Jane Austen's Family.- ?C[ooper] (E[dward], Rev., son of Gislingham Cooper of Phyllis Court, Henley, Oxon, rector of Whaddon, near Bath, later vicar of Sonning, Berkshire, married Jane Leigh (1736-83), sister of Cassandra Leigh (1739-1827), married George Austen (1731-1805), parents of Jane Austen, father of Jane Cooper (1771-98) later Lady Williams, cousin and close friend of Jane and Cassandra Elizabeth Austen, and Rev. Edward Cooper (1770-1833), a regular visitor to the Austens' house at Steventon, 1728-92) Miscellanies [Verses and songs], manuscript, 207pp. excluding blanks at end, ruled throughout, blotting paper loosely inserted, slightly browned, ink ownership stamp "EC" and 20^th century pencil inscription by James Stevens Cox: "Russell Mss Beaminster" on front pastedown, ink inscription on lower pastedown: "Receipt Book for Wages, 1780", original speckled calf, slightly rubbed, corners bumped, joints splitting, 104 x 190mm., poems dated between 1750-88.

⁂ Jane Austen's family theatricals at Steventon.

Austen family verses, comprising:

(1). Austen (Rev. James, Jane Austen's eldest brother, 1765-1819) Prologue to the Wonder, acted at Steventon December 26^th & 28^th 1787. Spoken by Mr Henry Austen & written by the Rev:nd Mr James Austen, [Susannah Centlivre's The Wonder: a Woman Keeps a Secret, 1714], 1787.

(2). Austen (Rev. James) Epilogue to the Wonder, acted at Steventon Written by the Same, & spoken by Mad:me La Contesse de Feuillide, [Elizabeth "Eliza" de Feuillide (1761-1813), married secondly Henry Austen (1771-1850), an elder brother of Jane Austen], 1787.

(3). Austen (Rev. James) Prologue to the Chances [adapted by David Garrick from a play by Beaumont & Fletcher], acted at Steventon, Jan:ry 19^th & 22^nd 1788 - Written & spoken by the Rev:d James Austen, 1788.

(4). Austen (Rev. James) Prologue to the Tragedy of Tom Thumb, acted to a small circle of select Friends, & spoken by the Author, March 22^nd 1788, James Austen, A.M. Fell:w of St John's Coll:, 1788.

(5). Cooper (?Rev Edward, c. 1727-92, or, Rev. Edward, 1770-1835) Nec tam aversus equos Tyria Sol jingit ab urbe [Nor does the Sun yoke horse so far from the City of Tyre, Virgil, The Aeneid], Cooper Feb:ry 21: 1788.

Other, related family poems, including:

(1). [Leigh (Cassandra, aunt of Cassandra Leigh mother of Jane Austen 1739-1827, eldest daughter of William Leigh of Adlestrop House, 1691-1757, married 8 September 1739 Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Bt., of Ambrosden, Oxfordshire, d. 1770)] An Epistle to the Right Hon:ble the Lady Viscountess St John, giving an account of the Journey to Ambroseden, March, 1750, by a Miss Leigh, Eldest Daughter of Willm: Leigh Esqr. of Adlestrop, Gloucestershire. Unpublished.

(2). Lady Burrell. On Lord Mansfield's falling with Lady Edward, Bentinck from a Bench in the Ball room, at Tunbridge Wells.

(3). Russell (Thomas, poet, bap. 1762, d. 1788) Verses upon Cervantes by Mr Russell, Fellow of New College, [1780-84].

(4). Prologue upon the opening of the Lilliputian Theatre, spoken by Miss J: - or C.E. [?Jane and Cassandra Elizabeth Austen, aged 7 and 9 at the time] for a Puppet in the dress of a little Girl - by Dr Ekins - Dean of Carlisle, [not before 1782].

(5). [Hayes (Philip, bap. 1738 d. 1797), composer]. Tweedledum & Tweedledee, The Anatomy School, Christ Church College, Oxford, 21^st Dec:r 1780.

Austen family theatricals. In the winter of 1787, some of the younger members of the Austen family converted a barn at the rectory at Steventon in order to put on plays over the Christmas period. One of the guests that year was a cousin Eliza de Feuillide, god-daughter of Warren Hastings, and a wealthy woman who had sponsored a play, Hannah Cowley's Which is the Man? at Tunbridge Wells Theatre in September. They decided to stage Susannah Centlivre's, The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret, with James Austen as producer, his younger brother Henry as leading man and Eliza, leading woman. After its success, they staged a second play in January, The Chances, and finally a third in March 1788, Henry Fielding's Tom Thumb, all with prologues and epilogues supplied by the eldest son James, considered the writer of the family. Jane Austen, even at such a young age would have been involved at some level in such literary fun, and from this date started writing herself. Jane Cooper acted opposite Henry Austen in two plays at Christmas 1788, and was almost certainly at Steventon for the festivities a year earlier. The wider circle of cousins to the Austens, including the Coopers, Leighs and Lefroys would have been familiar with such verses, perhaps sometimes read aloud in the parlour of the rectory at Steventon on a winter's evening in a candlelit room full of shadows. This manuscript collection of intimate songs and verses was compiled by a member of this wide cousinhood, and if not a member of the Cooper family, certainly someone very close to the Austen family.