1773 - 1845

 

Cassandra was Jane's only sister and the two were very close being only two years apart in age. Cassandra is not well liked by some for destroying some of Jane's letters after her death but over 100 letters between Cassandra and Jane did survive and these have aided us to put together the pieces of Jane's life.

 

Cassandra and Jane sent to be educated by Mrs Cawley in Oxford, their uncle's sister. They followed the school to Southampton, but following an typhus epidemic the girls were sent home to Steventon. The girls were sent to a boarding school in Reading between 1785 and 1786, even though Jane was considered too young. Their mother said "if Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too". Unfortunately, the family could not afford to send their daughters to school so they were to be educated at home. However, with Mr Austen's extensive library, the two were well educated. 

 

Jane and Cassandra shared a room all their lives and remained close. Cassandra was talented at watercolours and created the pictures for Jane's manuscript The History of England. She is credited with having created two paintings of her sister, one of the back view of Jane seated by a tree, and another incomplete portrait of Jane said to be "hideously unlike" Jane Austen's real appearance. Despite this, the sketch is now house at the National Portrait Gallery in London!

 

Mr Austen supplemented his income as a country parson by takin in pupils to tutor. Cassandra became engaged to one of his former students in 1794, Thomas Fowle. Thomas was not wealthy and was waiting for a family living in Shropshire to become available. He became impatient and joined the military as an army chaplain, which resulted in him being sent to the Caribbean. Sadly, he contracted Yellow Fever and died in 1797. Cassandra benefited from an annuity left in Thomas' will, inheriting £1000. 

 

Sadly, Cassandra never recovered from the loss of her fiancé and as with Jane, she never married. 

 

After the death of her mother in 1827 and the departure of Martha Lloyd, a family friend who lodged with them at Chawton, Cassandra lived alone until her death. Though she did continue regular visits to her brothers, nephews and nieces.