Frances Currer

Frances Mary Richardson Currer (3 March 1785 – 28 April 1861) was a British heiress and book collector.

Life Frances Mary Richardson Currer was born shortly after the death of her father, Henry Richardson Currer in 1785. Shortly before he died, he had added the surname Currer to his own name. This was a condition of a substantial inheritance from Sarah Currer, the grand daughter of Matthew Wilson who had built Eshton Hall.

The Bierley estate she had inherited was the site of mining operations under a lease for mineral rights, for 46 years, granted by Currer in 1800, to Henry Leah.

Currer had problems with her hearing throughout her life and she died at Eshton Hall in 1861. and in 1833 she had Thomas Hartwell Horne prepare a second edition which was printed to reflect further changes. He estimated that the library contained 20,000 books, but Currer was one of his patrons. Dibdin also spoke well of the book 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.

Benefactor Frances Currer gave money to the North Bierley chapel. Its foundation dated back to Richard Richardson (1708–1781), son of Dr. Richard Richardson, and it had been licensed in 1766. It was only in her time, however, that it was consecrated, in 1824, and she became its patron. It was enlarged at her expense in the following years, and became a chapel of ease. She put up a vicarage there in 1827, for George Stringer Bull.

It is thought that Currer gave Patrick Brontë of Haworth £50 when he became a widower in 1821.

A figure connecting Bierley and Haworth was James Bardsley. Patrick Brontë hoped in 1833 to have him as curate, but the permission of Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, the Archbishop of York, was refused. He became curate at the Bierley chapel.