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Archive for the ‘Jane Austen’s religion’ Category

Jane Austen’s Family Churches: St. Nicholas’, Steventon

Posted in Anglican Church, Churches of the Austen family, Clergy, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, tagged , , , on September 25, 2023| 9 Comments »

“My father’s old Ministers are already deserting him to pay their court to his Son; the brown Mare, which, as well as the black was to devolve on James at our removal, has not had patience to wait for that, & has settled herself even now at Deane.”—Jane Austen to Cassandra, Jan. 8, 1801, when her brother James was about to take over their father’s place as clergyman at Steventon church (as his father’s curate), and James was taking over much of their property as Jane, Cassandra, and their parents moved to Bath.

Church was an important part of Jane Austen’s life and her family’s lives. Last time we explored the church at Chawton, which Austen attended during the later years of her life. Today we’ll visit Steventon, the church in which she grew up. Both churches are named after St. Nicholas, both are small country churches of the national Church of England, and both are named after St. Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, children, and others. (He is also called, in a more modern incarnation, Santa Claus.)

St. Nicholas’ Church at Steventon, where Jane Austen grew up. Her father was the rector. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The Rectory

Jane grew up in the rectory at Steventon, which no longer exists. Her father was the rector, the clergyman of St. Nicholas’. The rectory, or parsonage, was the house provided for the rector to live in.  George Austen made repairs and additions to the rectory as his family grew, and as he began to teach boarding students to supplement his church income.

When Jane’s father died in 1805, her brother James became rector of Steventon. After he died, her brother Henry served temporarily for three years (as Charles Hayter gets a temporary living at the end of Persuasion). Both lived in the rectory while serving the church.

However, that rectory was damp and tended to flood. The Knight family were the patrons of the parish, choosing the rectors for the church (as Colonel Brandon was the patron of his parish, giving a church living to Edward Ferrars). In 1823, Edward Knight’s son William Knight (Jane’s nephew) became rector of Steventon. Edward built a new rectory for his son, opposite the church on higher ground. That building still stands, now a private home called Steventon House (put up for sale in 2023).

Jane Austen’s family home, the old rectory, was demolished in the 1820s. In 2011, excavators found bits and pieces at the site: fragments of pottery and crockery, nails, etc.  An old pump sat on the site for a long time; now you can see part of it inside the church.

Behind a grate in the Steventon church lie various treasures: pieces of the original rectory pump, medieval tiles, and metal pattens worn by ladies like Austen to lift their feet out of the mud. The teacup is from the Steventon Methodist Church, built after Austen’s time. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023 (Screen partially funded by JASNA, Ohio North Coast region)

The church itself is still standing and, in form at least, is mostly as Jane Austen knew it. She and her family worshiped there most Sundays for the first twenty-five years of her life. They likely attended church on Sunday afternoons or evenings as well as mornings. Services were several hours long, so Jane spent quite a bit of time at that church.

History of St. Nicholas’ Church, Steventon

Steventon was apparently a place of Christian worship from a very early date. Part of the shaft of a Saxon Cross, from about the ninth century, was discovered built into the wall of a nearby Tudor manor (now demolished). The cross shaft is displayed in the church.  The cross was likely set up outdoors. Visiting priests would hold services there, before the church was built. Villagers may also have buried their dead near the cross.  Steventon was possibly a stop on the Salisbury to Canterbury pilgrimage route.

Part of an ancient Saxon Cross, around which traveling priests would lead the villagers of Steventon in Christian worship. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The church building is medieval, built around 1200 A.D. The most obvious change since Jane Austen’s time is the addition of a Victorian steeple (around 1850-1860), a blue and brown structure that looks quite different from the rest.

Jane would have seen the four ancient “scratch dials” or “Mass clocks” on the outside walls of the church. These were sundials with a scratch marking the time when people were to come to worship. She would have also seen the medieval carvings of faces, a man and a woman, on either side of the main door.

Sundial scratched on the church wall (there would need to be a stick in the hole in the middle) to show medieval villagers when to come to church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
Ancient faces adorn the front of the Steventon church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

Next to the church is a gigantic yew tree, an estimated 900 years old. It measures at least 25 feet around. Yews were considered sacred in ancient times and also by Christians. They represented regeneration and new life. The church key, 15 inches long and weighing 5 lb., was kept in a hole in this tree during Austen’s time. After the key disappeared, a replacement was made which is kept elsewhere. The church is now always left unlocked for visitors.

Ancient yew tree next to the church, where the key was hidden in earlier times. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
Revd. Canon Michael Kenning, former rector of Steventon, holds the huge key to the church door (a replacement of the ancient key, which disappeared). Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The tower holds three church bells. The oldest was cast in 1470. These bells were restored, through the support of JASNA, in 1995. I got to hear them ringing when the JASNA Summer Tour group visited in July. The bells are rung for church services, weddings, and funerals.

The Church Interior

The layout of the church is still much the same as it was in Jane Austen’s time. Three arches separate the nave of the church (where the congregation sits) from the chancel (where the altar is).

Interior of the church at Steventon. The arches were there in Austen’s time. The stained glass windows, orange and green tilework on the arches, Transfiguration painting above the arches, and pews all date from Victorian times (later in the 19th century). Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

A large box pew, made of oak, was built in the seventeenth century for the lords of the manor. The Digweed family, who rented the manor house from the Knights, used this pew during Austen’s time. It was at the front of the nave, near the pulpit. The box pew is still in the church but has been moved to the back. It is now used as the vestry, the clergyman’s office.

So the Digweed family sat in state, protected from drafts and from curious eyes, at the front. Others, including the Austen family, likely sat on benches. If there weren’t enough benches, servants and the poor would have stood in the aisles and at the back. There was no gallery (balcony) in this church.

