Jane Austen museum urges fans to help decipher unseen memoir

Jane Austen fans have been urged to help transcribe an unseen memoir by her brother that is believed to offer insights into her life.

The appeal was made by Jane Austen’s House after the museum bought the writings of Adml Sir Francis William Austen.

The museum has asked people to help “decipher” the 78-page memoir as some of the handwriting is hard to read.

Museum staff said it could be “another piece of the puzzle” in learning more about the life of the Pride and Prejudice writer.

Sophie Reynolds, the head of collections, interpretation and engagement, said: “It’s really, really, rare to have new Austen family material come to light.

“It’s not really fully known what is in there so that’s really exciting.”

The museum, which occupies the cottage in Chawton, Hants, where Austen wrote all six of her novels, will publish the manuscript online where literary enthusiasts from around the world will be able to help transcribe it.

Francis Austen’s story is said to be “intrinsically linked to his sister Jane” as he lived with the Austen women in Southampton from 1806 to 1809.

According to the museum, Austen used the name of her brother’s ship, HMS Elephant, in her Mansfield Park novel and wrote to him to ask if he would object to it being mentioned.

The skilled wood turner is also thought to have inspired Captain Harville in her novel Persuasion.

Ms Reynolds, 39, said: “Jane Austen left so little facts on her life. We have 161 letters and we have the novels and other, really, scribbles of her fiction that weren’t published at the time.

“But, we don’t really have anything detailed from her so we have to look to the family to see what they were writing and recording.

“This is just another piece of the puzzle that can go into the museum... scholars will find it fascinating to pull things out.

“It helps fill in some of the details about her world.”

The memoir is written in the third person and the pages towards the end of the book are said to be particularly difficult to read as arthritis made the Admiral’s handwriting go “spidery”.

It was bought by the museum, with funding from Friends of the National Libraries, following an auction at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, in June 2023.

The museum also acquired an album of his watercolours and drawings from his global travels during his long career in the Royal Navy.