Jane Austen in Perspective: An introduction to Jane Austen

Study Guide
for students

Introduction | The boyfriend: Tom Lefroy | The friend: Mrs Anne Lefroy | The suitor: Harris Bigg-Wither |  The aunt & uncle: the Leigh-Perrots | The best friend: Martha Lloyd | The neighbours: the Digweeeds et al. | The sister: protector or vandal of Austen's legacy | The parents: George & Cassandra Austen 

The people in Jane Austen's life -
The friend: Mrs Anne Lefroy

Anne Lefroy was born in 1749, part of the Brydges family. She had seven brothers and sisters – Charlotte (Mrs Harrison) was the youngest (born 1765) and it is this sister that Jane refers to in a letter to her niece Fanny in November 1813: 

chatting to Mrs Harrison was like speaking to Mrs Lefroy. Sweet woman and so like her sister!! 

Anne married Isaac Peter George Lefroy, Rector of Ashe. Jane first encountered them in 1783, after her illness at Mrs Cawley’s school (when Jane was aged 7), when the Lefroys and their three children had just moved in to the Rectory, later known as Ashe House and still standing today. Eventually the Lefroys had seven children: rhe eldest son, John Henry George (1782-1823), succeeded his father as Rector at Ashe, while Benjamin (1791-1829) married Anna Austen (James Austen’s eldest daughter) in 1814. Benjamin later took holy orders and eventually succeeded his brother John at Ashe Rectory. Christopher Edward (1785-1856) went into the law and became the British Commissary Judge for the suppression of the slave trade in Surinam. The Lefroys are now to be found across the globe – the Australian Lefroys were founded by one of John Henry George’s sons, Henry Maxwell Lefroy, while his brother, General Sir John Henry Lefroy, founded the Canadian Lefroys. 

Mrs Anne Lefroy was known as ‘Madam Lefroy’ as she seemed so exotic. She was a great reader and writer of poetry, knowing Milton, Pope, Collins, Gray and Shakespeare. She was a beauty, and a spirited woman, clever, quick, witty and popular. She dressed elegantly, her hair beautifully arranged and powdered, and her expression sweet. It is said that she never let domestic duties interfere with the opportunity for a chat, and was much better off than the Austens – she didn’t have to manage her own dairy. It has been noted that she didn’t give up her own tastes and pleasures upon marriage, which would have made her a most unusual woman in her time. She enjoyed entertaining and, according to her brother Samuel Egerton Brydges, was the life of the party. 

Madam Lefroy became Jane Austen’s best-loved friend and mentor and the person she turned to for advice and encouragement – a surrogate parent perhaps? The character of Lady Russell in Persuasion, and her role in Anne Elliot’s life, is possibly modelled on Madam Lefroy and the Tom Lefroy episode in Jane’s life. She also encouraged Jane’s choice of books. 

In 1797, Mrs Lefroy attempted a spot of match-making for Jane by inviting a Fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge to stay at Ashe. The Rev Samuel Blackall was about to be appointed to a parish, and would have needed a wife. Jane and Samuel failed to hit it off and when he was invited again to Ashe in 1798, he never showed up. Have we here the model for Mr Collins perhaps? The Rev Blackall married in 1813 – not ‘Our Jane’ of course. 

Ashe Rectory, home of Mrs Anne Lefroy, 
‘beloved friend’ of Jane Austen. 
Drawing by E Hill, 1901.

During the bad winter of February 1800, Madam Lefroy set up a straw manufactory to employ the women and children of the district. Mats and other small items were made to add a few pence to each household. In her time at Ashe Rectory she taught the village children how to read and write. 

However, though the Lefroys were known to have visited Steventon and the Austens were frequent visitors at Ashe, there is no real picture of the relationship between the two women. There are no letters between Mrs Lefroy and Jane and no description of their friendship beyond the brief mention in the letter to Fanny mentioned earlier, in any of the letters that remain to us. 

Mrs Anne Lefroy died on Jane Austen’s 29th birthday – 16 December 1804. She rode to Overton with a servant to do some shopping, and, meeting James in the village, remarked on the stupidity and laziness of the horse. The horse bolted on the way home and the Lefroy servant couldn’t catch it. In trying to get off, Anne fell and hit her head on the road and died some hours later. It is in the poignant memorial poem (below) that Jane wrote in 1808 in her memory, on the fourth anniversary of her death, that we see the real evidence of their relationship. In this poem Jane associated Anne Lefroy with Samuel Johnson – Johnson being ‘the First of Men’ and Anne Lefroy ‘angelic woman’, of ‘solid worth’ and ‘captivating grace’.

To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy who died Decr 16 – my Birthday. 

The day returns again, my natal day; 
What mix’d emotions with the Thought arise! 
Beloved friend, four years have pass’d away 
Since thou wert snatch’d forever from our eyes.— 

The day, commemorative of my birth 
Bestowing Life and Light and Hope on me, 
Brings back the hour which was thy last on Earth. 
Oh! bitter pang of torturing Memory!— 

Angelic Woman! past my power to praise 
In Language meet, thy Talents, Temper, mind. 
Thy solid Worth, thy captivating Grace!— 
Thou friend and ornament of Humankind!— 

At Johnson’s death by Hamilton ’twas said, 
‘Seek we a substitute – Ah! vain the plan, 
No second best remains to Johnson dead— 
None can remind us even of the Man.’ 

So we of thee – unequall’d in thy race 
Unequall’d thou, as he the first of Men. 
Vainly we search around the vacant place, 
We ne’er may look upon thy like again. ... 

Fain would I feel an union in thy fate, 
Fain would I seek to draw an Omen fair 
From this connection in our Earthly date. 
Indulge the harmless weakness – Reason, spare.— 

Jane Austen

Vanessa Stockford 

References: 

• Nigel Nicolson, The World of Jane Austen, 1991 

• Valerie Grosvenor Myer, Obstinate Heart: Jane Austen, A Biography, London 1997

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10 April 2007