Box pew used by the Digweed family, squires of the manor in Austen’s time. It has been moved to the back of the church and is now used as a vestry, office for the clergyman. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
View from inside the box pew. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2015

Some ancient wall paintings were found during one restoration of the church. These have been left uncovered. They were most likely covered by whitewash during Jane Austen’s time, however.

Medieval wall painting in Steventon church. Probably of a bishop. It would have been covered over during Austen’s time. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Other lovely decorations in the church are from Victorian times. The stained glass windows, pews, pulpit, baptismal font, choir stalls, and altar are all from the late 1800s, with the organ from the early 1900s.

Victorian baptismal font in St. Nicholas’ Church, Steventon. The modern cover represents a shepherd praying at the old Saxon cross, before the church was built. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023 (Font cover partially funded by JASNA Ohio North Coast region)

Austen Documents

The church has reproductions of several church documents relating to Jane. (The originals are held at the Hampshire County Archives, which unfortunately I did not get a chance to visit.) The parish priest—in this case, Jane’s father, George Austen—kept the parish register for officially recording births, marriages, and deaths. The register included a sample page for marriages, and Jane playfully filled this out with imaginary names for her own future marriage.

In the sample marriage form for the parish register, Jane imagined herself marrying several possible men. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Another page of the parish register records Jane’s baptism at home on Dec. 17, 1775, shortly after her birth. She was born in the middle of a very cold winter, so her father christened her at home. She was officially received into the church on April 5, 1776, probably her first excursion.

Parish register record of Jane Austen’s baptism and reception into the church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

We can also see Jane and Cassandra’s signatures as witnesses to a wedding. Their first cousin Jane Cooper married Thomas Williams. Jane, Cassandra, and Edward Cooper (Jane Cooper’s brother and Jane Austen’s cousin), were the official witnesses.

Signatures of Jane and Cassandra Austen who witnessed the marriage of their cousin Jane Cooper. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

Austen Memorials at Steventon Church

Inside the Steventon church, you can find memorial plaques to Jane’s brother James, James’s first wife Anne, and his second wife Mary. When Anne died in 1795, James was not yet rector of Steventon, so he is listed as vicar of Sherborne St. John.

Memorial in Steventon church to James Austen’s first wife, Anne, 1795. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

When James died in 1819, the memorial says he “succeeded his father George Austen as rector of this parish.” George, of course, died in Bath and is buried at St. Swithin’s.

Memorial to Jane’s brother James Austen, who followed his father as rector of Steventon. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Mary’s memorial says that she died in 1843 at Speens, Berkshire, but was buried in Steventon (about 16 miles away) with her husband. Mary, of course, had left the rectory when her husband died and his brother Henry took over as rector.

Memorial to James Austen’s second wife, Mary, who died in 1843. She was Martha Lloyd’s sister. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

James and Mary Austen’s grave is in the churchyard.

Grave of James and Mary Austen in Steventon churchyard. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Knight and Digweed Memorials at Steventon

The Knight family owned the manor at Steventon from the early 1700s. They rented it to the Digweed family in 1758, and Digweeds lived there until 1877, though the Knights sold the property in 1855. (This was similar to Charles Bingley renting Netherfield and becoming the de facto squire of the parish.) Austen mentions some of the Digweeds in her letters.

Memorials in the church commemorate Rev. William Knight, “50 years rector of Steventon.” He was Jane’s nephew who became rector after Henry. A sad memorial below his own records the deaths of William’s three daughters, ages 3, 4, and 5 years, who were all “cut off by scarlet fever” in one June week of 1848.

Memorials in St. Nicholas’, Steventon, to Jane’s nephew William Knight, rector of the church for 50 years, and to his three little girls who died tragically of scarlet fever. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

A ledgerstone on the church floor covers the grave of Hugh and Ruth Digweed, who died while Jane was at living at Steventon, and their daughter who died at age 2 in 1770. Other memorials enshrine later members of the Digweed family.

Some Digweeds, like these, are buried in the church, the most honored place to be buried, presumably since they were the squires of the manor house. Others are buried outside in the churchyard.

This stone on the floor of the Steventon church covers the graves of Hugh and Ruth Digweed, who Jane Austen must have known. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Steventon Church Today

Like most small country churches in England, Steventon is now part of a benefice including several churches, served jointly by a few clergy. Steventon belongs to the Overton Benefice, seven parishes all served by one rector, one vicar, and one curate. 

The Steventon parish is still small, rural, and agricultural, as it was in Austen’s time. About 250 people live in the parish. Sunday services are still held at the church twice a month, usually with a dozen or so people in the congregation. One is a Communion service and the other may be matins, evensong, a holiday service, or a Saturday breakfast and talk for the wider community. Much larger crowds, up to 100 or even 200 people, come to events like holiday services, weddings, baptisms, and funerals. The church seats about 75-80 comfortably, so it can be quite crowded!

In Austen’s time, the church would get bitterly cold in the winter. A modern improvement is the addition of heaters under the pews. People in each pew can turn on their own heater, making the church much more comfortable without wasting energy by heating the whole church.

Marilyn Wright, the churchwarden, told me that she loves the peace of the church, and goes in there when she wants to pray and think. She said if her father, who has dementia, ever got lost, they would find him at the church. As I heard over and over in the Austen country churches, the church is still central to community life.

The Revd. Canon Michael Kenning, former rector of Steventon, gave our JASNA tour group a lovely introduction to the church. At the end, he pointed out that there are about 10,000 Church of England churches in the UK, and most do not get any funding from the National Trust, the British government, or the Church of England. Therefore they need outside funding. The Steventon church is currently in need of some major work. Damp has gotten into the walls, causing cracks and other damage. New drainage and other work is needed. After that, interior features of the church will be renovated. 

If you wish to donate to the Steventon church, you can use this link.

