Fanny Palmer Austen’s Choice of Style and Dress

Fanny Palmer Austen’s appearance in her fine portrait by Robert Field reveals much about her style. She is wearing a fashionable gown for this occasion, but given her transitory naval life, she must have found it challenging to maintain a modish style of dress. A review of her letters and pocket diary, and of her family interactions suggest how she managed her wardrobe according to fashionable Regency values and opinions.

Fig. 1: Fanny Palmer Austen by British portrait painter, Robert Field, c. 1810

Fanny Palmer Austen was about twenty-one when she posed for Field at his studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is wearing a white muslin gown, decorated with what appears to be a muslin frill. Fanny is very much in the style of the day for woman of the gentry class favoured white clothing. Over her gown, she is wearing a pelisse, that is a long coat cut on the same lines as her gown. Fanny’s pelisse was constructed from wine-coloured silk and is lined in dark blue. Her headdress is made from “lustrous satin ribbon.”[1] Fanny’s overall sense of colour is good. Her white dress and the coordinated shade of her pelisse are choices which suit her fair complexion and light hair.[2]

According to Regency attitudes, “everything in a person’s ensemble revealed something about them to the Regency observer. Cut, fit and style were important for conveying the message.”[3]  In Fanny’s case, we can see that her figure is slim and her clothes fit well; they appear to be sewn from fashionable fabrics, such as muslin, satin, and silk. In addition, Fanny’s hair style, which featured a cluster of curls about the face, was also very much in vogue. A portrait of Lady Croke (1808), also painted by Field, shows a similar way of arranging her hair. The image Fanny presents is reminiscent of Fanny Burney’s sentiment on what dress ought to do for its wearer - it should suit the style of her beauty and “assimilate with the character of her … gender and class.”[4] 

The Field portrait provides unique access to Fanny’s clothing sense when she was in Halifax. When she sailed to England in 1811, her social spheres changed and, with them, the social influences on her. There were family visits to Jane, Cassandra, and Mrs Austen in the Hampshire village of Chawton, and to the wealthy and fashionable Knight family at Charles’s brother, Edward’s, country estate of Godmersham Park. Additionally, Fanny visited the London home of her parents at 22 Keppel Street. But during 1812 -1814 Fanny lived at sea where she made a home for her husband and young daughters aboard HMS Namur (74 guns).[5] Fanny needed to assemble and maintain clothing which suited her varied lifestyles. Her situation must have prompted a reassessment of her current wardrobe. Gowns that had been perfectly acceptable in colonial Bermuda and Halifax might not be so admired in more sophisticated British circles nor practical for living aboard ship.

Fig.2: Godmersham Park: Where Fanny visited with Charles in 1812 and 1813

For the Godmersham visits, which took place for two to one-week periods in July and October 1812 and 1813, Fanny would need clothes appropriate for the entertainments of the household. We can imagine her packing a variety of muslin gowns, including some suitable for formal dining and for visiting the Knights’ family friends in the neighbourhood. We know that Jane Austen carefully chose her clothes for one of her Godmersham visits. For example, a gown she “brought for special occasions, was insurance against any faux pas as to levels of dress, and would have [as current fashion dictated] been low necked.”[6]  

Jane Austen provides a clue as to the effect that Fanny Austen created at Godmersham when both women were guests there in October 1813. According to Jane’s approving appraisal, Fanny appeared “as neat and white this morning as possible.”[7] To complete her look, she would need to have the appropriate outer wear: a pelisse of suitable texture and colour and perhaps several spencers.[8] Such garments, which could be worn indoors or outside, would provide style, and warmth on occasions when Fanny was driving about in the Knight carriage to view nearby Eastwell Park or exploring the gardens and paths on the estate. Sturdy leather walking shoes or half boots, with a leather lower half and fabric upper, were a must for country walking. Several pairs of elegant, decorative silk shoes would be useful for indoor gatherings and dancing. Some of these items would also be appropriate for Fanny’s lifestyle when visiting her parents in London. They lived in a fashionable part of the city, just off Russell Square, and they had a social circle of cousins and friends, that Fanny would join for supper parties when she was in town.

Fanny’s clothing needs were quite different while aboard the Namur. There were occasions when she needed to dress defensively to combat the extremes of weather. She had to be prepared for bone chilling fogs, blustery winds with driving rain and stormy seas as well as very hot days of unremitting sunshine. For winter wear, she required woolen dresses, pelisses, shawls, and mantles, and during the coldest months, Fanny most likely dressed in layers. Dress historian Hilary Davidson has speculated that Fanny’s purchase of a “waistcoat,” for 12s. 6d., as recorded in her pocket diary for early 1814, refers to a type of warm flannel undergarment, consisting of a “wraparound bodice, buttoning down the front, with gores for hips and bust.”[9] Red hooded cloaks made from red worsted wool were very popular for British outdoor country life. Such an item would protect Fanny during wet weather at sea and could be useful when travelling to join the Austen families in Kent and Hampshire and the Palmers in London. 

Bermuda-born Fanny also knew the importance of being well protected on days of continuous sunshine. Not only did a straw hat provide respite from the heat but it offered a means for preserving an untanned, pale skin which was considered “the epitome of beauty.”[10] Fanny may have brought Bermuda-made straw hats with her to England, but if not, straw hats could be readily purchased in London. A directory for shops on Oxford Street, London (1817), listed ten straw bonnet manufactories.   

By no means was all of Fanny’s wardrobe purchased. Like most genteel women of her time she had learned to sew and so she could satisfy some of her clothing needs while sustaining a modish style of dress. Her letters and pocket diary show that she was committed to constructing clothing and that she had the skills to do so. While in Halifax she made a tucker,[11] which she sent to Bermuda for her sister, Esther. She also created some “very tidy little spencers,”[12] including one for her nephew, Hamilton, and other items for her two-year-old daughter, Cassy. They were most likely short frocks and pantaloons as Cassy was proving to be a vigorous child. She does not write about making her own gowns, but it is at least likely that she could and sometimes did, although the fit might not equal the effect achieved by a professional dress maker.    

