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Austen Family Chart #1.
Last Updated May 2008
| Mary
Austen Born, 1752, Lewes, Sussex Married Thomas Woodgate, 1773. Died 1843  |
Rev. Robert Austen Born, abt, 1710 Died 20 October 1786 |
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| Mary Burgess Born, 22 January 1710 Died 18 January 1782 |
John Burgess Born, abt 1679, Ripe, Sussex |
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| Sarah Born, abt 1683, Ripe, Sussex |
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Mary Austen, 1752-1843 |
Mary Austen "Little Granny"
Born, 1752
Christened, 9 Feb 1752, St Anne's, Lewes, Sussex
Married, Thomas Woodgate, 5 February 1773, at St Anne's, Lewes, Sussex
Died, 1843, London, UK
Austen Chamberlain writes, in Notes on the families Chamberlain and Harben...
"Their daughter, Mary Austen, my great-great-grand-mother, after whom I am named, was born in 1752, and died in 1843. My cousin Fanny Martineau wrote to me some time ago:—
‘The reverent affection with which our mothers regarded her and their own mother was very impressive to us as children. I should think your father would remember being taken into Little Granny’s room now and then at Springfield Grove, Camberwell, and being lifted on to the bed to speak to her. She was 93 or 94 when she died, (actually, only 91) having been bedridden for the last few months through an accident. She used to amuse herself by repeating the Book or Psalms over and over. She knew them all by heart, only requiring the first line now and then to insure the order in which they came. I think I told you that I possess the original portrait taken in her young widow-hood. It is charming both as to subject and workmanship, being a delicately painted oil miniature.’
"And Cousin Fanny goes on to say that she will leave this miniature to me. At present I possess a photograph from the miniature, which was given to my father by Cousin Fanny. My father confirmed my Cousin Fanny’s recollections. He always spoke with great tenderness of ‘Little Granny.’
Biographical Details:
Rev. Robert Austen L.L.B
Born about 1710.
Married, Mary Burgess
Died, 20 October 1786, Lewes, Sussex
According to the the Notes on the families of Chamberlain and Harben Rev. Robert Austen was the Master of the grammar school at Lewes, Sussex. ...
"Mr. Austen resigned the mastership in 1776, when we learn from an advertisement in the Sussex Advertiser that 'the income of the School is Sixty Pounds a year, exclusive of a large house in the town of Lewes, very convenient for taking Boarders and a garden adjoining to it.’ Mrs. Austen died in 1782, Mr. Austen in 1786. They are buried in the churchyard of St. Anne’s, Lewes. Many entries in the Registers of this church are in his handwriting. In the first, dated June 25th, 1750, he signs himself as Curate. The last entry so signed is under date January 30th, 1771; but he officiated again twice in 1772 and once in 1773, in both cases describing himself as Clerk, i.e. Clerk in Holy Orders. It would seem therefore that he was Curate of St. Anne’s from about 1750 to 1771. After this date be became Vicar of Laughton a country parish about six miles from Lewes, and so continued till the date of his death, though he was then residing in Lewes."
For the period 1761 through to 1780, Robert Austen is frequently found to have witnessed all manner of legal documents. He variously signed as;
- Robert Austen of Lewes, Sussex, gent
- Robert Austen, clerk, L.L.B
- Rev. Robert Austen, of Lewes, clerk
- Robert Austen of Lewes, clerk
Among these are a series of mortgage documents for members of Harben family.
Listed, along with six others in 1774 the Rev. Robert Austen, clerk., being seven of the Trustees under and Act of Parliament of 25 Geo.II for repairing the roads from the north end of Malling Street nr. Lewes to Witch Cross and from the north end of Malling Street to the Broil Park Gate and from Offham to Witchcross.
It is mentioned in "Notes on the families of Chamberlain and Harben" that his wife may have the surname 'Morley'. It is my assumption that the surname of founder of the Lewes Free Grammar school, Mrs Agnus Morley, was transposed at some point in earlier family research. There is no connection, however, as Mrs Agnus Morley founded the school in 1512.
On 26 March 1771 he married Thomas Paine and Elizabeth Olive at St. Michael's Church in Lewes. Thomas Paine's later writing would have some impact on the American Revolution and he was first to coin the phrase the 'United States of America'. More information on Thomas Paine can be found here.
