samuel died in Jamaica of yellow fever just months before Bro drowned. It was a double blow that nearly killed Elizabeth too.
The other brothers—George, Charles, Henry, Alfred, Septimus, and Octavius—mostly stayed under their father's thumb. George was a lawyer and actually helped Elizabeth with some of her business affairs, but even he was shocked when she finally ran away to Italy. It’s kind of crazy that these grown men, some in their 30s and 40s, were still terrified of their father’s temper.
Why the Siblings Matter to Her Poetry
You can't read Elizabeth's work without seeing the shadows of her family. When she writes about "the mark of tears" or the "funeral shears," she isn't being melodramatic. She had watched a sister die, two brothers die, and her mother die, all while living in a house where love was essentially a crime.
Her Elizabeth Barrett Browning siblings weren't just background characters; they were her first audience and her greatest source of grief. When she finally left with Robert, she wasn't just leaving a room; she was leaving a massive, complicated tribe that she both loved and felt smothered by.
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What Happened After She Left?
When Elizabeth eloped in 1846, the family dynamic shattered. Her father refused to even open her letters. Most of her brothers were initially pretty annoyed with her—not because they hated her, but because her "betrayal" made life even harder for those left behind with their father.
However, the siblings eventually reconciled in their own ways. After their father died in 1857, some of the inheritance was split among them. Charles John took over the Jamaican estates, while others like George and Octavius lived out relatively quiet lives. Interestingly, though their father tried to stop them all from marrying, several of them—like Henrietta and Alfred—eventually defied him anyway.
Next Steps for History Buffs:
If you're interested in the Barrett family drama, you should definitely check out the Browning Correspondence. It’s a massive archive of their actual letters. Reading the notes between Elizabeth and Arabella gives you a much better "fly on the wall" feel for what it was really like in that house than any biography ever could. You might also want to look into the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street—it’s a bit theatrical, but it captures the tension between the siblings and their father perfectly.
Essentially, Elizabeth wasn't a lonely woman. She was a woman surrounded by people, yet completely alone in her intellect and her desire for freedom.