Jane Austen's World

 Inquiring Readers,

This post examines the fortunes of the Austen family via the number of servants they employed for the students and family members who lived in Steventon Rectory, and the servants they took with them after Rev Austen’s retirement, and then after his death. The topic is fully described in Linda Robinson Walker’s 2005 Persuasions-Online article, Why Was Jane Austen Sent away to School at Seven: An Empirical Look at a Vexing Question. After reading this short summary of her remarkable essay, I encourage you to click on the link above.

Steventon Rectory, Public Domain, Wikipedia

Jane Austen scholars, readers, and fans know about her preoccupation with a single woman’s finances. She wove this topic masterfully into her novels. Women during her era (with very few exceptions) depended legally on their menfolk to see to their financial security. Many widows and spinsters, like Jane and her sister Cassandra, lived as total dependents, even though to our modern eyes some lived in the lap of luxury. Emotionally for Jane, this was not the case. A single woman’s financial security was never ensured. Witness Jane’s life before her father’s death and her quest for financial security afterward when she actively sought to earn some financial security through her writing. This was an uphill battle. Women in Jane’s social position who earned money through “work” were frowned upon, hence, during her lifetime, her novels were credited anonymously to “a lady.” 

First Edition, 1811, public domain image

Despite her financial worries about her future as a spinster, Jane enjoyed a life of relative privilege due to her status as a gentlewoman and the people with whom she associated. The Austen family belonged to a landless class known as the pseudo-gentry. 

Cassandra Austen née Leigh

Jane’s mother, Cassandra Austen, was a distant relative of the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey. By the turn of the nineteenth century the Abbey was worth around £19,000. (In 1764, £19,000 was equivalent in purchasing power to about £4,433,593.38 today, an increase of £4,414,593.38 over 259 years. The pound had an average inflation rate of 2.13% per year between 1764 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 23,234.70%.- CPI Inflation Calculator)

Cassandra Leigh’s distant relative was Sir Thomas Leigh, the Lord Mayor of London under Queen Elizabeth I. “For assisting the Royalists against Cromwell in the English Civil War, Leigh was created a baron in 1643.” – Regina Jeffers

Despite her impeccable lineage, Cassandra benefited very little financially from her family. Her father, Thomas Leigh, was the rector of Harpsden, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, and his means were modest compared to his richer relations. Her brother, James Leigh, added Perrott to his name when he inherited the estate of his rich great uncle, Thomas Leigh. This uncle and his heir largely ignored Cassandra and her family (most notably Jane and her sister Cassandra) in their wills. More about Cassandra’s ancestry can be found in this genealogy link. 

George Austen, Rector

George Austen was a smart, ambitious, self-made, and enterprising man. His mother died in childbirth and his father died a year after marrying a new wife. The widow did not want the responsibility of taking care of George and his sister Philadelphia. When he was nine years old he was separated from her, and taken in by an aunt in Tonbridge. He then earned a Fellowship to study at St. John’s. His impressive education was quite unusual for an orphaned boy with modest means, but he had an important connection – his uncle Francis Austen II, who lived in Sevenoaks, Kent. With his uncle’s support and influence, George received three degrees at Oxford: Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Divinity. (Discovering the Young Jane Austen in West Kent, England — Sheila Johnson.com.) 

Thomas Leigh died just a few months before the wedding of Cassandra and George … In the strictly snobbish sense, George was marrying above himself, and Thomas may have doubted whether George was good enough for his daughter. – Maggie Lane, p 52

Through his education and his influential connection, George became a cleric of the Church of England and rector of Deane and Steventon in Hampshire. As a rector, his Anglican clerical position was higher-ranking than a vicar’s (think of Mr Elton in Emma, who was desperate to marry a woman of means). And so George earned a respectable position that gave him the opportunity to finance his burgeoning responsibilities. Thankfully, he had a supportive and hard-working wife.

The Austens support of their burgeoning family, and students and servants

The position of rector made George far from a wealthy man. To stay out of debt, he farmed an allotment of land that came with the parishes of Steventon and Deane. He also rented Cheesedown Farm from his Uncle Francis, where he grew food to feed his family, and sold the surplus for profit. George also started a boarding school for boys. With the income from his lands, the tithes, and tuition from male students, the Austens supported their growing family of eight children, as well as the servants required to help with household and farming duties. According to Robinson Walker:

“In 1781 and 1782 the Austen household was bursting with as many as twelve young people – which included the Austen children and pupils. In the four years between 1779 and 1782, as many as sixteen to twenty-two people made their home in the rectory.”

Then, in 1783,  Edward was adopted by the Leighs, and Cassandra and Jane were sent to boarding school. This alleviated the burden of feeding so many mouths. Robinson Walker surmises that these two events opened spaces for 4-8 additional students inside the rectory, attracting much needed income. One can only imagine the emotional effect on Jane at the tender age of nine when she left her beloved home to follow her sister to a boarding school, if even for only a year.

Number of Servants

The increase in students necessitated a change in servant numbers. 

