Annotations to Jane Austen's Letters
Austen Family Genealogical Charts and Miscellaneous Notes

Some miscellaneous annotations added by myself (not in the original printed Brabourne edition of Jane Austen's Letters).

Austen Family Genealogical Charts

Genealogical chart for Jane Austen's Letters

The main purpose of this chart is to give the casual reader of Jane Austen's letters some hope of identifying some of the individuals referred to there. For further information, and the identification of more remotely related or unrelated individuals, see the appendices of Chapman's later edition of the Letters, and the indexes and genealogical charts in Le Faye's revision of the Life.

The following conventions are used in the chart below:

1. Women whose husband is shown are listed by their maiden names.
2. The way in which Jane Austen refers to a person in her letters is put between double quotes ("...").
3. Places of residence are CAPITALIZED (note that Godmersham, Goodnestone, Rowling, and Wrotham are in the county of Kent, while Steventon, Chawton, Ashe, Deane, Manydown, Wyards, Ibthorpe, and Kintbury are all in the vicinity of northwestern Hampshire).
4. The names of each of Jane Austen's siblings are linked to brief descriptions in the Jane Austen biography file.
5. Events (marriages, deaths, and children born) that took place after Jane Austen died (July 1817) are generally not shown. Some individuals who are links in the genealogies, but who died before Jane Austen's first surviving letters (1796), are also not shown.

   [2nd cousins]
     +-------+
     |       |
     |         === "Mrs. Knight"
     |              (died 1812)                   
     |
 +---+-------+                     +-----------------+----------------+
 |           |                     |                 |                |
 |           |                     |                 |                |
 | Rev. George Austen === Cassandra Leigh      James Leigh === Jane   |
 |      "My Father"    |    "My Mother"           Perrot    Cholmeley |
 |     (1731-1805)     |    (born 1739)         "My Uncle"  "My Aunt" |
 |   STEVENTON, BATH   | SOUTHAMPTON, CHAWTON   (died 1817)           |
 |                     |                           BATH (PARAGON),    |
 |                     |                              SCARLETS        |
Eliza de               |                                              |
Feuillide              |                              Rev. Edward Cooper
(1761-1813)            |                              HARPSDEN, HAMSTALL
[see below]            |
                       |
                       |
 +----------+----------+                                   +---------+
 |          |                                              |         |
 |          |                                              |         |
 |    James Austen === Anne Mathew    Anne Brydges === Isaac Lefroy  |
 |    (born 1765)   |  (died 1795)     (died 1804)  |  (1745-1806)   |
 | DEANE, STEVENTON |  (1st wife)     "Mrs. Lefroy" |      ASHE      |
 |                  |                               |                |
 |                  Anna Austen  ===  Benjamin Lefroy         Tom Lefroy
 |                  (born 1793)   |     (born 1791)           (born 1776)
 |                                |     ASHE, WYARDS            IRELAND
 |                              Jemima
 |                           (born 1815)
 |
 |
 |                             +-----------------------+
 |                             |                       |
 |                       "Mrs. Lloyd"                  |
 |                        (died 1806)                    === Rev. Thomas
 |                         IBTHORPE                       |     Fowle
 |                             |                          |    KINTBURY
 |                        +----+----+------+            +-+---------+
 |                        |         |      |            |           |
 |                        |         |      |            |           |
 |    [see above] === Mary Lloyd  Martha  Eliza === Fulwar Fowle  Thomas
 |                 | (born 1771)  Lloyd               KINTBURY   (d 1797)
 |                 | (2nd. wife)                                 [Fiancé
 |              +--+------------------------+                     of Cas-
 |              |                           |                     sandra
 |              |                           |                     Austen]
 |        James Edward Austen(-Leigh)   Caroline
 |           "Edward"                  (born 1805)
 |          (born 1798)
 |
 |
 |                                      "Lady Bridges"
 |                                     GOODNESTONE FARM
 +----------+                                 |
 |          |                    +------------+---+----------------+
 |          |                    |                |                |
 |  Edward Austen Knight === Elizabeth    Sir Brook Bridges    "Harriot"
 |  (born 1767; heir to   |   Bridges        (born 1767)        Bridges
 |  Mr. and Mrs. Knight)  | (1773-1808)      GOODNESTONE      (born 1781)
 |  ROWLING, GODMERSHAM   |                                     WROTHAM
 |                   +----+--------+-------------+-----------+
 |                   |             |             |           |
 |                   |             |             |           |
 |             Fanny Knight     Edward         George       etc.
 |              (born 1793)   (born 1794)   (born 1795)
 |                   |                     "itty Dordie"
 |                   |
 |             Lord Brabourne
 |          (see next chart below)
 |
 +----------+
 |          |
 |          |
 |    Henry Austen === Eliza de Feuillide
 |     (born 1771)        (1761-1813)
 |       LONDON           [see above]
 |
 +----------+
 |          |
 |          |
 |   Cassandra Austen    [Fiancée of
 |     (born 1773)      Thomas Fowle]
 |
 +----------+
 |          |
 |          |
 |    Frank Austen === Mary Gibson
 |     (born 1774)  |  (1790-1814)
 |      RAMSGATE,   |
 |     SOUTHAMPTON  |
 |                +-+-------+
 |                |         |
 |                |         |
 |            Mary Jane    etc.
 |           (born 1807)
 |
 +----------+
 |          |
 |          |
 |    Jane Austen
 |    (1775-1817)
 |
 |
 +----------+
            |
            |
      Charles Austen === Frances Palmer
       (born 1779)    |   (1790-1814)
         BERMUDA      |
           +----------+----+--------------+
           |               |              |
    Cassandra Esten     Harriet         Fanny
      (born 1808)     (born 1810)    (born 1812)
       "Cassie"

