align="left">1805,
Jan. |
Death of Jane's father at Bath. |
| 1806, |
July |
Austens left Bath for Clifton, Adlestrop, and Stoneleigh. |
| 1806 |
-7 |
Austens settled at Southampton. |
| 1807, |
March |
Took possession of house in Castle Square. |
| 1808, |
Sept. |
Cassandra at Godmersham. |
| |
Oct. |
Mrs. Edward Austen died there after the birth of her eleventh child (John). |
| 1809, |
April |
Jane attempted to secure publication of Susan (Northanger Abbey). |
| |
|
Austens left Southampton. |
| |
July |
Austens took possession of Chawton (having been at Godmersham).
Jane's authorship resumed. |
| 1811, |
April |
Jane with Henry in London (Sloane Street) bringing out Sense and Sensibility. |
| |
Oct. |
Sense and Sensibility published. |
| 1812 |
|
Death of Mrs. T. Knight. Edward Austen took the name of 'Knight.' |
| 1813, |
Jan. |
Publication of Pride and Prejudice. |
| |
April |
Death of Mrs. Henry Austen (Eliza). |
| |
Sept. |
Jane's last visit to Godmersham. |
| |
|
Second edition of Sense and Sensibility. |
| 1814, |
Jan. |
Emma begun. |
| |
March |
Jane went to London with Henry (reading Mansfield Park by the way). |
| |
May |
Mansfield Park published. |
| |
|
Threat of lawsuit for Chawton. |
| |
Nov. |
Marriage of Anna Austen to Ben Lefroy. |
| 1815, |
March |
Emma finished. |
| |
Oct. |
Illness of Henry. |
| |
Nov. |
Jane shown over Carlton House by Dr. Clarke. |
| |
Dec. |
Publication of Emma. |
| 1816, |
March |
Bankruptcy of Henry Austen (Jane's health began to break about this time). |
| |
May |
Jane and Cassandra at Kintbury and Cheltenham. |
| |
July |
Persuasion finished. |
| |
Aug. |
End of Persuasion re-written. |
| |
|
Henry took Orders. |
| 1817, |
Jan. |
Jane began new work. |
| |
March |
Ceased to write. |
| |
|
Death of Mr. Leigh Perrot. |
| |
|
Jane made her will. |
| |
May 24 |
Jane moved to Winchester, and revived somewhat. |
| |
June 16 |
Cassandra sent a hopeless account to Fanny Knight. |
| |
July 18 |
Death. |
| |
July 24 |
Burial in Winchester Cathedral. |
JANE AUSTEN
CHAPTER I
AUSTENS AND LEIGHS
1600-1764
At the end of the sixteenth century there was living at Horsmonden—a small village in the Weald of Kent—a certain John Austen. From his will it is evident that he was a man of considerable means, owning property in Kent and Sussex and elsewhere; he also held a lease of certain lands from Sir Henry Whetenhall, including in all probability the manor house of Broadford in Horsmonden. What wealth he had was doubtless derived from the clothing trade; for Hasted
[4] instances the Austens, together with the Bathursts, Courthopes, and others, as some of the ancient families of that part 'now of large estate and genteel rank in life,' but sprung from ancestors who had used the great staple manufacture of clothing. He adds that these clothiers 'were usually called the Gray Coats of Kent, and were a body so numerous that at County Elections whoever had their vote and interest was almost certain of being elected.'
John Austen died in 1620, leaving a large family.[5] Of these, the fifth son, Francis, who died in 1687, describes himself in his will as a clothier, of Grovehurst; this place being, like Broadford, a pretty timbered house of moderate size near the picturesque old village of Horsmonden. Both houses still belong to the Austen family. Francis left a son, John, whose son was another John. This last John settled at Broadford (while his father remained at Grovehurst), and, when quite young, married Elizabeth Weller. He seems to have been a careless, easy-going man, who thought frugality unnecessary, as he would succeed to the estate on his father's death; but he died of consumption in 1704, a year before that event took place. One of his sisters married into the family of the Stringers (neighbours engaged in the same trade as the Austens), and numbered among her descendants the Knights of Godmersham—a circumstance which exercised an important influence over the subsequent fortunes of the Austen family.
Elizabeth Weller, a woman happily cast in a different mould from her husband, was an ancestress of Jane Austen who deserves commemoration. Thrifty, energetic, a careful mother, and a prudent housewife, she managed, though receiving only grudging assistance from the Austen family, to pay off her husband's debts, and to give to all her younger children a decent education at a school at Sevenoaks; the eldest boy (the future squire) being taken off her hands by his grandfather.
