JANE AUSTEN’S LIFE: A TIMELINE

Dates are taken from Jane Austen, A Family Record by Deirdre Le Faye, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2004).

 

1764
26 April	Jane’s parents, the Reverend George Austen and Cassandra Leigh, marry.
1765
13 February	Jane’s brother James born in Deane, Hampshire.
1766
26 August	Jane’s brother George born.
1767
7 October	Jane’s brother Edward born.
1768
Summer	Austens move to Steventon, Hampshire.
1771
8 June	Jane’s brother Henry Thomas born.
1773
	The Austens supplement their income by taking boarding pupils at Steventon, which continues until 1796.
9 January	Jane’s only sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, born.
23 March	The Reverend Austen becomes rector of Deane in addition to Steventon.
1774
23 April	Jane’s brother Francis William (Frank) born.
1775
16 December	Jane Austen born.
1779
23 June	Jane’s brother Charles John born.
1783
	Edward adopted by the Knights of Godmersham, Kent.
Spring	Jane, Cassandra and their cousin Jane Cooper go away to school in Oxford. Later that year the school moves to Southampton and the girls fall ill. Jane almost dies. They return home.
1785
Spring	Jane and Cassandra go away to the Abbey School in Reading.
1786
December	Jane and Cassandra leave the Abbey School and henceforth are educated at home.
1787
	Jane works on the earliest of her juvenilia. This will be collected in Volume the First.
1791
27 December	Edward marries Elizabeth Bridges.
1792
	Cassandra becomes engaged to Tom Fowle, one of her father’s former pupils.
27 March	James marries Anne Mathew.
1793
	Jane begins to write a play, Sir Charles Grandison, a comedy.
23 January	Edward’s first child, Fanny, born. She will be a favourite of Jane and Cassandra.
15 April	James’s first child, Anna, born.
3 June	Jane writes her last item of juvenilia.
1794
	Jane is probably writing Lady Susan.
1795
	Jane is probably writing Elinor and Marianne.
3 May	James’s wife dies. Little Anna sent to live with her grandparents and aunts at Steventon until January 1797.
December	Jane’s flirtation with Tom Lefroy during his visit to Ashe begins (ending in January 1796).
1796
January	Tom Fowle sails for the West Indies as a ship’s chaplain.
October	Jane begins writing First Impressions; it will become Pride and Prejudice.
1797
17 January	James remarries, to Mary Lloyd, sister of Jane’s friend Martha.
February	Tom Fowle dies of yellow fever in San Domingo and is buried at sea.
August	Jane finishes First Impressions.
1 November	The Reverend Austen offers First Impressions to the publisher Thomas Cadell. The manuscript is returned unopened.
November	Jane begins to revise Elinor and Marianne; it eventually becomes Sense and Sensibility.
Winter	The Reverend Samuel Blackall visits Ashe and is interested in Jane.
31 December	Henry marries Eliza de Feuillide.
1798
August	Jane (probably) begins writing Susan, which eventually becomes Northanger Abbey.
1799
End of June	Jane (probably) finishes Susan.
1800
December	The Reverend Austen retires.
1801
May	The Reverend and Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane leave Steventon for Bath.
Late May	Jane, Cassandra and their parents have a seaside holiday, most likely at Sidmouth and Colyton. Jane probably has a holiday romance with a young clergyman.
1802
25 November	Jane and Cassandra visit the Biggs.
2 December	Harris Bigg-Wither proposes to Jane. She accepts.
3 December	Jane breaks off the engagement; the sisters flee to Steventon and then return to Bath.
Winter	Jane revises Susan.
1803
Spring	Jane sells Susan to Crosby and Co. for £10.
Summer	More trips to the seaside, probably Charmouth, Uplyme, and Pinny.
November	A visit to Lyme Regis.
1804
	Jane (probably) begins The Watsons.
25 October	Return to Bath and move to 3 Green Park Buildings East.
16 December	Jane’s friend Mrs Anne Lefroy of Ashe is killed in a riding accident on Jane’s birthday.
1805
21 January	The Reverend Austen dies suddenly in Bath. His pension dies with him.
25 March	Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane move to 25 Gay Street.
Summer	Jane possibly courted by Edward Bridges. Martha Lloyd joins the Austen household.
1806
29 January	The Austens move to yet cheaper lodgings in Trim Street, Bath.
2 July	Mrs Austen, Jane and Cassandra leave Bath, and go via Clifton to Adlestrop and later to stay with the Coopers at Hamstall Ridware.
24 July	Frank marries Mary Gibson.
October	Mrs Austen, Jane and Cassandra move to Southampton to share a house with Frank and Mary.
1807
March	The Austens move to Castle Square, Southampton.
19 May	Charles marries Fanny Palmer in Bermuda.
September	Edward arranges a family gathering at Chawton Great House, followed by other family gatherings in Southampton.
1808
10 October	Edward’s wife dies after giving birth to her eleventh child. Jane looks after some of the bereaved children in Southampton.
1809
5 April	Jane writes the famous M.A.D. letter to Crosby and Co.
7 July	Jane, Cassandra, Mrs Austen and Martha Lloyd move to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire.
1810
Winter	Sense and Sensibility accepted for publication by Thomas Egerton.
1811
February	Jane starts planning Mansfield Park.
30 October	Sense and Sensibility ‘By A Lady’ is published.
Winter	Jane is revising First Impressions.
1812
Autumn	Jane sells the copyright of Pride and Prejudice to Egerton for £110.
1813
28 January	Pride and Prejudice ‘By The Author of Sense and Sensibility’ is published.
April	Jane goes to London to help care for Henry’s wife Eliza, who nevertheless dies. Jane returns to Chawton but spends more time with Henry in May.
Summer	Jane finishes Mansfield Park.
November	Second editions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility published.
1814
21 January	Jane begins Emma.
9 May	Mansfield Park is published by Egerton.
6 September	Charles’s wife, Fanny, dies after childbirth.
1815
29 March	Emma is finished.
8 August	Jane begins Persuasion.
4 October	Jane goes to London to nurse Henry.
13 November	Jane visits the Prince Regent’s library at Carlton House. She is ‘invited’ to dedicate her next work to him.
End of December	Emma is published by John Murray.
1816
Spring	Jane’s health begins to fail. Henry visits Crosby and Co. and, using Jane’s money, buys back the manuscript of Susan. Jane revises Susan for publication.
22 May–15 June	Jane and Cassandra visit Cheltenham, ­seeking a cure for Jane.
6 August	Persuasion completed.
1817
27 January–18 March	Jane works on Sanditon until she abandons it, too ill to continue.
27 April	Jane makes her will.
24 May	Jane and Cassandra move to Winchester to be closer to Jane’s doctor.
18 July	Jane dies, aged forty-one.
24 July	Jane buried in Winchester Cathedral.
End of December	Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published together by Murray with Henry’s ‘Biographical Notice of the Author’.