Cassandra is said to have approved of this young man, but he died unexpectedly several months later, before he and Jane could be together again. Austen family tradition holds that Jane and an unnamed young clergyman fell in love while the Austen family visited the seaside at Sidmouth in the summer of 1801. Anne Lefroy, was seriously interested in marrying Austen in 1797. Samuel Blackall, a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a friend of Mrs. However, Lefroy departed to begin his law studies in January 1796 and he and Jane never saw each other again.

Īusten met, danced with, and perhaps fell in love with Thomas Lefroy during the Christmas holidays in 1795. Her death in a riding accident in 1804 left Jane grief-stricken. George Lefroy, 'became Jane Austen's best-loved and admired mentor, the person she would always run to for advice and encouragement' after the Lefroys moved to nearby Ashe in 1783. Jane and Cassandra were also friends for many years with three sisters, Alethea, Elizabeth and Catherine Bigg, who lived at Manydown Park. Austen's death in 1805) and married Austen's brother Frank late in life. Mary became the second wife of Austen's brother James, and Martha lived with the Austen family (beginning shortly after Rev. Throughout their adult lives, Jane and Cassandra were close to their cousin, Eliza de Feuillide, and to neighbors Mary and Martha Lloyd.

Austen lived at Chawton until she moved to Winchester for medical treatment shortly before her death in 1817. In 1809, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved permanently into a large 'cottage' in Chawton village that was part of Edward's nearby estate. During these unsettled years, they spent much time visiting various branches of the family. He died in 1805 and for the next four years, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother lived first in rented quarters and then in Southampton where they shared a house with Frank Austen's family.

Austen retired from the ministry and moved his family to Bath, Somerset. Austen's brother Edward was adopted by Thomas and Elizabeth Knight and eventually inherited their estates at Godmersham, Kent, and Chawton, Hampshire. She had six brothers-James, George, Charles, Francis, Henry, and Edward-and a beloved older sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's immediate family was large and close-knit. Austen was the rector of the Anglican parish from 1765 until 1801. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh, Jane Austen's parents, lived in Steventon, Hampshire, where Rev. Jane Austen lived her entire life as part of a family located socially and economically on the lower fringes of the English gentry. Austen family tree, showing Jane Austen's brothers' marriages and children

Jane Austen by Deirdre Le Faye