New Details about Jane Austen’s Naval Brother Francis on the North American Station 1845-48

In my blog post for November 2020, I wrote about Jane Austen’s naval brother, Francis, as Admiral in command of the North American and West Indies Station from 1845 to 1848.[1] His was a peacetime commission. While on the northern end of the Station, his duties were to ensure the protection of the fisheries against the Americans, to make coastal surveys and to maintain a British presence in the colonial possessions of the area. His flagship, HMS Vindictive (50 guns), was known as a “family ship” for he had on board two sons, George (the chaplain) and  Herbert (an officer) along with his nephew, Lt Charles John Austen II. He also brought along two daughters, Cassy and Frances, as his designated social hostesses. What follows are some brief glimpses of Sir Francis at work and at leisure on the Station. They are suggestive of his personality and some priorities at this stage in his life and career.

Quebec City, September 1846

Fig. 1: Admiral Sir Francis Austen

Admiral Sir Francis Austen was keen to explore the extent of his Station and he was diligent in doing so. It entailed travelling northwest from Halifax, Nova Scotia, his northern base, to reconnoitre the St Lawrence River as far as Quebec City. While there, Sir Francis Austen also led at least one excursion on land. According to the Quebec Gazette, he and his family “returned yesterday from a visit to the upper part of the province.” Meanwhile, the same issue reports a tragedy that occurred aboard the Vindictive. On the night of 24 September 1846, “a midshipman from the Vindictive fell overboard and drowned while the ship was at anchor in the harbour…. A lifeboy was thrown over immediately and every effort made to save him, but the body never rose again. It was eventually recovered.”[2] The young man was eighteen-year-old John E. Haig.

The loss of a crew member, especially of one so young, was a matter of great regret. Moreover, young Haig’s family was presumably known personally to Francis Austen for it was the captain’s prerogative to select the young men who would be training as midshipmen under his command. Given Haig’s age, it is likely he had been aboard since the Vindictive left England and was probably studying for his lieutenant’s exam. It was Austen’s unhappy task to inform Haig’s widowed mother of the tragedy. She subsequently arranged for a memorial plaque to be placed on the wall above the left balcony in the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Quebec City and for a tombstone in the St Matthew’s church cemetery on Rue Saint-Jean. John Haig’s untimely death added a sobering touch to what must have been a fascinating trip for Sir Francis and his retinue into a French-speaking community in North America.[3]

Visiting Prince Edward Island: October 1847

The following year Sir Francis made a trip to the colony of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence. This voyage was another opportunity for familiarizing himself with the scope of his command. It was also a chance to inspect a new navigational aid, the recently completed Point Prim Lighthouse. The light was situated on a point of land extending into the Northumberland Strait and marking the entrance to Hillsborough Bay and the colony’s principal port of Charlottetown. Prior to the choice of this site, the colony’s Lt Governor had consulted with Royal Navy captains about the most eligible location for the light, and he had concurred with their judgement.

 The completed lighthouse was impressive. Its construction featured a “tapered, cylindrical brick structure covered in wood shingles and it measured 18.3 metres from base to vane.” The tower possessed a prominent but elegant taper and a projected lantern platform supported by brackets which was topped by a multisided cast iron lantern.[4] Those on board the Vindictive could appreciate why the Point Prim Light was already an excellent resource for navigators in the region.

Fig. 2: Point Prim Light, Prince Edward Island

Sir Francis’s voyage took him from the Point Prim Lighthouse and into Charlottetown harbour, where local colonial officials were apparently expecting to welcome him and his party onshore. Such would be the normal courtesy when the Commander-in-Chief of the Station had dropped anchor in the harbour for three days. However, they were disappointed, as revealed by a headline in  The Examiner, a local newspaper. It read “Admiral Failed to Disembark.” In self-justification, Sir Francis wrote to the paper:

That we did not land was entirely owing to the heavy rain, which did not cease for many minutes together from the Saturday evening till 12 o’clock on Tuesday when I left Port. I beg further to add that it never was my intention to devote more than three days to visit; that it had nothing whatever to do with Politics; being solely for the gratification of personal curiosity, combined with a desire of becoming acquainted with every part of  my extensive command.”[5]

Note the detailed, crisp, dismissive tone of the letter. Sir Francis precisely describes the quantity of rain which made a shore visit ill-advised. He assures the readers he did not intend to stay longer. He does not want his decision to be interpreted as a political affront. He stresses he was in the area out of personal curiosity.

