A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Introduction
Eliza Susan Quincy, referred to by Austen-Leigh in the Memoir,
suggests a ready circle of devotees as far away as Boston,
Massachusetts.
James Edward Austen-Leigh was supported in his decision to
write the official family life of Jane Austen by his two sisters and
several of his cousins. As early as 1864 his elder, half-sister Anna
(Jane Anna Elizabeth Austen) Lefroy (1793–1872) was writing
down her memories in response to his enquiries (‘You have asked
me to put on paper my recollections of Aunt Jane, & to do so
would be both on your account & her’s a labour of love’ (see
p. 157) ). They are printed in this collection as ‘Recollections of
Aunt Jane’. His younger sister Caroline Mary Craven Austen
(1805–80) provided her reminiscences, as noted above, in 1867.
These, too, are included in this collection. As the children of
Jane’s eldest brother, Anna, James Edward, and Caroline had
inhabited her natal home of Steventon, after their father James
took over as rector there on the retirement to Bath of his father
George Austen. All three were closer to Jane’s Hampshire roots
(socially as well as geographically) than other branches of the
family, notably the grander Knights of Godmersham, Kent, the
descendants of her third brother Edward. Of the numerous
nephews and nieces (of her six brothers, Edward, Frank, and
Charles produced eleven, ten, and eight children respectively),
James’s children had unique personal knowledge of their aunt
and were of an age to remember her. Anna Lefroy had known her
aunt from earliest childhood when she was brought to live at
Steventon after the death of her mother, James Austen’s first wife
Anne Mathew. Caroline, though much younger and only 12 when
her aunt died, stayed often at Jane Austen’s later home at Chawton,
while James Edward (known as Edward in the family) was
the only one of his generation present at his aunt’s funeral. Of the
other nieces to have known their aunt, Cassandra Esten Austen
(1808–97), Charles Austen’s eldest daughter, and Mary Jane
Austen (1807–36), Frank’s eldest daughter, were both regular visitors
to Chawton in their childhood. Mary Jane was now dead,
but Cassy Esten was her aunt Cassandra Austen’s executrix for
her personal effects, and since her own father’s death had