While there were shops where drapers sold fabrics and milliners sold hats, ready made gowns were not always regularly for sale. Ladies who could not afford a bespoke gown from a dress maker or mantua maker, often proved to be ingenious in altering the basic shape of an existing gown to reflect more nearly the latest style. According to Hilary Davidson, “once their garments existed, Austen and her contemporaries sallied forth with confidence into amending, turning, and renewing them, refashioning clothes for as long as the fabric endured. …The point of alterations was not only to extend the life of a garment and prevent boredom with a limited wardrobe, but also to remain current, and to pass community scrutiny.”[13] Economies were never far from Fanny’s mind, given the uncertainties of Charles’s employ within the navy, so it is likely that the resourceful Fanny followed this lead and made the alterations which she thought would make her existing wardrobe fashionable once more.[14]

Another popular practice to enliven gowns was to add or replace decorative trims, such as ribbon, lace, flowers, fringing, and braid. As Davidson suggests, “haberdashery[15] applied in inventive, novel ways was a quick, cheap means of achieving freshness and fashion, a significant vehicle for a Regency women’s expression of individual taste when investment in a new garment was a large financial outlay.”[16] Fanny’s pocket diary for early 1814 records the purchase of ribbons, some of which she might have used for trimming a dress. Fanny had an example in Jane Austen who was a devotee of ribbon. She wrote Cassandra in March 1814 that she was “determined to trim [her] lilac sarsenet[17] with black satin ribbon just as my China Crepe is, 6d width at the bottom, 3d or 4d at the top.” In her opinion “ribbons are all the fashion at Bath.”[18]

Fanny also practiced another widespread habit, that of creating one’s own accessories. In the back of her pocket diary for 1814 she recorded that 24 yards of thread[19] were required to make a purse, most likely by means of “netting.” Netted purses were highly popular. They also served a practical purpose for as dress styles had changed to a more flowing, classical look with the introduction of muslin fabrics, it was a convenient way for a lady to carry her necessities, such as a few coins and a scented handkerchief.[20] Fanny conceivably used the pattern she recorded to make her own purse. She may have also sewed reticules, which were another, popular type of small cloth handbag that was often richly embroidered.

Fig. 3: A reticule in the style of the 1790s. Satin stitch is used for the decorative strawberry motif.[21]

Fig. 4: A reticule in a design of about 1800. Note the tassels and beaded decoration.[22]

The female members of her Austen family had occasion to influence Fanny’s deliberations about fashion. During her visits to Chawton and Godmersham, Fanny would spend hours in the company of Jane, Cassandra and their niece, Fanny Knight, engaged in some sort of sewing. Perhaps they advised each other about how to best alter a gown so as to give it a more contemporary look. Or they may have exchanged views about the latest fashions illustrated in current periodicals, such as Lady’s Magazine, Lady’s Monthly Museum, or Ackermann’s Repository of Arts. [23] Jane Austen valued neatness and  propriety in dress,[24] just the kind of opinions that informed Fanny’s perspective and were ultimately reflected in her own choices of clothes.

Fig. 5: Sewing was a significant and regular activity for genteel women.[25]

The Austen women likely also shared opinions about styles they individually observed on visits to London. Prior to the publication of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1812), and Mansfield Park (1814), Jane spent time in London at her brother Henry’s house checking the proofs of each novel. Being temporarily in her brother’s social circle, she was well placed to notice current styles of dress. Fanny also spent time in London visiting her parents on Keppel Street, giving her opportunities to see the latest style in hats, the newest designs for sleeves, and the appropriate lengths for hems.

Fanny was fortunate that her naval connections gave her access to imported dress making materials, even during the trade restrictions of war time. While in Halifax, she received some unexpected yardage of India crepe, sent by Charles’s naval brother Francis, who was bringing home gifts for the Austen family from Canton, China. With this largesse, she had a Halifax dress maker, Miss Johnson, use part of the fabric to make up a gown for her sister, Esther. Fanny also had opportunities for shopping by proxy. While living on the Namur, she learned that another naval officer, Captain Baldwin, would happily take orders for “Handsome Velvets” from Holland “at about 4 Guineas the dress & also Sarsenets.”[26] She was willing to order some for her mother and her sister, Harriet, but not for herself as she did not think her family’s economy could support such an extravagance at this time.[27]

It is providential that we have the delightful portrait of Fanny when she was in North America, but a pity there are no paintings which show us Fanny’s appearance after she had arrived in England. Were such images to exist, I expect they would reveal a young woman who maintained the same good colour sense and simplicity of style, as are displayed in her portrait by Field. We may assume Fanny successfully continued to embody the changing look of the Regency period in her own personal way.

Fig. 6: Cover of Hilary Davidson’s book, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen Regency Fashion

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[1] See Hilary Davidson, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen Regency Fashion (afterwards HD), Yale University Press, 2019, Fig. 7.2, 250. Thanks to dress and textile historian Hilary Davidson for the richness of information in this fine new book.

[2] In 1811 Fanny’s young niece, Caroline Austen described Fanny thus: “she was fair and pink, with very light hair, and I admired her greatly.” Reminiscences of Caroline Austen, ed. Deirdre Le Faye, 2011, 26.

[3] HD, 47.

[4] HD, 41.

[5] The Namur was a working naval vessel which rode at anchor at the Great Nore, the anchorage off Sheerness Kent.

[6] HD, 193.

[7] See Jane’s letter to Cassandra, 15 October 1813, in Jane Austen’s Letters, ed Deirdre Le Faye, 4th ed., 2011, 241.

[8] A spencer was a “short, close-fitting jacket, … [which] followed the form of the gown bodice over which it was worn” (HD, 286).

[9] HD, 70.

[10] See HD, 151. Nor was this only a feminine ideal:  In Persuasion, Sir Walter Elliott makes a scathing comment about the appearance of a retired Admiral: “his face [was]the colour of mahogany, all lines and wrinkles, rough and rugged to the last degree … an example of what a sea faring-life can do.” See Persuasion, ed. R.C. Chapman, 3rd. ed. 1933, 20.

[11] A tucker was “a separate edging of linen, lawn, muslin or some other fine material, worn around the top of a low-necked bodice and tucked into it” (HD, 297). For Fanny’s mention of a tucker, see Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (hereafter JATS), 2017, 66.

[12] Fanny Austen to Esther Esten, 14 August 1810. See JATS, 65.

[13] See HD, 121-22. There are many instances in Jane and Cassandra Austen’s correspondence which detail plans for altering and enhancing existing garments. As Davidson observes, “their correspondence demonstrates practical knowledge of dress construction: how many skirt breadths can be got from a length of muslin; where angled side gores need to be added” (HD,122).

[14] Fanny had another reason for altering her gowns, as she was pregnant twice between 1812 and 1814.  

[15] Small items used in sewing.

[16] HD, 122. 

[17] Sarsenet was a fine soft, silk material.

[18] Letters, Jane to Cassandra, 6 March 1814, 269.

[19] The thread would be either silk, cotton, linen or woollen.

