EMMA SMITH

Emma Austen, nee SmithEmma Smith (aka Emma Austen-Leigh; 1801-1876) was the third child of Charles Smith of Suttons and his wife Augusta Smith (yes, she was a Smith who married a Smith!).

Emma’s PARENTS:

Charles Smith (d.1814) was the son of Charles Smith of Stratford Langthorne and Judith Lefevre. Their London-area estate passed to their daughter Judith, know to the Smith siblings as “Aunt”.
Augusta Smith (d.1845) was one of four daughters of Joshua Smith of Erle Stoke Park (Wilts) and Sarah Gilbert. The other Smith sisters were: Maria (married the 1st Marquess of Northampton); Elizabeth (‘Eliza’; married William Chute of The Vyne); and Emma (unmarried).

Emma’s SIBLINGS:

Augusta and Charles Smith had the following children, the last born days after her father’s death:

  • Augusta Smith (married Rev. Henry Watson Wilder, 1829); children
  • Sir Charles Joshua Smith, bart. [succeeded to the title of his great-uncle, Drummond Smith, in 1816] (married Mary Gosling, 1826); children
  • Emma Smith (married Rev. James-Edward Austen, 1828); children
  • Frances [‘Fanny’] Smith (married Rev. Richard Seymour, 1834); children
  • Spencer Smith (married Frances Seymour, 1835); children
  • Sarah Eliza Smith (married [Sir] Denis Le Marchant, 1835); children
  • Charlotte Judith Smith (married Arthur Currie, 1833); children
  • Drummond Smith (died unmarried)
  • Maria Louisa Smith (married Rev. Sir John Hobart Culme-Seymour, 1844); children

Emma’s CHILDHOOD HOMES:

suttons

Suttons in 2008

The Smiths resided at Suttons, their Stapleford Tawney estate (near Romford, Essex), until the marriage of eldest son Charles to Mary Gosling. Mrs Smith then moved to her Uncle Drummond’s former estate, Tring Park. When in London, Mrs Smith maintained her home at No. 6 Portland-place (like No. 5, not a victim of late nineteenth-century modernization).

Just prior to daughter Fanny’s marriage with Richard Seymour, Mrs Smith moved to the last house she would inhabit, Mapledurham, near Pangbourne. Emma and Edward Austen had already left Tring by the time of that move (1834).

About Emma’s LIFE and my RESEARCH into it:

*EXTRA* James Edward Austen Leigh on YouTube: Jane Austen’s famous quote, “little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory,” was written in a letter to this nephew.

The Smiths & Goslings – next door neighbors in London – have proven a fascinating family to study. Letters exist from as early as the 1780s, and go beyond the 1880s, including correspondence by the Austen Leigh children.

Artwork exists done by at least two two of Emma’s sisters, as well a fantastic set of botanicals, done in the late eighteenth century, by Mrs. Smith and her sisters.

Portraits are included (as are family pedigrees) on this website. And I’m actively seeking more information – be it letters, diaries, drawings – on anyone within the greater family circle. See the pages called “Who’s Who“; “Servants-Clerks-Governesses“; and those pages marked as DRAMATIS PERSONAE for names that appear in the diaries.

Publications about Emma Austen appear on the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) website and at Academia [dot] edu. Links are provided on the page ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

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