The wording of this letter invites comment. Sir Francis’s reference to heavy rain seems a poor excuse: had he and his party gone ashore, they could have expected to be entertained indoors. Additionally, Sir Francis’s “desire to become acquainted with every part of my extensive command” is inconsistent with his behaviour. He had been happy to take his family party on shore at Quebec, why would he not explore Prince Edward Island on arrival, even if it meant waiting for better weather?[6]

 Sir Francis’s letter leaves the impression of one who is unhappy to have his actions criticized. There is a note of authority which is void of real regret or apology. He chose the public forum of a newspaper to explain his failure to visit ashore. This may not have been the wisest choice as the formal and impersonal tone of his letter could have failed to placate the disappointed local officials and population. Maybe the decision to stay on board the Vindictive can be explained by reasons Sir Francis did not choose to reveal. His daughter, Cassy, was a dominant force in her father’s social and official planning. Perhaps she decided that her father and his retinue must avoid the inconvenience of getting wet, and her opinion held sway.[7] I have yet to discover whether Sir Francis ever became acquainted with Prince Edward Island.

Summers in Halifax, Nova Scotia: 1845-47

Sir Francis and his retinue ordinarily occupied summer headquarters in Halifax, living in the spacious and elegant Admiralty House, completed in 1819. He attended to his official duties and did what was expected of him socially but he preferred the company of his immediate family. He was an attentive father and particularly concerned that his daughters enjoy themselves, which meant they needed some means of circulating in public. Francis had grown up in a family that was devoted to gardening, so he was most likely appreciative of exotic plantings and varieties of trees and shrubs. Given these interests, the five-and-a-half-acre Horticultural Society Garden, the forerunner of what became Halifax’s Public Gardens, would be an attractive place to take his daughters.[8] It was comprised of handsome flower beds, winding paths, specimen trees, a pool and a stream along with a meeting place known as  Horticultural Hall. The Garden was private:  it was only open to subscribing members drawn from the wealthy, professional and administrative classes. However, someone of Sir  Francis’s rank and position, as well as his accompanying family, would undoubtedly be welcome as guests. Strolling about in the Garden would let Sir Francis mix with the upper classes among the Halifax citizenry, which, from his point of view, also counted as good public relations.

Fig. 3: Mature elm trees dating to the 1840s  with the Horticultural Hall in the background

One of the Vindictive’s officers, Jane Austen’s nephew, Charles John Austen II, may have favoured the Garden for his own purposes. While on shore in Halifax, he had met and fallen in love with Sophia Deblois, the daughter of a wealthy local merchant. The Garden was an ideal place for a courting couple to promenade, to enjoy conversations a deux as well as summertime band concerts. Perhaps Charles was able to escort his Sophia to the Garden’s annual fund-raising bazaar where “the music afforded by 2 Highland pipers and 3 military bands, also ministered to the enjoyment of the company, the wares for sale executed with the usual taste of the ladies.” [9] [10] 

Fig. 4: Halifax Public Gardens in September. The Bandstand was built in 1887

Three colonial centres: Quebec City, Prince Edward Island and Halifax- these are places where one can catch a fleeting glimpse of Admiral Sir Francis Austen during his naval career from 1845-48. He can be found in both his professional and personal capacities displaying diverse characteristics – now grieving over a drowned young trainee officer, then seeking to justify his arguably discourteous behaviour, yet on other occasions showing concern for his public relations and his daughters’ social needs. In 1848 at the termination of his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, the Vindictive brought Francis home to England. Thus ended his last appointment in the active sea service at the age of 74.

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[1] See blog post for November 2020.