JASNA provides support for such special projects at Austen family churches, including this one. If you are a JASNA member, donations to the churches fund for such projects are appreciated. (You can donate when renewing your membership, or sign in to your account and go under the drop-down menu to “Donate to JASNA or English Institutions.”)

For Further Exploration

During Austen’s time, Steventon had a Norman baptismal font. For an idea of what that might have looked like, as well as stories of St. Nicholas, see, The Winchester Type Fonts.

A Guide to St. Nicholas Church Steventon gives more details and pictures of all parts of the church and churchyard (follow links to further pages).

A Drive through Steventon to St Nicholas Church 

More images of the church 

A guide to the Steventon church, Jane Austen’s Steventon by Deirdre LeFaye, and guides to other Austen-related churches are available from Jane Austen Books.

Steventon’s Rectory Garden

Steventon Parsonage 

Rectors and Vicars in Jane Austen

Yews in English Churchyards 

Posts on Other Austen Family Churches

Chawton

Hamstall Ridware

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

Great Bookham and Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and Jane’s Friend Mrs. Lefroy 

Deane

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

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Jane Austen’s Family Churches: St. Nicholas’s Church, Chawton

Posted in Anglican Church, Churches of the Austen family, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, Visited, tagged , , , , on September 4, 2023| 7 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“Now we are come from church . . .” (Jane to Cassandra, London, March 5, 1814)

In Jane Austen’s letters and novels, she often mentions church. A quick search of my Complete Works of Jane Austen shows 119 uses of the word “church” plus 31 uses of “chapel.” The church was an important part of Jane’s life.

A number of different churches are associated with Austen and her family, and this past summer in England I had the privilege of visiting many of them. In the coming months, I will share photos with you of some of these special places.

St. Nicholas’s Church, Chawton, where Jane Austen worshiped from 1809 to 1817. You can see the chimneys of Chawton House in the background; Chawton Cottage is a few minutes’ walk away. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Country Churches in Austen’s England

Most of the Austen family churches are small country churches, like the churches the Bennets, Darcys, Tilneys, Dashwoods, Woodhouses, and others would have mostly attended.

Most country churches at that time were simple, whitewashed inside, with perhaps the Ten Commandments hung on the wall somewhere, along with monuments (usually plaques on the walls) commemorating people from the squire’s family or previous rectors. A simple Communion table at the front, with a railing in front of it, would have served as the altar. The part of the church around the altar is called the chancel.

Chancel of the Chawton church. This part of the church escaped the fire in the late 1870s, but was mostly redecorated later. The Communion railing, however, is from the 18th century; Jane Austen would have received Communion at that railing. Photo ©Brenda S. Cox, 2023.
By far the most elaborate memorial in the Chawton Church, this one commemorates Sir Richard Knight, who lived from 1638-1679. Photos above and below © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.
Memorials to Jane’s mother and sister inside the church.

Preaching was an important part of each service, and the pulpit might have been one, two, or three levels high. Many churches had a gallery, a balcony where the choir, called the Singers, would sit, if they had music. From the top level of the pulpit, the clergyman could preach to those in the gallery, as well as see down into the box pews, pews surrounded by walls. These box pews were generally owned by the local gentry, who could listen in privacy and be protected from drafts of cold air. Others sat on benches.

Country families visiting Bath or London would have attended larger churches. I’ve speculated previously about where Jane herself (and Catherine Morland) might have worshiped in Bath.

Country Churches Today

The country churches we visited this summer now have small congregations for regular services; perhaps a dozen or so people on a Sunday morning. However, they occasionally host baptisms, weddings, and funerals, with much larger attendance. Those events also provide income to the churches. These small churches may gather one to two hundred people for holiday services such as Harvest, Christmas, or Easter. They sometimes also host local school events, concerts, and community events.

Interior of Chawton Church. The stained glass windows are all from Victorian times or later. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

St. Nicholas’ Church, Chawton, Today

Let’s start with the Chawton church. This is the one Jane Austen fans can most easily visit, since it is next to Chawton House and a short walk from Jane Austen’s House. Jane Austen attended this church from 1809 to 1817, while she and her mother, sister, and friend were living in Chawton Cottage (now Jane Austen’s House, a museum). During that time, she wrote or rewrote all her novels, and four of them were published. (The other two were published shortly after her death.)

The church is named after St. Nicholas, like the church in Steventon where Austen grew up; that’s a little confusing.

This Victorian stained glass window in Chawton Church honors St. Nicholas, patron saint of children and others, to whom the church is dedicated, and St. Swithin, patron saint of Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried. The window is a memorial to Marianne Knight, daughter of Jane’s brother Edward Knight. Marianne died unmarried in 1896, and the window appears to have been commissioned by her great-nephews and great-nieces (if I am deciphering the Latin correctly).  Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Nowadays a small team of clergy usually serve a group of country parishes. The Chawton church is now part of the Northanger Benefice, which includes eight small rural parishes, each with its own church.

While services are offered somewhere in the area every Sunday, most small churches do not have services every week. At the church in Chawton, three Sunday services are held per month.

One is led by a layperson (not an ordained clergyman or clergywoman). In the hour-long lay service I attended during Regency Week, a woman from the congregation led the service, reading from the Book of Common Prayer, while the congregation read the responses. The congregation sang hymns: “Lord of All Hopefulness,” a lovely traditional hymn, as well as “Kum Ba Yah” and “Morning Has Broken,” perhaps chosen because they were familiar and easy to sing. There was no sermon.

The leader read the banns for two couples who plan to get married in the church. I was told that, in order to be married there, a couple had to attend the church at least six times before the wedding, and they needed some connection with the parish or benefice.

The congregation was welcoming and kind to my friend and myself as visitors. We enjoyed the fellowship before and after the service.

