Cassandra Leigh

Cassandra Leigh

Cassandra Leigh was the daughter of an Oxford Dean. She married George Austen, a promising scholarship student at Oxford. George's livings were in the gift of Cassandra's more wealthy relatives.

Cassandra and George had eight children. They raised seven of those children in the relatively modest Rectory at Steventon, until George retired to Bath, in 1800. Cassandra and George, and their two daughters, Cassandra and Jane lived in rented accommodation, in Bath, until George's death, in 1805.

In 1805 she and her two daughters, and Martha Lloyd, an old family friend, moved in to home of her newly married fifth son, Frank. They shared that home until 1809, when her third son made available for them Chawton Cottage, a house on one of his estates. After the death of Jane, in 1817, and after Martha became Frank's seocnd wife, in 1828, Cassandra continued to share Chawton Cottage with her daughter Cassandra, until her own death.

Due to her Oxford connections her eldest son James, and her fourth son Henry attended Oxford tuition free.

Frank and her last son Charles joined the Royal Navy as Midshipmen, at twelve years old. Both rose to the rank of Admiral.

Her second son, George, was the child who didn't live with the rest of the family. He was born with serious medical issues, and they placed him with a rural family, who took care of him for his entire life. Some sources said he was deaf, and stricken with epilepsy.