A fresh look at Jane Austen's family and times through the lens of her brother Henry

debbiethrower0
22 hours ago
4 min read

Chaplain to the Network Alex Burn and I spent a very enjoyable time in her home town of Farnham last Thursday (May 22) at the launch of Bishop Christopher Herbert's latest book, Jane Austen's Favourite Brother, Henry (Pen and Sword Books, 2025). Waterstones bookshop was packed as friends, family and the town's Mayor gathered to celebrate what has clearly been an enjoyable retirement project!

I spent the Bank Holiday weekend immersed in his new book which tells the life of Henry Thomas Austen - one of Jane's six brothers. By charting his childhood- he was four and a half years older than Jane - and his series of careers as a soldier, paymaster, banker and latterly a Church of England priest, he casts an oblique light on the novelist's own life and character.

Henry played a key role in ensuring his sisters manuscripts were published. As you might expect, Bishop Christopher's research has been meticulous, and there are photos included in a middle section of places and points of interest in Hampshire, Surrey, London and Kent .

The story opens in 1824 in the, then, brewing town of Farnham on the Hampshire/Surrey border with one Robert Sampson, a maltster, and his wife Hannah as they enter church and meet the curate, the Reverend Henry Thomas Austen who's waiting for the family just inside St Andrew's Church door - ready to christen their baby daughter, Joyce.

Sampson went on to be a notable benefactor, founding the town's alms houses for the local older people. As to Jane's brother Henry himself, what an indefatigable man he was. The year 1824 saw him conduct 149 christenings, 34 weddings and 105 funerals if you combine those in both Farnham and Bentley. He was 'perpetual curate' for both places! I much appreciated colourful information about the way priests' livings were acquired at that time, with titular incumbents often living some distance away from their parishes and delegating responsibility to their curates.

The narrative of Henry’s life and that of his relatives brings many places that are not far from where I live in Hampshire alive for me – Steventon, Bentley, Chawton and Farnham to name a few. Even Alton - the birthplace of Anna Chaplaincy for Older People- merits several mentions, not least for being home to the 'Alton Bank' which Henry founded some time after he'd left the army and was quietly selling commissions!

Henry did have a sequence of remarkably varied careers – several lifetimes packed in to one, in effect. How much we might have enjoyed meeting him in person. He seems to have been good company socially, though he rose seemingly unassailably only to fall into bankruptcy. The book shows him displaying an over-confidence that may have been a real character flaw. Perhaps he was too trusting for his own good, prone to becoming somewhat dazzled by those of conspicuous wealth and status. His debtors included his well-to-do brother Edward.

Bishop Christopher has done a masterly job of setting the scene period-wise with so many small telling domestic details as well as the broad-brush strokes of what was happening historically at that time. He paints a picture of a family who maintained close ties despite Henry's ups and downs.

I found Christopher's account of the last few weeks and days of Jane’s life so poignant - as Henry rode to and fro between Bentley and Winchester to see her when she was ailing. Many readers, both near and far, may be able to picture her last home in the city's College Street - the house opening to the public in this 250th anniversary of her birth (in 1775). Her memorial stone in Winchester Cathedral is a well-frequented tourist site and a place of pilgrimage for so many 'Janeites' worldwide.

The new book is a compelling read and a welcome addition to the hundreds of books focusing on Jane Austen that have published over the years. This one is in a pacy, appealing style, and sheds fresh light on Jane’s life (including a close shave she had with espionage!) and her affectionate family relationships. She made her only sister Cassandra her executor. She 'left everything to her', writes Christopher - bar a couple of bequests; one to Henry, and another to a Frenchwoman who had been kind to Henry's first wife Eliza.

Christopher chose his own publisher with care. Pen and Sword specialise in military history and allied themes. He was impressed by a volume of theirs he'd spotted in a Winchester bookstore. At the front of this book he acknowledges his wife, Jan, fulsomely: 'whose life has been, and remains, devoted to the study of English literature; from her I have learnt so much, She has inspired and encouraged me more than I can say.'

Bishop Christopher has been a great friend to Anna Chaplaincy since its very beginnings in Alton. He attended our first annual Gathering at Waverley Abbey, near Farnham, when there were no more than a dozen of us (now there are more than 440 in the national network!). He wrote the Foreword to the Anna Chaplaincy Handbook, now in its second edition.

It's clear how much this former bishop of St Albans (who is also a history of art lecturer and sought-after speaker on End-of-Life issues) has enjoyed following the research trail of local cleric Henry Austen - from the moment his curiosity was piqued, through the whole creative process. What is to be his next topic, ! wonder?