Jane Austen was born December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England (near Basingstoke). She was the seventh child (out of eight) and the second daughter (out of two), of the Rev. George Austen, 1731-1805 and his wife Cassandra, 1739-1827. He had a fairly respectable income of about £600 a year, Supplemented by tutoring pupils who came to live with him, but was by no means rich, and couldn't have given his daughters much to marry on. Jane had 6 brothers. The oldest on being James (1765-1819) who was a studios young boy and went to Oxford at the age of 14 and was ordained as a clergyman in 1787. Edward (1767-1852) was a steady and rich childless cousins of the Austen's, Thomas and Catherine Knight adopted the business like fellow and in the early 1780's. Edward later inherited their estate in Kent and took the name "Knight". Henry (1771-1850), Jane's favorite brother, ended up as a minister when his business when broke. He was witty and enthusiastic in whatever he did, but was not always successful. Henry was the one that saw that Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published after his sister's death. Cassandra (1771-1845) was Jane's only sister and her closest confidante. Over 100 letters between Jane and Cassandra have survived, which give a detailed description of Jane Austen's life. Frank (1774-1865) and Charles (1779-1852) both entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth at the age of 12. They fought from the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and both survived and rose to become Admirals.



In 1783, Jane and her older sister went briefly to be taught by Mrs. Cawley who lived in Oxford and then move to Southampton. They were brought home after an infectious disease broke out in Southampton. During 1785-1786, Jane and Cassandra went to the Abbey boarding school in Reading. Jane was an avid reader and read the serious and popular literature of the time. Her family had a library of over 500 books. Austen later wrote that "her family were great novel readers, and were not ashamed of being so"



Jane Austen wrote her novel, Juvenilia, from 1787 to 1793. It was originally written for the amusement of her family and most of the pieces are dedicated to one or another of her relatives or family friends. Earlier versions of the novels eventually published as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey were all begun and worked on from 1795-1799.