Fanny Palmer Austen: Challenges and Achievements in Making a Family Home Onboard HMS Namur

This month I helped the Chatham Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, England celebrate their new exhibition, Hidden Heroines: The untold stories of women of the Dockyard. Here is the text from my talk on June 23 which was followed by a live Q&A.   For the video of this event, visit the Chatham Historic Dockyard website.

Fig. 1: Fanny Palmer Austen[1]

Fanny Palmer Austen was a young woman who had a unique connection to the Chatham Dockyard. She was never a flag maker in the Sail and Colour Loft or employed in Spinning Rooms as other 19th century women in this exhibition were. Fanny counts as one of the hidden heroines because of her life on HMS Namur.

The Namur was known as one of the most famous ships built at the Chatham Dockyard. When her husband, Captain Charles Austen, was in command from late 1811-1814, the capable Fanny undertook the unusual task of making a family home for him and their young daughters on board. Her candid and articulate letters written to family members reveal her opinions and sentiments about the challenges she faced. She tells us what it was like to be a naval wife and mother living at sea during the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, she provides a strikingly realistic picture of naval family life on board as seen from a woman’s perspective. Let me take you on board to discover how Fanny coped with this exceptional situation.

When Charles was commissioned into the Namur, Fanny must have wondered about the size of the ship and the vessel’s current naval duties. Launched at Chatham in 1756, the Namur saw action in nine sea battles.  Originally a three-decker ship of 90 guns, in 1804 she was reduced to a two decker with 74 guns. The Namur rode at anchor at the Great Nore, an area located offshore three miles northeast from Sheerness, Kent. She was in use as a receiving ship for sailors - both volunteers and pressed men - waiting to be assigned to warships needing crews. She also acted as a guard ship, the first line of defence against any enemy vessels that might attempt an attack on the Sheerness and Chatham Dockyards or an advance upon London further up the Thames. So, there was an element of risk where Fanny was to be located.

Fig. 2: HMS Namur as a ship of 90 guns. She is the largest vessel in the harbour.[2]

Once aboard, household management at sea tested Fanny’s ingenuity and patience. An initial priority was reconfiguring the captain’s quarters in the stern of the ship to best suit her family’s needs and comforts. She no doubt liked the look of the captain’s day cabin, with its large glass windows that provided a panoramic view of the Nore anchorage, and the opportunity for access to an exterior gallery. However, this room was sometimes used for Charles’s official business, so the adjacent areas became the family’s private preserve. Most likely there were existing walls which marked out a state room or sleeping cabin on one side and another cabin on the other. Fanny could complete the division of the remaining area assigned to the captain, by directing the placement of movable wooden panels. Fortunately, the family quarters enjoyed some measure of quiet and seclusion. They were only accessible from the quarter deck, which was the exclusive domain of the officers. An armed marine stood on guard at the entrance to the captain’s quarters, another unique feature of living on board.

So, what did Fanny think about what she had accomplished? I would like to read you some passages from Fanny’s letters, so you can hear her voice. Initially she was enthusiastic about the adaptations to make a family living space. She wrote to her brother-in-law, James Esten, in Bermuda. Mama & Palmer [her nephew] have been staying with us, … & we mean to keep them as long as the Holidays will permit: they are very much pleased with our habitation, which, now that we have got things to rights, we find extremely comfortable (21 January 1812). During a visit by her father several months later, Fanny noted: Papa is very much pleased with our accomodations & enjoys sleeping in a Cot extremely (5 March 1812).This was quite a feat for Fanny’s aging father, given that he was sleeping in a small canvas bed, only three feet wide, which swung suspended from the ceiling. Other members of the Austen family expressed an opinion. Charles’s sister, Cassandra Austen, observed to a cousin that [Fanny] and [their] children are actually living with [Charles] on board. We had doubted whether such a scheme would prove practicable during the winter, but they have found their residence very tolerably comfortable & it is so much the cheapest home she could have that they are very right to put up with little inconveniences.[3] Three months later, Cassandra visited the Namur to see for herself what she called Fanny and Charles’s aquatic abode.

Fanny was initially pleased she had got things to rights with our habitation, that she had created an establishment where they could live and sleep in relative comfort. Unfortunately, problems arose which interfered with the smooth running of her household. Fanny required at least one female servant to help with childcare, to perform basic domestic tasks and, by times, to serve as her lady’s maid. Yet, competent servants willing to live and work at sea proved difficult to find and even harder to retain. As Fanny wrote: I am much teased in my domestic concerns …  and am at this moment without a Nurse. Though I [had] a very nice woman in that capacity, …some lady has most unhandsomely enticed her away from me, by holding out advantages which I could not (30 June 1814.)  As a result of her servant problems, Fanny took on more domestic tasks herself than would ordinarily be expected of a gentlewoman.

It did not help that the weather was changeable and sometimes exceptionally rough. Seasickness was a problem for which Fanny had no easy remedy. Her eldest girl, Cassy, was particularly vulnerable and Fanny hated to see her grow thin and look poorly. Nor did Fanny want her children to suffer on board in frigid weather when a damp chill penetrated and persisted. From 1813 onward Fanny regularly sent a daughter to spend time on shore with her aunts: Jane, the acclaimed novelist, and Cassandra Austen at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire or to Fanny’s sister, Harriet Palmer, in London. This distressed her. She missed her daughters terribly in their absence. Such arrangements made it impossible to maintain the family intimacy which Fanny so greatly valued.

Furthermore, her efforts to create a pleasing and peaceful atmosphere within their home space were sometimes frustrated by the darker side of naval life. She was living in a world where misdemeanors were punished swiftly and brutally. The Royal Navy required that instances of mutinous language and conduct, disobedience of orders, theft, inter-personal violence, drunkenness or riotous behaviour must be punished by public flogging. During Fanny’s tenure on board there were five occasions of the cruellest sort of punishment, known as flogging around the fleet. Presumably, Charles was able to warn Fanny in advance when a flogging was about to occur. Perhaps he even arranged for her to be on shore in nearby Sheerness. Yet inevitably there must have been times when there was no ready escape from the distressed cries of the punished. We do not know how Fanny managed to cope with the cruelty of flogging, with the sound of suffering, with the ominous pulsating of the drums which accompanied the lashings, all terribly disturbing noises for her and her children.

