One tale that Jane Austen certainly didn’t write... her brother Francis and a Far East murder plot
JANE Austen’s dashing naval brother was involved in a real-life murder mystery that may have inspired some of her most complex male characters.
Francis Austen was a Royal Navy captain responsible for looking after ships owned by the ruthless East India Company when he found himself helping a murder probe.
Long-lost documents have revealed the skipper was appointed to investigate the brutal killing of a Chinese cobbler in Canton in 1810.
The captain of 64-gun warship HMS St Albans, Francis was Senior Naval Officer in Canton at the time. He was rich from prize money awarded for capturing enemy vessels and thought to be the inspiration for Captain Wentworth in Austen’s Persuasion.
The East India Company used the Royal Navy to protect British trade with China, which all came through Canton under strict Chinese control.
The drama unfolded when three drunken sailors came ashore “all dressed alike in lacquered hats and short blue coats”, said eyewitnesses.
They were armed with daggers and tried to buy girls with forged cash. This led to a brawl with seven Chinese in which shoemaker Hoan a Xing was knifed to death.
Believing East India Company sailors to be the culprits, the Chinese banned the East India fleet and its naval escorts from leaving until the guilty men were handed over.
They were only permitted to set sail after Francis convinced a Chinese court that the sketchy descriptions could also match those of American sailors stationed nearby.
But on the voyage home, he was stunned to receive a letter from the company revealing bosses had known all along the culprits were their sailors, John James, Thomas Matthews and John Wynn.
Captain Wedderburn, of the merchant ship Cumberland, had identified them from gossip on board but let them off with a flogging.
The haughty letter from East India Canton chief JM Roberts said the company would have lost face – and bargaining power – by handing the suspects over.
He said: “From the absurd and arbitrary proceedings of the Chinese, I did not consider we were called upon to pursue inquiries.
“I was aware that if a man had been brought forward, it would never have been supposed to have proceeded from a wish to promote
REAL-LIFE INSPIRATION: Captain Francis Austen could have influenced male characters in novels by his sister Jane, top
justice but to arise from our apprehension of their idle threats. This would cause much serious inconvenience in the future.”
It was decided that James, Matthews and Wynn would be courtmartialled on board and the result conveyed to the Chinese.
But the sailors denied everything – except trying to save James when he was “attacked” by Chinese.
A frustrated Francis wrote to the Admiralty: “They were avowedly aroused with drink. It is highly probable that the fatal wound was inflicted by one of them. But I cannot determine how justified it was as a means of self-defence.”
He was determined the sailors should face justice in England and “took all three on board his ship to bring them home so they could be investigated”.
The ultimate fate of the men is not recorded in the correspondence – unearthed during a project to catalogue letters sent by Navy captains to the Admiralty.
In 1827, the Cumberland was attacked by pirates off the Falklands and all on board were murdered.
Francis returned to the manor house he shared with his brother Edward, also a naval officer, in Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane was also to make a home.
Researcher Julie Steer, of the National Archives, says his exploits may have inspired a number of Jane’s naval characters.
She says: “One can imagine him telling his family about the events and directly feeding Jane Austen’s literary imagination.
“No wonder the naval characters are some of the most interesting and complex men in her novels.”
‘They should face justice’