Madam Anne Lefroy, so named because of her sophisticated tastes and manners, and also her acts of kindness, was a close friend and almost like a mentor to Jane Austen. Anne was born Anne Brydges in 1749, making her much older than Jane who was just a child when they met. Their relationship is sometimes described as a surrogate parent-child relationship and started when Jane was invited to play with Anne's daughter. 

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In 1778, Anne married Isaac Peter George Lefroy, rector of Ashe. Anne lived within walking distance of Steventon at Ashe so it was convenient for Jane to visit her. Anne was a great reader and writer of poetry and presumably would have shared her great library at Ashe with Jane. Anne's brother Egerton Brydges arranged for two of Anne's poems to be published before her marriage. These can be found in The Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry. 

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She was a very kind woman who used her wealth, and role as a rectors wife, well to vaccinate and educate the children of the village. One might infer from this that she was a very intelligent woman. In 1800, she set up a straw manufactory that employed women and children to cope with the harsh winter. The Lefroys would lend out their carriage to other families like the Austens, much as we see in Emma. 

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Anne was the aunt of Tom Lefroy and it is often believed that Anne was involved in sending Tom away as she did not approve of the match. There has been similarity linked to Lady Russell in Persuasion for this reason. Jane continued to correspond with Anne so even if this was the case, it did not ruin their friendship. Anne's son Benjamin Lefroy however, did go on to marry Jane's eldest niece Anna Austen in 1814.

 

It is reported that Anne actually introduced Jane in 1797 to a Samuel Blackall, who was about to be appointed to a parish in the hopes that they would find a mutual connection so Anne did care for Jane's happiness. Some say that he may have been the inspiration for Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. 

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Anne tragically died on Jane's 29th birthday in 1804 from injuries after being thrown from her horse. Jane wrote the poem To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy who died Dec:r 16 — my Birthday four years after her death about the yearly reminder. Through the poem she describes Anne as almost an angel, showing just how highly Jane thought of her and missed her. 

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A number of obituaries were published following Anne's death, which highlights her high status and the high opinion held of her. An awful lot about Anne's character can be deduced from them. 

 

The first published in Reading Mercury on Monday 24th December 1804 described her very positively:

 

"On Sunday morning died, at Ashe, in Hampshire, in consequence of a fall from her horse, which she survived only twelve hours, Mrs Lefroy, wife of the Rev. George Lefroy, rector of that parish, and eldest daughter of the late Edward Brydges, esq; of Wootton, in Kent, by Gemima (sic), daughter and co-heir of William Egerton, L.L.D. grandson of John, 2nd Earl of Bridgwater. Of this lovely, accomplished, and most extraordinary woman, it is impossible to speak truly, without seeming to use terms of exaggeration. The splendour of her talent, her vivacity, her powerful and energetic language, the beaming and eager benevolence of her countenance and manners, her fondness for society, and her delight in making every one around her happy, were felt wherever she appeared.

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But with all these worldly attractions, her religion predominated over all her excellencies, and influenced and exalted every expression and action of her life. How amiable and angelic she was in the domestic duties of daughter, wife, mother, and sister, they only can properly conceive who experienced her unequalled virtues in those situations, and who now have to mourn a loss beyond the power of words to describe and of any earthly advantage to repair. But it is not only to near relations and friends that her loss is irreparable; she has left a chasm in society which there is no second to fill; the whole division of the county in which she lived will feel her death most poignantly, and appreciate it with deep and unaffected concern. Above all, the poor will receive this affecting dispensation of providence with the keenest sorrow and lamentation: she fed, she clothed, she instructed them, with daily and never ceasing attention; in grief she soothed them by her conversation and kind looks; and in sickness she comforted them by medicines and advice.

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She instituted a daily school of poor children in her own house, whom, in the midst of a thousand avocations, she never failed to instruct herself: She taught them not only to read and write, but, by her ingenuity, introduced among them a little manufactory of straw, by which they were enabled, at a very early age, to contribute to their own livelihood. When the vaccine innoculation was discovered, she soon convinced herself of its beneficial effects, and having learned the process, actually innoculated upwards of 800 poor with her own hand. Thus she seemed like a good angel, going about to dispense unmingled good in the world, when it pleased Providence, for its own inscrutable purposes, so suddenly to take her away; and her agonized and unfortunate friends must submit to the severe and unexpected blow with the best resignation they can command."

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Another was published in December 1804 by The Gentleman's Magazine, which contained much of the same sentiments but added more in the following paragraph:

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"To do justice to the character of Mrs L would require a command of glowing and pathetic expression far beyond the powers of the writer of this article. She was alike the delight of old and the young, of the lively and the severe, the rich and the poor. She received from Nature an intellectual capacity of the highest order; her perceptions were rapid, her memory was tenacious; her comprehension was extensive; her fancy was splendid; her sentiments were full of tenderness; and her language was easy, copious, and energetic. It may be truly said of her that ‘She lisp’d in numbers, for the numbers came’…It was by the tenor of her amiable and virtuous life, by her lively and enchanting manners, by the overflowing benevolence of her disposition, by cloathing the naked, by feeding the hungry, by instructing the ignorant, by healing the sick, and by comforting the mourner, that she has won a more noble wreath of fame, and drawn over her grave the lasting tears of her agonized friends and numerous aquaintance, and the heart-broken and earnest prayers of the poor. It would be almost impossible to find an individual, in a private station, whose death will be more generally and deeply felt."