For a chapter I am doing for the upcoming release of In Bed with the British (June 2017), I explore questions of inheritance and the custom of primogeniture. Needless to say, I could not do so without looking at Jane Austen’s family.
It is said Austen’s family knew something of questions of inheritance for Jane Austen’s mother, Cassandra Leigh, was a distant relative of Sir Thomas Leigh, the Lord Mayor of London under Queen Elizabeth I. For assisting the Royalists against Cromwell in the English Civil War, Leigh was created a baron in 1643. Previously, he had succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his grandfather, 1st Baronet, of Stoneleigh in Warwickhshire, but his term was interrupted when King Charles chose to rule without parliament for some eleven years. Unfortunately, the titles became extinct on the death of the 5th Baron Leigh in 1786.
As a young man, Edward Leigh, 5th Baron Leigh, collected art, books, and furniture for Stoneleigh Abbey, but somehow, beyond what could be considered reasonable in current times, he was declared a “lunatick” by John Munro, a doctor from Bedlam Hospital. According to the proceeding before the House of Lords regarding the Leigh Peerage, Leigh was committed to the guardianship of his sister Mary and his uncle. He did not appear in public after this event. In 1786, he died unmarried and without heirs, leaving the barony dormant. In 1839, the poet Chandos Leigh was created 1st Baron Leigh of Stoneleigh. His bloodlines traced back to Rowland Leigh, the eldest son of the aforementioned Sir Thomas Leigh. The Stoneleigh estate became the largest in Warwickshire, but its future was in question in 1806 when its then owner Mary Leigh died without children. A possible inheritor was the Rev Thomas Leigh, of Adlestrop in Gloucestershire – and this news arrived just while Jane Austen, her mother and sister were visiting him. They had traveled to Gloucestershire after Reverend Austen’s death. They all set off immediately for Stoneleigh.
Mrs Austen wrote to her daughter-in-law of the house. She, Jane and Cassandra stayed at Stoneleigh for some ten days. Mrs. Austen spoke of the house being so large that they she and her daughters kept getting lost in its passageways. “I had expected to find everything about the place very fine and all that, but I had no idea of its being so beautiful,” she wrote. “The Avon runs near the house, amidst green meadows, bounded by large and beautiful woods, full of delightful walks.”
The Austens’ financial security was uncertain following Reverend Austen’s recent death. The visit to Stoneleigh was likely a delightful diversion in the mix of so many misgivings. Eventually, the Austen ladies departed, leaving their cousin to learn more of his inheritance claim. “Jane never revisited, but Stoneleigh and its ancestral history does resurface in her novels. Some of her characters are named after Leigh family connections, such as Willoughby, Woodhouse, Wentworth and Osborne. In Mansfield Park the description of the fictitious Sotherton Court has many resonances of Stoneleigh Abbey, including details of the chapel, grounds and nearby village with almshouses, and Northanger Abbey is set in an old abbey which has become a country home, like Stoneleigh which was founded in 1154 by Cistercian monks.”
In 1792, 14 years before Jane Austen’s visit to Stoneleigh, Mary Leigh who owned the abbey and much surrounding land presented Jane’s clergyman brother James with the living of Cubbington, a village near Leamington. The income, however, was insufficient to tempt James away from his Hampshire parish, so he hired a curate for Cubbington to do the job for him, a common practice at the time.
Jane Lark has a nice piece on Stoneleigh Abbey and the renovations made there.
Somehow I missed this post last week. Thanks for such a fascinating insight into some of Jane Austen’s distant relatives, Regina.
I re-read Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey for the first time in some years (especially MP) and can definitely see what you mean about the possible influence the Stoneleigh visit had on those two works.
It’s started me thinking what difference would it have made to the life of Jane, her mother and sister if somehow they’d have been able to stay on at Stoneleigh instead of going first to Southampton and then Chawton, three years later?
Thanks for this informative post.
Marilyn
Thanks for the wonderfully informative post, Regina!
Thank you for this fascinating post!
I don’t know much about Jane Austen’s family history and connections so this was very interesting, thanks for sharing.
Married at 11? and to a man of 31? I wonder how old she was when she had her first baby? I thought Lydia Bennet was way too young to marry at 15!
Thanks for this post Regina. I often think it would be nice to live in a bigger house but now I’m not so sure I would enjoy losing my way trying to go to bed!!!
The laws of marriage during the Regency were 12 for girls and 14 for boys. One can imagine how closely marriage laws were managed during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Our Collins Hemingway (who is a wealth of information on all things Austen) sent me this regarding the post: “Regina, you mention that the 5th Baron Leigh was declared a “lunatick.” His sister Mary, who lived until 1806, also suffered serious mental problems. It was her death that led Thomas to race up from Adelstrop and claim Stoneleigh manor in advance of the other cousins, dragging along the Austen women, who were staying with him at the time. Strange procession, indeed. Mrs. Austen was the sister of another cousin and claimant, who later accepted a payout. This much distressed the Austens, who hoped that the oldest brother James would eventually inherit from the childless Leigh-Perrots. Jane called their settlement a ‘vile compromise.'”
“His wife, Sir Rowland Hill’s niece Alice Barker, was 11 at the time of their marriage – he was 31.” Yikes!!!!
This was fascinating, Regina! I can definitely see echoes of Stoneleigh in Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey! I had no idea there were any connections to actual titles in Jane’s family.
Would that not make an excellent variation plot line?