[2] See Charles Andre Nadeau, “One of Jane Austen’s brothers was in Quebec City 175 years ago,”  Quebec City newspaper, the Chronicle-Telegraph, September 22, 2021.

[3] Charles Austen’s letters reveal that he had occasion to mourn the loss of two midshipmen, part of a prize crew that failed to bring a captured merchantman into Bermuda in November 1808. Charles wrote to Cassandra on 25 December 1808: “I have lost her [the prize] and what is a real misfortune the lives if twelve of my people, two of them mids.” See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, 216.

[4] Point Prim Lighthouse: https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_hi_eng.aspx?id=14835.The lighthouse maintains the same appearance today.

[5] Quoted in The Guardian (Prince Edward Island newspaper), 12 October 2013. I am grateful to Penelope Player of Charlottetown who alerted me to this reference.

[6]In terms of the current political mood on the Island, a local newspaper The Examiner provides a clue. The paper quotes an editorial from another current newspaper, the Islander “on the subject of a Petition which a little knot of Charlottetown shop-keepers have got up praying His Majesty not to continue (Governor) Sir H.V. Huntley in the Government of the Colony longer than the allotted timelife (presumably the paper meant “lifetime”).[6] Yet, it would not be the mandate of a visiting naval Commander-in-Chief to address  a petition circulated by a ‘little knot” of local shopkeepers. So there does seem to be a pressing political issue to be specifically associated with Sir Francis decision to stay on board. He did not need to mention politics in his letter to the editor of the Examiner.

[7] See other references to Cassy’s domineering views in my blog about Sir Francis, November 2020.

[8] It was comprised the southern half of the current Halifax Public Gardens, fronting on what is now Spring Garden Road

[9]Charles married Sophia in September 1848. Two other officers from  the Vindictive married Halifax girls that year: W. D. Jeans, Sir Francis’s secretary, wed Bess Hartshorne; Officer William King-Hall married Louisa Foreman. 

Notes about the Horticultural Society Garden are courtesy of Halifax Public Gardens guide, Susanne Wise.

Photo Credits:

Fig 1: Private collection

Fig 2: Lighthouse friends

Figs: 3, 4: Sheila Kindred

Cassandra Esten Austen: Naval Child during the Napoleonic Wars

A girl born to a genteel Georgian family in England would likely be raised in a comfortable home, supported by parents and servants, and provided with all that she needed. Her predictable upbringing would include the security of a familiar, local community in which she could find appropriate playmates and would receive the respect due to her father.[1] Cassandra (Cassy) Esten Austen’s childhood was different. On account of her father’s career in the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars, Cassy moved between the North American port towns of St George’s, Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia, travelling back and forth by sailing ship, despite the hazards of attack by enemy vessels or shipwreck by ocean storms. In 1811, she made the dangerous voyage across the Atlantic and then lived on a working naval vessel, stationed off the cost of England. Here is her story.

Cassy, the first child of Fanny and Charles Austen, was born in St George’s, Bermuda on 22 December 1808. She was first described in a letter that her ecstatic father wrote to his sister, Cassandra Austen, in England soon after her birth. He reported: “The Baby besides being the finest that ever was seen is really a good looking healthy young Lady of very large dimensions and as fat as butter.”[2] At the time, Charles was a naval lieutenant in command of a sloop of war, HMS Indian (18 guns) in service on the North American Station. He had met and married Fanny Palmer in Bermuda, where her father had been the expatriate Attorney General.

 From a very young age Cassy experienced the peripatetic nature of naval life. In the autumn of 1809, the Indian needed extensive repairs at the Halifax Naval Yard. Charles’s family accompanied him on the voyage from Bermuda to deliver the vessel for this purpose. Cassy’s presence in Halifax and her connection to the navy became a matter of public record when she was baptised at St Paul’s Anglican church, Halifax, on 6 October 1809. The service was performed by the naval chaplain, Rev. Robert Stanser, and two of her sponsors,[3] Captain Edward Hawker of HMS Melampus and Esther Esten, one of Cassy’s aunts, were able to attend. The record of her baptism specifies her father’s rank, citing him as “Capt. Charles John Austen Royal Navy.”

