Suitor lacked persuasion for Miss Austen

Today, December 16, is the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain's greatest novelists, and someone whose work remains as popular as ever. To mark the occasion, Jonathan Rowe introduces us to just one of Jane Austen's suitors.

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Tis a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen was unlucky in love. Despite a handful of possible romantic connections she died unmarried in 1817 aged 41 and was never united with her own Mr Darcy.

In 1802, aged 27 she was engaged for 24 hours to 21-year-old Harris Bigg-Wither (1781-1838) of Manydown, Hampshire but changed her mind after a night's sleep.

Harris was wed two years later and had a happy marriage and ten children.

Contemporary accounts describe him as “awkward, bumbling and plain, with nothing to recommend him but his size.” Presumably signing herself “Mrs Bigg-Wither” for the rest of her life did not appeal.

Another of Jane Austen's admirers and potential suitors was a clergyman who later married the daughter of a wealthy Bristol-based plantation owner.

In 1798 22-year-old Jane met Exeter-born Rev Samuel Blackall (1771-1842) who was 27 and on the lookout for a wife. They were introduced by Anne Lefroy, a friend of Jane’s, and also an aunt by marriage of Tom Lefroy with whom Jane had a brief, but significant relationship in 1796.

Blackall was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and looking for a good parish but he appears (according to some) to have failed to charm Jane who at the time was writing First Impressions, the manuscript which would become Pride and Prejudice.

It's possible that Blackall was an inspiration for Mr Collins, the obsequious clergyman who proposes to Elizabeth Bennett.

Blackall was invited to spend Christmas 1798 at the Lefroy’s parsonage at Ashe, not far from Jane’s family parsonage home in Steventon, Hampshire. He refused the invitation but wrote of “expressing a hope of creating myself a nearer interest with the Austen family”.