Other features of Fanny’s situation came to bother her over time. She was lonely in her isolation from genteel female company. She felt confined by the limited area of the ship where she could move freely, this being parts of the quarter deck and the poop deck above.

It may sound as if Fanny was having a terribly difficult time on board, but in between the situations which tried her patience and triggered her disappointment, were happier, more satisfying occasions. She helped to create an atmosphere of supportive friendliness for midshipmen, the young trainee officers under Charles’s tutelage.  As these young men received some of their instruction in the captain’s cabin, they must have also benefited from Fanny’s feminine attention. They in turn gave her a sense of community within the navy of the quarterdeck.

Fanny also appreciated Charles’s initiatives to bring civilizing influences to rough and rigorous shipboard life. There was a band of musicians on board, although Fanny’s father, while visiting the Namur, remarked on the indifferent talent of the clarinet player. Nonetheless, it was cheering to have a source of music, even if it fell far short of professional standards. Charles encouraged his sailors to present theatrical entertainments for the edification of the officers and men. This pleased Fanny, although on one occasion she notes: we were all disappointed for the Theatre was not finished, & consequently, they were obliged to postpone acting until next Monday (22November 1813). 

Best of all was the joy of the uninterrupted togetherness of her family.  Fanny and the little girls had the pleasure of Charles’s regular company. He was at hand to help with the children’s education, to play with them at bedtime, and to celebrate the milestones of their development, such as when the baby of the family, little Fan, born early December 1812, showed great determination to walk on her own. Fanny and Charles could also share in their children’s newfound pleasures, such as Cassy’s delight when she mastered the technique of leaving the ship by the bosun’s chair, which swung her out from the Namur’s main deck and swooped her down to a waiting tender that would take her to shore.

So why is Fanny to be seen as a heroine? She was brave to take on the project of creating a home for her beloved family on a working naval ship during wartime. She was courageous to take the chance of living with small children on a coastal guard ship, exposed to the possibility of attack from the enemy’s navy across the North Sea. Fanny was also heroic in the way she carried out her life distinct from the expected behaviour of naval wives, who made homes on land, where shops, services and supplies were readily accessible, where social routines were predictable and comforts dependably available.    

Finally, Fanny had the courage to commit to a lifestyle of immediate support for Charles, to be his affectionate companion and to encourage him during the hazards and uncertainties of his naval career, regardless of the risks to herself. She was his heroine, as well as ours.[4]

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[1] Fanny’s portrait was painted by British artist, Robert Field, in Halifax in 1810. Private collection.

[2] “Town and Harbour of Halifax as they appear from the opposite shore called Dartmouth,” by Dominic Serres, 1762. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

[3] Cassandra Austen to Mrs George Whitaker (Phylly Walter), quoted in Austen Papers 1704-1856, ed. Austen-Leigh, (1942), 249.

Fanny Palmer Austen and HMS Namur: An Intriguing Connection and a New Exhibition

Fanny Palmer Austen created a home for her young family aboard her husband’s ship, HMS Namur (74 guns) during the later years of the Napoleonic wars. In so doing, Fanny entered a new phase of her life as a naval wife and mother, a role which challenged her courage and ingenuity. How she coped with this unusual situation and setting is the subject of one of the most interesting periods of her life story.

Fanny’s residency on the Namur is discussed at length in my book, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen (MQUP, 2017, 2018).

This month, Fanny’s associations with the Namur are part of an innovative new exhibition opening at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, England. Its theme is: Hidden Heroines: the untold stories of women of the Dockyard. It explores the valuable roles women played throughout the Dockyard’s 400 years history.

Fig. 1: Poster for Hidden Heroines.[1] Fanny’s face appears in the top right corner.

Fanny Austen’s grouping with these women is apt. Fanny was never part of the female work force at the Yard, like the other “hidden heroines” identified in the exhibition, but she vividly recorded her impressions of naval life on board the Namur, which was one of the most famous ships built at Chatham.[2] In her articulate and candid letters, Fanny speaks to the challenges of domesticity at sea and of her commitment to support and sustain the intimacy of family life while living in their “aquatic abode.”[3] Her remarks shed light on the challenges facing a naval wife in war time. Moreover, Fanny’s unique perspective makes an intriguing contribution to the saga of the women associated with the Dockyard over a period of several centuries.

Hidden Heroines is mounted in the No. 1 Smithery building of the Historic Dockyard, Chatham and runs May 29 – October 31, 2021. There will be a free digital version of the exhibition available on the Historic Dockyard website.

I am delighted tell you I will be helping the Historic Dockyard to celebrate Fanny Austen’s role as a hidden heroine. At a free Zoom event I will discuss Fanny’s life on the Namur, followed by a Q&A. The details are as follows:

Fanny Palmer Austen: Challenges and Achievements in Making a Family Home onboard the HMS Namur

June 23, 7:00 – 7:45 pm British Summer Time (6:00 - 6:45 pm GMT)

Click here for event registration

Please join us. June 23, 2021, by the way, would have been Charles Austen’s 242nd birthday. This is a unique way to celebrate! 

If you can visit the Hidden Heroines Exhibition on site, there is another fascinating display that has important connections to Fanny Austen.  The restored timbers of about 10% of the Namur’s frame are the significant centre piece of The Command of the Oceans Gallery, located in the 18th century Mast House and Mould Loft. The Namur was broken up at the Dockyard in the 1830s, but it was only in 1995 that a quantity of her timbers were discovered under the flooring of the Wheelwright’s Shop. These remnants of a once great ship contribute to understanding her design and construction, and together with accompanying contextual material, secure her place in the history of the Age of Sail.  But imagination also prompts consideration of another narrative. These timbers are the surviving remains of what was once Fanny and Charles Austen’s home at sea, an establishment where their little daughters laughed and played, where family members visited, and Jane Austen’s latest novels were most likely read. 