Fig. 1: St Paul’s Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia[4]

Fig.2: Entry of Cassy Austen’s Baptism (on the bottom line) in the Church Records  

That autumn was also notable for the family’s horrific voyage in the Indian whilst returning to Bermuda from Halifax after the vessel’s repairs were completed. It was late November and winter on the North Atlantic. Just out of Halifax, the Indian was caught in a fearful storm of “strong gales, sleet and snow.” The logbook recorded “the gales increased” and “the ship was labouring and shipping heavy seas.”[5] These matter-of-fact remarks belie the ferocious nature of the storm and the awful risk of sinking. The Indian, after the harrowing journey, limped into Bermuda after fifteen days at sea, twice the usual time. Cassy must have been terrified by this experience. She would make other sea voyages between Halifax and Bermuda before she was three years old, and she would face the rigours of a transatlantic crossing in mid 1811. In addition to the hazards of sea voyages, Cassy was not a happy traveller. During an eight day passage from Bermuda to Halifax in 1810, her mother regretfully recorded that “poor little Cass was very sick.”[6]

Fig 3: HMS Cleopatra in a Storm[7]

Cassy lived in Halifax again in 1810 when her father began service on HMS Swiftsure (50 guns) as flag captain for Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren. On arrival from Bermuda, Cassy was housed on shore with her parents in the Admiral’s residence situated at the north end of the busy Halifax Naval Yard. By then her personality traits were becoming apparent: she gave evidence of vigour and independence. Fanny described her 17-month-old daughter as “so riotous and unmanageable, that I can do nothing with her.”[8] Ever practical, Fanny decided to dress her child in “short frocks and pantaloons for she is such a romp.”[9]

For four warm summer months Cassy enjoyed her new situation in Halifax. Popular with her host, Lady Warren, who was apparently “very fond of … little Cassy,”[10] the child had, in addition to the attentions of her mother, the services of a maid, Molly. Cassy’s company had an added importance for Fanny during the ten weeks Charles was away on a mission, delivering troops to a war zone off the coast of Portugal. When there was no word of the Swiftsure’s progress, Fanny became increasingly anxious. Cassy provided a distraction, a ready subject for affection and care, and her cheerful presence helped Fanny get through a worrying period of separation from Charles.  

Cassy’s place in her father’s naval world was dependent on the ship into which he was commissioned and the station on which he was serving. Her first naval associations had been with the North American Station, but by mid 1811 the family was in England. Shortly after arrival, Charles unexpectedly lost the command of the frigate, HMS Cleopatra (32 guns) and, as a result, he and his family were cast on shore on half pay.

Fortuitously, about this time his former commander and family friend, Admiral Sir Thomas Williams,[11] was appointed Commander in Chief at the Nore. He asked Charles to be his flag captain. For Cassy this meant another big change in her lifestyle. She was to live on board HMS Namur (74 guns), a working naval vessel riding at anchor 3 miles north-east from Sheerness, Kent.[12] Cassy, together with her sister, Harriet Jane, born in February 1810, found themselves in a new home with unusual features.

The family’s living space was the captain’s quarters which occupied the width of the ship in the stern on the quarterdeck and under the poop deck. The spacious captain’s cabin was a very pleasant room, with its extensive view of the anchorage and the ships passing by. However, it was also a place of business for Charles so the children did not have unlimited access. Fortunately, there were other spaces to inhabit. A sleeping cabin next to the captain’s cabin may have been used by all the family so that Cassy and Harriet would have the comfort of being close to their parents overnight. The dining room, situated across from the sleeping cabin, was sometimes the site of family meals. The rest of the quarters would have had multiple uses, such as storage for books and family possessions, space for makeshift accommodation for the occasional visitor, and a useful place for spinning tops and playing children’s games. An armed marine stood on guard continuously at the entrance to the captain’s quarters, another unique feature of living on board as part of his family.  

