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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), were members of the landed gentry. George was descended from wool manufacturers who had risen to the lower ranks of the gentry, and Cassandra was a member of the Leigh family of Adlestrop and Longborough, with connections to the Leigh Baronetcy of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire.The Baronetcy of Stoneleigh became extinct in 1786. At the death of the last member of this branch of the family in 1806, Stoneleigh Abbey passed to Cassandra's cousin Thomas. The Baronetcy was eventually revived in 1839 when Cassandra's nephew, Chandos Leigh was created Baron Leigh. 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 famili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Austen
James Austen was an English clergyman, best known for being the eldest brother of celebrated novelist Jane Austen. His father George Austen's living had been in Steventon, Hampshire, and James succeeded him in this position, in 1801. Austen's mother, formerly Cassandra Leigh, was a member of a prominent Oxford family, and was a descendant of one of the founders of St. John's College. Cassandra's family connection entitled her sons to be legacy students, who did not have to compete for admission, and who were entitled to attend tuition free. Austen attended Oxford University and his younger brother Henry both attended, and shared accommodation. Like his more famous sister, Austen was a writer. According to Felicity Day, writing in ''The Telegraph'', for a year in the 1790s, he published a weekly periodical called ''The Loiterer'', and wrote much of its content. He published several pieces by his brother Henry, and Day speculated that he may have published one piece by his t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin (née Delavenay; born 20 June 1933) is an English journalist and biographer, known for her biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft. Early life Tomalin was born Claire Delavenay on 20 June 1933 in London, the daughter of English composer Muriel Herbert and French academic Émile Delavenay. Education Tomalin was educated at Hitchin Girls' Grammar School, a former state grammar school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, at Dartington Hall School, a former boarding-school in Devon, and at Newnham College at the University of Cambridge. Career Tomalin has written several noted biographies. * In 1974 she published her first book ''The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft'', which won the Whitbread Book Award. Since then she has published: * '' Shelley and His World'' (1980) * ''Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life'' (1987) *''The Invisible Woman: The story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens'' (1990) NCR Book Aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deirdre Le Faye
Deirdre Le Faye (26 October 1933 – 16 August 2020) was an English writer and literary critic. Biography She was born in Bournemouth and raised in Farnborough and Reading, during the bombing raids of the Second World War. After her father died of illness, she left school at 16 and began a secretarial course as a scholarship student. She began work as an administrative assistant for the Department of Medieval & Later Antiquities at the British Museum. It was while working there that she began to join archaeological digs on weekends and holidays, as a way to take inexpensive vacations. She became a member of the Camden History Society and began to research graves and inscriptions. An interest in Jane Austen was rekindled, which led to her making contact with Austen family descendants living near Winchester. Using papers in the attic of these Austen-Leigh heirs, over the course of five years of weekends, while working full time at the British Museum, she updated and rewrote ''Jane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Park Honan
Leonard Hobart Park Honan (17 September 1928 – 27 September 2014) was an American academic and author who spent most of his career in the UK. He wrote widely on the lives of authors and poets and published important biographies of such writers as Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Honan began his career specializing in Victorian literature but later broadened his scope, becoming an expert in the Elizabethan period. From 1959, he taught at Connecticut College and then Brown University before relocating permanently to England in 1968, where he taught at the University of Birmingham until becoming Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Leeds in 1984. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Early life and education Honan was born in Utica, New York, the son of William Francis Honan, a thoracic surgeon of Irish descent, and Annette Neudecker Honan, a journalist of English descent. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia Austen Hancock
Philadelphia Austen Hancock (15 May 1730 – 26 February 1792) was an English socialite and the aunt of Jane Austen. Throughout her life, rumours circulated in India and England that she was the mistress of Warren Hastings, who was the godfather and suspected father of her daughter, Eliza de Feuillide. Biography Hancock was born Philadelphia Austen on 15 May 1730 into a family that was part of the landed gentry. Her father, William Austen, was a surgeon. Her mother, Rebecca Hampson Walter, had been married before. She was the older sister of Rev. George Austen, an Anglican clergyman and the father of novelist Jane Austen. Hancock was also the sister of Hampson Austen and Leonora Austen, and the half-sister of William Hampson Walter. Her mother died on 2 February 1733 and her father died in 1737. Left orphaned, the Austen children were sent to live with relatives and were financially cared for by a trust their father had set up. George and Leonora went to live with their wealt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliza De Feuillide