The servants employed at the time Jane was sent away to school in 1783 were enough to fill the attics. With the attics filled by the servants, the rest of the household occupied seven bedrooms. Robinson Walker Provides an idea of the number of people at Christmas in 1786:

“One hint of the number that could squeeze into the rectory, albeit for a brief period, is given by Mrs. Austen when she enumerated the thirteen present for Christmas celebrations in 1786:  herself and Rev. Austen; five of their children; Mr. Austen’s sister, Philadelphia Hancock; Hancock’s daughter, Eliza de Feuillide and her young son with his French maid, and the two motherless Cooper children (Le Faye 54).  In addition, there would have been the Steventon servants.” 

The Housemaid, Thomas Gainsborough, Tate Gallery

Pehr Hillestrom, washer maids, Wikipedia

The author provides extensive descriptions from contemporary sources about the number of rooms in the Rectory. These come from the memories and writings of family and visitors, with some variations in their recollections. Catherine Austen Hubback, Jane’s niece, never saw the rectory. She simply quoted her father, Frank, and others who she recalled that “The Parsonage consisted of three rooms in front on the ground floor—the best parlour, the common parlour and the kitchen; behind these were Mr. Austen’s study, the back kitchen, and the stairs.”  She also mentioned “seven bedrooms, and three attics. The rooms were low-pitched, but not otherwise bad, and compared with the usual stile of such buildings, it might be considered a very good house.” 

Anna, another niece, had actually lived in the rectory. She recalled a number of personal details, including her grandfather George’s study which was secluded in the back of the house, far from household activities. The dining room and common sitting room were situated next to the front door. This door opened into a smaller entrance parlour, where Cassandra Austen would greet her visitors.

The kitchen was most likely situated in the southwest wing of the house over a cellar that stored foodstuff. 

“The southwest wing is also dominated by a broad fireplace and tall chimney, suggesting that it was used for cooking, roasting, and baking.  A kitchen on that side of the house would also be near the outbuildings which we know included not only the granary, but a dairy, hen house, stables, and other farm buildings.  The glebe map and Anna’s footpath both indicate that these buildings lay to the west of the house.” – Robinson Walker 

Robinson Walker admits to not knowing the precise number of servants who lived at the parsonage. There were servants who lived in their homes and came when required, such as the washer women, cleaning ladies, George’s bailiff, and male farm laborers. Some servants, due to circumstance, might have had to stay overnight – especially if the lady of the house was ill disposed or during canning and food preparation seasons. Temporary tutors (music, painting, and dancing) might have needed one or two nights’ lodging before moving on. 

The number of servants who stayed at the rectory during certain events is covered extensively in Robinson Walker’s article. Her tables take into account the number of people living in Steventon Rectory from 1775 (Jane’s birth year) to 1779 (when George Austen stopped teaching.)

“In a letter to Cassandra, Jane wrote fondly of Nanny Littlewart dressing her hair. Nanny is Anne Littleworth, who fostered Jane and Cassandra when they were quite young. Jane mentions as many as nine servants in her letters in 1798. The laundry, for example, “was to be handed over from Mrs Bushell to Mrs Steevens; there was a new maid: ‘we have felt the inconvenience of being without a maid so long, that we are determined to like her.” (Worsley, p.95.)

After Rev Austen retired in 1801, the number of servants the family employed when they moved to Bath was reduced dramatically. The number of servants they took with them reflected the size of their new townhouse and reduced financial situation. 

The Austens kept a fairly constant ratio of one live-in servant per family member. When vacationing in Lyme Regis in 1804, Jane and her parents (Cassandra was at Godmersham) traveled with 4 servants:  Molly, Jenny, a cook, and a manservant named James, of whom she wrote to Cassandra. “My Mother’s shoes were never so well blacked before, & our plate never looked so clean.”

Just four years after his retirement, George Austen died unexpectedly. With the loss of his income, Mrs Austen and her daughters downsized into more affordable townhouses. The women now relied on monies that the Austen sons were able to share with them. After two years, Mrs Austen, Cassandra, Jane, along with good friend Martha Lloyd, moved into a house in Southhampton.

In a letter written in January 1807, Jane mentioned three maidservants:  Molly, Jenny and Phebe. Shortly thereafter she reported that a Mrs Hall assisted in moving them in, and the addition of a gardener. 

At Chawton Cottage, which was Jane’s home from 1809 until her death in 1817, two maidservants roomed with them. The women also kept a cook and a manservant. During the Chawton years, Cassandra and Jane were often separated, with Cassandra frequenting Godmersham and Jane visiting her brother Henry in London. One imagines that the number of servants the women hired were just the right amount for their modest lifestyles. Robinson Walker followed the Austen family’s up and down fortunes through the number of servants they employed in a wide-ranging and fascinating account.

More on the topic:

Jane Austen in Vermont, The Saga of the Steventon Parsonage

Jane Austen’s World, Keeping a Clean House Regency Style

Jane Austen At Home, Lucy Worsley, St. Martin’s Press, NY, 2017