Cassy was confined to the family quarters while aboard the Namur, but access to the exposed poop deck above made pleasurable perambulations possible. Not only was this a healthy undertaking in the bracing sea air, but the poop deck afforded a panoramic view of the ship at work. Men could be seen working aloft on the sails and masts or scrubbing the deck. Others took receipt of shipments of provisions delivered by a barge sent from the Sheerness Dock Yard. Periodically red-coated marines could be seen drilling on the upper deck, or men “pressed” into naval service were visible as they were received on board before assignment to a particular ship. Cassy might also listen to her father being piped aboard after a meeting on shore with Admiral Williams. In the background she heard the cries of swooping gulls and the sound of the channel buoys over the perpetual creaking of the ship and the whistle of the wind in the riggings.

Sometimes Cassy left the Namur for visits to her Austen and Palmer relatives on land in Hampshire, Kent, and London. On these occasions, she disembarked in a bosun’s chair - a plank seat with canvas surrounds slung by ropes and pulleys from the ship. Secure in a parent’s arms, then swung over the side of the Namur, she was lowered into the ship’s tender, which would take her ashore, - surely a heady adventure for a naval child.  

Cassy was devoted to her parents and her sisters, Harriet and little Fan, born in December 1812, and was happiest when with them, but it became increasingly clear that the benefits of family life on the Namur were outweighed by her sufferings when the ship’s motion in rough seas triggered severe and prolonged bouts of sea sickness.[13] Adding to this problem were the discomforts of exposure to frigid weather at sea in winter. So Cassy’s parents decided that she should periodically leave the family circle and stay on land with her aunts, Jane and Casandra at Chawton Cottage and Harriet in London. The aunts welcomed her, though it meant more changes in her home life.   

Cassy’s story reveals one child’s experiences growing up in a naval community. Some circumstances of her family life were favourable to her well being and development, others were less productive of comfort and pleasure. Cassy was able to grow up in a stable and caring family because her parents determined to keep all its members together as far as possible. Rather than leave her in Bermuda on the two occasions when Charles’s career required him to stay in Halifax, Cassy and her mother came along as well. Once in England in 1811, instead of Fanny and the children living on shore, as many naval families did, the Charles Austens chose to establish an “aquatic abode,” as Cassandra Austen called it, on the Namur. Thus, Cassy was spared separation from her parents during most of her early formative years. Additionally, Cassy mixed with a variety of naval folk, including the officers under her father’s command, as well as the Admirals he served under - John Warren and Thomas Williams - together with their wives. She was introduced at a very young age to adult company and social life. Cassy was also exposed to a variety of climates, landscapes, towns and cities in North America and England, and she must have begun to observe the diversity of nature and human life. She was gaining views of the wider world.

Other aspects of Cassy’s naval lifestyle were difficult. She was plagued with sea sickness. Not only did her parents grieve to see her so discomforted but they were concerned that her early education would suffer. Additionally, she lacked the advantage of a steady land-based home in a familiar neighbourhood. To a sense of instability may be added loneliness. Once on the Namur Cassy may have found the captain’s quarter too confining. There was no scope for running about outside; the lack of other children, apart from her younger sisters, conceivably added to a feeling of isolation. Such was Cassy Austen’s early childhood, far removed from the predictable norms for a girl of her station in Georgian life, yet revealing of a naval family’s existence during the Napoleonic Wars as experienced from a child’s point of view.

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[1] Cassy’s first cousin, Caroline Austen (1805-1880), daughter of her uncle, James Austen, had a similar lifestyle.

[2] Charles Austen to his sister, Cassandra, 25 December 1808. See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (hereafter JATS), MQUP, 2017, 2018, 216.

[3] The other sponsor was her aunt, Cassandra Austen, in England.

[4] Attributed to Amelia Almon Ritchie and thought to be a copy of a watercolour of the same scene by Halifax artist, William Eagar (1796-1839), who taught Amelia Ritchie drawing.

[5] The Indian’s Logbook, 29 November 1809, ADM 51/1991.

[6] Fanny Austen to her sister Esther, 1 June 1810. See JATS, 52.

[7] Cassy crossed the Atlantic in HMS Cleopatra in 1811. This image depicts the ship’s struggles in a severe storm in 1814 when Charles was no longer her captain.

