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Strictly Jane Austen Episode 4: The People Who Made Jane Austen — The Crowded World Behind Six Perfect Novels
This is Episode 4 of a special six-part Jane Austen series, sponsored throughout by Strictly Jane Austen. We tend to imagine great writers alone — a solitary genius at a small writing desk, which in Jane Austen's case is quite literally true; you can still see the little twelve-sided walnut table at Chawton. But nobody becomes Jane Austen alone, and behind those six perfect novels stands a whole crowded, noisy, loving and complicated world of people. Jonathan Thomas is joined by Theresa Roach, a Jane Austen speaker and one of Strictly Jane Austen's own Bath guides, who has mapped out the entire web of Jane's relationships: an orphaned clergyman father who gave his daughters a boys' education and 500 books to roam in; a sharp-witted mother who may well be the original of Mr. Woodhouse; an eldest brother whose Oxford magazine published Jane under an alliterative pseudonym before she was fifteen; a disabled brother she spoke to on her fingers; the brother who was handed three estates and without whom, Theresa argues, we would have no novels at all; a favorite brother who was a bit of a rogue and negotiated her publishing deals; two naval brothers who sailed into Mansfield Park ; and the sister who was her whole heart and who burned most of her letters to protect her. Then the women beyond the family: a flamboyant French cousin presented at Marie Antoinette's court whose husband was guillotined, who hit it off with Jane instantly and died holding her hand; Martha Lloyd, who took on the housework so Jane could write and who ended up marrying Jane's brother and becoming Lady Austen; and Anne Sharp, a governess in financial limbo whom Jane befriended across a class line she was not supposed to cross. Plus the proposal Jane accepted one evening and fled the next morning, the Irishman she danced with and never forgot, and the clergyman at Sidmouth who may have been the love of her life and who died before anything could come of it. OUR SPONSOR: STRICTLY JANE AUSTEN This entire six-part series is brought to you by Strictly Jane Austen — Bath's most Austentatious travel company. Today's guest, Theresa Roach, is one of their Bath guides, so book a tour and you may well get her. If this episode has put you in the mood to experience the Regency for yourself, there is no better way than stepping directly into Jane Austen's Bath with an expert guide. Strictly Jane Austen's award-winning tours bring Regency England to life through expertly guided walks, immersive storytelling, and carefully curated itineraries in Bath and beyond. Their guides are avid Janeites steeped in Regency knowledge — and, as Austen herself would have it, genuinely "clever, well-informed people." What they offer: Expert Guided Tours of Jane Austen's Bath — Private walking tours through the streets Jane walked, led by expert Janeite guides Period Dress Hire & Afternoon Tea in Bath — Exquisite Regency costume delivered to your hotel, then promenade through Bath and take a sumptuous afternoon tea in a historic tearoom Bridgerton in Bath — A private tour of the city's Bridgerton filming locations and Regency high society Jane Austen & Bath's Gothic History Twilight Tour — Northanger Abbey, Frankenstein, and the darker side of Regency Bath Discovering Jane — A Three-Night Travel Experience in Bath & Hampshire — The full immersive short break, including Jane's Hampshire home and burial place Escape to Bath by Rail from London — Travel from Paddington to Austen's Bath in style Bespoke Group Tours of Bath & Hampshire — Built for individuals, couples, book clubs, and groups of any size Annual Jane Austen Celebrations — Dance, discussion and Regency merriment at the Gainsborough Bath Spa Gift Vouchers — The perfect present for the Janeite in your life Book or learn more at strictlyjaneausten.com · Call +44 1225 333747 (Mon–Fri, 09:00–17:00 GMT) Follow them: Instagram · Facebook Winner, Bristol Bath & Somerset International Tourism Award 2025 (Bronze). Part of ECT Travel, a Bath-based tour operator running successful travel programs since 1993. Links Places in This Episode Jane Austen's House, Chawton — the cottage where the novels were written and published Jane Austen's writing table — the twelve-sided walnut table