[20] Small purses were a welcome change from the previous fashion of wearing “pockets,” bags with a slit opening tied around the waist under the skirt and used to carry one’s necessities. See HD, 83.

[21] Thanks to Joy McSwain of JASNA NS, the creator of this period reticule, for permission to photograph and reproduce the image.

[22] Thanks also to Darcy Johns of JASNA NS for permission to reproduce an image of the period reticule she has made.

[23] While at Godmersham in 1813 Fanny participated in another activity relating to fashion. She and her niece, Fanny Knight, took Fanny’s younger sisters, Louisa and Cass, to Canterbury to try on stays. Stays were a “close- fitting under garment, shaped and stiffened with whalebone, cording … and closed with lacing, which shaped the wearer’s torso” (HD, 296).

[24] See HD, 76.

[25] “Industrious Jenny Ever Useful Miss!! Employs Her Time In Making A Pelisse.” Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

[26] Fanny Austen to her sister Harriet Palmer, 5 February 1814. See JATS, 148.

[27] Even though Charles’s salary on the Namur was about £500 per annum, this was a temporary assignment and there was no certainty that Charles would be posted into another vessel when his term as flag officer for Sir Thomas Williams expired in October 1814.

Fanny Palmer Austen’s Connection with Naval Prize

Fanny Palmer Austen was vitally interested in all aspects of her husband Charles Austen’s naval career, including his exploits in chasing and capturing prize vessels. The circumstances of her birth and early life in Bermuda gave her insights about naval prize that other genteel young women would not have. Until 1801 her father, John Grove Palmer, was Advocate General, that is the lawyer who represented the Crown and thus the captor’s interests when a prize case was brought before the Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court. When Fanny married Charles in 1807, she became the sister-in-law of the next office holder, James Christie Esten. Moreover, when on shore Fanny lived with the Estens, close to the harbour in St George’s, Bermuda so she was well located to watch for prize vessels being brought into port and to observe the condition of those riding at anchor awaiting adjudication. With her familial connections, Fanny was no stranger to the complexities of the adjudication of a prize case and the disposal of the vessel and/or cargo when the case was successful.[1]

Given her situation, Fanny was able to monitor Charles’s prize related business. Since his financial success would benefit them both, it was of great personal interest to her. She had plenty of time to keep track of his prize claims and, as Charles was often away at sea, she could readily write him accounts of their progress.

 Fanny also had a very immediate understanding of the risks involved in prize taking. Any British vessel in North American waters was potential prey for cruising enemy warships or privateers. In May 1806, the year Fanny and Charles became engaged, HMS Indian (18 guns) barely escaped capture by four heavily armed French men-of-war. She was chased for fifty hours and only escaped when all the vessels became becalmed and the smaller, lighter Indian was able to put a safe distance between herself and her pursuers by rowing out of their range.[2] Charles was incredibly fortunate to have escaped an encounter which would have proved catastrophic for the Indian and all aboard her. Fanny was bound to discover some of the details of this near disaster. There was coverage of naval news in the local press and, as she was frequently in company with Charles’s naval friends, conversations no doubt touched upon his recent exploits.

In addition, Charles was always at risk from violent storms at sea, like the tremendous hurricane he only just managed to survive in 1807. According to his description, “the wind became so furious as to perfectly overpower the Ship, which lay down on her beam ends, with such a weight of Water on Deck as made me fear she would never right again.”  Mercifully, after the main mast was cut away, “the ship, tho’ with evident difficulty, righted herself.”[3] Fanny was at home in St George’s when the tattered and dismasted Indian limped into port, telling evidence of the vessel’s vulnerability and the dangers Charles had recently faced. Although monitoring Charles’s prize business would take place safely on shore, there was, for Fanny, always the underlying disquiet, even anxiety that the very activity of taking prizes was extremely hazardous.

Fig. 1: St George’s Harbour where prize vessels would anchor prior to adjudication.[4]

In 1806 Charles seized Spanish schooners, the Lustorina (25 May) and the Neustra Senora del Carmen (25 July)[5] and sent them to St George’s where the Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court would adjudicate their capture and where Fanny could observe what happened next.[6] To her satisfaction, the subsequent legal and commercial business was straightforward. As the Spanish vessels were enemy property, both were quickly condemned in Charles’s favour and the vessels ordered to be sold with their cargoes at public auction.

Fanny may have speculated how well they might sell, especially the diverse goods making up their cargoes. The Lustorina carried some unusual items - “98 hides, 25 rolls of tobacco, 27 tons of fustic wood and 15 bags of coffee weighing 1600 pounds.”[7] Any assessment of the probable value of prize goods at auction had to take into account the market fluctuations for goods required for consumption. For example, if coffee and tobacco were locally in short supply, the prices paid would reflect the desirability of these items. The value of an unusual commodity such as 27 tons of fustic wood was harder to predict. In fact, Fanny may have been unfamiliar with this merchandise but would be interested to learn that fustic wood, which comes from a large tropical tree, was a good source for a light-yellow dye.[8] If the right merchant or his agent happened to be in Bermuda at the time of sale, this exotic item could have sold remarkably well.[9]

The Neustra Senora del Carmen was sold in August for £445. 8s.10d.[10] and in September the Bermuda Gazette printed a notice of distribution for the proceeds of the sale of her cargo. The practical Fanny was surely delighted by this increase in Charles’s finances. Moreover, these cases enhanced his naval reputation and were a gratifying addition to Charles’s record of successful prize captures in North American waters.[11]

Fig. 2: The State House, St George’s, built in 1624, where the Vice Admiralty Court ruled on prize cases.

The year 1807 did not bring Fanny and Charles the same good fortune. Charles detained the brig Joseph and James Esten, as Advocate General, argued in court that she was Spanish owned and should be condemned as a lawful prize. At stake were the vessel and its cargo of 244 hogsheads, 62 barrels and 47 saroons of sugar which the Charleston merchant, Lewis Groning, had apparently already purchased for $4500. Knowing the high value of the cargo no doubt increased Fanny’s hopes and trepidation as to the outcome of the case. Court documents show that the  Joseph was claimed by American owners who were prepared to defend their rights to the vessel and her cargo and also expected compensation for “freight, costs, charges and damages, demurrage and expenses.”[12] To Fanny’s chagrin, the court determined that the vessel and cargo were American owned.

The loss of this case became very public knowledge when the Bermuda Gazette (18 April 1807) reported that “the American brig Joseph … which was detained by HMS Indian is cleared and sailed yesterday for Charleston.” This notice appeared just weeks before Fanny and Charles’s wedding day. A different outcome would have added a pleasing celebratory touch to their union. Later that summer, Fanny received more unfortunate news when the Bermuda court ruled against most of Charles’s claims regarding the American ship, the Eliza, and decreed that “the vessel and the greatest part of her cargo was [to be] restored to their owners.”[13]  

Fig. 3: Pay out notice for the Jeune Estelle.

