The Jane Austen Society of Australia

<< Back to Book Reviews: Contents

Book review
Jane Austen’s Family and Tonbridge

by Margaret Wilson

The Jane Austen Society, 2001

Reviewed by Pamela Nutt

I am intrigued by places – I read atlases as a child. Combine this with a love of Literature and History and the possibilities of places are seemingly infinite. Lyme Regis is a must on any visit to England, Chawton always pleases, and Flint Castle, with its proximity (on an Australian scale, anyway) to the Sands of Dee recalls both Richard II and Mary, whose tragic task was to ‘call the cattle home’. Tonbridge does not immediately excite such images.

Margaret Wilson’s publication for the Jane Austen Society outlines the connections of Jane Austen’s father, George Austen, with the market town of Tonbridge in West Kent. It is a book about people, however, not so much a book about a place. Tonbridge’s school does receive good mention both in the past and in the present. A number of Austen relatives, notably Jane Austen’s father, were educated there, and the author acknowledges the contribution of the staff of the present school, along with people such as Deirdre Le Faye and Tom Carpenter, in the compilation of this record. Buildings are identified as past residences of Austen family members.

It is the book’s narratives which fascinate. Elizabeth Weller, who married the fourth John Austen of the West Kent area, and who is Jane Austen’s great-grandmother, was indeed ‘a remarkable woman’. The deaths of both her husband and her father-in-law left her in a difficult financial situation. This she resolved with what seems to be characteristic strength – she took the post as housekeeper to the headmaster of nearby Sevenoaks School where she would get her own children’s education free. Thus William Austen (Jane’s grandfather) received an education and became a surgeon in Tonbridge.

Also of interest, particularly for JASA readers and their association with the publication of our A Century of Wills, is the preferred treatment of William’s eldest brother, John, in his grandfather’s will. Jon Spence’s introduction to the will of John Austen of Horsmonden is important companion reading to this section of Wilson’s book. Connected also to Wilson’s narratives are Spence’s comments on the framing of William Austen’s Will and the influence that William Austen’s virtual exclusion from his grandfather’s bequests had on him and by implication on Jane Austen herself. Putting these two books together also gives an interesting insight into the fortunes of Jane’s great uncle Francis (Motley) Austen.

George Austen, the novelist’s father, and the son of William Austen, benefited from his association with Tonbridge. Being placed at the Tonbridge school was the basis of his life as a churchman and as an educator. As Wilson points out, his position as an orphan could have resulted in much worse circumstances. The impact of this education was evident in the achievements of his daughter.

There are others also whose connection with Tonbridge may surprise. James Stanier Clarke, who is associated with Jane Austen’s dedication of Emma to the Prince Regent, came to Tonbridge school around 1788. We may laugh at the stories of his proposals of subjects for Austen to write about, but he was genuinely interested in her novels. The Revd Thomas Jefferson was also a schoolmaster at Tonbridge. Jane Austen writes to Cassandra that she wishes ‘to have my name put down as a subscriber to Mr Jefferson’s works’. Another name found in Jane Austen’s correspondence with her sister is that of John Papillon, the bachelor clergyman from Chawton. He had been vicar in Tonbridge, but his arrival as a single man in Chawton was the subject of a private joke in the Austen family.

Jane Austen was certainly familiar with Tonbridge through her ‘reading and correspondence and contact with members of her extended family’. Whether she ever actually went to Tonbridge is not known, although she certainly did visit family members in West Kent. Wilson brings to life the Austen connections with the town, however, and in doing so gives interesting insights into who these people were, and their importance in the subsequent life of Jane Austen.

The text is accessible, the information often surprises, and the family tree provided is most useful. Wilson’s familiarity with Tonbridge and the extent of her research are evident.

29 January 2004

HOME | What's New | About Jane | About JASA | JASA News | Sensibilities | Calendar | Conference | Book Reviews | JASA Library | Writing Competition | Mrs Goddard's School | Regency Fair | LINKS