Sophia Sawyer, Admiral’s daughter at Halifax, Nova Scotia

I have written about Fanny Palmer Austen’s role as a naval wife at Halifax, Nova Scotia, summer headquarters of the British Navy’s North American Station.  Recently, I was intrigued to learn more about another young woman, Sophia Elizabeth Sawyer, who, as the daughter of a naval officer, also spent time in Halifax, twenty-one years earlier than Fanny. Here is her story, another thread in the intricate fabric of naval family life.  

On 10 March 1770, Sophia Elizabeth Sawyer was born into a naval family of great wealth and comfort. She had both British and Portuguese ancestry, a situation explained by some unexpected events occurring eight years earlier. As a young British frigate captain on patrol off the coast of Portugal, her father, Herbert Sawyer, visited Lisbon, where he fell deeply in love with Anne Majendie, the daughter of a prosperous local wine merchant. The girl’s father objected to a marriage, not on grounds of personal merit, but due to Sawyer’s want of fortune. However, he quickly changed his mind when Sawyer co-captured a Spanish treasure ship, the Hermione, en route from Lima to Cadiz on 31 May 1762, carrying a cargo of over £500,000.00 in cash and gold bullion. Captain Herbert Sawyer received the enormous sum of £65,053 in prize money;[1] unsurprisingly, the marriage went ahead without delay.

By the time Sophia was eighteen, her father was Commodore[2] on the Navy’s North American Station. Her brother Herbert, three years older, had followed his father into the navy and was at times also on the Station, in command of a sloop. In October 1787, Sophia and her family were aboard her father’s flag ship, HMS Leander (50 guns), en route from Quebec to Halifax, when a catastrophe occurred. The ship struck a rock in the Gulf of St Lawrence and came very close to being lost. In this dire situation, the Sawyers had to quit the Leander and took refuge on board a smaller accompanying vessel, HMS Pegasus (28 guns). The Pegasus was commanded by no ordinary captain, but by the handsome, twenty-two-year-old Prince William Henry, later King William IV of Great Britain. Once Sophia recovered from the trauma of near disaster, she may have reflected how romantic it was to be rescued by a real prince! Moreover, he was a handsome prince, about 5 foot 8 inches high with a good complexion and fair hair.  

The fleet from Quebec reached Halifax on 26 October.[3] In welcoming a prince of the blood, Halifax was transformed and transfixed. The societal elite rose to the occasion with a patriotic fervour. In the course of 10 days there were three balls and suppers given in the prince’s honour, as well as a ceremonial welcome, including military manoeuvres and an official address from Governor Parr. Prince William also attended private suppers at the homes of the Governor, Commissioner Duncan of the Halifax Dockyard and the Commodore, Sophia’s father.

Fig. 1: The Commissioner’s House,[4] where one of the balls was held.

Sophia was lively, beautiful and vibrant, and described in local military circles as “a very handsome, fine woman.”[5] The excitement for her and other genteel young women must have been palpable as they anticipated the elegant events they would be attending. Sophia had certain advantages due to her father’s status as Commodore. Her family had living quarters reserved for them in a wing of the Naval Hospital at the north end of the Dockyard, and here Prince William dined with the Commodore, en famille, on the day of his arrival. He dined again with Commodore Sawyer on 2 November, though whether Sophia was present or not is uncertain.

Fig. 2: General William Dyott, formerly Lt. Dyott.[7]

We have Lt William Dyott, recently posted to Halifax with a detachment of the 4th Regiment, to thank for the chatty and enthusiastic entries in his diary which describe the festivities during Prince William’s visit. The Governor was the first to host an evening ball at his official residence close to the Grand Parade and St Paul’s Church.  According to Dyott, “His Royal Highness came about half seven and almost immediately began country dances with Miss Parr, the Governor’s daughter. We changed partners every dance; he danced with all the pretty women in the room and was just as affable as any other man. … Supper [was served] about twelve. A most elegant thing, near sixty people sat down.”[6]  

The Prince would have opened the country dancing with Miss Parr, as a matter of courtesy, given her father’s rank. Sophia was no doubt one of the “pretty women in the room” who had occasion to dance with the Prince, when she was not engaged by one of her father’s naval officers or one of the red-coated army officers from the 4th, 6th, or 57th regiments currently serving in Halifax.

November 5th was the day set aside for the official civic welcome. Sophia would have been well-positioned to observe the sights and sounds of the ceremony from her father’s vessel. At 2:15 pm Prince William left the Commodore’s ship in his own barge, manned by a crew wearing “handsome caps of black velvet with a silver ornament [at the] front, [incorporating] the King’s arms most elegantly cast.”[8] Every ship in the fleet manned its yards.[9] Their captains, positioned in their own barges, hoisted the Standard of England, ready to salute the Prince as he passed by. Members of the garrison could be seen lining the streets all the way from Government House down to the wharf, where Prince William would be landing. Soon, over the water echoed the sound of three field pieces firing a royal salute to mark his arrival, and as he moved through the lines of troops towards Government House the regimental bands struck up “God Save the King.” A noisy salute by the twenty-four pounders from the fort on the Citadel Hill above the town signaled Prince William’s entry to Government House to receive the civic address. That evening the town gave a ball, a large affair for 300 people.

Two days later the Commissioner of the Dockyard, Henry Duncan, hosted a ball at his handsome official residence. Built in 1785-6 in the classical style, it was well-positioned at the south end of the Yard, from where it looked down into the harbour towards the town. Lt. Dyottt was asked to “manage the dancing” and arrived to find “the Commissioner’s house and dockyard most beautifully illuminated.”

