[AUSTEN (JANE)]

JEFFERSON (Rev. Thomas, of Tunbridge) Two Sermons, on the Reasonableness, and Salutary Effects of Fearing God... , for the author, by Maunder and Holmes, Tunbridge, 1808

Footnotes

THE SECOND APPEARANCE OF THE NAME 'JANE AUSTEN' IN PRINT.

"In 1796 Jane Austen was a subscriber to Fanny Burney's Camilla. She was also in 1808 subscriber to a book then about to be published - and seems to have solicited subscriptions from others. On 15th June 1808 she wrote from Godmersham to Cassandra at Sothampton: 'I have read Mr Jefferson's case to Edward, and he desires to have his name set down for a guinea and his wife's for another...' Two letters later, on 26th June, she wrote: '...let me remember that I have now some money to spare, & that I wish my name put down as a subscriber to Mr Jefferson's works. My last letter was closed before it occurred to me how possible, how right, & how gratifying such a measure wd be'" (W.A.W. Jarvis of Basingstoke, 'Mr Jefferson's case' in Collected Reports of the Jane Austen Society, 1986-1995, pp.143-46).

The unusually long list of subscribers to the present work contains thirteen with the surname Austen, including 'Mrs Austen', 'Miss Austen' (Cassandra) and 'Miss Jane Austen'. The stated aim of the publication was to raise money to help the author 'to support and place out a family of eight children, and Jefferson's 'case' clearly struck a chord with many people, in the locality of Tonbridge, across the South East and beyond.

Provenance: John Hussey, contemporary ownership signature on title-page (this probably one of the six copies which went to members of the Hussey family); John Symons (1943-2009), Librarian at the Wellcome Library 1968-2005.