Fig. 2: Timbers from the Namur [4]

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[1] Photo credit: Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

[2] HMS Namur, originally a 2nd rate ship of the line with 90 guns was launched at the Chatham Dockyard in 1756. She subsequently saw action in nine sea battles during the Seven Years War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. By the time the Charles Austen family had taken up residence aboard in January1812, she had been cut down to a two decker of 74 guns and she was not longer sailing into battle. Instead, the Namur was the guard ship at the Nore, the anchorage three miles northeast off Sheerness, Kent. She was also a receiving ship for sailors waiting to be assigned to warships.

[3] This is Cassandra’s terminology. See Cassandra Austen to Mrs George Whitacker (nee Phylly Walter) in Richard A Austen -Leigh, Austen Papers 1704-1856, 1942, 251-2.

[4] Photo credit: Hugh Kindred.

Fanny Palmer Austen and Sense and Sensibility: Artifact and Appreciation

Fig. 1: A first edition of Sense and Sensibility in original boards.[1]

The publication of Sense and Sensibility was an event of huge significance for Jane Austen because it was her first novel to be printed. This occasion was greeted with pride and enthusiasm by her immediate family. Over the winter of 1810 the manuscript had been accepted by the publisher, Thomas Egerton, upon commission at the author’s expense. By November 1811, an initial print run of 750-1000 copies became available. One of these sets of three volumes was received by Fanny Palmer Austen. What were Fanny Austen’s responses to her copy and its contents?

Fig.2: Title page of a first edition. [2]

Authenticating Fanny’s Copy

Fanny Austen’s copy of Sense and Sensibility has been identified as a first edition held in the Houghton Library at Harvard University.[3]  Volume 1 is autographed on the title page with the inscription “Mrs. Charles Austen,” followed (in what looks like a different hand) by the words “given by her Sister in law Miss Jane Austen.” This reference to Jane could well be a later addition, perhaps written by a subsequent member of the Austen family who wanted to identify this copy as an Austen family artefact, once belonging the wife of Jane Austen’s sailor brother, Captain Charles John Austen. The wording “sister in law” has a modern ring. In the 18th-19th centuries the designation “sister,” was commonly used to refer to a brother’s wife. Volume 2 is inscribed “Frances F. Austen.” The “F” stands for “Fitzwilliams,” Fanny’s second forename.     

 Acquiring her Copy

Fanny’s arrival with Charles and their two young daughters in England in mid 1811 allowed her and Jane Austen to meet and get to know each other in person. Fanny was already aware that Sense and Sensibility was being brought to publication. She was also privy to the family secret that Jane was the author, although the title page would state that it was by “A Lady.”  Although Austen might be expected to share copies with her six siblings, she appears to have bypassed her brother, Charles, in favour of his wife, Fanny. Perhaps she knew he would be delighted by this mark of recognition of his beloved wife. Maybe this was an overture of friendship to a sister she was getting to know better. In any case, they would likely enjoy the novel together, perhaps reading it aloud to each other. As the couple would soon establish a home for their family on board HMS Namur (74 guns), maybe they shared Fanny’s copy at sea, in flickering candlelight to the accompanying sound of the wind and the waves. Such a scenario would have particularly pleased the novel’s romantically minded heroine, Marianne Dashwood.

Fanny as an Appreciative Reader

Fig. 3: Marianne and Elinor [5]

There are no records of Fanny’s reaction to Sense and Sensibility, but it is intriguing to speculate about her responses to the novel set against the circumstances of her life. Sometimes themes in a novel resonate with the situation and interests of the reader. Sense and Sensibility is about two very different, but intimately connected sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The dynamics of sisterly relations were also an important feature of Fanny’s own family life. She had a very strong bond with her eldest sister, Esther, who was her correspondent, confident, supporter and adviser, as well as an empathetic listener when Fanny needed to speak her mind.[4] It would not be surprising if Fanny found the practical and sensible older sister, Elinor, in Sense and Sensibility, reminiscent of her own sister, Esther, who like Elinor, was vitally interested in a younger sister’s happiness, well being and security. Fanny would surely be fascinated by Austen’s sensitive exploration of sisterly relations, and how Austen conveys the range and subtlety of the communications between Elinor and Marianne.  

Fanny came to Sense and Sensibility as a young woman of twenty-one years. Six years earlier, she had met by chance and had fallen deeply in love with a tall, very handsome, and charming naval officer, Charles Austen. He was in command of his first ship, HMS Indian (18 guns) and fortuitously, his assignment to the British Navy’s North American station lasted long enough to allow their courtship and marriage to occur in the idyllic setting of Bermuda. Given this recent romantic history, the theme of courtship and marriage in Sense and Sensibility may also have had a special resonance for Fanny. It would be scarcely surprising if she were drawn to the plight of the novels’ heroines, as they navigated the barriers to finding lasting love and happy marriages.

Fig. 4: St Peter’s Church, St George’s, Bermuda, where Fanny and Charles Austen were married, 18 May 1807.

As a reader, Fanny entered an immensely entertaining fictional world. Sense and Sensibility offered her the delight of reading finely crafted prose and the pleasure of getting to know a cast of cleverly drawn characters. Fanny had a keen eye for human behaviour and foibles. In letters written from Halifax in 1810, she paints a vivid picture of the forceful Lady Warren who delighted in organizing others irrespective of their wishes; she conveys a precise impression of the charming, socially adept, British army officer, Col. Orde. Given that Fanny had an eye for individuality in character, she could be expected to relish the scheming and simpering Lucy Steele as she rivals Elinor Dashwood for Edward Ferrar’s love, and the cruel and selfish, Fanny Dashwood.[6] Fanny Austen could laugh about the activities of the bumbling but well-meaning party planner, Sir John Middleton. She might be temporarily attracted to, but later alarmed, by the smooth talking, handsome cad, John Willoughby.

