Think of Jane Austen and you might imagine a solitary literary icon writing her books and penning letters in her home. Yet Jane lived a life in the Regency era, including her years in Bath, which naturally involved daily contact with friends, neighbours, professionals and those she encountered in everyday interactions. Bath Abbey has traced 15 individuals from its memorials that were in Bath at the same time as Jane, and are profiling them in a new display. Words by Cathryn Spence.
Bath Abbey’s remarkable Austens at the Abbey exhibition provides us with a unique opportunity to colour our understanding of the Austens’ lives with the personalities and characters who they lived amongst in Bath. Amidst those identified are three of the Langford-Nibbs family, who owned a slavery plantation in the Caribbean and were long-term family friends of the Austens. There is much speculation that their eldest son, James, who gambled away part of his family’s fortune and was disinherited and exiled to Antigua, was the inspiration for Tom Bertram in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.
The exhibition comes as a result of many years of work done by a team of volunteers at the Bath Abbey, who, after meticulously recording the names and biographies of over 2,000 individuals commemorated at the church, have selected 15 people who had links with the Austen family. The new display, running from 5 April – 27 September, explores those 15 connections. Here we introduce you to five.
William Bowen, the apothecary
William Bowen (1761–1815) was an apothecary, although he styled himself as a medical doctor. He successfully administered to Jane’s mother, Mrs Austen, in 1804, but less successfully in 1805 to Rev. Austen.
Jane Austen’s remaining letters show that she found her mother’s pessimism over her health difficult to cope with and her regular declarations of being infirm made her family think of her as a hypochondriac. In 1804, while the family lived at Sydney Place, Mrs Austen became seriously ill and so the family called in William Bowen.
Upon her recovery, Mrs Austen wrote the poem shown on the previous page.
The following year the family called on William Bowen again, but this time it was for Jane’s father, the Rev. Austen. The treatment was not successful, and Jane’s father died quite suddenly on 21 January 1805.
William Wyatt Dimond, actor and theatre manager
It is well-known that the Austens enjoyed theatre and music, and thanks to William Wyatt Dimond (1750–1812) the Bath theatre had an excellent reputation. Dimond was an actor and theatre manager who first appeared in the Bath Theatre Royal repertory company for the 1774 –75 season and remained a favourite with Bath and Bristol audiences for about 25 years. One of his first performances was in Macbeth in September 1774. Playwright, Richard Brinsley Sheridan told Dimond that he performed Joseph Surface in The School for Scandal “in a manner more consistent to my own ideas when I wrote the part, than anybody else”. On the evening of Saturday 22 June 1799 Jane and her brother Edward saw Dimond perform in two plays at the Bath Theatre Royal, which was then on Orchard Street.
Venanzio Rauzzini, singer, composer and concert director
Jane Austen favoured the music of Beethoven, Hayden and Mozart. The last two composers were regularly performed at the concerts Venanzio Rauzzini (1746–1810) directed in Bath between 1777 and 1810. Mozart admired Rauzzini’s singing so much that he composed the motet (vocal composition), Exultate jubilate for him. Rauzzini enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a singer, composer and concert director. He began his career in Rome in 1765 as a soprano castrato and quickly established his operatic credentials. He was invited to become the primo uomo (the principal male singer) at the King’s Theatre in London for the 1774–75 season. Such was his success that the contract was extended, and he remained in Britain. He first performed in Bath in October 1777, and from 1783 he was responsible for organising Bath’s professional music offering, including the annual Musical Festival, which utilised national and local musicians such as Thomas Field.
Thomas Field, Organist and Director of Music at Bath Abbey
Thomas Field (1775-1831) was the Organist and Director of Music at Bath Abbey between 1795 and 1831, and performed at many venues across the city, often alongside Rauzzini. His playing and direction of Handel’s Messiah received great acclaim. With his wife Mary (1777-1815) he had seven children including Henry Ibbott (1797-1848) a prodigy pianist who played his first public performance aged 10, a duet with his father, in 1807. Both Mary and Thomas were buried in Bath Abbey, but only Mary’s memorial has survived with its heartfelt eulogy.
Mrs Mary Jeffrey, retired businesswoman
The intriguing, thrice-married international businesswoman Mrs Mary Jeffrey (née Wilkes, sister of the radical politician John) retired to Bath in her late 60s. The life she led here was far from quiet. She owned a striking carriage pulled by four black horses, which went around the city faster than any other vehicle. For a woman living in the 1700s Mary was considered unconventional. She was well-read and thought to be opinionated. She enjoyed lively discussion and was known for her astute observations. She held literary soirees, attended trials at the Old Bailey, travelled widely and adored the theatre. Her friends included America’s Founding Fathers George Washington and John Hancock, Hancock’s wife, the hostess Dorothy Quincy and the historian Catharine Macaulay. Catharine lived in Bath and like Mary travelled in America and married a man 20 years her junior.
Mrs Jeffrey loved gambling and was reputedly highly eccentric and a great conversationalist. Any visitors to Bath with a reputation for wit and intellect were invited to parties at her house. It would be nice to think that Jane visited her, but Mary was known to prefer the company of clever men.
Dialogue between Death and Mrs A
Says Death ‘I’ve been trying these three weeks or more
To seize on Old Madam here at number four,
Yet I still try in vain, tho she’s turn’d of threescore,
To what is my ill success oweing’?
I’ll tell you, old Fellow, if you cannot guess,
To what you’re indebted for your ill success;
To the Prayers of my Husband, whose love I possess,
To the care of my Daughters, whom Heaven will bless;
To the skill and attention of BOWEN.
The Austens at the Abbey Exhibition runs until 27 September, Bath Abbey; bathabbey.org/austen