Miss Pearson's story is rather an intreiging one.

Mary Pearson lived at Greenwich, near London.Her fahter was captain Sir Richard Pearson RN, and he was one of the Officers of the Greenwich Hospital for Seamen.

She was engaged to Henry Austen.They became engaged early in 1796.

Look at this from page 88 of A Family Record by Le faye:

He( Henry-JW) obtained her minitature and showed it proudly to his parents, and Mrs Austen was plased to think that Miss Pearson was a very pretty girl..

Hmm....

On JA's journey to Kent when she went to stay at Rowling with Edward and Elizabeth, she had broken her trip by paying a visit to Miss Pearson at Greenwich.Henry wanted her to go back to Steveonton via Greenwhich to pick up Miss Pearson and take her home to Steventon to meet with the family.

I get the impression that Henry wanted to promote some form of freindship betwen Miss Pearson and Jane....

We have no idea if Miss Pearson ever did get to meet the fmaily.I think JAs comments about being careful not to expect too much beauty from her are hilarious.It puts me in mind of Hnery VII and his misleading picture of Anne of Cleeves which feel short of the mark when compared to the original!

In the end the engagment ended.Le Faye thinks Henry was pursuing Miss Pearson in order to avoid becoming entangled with their cousin eliza de Feuillde..Hmmm...Interesting!