Fanny received her copy at a propitious moment. She was soon to enter upon a life aboard HMS Namur, bereft of female company and support. Her letters from this period provide articulate and revealing accounts of her predicament. A book of the calibre of Sense and Sensibility must have been a boon indeed. Yet its possession surely had additional importance for Fanny. Owning her own copy, which was also a gift from the author, made her feel particularly welcomed by this talented new sister. The collegial spirit accompanying the gift augured well for the mutually supportive relationship which was to develop between Fanny and Jane.[7] In a sense Fanny’s receipt of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility in 1811 was a gift which kept on giving.  

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[1] Courtesy of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Fanny’s copy was later bound in “modern full calf gilt by Bartlett & Co., Boston.” See David Gilson, A Bibliography of Jane Austen (1982),11.

[2] Lilly Library, Indiana University.

[3] It is catalogued as EC8. Au747.811s (B).

[4] Fanny’s letters to Esther are transcribed in Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, hereafter JATS, MQUP, 2017, 2018. See 52-53; 55-56; 60-61; 62; 64-66; 68-69;102-104; 154-157 as well as Esther’s letter about Fanny, written to Charles in July 1808, 214-15.

[5] Illustration by Hugh Thompson. Marianne has just sighted Willoughby at a London party. Sense and Sensibility, vol.2, chapter 6, 1896 edition. 

[6] Tom Keymer aptly describes Fanny Dashwood as a “one-woman Goneril and Regan show.” See Keymer, Jane Austen, writing, society and politics (2020), 66.

[7] See JATS, 119-121, 134-137, 192-207.

Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: Midshipmen in Fact and Fiction

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen created the fictional midshipman William Price, who was ambitious to succeed in the naval world. In the years before she began the novel, her naval brother, Charles, had guided the education of an actual midshipman, Thomas (Tom) Fowle of Kintbury, Berkshire. Intriguingly, the lives of the real and imagined midshipmen seem to intersect in Austen’s narrative.

Fig. 1: The Kintbury Vicarage where Tom Fowle grew up prior to entering the Royal Navy.[1]

Jane Austen had reason to be very interested in Tom Fowle’s career as a midshipman. She was intimately acquainted with his family, including his mother, the former Eliza Lloyd, his father, Rev. William Fulwar-Fowle, who had been her father’s pupil at the Steventon Rectory, and his siblings, particularly his older sister and near contemporary, Mary Jane.[2] Moreover, Tom’s uncle and namesake, the cleric Thomas Fowle, had been engaged to Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra before his untimely death in 1797. By way of letters among family and friends, Jane would have learned about Tom Fowle’s experiences at sea and his progress in his naval training.[3]     

 Midshipman Tom Fowle on HMS Indian:

Tom Fowle was a keen and likable boy,[4] who entered the navy at about age 12 under Charles Austen’s care and instruction. Charles, captain of the sloop of war, HMS Indian (18 guns) was a natural choice for Tom’s naval apprenticeship in light of the Austen family connections with the Fowles. In addition, Charles had a reputation for competency and concern for his men and his ship, the Indian, was in a desirable location. She was based on the North American Station[5] where the climate was more wholesome than the navy’s more southern Stations. The Austens and Fowles had not forgotten their sorrow when Tom’s uncle and Cassandra Austen’s fiancé had died of yellow fever while serving as a naval chaplain in the West Indies. It was comforting that Tom’s training would take place in a healthier geographic area.

Fig.2: HMS Atalante, of the identical design to HMS Indian (18 guns) on which Tom Fowle was a midshipman.[6]

In joining the Indian as a midshipman in about 1805, Tom Fowle could expect a life that was, by times, tough, hazardous and exacting, Midshipmen lived in crowded, damp, quarters in the depths of the vessel, mixed in together with older, rougher and uncouth seamen. Tom must have found his living quarters and associates very different from the comforts and companions in the rural English vicarage he had left. Very soon he would be exposed to the vicissitudes of the changeable, often violent weather of the North Atlantic, a frightening encounter for a someone with no previous seafaring experience. Over the next years he would need stamina and dedication for training in seamanship, naval tactics, the running of a ship and the organization of its men. He would learn the necessity of teamwork in the face of crisis, especially should the Indian come under attack. All the while, Tom had to study diligently in preparation for the lieutenant’s exam.[7]

Tom had much to report to his parents and older siblings. He endured situations when the Indian faced danger and potential disaster and he experienced moments of celebration. What he had seen and done must have been raw material for exciting narratives, as the following examples show.

A violent hurricane all but caused the Indian to founder in October 1807.[8] As Charles described the horrific event, “the wind became so furious as to perfectly overpower the Ship, which lay down on her beam end with such a weight of Water on Deck as to make me fear she would never right again. To save the ship and our lives, I ordered the main mast to be cut away.”[9] This ordeal was a truly chilling experience for a young midshipman. 

Equally terrifying was the occasion when the Indian barely escaped capture by four fast French warships that collectively carried 120 guns compared to the Indian’s 18. For almost fifty hours Indian used every possible tactic to elude her determined pursuers. The gunroom, sail cabin and bulkhead were dismantled and flung overboard to augment the ship’s speed. At one point, the wind died down and all the vessels became becalmed. Then all hands on the Indian manned the sweeps [oars] and rowed furiously. Luckily, the crew’s feat of perseverance paid off as they were able to put their smaller, lighter vessel a safe distance from the enemy.

Tom Fowle also shared occasions of heartfelt celebration. That the ship and her men had survived a tremendous hurricane as well as a close pursuit by four enemy ships, was just cause for thanksgiving. Additionally, from 1806-1808, the Indian was involved in the capture of a French privateer and 5 merchant vessels carrying contraband or enemy cargo, all of which were successfully adjudicated in the captor’s favour. According to a prescribed formula for the distribution of prize money, the crew and marines received a two-eights share. On a ship with a crew of about 121 men, Tom’s prize money would have been modest,[10] probably not enough to consider purchasing something special for his sister, Mary Jane, as Charles Austen had used his prize money when a midshipman to buy “Gold chains and Topaze crosses” for his sisters, Jane and Cassandra, in 1801.[11]

Fig. 3: Captain Charles Austen, painted by Robert Field.[13]

The pleasing expectation of even more prize money was quickly set aside when, in late November 1808, a prize crew from the Indian that Charles placed aboard a captured French merchant vessel was unable to bring her safely to port in Bermuda. Charles shared this news with Cassandra, expressing his personal grief in the loss of “12 of my people, two of them mids.”[12] The mids in question must have been Tom’s close associates. In the face of this tragedy, the precarious nature of naval life was made vividly clear to him. The event also suggests that Charles, who might have assigned Tom to the prize crew but chose not to expose him to further danger, took his responsibilities for the care of his protegee seriously.