Graphic image charts of Jane Austen's family

Some genealogy chart images (based on Austen-Leigh and Le Faye's Jane Austen: A Family Record) formerly found at the defunct Rosny "Jane Austen's Corner" bookmarks website:

Jane Austen's father's family

Jane Austen's mother's family

Jane Austen's immediate family

Jane Austen's brother James' family

Jane Austen's brother Edward's family

Jane Austen's brother Francis's family

The connection between descendants of Fanny Knight and the British royal family

This genealogical tree was assembled by Mark Humphrys, partly using the Burkes Peerage entries BRABOURNE and SLIGO as sources.

         George Austen = Cassandra Leigh
           born 1731   |    born 1739
                       |
 +---------------------+-------+---------------------+
 |                             |                     |
Edward Austen                 Cassandra Austen      Jane Austen
born 7 Oct 1768 (1767?)       born 1773	            born 1775
adopted the surname Knight
 |
 |
Fanny Catherine Knight
born 1793                                              Queen Victoria
(portrait)                                                    |
 |                                               +------------+------------+
 |                                               |                         |
1st Lord Brabourne                              Princess             Edward VII
born 1829                                       Alice                      |
title of Baron created 1880                      |                         |
edited Austen `Letters' 1884                     |                         |
 |                                               |                         |
 |                                               |                         |
4th Lord Brabourne                              Victoria               George V
born 1863                                       von Hessen                 |
 |                                               |                         |
 |                                          +----+------------+            |
 |                                          |                 |            |
5th Lord Brabourne = Doreen Browne         Lord Mountbatten  Alice    George VI
born 1895          | born 29 May 1896      born 25 Jun 1900  Mount-        |
died 1939          | daughter of the 6th   killed 1979       batten        |
                   |  Marquess of Sligo     |                 |            |
                   | killed 1979            |                 |            |
                   |                        |                 |            |
            7th Lord Brabourne = Patricia Mountbatten     Prince = Elizabeth II
            born 9 Nov 1924    | born 14 Feb 1924  §      Philip |
            (not 1918)  §      |                                 |
                               |                                 |
 +-------------+---------------+-------+                         |
 |             |                       |                         |
other         Timothy Knatchbull      Nicholas Knatchbull      Prince Charles
children      born 18 Nov 1964  §     born 18 Nov 1964       (Lord Mountbatten
              twin with Nicholas      twin with Timothy       was a father
                                      killed 1979             figure to him)

("Killed 1979" refers to the IRA assasination of Lord Mountbatten; individuals labeled with a "§" symbol were involved in the attack, but survived.)

Miscellaneous Notes

"Prize":

A captured enemy ship (as in Persuasion); the value of the "prize" was partly divided among the crew of the capturing ship. A junior officer's share of prize money could be very large compared to his regular salary.

"Margiana" (January 10, 1809):

According to Chapman's notes, this is the 1808 novel Margiana, or Widdrington Tower by Mrs. S. Sykes.

"Mother" (January 24, 1809):

It was supposedly considered less genteel to refer to one's mother as just "mother" (rather than as "my mother" -- this latter form, with the possessive pronoun, is what Jane Austen always uses in referring to her own mother).

"Receipt":

Could also mean "recipe" (either culinary, or for a medical remedy).

"Typical" (January 29, 1813):

Typographical.

"Chay" (in Mrs. Knight's letter):

Supposed servant vulgarism for the word "chaise".

"Plumper" (in Brabourne's notes):

When the British parliament had multimember constituencies, there was a rudimentary system of cumulative voting: if there were two members of parliament to be elected in the constituency, then each voter had two votes, and he could either give two of the candidates one vote apiece, or give a single candidate both of his votes -- this last was called a "plumper" vote.