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This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

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George Austen as a Father

June 30, 2021 by Vic

Inquiring readers: WordPress has changed its editor, and I am still wrestling with the changes, especially on different computers – Mac and Android. You can see it in the changes in spacing and font. I am also experiencing internet connectivity problems. For these reasons, this post is published 4 days later than I intended. When we celebrated Father’s Day in the U.S., I thought of my beloved father and of his dry wit, which influenced my love for Austen and her novels (especially of Mr Bennet’s comments in Pride and Prejudice that reminded me of my father’s droll, but gentle humor). As I pondered the connection, I asked: “How did Jane Austen’s father influence her writing?” Here is my very short analysis.

Jane Austen was born on December 16th in 1775 on a bitter cold day in Steventon, a village in Hampshire. One day after her birth, her father, the village’s pastor, wrote a family member about his 7th child (out of 8) and second daughter:

“You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy* certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We now have another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy** and a future companion. She is to be Jenny…” (Lane, 63). (*His wife, Cassandra; **His daughter.)

George Austen

One senses a father’s pride in the tone of this letter, as well as George Austen’s pleasure that Cassy, the only girl among his six children, and almost three years older than *Jenny*, would have a sister as a playmate. 

Reverend George Austen baptized his new daughter on December 17th in his home, as he had done with his other children. While Mrs Austen rested during her lying in, he wrote notes announcing the birth to friends and acquaintances. As far as we know, this was the last time that he called his newborn Jenny.  On April 5th, baby Jane was formally christened in St. Nicholas church. She was named after her godmother; her two aunts – Mrs Cooper and Mrs Leigh Perrot – and her maternal grandmother. 

Despite the high infant mortality rate during this era, the Austens sent their babies to “a good woman at Deane” three months after their births. This custom was commonly practiced at that time.  Cassandra Austen visited her babies daily in the nearby village, until they returned to the family fold at around 18 months of age. The reasons for this custom can be found in the following article on Breast Feeding in the Early 19th Century on this blog. 

A loving father and mother:

George and his wife were equally hard working parents who provided a stable and often joyful childhood for their children, except perhaps for the physically disabled George, who might have suffered from epilepsy. (His condition is more fully discussed in this article by Geri Walton: Jane Austen’s Disabled Brother George Austen. 

Early childhood and an education at home

Once the infants were returned to Steventon Parsonage, the parents took over raising their children. By all accounts, the Austen family was close-knit. After baby Jane’s return to the family fold, her parents’ teachings and examples during her formative years modeled intellectual, creative, and practical activities in a comfortable home and rural setting. 

“She was apparently a tomboy as a child, preferring to play cricket and roll down hills with her brothers than play ‘girls’ games, much like the character of Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey.” (Ivins, p 2.)

Book cover with image of a family with two parents and six childrendancing, with carpet rolled up and one of the girls playing piano.

Mrs Hurst Dancing book cover from Amazon books. The image shows a family of 8 dancing inside a drawing room, with the carpets rolled up.

Many facts exist about the timeline of Rev George Austen’s life, but what was his relationship with his family, and, in the interest of this article, with his famous daughter?  From an early age, George Austen led a hard-scrabble life. He lifted himself up through extraordinary intelligence and industry.  

Young Jane and her sister learned about history, literature, and the classics from their father and brothers. George’s library consisted of 500 volumes, an enormous (and expensive) number for a mere country parson. Shades of Mr Bennet! The library contained both classical books and novels, the latter of which were first frowned upon by academics and traditionalists, but were read with enjoyment by the Austen family. 

“…most of [the sisters’] education was undertaken privately at home, where their father, Reverend George Austen, supplemented his clerical income by taking boy pupils as boarders. It is likely that the Austen sisters benefited from their father’s library and from his informal instruction. We do not know whether or not they also sat in on any of the boys’ classes.” – Sutherland, British Library

Boarding school and “formal” education:

Jane and Cassandra acquired some formal education, although there were no expectations that their education would be as rigorous as their brothers’.