Charles also arranged for Tom to profit from visits on shore. He introduced him to Esther and James Esten, his brother and sister-in-law, who lived in St George’s, Bermuda.[14] Entry into the Esten’s elevated social circle would have helped Tom acquire the social ease and polish that the Navy thought desirable in its officers.  

Meanwhile, Tom’s nautical studies progressed favourably.[15] Family interest and support for his career continued. We know from one of Jane Austen’s letters that his father arranged for charts to be sent to him by way of Fanny Palmer Austen’s father, John Grove Palmer, in London.[16]  On 23 September 1810, an enthusiastic Fanny Palmer Austen shared with Esther the news that “Mr Fowle has passed his examination for a Lieut. with great credit.”[17]

Midshipman William Price in Mansfield Park

Jane Austen started planning Mansfield Park in 1811 and finished writing it in 1813.[18]  However, she set the action of her novel in 1808-09,[19] which happens to cover years when Tom Fowle was training aboard the Indian. As Austen was sketching the character of William Price, information about the developing career and nautical experiences of an actual midshipman would seem relevant and revelatory. Although other sources of information were available to Austen, they could not provide the immediacy of details about a likable young man, whose naval experiences had been recounted by his captain, her brother, Charles. Austen had followed the midshipman years of her sailor brothers, Francis and Charles, but they had been some time ago - for Francis, 1789-1792, and for Charles, 1794-97. Tom’s Fowle’s story was vivid, authentic, and contemporary.

Austen introduces William Price efficiently and effectively into the novel. He has come to his uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram’s estate, Mansfield Park, to visit his sister, Fanny, after a separation of 7 years while he has been a midshipman aboard the naval sloop, the Antwerp. The succinct narrative he provides of his career to date is delivered with “clear, simple, spirited details” that impart “good principles, professional knowledge, energy, courage and cheerfulness.” Austen wrote: “Young as he was, William had already seen a great deal. He had been in the Mediterranean - in the West Indies - in the Mediterranean again - had been often taken on shore by the favour of his Captain, and in the course of seven years had known every variety of danger, which sea and war together could offer.”[20]

In William’s brief profile there are actions, attitudes and features of his personality that find resonance with Tom Fowle. Both Tom and William were ambitious young men who have served their sea apprenticeship aboard small sloops during the Napoleonic Wars; both had “seen a great deal”- Tom, on the waters and in the port towns of the extensive North American Station and William, by service in the Mediterranean (twice) and the West Indies. William regaled those at Mansfield Park with descriptions of “imminent hazards, or terrific scenes, which a period at sea must supply.”[21] Tom had similar stories to convey to his family and friends. Both young men were personable, and the beneficiaries of extra attention from their captains. Tom was considered Charles Austen’s protegee and was made welcome by Fanny Palmer Austen’s family and their circle in Bermuda. William was “often taken on shore by the favour of his Captain.” Both Tom Fowle and William Price were attracted to the acquisition of prize money. Tom earned a modest sum between 1806 and 1808; William speaks speculatively of his hope to receive prize money “which was to be generously distributed at home.”[22] In addition, both midshipmen have sisters close to their own ages who were very attentive to their budding careers. Tom’s sister, Mary Jane, who was a year older, must have exchanged letters with him regularly during his midshipman years; she even planned to visit him aboard one of his subsequent ships in October 1813.[23] Fanny Price has been William’s unerring correspondent and supporter in his career aspirations. She encourages him when he bemoans that he will never become a lieutenant.

Fig. 4: Fanny Price with her brother William at the ball given in her honour.[24]

Just as William, training on the Antwerp, “had known every variety of danger, which sea and war together could offer,” a similar comment could be made about Tom Fowle’s apprenticeship on the Indian. He had escaped very near capture by marauding French warships, he had survived some horrific storms at sea. These details expose the dangers that both factual and fictional midshipmen had to face with courage and bravery. In sum, Jane apparently drew some intriguing parallels from the real Tom Fowle as she worked to bring her imaginary midshipman, William Price, to life.[25]

 Yet being a midshipman was not a desirable end, rather it was the path to becoming an officer. As Austen knew, passing the lieutenant’s exam was only the first step in advancement. A successful candidate needed to be commissioned as a lieutenant on a ship in the active sea service. This step was not automatic. In fact, Tom Fowle had to wait several years, as Austen knew. Jane clearly considered the dramatic possibilities of this major hurdle for William since she worked it into her novel.

She captures William’s frustration that, without a patron or influence with the Admiralty, he fears he will never be employed as an officer. He confides in his sister Fanny that he feels ostracized at assemblies as “girls turn up their noses at any who does not have a commission. [He bemoans] One might as well be nothing as a midshipman. One is nothing indeed.”[26] William disparagingly refers to himself as the “poor scrubby mid as I am.”[27] But Austen goes a step further than a description of how William feels. She uses the circumstances of his stalled naval career to move the plot along.

Briefly put, Henry Crawford, who is in pursuit of the affections of an unwilling Fanny Price, sees an opportunity to ingratiate himself with her. He asks his uncle, Admiral Crawford, to use his connections and influence to secure a lieutenant’s commission for William. He succeeds in this scheme to benefit William and in consequence puts Fanny under the obligation to think well of him. Although Fanny is delighted to have William “made” a lieutenant, she is disquieted by the obligation which accompanies it. Fanny’s struggles to understand and assess the calibre of Henry’s character adds to the drama of the story, as the reader tracks Fanny’s emotional stresses throughout volume 3 to the happy ending, when she marries, not Henry, but the man she has always loved. 