The cases of the Joseph and the Eliza showed Fanny the chanciness of prize adjudications and the gamble Charles sometimes took in capturing what seemed at sea to be a “good and lawful” prize. When the court did not condemn a captured vessel and cargo, Charles was the loser and became liable for multiple fees and costs. As his naval salary was not huge – only £246. 3s. 10d. per annum - covering unexpected expenses would have been a matter of immediate concern.

In contrast to the disappointing outcomes in 1807, Charles’s prize business in 1808 with the captured French privateer, the Jeune Estelle, went very well.[14] The adjudication was swift and uncomplicated, and the sale of  the vessel and cargo proceeded with like rapidity.

The day before the auction on 27 July, Fanny’s sister Esther, who was married to Advocate General, James Esten, wrote to Charles in Halifax about the Jeune Estelle, saying that “the Prize Vessel and Cargo are to be sold tomorrow and are likely to fetch a good price - I have been a little nervous for you this last week, lest an Arrival of Provision should lower the sale of yours.”[15] Here is confirmation that those interested in prize money cast a critical eye on the local market’s supplies and demands in case they should affect what sale prices the prize auction might bring. As it turned out, the cargo of the Jeune Estelle sold for the handsome sum of £2,539. 11s. 4d. After the deductions for costs and fees, Charles received a quarter share amounting to £539. 16s. 11¾d. in Bermuda currency. By the time he was paid, Fanny was six months pregnant with their first child, so it was very pleasing to have extra money at hand as their family was about to increase.

Charles was posted into a frigate, HMS Cleopatra (32 guns) in September 1810. In December, he co-captured the American brig, the Stephen, and her cargo of “turpentine, staves, cotton and English dry goods.”[16] The Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court awarded only the cargo to the captors, and the case was further appealed to the Court of High Admiralty in London. Fanny was not able to fully monitor this case as she and the children had sailed to England with Charles in the Cleopatra in May 1811. Charles’s share of the meagre prize money, after all the costs of the expensive court proceedings had been deducted, was £63. 13s. 7d, and he did not receive it until two and a half years later.

Fig. 4: The Cleopatra (32 guns) in which Charles co-captured the Stephen, his last prize in North American waters.

So long as she remained in Bermuda, Fanny was able to brief Charles about his prize business there, be it the course of an adjudication, the arrangements for the auction of prize goods, or the state of the Bermuda market for basic foodstuffs and trade goods. This was important information that benefited Charles, especially as he needed to juggle the gains and the losses which his prize business generated overall. He also needed to factor in the result of his prize adjudications before the Halifax Vice Admiralty Court. There his cases had had mixed results. Although as a co-captor he received prize money from the condemnation of the Swedish ship, the Dygden, the American ship, the Ocean, and the Spanish schooner, the Rosalie, the court’s favourable ruling regarding his co-capture of the Sally was taken on appeal, where the decision was reversed, making Charles liable for part of the fees and costs.[17] There was another benefit resulting from Fanny’s practical attention to Charles’s prize matters. Her keen and assiduous interest in the process must have further cemented their ever-strengthening partnership.

Fanny did not record her personal responses to Charles’s prize activities, but she must have had a strong emotional stake in them. She had to bear with the hazards which Charles might face in the taking of prizes. She may also have pondered the consequences for the other parties involved. When the prize was an enemy vessel, perhaps she felt some empathy for the crew who were now prisoners of war and she would register regret when there had been fatalities, such as the French sailor killed during the taking of the Jeune Estelle.

Fanny might be excited by the arrival in Bermuda of a new capture by Charles but she had to endure the suspense of the adjudication of the case and then, if the outcome was favourable, the vagaries of its market value. However, it was surely satisfying for Fanny and Charles when prize money was paid out, both as an indicator of his success and as a welcome increment to their family income.

The next phase of Fanny’s life took place in England. From 1811-1814 she got to know the Austen family and became absorbed with raising her young daughters. She faced the challenges of making a home for her increasing family aboard HMS Namur, which, although a working naval vessel, was anchored in British waters off Sheerness, Kent. Her days of monitoring Charles’s prize business had been an intriguing part of her experiences first, as a fiancée, and then, as a naval wife, but that kind of supportive activity on her part had come to an end.       

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[1] Presumably, she was even in the position to enquire about the court’s timetable as it related to Charles’s prize cases.

[2] See the description in Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (JATS), 27.

[3] Charles Austen to Admiral Sir George Berkley, 23 October 1807, ADM 1/ 497, The National Archives (TNA) London, England.

[4] “St George’s Harbour,” by Thomas Driver, 1821. Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

[5] One of these vessels was a Spanish letter of marque, that is a privateer. See a reference to this is the note on Charles’s career in O’Byrne, A Naval Bibliographic Dictionary, 1849.

[6] Another vessel, the American brig the Friends Adventure, was captured by Charles and also sent into Bermuda in 1806 but, given the lack of court documents, it is impossible to know what became of it.

[7] High Court of Admiralty 49/48, TNA.

[8] The fustic tree, Maclura tinctoria, grows in the West Indies and in rain forests in Central and South America.

[9] Unfortunately, available records do not record what sum all these goods realized at auction.

[10] In the currency used, “£” stands for pound, “s” for shillings and “d” for penny. There were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pence in a shilling.

[11]For an inventory of Charles’s prizes see my essay, “Charles Austen: Prize Chaser and Prize Taker on the North American Station,” Persuasions, 80, 193, note 6. After Spain became allied with Britain on 1 July 1808, Spanish vessels could no longer be taken as prize. This development must have disappointed both Fanny and Charles as he had recently accrued prize money from the Lustorina and Neustra Senora del Carmen, and in October 1806, from a Spanish schooner, the Rosalie. See RG8/IV/146, Library Archives Canada.

[12] Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court fonds, case files 1807, box 11, “Joseph.”

[13] HCA 46/8, TNA. Charles recorded a third capture in 1807, the American vessel, the Baltic, but the records of the case in the Bermuda Archives are incomplete.

[14] See my blog, “The Story of the Jeune Estelle,” posted 26 June 2020.

[15] Esther Esten to Charles Austen, 26 July 1808, MA 4500, Morgan Library and Museum, NYC, reproduced in JATS, 214-15.

[16] HMS Cleopatra’s logbook, 19 December 1810, ADM 51/261, TNA. The Cleopatra was in company with HMS Guerriere (38 guns) and HMS Atalante (18 guns).

