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James Austen

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The Reverend
James Austen
Born1765
Died1819 (aged 53–54)
NationalityBritish
OccupationClergyman
Known forJane Austen's eldest brother
Childrenat least 3
FatherGeorge Austen
Relatives

James Austen (1765 – 1819) was an English clergyman, best known for being the eldest brother of celebrated novelist Jane Austen.[1] His father George Austen's living had been in Steventon, Hampshire, and James succeeded him in this position, in 1801.

Austen's mother, formerly Cassandra Leigh, was a member of a prominent Oxford family, and was a descendant of one of the founders of St. John's College.[2] Cassandra's family connection entitled her sons to be legacy students,[dubious – discuss] who did not have to compete for admission, and who were entitled to attend tuition free. Austen attended Oxford University and his younger brother Henry both attended, and shared accommodation.[3]

Like his more famous sister, Austen was a writer.[4] According to Felicity Day, writing in The Telegraph, for a year in the 1790s, he published a weekly periodical called The Loiterer, and wrote much of its content. He published several pieces by his brother Henry, and Day speculated that he may have published one piece by his teenage sister Jane.[3] Day says the satirical pieces in The Loiterer resembled the unpublished juvenilia the teenage Jane wrote for her family.

James and his brother Henry were both romantically interested in their cousin, Eliza de Feuillide, the daughter of their aunt Philadelphia Austen Hancock.[3] Eliza married Henry.[4]

Austen married at 27, and was widowed when he was 30.[4] His first wife bore him a daughter, Anna.[5] His second wife, bore him at least two more children, James Edward and Caroline.

References

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  1. ^ Meredith Hindley (January–February 2013). "The Mysterious Miss Austen: Two hundred years ago, Pride and Prejudice was anonymously published". Humanities. Vol. 34, no. 1. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021. James, the eldest, succeeded his father as the parson of Steventon.
  2. ^ Marilyn Butler (7 January 2010). "Austen, Jane: (1775–1817)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/904. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021. The boys qualified, on Cassandra's side, as 'founder's kin' at St John's College, which entitled them against competition to free tuition.
  3. ^ a b c J. David Grey (1984). "Henry Austen: Jane Austen's "perpetual sunshine"". Persuasions Occasional Papers. No. 1. Jane Austen Society of North America. pp. 9–12. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Felicity Day (20 January 2020). "Why did Jane Austen's talented brother end up forgotten by history?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021. I've always felt sympathy for one of Jane Austen's brothers. James, the so-called writer of the family, was not the author's confidant like Cassandra, not her favourite brother, not even the most professionally distinguished. He was, like Mary, outdone by his siblings on almost every count.
  5. ^ "Jane Austen's Brothers and Sister". Pemberly. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
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