Baptisms (Christenings) are performed at this Victorian font near the door of the Chawton church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

The service I attended the following Sunday included the baptism of a nine-month-old boy. About forty or fifty people attended. (I was told anyone could be baptized in the church, with the payment of a small fee.) The rector in charge of the benefice, Rev. Carrie Walshaw, officiated. (The Church of England has ordained women since 1994.) The baby was dedicated with his parents, two godfathers, and one godmother (a baby girl would have two godmothers and one godfather), and baptized at the Victorian font at the back of the church. A candle was lit and given to the parents as a symbolic remembrance. Rev. Walshaw preached a sermon about baptism and salvation, and we sang hymns with organ music. Rev. Walshaw’s husband was the organist; the organ is an electronic one that sounds like a real pipe organ (to me, at least). It is hidden behind the pipes of the old organ which is now too expensive to maintain.

Victorian organ pipes at Chawton Church. A newer electronic organ is behind the panels. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

History of St. Nicholas’ Church, Chawton

There has been a church at Chawton since at leat 1270 AD. The current church building, however, is not the same one Austen worshiped in. A fire in 1871 destroyed most of that church. The chancel (the area around the altar at the front of the church) remains, and most of the memorials were preserved, along with one original pew sitting against the back wall. So those are still as Jane Austen would have seen them, though the chancel has been extensively redecorated.

The only original pew, from 1733, to survive the fire; it is now attached to the back wall of the Chawton church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

The rest of the church, including the tower, was rebuilt in 1872 and 1873 in a Victorian style. Several of the pews are marked as memorials to various people, including one for Jane Austen, though these pews are all modern.

This modern pew in the Chawton Church is dedicated to Jane Austen and to Dorothy Darnell, founder of the Jane Austen Society. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Clergy

For each parish church in England, someone owns the advowson, the right to appoint the next clergyman. The Knight family (who adopted Jane’s brother Edward) owned the advowson for Chawton from 1578 until 1953. At that point, they gave it to the Bishop of Winchester, when Chawton became part of a benefice with nearby Farringdon.

During Austen’s time, the Knights chose Rev. John Papillon as rector of Chawton. In one of her letters, Jane refers to a family joke that she was supposed to marry Rev. Papillon, regardless of how either of them felt about it (Dec. 9, 1808).

This list of Chawton rectors, posted on the wall of the church, includes Rev. Papillon, who was rector while Jane Austen lived there. He is mentioned in her letters. Two of her nephews and a great-nephew follow. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

In 1817, Jane’s brother Henry Austen served briefly as curate at Chawton and at St. Lawrence the Martyr’s, parish church of the nearby market town of Alton. In 1837, Edward Knight installed his son, Charles Bridges Knight, as rector of Chawton. The rectory is the white house at the end of the lane leading to the church and Chawton house, just across the street. It is now a private home.

The former rectory of Chawton Church is now a private home, just across the road from the church and Chawton House. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Updating the Church

A guidebook to Chawton Church tells us, “The parish has increased little in population since the 19th century and still only has about 300 adults living in it so that the shortage of money which is the lot of most churches in tiny parishes is likely to continue in this, the 21st century.” The building is a grade 2 listed building in the UK, meaning it is “of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it.” 

The church therefore has to get permission to make any changes. Recent changes are the addition of two restrooms and a small kitchen in the back of the church. The kitchen is made of oak matching the pews, with a cover to hide the sink. These amenities make the church more appealing as a site for weddings and other community events. Income from such events helps keep the church running. The Chawton church has hosted five weddings this year so far.

The church also has a children’s area toward the back, with toys. This helps keep children occupied, especially during the regular services geared for families.

A children’s area and basic kitchen facilities have been added to the back of the Chawton church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Ring the Bells

The church has a peal of six bells, which were ringing during the baptism service I attended. Three of them would have been heard by Jane Austen; they are dated 1420, 1621, and 1748. Another original bell was re-cast and re-hung as one of the newer bells. During Austen’s time, the church had a West Gallery, a balcony which may have been used by a choir or musicians, but the rebuilt church has no gallery.

Bell tower of the Chawton church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.
Chawton’s current six bells, three of which would have been heard by Austen, were dedicated/re-dedicated in 2009. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Lych Gates and Graveyard

Outside, the church can be approached from two traditional lych gates, one in front, one in the back. The word lych (pronounced litch) is from an Anglo-Saxon word for corpse. The lych gate was the entrance to the church yard, which was a cemetery. When a person died in the parish, their body might be set in the lych gate for a time, until the funeral was held.

The lych gates of the Chawton church date from about 1871. There is a similar one behind the church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

The Chawton churchyard includes many headstones for people buried there, some of which are so ancient they are illegible.

Jane Austen’s mother and sister are buried in the churchyard. Their graves were recently cleared of huge, deep weeds. But the lettering on the stones is still difficult to read.

Jane Austen’s mother and sister, both named Cassandra, are buried in the Chawton churchyard. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023
The gravestones were easier to read in 2013, when I took this photo. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2013.

Honoring Jane

A small statue of Jane Austen now stands in front of the church, erected in 2018. The statue is the maquette, the prototype, for the life-size statue in Basingstoke. It shows Austen walking, carrying a book.

A statue of Jane Austen now greets visitors to the Chawton church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

I hope you can visit the Chawton church and enjoy its peace and beauty.

Resources

Guides to Chawton church and other Austen-related churches are available from Jane Austen Books, or you can buy them at the church if you visit it.

A Walk Through Chawton will give you a wider view of Austen-related places to visit in the area. 

Donations

The Chawton church is always open to visitors like yourself. According to a sign in the church, however, it costs over £75 a day to keep the church operating. If you should wish to make a donation directly to the church, churchwarden Sandra Martin has set up this site, which Rev. Lesley Leon of the Northanger Benefice shared with us: Chawton church donations.

JASNA provides support for special projects in some Austen family churches, including this one. If you are a JASNA member, donations to the churches fund for such projects are appreciated. (You can donate when renewing your membership, or sign in to your account and go under the drop-down menu to “Donate to JASNA or English Institutions.”)