The dancing began soon after 9:00 pm and once again the Prince danced with great energy and enthusiasm.  Dyott reports that: “the last dance before supper at the Governor’s and [that night] at the Commissioners, his Royal Highness, Major Vesey, myself and six very pretty young woman danced “Country Bumpkin” for near an hour.”[10] Sophia was very likely one of the ladies dancing this reel with Dyott, Vesey and the Prince.  She was very attractive, enjoyed dancing and was of such a rank in local society that it would be appropriate to include her.

It was Admiral Sawyer’s turn to entertain the Prince on 9 November. The ever-social Lt Dyott was in attendance and described the proceedings thus: “The company was not so numerous as at the Governor’s, the house not being large. We had a very pleasant ball; Country Bumpkin, the same set, and a devilish good supper. We danced after supper and til four o’clock. ... I never saw people so completely tired as they all were.”[11]

It is intriguing that “the same set” danced the Country Bumpkin for the third time. What a pleasure for Sophia to be one of a select group, at a ball planned and hosted by her own family. This was to be Prince William’s last entertainment in Halifax as the Pegasus sailed early on the morning of 12 November.  Thus ended 17 heady days of elegant balls, suppers and civic ceremonies. The social elite of the town returned to its more modest lifestyle.

Tragically, Sophia’s moment in the sun was followed swiftly by illness and death.  According to Lt. Dyott, she had a swelling in her arm, on which a local doctor operated. The wound did not heal, instead Sophia developed a fever, and died on 31 January 1788. Lt Dyott mourned her loss, describing Sophia as “a most amiable, good, deserving young woman.” Asked to be a [pall]bearer at her funeral, he wrote in his diary: “I cannot say I ever felt more in my life than on the occasion, when I reflected that about three months before I was dancing with her, and that now I was attending her to her grave.”[12]    

Fig. 4: St Paul’s Church, Halifax, where Sophia Sawyer’s funeral was held.[13]

Fig. 5: Sophia Sawyer’s Memorial, St Paul’s Church, Halifax.

Lt. Dyott described the funeral. “The procession was led by the Bishop and the rector, then the body with eight honorary pall bearers, consisting of two navy officers and two army officers. “The under bearers were the Admiral’s barge crew, with white trousers, white shirts with a piece of love ribbon tied round the left arm, black velvet caps and white tied round them. … After the body, Mr. d’Acres, secretary to the Admiral, as chief mourner; next the nurse and Miss Sawyer’s maid in deep mourning and white hoods. After the two women, [the most senior naval and army officers], General Ogilvie and the Commissioner and the Governor by himself. All with white hat-bands and scarfs.”

Next came those who had known and loved Sophia best. “Three or four of the family, [were followed by] some officers belonging to the Admiral’s ship, with hat bands and scarves. After them [came] almost all the officers belonging to the fleet; many of the garrison; all the people of the town who were acquainted with the Admiral, and to close the whole, a long string of empty carriages.” When the funeral party entered the church, the organist played a solemn dirge. The service was then performed. Lt Dyott reflected that he “never saw so much grief as throughout the whole congregation.”[14] Sophia was interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Church.[15] Her father, Admiral Sawyer, returned to England without orders in August 1778 and never went to sea again. 

Fig: 6: Admiral Herbert Sawyer, c. 1811, Charles Austen’s Commander–in-Chief on the North American Station and brother of Sophia.[18]  

In the years to come, there was a link in friendship between Fanny Palmer Austen and Sophia’s elder brother, Rear Admiral Herbert Sawyer, who was Charles Austen’s commander-in-chief on the Station during 1810-11. Fanny liked him. She referred to him in her letters as “dear Admiral Sawyer,”[16] and empathized when his wife was too sick to join him on a subsequent posting to Cork, the headquarters of the Irish Station.  Perhaps Fanny reminded the Admiral of his sister, Sophia. Like Sophia, Fanny was “an amiable, deserving young woman.” Moreover, Fanny was a valued participant in the social life of the North American Station, like Sophia had been. In Fanny’s letters, she spoke enthusiastically of a “splendid ball” she had attended in Halifax at Government House.[17] Sophia had danced and dined with pleasure at a Government House event, twenty-two years earlier. This is a poignant parallel in the lives of two elegant and admirable young women, both who charmed the North American naval community.

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[1] The prize money amounted to over £9 million pounds at today’s prices.  

[2] He was the senior captain on the Station in charge of a group of 3-4 ships.

[3] The fleet also included the Resource (28 guns) and the Weasel sloop. The much-battered Leander was towed to the Halifax Dockyard and hove down, where her bottom was discovered to be in a most shattered condition.

[4] “The Commissioner’s House in the Naval Yard, Halifax” The Naval Chronicle, February 1804.

[5] William Dyott, Dyott’s Diary 1781-1845 [here after Diary], ed. Reginald W. Jeffery, London, 1907, 47.

[6] Diary, 36-7. I have made small corrections in Lt Dyott’s punctuation.

[7] Engraving of General Dyott, frontispiece, Dyott’s Diary.

[8] The coxswain, who steered the boat, wore a gold ornament on his velvet cap. 

[9] The men would be positioned aloft, evenly spaced across all the yards, which were the cross spars on the masts of a square-rigged ship from which its sails were set.

[10] Diary, 43.

[11] Diary, 45

[12] Diary, 47.

[13] Attributed to Amelia Almon Ritchie, thought to be a copy of the same scene by William Eager, her teacher.

[14] Diary, 47-48.

[15] Her memorial can be seen inside the door into the sanctuary, on the wall to the right.

[16] See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, [hereafter JATS], MQUP, 2017,2018, 127.

[17] JATS, 53.

[18] Admiral Sawyer was painted by Robert Field in Halifax.

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.