A Very Respectable Company

A Very Respectable Company – Jane Austen and Her Southampton Circle

Jane Austen’s social circle featured a fascinating mix of individuals, including her next-door neighbour, Ann Newell, an absentee landowner with plantations in Jamaica; Charlotte Fitzhugh, who married into a prominent East India Company family and was a devoted fan of Austen’s favourite actress, Sarah Siddons; and Ann Morse Middleton, a mixed-race plantation heiress born in Jamaica, married in India, whose personal life made headlines in national newspapers.

These women could easily have inspired the characters found in Austen’s novels such as Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sanditon. The exhibition will showcase loaned items from the archives of their descendants, offering new and rarely seen materials connected to Austen and her social circle, including the Austen Family Household Book.

Photo credit: Southampton Culture & Tourism