itself, with a 3D model you can spin Chawton House — Edward Austen Knight's "Great House," now home to early women's writing St Nicholas Church, Steventon — where the Reverend George Austen was rector Godmersham Park Heritage Centre, Kent — Edward's Kent estate Winchester Cathedral — Jane Austen — where she is buried, in the north nave aisle Tonbridge School, Kent — George Austen's school, paid for by his uncle Francis St Swithin's, Walcot, Bath — where George Austen and Cassandra Leigh married in 1764 (the present church is a later rebuild) Books & Further Reading Jane Austen's Letters , edited by Deirdre Le Faye — the surviving 161 letters, the primary source for almost everything in this episode Martha Lloyd's Household Book , edited by Julienne Gehrer — Martha's own recipe and household book, with a foreword by Deirdre Le Faye Miss Austen by Gill Hornby — the novel about Cassandra burning the letters Miss Austen on PBS Masterpiece — the television adaptation, with a second season announced Jane Austen's The History of England — British Library — inside "Volume the Second," Add MS 59874, with Cassandra's watercolor vignettes Lady Susan — the early novella Jane never published, possibly based on cousin Eliza Northanger Abbey · Sense and Sensibility · Pride and Prejudice · Mansfield Park · Emma · Persuasion Previous Episodes in This Series Robert Morrison on The Regency Years Dr. Moira Rudolf on the darker side of Georgian Bath Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm on Jane Austen's filming locations Anglotopia Friends of Anglotopia Club Anglotopia Store Takeaways The Reverend George Austen was unusual among Georgian fathers, and Theresa thinks his own childhood explains why. Orphaned before he was nine, he depended entirely on the goodwill of an uncle who paid for Tonbridge School and then St John's College, Oxford, which he entered at sixteen. Family patronage secured him the parishes of Deane and Steventon. A man who had been lifted up by other people's generosity turned out to be generous with his daughters. Jane's mother, Cassandra Leigh, was the daughter of an Oxford fellow and her husband's intellectual equal — she taught the children to read and write, and wrote poems herself. She was also, Theresa notes, a hypochondriac. Between Mr. Woodhouse in Emma , the "valetudinarian," and Mary Musgrove in Persuasion , who is always ill, Jane appears to have been writing from life. Jane was published far earlier than most people realize. Her eldest brother James ran an Oxford periodical called The Loiterer , which carried a letter from a female contributor named "Sophia Sentiment" — and the alliteration, Theresa says, should make you smell a rat. It was Jane, probably around fourteen. Edward Austen was formally made heir to three vast estates — Steventon, Godmersham and Chawton — and it is Edward, Theresa argues, without whom we would have no novels at all, because it was his Chawton cottage that eventually gave Jane a settled home to write in. Cassandra burned most of Jane's roughly 3,000 letters, leaving 161. Theresa's explanation is protective rather than sinister: Jane wrote devastating things to her sister, including, on hearing of an acquaintance's miscarriage, "she must have looked at her husband." Cassandra was shielding the nieces and nephews — and Jane's reputation as the sweet-tempered woman described on her tombstone. Cassandra, not Jane, was the one who sparkled. She was the beauty, the one with the engagement, a gifted watercolorist, "the man magnet." Jane was in the shadows — and Theresa suggests Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is Cassandra. Jane's world was far less narrow than the "one or two families in a country village" criticism suggests. Her cousin Eliza de Feuillide was raised in India, presented at the French court, knew Marie Antoinette and the Princesse de Lamballe, and married a French nobleman who was guillotined. Jane heard about the run-up to the Revolution firsthand, in a Hampshire parsonage. In December 1802 the Bigg sisters invited Jane to Manydown, and on her first night their younger brother Harris Bigg-Wither proposed. She accepted — then changed her mind overnight and left the next morning. By her own later account to her nieces and nephews, she had accepted because the house was big enough to shelter her mother, Cassandra and Martha Lloyd if her father