Eliza Capot, Comtesse de Feuillide (née Hancock; 22 December 1761 – 25 April 1813) was the cousin, and later sister-in-law, of novelist Jane Austen. She is believed to have been the inspiration for a number of Austen's works, such as ''Love and Freindship'', ''Henry and Eliza'', and ''Lady Susan''. She may have also been the model from whom the character of Mary Crawford is derived. Biography Background Eliza was born in India into an English gentry family. She was fourteen years older than her first cousin Jane Austen. She was the daughter of George Austen's sister Philadelphia, who had gone to India and married Tysoe Saul Hancock in 1753. Eliza has been believed by some to be the natural child of her godfather Warren Hastings, later to be the first Governor-General of Bengal. This belief was due to rumours circulated at the time by Jenny Strachey, and many points suggested that Eliza was indeed the daughter of Tysoe Hancock. She moved to England with her parents, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters, and non-fiction writers. Reputable literary agents generally charge a commission and do not charge a fee upfront. The commission rate is generally 15%. Diversity Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in areas like foreign rights or licensed merchandise tie-ins, and clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies, especially smaller ones, specialize to some degree. They may represent—for example—authors of science fiction, mainstream thrillers and mysteries, children's books, romance, or highly topical nonfiction. Very few agents represent short stories or poetry. Legitimate agents and agencies in the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St John's College, Oxford
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary. St John's is the wealthiest college in Oxford, with a financial endowment of £600 million as of 2020, largely due to nineteenth-century suburban development of land in the city of Oxford of which it is the ground landlord. The college occupies a site on St Giles' and has a student body of some 390 undergraduates and 250 postgraduates. There are over 100 academic staff, and a like number of other staff. In 2018 St John's topped the Norrington Table, the annual ranking of Oxford colleges' final results, and in 2021, St John's ranked second with a score of 79.8. History On 1 May 1555, Sir Thomas White, lately Lord Mayor of London, obt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Austen
Rear Admiral Charles John Austen CB (23 June 1779 – 7 October 1852) was an officer in the Royal Navy and the youngest brother of novelist Jane Austen. He served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and beyond, eventually rising to the rank of rear-admiral. Family and early life Charles was born in 1779 as the sixth and youngest son of the Reverend George Austen. His elder brother, Sir Francis Austen, also joined the Navy, and eventually became Admiral of the Fleet. Charles joined the Royal Naval Academy in July 1791, and by September 1794, he had become midshipman aboard . He subsequently served aboard and . While serving aboard the ''Unicorn,'' Austen assisted in the capture of the 18-gun Dutch brig ''Comet'', the 44-gun French frigate ''Tribune'', and the French transport ship ''Ville de l'Orient''. After transferring to ''Endymion'' he helped in the driving into Hellevoetsluis of the Dutch ship of the line ''Brutus''. As a result of the latter acti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Austen
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Francis William Austen, (23 April 1774 – 10 August 1865) was a Royal Navy officer and an elder brother of the novelist Jane Austen. As commanding officer of the sloop HMS ''Peterel'', he captured some 40 ships, was present at the capture of a French squadron, and led an operation when the French brig ''Ligurienne'' was captured and two others were driven ashore off Marseille during the French Revolutionary Wars. On the outbreak of Napoleonic Wars Austen was appointed to raise and organise a corps of Sea Fencibles at Ramsgate to defend a strip of the Kentish coast. He went on to be commanding officer of the third-rate , in which he took part in the pursuit of the French Fleet to the West Indies and back and then fought at the Battle of San Domingo, leading the lee line of ships into the battle. He later commanded the third-rate and observed the Battle of Vimeiro from the deck of his ship before embarking British troops retreating after the Battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassandra Austen
Cassandra Elizabeth Austen (9 January 1773 – 22 March 1845Cassandra Austen ". (n.d.) ''Jane Austen Centre Magazine.'' Retrieved 31 December 2006.) was an amateur English and the elder sister of . The letters between her and Jane form a substantial foundation to scholarly understanding of the life of the novelist. Childhood [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