[8] Fanny to Esther, 1 June 1810, See JATS, 52.

[9] Fanny to Esther, 23 September 1810. See JATS, 68.

[10] Fanny to Esther, 1 June 1810. See JATS, 53.

[11] Charles had served under Thomas Williams on HMS Unicorn (32 guns) and HMS Endymion (44 guns).

[12] The Namur had had an illustrious career in the sea service. She had seen action in numerous battles: Louisburg (1758), Lagos (1759), Havana (1762), and Ortegal (1805). Now she was the guard ship at the Nore and a receiving ship for sailors waiting to be deployed to naval vessels fitting out in the Thames and Medway rivers.

[13] As Jane explained to Cassandra, Fanny and Charles “do not consider the Namur as disagreeing with [Cassy] in general - only when the Weather is so rough as to make her sick.” Jane to Cassandra, Letter # 94, 26 October 1813. 

In the Footsteps of the Austens: A Walking Tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia

In early summer 2017, Austen scholar Sarah Emsley and I created a Walking Tour to highlight places familiar to Jane Austen’s naval brother’s, Charles and Francis and their families, during the time that they spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The purpose was to share this perspective on Halifax with participants at the Jane Austen Society UK conference, held in the city from 20-27 June. The original version of the tour is also available on Sarah’s webpage. The version you are viewing here benefits from further enhancements added by Trudi Smith. You can click on each image for further details. You can check out the immersive Global Earth Walking Tour version. Thanks, Trudi, for these fine additions.

Download a PDF of this walking tour: In the Footsteps of the Austens- A Walking Tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia

Jane Austen never visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, but two of her brothers were stationed in the city during their time in the Royal Navy, and she was very interested in their careers. She drew on their experiences when she wrote her two naval novels, Mansfield Park (1814) and Persuasion (1818). Nova Scotia and Bermuda are the only places in North America where the Austen brothers lived and worked, and it is still possible to see many of the sites they knew. This walking tour of Halifax includes Citadel Hill, St. Paul’s Church, the Naval Yard Clock, Government House, St. George’s Church, and Admiralty House, along with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

HMS Cleopatra

Captain Charles Austen was the first to visit Halifax. He came as a young officer during his appointment to the North American Station of the Royal Navy and stayed several times between 1805 and 1811—first with his ship HMS Indian, a 399 ton, 18 gun sloop of war, later with HMS Swiftsure (74 guns) as flag captain to Admiral Sir John Warren, Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, and finally with HMS Cleopatra, a 32 gun frigate. It was the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain.

In 1811, Jane Austen, who was beginning her novel Mansfield Park, wrote to her sister Cassandra that she knew, “on the authority of some other Captn just arrived from Halifax,” that Charles was “bringing the Cleopatra home” to England (25 April 1811).

Thirty-four years later, in more peaceful times, Admiral Sir Francis Austen arrived on the 50 gun HMS Vindictive as Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indies Station, 1845-48. He was seventy-one and on what would prove to be his last command. He and his squadron spent each June to October based in Halifax.

HMS Vindictive (50 guns), moored off the Naval Yard, by Herbert Grey Austen (Private collection; reproduced with permission of the owner.)

Halifax is famous for its huge natural harbour. It was chosen as a British naval and military base and settlement because of its natural features and its location as the first mainland landfall in North America from Europe. Founded in 1749, Halifax was strategically positioned close to the route to French possessions in Québec to the north and the Thirteen Colonies on the American seaboard to the south.

When Charles was in port between 1805 and 1811, his vessel could be found either moored at the north side of Georges Island or perhaps at one of the anchorages adjacent to the Naval Yard. When Sir Francis arrived each year to set up a summer headquarters, it was most convenient to moor HMS Vindictive close to the Yard and in sight of his official residence, Admiralty House.

walking tour highlights

Click on each image for details. For the full walking tour, download the PDF, or check out our immersive Google Earth Walking Tour.

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A. Citadel Hill

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B. St. Paul's Church

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C. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

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D. Naval Yard Clock

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E. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

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F. Government House

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G. St. George's Church

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H. Admirality House