Brocklehurst (The Rev. Robert)

A Calvinistic clergyman, the son of Naomi Brocklehurst, of Brocklehurst Hall, part founder of Lowood Institution, where young ladies were boarded, clothed, and taught for £15 a year, subsidised by private subscriptions. The Rev. Robert Brocklehurst was treasurer, and half starved the inmates in order to augment his own income and scared the children by talking to them of hell-fire, and making capital out of their young faults or supposed shortcomings. He and his family fared sumptuously every day, but made the inmates of his institution deny themselves and carry the cross of vexation and want. (C. Brontë: Jane Eyre.)