died. Theresa strongly suspects the sisters engineered the whole thing. Martha Lloyd and Cassandra made a conscious decision at Chawton to take on the housework so Jane could write. These were two women who believed in her talent and wanted her published. Martha later married Jane's brother Francis — Jane and Cassandra had tried to matchmake them thirty years earlier — and eventually became Lady Austen. Theresa's answer to why Jane never married has several strands: no dowry at twenty, the marriage of convenience she considered and then refused, the Sidmouth clergyman who died, the Anglican vow to obey a husband who might forbid her to write, and a suspicion that she wanted a man as liberal and forward-thinking as her father. Above all, her family's imagination and liberality let her make money by her own hand, which Theresa calls revolutionary for a lady of her class. Soundbites "It is quite a shocking fact that the Reverend George Austen was orphaned before his ninth birthday." — Theresa on the childhood that may explain why Jane's father was so unlike other Georgian fathers. "The atmosphere in which Jane would have grown up is fiercely intellectual — almost carelessly intellectual. She is steeped in it from the beginning." "The name of this female contributor was alliterative. Now, doesn't that make you smell a rat when I mention alliteration? The name of the contributor was Sophia Sentiment." — Theresa on Jane being published in her brother's Oxford magazine as a teenager. "One of her letters refers to using her fingers to speak to George. She and Cassandra used sign language to speak to their brother George. So make of that what you will." — Theresa on Jane's disabled brother. "She told Cassandra that someone they knew had had a miscarriage, and Jane Austen wrote: she must have looked at her husband." — Theresa on why Cassandra burned the letters. "Jane was the one in the shadows. Cassandra was the man magnet. I think Cassandra sparkled, and I think Jane was overshadowed." "Our brother Harris has just turned twenty-one. He's not good looking, he's socially gauche. No one else is going to have him. They would be an ideal match. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. It's a very girly type thing to do — okay, they're both strays, let's match them up." — Theresa on who she thinks arranged the proposal at Manydown. "I was in love with Jane Austen when I was a young man, but it was a boyish type of love." — Thomas Lefroy, as an old man and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, quoted by Theresa. "What you've got here are two women who believe in Jane's talent. And they want to encourage it. They want to get her published." — Theresa on Cassandra and Martha Lloyd taking on the housework at Chawton. "She didn't come from nowhere. She came from a highly erudite, sophisticated family that was infused with a very strong Anglican Christian faith." Chapters 00:21 Welcome to the Anglotopia Podcast 00:28 Our Sponsor — Strictly Jane Austen 01:05 Today's Subject — Nobody Becomes Jane Austen Alone 01:13 The Twelve-Sided Walnut Table at Chawton 01:51 Meet Theresa Roach 02:16 THE REVEREND GEORGE AUSTEN — A Different Kind of Georgian Father 02:25 Orphaned Before Nine, and Dependent on Uncle Francis 02:44 Tonbridge School, Then Oxford at Sixteen 02:59 CASSANDRA LEIGH — Daughter of an Oxford Fellow 03:43 Meeting in a Hive of Learning 03:56 Married in Bath, 1764, at St Swithin's 04:12 Deane and Steventon — Family Patronage at Work 05:10 Steventon, Where Jane Is Born 05:21 A Fiercely, Almost Carelessly Intellectual Household 05:38 The Mother Who Taught Them to Read and Write 05:52 A HYPOCHONDRIAC IN THE FAMILY — And Mr. Woodhouse 06:07 "Valetudinarian" — Jane Writing From Life 06:48 THE BROTHERS — James, the Eldest, and The Loiterer 07:05 Sophia Sentiment — Jane Published Before Fifteen 07:46 George — The Disabled Brother, and Speaking on Her Fingers 08:10 Edward — Lucky Edward, Heir to Three Estates 08:44 Henry — The Favorite Brother, the Rogue, and Frank Churchill 09:21 Henry Negotiates His Little Sister's Publishing Deals 09:37 CASSANDRA — Born 1773, and Jane Bennet 09:57 One Bedroom for Forty-One Years, and Three Thousand Letters 10:09 The Burning — And Why Cassandra Did It 10:39 "She Must Have Looked at Her Husband" 11:17 Protecting the Nieces, Nephews and a Reputation 11:22 Cassandra Sparkled and Jane Was