“In 1782 at the age of 7 Jane Austen went to school for the first time. Theories [conjecture] that she wanted to go to school because her elder sister Cassandra was being sent to Mrs Cawley’s school in Oxford to accompany their cousin Jane Cooper who was being sent there.” – Jane Austen Went to School

In 1783, Jane, Cassandra, and their cousin Jane Cooper caught an infectious disease spread by troops returning to Southampton. The three became quite ill. Jane Cooper sent a letter about the situation to her parents, who informed the Austens. Alarmed, Mrs Austen and Mrs Cooper immediately traveled to the school to retrieve their daughters. Mrs Austen nursed Jane back to health, but sadly Mrs Cooper caught the disease and died from it.

In the following three years, Jane and Cassandra continued their education at home. Then, when Jane was ten, the girls set off again to school, one that seemed similar to Jane’s description of Mrs. Goddard’s school in Emma:

“Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a school — not a seminary, or an establishment, or anything which professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality, upon new principles and new systems — and where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity — but a real, honest, old-fashioned boarding school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girls might be sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies. Mrs. Goddard’s school was in very high repute, and very deservedly; for Highbury was reckoned a particularly healthy spot: she had an ample house and garden, gave the children plenty of wholesome food, let them run about a great deal in the summer, and in winter dressed their chilblains with her own hands.”

The school Jane and Cassandra attended between the spring of 1785 and December of 1786 was the Abbey School in Reading (remarkably still a girl’s school today https://theabbey.co.uk), where the curriculum included writing, spelling, French, history, geography, needlework, drawing, music and dancing – subjects that were considered essential for a girl’s education during the girls’ formative years to prepare them for attracting a husband and running a household. Few roads for women in Austen’s time led to higher education, travel abroad, or a career.

Unlike most of their female contemporaries, Jane’s and Cassandra’s education did not stop when they returned to Steventon. In fact, they were exposed to a wider variety of topics, subjects, and intellectual skills than they would have encountered in boarding schools. In addition:

“[Jane] was not denied “unladylike” material; she mentioned Henry Fielding’s bawdy novel Tom Jones in one of her letters and wrote that the Austen family were “great novel readers and not shamed of being so.” – Sullivan, (p180).

Early writing

Jane wrote her Juvenilia between 12 – 18 years of age as “gifts to her family” (Ivins). She frequently read these short, hilarious pieces of fiction to her siblings, parents, and friends. An early draft of Pride and Prejudice (First Impressions) was a particular favorite of her audience and remained so for years. Importantly, Rev. Austen encouraged her writing. In later years Cassandra recalled Jane reading from Elinor and Marianne (later Sense and Sensibility) before 1796. These carefree times in the Austen family’s social lives were filled with laughter, games, riddles, plays, readings, and intellectual discussions.

“…the relationship of Jane Austen with her own father seems, from what remains of her correspondence, to have been a good one. John Halperin characterizes him as a gentle, scholarly man, a good teacher and an excellent classical scholar. It was he who gave his daughter her literary education, and he who took sufficient interest in her work to offer her first novel to a publisher.” (Gibbs).

Despite their loving relationship, Austen’s six major novels described deeply flawed fathers with a variety of issues: Sir Walter Elliot was a snob and a spendthrift (P); Mr Woodhouse was a fearful hypochondriac whose neediness bound his youngest daughter to their home (E); General Tilney, another snob, was a truly nasty man all around (NA); and Mr Henry Dashwood (SS) left the financial fate of his second wife and daughters to the mercy of his weak-willed son and heir for lack of planning and foresight. 

Sir Thomas Bertram’s fathering skills in Mansfield Park were more nuanced. While he wasn’t a model father, his understanding and insights changed. The growth of his character is one of many reasons why Mansfield Park is considered by many to be Jane’s masterpiece.

I have reserved Mr Bennet (PP), for last. When I was fourteen his character delighted me – his witticisms, his criticisms of his silly wife and three younger equally silly daughters, and his close relationship with Jane and Elizabeth, who I adored, all had my approval. But then I grew up and saw him in a different light.

