The Austen family and St. Mildred's, Tenterden The Family of Jane Austen and St. Mildred's, Tenterden, Kent The sharp eyes of Hugh Ward picked out a tombstone linking the Austen family to the church of St. Mildred, Tenterden. The following item appeared in the Parish Magazine of St Mildred's. Fortunately in St. Mildred's measures are being taken to conserve and in some cases illuminate the most prominent memorials.
Preservation is more problematical when the memorials are underfoot.
And in ye 25th year of His Age. The memorial records the premature death at Leigh Green of Robert, a younger brother of Jane Austen's grandfather. Jane Austen was, of course, most closely associated with Hampshire, where she was born in 1775. However some of her relatives lived in Kent and places in the county featured prominently in her life, letters and novels. Jane's grandfather, William, was a surgeon in Tonbridge and was possibly one of the four doctors attending his younger brother Robert during his fatal illness.