Posts on other Jane Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Hamstall Ridware

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

Great Bookham and Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and Jane’s Friend Mrs. Lefroy 

Deane

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

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Fashionable Goodness by Brenda S. Cox: Book Review + GIVEAWAY

Posted in Anglican Church, book giveaway, Book review, Clergy, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's religion, Regency society on November 4, 2022| 29 Comments »

Our very own Brenda S. Cox has just published her new book Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. It’s already receiving a wonderful reception, and I know it will continue. For those of us who are always expanding our understanding of Jane Austen’s life, and particularly her personal life and faith, this new book is an essential resource.

When I was writing my book Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen, I read every article and book I could find on the topic of religion and faith as it related to Austen and her family. I scoured every available resource on Austen’s personal faith, her family’s daily and weekly religious habits, and the Anglican church at large. I discovered many wonderful details about her religious life, but as I worked, I always felt as though I was putting together a giant puzzle. And when it came to understanding more fully the implications of her religious beliefs and background in her novels, I felt as though the puzzle was missing many important pieces.

In Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, Brenda has finally put the puzzle pieces in their rightful places and collected all of the information one might want to know about Jane Austen’s religious life in one handy place. This book covers a broad range of topics that any Jane Austen lover can benefit from knowing, especially for those of us who enjoy looking into the varied layers and greater context of her writing.

Of particular interest is the clever manner in which Brenda has organized the information in this book. Each chapter is easy to find, plus she has included many helpful resources at the end of the book, including handy tables with income information, terminology, ranks within the church, and denominations; several appendices; detailed chapter notes; a hefty bibliography; a glossary of terms; and a topical index. You can read this book cover-to-cover or you can pick and choose the topics that interest you most.

I highly recommend this book for any Austen fan or scholar. Without this book, you can only know part of what makes Jane Austen’s characters and plots so intriguing. Thank you Brenda for creating this invaluable resource!

(See below for giveaway details.)

St. Nicholas Church, Steventon
Photo: Rachel Dodge

About the Book:

“Brenda Cox’s Fashionable Goodness is an indispensable guide to all things religious in Jane Austen’s world. . . . a proper understanding of 18th century Christianity is necessary for a full appreciation of Austen’s works. Cox provides this understanding. . . . This work will appeal to novice readers of Austen as well as scholars and specialists.”

Roger E. Moore, Vanderbilt University, Jane Austen and the Reformation

The Church of England was at the heart of Jane Austen’s world of elegance and upheaval. Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England explores the church’s role in her life and novels, the challenges that church faced, and how it changed the world. In one volume, this book brings together resources from many sources to show the church at a pivotal time in history, when English Christians were freeing enslaved people, empowering the poor and oppressed, and challenging society’s moral values and immoral behavior.

Readers will meet Anglicans, Dissenters, Evangelicals, women leaders, poets, social reformers, hymn writers, country parsons, authors, and more. Lovers of Jane Austen or of church history and the long eighteenth century will enjoy discovering all this and much more:

  • Why could Mr. Collins, a rector, afford to marry a poor woman, while Mr. Elton, a vicar, and Charles Hayter, a curate, could not?
  • Why did Mansfield Park‘s early readers (unlike most today) love Fanny Price?
  • What part did people of color, like Miss Lambe of Sanditon, play in English society?
  • Why did Elizabeth Bennet compliment her kind sister Jane on her “candour”?
  • What shirked religious duties caused Anne Elliot to question the integrity of her cousin William Elliot?
  • Which Austen characters exhibited “true honor,” “false honor,” or “no honor”?
  • How did William Wilberforce, Hannah More, and William Cowper (beloved poet of Marianne Dashwood and Jane Austen) bring “goodness” into fashion?
  • How did the French Revolution challenge England’s complacency and draw the upper classes back to church?
  • How did Christians campaigning to abolish the slave trade pioneer modern methods of working for social causes?
Interior of St. Nicholas Church, Steventon
Photo: Rachel Dodge

About the Author, Brenda S. Cox:

Brenda S. Cox has loved Jane Austen since she came across a copy of Emma as a young adult; she went out and bought a whole set of the novels as soon as she finished it! She has spent years researching the church in Austen’s England, visiting English churches and reading hundreds of books and articles, including many written by Austen’s contemporaries. She speaks at Jane Austen Society of North America meetings (including three AGMs) and writes for Persuasions On-Line (JASNA journal) and the websites Jane Austen’s World and her own Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Buy the Book:

You can purchase Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England here:

Amazon and Jane Austen Books
International: Amazon

Book Giveaway:

To enter for a chance to win a copy of Brenda’s book Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, please leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

What is one question you’ve always had about Jane Austen’s faith or the role religion plays in her novels?

Giveaway Details: This giveaway is for ONE (1) print copy and ONE (1) ebook (Kindle) edition for readers of this blog. The winners will be drawn by random number generator on November 18, 2022.

Note: This giveaway is limited to addresses in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, or Italy for a print copy of the book. The author can only send a giveaway ebook (Kindle) to a U.S. address. (However, both the ebook and paperback are available for sale to customers from any of these countries, and some others that have Amazon.)

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RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women Devotional, The Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Coming soon: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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Edward Cooper: Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin, Part 2

Posted in Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , , on May 23, 2022| 3 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“We do not much like Mr. Cooper’s new sermons;–they are fuller of Regeneration & Conversion than ever–with the addition of his zeal in the cause of the Bible Society” –Jane Austen, letter to Cassandra Austen, Sept. 8, 1816

Last month we talked about Austen’s first cousins, particularly Edward Cooper, son of Jane’s mother’s sister. He became a clergyman like Jane’s father and Edward’s father. Edward was a strong Evangelical, and he and Jane did not always see eye to eye.

Evangelicals in the Church of England

The Evangelical* movement in the Church of England started early in the 1700s. While some evangelicals left the Church of England, others stayed within it. (We use a capital “E” for this movement within the Church of England at that time.) In general, evangelicals stress the centrality of the Bible and of Christ’s death on the cross to redeem sinful people, the need for a personal conversion experience, and Christians’ responsibility to actively lead others toward Christ and do good in the world. These are the messages Edward Cooper and other Evangelicals preached. 

The most famous Evangelical of Austen’s time was William Wilberforce. Wilberforce and other Christians, especially Evangelicals, led the fight against the slave trade, supported campaigns to educate the poor in England, and much more. (While modern evangelicals may be associated with certain political stances, evangelicals in Austen’s England were associated with these issues instead: education for the poor, the campaign against the slave trade and slavery, and others.)

Cooper’s Sermons and Jane Austen’s Responses

In Jane Austen’s time, many clergymen published their sermons. Sermons were popular reading, as well as providing preaching material for other clergymen. Austen enjoyed reading books of sermons. Cooper published a number of volumes of his sermons. Apparently, though, Jane and Cassandra didn’t like them much. In 1809 (Jan. 17), she commented,

“Miss M. conveys to us a third volume of sermons, from Hamstall, just published, and which we are to like better than the two others; they are professedly practical, and for the use of country congregations.”

This was Edward Cooper’s Practical and Familiar Sermons Designed for Parochial and Domestic Instruction (meaning for reading at home and for preaching to churches), first published in 1809. The earlier volumes were one in 1803 criticizing the practice of the militia drilling on Sundays (a day of rest), and then Sermons, Chiefly Designed to Elucidate Some of the Leading Doctrines of the Gospel (1804).

Where did Jane differ from those “leading doctrines” of Evangelical preaching? Evangelicals taught that people needed a conscious, personal conversion experience, a regeneration or rebirth, to become true Christians. Other Anglicans believed that growth in faith was gradual through life, beginning with a person’s baptism as an infant; this was probably Austen’s belief.  Both groups believed that throughout life the person needed to trust in Christ, repent when they sinned, and ask God’s help to live a good life. Edward Cooper’s hymn, “Father of Heaven,” which is still sung today, asks God for His “pardoning love.”

Cover of Edward Cooper’s Practical and Familiar Sermons, which Jane Austen was to “like better than the two others.”

This theological disagreement partly explains Jane’s reaction to a later book which includes two of Edward’s sermons. It’s been speculated that the “we” here might refer to the rest of her family, perhaps to her mother and brother’s opinion more than to her own. But still she does include herself:

“We do not much like Mr. Cooper’s new sermons;–they are fuller of Regeneration & Conversion than ever–with the addition of his zeal in the cause of the Bible Society” (Sept. 8, 1816).

This refers to Two Sermons Preached . . . at Wolverhampton Preparatory to the Establishment of a Bible Institution (1816). I was surprised to find that these sermons do not use the word regeneration, and conversion is used only once (with convert used two further times). However, the concepts are implied.

Cooper does talk about the world’s need for the gospel and for the Bible. Jane Austen apparently did not disagree with these goals. In her third prayer, she wrote,

“May thy [God’s] mercy be extended over all Mankind, bringing the Ignorant to the knowledge of thy Truth, awakening the Impenitent, touching the Hardened.”

Cover of Edward Cooper’s sermons for the Bible Society, which Austen found too full of “regeneration and conversion.”

The SPCK and the Bible Society

So, why would Austen object to Cooper’s supporting the Bible Society? She and her family supported a different institution that distributed the Bible, the SPCK. In fact, Jane herself contributed half a guinea, a substantial amount of her income, to this organization in 1813.

The SPCK, or Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is a Church of England organization that published and sold Christian literature at that time. However, many felt that they were not supplying enough Bibles in different languages (specifically Welsh, at the beginning), and so the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed.

The Bible Society included both Anglicans and Dissenters (people in other denominations). Because of this, they published and distributed only Bibles, with no commentary (which might support one set of doctrines over another). The SPCK produced the Book of Common Prayer and other materials explaining the Bible from an Anglican perspective. There was some tension or competition between these two groups.

Both societies formed auxiliary groups in various areas to support their work. According to Irene Collins, in 1813, both organizations set up branches in Basingstoke, in the Austens’ part of the country. James Austen, Jane’s brother, organized and spoke at the initial meeting of the SPCK. The Lefroy family, old friends of the Austens’, were leaders of the rival Bible Society auxiliary started at almost the same time.

A copy of James’s speech for the SPCK has been preserved. He said that the SPCK was better than the Bible Society, because along with the Bible it distributed commentaries and the Book of Common Prayer (the “Liturgy”). He explained,

“It [the SPCK] not only puts the Bible in a poor man’s hand, but provides him with the best means of understanding it.”

However, he also said that those supporting the Bible Society did so from “the purest and best of motives,” and encouraged them to support both organizations. He complimented the Bible Society, saying its “exertions” had produced “extreme good.” He called for a spirit of unity in the area and a spirit of “candour”—which meant assuming the best of one another. The speech is gentle and conciliatory; a good model for today’s controversies.

Jane Austen and the Evangelicals

So, Jane Austen had some disagreements with her Evangelical cousin Edward Cooper, and didn’t much like his sermons. However, Cooper had an Evangelical friend in neighbouring Yoxall, Rev. Thomas Gisborne. Both Cooper and Gisborne were involved with Wilberforce in working for the abolition of the slave trade. 

Austen did enjoy Gisborne’s work. In 1805, she told Cassandra,

“I am glad you recommended ‘Gisborne,’ for having begun, I am pleased with it, and I had quite determined not to read it”⁠ (Aug. 30, 1805).

The book was probably An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex. 

In Austen’s letters, she made two specific mentions of the Evangelicals. On Jan. 24, 1809, she wrote, “I do not like the Evangelicals.” She was telling her sister that she did not want to read a new book by Hannah More, a popular Evangelical author. She went on to say, “Of course I shall be delighted when I read it, like other people,” so she doesn’t seem to be very serious. My guess is that she did not like More’s style, which is didactic, clearly teaching lessons through her story. Austen preferred to tell a good story and let readers come to their own conclusions.

Later, on Nov. 18, 1814, she had a serious discussion with her niece Fanny Knight about marrying a man who was leaning toward Evangelicalism. She wrote, “I am by no means convinced that we ought not all to be Evangelicals, & am at least persuaded that they who are so from Reason and Feeling must be happiest & safest. . . . don’t be frightened by the idea of his acting more strictly up to the precepts of the New Testament than others.” So at that point, though she was not Evangelical herself, she admired them.

Austen’s beloved brother Henry later became an Evangelical preacher himself. But he still wrote about his sister, in the introduction to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion:

“She was thoroughly religious and devout . . . On serious [religious] subjects she was well-instructed, both by reading and meditation, and her opinions accorded strictly with those of our Established Church.”

While some have claimed that he was exaggerating here, at the time being “religious” was not necessarily popular. Jane Austen did not always agree with her cousin Edward’s theology or style of writing, but it seems to me that she was serious about her faith, as he was.

 

Brenda S. Cox blogs on Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen. She has written a book called Fashionable Goodness: Faith in Jane Austen’s England, which she hopes will be available by the end of this year.

*Note that “Evangelical” and “evangelism” are two different things, though people sometimes get them confused. Evangelicals, the focus of the article above, were and are groups of Christians with certain common beliefs. Evangelism  means people sharing their religious beliefs with other people.

For Further Reading

Edward Cooper, Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin, Part 1

Edward Cooper, Wolverhampton Sermons, Jan. 1, 1816. You can also find seven volumes of his Practical and Familiar Sermons, in various editions, online.

Jocelyn Harris, “Jane Austen and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,” Persuasions 34: 134-139. 

Irene Collins, “’Too Much Zeal for the Bible Society: Jane Austen, Her Family, and the Religious Quarrels of Her Time,” Jane Austen Society Reports, Collected Reports Vol. 6 (2001-2005): 21-38. This article explains the rivalry and cooperation between the Bible Society and the S.P.C.K. in Austen’s community, and Jane’s theological differences with her cousin Edward Cooper. 

Gaye King, “Jane Austen’s Staffordshire Cousin: Edward Cooper and His Circle,” Persuasions 1993 

Gaye King, “Visiting Edward Cooper,” Persuasions 1987 

Donald Greene, “Hamstall Ridware: A Neglected Austen Setting,” Persuasions 1985 (Includes a photo of the rectory where Jane and her family visited Edward and his family)

“Come and Visit Edward Cooper, Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin,” Jane Austen House Museum blog, Sept. 17, 2012, Edward’s portrait 

Edward Cooper as a hymn writer 

Edward Cooper’s letter to Jane April 6, 1817 (article also includes commentary on the letter)

“Jane Austen in the Midlands,” scroll down for a section on Cooper. 

“’Cruel Comfort’: A Reading of the Theological Critique in Sense and Sensibility,” Kathleen James-Cavan (springboards from Jane’s comment on Edward Cooper into the ideas in S&S) Persuasions On-Line 32.2 (2012) 

Other Sources

Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen: A Family Record, 2nd ed. (p. 262 says Henry Austen became an Evangelical clergyman)

Deirdre Le Faye, ed., Jane Austen’s Letters, 4th ed.

Laura Dabundo, Jane Austen: A Companion

Irene Collins, “Displeasing Pictures of Clergymen,” Persuasions 18 (1996): 110.

Irene Collins, Jane Austen and the Clergy

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Edward Cooper: Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin, Part 1

Posted in Biography, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, tagged , , , , on April 25, 2022| 2 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“I like first Cousins to be first Cousins, & interested about each other.”—Jane Austen, letter to Anna Lefroy, Nov. 29, 1814

Austen’s First Cousins

Jane Austen was closely connected to her three first cousins: Eliza, Edward, and Jane. (She had additional cousins from her father’s half-brother, William Hampson Walter, though she doesn’t seem to have been as close to them.)

Eliza: Her father’s sister Philadelphia had one daughter, lively Eliza Hancock de Feuillide. Eliza, whose first husband was guillotined in the French Revolution, later married Jane’s brother Henry.

Jane: Jane’s mother’s sister (also named Jane) married a clergyman, the Reverend Dr. Edward Cooper. They had two children, Edward and another Jane. That Jane, Jane Leigh Cooper, went away to school for a time with Jane and Cassandra Austen. Her letter home from Southampton told their parents that the girls were seriously ill with typhus. Mrs. Austen and Mrs. Cooper came and took them home. The girls all survived, but, sadly, Mrs. Cooper caught the illness and died. Jane and Edward Cooper spent a lot of time with the Austen family. Jane was even married at Steventon, to a naval captain, Captain Williams, who was later knighted. Charles Austen served under him in the Navy. Tragically, Jane Cooper, by then called Lady Williams, died in a carriage accident in 1798.

Edward: Edward Cooper, Jane Cooper’s brother, became a clergyman like his father. He is mentioned frequently in Jane Austen’s letters. In her first two existing letters (Jan. 9 and 14, 1796), she talks about his visit to Steventon with his young son and daughter.

Edward Cooper, Clergyman

Many of Jane Austen’s friends and relatives were clergymen (estimated at over a hundred, including of course her father and two of her brothers). She held strong opinions on church livings. When Edward got his living, she wrote (Jan. 21, 1799):

Yesterday came a letter to my mother from Edward Cooper to announce, not the birth of a child, but of a living; for Mrs. Leigh [a relative, the Hon. Mary Leigh, of Stoneleigh] has begged his acceptance of the Rectory of Hamstall-Ridware in Staffordshire, vacant by Mr. Johnson’s death. We collect from his letter that he means to reside there, in which he shows his wisdom.