In my mature years I saw a man whose wit and sarcasm hid an underlying cruelty. He was a husband who made fun of his wife; who favored two daughters above three others; a man who bought extremely expensive books, but who failed to set a portion of that expense aside for future investments for his wife and daughters. I now see a man who retreated from daily reality and, for all his intellectual curiosity, was generally lazy. 

Even after Mr Wickham compromised his daughter, Lydia, and after Mr Darcy did everything in his power to rectify the situation, including providing the shameless couple with a yearly income, Mr Bennet quipped to Elizabeth:

“I admire all my three sons-in-law highly,” said he. “Wickham, perhaps, is my favourite; but I think I shall like your husband quite as well as Jane’s.”

That statement put the nail in the coffin to my youthful admiration of this father. 

George Austen’s support:

George Austen was proud of all his children. He actively supported Jane’s talents as a writer and encouraged her from childhood and on. In a letter to publisher Thomas Cadell, Jr., who was a partner in the firm that had published Fanny Burney’s novels, he proposed to submit her completed manuscript of First Impressions. George’s letter, written in November, 1797, offered “A Manuscript Novel, comprised in three Vols., about the length of Miss Burney’s Evelina.” Cadell, Jr. returned the letter unopened, and so the manuscript languished for 16 years.

Edward’s gift, and the fortuitous consequences of Cadell’s rejection:

George Austen’s sudden death in Bath on 21 January 1805, when Austen was nearly 30, placed his female family in uncertain circumstances. All the brothers, except for George, contributed enough funds towards their mother’s and sisters’ upkeep to relieve some of their financial burdens. Nevertheless, Jane’s creative writing suffered as her female family sought a permanent place to land after George’s death. In 1809, the group found a permanent home in Chawton Cottage, a house that Jane’s brother, Edward Austen Leigh, had refurbished for them.

Black and white pen and ink drawing of the cottage by Ellen Hill

Chawton Cottage by Ellen Hill

The move to Chawton Cottage created a perfect storm of creativity and success for Jane. Thanks to Edward, she returned to the rural countryside she loved, and once again her talent and creativity flourished. First on her to-do list was to rewrite Sense and Sensibility. A publisher had not rejected this manuscript and she sensed its commercial value. After its modest success, she turned to her other novel, First Impressions, the family favorite which had languished unpublished. We have no way of knowing how often Jane revised this beloved story, which, like Sense and Sensibility, started out as an epistolary novel. What we do know is that the finished product, renamed Pride and Prejudice (published in 1813), was well received. The book retains its literacy rock star status to this day.

I have no doubt that George Austen’s unshakable faith in Jenny’s brilliance as an author contributed to her success. His gift was his consistent confidence and encouragement in nourishing her spectacular talent. Well done, George!

______

Articles from this blog:

  • Baby Jane Austen’s First Two Years: Happy 235th Birthday Jane!
  • Jane Austen’s Father: Reverend George Austen

Online Articles

Gibbs, C. (1986) Absent Fathers: An Examination of Father-Daughter Relationships in Jane Austen’s Novels (Persuasions #8. JASNA. PDF Downloaded 6/26/21: http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number8/gibbs.pdf

Sutherland, K. (2014) Female education, reading and Jane Austen, British Library. URL Downloaded 6/26/21: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/female-education-reading-and-jane-austen

Books

Grey, J.D. (1986) The Jane Austen Companion (with A Dictionary of Jane Austen’s Life and Works by H. Abigail Bok (U.S.). Macmillan Publishing Company.

Lane, M. (1997) Jane Austen’s Family: Through Five Generations (Paperback reprint (U.K.) St. Edmundsbury Press, Ltd.

Hannon, P. (2007) 101 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen: The Truth About the World’s Most Intriguing Literary Heroine (U.S.). Fall River Press.

Ivins, H. (2010) The Jane Austen Pocketbook Bible (1st ed. U.K.). Crimson Publishing.

Mingay, G & Sperling, D. (1981) Mrs Hurst Dancing And Other Scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823 (U.K.). Victor Gollancz Ltd.

