Jane Austen, Her Life And Letters

William Austen-Leigh1600-1764

AT the end of the sixteenth century there was living at Horsmonden-a small village in the Weald of Kent-a certain John Austen. From his will it is evident that he was a man of considerable means, owning property in Kent and Sussex and elsewhere he also held a lease of certain lands from Sir Henry Whetenhall, including in all probability the manor house of Broadford in Horsmonden. What wealth he had was doubtless derived from the clothing trade for Hasted instances the Austens, together with the Bathursts, Courthopes, and others, as some of the ancient families of that part ‘now of large estate and genteel rank in life, ’ but sprung from ancestors who had used the great staple manufacture of clothing. He adds that these clothiers ‘were usually called the Gray Coats of Kent, and were a body so numerous that at County Elections whoever had their vote and interest was almost certain of being elected.’ John Austen died in 1620, leaving a large family. Of these, the fifth son, Francis, who died in 1687, describes himself in his will as a clothier, of Grovehurst this place being, like Broadford, a pretty timbered house of moderate size near the picturesque old village of Horsmonden. He seems to have been a careless, easy-going man, who thought frugality unnecessary, as he would succeed to the estate on his father’s death but he died of consumption in 1704, a year before that event took place. One of his sisters married into the family of the Stringers (neighbours engaged in the same trade as the Austens), and numbered among her descendants the Knights of Godmersham-a circumstance which exercised an important influence over the subsequent fortunes of the Austen family. Elizabeth Weller, a woman happily cast in a different mould from her husband, was an ancestress of Jane Austen who deserves commemoration. Thrifty, energetic, a careful mother, and a prudent housewife, she managed, though receiving only grudging assistance from the Austen family, to pay off her husband’s debts, and to give to all her younger children a decent education at a school at Sevenoaks the eldest boy (the future squire) being taken off her hands by his grandfather. Elizabeth left behind her not only elaborately kept accounts but also a minute description of her actions through many years and of the motives which governed them. It may be interesting to quote one sentence relating to her move from Horsmonden to Sevenoaks for the sake of her children’s education. ‘These considerations with ye tho'ts of having my own boys in ye house, with a good master (as all represented him to be) were ye inducements that brought me to Sen'nock, for it seemed to me as if I cou’d not do a better thing for my children’s good, their education being my great care, and indeed all I think I was capable of doing for 'em, for I always tho’t if they had learning, they might get better shift in ye world, with wt small fortune was alloted 'em.’ When the good mother died in 1721.