Overshadowed 11:43 The History of England and Cassandra's Watercolors 12:17 Francis and Charles — The Naval Brothers 12:49 Trinkets From Sea, and Fanny Price's Brother William 13:17 JANE'S EDUCATION — Formal Schooling Ends at Eleven 13:36 Homeschooled by Her Father, and a Library of 500 Books 13:58 Begging to Go With Cassie — The First School 14:28 TYPHUS AT SOUTHAMPTON — And the Girl Who Wrote Home 15:13 Jane Cooper Saves Them, and Her Mother Dies of It 15:47 The Abbey School, Reading 16:07 Christmas 1786 — The School Fees Run Out 16:18 Parlour Boarders — Why the Girls Were Sent Away at All 16:45 Homeschooled Almost the Same as the Boys 17:15 AUNT PHILLY ARRIVES — 1786 17:33 Philadelphia Austen, the Milliner Who Went to India for a Husband 18:03 Shipped Out as Brides — A Georgian Mail-Order System 18:37 Tysoe Hancock, and the Warren Hastings Rumor 19:02 ELIZA DE FEUILLIDE — The Glamorous French Cousin 19:40 India, Then France 20:03 Presented at Marie Antoinette's Court 20:57 A French Nobleman, and the Guillotine 21:15 Is Jane Austen's Range Really Too Narrow? 21:37 Flamboyant, Elegant, and Fluent in Court Fashion 22:53 Mary Crawford's Harp in Mansfield Park 23:19 Lady Susan — The Novel She Never Published 23:33 Eliza Dies of Breast Cancer in 1813, With Jane Holding Her Hand 23:51 Not a Lonely Artist — A Woman of Bosom Friendships 24:25 MARTHA LLOYD — Ten Years Older, and an Influencer 25:56 All-Night Dances at Basingstoke, and Talking Till Dawn 26:24 Jane's Matchmaking — Mr. W, and Then Brother Francis 27:45 Thirty Years Later, Francis Marries Martha 28:50 She Becomes Lady Austen — Neat Circularity 28:27 ANNE SHARP — The Governess 29:16 A Governess's Income, and the Class Lines Jane Ignored 29:29 Anglican Faith, Charity, and Administering the Poor Law 30:22 Why Jane Connected With Her — Fanny Knight and Plays 30:55 A Presentation Copy of Emma 31:12 Did Cassandra Disapprove? A Lock of Jane's Hair Suggests Not 32:30 THE BIGG SISTERS OF MANYDOWN 32:46 1802 — The Invitation, and the Proposal on the First Night 33:04 Theresa's Theory: The Sisters Arranged It 33:43 She Accepted, Then Changed Her Mind Overnight 33:58 Why She Said Yes — A House Big Enough for Everyone 34:32 What Cassandra Might Have Said That Night 34:54 Sent Away Immediately — And Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey 35:33 Two Brothers in Love With the Same Cousin 36:11 The Rift With the Biggs, and the Honest Opinions Jane Valued 36:51 THOMAS LEFROY — 1795, and an All-Night Dance 37:04 White Soup at Midnight, Carriages at Six 37:22 Dancing With the Limerick-Born Anglo-Irishman 38:04 Flirtation or Romance? Theresa Makes the Case 38:59 Why It Was Never Realistic 39:28 Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and "a Boyish Type of Love" 40:42 THE MAN NOBODY TALKS ABOUT — Sidmouth, 1801 41:08 A Clergyman Cassandra Said Was Perfect for Jane 41:39 The Letter With the Black Wax Seal 42:07 CHAWTON — Where the Books Finally Get Published 42:25 Martha and Cassandra Take On the Housework 42:47 Self-Publishing Sense and Sensibility , 1811 43:19 MARY BENN — The Poor Neighbor Jane Was Kind To 44:21 January 1813 — Collier's Coach Brings Pride and Prejudice 44:43 Reading It Aloud to Miss Benn, Who Doesn't Know 45:26 "I Like Elizabeth Very, Very Much" 45:34 "Mother Didn't Read the Parts Properly" 45:54 Did Austen Ignore the Poor? Emma and Mr. Knightley's Apples 46:25 Miss Bates, and the Word "Prosing" 46:43 SO WHY DIDN'T SHE MARRY? 46:51 No Dowry, and Not a Great Catch at Twenty 47:05 The Marriage of Convenience — and Charlotte Lucas 47:33 The Vow to Obey, and an American Tourist's Confession 48:24 A Husband Might Not Let Her Write 48:35 Did She Want a Man as Liberal as Her Father? 48:49 Austen's Paternalistic Heroes — Knightley, Brandon, Tilney 49:27 She Didn't Want to Compromise 49:53 Making Money by Her Own Hand — Revolutionary for Her Class 50:35 WAS HER RANGE REALLY TOO NARROW? 50:50 Brothers Active Against Slavery, and Thomas Clarkson 51:04 First-Hand Accounts of the French Court 51:25 Chawton on an Arterial Road From London 52:03 A Pervasive Christian Ambience From Day One 52:52 "Take Them to Ireland, But Don't Go There With Them" 53:12 A World in Flux — Industrial Revolution, Napoleon, 1776 53:48 A Family With Enough Imagination to Let Her Write 54:20 "A Single Woman of Good Fortune Is Always Respectable" 54:35 Wrap-Up & Our Sponsor Video Version
