] After George Austen died in 1804, Mrs. Austen and her two daughters suffered privation.

Jane Austen's family seems to have been plagued by financial difficulties during her father's lifetime as well as after his death. Here are some telling figures from the Park Honan biography I'm reading:

'A study of his [George Austen's] accounts at Hoare's Bank shows that he had to borrow a large sum of £865 from his brother-in-law James Leigh Perrot in 1768, and could pay back only £20, partly because his sister needed money. Leigh Perrot must have cancelled the debt in 1772, when George asked for another loan of £300 [Although I'm not sure why the new loan means the earlier unpaid loan was cancelled?]... [H]e paid only £12 in 1777, £12 again in each of the years 1780 and 1782, and just before facing fees for his daughters' schooling and Frank's outfitting at naval school, paid off his £300 loan.'