Jane Austen’s family links to Oxford and The Cotswolds

On December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was born. In 1783 when Jane was aged eight, she and her sister Cassandra, and her cousin Jane Cooper were sent to a boarding school in Oxford. The school was run by a Mrs Crawley, who was the widow of the principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. It was not a happy experience, and Jane complained of having been ‘dragged through numerous dismal chapels, dusty libraries and greasy halls. It gave me the vapours for two days afterwards. I never was but once in Oxford in my life and I am sure I never wish to go there again.’

At that time, Jane and her sister Cassandra lived with their parents and her brothers at Steventon in the peaceful Hampshire countryside. Her father the Revd. George Austen had been appointed the Rectorship of Steventon and Deane.

On the maternal side, Jane was related to the Revd. Thomas Leigh, who had held the living of Adlestrop, near Stow-on-the-Wold, for 51 years. In 1794, 1799 and 1806, Jane visited her Adlestrop cousins and worshipped at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which lay close to The Rectory and Adlestrop House. In the Church are memorials, hatchments and a commemorative plaque to Caroline Leigh. When visiting, the Austens would stay at The Rectory, and while they were there the Revd. Thomas Leigh received the news that the Hon Mary Leigh, who owned Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire had died and that Thomas had inherited the Stoneleigh Abbey Estate.

The Church of St Mary Magdalene, where Jane worshipped when visiting her cousins in Adlestrop. Photo: Christopher Jones/Getty Images Jane wrote an account of their visit to Stoneleigh Abbey to her brother James Austen’s second wife Mary Lloyd.

‘The house is larger than I could have supposed. We can find our way about it… I expected to find everything about the place very fine and all that, but I had no idea of its being so beautiful. I had figured to myself long Avenues, dark Rookeries and dismal Yew Trees, but here there are no such melancholy things.’

Between Stow-on-the-Wold and Adlestrop is the hamlet of Maugersbury, and at the Manor House lived the Chamberlayne family who were good friends of Jane’s mother. At times the family would visit Bath, and Jane wrote about meeting Mrs Chamberlayne there.

‘The Chamerlaynes are still here. I begin to think better of Mrs C -, and upon recollection believe she has rather a long chin than otherwise, as she remembers us in Gloucestershire when we were very charming young women.’

In 2014, I published A Spencer Love Affair with its foreword by the late Duke of Marlborough. Included in this publication is Jane Austen’s family connections to The Cotswolds, including Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, near Oxford.

Stoneleigh Abbey: ‘The house is larger than I could have supposed’. Photo: Adobe Stock In 1787 James’ brother Henry was an undergraduate at Oxford University. At his parents’ home at Steventon Rectory, Henry and the rest of the Austen family would create and perform their own private theatricals.

In 1801 the Revd. Austen retired from being the Rector of Steventon and the Austen family then moved to Bath. In Bath, George Austen was treated by a Doctor William Fellowes who is an ancestor of the screenwriter, Julian Fellowes. Dr Fellowes lived behind the Pump Room in Bath, which today is a hotel. Dr Fellowes was also Physician Extraordinaire to the Prince Regents.

In 1799 Dr Fellowes treated Jane’s brother Edward, and recommended he drank Bath’s therapeutic waters, which helped his gout, as was reported in The Bath Chronicle. As a boy, Edward had been adopted by the wealthy Knight family of Godmersham Park, Kent. On June 19, 1799, Jane wrote in a letter from 18 Queen Square, Bath, where she was staying with her mother.

‘I cannot help asking that had Edward not been tied down to Dr Fellowes, for her had become disengaged, we should all have recommended Dr Mapleton.’

Dr Fellowes also treated the Revd. George Austen until George’s death in Bath in 1805. Jane’s father had married Cassandra Leigh at St Swithin’s Church, Bath, in 1764, and in 1805 Revd. George Austen was buried at St Swithin’s.

Whilst in Bath, the Austen family moved many times. Photo: Adobe Stock Whilst in Bath, the Austen family moved many times. In 1797 they lived at No. 1 The Paragon, and in 1801 moved to 4 Sydney Place. Prior to their move to Sydney Place, Jane stayed for one month with the Leigh-Perrot family at their house in The Paragon. The Leigh-Perrot’s family estate was at North Leigh, near Witney, Oxfordshire. It was Jane’s uncle (her mother’s only brother) who inherited the Northleigh Estate from his great uncle, the Revd. Thomas Leigh of Adelstrop, who had married into the Perrot family. After the Revd. George Austen’s death in March 1805 the Austen family moved to 25 Gay Street, Bath.

In March 1817 James Leigh-Perrot died, and it is said that Jane was upset by her uncle’s will, as he had left all his property to his widow for her life. Apparently, the Austen family had hoped to receive legacies from the Stoneleigh Abbey Estate, and it is feasible that due to this, Jane suffered a relapse of the illness that led to her death (aged 41) on July 24, 1817.

It now appears that Jane may have died of Addison’s disease and that James Leigh-Perrot’s death may have exacerbated the Austen family misfortunes, which also impacted the physical and emotional well-being of Jane Austen, prior to her death at Winchester, Hampshire.

The year 2025 is a good year not only to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, but also the Austen family’s Cotswold connections.

An 1873 engraving of Jane Austen by an unknown artist. Image: Adobe Stock