Catherine Anne Hubback was the eighth child and fourth daughter of Jane Austen's brother Sir Frank Austen. Unfortunately Catherine was born a year after Jane's death so the two never met, though her aunt's legacy did have a great affect on her life, and she was close to her other aunt Cassandra Austen. 

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Catherine married husband John Hubback, a barrister, in 1842, and they had four children together - Mary (1843), John Henry (1844-1939), Edward Thomas (1846-1924) and Charles Austen (1847-1924). Unfortunately Catherine's husband suffered a complete mental breakdown from overwork and was committed to Brislington House Asylum in 1850 where he spent the rest of his life for the next 35 years. The asylum was built on moral treatment ideas so it is hoped that he was not mistreated as some of the stories of asylums.

 

Following her husband's committal, she moved to her father's house to help with her anxieties, and it is here she began to try her hand at writing to support herself and her sons. In 1850, she published a completed version of The Watsons, using her aunt Jane's proposed plot. The novel is published under the title "The Younger Sister", which is considered her most well known work and you can find electronic copies online. It is dedicated to the memory of Jane Austen and includes the note: "Though too young to have known her personally, was from early childhood taught to esteem her virtues and admire her talents". 

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Catherine didn't stop her writing there and went on to publish nine more novels over the following thirteen years. The novels were well received but are rarely read now and difficult to obtain. Catherine seemingly capitalized on her connection to Jane Austen. One reviewer stated about her novel The Rival Suitors - "The best of all Mrs Hubback's novels, and one which proves her to be nearly allied by genius as she is by blood to the first of English female novelists, Miss Austen". She also wrote to her son John in 1871 - "I mean in future to have my name printed as Mrs C. Austen Hubback and make believe the A stands for that. I have written it at length so nobody knows and Austen is a good nom de plume". 

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Catherine moved to America in 1871, aged 53, following the pleas of her son Edward. She died six years later at Gainsville, Virginia of pneumonia at the home of her third son Charles, who had also emigrated to America. She is remembered on the gravestone of her husband - "Also in memory of Catherine Anne, his wife / Daughter of Sir F.W. Austen GCB, Admiral of the Fleet/She died in Virginia, USA, 25th February 1877 / And there was no more sea".

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Catherine son John Henry, wrote together with his daughter Edith Charlotte, a biography of Jane's brothers Sir Francis Austen and Charles Austen who achieved success in the navy. Edith also went on to write another continuation of The Watsons as Catherine had done. In the preface of the 1928 completion, she refers to having discovered a manuscript of Catherine Hubback's novel. She also went on to write sequels of Jane Austen's novels - Margaret Dashwood; or Interference (1929) and Susan Price; or Resolution (1930).