In conclusion: Discovering the resonances between Tom Fowle’s early naval career and that of Austen’s engaging midshipman William Price speaks to Jane Austen’s sources of inspiration when creating this fictional character.[28] Moreover, exploring Tom Fowle’s naval experiences aids in understanding what it was like to be a midshipman, and sheds light on Charles Austen’s strengths as a caring and supportive naval captain.

Afterward: To his great pleasure, Tom Fowle was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1812 on Charles Austen’s ship, HMS Namur. Charles had the satisfaction of bringing along the career of a competent young officer and Tom, the pleasure of advancing his naval training under a captain he admired and respected. As the captain’s family lived on board, Tom was in close association with Fanny Austen and their young daughters, Cassy, Harriet and Fan. According to Fanny, baby Fan (almost one) was “quite the favourite with …Tom Fowle.”[29] Sadly, his naval career was cut short. He died in Paris in about 1822.[30]  

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[1]The image is from the cover of The Jane Austen Society Report for 2015.

[2] Evidence of Jane Austen’s long-standing relationship with the Fowle family comes from Mary Jane Fowle’s observation about Jane Austen’s last visit to the Kintbury Vicarage in the spring of 1816. Referring to her as “Aunt Jane” as a courtesy title, she wrote “Aunt Jane, went over all the old places, and recalled old recollections associated with them in a very particular manner.” See Deirdre LeFaye, Jane Austen: A Family Record (2004), hereafter Family Record, 236. In earlier years Jane Austen corresponded with Mary Jane. See Jane’s letter to Martha Lloyd, Jane Austen’s Letters (1995), hereafter Letters, ed. Le Faye, 3rd edition, 29 November 1812, 197.

[3] Charles Austen kept his sisters informed about Tom’s health and progress. In a letter to Cassandra, 25 December 1808, he wrote: “Tom Fowle is very well and is growing quite manly.” See JATS, 216.

[4] He was the second son of his family for whom the navy presented a possible career option for a young man of the lesser gentry. Many boys were attracted to the navy with the prospects of action in battle, riches in prize money and world-wide travel.  

[5] The North American Station extended from the Gulf of St Lawrence to Cape Canaveral, Florida and included the waters north, south and east of Bermuda.

[6] The image is from the Naval Chronicle, vol. 31, 1814, plate CCCCXV.

[7] Tom’s curriculum would include: the specifics of navigation and mathematics, practical skills involving knots and ropes, how to climb aloft, how to take his station in action. “A good deal was learned by doing and observing: … [for example] by assisting in casting the log and lead lines when the speed and location of the ship were regularly checked.” See Rory Muir, Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune: How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen’s England (2019), hereafter Gentlemen, 204. Weir’s book has been a very valuable source about the training and lifestyle of midshipmen.

[8]Another vicious storm which severely threatened the Indian’s seaworthiness occurred on her passage from Halifax NS to Bermuda in November 1809. It is described in my book, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (2017), hereafter JATS, 43.

[9] See Charles Austen to his Commander-in-Chief, Admiral George Berkeley, 23 October 1807, ADM 1/497, TNA.

[10] In the case of co-captures the prize money was divided equally among the vessels involved. 

[11] See Jane to Casandra, 27 May 1801, in Letters, 91. This was a particularly thoughtful gesture on Charles’s part as his sisters, especially Jane, were adjusting to the emotional wrench of permanently leaving the family home in Steventon. 

[12] See Charles to Cassandra, 25 December 1808, see JATS, 216. Jane had been told earlier of the prize taking and that the French schooner had not yet been heard from. See Jane to Cassandra, 24 Jan 1808, 169.

[13] In a private collection.

[14] Esther Esten liked Tom. Writing to Charles on 26 July 1808, she asked him to “present my best regards to Tom Fowle.” See JATS, 215.

[15] Austen scholar, Deirdre Le Faye, aptly describes Tom as a “promising midshipman.” See Le Faye, Family Record, 165.

[16] See Jane to Cassandra, Letters, 25 October 1808, 149 and note 4, 394.

[17] Ordinarily a midshipman had to complete 6 years of training before he took the exam for lieutenant. For the skills he would be examined on see Gentlemen, 214, 215.

[18] See Jane Austen: The Chawton Letters (2018) ed. Katheryn Sutherland, 11.

[19] Mansfield Park (hereafter MP), ed. R.W. Chapman (1923), Chronology of Mansfield Park, 554. 

[20] MP, vol. 2, chap. 6, 236.

[21] MP, vol.2, chap. 6, 235.

[22] MP, vol. 3, chap. 7, 375. 

[23] See Jane to Cassandra, 21 October 1813: “Mary Jane Fowle was very near returning with her Bros [Tom] and paying them a visit on board,” Letters, 241.

[24] An illustration by Hugh Thompson.

[25] For how Jane Austen may have used source material taken from real life, see JATS. 206, 207.

[26] MP, vol. 2, chap. 7, 249.

[27] Ibid, 245.

[28] Making the case for the parallels between Tom Fowle and William Price does not preclude noting that Jane Austen had other sources of inspiration for William Price, some of which that came from within her immediate family. For example, Brian Southam has observed that “the portrait of William Price - eager, enthusiastic and open – owes much to Charles’s own boyishness and charm.” See “Jane Austen and North America: Fact and Fiction,” in Jane Austen and the North Atlantic (2006), ed. Sarah Emsley, 27. Moreover, Charles’s gift to his sisters of Topaze crosses in 1801 made its way into the novel as William gives his sister, Fanny, an amber cross. See note 11.

[29] See Fanny to Esther, 13 November 1813. See JATS, 139.

[30] See Le Faye, Letters, Biographical index, 525.