Sullivan, M.C. (2007) The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England (U.S.). Quirk Books.

https://www.amazon.com/Hurst-Dancing-Scenes-Regency-1812-1823/dp/0312551290

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Posted in Jane Austen's World | Tagged Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen's family, Letter from George Austen to son Francis, Reverend George Austen | 16 Comments

16 Responses

  1. on June 30, 2021 at 15:25 Patty S

    Well done, Vic. Father’s Day made me assess my father as well. Even if Jane didn’t have a father who encouraged her, she had his huge library.


    • on July 1, 2021 at 10:42 Vic

      Good point about the library, Patty. Her father could have forbidden her entrance, but he did not. I like to think that Jane fashioned Jane and Elizabeth Bennet after Cassandra (Jane) and herself (Elizabeth). I have only wish fulfillment to go on.


  2. on June 30, 2021 at 16:03 Laurel Ann Nattress

    A lovely tribute to George Austen, Vic. Austen’s parents seemed to offer two different perspectives on life. Mr. Austen was spiritual and family-focused, and Mrs. Austen was all about improving their connections and financial situation. They seem to be the perfect match.


    • on July 1, 2021 at 10:44 Vic

      Hi Laurel Ann, As I wrote this article I thought of our joint effort to write about the Austen parents and their children, including poor George. Those posts were quite popular in their day! I am still so grateful for your contributions to JAW with your knowledge and writing skills.


  3. on June 30, 2021 at 16:14 Laurie Power

    Hello Vic, from a broiling hot Bend Oregon, I’ve wondered on a particular matter for some time, and your mention in your post of Jane’s peripatetic life post George’s death reminded of it. Here goes: Why did Edward take so long to offer a permanent home to his mum and sisters?  I know the question is full of judgment.  Did he not know of their straightened circumstances when they relocated to poorer lodgings in Bath (those drains!)? Was he aware of their frequent moving to squeeze in with other siblings? Did he offer them respite at Godmersham?  Was he preoccupied with the lawsuit over his estate at this time? I am puzzled. Am I missing something? I would appreciate your thoughts and insights. Thank for your considering my questions! Be well Laurie Power, fellow Janeite Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Jane Austen’s WorldSent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 10:20 AMTo: janeitelaurie@gmail.comSubject: [New post] George Austen as a Father Vic posted: " Inquiring readers: WordPress has changed its editor, and I am still wrestling with the changes, especially on different computers – Mac and Android. You can see it in the changes in spacing and font. I am also experiencing internet connectivity probl"


    • on July 1, 2021 at 13:12 Vic

      Laurie, Thank you for your question. Here is my reply from a post I wrote many years ago: https://janeaustensworld.com/2009/10/07/edward-austen-knight-a-tightwad-or-a-man-with-heavy-responsibilities/

      My heart bleeds for you, having experienced 100+ degree weather in Georgia with our air conditioner on the fritz and two large, hairy dogs to keep cool, and a blistering summer in Boston in an apartment without air conditioning. My visits to the Pacific Northwest in summer were a delight, for the temperatures were cool and soothing. I do hope the heat wave turns soon.


  4. on June 30, 2021 at 17:37 leslie berg

    Very interesting as always, Vic. I read the two highlighted previous articles on wet nursing and George, Jr. which seem contradictory. One states that young children were farmed out to wet nurses when the gentry imitated royalty, who desired earlier return to fertility for royalty (nursing often delays ovulation). But then the article on George states he was sent out at 3 months for DRY nursing (so that Cassandra would become fertile again). Certainly, children could have been weaned early at home (although it might lead to greater infant mortality), if fertility was greatly desired, and cared for by a nursemaid in the home. Perhaps the early weaning lead to the (suspected) epilepsy, or a fall in the home of the nurse, as a head injury often causes epilepsy.
    One thing I admire about Austen is her nuanced characters. They have shades of grey, and almost all are flawed in some way, like actual people. Mr. Bennet is flawed, he has powers `which even Darcy could not disdain’, he’s intellectually astute and cultured, but he exerts very little guidance to his free range daughters, greatly embarrassing Elizabeth, and leading indirectly to Lydia’s ruin. But real people have flaws. We love our friends and family, and ourselves, despite our flaws, and we attempt (often ineffectively) to remediate our own flaws, and be better people.


