Jane Austen's House Museum is a small independent museum in the village of Chawton near Alton in Hampshire. It is a writer's house museum occupying the 17th-century house (informally known as Chawton Cottage) in which novelist Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life, during which time she wrote, revised and made ready to be published all six of her novels, and the fragment Sanditon. The museum has been a Grade I listed building since 1963. [1]
Previously home to local farmers, the house was briefly a public house, The New Inn, between 1781 and 1787. [2] The pub was the site of two murders, and after the second murder the house was let by Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, to his bailiff, Bridger Seward. [2]
Later, Edward Austen Knight allowed his mother and sisters to live in the house so they had a permanent residence. Jane Austen lived in the house with her mother, her sister Cassandra and a longtime family friend Martha Lloyd from 7 July 1809 until May 1817, when because of illness she moved to Winchester to be near her physician. She died in Winchester on 18 July 1817. Her mother and sister continued to live in the house until their deaths in 1827 and 1845 respectively. [2]
When she arrived at Chawton, Jane Austen had written three novels in draft form; these were Sense and Sensibility , Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey . She revised these novels at the house before getting them published. [3] In addition, it was here that she wrote Mansfield Park , Emma and Persuasion . [4]
Following Cassandra's death, the house was divided into small apartments for labourers, before part of the building became a workman's club by the beginning of the twentieth century. [2] The remainder of the house was split into cottages for estate workers and had been known as Petty Johns and Chawton Cottage. [2]
Jane Austen's House Museum was established in 1947 and until 2014 it was governed by the Jane Austen Memorial Trust. The house was sold by Edward Knight to Thomas Edward Carpenter for £3,000 in 1948 (£116,056 as of 2024). [5] [2] The house was given in trust in 1949 in memory of Carpenter's son, Lieutenant Philip John Carpenter, of the 1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment, 'who fell whilst leading his men at Trasimene, Italy, the 30th day of June 1944, aged 22'. [6]
The museum opened to the public in July 1949 and is visited by approximately 40,000 people each year. [2] [7] [8] It is now owned and run by the Jane Austen's House Museum CIO, a registered charity which has as its objects "the advancement of education and in particular the study of English literature, especially the works of Jane Austen."(registered number: 1156458) [9]
The Museum's collection includes eight music books owned by Jane Austen, with pieces transcribed in her own hand. In addition, among the items of furniture on display at the museum are a Muzio Clementi pianoforte (dated 1813) similar to the piano she owned, and a Hepplewhite bureau-bookcase containing several of her works. [10] The museum also has a collection of other Austen family items and furniture.
The museum owns the only three pieces of jewellery known to have been owned by Austen, a turquoise beaded bracelet, a topaz cross, and a turquoise and gold ring. [11] The gold ring had remained in Austen's family until its 2012 sale at auction to the American singer Kelly Clarkson. [11] The British government placed an export ban on the ring owing to its historic importance, and the museum eventually bought the ring by the export deadline, with the help of £100,000 from an anonymous donor. The ring was placed on display at the museum in February 2014. [11]
Regular events are held at the museum, both to further appreciation of Jane Austen, and to encourage new writers. There are also recitals using the Clementi pianoforte and performances based on her works.
Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.
Alton is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England, near the source of the River Wey. It had a population of 17,816 at the 2011 census.
Chawton is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. The village lies within the South Downs National Park and is famous as the home of Jane Austen for the last eight years of her life.
Sandy Lerner, is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She co-founded Cisco Systems, and used the money from its sale to pursue interests in animal welfare and women's writing. One of her main projects, Chawton House, is in England, but most of her work remains in the United States.
Steventon is a village and a civil parish with a population of about 250 in north Hampshire, England. Situated 7 miles south-west of the town of Basingstoke, between the villages of Overton, Oakley and North Waltham, it is close to Junction 7 of the M3 motorway.
Farringdon is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire in England. The village is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Alton, on the A32 road, close to a source of the River Wey.