[17] For a discussion of the Sally, see JATS, 23. 

The Capture of the Jeune Estelle, Charles Austen’s Premier Prize

Dear Readers,
I am happy to be backing blogging again.
Continue to stay safe.
Sheila

During the Napoleonic wars, the mission of the North American squadron of the Royal Navy was to disrupt enemy trade and to protect British and colonial commercial activities. The British ships were expected to engage enemy warships and armed privateers in combat and to apprehend merchant ships transporting enemy trade goods and supplies. As an incentive for this dangerous work, the officers and men of the British ship that captured an enemy vessel or merchant man were offered the prospect of receiving a share of the value of the vessel and/or its cargo. The legitimacy of the capture, according to the law of prize, had to be proven in a Vice Admiralty court. The court had the power to condemn the capture as lawful prize and to order its sale by public auction. The resulting prize money, less costs, would be distributed among all those aboard the British vessel at the time of capture, in proportions and according to rank. Prize taking was a chancy but significant perk of naval conflict.

While serving on the North American station, Charles Austen had the good fortune to capture or co-capture thirteen vessels, at least eight of which provided him with prize money. The records for these cases are very incomplete but the account of the seizure and condemnation of the French privateer, La Jeune Estelle (4 guns), reveals a nearly complete anatomy of a prize case. This capture was Charles’s most valuable prize, according to existing records. Here is how the business proceeded from the moment of capture to the distribution of prize money. 

On 19 June 1808 Charles was cruising off the coast of South Carolina in his sloop of war, HMS Indian (18 guns) when, as reported in the ship’s log, “a strange sail [was] sighted.” Immediately, the Indian went into action. According to Charles’s official report of the event, it became a vigorous encounter. The Indian’s chase guns were fired, killing one Frenchman and wounding another.[1] Eventually, after a tense chase of 1½ hours, the Indian “hove to, boarded and took possession of the [vessel].”[2] She proved to be the French schooner, La Jeune Estelle, enroute from St Mary’s River (near St Augustine’s, Florida) to the French colony of St Domingo, with a crew of 25. She carried a cargo of mixed supplies.[3]

Fig. 1: HMS Atalante, sister ship to Indian (18 guns). The Indian captured the Jeune Estelle at latitude 32 degrees north and longitude 68 degrees west.

Charles was required to continue his mission at sea, but he sent “a lieutenant, master’s mate and midshipman with 20 men to navigate [the prize] to Bermuda”[4] where proceedings before the Vice Admiralty Court followed swiftly. James Christie Esten (Charles’s brother-in-law) acted as Advocate General for the crown’s claim to the vessel and cargo, and, since they were unquestionably enemy property, it is not surprising that on 25 July the court ruled to condemn both as the lawful prize of the Indian, its captor.[5]

Charles had sent the prize to Bermuda because part of her cargo included perishable foodstuffs such as “superfine flour, pork, beef, fish, herrings, bread, cheese, lard, pease and hams.” She also carried “soap, tallow, oil in baskets, small shot, pig iron, a new cable, two hawsers,” and an unspecified amount of claret in casks.[6] According to a notice in the Bermuda Gazette, the agents acting for Charles were Edward Goodrich and Archibald Snedden of Bermuda, while George R. Hulbert represented the interests of Admiral Warren, Charles’s commander-in-chief, and Austen and Maunde in London were Charles’s bankers, the Austen being Charles’s brother, Henry.

The cargo was sold at the premises of Edward Goodrich in St George’s, Bermuda for the gross sum of £2539.11s. 4d. in Bermuda currency.[7] Charles must have been delighted to eventually learned how well the sale had gone.

Fig.2: The Home of Charles’s Bermuda Prize Agent, Edward Goodrich

Fig. 3: An Auction of Prize Goods, known as a Vendue.

The vessel, the Jeune Estelle, was, as expected, also sold because the eventual payout notice in the Bermuda Gazette refers to “a distribution of the net proceeds of the said vessel and cargo.” Unfortunately, there is no record of the price it fetched though it must have been of some value as the prize crew from the Indian were able to navigate it to Bermuda after the capture.  

Yet before there could be any distribution of prize money, a large number of expenses, inevitably incurred in the course of the condemnation and sale, had to be paid. Agent George Hulbert’s account book reveals the extent of these deductions.[8] James Esten, Advocate General before the court, received £50. Court charges were £28. 5s. 6d. Pilotage, the cost of delivering cargo after sale, the fee for customs house entry and custody, the cost of storage and wharfage, altogether amounted to £38. 16s. 11d. Other bills included £2. 13s. 4d. for hiring a cooper for 2½ days to repair flour casks, £3. 10s. for the recording of agency power, and £3. 6s. 8d. for advertisements in the Bermuda Gazette. The 5% duty payable to the Greenwich Hospital[9] amounted to £129. 19s. 6d and a like sum was charged as fees by the agents. The total costs, fees, and duties amounted to £380. 11s. 5d. The net fund of prize money for distribution was £2158. 19s. 11d. Once the claims were settled, the court ordered the distribution of the prize money and advertised to this effect in the Bermuda Gazette.

According to a prescribed formula, Charles, as Indian’s captain, received a ¼ share of the net proceeds, Admiral Warren received ⅛ share, and the officers and men received smaller shares according to their rank. Charles’s prize money amounted to £539. 16s. 11¾d.  plus, presumably, an unknown amount from the proceeds of the sale of the vessel. The total would have been a sizable sum for Charles compared with his annual salary of £246. 3s. 10d. as commander of a sloop of war.

Fig. 4: Payout Notice for the Jeune Estelle, 24 September 1808.

Charles’s benefits from the Jeune Estelle were not only personal and financial. The payout of prize money boosted the morale of his crew and lined their pockets with cash as well. The Indian’s recruitment notice in April 1805 had promised seamen they would win “plenty of Spanish doubloons and dollars”- that is prize money. Charles delivered on this promise.

Fig. 5: The Indian’s Recruitment Notice.

Moreover, his official report of the episode to Admiral Warren appeared on the front page of the London Gazette, 20-23 August 1808. This was pleasing publicity for him and gratifying for the Austen family at home in England to read public acknowledgement of Charles’s recent capture. Moreover, there was Fanny, who Charles described as “his lovely and beloved wife [who rejoiced] at all the good that befell me.”[10] Making Fanny happy always gave Charles great pleasure. The prize money from the Jeune Estelle was surely a means to this end.

Exploring the saga of the prize, the Jeune Estelle, yields a fascinating snapshot of a significant aspect of Charles Austen’s naval career on the North American Station.

