Regency Personalities Series-Edward Austen Knight
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.
Edward Austen Knight
7 October 1768 ��� 19 November 1852
Edward Austen Knight
Edward Austen Knight was born in Deane, Hampshire, the third of eight children born to Rev. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh. He had five brothers James (1765���1819), George (1766���1838), Henry Thomas (1771���1850), Francis William (Frank) (1774���1865), Charles John (1779���1852), and two sisters, Cassandra and Jane.
He married Elizabeth Bridges (1773���1808) on 27 December 1791, and together they had eleven children, Fanny Catherine (1793���1882) (one of Jane Austen���s favourite nieces), Edward (1794���1879), George Thomas (1795���1867), Henry (1796-1843), Reverend William (1798-1873), Elizabeth (1800-1884), Marianne (1801-1896), Charles (1803���1867), Louisa (1804-1889), Cassandra Jane (1806-1842) and Brook John (1808���1878).
When Edward was twelve years old he was presented to Thomas and Catherine Knight, who were relatives of his father and were wealthy. Thomas had given George Austen the living at Steventon in 1761. They were childless and took an interest in Edward, eventually adopting him by Thomas and Catherine in about 1783, becoming their legal heir.
The Knights paid for Edward to go on a Grand Tour when he was 18 years old, and he recorded many of his experiences in his Journals. These have been edited by Jon Hunter Spence and published by the Jane Austen Society of Australia in 2004.
When Thomas died in 1794 he left the Godmersham estate to his wife for her life, with the remainder going to Edward. She left Godmersham before her death to move to Canterbury, and gave up the estates to Edward.
Edward inherited three estates from Thomas Knight, in Steventon, Chawton and Godmersham (which included a manor at Wittersham). The libraries from these estates were used extensively by Jane Austen. When war broke out with France, Edward raised and was appointed Captain of the Godmersham and Molash Company of the East Kent Volunteers.
In 1812 due to a stipulation in Catherine Knight���s will, he changed his legal name to Knight.
The rectory at Steventon, where the Austen family had spent their time growing up, and Jane is said to have written the first drafts of several of her books, was severely damaged by flooding and was knocked down by Edward in about 1823, and a new rectory was built by Edward for his son, William Knight, who had taken on the living.
Edward made several improvements to Chawton House, including planting a walled garden, and forming new parkland to take advantage of the views from the house. (Chawton House at present has been purchased by the founders of Cisco and turned into a center for the study of Early English Women���s Writing. It is a short walk down the lane from the Cottage where Jane lived from 1809 on courtesy of Edward.)