Cassandra Elizabeth Austen was an amateur English watercolourist and the elder sister of Jane Austen. The letters between her and Jane form a substantial foundation to scholarly understanding of the life of the novelist.
The Jane Austen Centre at 40 Gay Street in Bath, Somerset, England, is a permanent exhibition which tells the story of Jane Austen's Bath experience, and the effect that visiting and living in the city had on her and her writing.
Miss Austen Regrets is a 2007 biographical drama television film directed by Jeremy Lovering and written by Gwyneth Hughes. It stars Olivia Williams as Jane Austen, with Imogen Poots, Greta Scacchi, Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Edmondson and Jack Huston. It premiered on 21 August 2007 on BBC 1 in the United Kingdom and on 3 February 2008 in the United States by PBS' drama anthology television series Masterpiece as part of The Complete Jane Austen, the US version of The Jane Austen Season.
Jane Austen lived her entire life as part of a family located socially and economically on the lower fringes of the English gentry. The Rev. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh, Jane Austen's parents, lived in Steventon, Hampshire, where Rev. Austen was the rector of the Anglican parish from 1765 until 1801. Jane Austen's immediate family was large and close-knit. She had six brothers—James, George, Charles, Francis, Henry, and Edward—and a beloved older sister, Cassandra. Austen's brother Edward was adopted by Thomas and Elizabeth Knight and eventually inherited their estates at Godmersham, Kent, and Chawton, Hampshire. In 1801, Rev. Austen retired from the ministry and moved his family to Bath, Somerset. He died in 1805 and for the next four years, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother lived first in rented quarters and then in Southampton where they shared a house with Frank Austen's family. During these unsettled years, they spent much time visiting various branches of the family. In 1809, Jane, Cassandra, and their mother moved permanently into a large "cottage" in Chawton village that was part of Edward's nearby estate. Austen lived at Chawton until she moved to Winchester for medical treatment shortly before her death in 1817.
Chawton House is a Grade II* listed manor house in Hampshire on the South side of Chawton village, and the present building was started in 1580.
A Memoir of Jane Austen is a biography of the novelist Jane Austen (1775–1817) published in 1869 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. A second edition was published in 1871 which included previously unpublished Jane Austen writings. A family project, the biography was written by James Edward Austen-Leigh but owed much to the recollections of Jane Austen's many relatives. However, it was the decisions of her sister, Cassandra Austen, to destroy many of Jane's letters after her death that shaped the material available for the biography.
Wyndham William Knight, known in some sources as Wiliam Wyndham Knight, was an English amateur cricketer who played in one first-class cricket match for Kent County Cricket Club in 1862.
Edward Knight was the nephew of Jane Austen and an English amateur cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1822 to 1828.
Edward Austen Knight was the third eldest brother of Jane Austen, and provided her with the use of a cottage in Chawton where she lived for the last years of her life. He was also High Sheriff of Kent in 1801.
Deirdre Le Faye was an English writer and literary critic.
Henry Thomas Austen was a British militia officer, clergyman, banker and the brother of the novelist Jane Austen. He died in 1850 and was buried in Woodbury Park Cemetery, Tunbridge Wells.
The Bank of England £10 note, also known informally as a tenner, is a sterling banknote. It is the second-lowest denomination of banknote issued by the Bank of England. The current polymer note, first issued in 2017, bears the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse and the image of author Jane Austen on the reverse. The final cotton paper note featuring a portrait of naturalist Charles Darwin, first issued in 2000, was withdrawn from circulation on 1 March 2018.
Dorothy Gwynnyd Darnell was an artist from Scotland and founder of the Jane Austen Society in Alton, Hampshire, England. The group was created to purchase the historic Chawton Cottage where novelist Jane Austen spent her last eight years. It is now Jane Austen's House Museum.
Anne Sharp was an English governess and teacher who worked for Edward Austen Knight's family at Godmersham Park and became a close friend of Edward's sister, the writer Jane Austen.
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