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[1] Charles Austen to Admiral Sir John Warren, 27 June 1808, ADM 1/498/fol.283. The National Archives (TNA), Kew, London, England.

[2] See Indian’s logbook, 19 June 1808, ADM 51/1868, NA.

[3] In capturing La Jeune Estelle Charles was interfering with France’s attempt to support her colonies in the West Indies.

[4] The Indian’s logbook, 19 June 1808.

[5] List of Ships and Vessels Captured by His Majesty’s Ships of War and Brought to the Port of Bermuda for Adjudication from June 7th 1808 to the 18th  Day of May 1810, List of Prizes, VA 221,1-4, Bermuda Archives, Hamilton, Bermuda.

[6] Bermuda Gazette, 23 July 1808.

[7] In the currency used, “£” stands for pound, “s” for shilling, and “d” for penny. There were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pence in a shilling. Bermuda currency fluctuated in relation to the British pound which was more valuable. 

[8] George Hulbert’s Cash Book 1808-1812, HUL/23, National Maritime Museum (NMM), Greenwich, London.

[9] The Greenwich Hospital at Greenwich, London, administered a pension fund for seamen wounded in naval service. 5 % of any distributed prize money was required to be contributed to this fund.

[10] Charles Austen’s Journal, 10 May 1815, AUS/102, NMM.

Influences of Jane Austen’s Naval Siblings on Mansfield Park

Dear Reader, 

Please note, I will be taking a break from blogging. You can still reach me at: sheilajohnsonkindred@gmail.com

Keep safe.

Sheila

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Mansfield Park is known as one of Jane Austen’s naval novels.[1] The heroine, Fanny Price, has a brother William, who is trying to make a career in the navy. Portsmouth, the Royal Navy’s largest and most important base of the period, is involved in eight chapters and a significant scene in the plot takes place in the Portsmouth Dock Yard

Fig. 1: Portsmouth Harbour.[2]

It has been long suggested that Jane’s sailor brothers, Francis and Charles, were available to advise her on matters of technical naval vocabulary and authentic naval references.[3] Brian Southam thought it was probably Francis Austen, the brother known to be a stickler for accuracy, who identified the corrections Jane needed to make in her description of William Price’s vessel, HMS Thrush, as its makes its way out of Portsmouth harbour to its anchorage at Spithead.[4] Whichever brother advised her, she  took this counsel seriously and included these recommendations in the second edition of Mansfield Park.

Fig. 2: Mansfield Park.[5]

Other details in the novel correlate with actual experiences and actions of the sailor brothers. Four of the named vessels which Jane locates in Portsmouth harbour match ships associated with Francis and Charles. Francis had been captain of the Canopus and the Elephant; Charles was a midshipman and lieutenant on the Endymion and became captain of the Cleopatra. Additionally, Jane has William Price give his sister Fanny “a very pretty amber cross” (254), a detail which echoes Charles’s generosity in May 1801, when he gave each of his sisters a topaze cross with gold chain.

The influence of Jane’s sailor brothers’s on her creative processes should not be undervalued, but to see them as Jane’s sole source of naval information within her family would be wrong. Doing so ignores the possible contributions made by Fanny Palmer Austen, who was Charles Austen’s young wife. I have argued elsewhere that there are interesting parallels between Fanny’s experiences as a naval wife and those of several female naval characters in Persuasion.[6] Similarly, Fanny’s understanding and expertise about the world of naval dockyards could have been useful  for Jane when she was writing Mansfield Park.

Take, for example, the important scene in the novel when Henry Crawford contrives to visit Fanny Price at Portsmouth. A persistent suitor, he attempts to curry favour with her once more. At this point in the novel, there is a measure of suspense. Might his suit yet succeed?  Although “he had seen the dock-yard again and again” (402) Crawford is happy to join Fanny, her sister Susan and her father on another visit to the Yard. “Once fairly in the dock-yard,” Mr Price (their guide) is usefully distracted by a friend “who was come to take his daily survey of how things went on” (402). Left alone, “the young people sat down on some timbers in the yard, or found a seat on board a vessel in the stocks[7] which they all went to look at” (403). Thus Austen depicts the Yard as offering a convenient location where, under the cover of an ordinary visit, other matters could be raised. This is an option that Crawford exploits fully by corralling Fanny in a tete a tete[8] as he tries to impress her with his concern for the tenants at his estate, Everingham. Fanny is interested: “it was pleasing to hear him speak so properly… to be the friend of the poor and oppressed… She was willing to allow he might have more good qualities than she had been wont to suppose” (404-05). Though Fanny is still wary of him, Henry makes some headway on this occasion.

Fig. 3: Portsmouth at the time of Mansfield Park[9]

According to Brian Southam, “her familiarity with Naval  Portsmouth Yard enabled Jane Austen to conduct Fanny [Price] and Henry Crawford through the Dockyard.”[10] He thought that  living as she did at Southampton for almost three years,[11] she must have become familiar with Portsmouth, its harbour and its dockyard. But Jane’s sister, Fanny Austen, had lived and experienced the work and society of Naval Yards in Halifax and Sheerness. Perhaps Austen was intrigued to hear from Fanny about the daily business of these Yards and the social life which took place within them.

Details of William Price’s life as a midshipman are also informed with the knowledge of Jane’s siblings. One instance is a passage describing an entertainment that William Price attends while on shore at Gibraltar. Austen initially imagined the event taking place at Government House, but, not being sure whether the location was appropriate, she sought more information about Gibraltar. She did find an answer. Having read Sir John Carr’s book, Descriptive Travels in the Southern and Eastern Parts of Spain (1811), Jane wrote Cassandra that “there is no Government House at Gibraltar - I must alter it to the Commissioner’s.”[12] Although she could double check Sir John Carr’s claim with Francis or Charles, who had served in the Mediterranean, Fanny could also confirm the use of Commissioner’s Houses for social gatherings in other places. She was certainly aware of, and likely attended, balls and entertainments regularly held at the home of Captain Inglefield, the Commissioner at the Naval Yard in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[13] Fanny had also stayed in the home of  Commissioner and Mrs Lobb at the Sheerness Yard in Kent, England and would know about its social role on that base.[14]

Fig. 4: The Commissioner’s House, Halifax, as seen from the harbour.[15]

While William was socializing at Gibraltar, we learn that he paid attention to the ladies and particularly noticed the headgear worn by “Mrs Brown, and the other women, at the Commissioner’s” (235), an item of apparel which he found bizarre.[16] The inclusion of this small detail about fashionable dress enriches the description of the event and invites the reader to visualize the movement, the colour and the spirit of the proceedings.

