Jane Austen, who were you?
We know so little about Jane’s life that history mostly sums her up in a sentence: Jane Austen was a clergyman’s daughter, living a quiet life writing her novels in the country. We know there’s more, but the details elude us. Meanwhile, her family is splattered across the history books: Her aunt was accused of shoplifting, and her cousin’s husband was guillotined in the French Revolution. Jane, I suspect your life wasn’t so quiet after all! This month, to get a closer look at Austen, I’m diving into the colorful lives of her family.
Her father’s headmaster and employer was a murderer.
A child murderer, actually. And people say history is boring.
Jane’s father, George Austen, was orphaned at a young age and taken in by his wealthy uncle. George then attended Tonbridge School, where the controversial Reverend James Cawthorn was headmaster. Cawthorn was a strict disciplinarian, known for his humiliating and harsh punishments. The school’s records contain an account that he once locked a boy in a cupboard and forgot about him until the child starved to death. You can imagine how terrifying this was for the other boys–years later, students continued to tell stories about the ghost of Cawthorn, remorsefully roaming the halls and clanking his chain.
George Austen did okay at Tonbridge, though. He came out of the school with a scholarship to St. John’s College, Oxford—and then returned to Tonbridge after graduating to be Cawthorn’s Deputy. Apparently, Cawthorn was a mentor to some boys, George included.
This site is ending, so I moved this post. Click here to read the rest…and get to theft and guillotine.
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