Jane Austen and her niece Cassy Esten Austen

Children were important to Jane Austen both in real life and in her fiction. Cassy Esten Austen (1808-1897) was among the nieces who she knew well, when they were young children. Chawton Cottage periodically became Cassy’s temporary refuge from the bitter winter weather at home aboard HMS Namur and from the bouts of sea sickness that she suffered in shipboard life year-round.[1] She spent weeks at a time with Jane and Cassandra Austen, who took their duties as aunts very seriously.[2] They encouraged her early education in literacy,[3] and they tried to make her feel secure and cared for, even though Cassy must have greatly missed her parents and sisters. Through these visits Cassy and Aunt Jane evolved a particular relationship which redounded in Cassy’s development and Austen’s fiction.

Fig.1: Chawton Cottage, Hampshire, where Cassy Esten Austen stayed with her aunts, Jane and Cassandra.

Fig 2: Rough weather at the Nore Anchorage, where the Charles Austen family lived on HMS Namur.[4]

Cassy from Jane’s perspective

Jane’s letters reveal changing attitudes about Cassy’s behaviour and developing personality. Her early assessments seem uncomplimentary. During Cassy’s month long stay at Chawton Cottage in June 1813, Jane found her young niece trying, observing to her brother Francis that Cassy “ought to be a very nice Child - Nature has done enough for her.”[5] Four months later when Cassy was due to visit Godmersham Park, home of her uncle Edward Knight, Jane feared that “Cassy would disappoint me by some immediate disagreeableness,” and that a “cross Child” would limit her father, Charles’s enjoyment of his visit (14 October 1813). Jane gives the impression of a willful and independent minded little girl, who does not measure up to her aunt’s standards for juvenile behaviour, but what were those standards to which Jane ascribed and which Cassy apparently failed to meet?

Jane Austen espoused firm principles about child rearing and advocated bringing up children “with a proper sense of what was expected of them.”[6] She was particularly sensitive to the quality of a child’s manners and standard of politeness. However, her periodic disappointment in Cassy’s boisterous and impolite conduct did not signal a dislike of her. In speaking of her brother Frank’s growing brood of six children, all under eleven years of age, she wrote, they are “sometimes very noisy & not under such Order as they ought and easily might, [but] I cannot help liking them, and even loving them” (23 January 1817).[7] So it was with Cassy.  Between 1812 and 1817, Jane’s references to Cassy largely express affection rather than criticism. She was pleased that Cassy “kissed her very affectionately” on her arrival at Godmersham in October 1813. Jane was empathetic about Cassy’s recently suffering from sea sickness on board the Namur, noting that “poor little Cassy is grown extremely thin and looks poorly” (15 October 1813).

Jane’s further descriptions of Cassy’s interests and attitudes indicate an ongoing attention to the child’s social and emotional development. She observed, with amusement, an instance of Cassy’s keen curiosity about human relations. When apprised of her cousin Anna’s engagement to Ben Lefroy, Cassy wanted to know all the details surrounding the event. According to Jane, the curious Cassy “asked a thousand questions, in her usual way - What he said to you? and what you said to him?” (29 November 1814). Cassy, it appears, was a dedicated questioner.

On another occasion, Jane was particularly aware of Cassy’s volatile emotions. When visiting Cassy in London, she observed: “That puss Cassy [8] did not shew more pleasure in seeing me … she does not shine in the tender feelings. She will never be a Miss O’neal; more in the Mrs Siddon’s line” (30 November 1814). Jane’s assessment of Cassy’s demeanor suggests that her niece had a flair for the dramatic, in the style of the great tragedienne, Sarah Siddons. Jane’s descriptions of her interactions with Cassy reveal her sensitive understanding of childhood behaviour and her ability to see the world from a child’s point of view.

Intriguingly, Jane’s familiarity with Cassy may have had a particular benefit. Her observations could have helped her in creating her sketch of the young Catherine Morland in the opening pages of Northanger Abbey. Catherine was mischievous: “if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief - at least so it was conjectured from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take.” She was moreover “noisy and wild, hated confinement …  and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.”[9] The very young Cassy had been described by her mother as “riotous and unmanageable”[10] and was later considered by Jane as rambunctious yet likeable. Cassy did not initially warm to scholarly pursuits;[11] Catherine “was often inattentive” to her lessons. The proclivities of Cassy and Catherine are strikingly similar.  

Aunt Jane from Cassy’s perspective

Cassy became the beneficiary of Jane’s gifts for entering into the imaginary world of a child, to divine what activities would amuse and delight her. The aunt who emphasized the importance of polite behaviour was also the aunt who thought of wonderful and amusing things to do. Cassy could look forward to games of skill with Jane, possibly cup and ball, where the object was to catch a ball on a string into a wooden cup, or pick-up sticks, known as spillikins.[12] When she was at Chawton, Cassy was surely pleased when her Austen first cousins, Caroline (from Steventon) and Mary Jane (from Alton),[13] were also present. On such occasions the three girls played make believe, aided and abetted by Aunt Jane who would “furnish [them] with what [they] wanted from her wardrobe, and … would be the entertaining visitor in our imaginary house.” According to Caroline Austen, “she amused us in various ways - once I remember in giving a conversation as between myself and two cousins, supposed to be grown up the day after a Ball”[14] (Memoir,10). Such flights of fancy, involving splendid balls, lively dancing and, perhaps, even handsome young gentlemen for partners, surely appealed to the dramatically inclined Cassy, who had already shown curiosity about her cousin Anna’s social and love life.

