The new BBC One drama Miss Austen dramatises the life of Cassandra Austen, sister of the celebrated novelist Jane Austen, and her decision to destroy many of Jane’s letters, potentially concealing many details of her life from future generations. The first episode of Miss Austen was broadcast at 9pm on Sunday 2 February, and the next three episodes will air on subsequent Sundays. But who are the characters in Miss Austen, and what was Jane Austen’s real family?
Who were Jane Austen's family?
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, and this year marks the 250th anniversary of her birth. She died on 18 July 1817. Her six novels – Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion – are tales of love and courtship among the upper classes of Regency Britain, noted for their keen social satire, and are among the most beloved novels in the English language.
Jane Austen was the seventh of the eight children of George Austen (1731-1805), rector of Deane and Steventon, and his wife Cassandra (née Cassandra Leigh, 1739-1827). In Miss Austen, she is played as a young woman by Patsy Ferran.
As the programme shows, Jane’s closest companion throughout her life was her sister Cassandra (1773-1845). Cassandra is played by Keeley Hawes, from Spooks and The Durrells, and in flashbacks by Synnøve Karlsen.
In addition, Jane and Cassandra had six brothers. They were:
- James Austen (1765-1819), a clergyman who also tried his hand at writing, publishing a weekly magazine called The Loiterer in the 1790s. He subsequently succeeded his father as the vicar of Steventon. In Miss Austen, he is played by Patrick Knowles.
- George Austen (1766-1838). George appears to have suffered from a disability of some kind and as an adult lived with a family called Culham in Monk Sherborne.
- Edward Austen (1767-1852). He was named the heir of Thomas Knight, a wealthy and childless family relative, and changed his name to Edward Austen Knight. He inherited three estates from Thomas Knight, in Steventon, Chawton and Godmersham. In later life Jane, Cassandra and their mother lived in a cottage on the Chawton estate.
- Henry Austen (1771-1850). With his brother Francis he started a bank, Austen, Maunde & Tilson, which collapsed in 1816. He subsequently became a clergyman.
- Francis ‘Frank’ Austen (1774-1865). He joined the Royal Navy and rose to become Admiral of the Fleet. This connection to the Navy inspired Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, where the hero, Captain Wentworth, is also in the Navy. In Miss Austen, he is played by Jake Kenny-Byrne.
- Charles Austen (1779-1852). He also served in the Navy, reaching the rank of rear admiral.
Who were the Fowles?
Miss Austen begins in 1830, with Cassandra Austen visiting the deathbed of Fulwar Fowle (Felix Scott), the vicar of Kintbury in Berkshire, partly with the aim of recovering letters written by Jane to Fulwar’s late wife Eliza (née Lloyd). As shown in Miss Austen, Cassandra was in love with Fulwar’s brother Thomas Fowle, also a clergyman, as a young woman and the two were engaged to be married. Thomas died on an expedition to the Caribbean in 1797 before they could wed.
Jane and Cassandra Austen were good friends with Eliza Fowle’s sisters, Mary and Martha Lloyd. Their brother James married Mary Lloyd after the death of his first wife (also called Eliza), making Mary their sister-in-law.
In Miss Austen, Mary Austen is played as an older woman by Jessica Hynes. She expresses her admiration for her late husband’s writing and her hope that her son will write a biography of both James and Jane Austen. In real life, this did happen, with James Edward Austen-Leigh publishing A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869.
