Austen, Elizabeth |
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BORN 22 Dec 1761, Calcutta - DIED 25 Apr 1813, London BIRTH NAME Hancock, Eliza GRAVE LOCATION London: St. John-at-Hampstead, Old Churchyard, Church Row, Hampstead |
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Eliza Hancock's mother Philadelphia was a sister of Jane Austen's father. She went to India to marry the surgeon Tysoe Saul Hancock (1723-1775) in 1753. Eliza was born in Calcutta in 1761 and perhaps she was the natural child of her godfather Warren Hastings (1732-1818). The family travelled back to England, but in 1765 her father left for India again for financial reasons. After her father's death in 1775 she moved to Paris with her mother because life was cheaper in France. In 1781 she married a French army captain, Jean-François Capot de Feuillide, with whom she had a son, Hastings. Her husband claimed to be a French count and she became Comtesse de Feuillide. In 1786 she first met Jane Austen. During the French revolution she returned to England with her mother in 1790. Her husband was loyal to the monarchy and died under the guillotine in 1794. In England she married her cousing Henry Austen, Jane Austen's brother. Her son died in 1801. Eliza and Henry had no further children. Elizabeth was able to ride and she played the harp. This added to speculation that she was the model for Mary Crawford in Jane's book "Mansfield Park". After a long illness Eliza died in 1813 in London with Jane at her side. She was buried next to her son. In 2002 a book by Deirdre Le Faye on her life and letters was published. Related persons • is cousin of Austen, Jane |
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 The grave of Elizabeth Austen at St. John-at-Hampstead, London. Picture by Androom (13 Aug 1997) |
 The grave of Elizabeth Austen at St. John-at-Hampstead churchyard, London. Picture by Androom (10 Aug 2025) |
 The grave of Elizabeth Austen at St. John-at-Hampstead churchyard, London. Picture by Androom (10 Aug 2025) |
Sources • Le Faye, Deirdre, Jane Austen's Outlandish Cousin, The British Library, London, 2002 • Le Faye, Deirdre (ed.), Jane Austen's Letters, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011 • Wade, Christopher, Hampstead Parish Church Tomb Trail 1, The Old Churchyard, Camden History Society, London, 1986 |