When she was not in her aunt’s company, Cassy received letters and various messages from Aunt Jane. In early January 1817, eight-year-old Cassy was surprised and pleased to take receipt of a word puzzle, addressed to “Ym raed Yssac,” consisting of ten lines of text in which each word is spelled backwards. An intrigued Cassy was left to solve the mystery and discover that the first line, “I hsiw uoy yppah wen raey” conveyed her aunt’s greeting of “I wish you a happy new year.[15] Messages also came from Aunt Jane in London to Cassy when she was in Chawton, by way of letters from Jane to Cassandra. Cassy likely giggled when she was told that Jane hoped that “[Cassy] found my Bed comfortable last night & has not filled it with fleas” (2 March 1814). In the same letter Jane reports that: “I have seen nobody in London yet with such a long chin as Dr Syntax, nor Anybody quite so large as Gogmagoglicus.” Cassy[16] would be amused that Jane had encountered no one resembling the large chinned fictional cleric, Dr Syntax,[17] nor the legendary giant, Gogmagoglicus.[18]

Fig. 3: “Dr Syntax sketching the Lake” by Thomas Rowlandson.[19]

The joke about the fleas continued a week later when Jane issued a mock warning and a threat of consequences: “if Cassandra has filled my Bed with fleas, I am sure they must bite herself” (9 March 1814). A last message for Cassy was included in a letter sent to her father, Charles, by a weak and ailing Jane on 6 April 1817. She says she would need a Hackney Chariot to transport her, if she were to travel to be of service to her niece, Harriet, who was ill. Aunt Jane hoped “Cassy will take care it is a green one.” This comment must refer to an earlier confidence shared between them. Three months later Cassy was saddened by the news of her Aunt Jane’s death, but as she grew older, she no doubt reflected appreciatively on the kindnesses, care and attention that this special aunt had shown her.  

 Although Cassy’s real-life relationship with Jane Austen ended in 1817, fifty years later she would be party to a decision about how her now famous aunt would be viewed in posterity. By conferring with her cousins, Caroline Austen, Anna Lefroy, and Anna’s brother, James Edward Austen-Leigh, who was writing his Memoir of Jane Austen, Cassy became part of a conspiracy to refresh Jane’s image for public consumption. Cassy was the gate keeper as she possessed the best primary source in the matter - Cassandra Austen’s full-face sketch of her sister, done in 1810 with pencil and watercolours. Cassy agreed with her cousins’ plan to ask artist, James Andrews, to produce a painting based on Cassandra’s sketch. The resulting, prettified makeover became the source for the steel-engraving used as the frontispiece of the Memoir. It is this image which has since been endlessly reproduced.

Fig. 4: Full face image of Jane Austen, drawn from life, by her sister Cassandra, 1810.[20]

Fig. 5: Jane Austen: The steel engraving by Lizars from a likeness painted by James Andrews after the watercolour sketch by Cassandra Austen.   

Cassy was candid about her complicity, confessing “to not thinking [the new painting] much like the original; - but that, the public will not be able to detect.”[21] Perhaps she thought the painting was good for the purpose as it showed a “very pleasing, sweet face,” and projected an image that was best suited to the style and tastes of the Victorian period. We cannot be sure how Jane would have reacted to this reinvented image of herself, but we know she deplored artifice and pretense.

Fortunately, Cassy valued and carefully kept Cassandra’s original sketch of Jane. It was passed on within the Austen family and by 1948 had found a permanent place in the National Portrait Gallery, London. It sits in a special protective display case which automatically lights up when a viewer approaches. The details of Jane’s face, the complexity of her expression, and the subtlety of Cassandra’s artistry are all made clear. We have Cassy to thank for her protection of Cassandra’s original image of Jane Austen, which we have good reason to admire and treasure.[22]

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[1] After her mother’s death in September 1814, Cassy she spent even more time at Chawton. According to Caroline Austen (1805-1880, daughter of Jane’s brother, James), as Cousin Cassy grew older, she “lived there [Chawton Cottage] chiefly for a time.” See Caroline Austen, My Aunt Jane: A Memoir, written 1867 and published by The Jane Austen Society (1952, reprinted 2008), 6, hereafter Memoir.

[2] Societal norms dictated that as single women, Jane and Cassandra should be willing to help with her brothers’ children, when called upon.

[3] Cassy was apparently “under the especial tutorage of Aunt Cass [Cassandra Austen].” See Memoir, 6.

[4] “The Junction of the Thames and the Medway” by J. M.W. Turner, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

[5] Jane to Francis, 6 July 1813. Hereafter the dates of Jane’s letters appear in brackets in the text.

[6] See David Selwyn, Jane Austen and Children (2010), 101.

[7] In other letters, when she thought she had been too critical of a niece or nephew, she was swift to make amends. See Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things (2012), 259.

[8]To call her niece “that Puss Cassy” in this context suggests more affection than criticism.

[9] Passages from Northanger Abbey are from R. Chapman, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1922), 13, 14.

[10] See Fanny Austen to Esther Esten, 1 June 1810, in Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (hereafter JATS), (2017, 2018), 52.

[11] On 4 October 1813, Fanny Austen described her daughter Cassy’s attitudes towards literacy: “Cassandra begins now to read very prettily, but I have had an amazing deal of trouble with her not owing to a dullness of comprehension; but a dislike to learning.” See JATS, 127.

[12] Caroline recalls that Aunt Jane “could throw the spilikins for us, better than anyone else.” Memoir, 7.

[13] Mary Jane Austen (1807-1836), eldest daughter of Francis Austen, brother of Jane.       

[14] Memoir, 10.

[15] Jane Austen to Cassy Esten Austen, by way of Capt: C.J. Austen RN, 8 January 1817. According to Caroline Austen “Aunt Jane frequently [wrote] to me and in addressing a child, she was perfect.” See Memoir, 10.

[16] Katheryn Sutherland, editor of Jane Austen: The Chawton Letters (2018), 101, considers that these remarks were intended for Cassy.

[17] Dr Syntax was the anti-hero of the comic poem by William Combe, The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812). Thomas Rowlandson’s illustrations of the poem were well-known and popular.  

[18] Gogmagoglicus was a make-believe giant; the name has a fine rhythmic ring. Jane Austen was an inveterate teller of imaginary tales to her young nieces and nephews. She may have already told Cassy a story in which this giant appeared.

[19] Image taken from a late 19th century bowl by Wm. Adams & Sons, Tunstall, England.

[20] The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.

[21] Quoted in Claire Harman, Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (2009), 116.

[22] This image has been chosen for the covers of several biographies of Jane Austen, especially those by Park Honan, Jane Austen: Her Life (1987); Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life (1997); and George Holbert Tucker, A History of Jane Austen’s Family (1983).