Donegal County Museum celebrates 250th anniversary of Jane Austen

Donegal County Museum are displaying a photo album to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. 

The famous photo album associated with Jane Austen’s nieces - Cassandra, Goddaughter Louisa and Marianne, who lived in County Donegal. 

The three nieces are frequently mentioned in Austen’s letters. Their life stories show that the path of true love does not always run smooth – these stories were worthy of becoming a plot for one of their aunt’s novels.

The album on display contains the only known photographs of Louisa, second wife of Lord George Hill, and Marianne, daughters of Edward Knight (brother of Jane Austen), as well as Elizabeth Bridges, along with many photos of the Downshire and Ward family relatives, and other members of the Landed Gentry.

Also on display is a miniature portrait of Cassandra Knight - Lady Cassandra Hill, painted by Hugh Ross (1800–1873) (younger brother of the more famous painter Sir William Charles Ross) and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1814 to 1845. Not long before her death, Jane Austen wrote of her niece Cassandra Jane Knight: “I always loved Cassandra, for her fine dark eyes and the sweetness of her temperament”.

The album has been digitised and is available to view online and the display will run until December 22

When Cassandra Knight was twenty, Lord George Hill proposed- as the youngest son of the Late Lord Downshire, his future was entirely dependent on the approval of his widowed mother, a formidable Marchioness. Her verdict on Cassandra was “No money – all charms.”, so no marriage took place and George devoted himself to his army career.

Eight years later, he returned to propose to Cassandra again - this time successfully. On giving his blessing to the marriage, her brother Charles stated, “We cannot but be most thankful that such a shocking thing was averted, and that the only person she has ever loved & who is in every way worthy of her should have got her at last”.

After their society wedding in London on October 21 1834, Lord and Lady Hill moved to Dublin, where he was Comptroller of the Household to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

In 1838, following his mother’s death, he inherited enough to resign his Commission and buy a large estate in Gweedore. Their first home in Donegal was Gortlee House, Letterkenny. They had four children: Norah Mary Elizabeth (1835 - 1920), Captain Arthur Blundell George Sandys Hill (1837 - 1923), Augustus Charles Edward Hill (1839 - 1908) and Cassandra Jane Louisa (1842 - 1901). Not long after the birth of her daughter, Cassandra, she died of puerperal fever on 14 March 1842. She is buried in the Church of Ireland, Conwal Parish graveyard in Letterkenny.

Jane Austen (1775–1817) was an English novelist whose works continue to shape literature. Austen wrote novels that examined love, marriage, and class in early 19th-century England. Her most famous works include Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme