May, Lou & Cass

by Sophia Hillan

  List of Abbreviations

  CBK – Charles Bridges Knight

  CEA – Cassandra Elizabeth Austen

  CKS – Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Kent

  EKR – Elizabeth Knight Rice, formerly Austen

  FCK – Fanny Catherine Knatchbull, formerly Austen

  GHB – Gweedore Hotel Book

  HRO – Hampshire Record Office

  JA – Jane Austen

  JAHM – Jane Austen’s House Museum

  JEAL – James Edward Austen Leigh

  LGH – Lord George Hill

  MAAL – Mary Augusta Austen Leigh

  MK – Marianne Knight, formerly Austen

  PRONI – Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

  Timeline

  1775 – Birth of Jane Austen (JA) at Steventon, Hampshire, 16 December

  The American Revolution begins

  1779 – Birth of JA’s brother, Charles Austen

  1783 – Adoption of JA’s brother Edward Austen (b.1767), later Knight, by Thomas and Catherine Knight of Godmersham, Kent

  1785 – JA and Cassandra (CEA, b.1773) sent to Abbey School, Reading

  1786 – Marriage of Arthur Hill, later 2nd Marquess of Downshire, to – Mary Sandys

  1787 – JA begins writing

  1788 – Birth of Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull Hill, later 3rd Marquess of Downshire, 8 October

  1789 – The French Revolution begins

  Arthur Hill becomes 2nd Marquess of Downshire

  1791 – Edward Austen marries Elizabeth Bridges of Goodnestone Park, 27 December

  1792 – JA’s eldest brother, James Austen (b.1765) marries Anne Mathew

  CEA becomes engaged to Rev. Thomas Fowle

  1793 – Birth of Anna Austen, later Lefroy, daughter of James

  Birth of Fanny Catherine, later Knight (FCK), daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Austen, 23 January

  1794 – Death of Thomas Knight

  Edward Austen inherits estates at Godmersham and Chawton

  Birth of Edward (later Knight), son of Edward and Elizabeth Austen

  Death of Anne, wife of James Austen; Anna Austen makes prolonged stay in Steventon – Thomas Lefroy meets JA

  1795 – Birth of George, later Knight, known to JA as ‘itty Dordy’, son of Edward and Elizabeth Austen

  1796 – Attempted invasion of Ireland by Wolfe Tone, with the assistance of the French

  Thomas Lefroy leaves for London

  Rev. Thomas Fowle leaves for West Indies

  1797 – JA’s novel, First Impressions (later revised as Pride and Prejudice), completed; Lady Susan begun

  Birth of Henry, later Knight, son of Edward and Elizabeth Austen

  James Austen marries Mary Lloyd

  1798 – Rebellion in Ireland; Cornwallis succeeds Camden as Lord Lieutenant

  Birth of William, later Knight, son of Edward and Elizabeth Austen, first to be born at Godmersham

  Birth of James Edward, later Austen Leigh (JEAL), son of James and Mary Austen

  1799 – JA’s brother, Henry Austen (b.1771) in Ireland, serving under Cornwallis

  1800 – Birth of Elizabeth Austen, later Knight (EKR), daughter of Edward and Elizabeth, January

  Rev. George Austen decides to retire as Rector of Steventon, December

  1801 – Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1 January

  Rev. George Austen moves his family to Bath; James Austen becomes Rector of Steventon

  Death of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire, 7 September

  Birth of Marianne Austen, later Knight (MK), 15 September

  Birth of Lord George Hill, posthumous son of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire, December

  1802 – JA accepts and next day refuses proposal of marriage from Harris Bigg-Wither of Manydown

  Mary Sandys, widow of 2nd Marquess of Downshire, created Baroness Sandys in her own right

  1803 – Arrest and execution in Dublin of Robert Emmet, following failed rebellion

  Birth of Charles Austen, later Knight (CBK), son of Edward and Elizabeth, March

  JA’s novel Susan, later known as Northanger Abbey, sold to Crosky & Co., publishers

  1804 – Birth of Louisa Austen, later Knight, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth, 13 November

  JA thought to be engaged in writing The Watsons and Lady Susan

  1805 – Death of Rev. George Austen at Bath; JA ceases writing

  Birth of Caroline Austen, daughter of James and Mary, at Steventon, 18 June

  1806 – JA, CEA and their mother move to Southampton, lodging with Francis Austen and his wife

