Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in the small village of Steventon in Hampshire. Her father was a clergyman with a comfortable income and she enjoyed a happy and lively childhood as the seventh of eight brothers and sisters. In 1801 Jane moved to Bath with her parents and her sister, Cassandra. Neither Jane nor Cassandra ever married, although it seems likely that they both received proposals of marriage. In 1809, after Reverend Austen?s death, Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane moved back to Hampshire where they lived together until Jane Austen?s death in 1817 at the age of forty-one. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
