A BOOK containing unpublished manuscripts by Charlotte Brontë has returned to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Mrs Bronte’s annotated copy of Robert Southey’s The Remains of Henry Kirke White contains the scribblings by the Jane Eyre writer.

The volume was greatly treasured by the Brontë family while they were living at the parsonage in Haworth.

The Brontë Society acquired the book earlier this year thanks to £170,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), along with funding from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries.

The book is one of the rare surviving possessions of Maria Brontë, the mother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

The book’s box, containing all her property, was shipwrecked off the Devon coast shortly before her marriage to Patrick Brontë in 1812. It contains Latin inscriptions in Patrick’s hand stating that this was ‘….the book of my dearest wife and it was saved from the waves. So then it will always be preserved’.

The pages of the book contain annotations, markings and sketches by various members of the Brontë family. Also included are a poem and a fragment of prose by Charlotte Brontë and a letter by Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte’s husband, written shortly after her death in 1855.

Members of the Brontë Society were treated to a first glimpse of the book at their annual summer festival.

Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Parsonage Museum in Haworth, said Mrs Brontë’s book was one of the most significant Brontë items to come to light in many years. She said: “It was clearly well-used and of great sentimental value to the Brontë children, who lost their mother while they were very young.

“In addition, the unpublished writings by Charlotte offer new opportunities for research, which is really exciting.”

Juliet Barker, historian and acclaimed Brontë biographer, said the book alone was a valuable acquisition because of its rare associations with Mrs Brontë before her marriage to Patrick. She added: “Its importance is immeasurably increased by the unpublished manuscripts tipped into it. There could be no better place for it to be preserved for the future than the Brontë Parsonage Museum.”

The book was sold at the sale held at the Parsonage following the death of Patrick Brontë in 1861 and has spent most of the last century in the USA.

It is currently available to view as part of the Treasures Tours organised by the Brontë Parsonage Museum and will go on public display at the parsonage itself in 2017.