  Birth of Cassandra Jane Austen, later Knight, 16 November

  1807 – Austens move to Castle Square, Southampton

  1808 – Death of Elizabeth Austen, wife of Edward, following the birth of Brook John, 10 October

  1809 – MK and EKR sent away to school in Wanstead, 30 January

  Austens arrive in Chawton, 5 April; JA makes unsuccessful attempt to have Lady Susan published

  Arthur Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire, comes of age; commits himself to efficient management

  1810 – Sense and Sensibility accepted for publication

  1811 – Beginning of the Regency period

  Publication of Sense and Sensibility, September

  Arthur Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire, marries Lady Maria Windsor, eldest daughter of 5th Earl of Plymouth, 25 October

  1812 – Death of Catherine Knight, adoptive mother of Edward Austen

  Edward Austen’s family takes the name of Knight

  JA sells copyright of Pride and Prejudice to Egerton

  Birth of Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, later 4th Marquess of Downshire, 6 August

  1813 – Publication of Pride and Prejudice, 28 January

  Knights spend four months at Chawton; JA returns with Knights to Godmersham, via London

  1814 – Publication of Mansfield Park, 9 May

  – Anna Austen marries Rev. Benjamin Lefroy, 8 November

  1815 – Persuasion begun, 8 August

  Illness of Henry Austen, nursed back to health by JA, October

  Publication of Emma, December

  Persuasion completed

  1816 – JA begins to feel unwell

  Failure of Austen, Maunde and Tilson, March: Henry Austen bankrupt; Edward suffers great financial loss

  Henry Austen enters the Church

  1817 – Death of James Leigh Perrot, 28 March; omission of Mrs Austen and her daughters grieves JA

  JA makes her will, April

  Edward Knight travels with EKR and George to Paris, May; EKR meets her future husband, Edward Royds Rice

  CEA travels with JA to Winchester in hope of cure, 24 May; William Knight and Henry Austen accompany them; JA and CEA stay at 8 College Street, attended by Mr Lyford; Mary Lloyd Austen helps CEA nurse JA; CBK visits from WinchesterCollege

  JA dies, 18 July; buried in Winchester Cathedral, 24 July

  EKR coming out into society postponed until August following JA’s death

  Posthumous publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, December, dated 1818

  1818 – Lords George and Augustus Hill begin their Grand Tour of Europe

  EKR marries Edward Royds Rice, of Dane Court, Kent, 6 October

  MK enters society following EKR’s marriage; her cousin JEAL, still an impecunious undergraduate at Oxford, falls in love with her; dissuaded by his father, James Austen

  1819 – Death of James Austen; JEAL and his family leave Steventon; Henry Austen holds the living until William Knight comes of age to take it over

  Birth of Edward Bridges Rice, son of EKR; MK in attendance

  1820 – Accession of George IV, formerly Prince Regent

  Henry Austen marries as his second wife Eleanor Jackson, niece to Mr Papillon, former Rector of Chawton

  FCK marries Sir Edward Knatchbull of Mersham le Hatch, Kent, 24 October; Cassandra Knight (aged 16) to share governess with Sir Ed
ward’s daughter, Mary Dorothea

  MK takes over household management of Godmersham Park, aged nineteen

  1822 – MK refuses proposal of marriage from Rev. John Billington, November

  William Knight takes over Steventon living John Knight goes to school at Winchester; Henry Knight in 8th Light Dragoons; Edward Knight Jr Captain in East Kent Militia

  1823 – Formation in Ireland of Catholic Association, under Daniel O’Connell

  Edward Austen Knight supervises building of new Rectory at Steventon

  1824 – Birth of Elizabeth Louisa Rice (Louisa), daughter of EKR

  Birth of Fanny Elizabeth Knatchbull, first child of FCK

  1825 – William Knight marries Caroline Portal

  Birth of Marianne Sophia Rice, daughter of EKR

  1826 – Edward Knight Jr elopes to Scotland with Mary Dorothea Knatchbull, FCK’s stepdaughter and Cassandra’s former schoolfellow, 13/14 May

  1827 – Death of Mrs George Austen (née Cassandra Leigh), March

  Cassandra Knight meets Lord George Hill (LGH) in London, while staying with FCK

  Cassandra refuses a proposal from a Mr Burrows, June; LGH proposes, August; Cassandra accepts, but engagement called off after opposition by LGH’s mother, Lady Downshire