Jane Austen only occasionally mentions details of dress in her novels, so this reference to headwear is an interesting inclusion. It would be fun to know just what style of headwear William found so surprising, even “mad.” The action in Mansfield Park was likely set between 1808-1809, but the novel could also have drawn on details from the period leading up to 1813.[17] This time scale adds to the possibility that Mrs Brown and the others each wore some fanciful variant of a “feathered bandeau,” that is a  head band decorated with a tall, waving  ostrich feather. Such headgear is depicted in various contemporary prints, including the caricature, “Lumps of Pudding” by Henry Bunbury and William Health, 1811.[18]  

Whether Fanny shared with Jane anecdotes about how woman dressed at fashionable entertainments in Halifax cannot be traced. Yet, if Jane was interested in descriptions of style trends in colonial locations, Fanny was a source she might have consulted. Fanny was qualified on this subject as her interest in the intricacies of dress is evident from her letters.[19]

Jane Austen’s naval brothers, Francis and Charles, and her sister-in-law, Fanny, were individually important to her and valued as family members. They also contributed to her powers as a writer, as witnessed by some of the effective naval details in Mansfield Park which seem to relate to their lives and experiences.

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[1] The other naval novel is Persuasion.

[2] “Portsmouth Harbour” by Thomas Rowlandson, early 19th c. 

[3] Her nephew, James Austen Leigh, author of A Memoir of Jane Austen, 1870, wrote that “with ships and sailors she felt herself at home, or at least could always count on a brotherly critic to keep her right.” See the edition edited by Katheryn Sutherland, OUP, 2002, 18. According to Brian Southam, “the sailor brothers played an important part in the writing of Mansfield Park and Persuasion, the two naval novels.” See “Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers Francis and Charles in Life and Art,” Persuasions 2003, 34.

[4] All subsequent page references are to R. W. Chapman’s edition of Mansfield Park (MP), Oxford, 3rd edition, 1934. See vol.3, ch. 7, 380, ll.19-20 and ll.25-26 for the description of the Thrush’s movements.

[5] Edition published by OUP, Oxford World Classics.

[6] See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (JATS), ch. 9, 192-99.  

[7] The vessel was under construction.

[8] Although Susan is also present, Henry manages to get Fanny’s full attention as if they were in conversation on their own.

[9] From Brian Southam, Jane Austen and the Navy, 2000, 213.

[10] See Brian Southam, “Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers Francis and Charles in Life and Art,” Persuasions, 25 (2003), 41.

[11] Southampton is 19 miles from Portsmouth.

[12] The Commissioner was the local administrator of the Yard. See Letter 78, 24 January 1813, in Jane Austen’s Letters, ed. Le Faye, 2011, 207. This correction to her draft of MP is found in Book 2, ch. 6, 235. 

[13] See my blog, “Fanny Palmer Austen and the Halifax Naval Yard,” posted 28 February 2020.   

[14] There was, strictly speaking, a difference between a Dock Yard and a Naval Yard. Portsmouth was known as a Dock Yard due to its full-service facilities for building, repairing and refitting naval vessels. In comparison, the Yards at Halifax and Gibraltar were classified as Naval Yards. They were smaller facilities whose work forces repaired and refitted naval vessels. Even given this distinction, in common parlance Naval Yards were often referred to as Dock Yards.

[15] “HMS Asia off the Naval Yard”, c. 1797, by G. G. Lennox, from the cover of Ashore and Afloat, Julian Gwyn, 2004.

[16] Notably, this reference to female headgear shows that William is forthright and not afraid to express his opinion. It is a touching detail that when he sees Fanny decked out in headwear similar to that of the ladies in Gibraltar, he is not critical. He says: “Fanny can reconcile me to any thing (235).

[17] See Clive Caplan, “Naval Aspects of Mansfield Park,” Jane Austen Society Report for 2006, 70-71.

[18] See Hilary Davidson, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen, Yale University Press, 2018, endpapers. For more images about dress in “Lumps of Pudding” see https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2017/09/12/lumps-of-pudding-several-feet-of-dancing-fun-in-jane-austens-time/.

[19] See JATS, 68, 144, 148.

Fanny Palmer Austen at the Halifax Naval Yard

For a woman of genteel birth, Fanny Palmer Austen lived in a number of unusual places. One of these was inside the British Naval Yard in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In May 1810 she sailed from Bermuda to Halifax in the company of her husband Charles, who was flag captain to the Admiral commanding the North American Station. Fanny, Charles and their young daughters were offered accommodation as guests of Admiral Sir John and Lady Warren within the Admiral’s quarters, which was an apartment in the hospital building within the Naval Yard. Shortly after her arrival, Fanny described her living arrangements to her sister Esther. She wrote: “Lady Warren has kindly given us the room Mrs. Sedley [Lady Warren’s daughter] used to have, which is on the same side as the Drawing Room, so that we are not at all inconvenienced by the noises of the hospital which you have heard Mrs Territt [niece of Admiral Warren]  complain of” (2 June 1810).[1]                       

Fig. 1: The Halifax Naval Yard seen from above.[2]

Fig. 2: Detail from Fig.1: Buildings in the Yard, from the Hospital (far left) to the Commissioner’s house (far right).[3]

Once Fanny had settled, she found her new location had many distinctive features. The hospital, which was situated at the far northern end of the Yard, benefited from a pleasing rural setting, close to pasturage and small crop fields. The building also had some architectural merit. Constructed “of wood and finished with clapboard, with a shingled roof, it had a graceful colonnade at the west front entrance”[4] and a porch. The Admiral’s apartment, which occupied the most southern section of the structure, faced towards the harbour. Thus, it was well located for observing the continuous marine activity close at hand, a pastime of interest for Fanny and her young daughter, Cassy.

However, the immediate surrounds of the hospital also included a ‘lunatic house”, a morgue and the hospital’s burial ground.  Although these facilities were out of Fanny’s sight, their existence could hardly enhance the ambiance of her location. Moreover, as time went by, there was no escaping the fact that only a thin partition separated the Admiral’s apartment from the working hospital. No doubt the sounds coming from distressed patients and drunken convalescents were all too audible.

Fig.3: View of the hospital from the harbour.[5]

Furthermore, Fanny could not ignore the proximity of the busy working Yard and its unmistakable noise and smells: the ringing of the Yard’s bell to regulate the work hours, the turning of the capstans at the Sheer Wharf, the thumping of hammers, the clanging of anvils and caulking irons, and the smells of pitch, hot metal, wood, paint, saltwater, rope and oily smoke.