In January 1780 he holds the mortgage on 54 Southover High Street and I assume he lived there. This house is still standing and frequently appears in photo's of its much more famous neigbour, 52 Southover High Street, known as "Anne of Cleves House".
The tomb of Robert and Mary Austen appears in the photograph below, and has the following inscription:
Beneath this Tomb lie the Remains
of MARY AUSTEN who died on the 18th of
January 1782 Aged Seventy One Years
In the same place is interred also
the Body of her Husband the Rev.
ROBERT AUSTEN, Vicar of Laughton in this
COUNTY, who died on the 20th of Octr 1786,
in the Seventy Seventh Year of his Age.
St. Anne's Church, Lewes, Sussex.
Above as the Church is today, and below as it was in 1786, and further down as it was in 1780.
The children of Robert & Mary Austen:
Mary Austen, 1752
This is currently the end of the known Austen family line. It is highly likely that we will learn more of Robert Austen - as his many roles and functions in the Lewes community are likely to have been reported in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser which published from 1745.
The speculative earlier history of Robert Austen is:
- That he had an earlier marriage, on 7 April 1729 (he would have been 19 years of age), "Robert Austen & Elizabeth Smith of Isfield - spinster." There is no information to support (or deny) this marriage is of the same Robert Austen - this was an age, however, when smallpox was still prevalent and childbirth claims many women.
- He could be the son of Robert Austen, of Horsham (a butcher). A loose possibility based on the only likely name match in the Marriage records of Lewes and the Deanery of South Malling, collated by the Sussex Record Society, and covers all entries of this area from the early 1600s to around the 1730s.
- Or, he could be the son of Edward Austen (born abt 1695) and Anne (no surname), and christened on 7 March 1709, in Burwash, Sussex (right age and not too far away from Lewes)
If he is the second option, the son of Edward and Anne Austen, then he had siblings of;
- Anna Austen (christened, 25 July 1708, Burwash)
- Maria Austen (christened, 9 July 1714, Burwash)
- Sara Austen (christened, 7 May 1716, Burwash)
Persumably, Anne Austen dies beween 1716 and 1717, as Edward marries Joan Burgess on 10 Nov 1717 at St Bartholomews, Burwash.
In the 1734 Sussex list of electors all the Austen's are:
- Clem Austen, Burwash
- Edward Austen, Ticehurst, Tenterden, Kent
- John Austen, Seaford
- Nicholas Austen, Heyshot
- William Austen Esq., Mountfeild, Tenterden, Kent
It is possible that there is a connection to the following inscription in Bethersden Church (in Kent) "Sir George CHOUTE and his son Sir George Choute, Baronet who died 1721 and left his estate to his relation Edward AUSTEN Esquire." If this is a connection then it could explain how Edward moves from Burwash Sussex to Kent. And, his likely grandfather, was Richard Austen (christened 27 Oct 1639 in Burwash), with great-grandparents being Edward and Anne Austen of Burwash.
In the 1747 East Sussex Window and House Tax Assessments, the following Austen's appear:
- Mr Clement Austen (14 lights) - Burwash
- Thomas Austen (19 lights) - Burwash
- William Austen, (0 lights) East Grinstead
- Marta Austen, (0 lights) East Grinstead
- Richard Austen, (11 lights) East Grinstead
- William Austen jr, (9 lights) Beckley
- William Austen, (9 lights) Beckley
And, other stray Austen's in Lewes:
- Susannah Austen (1716-1790) married Thomas Mantell in Lewes about 1746.
- Sarah Austen (25 Nov 1755 to 23 Dec 1828) and born in Peckham Kent, married Thomas Mantell, a shoemaker in Lewes - he's the son of the above Thomas Mantell.
- Sarah Austen, christened 15 Sept 1755, Rye, Sussex, daughter of John and Susannah Austen
- Sarah Austen, chisterned 18 Sept 1757, East Grinstead, Sussex, daughter of John and Sarah Austen.
A useful link is Peter Cox's list of Sussex references for Austen.
Biographical Details:
Mary Burgess
Born 22 January 1710 - Ripe, Sussex, England.
Married, Rev. Robert Austen
Died, 18 January 1782, Lewes, Sussex
Little is yet known about Mary.