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Jane Austen's family and ancestry


Jane Austen's parents, George (1731–1805), an Anglican rector, and his wife Cassandra (1739–1827), shared a gentry background. George was descended from wool manufacturers who had risen to the lower ranks of the landed gentry, and Cassandra was a member of the aristocratic Leigh family. They married on 26 April 1764 at Walcot Church in Bath. From 1765 to 1801 (for much of Jane's life), George was a rector of Anglican parishes in Steventon, Hampshire and a nearby village. Irene Collins estimates that when George Austen took up his duties as rector in 1764, Steventon comprised no more than about thirty families. From 1773 to 1796, he supplemented his income by farming and teaching three or four boys at a time (who boarded at his home).

Austen's immediate family was large—six brothers: James (1765–1819), George (1766–1838), Edward (1768–1852), Henry Thomas (1771–1850), Francis William (Frank) (1774–1865) and Charles John (1779–1852) and one sister, Cassandra Elizabeth (Steventon, Hampshire, 9 January 1773 – 1845) who, like Jane, did not marry. Cassandra was Austen's closest friend and confidante throughout her life.

Of her brothers Austen felt closest to Henry, who became a banker and (after his bank failed) an Anglican clergyman. Henry was also his sister's literary agent. Henry's large circle of friends and acquaintances in London included bankers, merchants, publishers, painters and actors and he provided Austen with a view of social worlds not normally visible from a small parish in rural Hampshire. He married their first cousin (and Jane's close friend), Eliza de Feuillide.

George was sent to live with a local family at a young age because, according to Austen biographer Le Faye, he was "mentally abnormal and subject to fits"; he may also have been deaf and mute. Charles and Frank served in the navy, both rising to the rank of admiral. Edward was adopted by his fourth cousin, Thomas Knight, inheriting Knight's estate and taking his name in 1812.


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