In the preceding chapter I have dealt pretty fully with the relationships which accrued to Jane Austen through the marriage of her brother Edward to Elizabeth Bridges, and her consequent connection with Godmersham and Goodnestone.

Before, however, I come to speak of her non-Kentish relations, it may be as well to specify the children of that marriage, the elder of whom are constantly mentioned in the letters. The ‘Fanny’ whose name occurs so often, and to whom some of the later letters are addressed, is Fanny Catherine, the eldest child of the marriage, who was born on January 23, 1793. A son may be pardoned for saying (especially when it is simply and literally true) that never was a more exemplary life passed than that of his mother. Upon October 10, 1808, just before she had completed her sixteenth year, her mother (the ‘Elizabeth’ of the letters) died very suddenly, leaving ten children besides herself, the youngest quite a baby. From that moment my mother took charge of the family, watched over her brothers and sisters, was her father's right hand and mainstay, and proved herself as admirable in that position as afterwards in her married life. She married my father, Sir Edward Knatchbull, as his second wife, on October 24, 1820, when she had nearly completed her twenty-eighth year, and died on Christmas morning, 1882, being within four weeks of completing her ninetieth year.