Jane Austen's family and ancestry

Jane Austen's parents, George (1731–1805), an Anglican rector, and his wife Cassandra (1739–1827), were members of the landed gentry.

Of her brothers, Jane felt closest to Henry, who became a militia officer, then a banker, then (after his banking firm failed) an Anglican clergyman.

[citation needed] Henry's large circle of friends and acquaintances in London included bankers, merchants, publishers, painters and actors and he provided Jane with a view of social worlds not normally visible from a small parish in rural Hampshire.

[16][17][18] He married their first cousin (and Jane's close friend), Eliza de Feuillide, who was the daughter of their father's sister, Philadelphia Austen Hancock.

George was sent to live with a local family at a young age because, according to Austen biographer Le Faye, he was "mentally abnormal and subject to fits";[19] he may also have been deaf and mute.