Fanny’s family circumstances changed markedly on July 1st when Charles, as captain of HMS Swiftsure (74 guns), sailed in a squadron charged with transporting the first Battalion of the 7th Fusiliers from Halifax to the Rock of Lisbon. Once off loaded, the men would proceed to join other British regiments fighting in the Spanish Peninsular War. Fanny knew the squadron faced many dangers. In addition to the threats posed by enemy vessels cruising on the North Atlantic, the weather at sea could be fierce and destructive of wooden sailing ships. Moreover, should hostile warships locate the squadron in the waters off Portugal, they would be a stationary target while transferring troops and their equipment to landing craft.

Fig. 4: HMS Swiftsure (74 guns) in Halifax harbour [6]

Fanny was left behind with her children to endure her isolated situation and to manage her anxiety about Charles’s well being as best she could.  Her happy times at the local balls and entertainments in Halifax with her beloved husband were now a thing of the past, and although she was comfortably placed in the Warrens’s apartment, her freedom of movement became more restricted. She would need an escort to venture into the town in order to fulfill shopping commissions for friends or for herself.

Fanny was also expected to fit in with the activities of her host and hostess during Charles’s absence. Her relations with the vigorous and forceful Lady Warren on occasion tested her resolve to be diplomatic. She was at Lady Warren’s beck and call, sometimes reluctantly accompanying her on a continuing round of official visits or attending her ladyship on outings to satisfy her hostess’s curiosity about local life in Halifax.[i] But as Sir John had recently promoted Charles to the rank of post captain, Fanny knew that the Admiral had a good opinion of Charles, which could prove valuable as his career advanced. Thus, Fanny was ever mindful not to displease Lady Warren.

Even so, Fanny counted some events at the Admiral’s apartment as pleasing distractions. Her letters record her pleasure when “General Hodgson and family dined at the Admiral’s” (4 August). Mrs Hodgson, recently arrived in Halifax from Bermuda, was able to bring Fanny news of her Bermuda family, especially tidings concerning her sister Esther and her brother-in-law, Chief Justice James Christie Esten.

Another memorable dinner guest was Col James Orde, who was, by reputation, socially accomplished and generally charming. Fanny seemed pleased to see him, telling Esther that she had “never found him more agreeable” (4 August). However, Orde’s behaviour subsequently came under serious question. In 1811 he eloped with Margaret Beckford, daughter of the richest man in England. At the time of their marriage, Jane Austen voiced her suspicions to her sister Cassandra, writing that “she thought too well of an Orde, to suppose that she [Margaret] has not a handsome Independence of her own.”[ii] But if Orde’s marriage to Margaret was really to court her money, as Austen implied, he was to be sorely disappointed for when William Beckford learned of their elopement, he promptly disinherited his daughter. The following year James Orde was court martialed upon a charge of tyrannical use of flogging while commanding the 99th Regiment in Bermuda. He was found guilty but excused from punishment only because the Prince Regent intervened.

Fig. 5: Captain John Inglefield by Robert Field

While Fanny was resident at the Yard, she could expect invitations to entertainments hosted by the Warren’s nearest neighbour of rank, Commissioner Captain John Inglefield, the chief administrator of the Yard. She may have even known the Commissioner from an earlier visit to Halifax.In 1809 a local observer spoke enthusiastically of dining at the Commissioner’s, who he describes as “the gayest of gay.”  It is known that Inglefield gave a dinner on 18 October 1809 when Fanny and Charles were on shore while the Indian was being repaired at the Naval Yard. His parties regularly included visiting naval officers and their wives and could well have included Fanny and Charles as guests on this occasion.

The Commissioner’s parties were held at his elegant official residence, which included a fine ballroom. Yet, a little of his company may have gone a long way as he was apparently “pompous, flowery and indolent.” [iii] Fanny may have found Inglefield’s company a mixed blessing and his chequered marital history may have made Fanny uncomfortable. In 1786, he demanded a separation from his wife on the grounds that she was making advances towards a nineteen-year-old man servant. Ann Inglefield denied this accusation, sued her husband for desertion and won.

By living at the Yard, Fanny had an intimate view of the landward life of the navy.  As part of the Warrens’s household, she was close to sources of information about the squadron’s progress on its mission to Portugal. Not surprisingly, she was much relieved when Admiral Warren told her that the Swiftsure had been sighted by American vessels near the Azores on 12 July (12 August). Thus she knew that the squadron had safely crossed the Atlantic. Through her stay, Fanny also learned more about the shore side activities required to maintain a squadron of war ships.[10] In consequence, she was able to better appreciate the Yard’s role in keeping Charles’s vessels in safe working condition. In addition, the complexities of Fanny’s relationship with Lady Warren gave her a fuller understanding of the scope of the social obligations and duties expected of her as she continued to support Charles in his career. Fanny Austen was gaining greater insight into the naval world she was committed to share with Charles.        

Fig.6: The Commissioner’s House at the Halifax Naval Yard.[11]

[1] Fanny’s letters to her sister Esther in Bermuda are fully transcribed in my book Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, (JATS), MQUP, 2017, 2018.

[2] George Parkyn titled this aquatint, “View from Fort Needham near Halifax” (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia).

[3] Fig. 2 and 3 are details from illustrations in Julian Gwyn, Ashore and Afloat, The British Navy and the Halifax Naval Yard Before 1820, University of Ottawa Press, 2003.

[4] See Julian Gwyn, Ashore and Afloat, 44.

[5] Detail from George Parkyns’s aquatint, “Halifax from Davies Mill”.

[6] “Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, The Swiftsure …” by Alexander Croke (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia).

[7] See JATS, 55-58.

[8] Jane Austen, Jane Austen’s Letters, ed. Deirdre Le Faye, 4th ed., 2011,196.

[9] See JATS, 67.

[10] Fanny had been with Charles in Halifax in the Fall of 1809 when the Indian was under repair at the Yard for several months. Thus she already had some understanding of the Yard’s purpose when she arrived in Halifax the next year with Charles on the Swiftsure. However, she was not resident at the Yard in 1809, but lived somewhere in the town of Halifax. Thus, her earlier observations about the Yard’s buildings and services would be less comprehensive than those made in 1810. See my blog “Captain Charles Austen and HMS Indian at the Halifax Naval Yard,” posted on 31 January 2020.  

[11] From the Naval Chronicle, February 1804.

[i] See JATS, 55-58.

[ii] Jane Austen, Jane Austen’s Letters, ed. Deirdre Le Faye, 4th ed., 2011,196.

[iii] See JATS, 67.