Staffordshire is a good way off [about 140 miles]; so we shall see nothing more of them till, some fifteen years hence, the Miss Coopers are presented to us, fine, jolly, handsome, ignorant girls. The living is valued at £140 a year, but perhaps it may be improvable. How will they be able to convey the furniture of the dressing-room so far in safety?

Our first cousins seem all dropping off very fast. One is incorporated into the family [Eliza de Feuillide], another dies [Jane Cooper, Lady Williams], and a third [Edward Cooper] goes into Staffordshire.  [Brackets added.]

Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware, where Jane Austen’s cousin Edward Cooper served as rector.
Bs0u10e01, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Jane commented that Edward intended “to reside” at his living, which showed “his wisdom.” At this time, many clergy hired curates to serve their livings rather than residing in them and doing the work themselves. In Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas Bertram makes a strong statement about residing at one’s living:

“A parish has wants and claims which can be known only by a clergyman constantly resident, and which no proxy can be capable of satisfying to the same extent. Edmund might, in the common phrase, do the duty of Thornton, that is, he might read prayers and preach, without giving up Mansfield Park: he might ride over every Sunday, to a house nominally inhabited, and go through divine service; he might be the clergyman of Thornton Lacey every seventh day, for three or four hours, if that would content him. But it will not. He knows that human nature needs more lessons than a weekly sermon can convey; and that if he does not live among his parishioners, and prove himself, by constant attention, their well-wisher and friend, he does very little either for their good or his own.”–Mansfield Park, ch. 25

Austen also mentioned that Edward might be able to “improve” his living. That means he might increase his income by negotiating for higher tithe payments from the farmers or leasing extra farmland, as Austen’s father did. Edward Ferrars’s living in Sense and Sensibility is also “capable of improvement” (ch. 39). Cooper added to his income later by becoming rector of nearby Yoxall (much like George Austen, who served two adjacent parishes).

In 1801 Austen said Edward wrote to her after his wife Caroline had a baby.

I have heard twice from Edward on the occasion, & his letters have each been exactly what they ought to be–chearful & amusing.–He dares not write otherwise to me, but perhaps he might be obliged to purge himself from the guilt of writing Nonsense by filling his shoes with whole pease for a week afterwards.–Mrs. G. [Mrs. Girle, Caroline Cooper’s grandmother] has left him £100–his Wife and son £500 each. (Jan. 21, 1801)

It appears that while Jane thought of Edward as too serious, he was willing to write “Nonsense” to her.

Later that month, Edward invited the Austens to come visit his family at the parsonage in Hamstall Ridware. However, Jane says, “at present we greatly prefer the sea to all our relations” (Jan. 25, 1801). Her family had already visited Edward in 1799, when he was a curate at Harpsden. The Austens did visit the Coopers at Hamstall Ridware for five weeks in the summer of 1806, after going to Stoneleigh Abbey. 

Interior of Edward Cooper’s Hamstall Ridware church;
John Salmon via Wikimedia commons CC BY-SA 2.0

Jane seemed to have trouble keeping track of Edward’s children. Some of them died quite young. In 1811 she wrote, “It was a mistake of mine, my dear Cassandra, to talk of a tenth child at Hamstall. I had forgot there were but eight already” (May 29).

In 1808, when Jane’s sister-in-law, Elizabeth Knight, died, Jane wrote, “I have written to Edward Cooper, & hope he will not send one of his Letters of cruel comfort to my poor Brother” (Oct. 15). We don’t know what sort of “cruel comfort” Edward had written in the past. The one still-existing letter from Edward to Jane was written in 1817 and sounds heartfelt and kind. His friend and neighbor John Gisborne wrote that Edward was a great comfort to him in his son’s final illness. But perhaps Edward had taken the opportunity to preach some of his Evangelical ideas in a letter, and Jane and her family did not agree.

Edward Cooper believed and preached an Evangelical interpretation of the Bible. Many of his sermons were published in books, which were reprinted and read for many years, in a long series of editions. So even if Jane didn’t care much for them, others did!

Next month in Part 2, we’ll look at what Edward’s Evangelical ideas were, what Jane Austen thought of his sermons, and why.

Brenda S. Cox writes on Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen. She has written a book called Fashionable Goodness: Faith in Jane Austen’s England, which she hopes will be available by the end of this year.

For Further Reading

Edward Cooper: Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin, Part 2

“Visiting Edward Cooper,” Gaye King, Persuasions 1987

“Hamstall Ridware: A Neglected Austen Setting,” Donald Greene, Persuasions 1985 (Includes a photo of the rectory where Jane and her family visited Edward and his family)

“Come and Visit Edward Cooper, Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin,” Jane Austen House Museum blog, Sept. 17, 2012 (includes Edward Cooper’s portrait)

Edward Cooper’s letter to Jane April 6, 1817 (article also includes commentary on the letter) 

“Jane Austen in the Midlands,” scroll down for a section on Cooper.

Other Sources

Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen: A Family Record, 2nd ed.

Deirdre Le Faye, ed., Jane Austen’s Letters, 4th ed.

Laura Dabundo, Jane Austen: A Companion

Irene Collins, “Displeasing Pictures of Clergymen,” Persuasions 18 (1996): 110. Collins says Austen’s correspondence refers to at least 90 clergymen, and her biographers could add many more. 

Irene Collins, Jane Austen and the Clergy

John Gisborne and his daughter E. N. A., Brief Memoir of the Life of John Gisborne, Esq., to which are added, Extracts from his Diary (London: Whittaker, 1852), 114-115, 128, 227. 

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