  John Knight joins his regiment in Cork

  1828 – Duke of Wellington Prime Minister

  Thomas Lefroy, former friend of JA, founds club to preserve ‘integrity of the Protestant constitution’

  Francis Austen marries, as second wife, Martha Lloyd, sister of Mary

  Louisa Knight refuses proposal from Sir William Young

  1829 – Peel introduces Catholic Relief Bill, 5 March, enacted 5 April

  Daniel O’Connell not permitted to take his seat in House of Commons

  Louisa Knight receives proposal from George C. Oxenden

  1830 – Accession of William IV, 26 June

  Daniel O’Connell first Catholic to take his seat in House of Commons

  End of Louisa’s relationship with George C. Oxenden

  1831 – Tumultuous Rising Act, following agrarian unrest in Ireland

  LGH becomes MP for Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, 1831–32

  1833 – Publication by Bentley of Collected Edition of JA’s Novels (the Steventon Edition)

  Henry Austen’s revised Memoir published with Sense and Sensibility

  Louisa Knight refuses proposal from Captain Stracey

  LGH Comptroller of the Lord Lieutenant’s Household in Dublin

  Death of Sophia Knight, née Cage, wife and cousin of Henry Knight

  1834 – Melbourne dismissed; Peel forms Tory government

  Cassandra Knight briefly engaged, July–August, to Musgrave Alured Harris; family disapproval ends engagement

  LGH resumes his addresses August; marries Cassandra, 21October, St George’s, Hanover Square; newly married couple spend Christmas with Knights at Godmersham

  1835 – Peel resigns; Melbourne PM

  Death of Lady Salisbury (née Lady Emily Hill), maternal aunt of LGH, by fire at Hatfield House, 22 November

  Birth of Norah Hill, first child of Lord and Lady George Hill, at Godmersham, December

  1836 – Poor Relief Act in England, 31 July

  Death of Lady Downshire, LGH’s mother

  Death of Jane Leigh Perrot; James Edward Austen inherits Scarlets; takes name of Austen Leigh

  1837 – Accession of Queen Victoria

  Birth of Arthur Blundell George Sandys Hill, 13 May

  Marriage of Arthur, later 4th Marquess of Downshire, to Caroline Cotton, daughter of 1st Viscount Combermere, 23 August

  George Knight marries Hilaire, Countess Nelson

  1838 – Extension of Poor Relief Act to Ireland, and Tithe Rent Act

  LGH begins purchase of estate at Gweedore, Co. Donegal

  Death of George Austen, brother of JA (b. 1766), in care since childhood

  CBK leaves Godmersham to become Rector of Chawton

  Death of Mary Knight (née Knatchbull), wife of Edward Knight Jr, following birth of William Brodnax

  1839 – Irish Poor Law Unions (Workhouses) come into existence

  Birth of Augustus Charles Edward Hill, son of Lord and Lady George, at Godmersham, 9 March

  1840 – First great meeting to press for repeal of the Union, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, 26 July

  Edward Knight Jr marries, as second wife, Adela Portal

  1842 – Daniel O’Connell Lord Mayor of Dublin

  Founding of The Nation

  Opening of LGH’s Gweedore Hotel in Donegal

  Death of Cassandra, Lady George Hill, following birth ofCassandra Jane Louisa at Gartlee, Letterkenny, Donegal, 14/15 March 1842; Louisa and CBK go to Donegal for funeral and burial of Cassandra at Conwal Cemetery, Letterkenny

  Louisa takes charge of Hill children; LGH goes to London in April; takes house in summer at Updown, Kent, where Louisa continues to tend the children

  Birth of James McFadden, future parish priest of Gweedore, at Carrigart, Co Donegal

  1843 – Arrest of Daniel O’Connell; William Smith O’Brien joins the Repeal Association

  LGH, in London at first anniversary of Cassandra’s death, taken ill and obliged to stay some days at house of FCK

  1844 – Daniel O’Connell imprisoned, January

  Agrarian movemement (‘Molly Maguires’) active in Leitrim, Longford and Roscommon

  Death of Henry Knight, June

  Death of Mary Austen (née Lloyd), August

  Birth of Montagu George Knight, son of Edward and Adela Knight, 26 October

  Birth of Arthur Wills Blundell Trumbull Sandys Roden Hill, future 5th Marquess of Downshire