    • on July 1, 2021 at 11:06 Vic

      Hello Leslie, I agree that Austen’s nuanced and often flawed characters are a major part of her popularity. Few of the people who populate her stories are cookie cutter villains or heroes. Mr Bennet is still one of my favorite fathers in literature, but my blind admiration of what I perceived in my youth to be his perfection as a father is now tinged with a new reality. All of Austen’s novels, as I reread them, reveal more about my perceptions as time passes.

      As for the seeming conflict with the dry nurse and wet nurse, I write my posts about topics that interest me and from the information I uncovered and read and further researched. Sometimes, the information is not complete, especially not in the early years of this blog. I wonder if, when George was sent to Deane at 3 months, he was merely sent to a wet nurse. When he returned, his disability probably revealed itself over the years and months. He was sent permanently to be cared for when he was older, but if I recall, he did spend some of his early years at Steventon Rectory with his siblings. (I’m going to look this up!)


  5. on June 30, 2021 at 19:03 ellenandjim

    Controversial nowadays (or since Talking about Jane Austen) but my deep gut-feeling is Mr Bennett is a kind of tribute by Jane Austen to her father — who encouraged her as a writer. A beautiful blog, Vic.


    • on July 1, 2021 at 11:12 Vic

      Thank you, Ellen. Yes, I agree with you. Jane must have thought of her father when she created Mr Bennet. His library is too uncannily like George Austen’s, and his loving relationship with his two eldest daughters must surely echo Rev Austen’s affection for his two girls.


  6. on July 1, 2021 at 00:35 Lynne Hess

    Great summery of Jane’s father, Vic. We often read more about the rest of the family so it’s nice to see a bit more about George Austin. And I’m with you on the subject of Mr. Bennet – he seemed a nice enough person but always so very weak and shallow, allowing his wife and several daughters to run the household while he hid in his library.


    • on July 1, 2021 at 11:14 Vic

      Sometimes I think he ran towards his library (sanctuary) when Mrs Bennet’s histrionics reached a peak, and certainly during Mr Collins’s visit!!


  7. on July 1, 2021 at 20:57 kjlindsey

    A very nice Father’s Day tribute to Jane Austen’s father. Thank you for it. I do find it interesting that, although Jane had a loving and supportive father, that all her fathers in her novels were flawed. I never really considered Sir Thomas’ fathering skills too much, as he was Fanny’s uncle, but I agree he was probably the best of the lot. I always enjoyed Mr. Bennet’s wit and the support he gave to Jane and Elizabeth, but have long considered his fathering poor. As the father of 4 adult children I can’t conceive of favoring some children over others, if praising some and belittling others


    • on July 1, 2021 at 21:30 Vic

      I agree with everything you just wrote. His favoritism turned me off in my (ahem) mature years. Still, his character provides much humor and I like that Jane gave him strengths and flaws in equal measure.


  8. on July 1, 2021 at 22:24 dianabirchall

    Lovely post, Vic. George Austen was clearly a father to pay tribute to, as indeed his children did in their letters after his death. I have always thought Jane Austen’s own education, and her father’s library, were reflected in Elizabeth’s description of the success and failure of the Bennets’ method of dealing with their daughters’ education: “…such of us as wished to learn never wanted the means. We were always encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary. Those who chose to be idle, certainly might.” Like you, I admired Mr. Bennet more when I was young, and came to more clearly see his weaknesses, indulgences, avoidances, and faults later on. Still, I think he shows his regret after he sees the result of his practices, with Lydia. And I would argue that in saying “Wickham perhaps is my favorite,” he was not stating a fact but making a wryly turn-it-upside-down ironic joke. He detested Wickham, could not even look at him when the presumptuous young couple visited.


  9. on July 2, 2021 at 00:51 dholcomb1

    What a wonderfully written and well-thought-out article on Mr. Austen.

    denise



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