Patrick and Maria Brontë had six children. Their children were Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell, Emily and Anne.
Maria and Elizabeth were the two eldest daughters, followed by Charlotte and Branwell, then Emily and Anne. Maria Brontë died in 1821, shortly after Anne's birth, and the two eldest girls died of tuberculosis at Cowan Bridge school in 1825. As a result, only Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne survived into later childhood.
The family is often remembered mainly through the three novelist sisters, but Branwell was also an important part of the household and worked as an artist. Their father, Patrick, was an Irish-born Anglican clergyman, while their mother, Maria Branwell, came from Cornwall.
A frequent mistake is to answer four because four children reached adulthood, or three because the famous literary figures were Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The question asks for the total number born to Patrick and Maria, which was six.