  1845 – Visit to Gweedore Hotel by John Mitchel, Charles Gavan Duffy and John O’Hagan

  Widespread failure of potato harvest in Ireland, leading to Great Famine

  Death of CEA at Portsmouth, home of her brother Francis; JA’s letters and MSS distributed among family members

  LGH publishes Facts from Gweedore, account of his work in Donegal

  Louisa Knight spends all summer in Ireland with Hill children

  Death of 3rd Marquess of Downshire, following riding accident

  1846 – Lord John Russell, PM, upholds policy of laissez-faire in Ireland despite widespread famine

  Establishment of Famine Relief Commission; LGH, as chairman, requests further aid for tenants

  Louisa Knight in Donegal and Godmersham with Hill children; commited to building of Glebe House for Protestant tenants of Gweedore

  FCK asks former Godmersham governess, Miss Dorothy Chapman, to patronise LGH’s Facts from Gweedore to augment Louisa’s efforts

  Birth of Lord Arthur Hill, 2nd son of 4th Marquess of Downshire

  1847 – Irish Confederation formed under William Smith O’Brien

  LGH launches appeal for Famine Relief

  Marriage of LGH and Louisa Knight at Wandsbeck, Denmark, 11 May

  1848 – John Mitchel sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation; Gavan Duffy and Smith O’Brien also transported

  William Knight’s three daughters die of scarlet fever

  Henry Rice, son of EKR, dies of cholera in Barbados, aged 27

  1849 – Queen Victoria visits Dublin

  Thomas Carlyle visits Ballyare, Gweedore Hotel and Bunbeg as part of Irish tour

  Birth of George Marcus Wandsbeck Hill, 9 April, Dublin

  FCK leaves Mersham le Hatch for Provender, following death of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 24 May

  Fanny Margaretta Rice, daughter of EKR, marries George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea

  1850 – Founding of Tenant League, 10 August

  Death of Henry Austen, brother of JA

  Hill family at Godmersham all summer

  1851 – Census shows depopulation of Ireland of 19.85% since 1841, following Great Famine

  Debate, House of Lords, over validity of LGH’s marriage to Louis

  Marianne Sophia Rice refuses her cousin, Edward
Knatchbull-Hugesssen, son of FCK

  1852 – Potato blight in Ireland

  Thomas Lefroy Lord Chief Justice in Ireland

  Death of Edward Austen Knight at Godmersham, November

  Death of Charles Austen, JA’s brother, of cholera, serving on Irawaddy River

  JEAL Rector of Bray

  1853 – Edward Knight Jr lets Godmersham; MK goes first to Donegal to the Hills, then to live with CBK at Chawton Rectory

  John Knight marries Margaret Pearson

  Death of Henry Rice, son of EKR

  1854 – Philip and Brodnax Knight, sons of Edward Knight Jr, at Sebastopol; death of Ernest Knight of cholera; Cecil Rice, son of EKR, at battle of Balaclava

  1855 – George Howard, Earl of Carlisle, sworn in as Lord Lieutenant

  MK begins her Garden Book, 16 April

  Death of Maria, widow of 3rd Marquess of Downshire, 7 April

  1857 – Indian Mutiny: Arthur Hill, Somerset Ward (veteran of Crimean War and future husband of Norah Hill), Philip and Brodnax Knight all serving in India

  Marianne Sophia Rice marries T. Emilius Bayley (‘Derby’)

  1858 – Founding of Fenian movement (Irish Republican Brotherhood, or IRB) in Dublin by James Stephens

  Louisa Hill spends spring in Dublin with children; Norah and Cassandra Hill spend summer at Castle Ward, as guests of Lord and Lady Bangor, parents of Somerset Ward

  1859 – Marriage of Norah Hill to Capt. the Hon. Somerset Ward, 8th Regiment of Foot, 26 April

  1860 – Walter Rice, son of EKR, serving in Ireland

  1861 – Beginning of American Civil War

  Visit to Ireland by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

  1862 – Edward Royds Rice, husband of EKR, paralysed after fall

  Commission of Montagu Knight as Ensign, 21st Hampshire Rifle Volunteers, 21 July

  1863 – Henry Knight, son of Edward and Adela Knight, visits Hills in Donegal