Jane Austen's Family: Parents, Siblings & Family Tree

Eight children survived infancy in the Austen household at Steventon — a large family even by Georgian standards, and one whose fortunes fanned out across the Navy, the Church, banking, and the landed gentry.

The Austen children

Name	Born–Died	Became
James	1765–1819	Clergyman; succeeded their father at Steventon
George	1766–1838	Disabled from childhood; lived apart from the family
Edward	1767–1852	Adopted by wealthy cousins the Knights; inherited Godmersham Park and Chawton
Henry	1771–1850	Banker, later army agent, later a clergyman; Jane’s favorite brother and literary agent
Cassandra	1773–1845	Jane’s only sister and closest companion; never married
Francis (“Frank”)	1774–1865	Royal Navy; rose to Admiral of the Fleet
Jane	1775–1817	Novelist
Charles	1779–1852	Royal Navy; rose to Rear-Admiral

Cassandra: the essential sister

Cassandra Austen was engaged to a clergyman, Tom Fowle, who died of yellow fever in the West Indies in 1797; she never married after that. She and Jane shared a bedroom for most of their adult lives and exchanged hundreds of letters whenever apart — the surviving fraction (about 160) is the single largest source for Austen’s biography. After Jane’s death, Cassandra destroyed the majority of the correspondence, a loss biographers still lament.

Edward’s inheritance — and Jane’s home

Edward’s adoption by the childless, wealthy Thomas and Catherine Knight gave him two estates, Godmersham Park in Kent and the Chawton estate in Hampshire. In 1809 he offered his mother and sisters a cottage on the Chawton grounds — the house where Jane wrote or revised all six of her novels, and which is now the Jane Austen’s House Museum.