Digweeds, Lloyds and Lefroys: The homes of Jane Austen’s friends
- Nicola James
- Aug 18
- 5 min read
Jane Austen spent the first 25 years of life in Steventon, a sleepy Hampshire village with a manor house for the local squire, a Rectory for the priest (Jane’s father George Austen), and cottages for farm labourers.
The Austens weren’t rich, but Jane’s father was a gentlemen and this entitled his children to socialise with local families of a similar rank - the middling class of clergymen and minor landowners.
Jane did have noble ancestry, and her brother Edward had three estates to his name (including Steventon where Jane grew up), so the Austens were welcome everywhere.
The sons and daughters of the Lefroy, Lloyd and Digweed families were her childhood playmates, her teenage dance partners and her lifelong friends. Sadly some of their homes have been demolished, but some still stand in the nearby villages of Deane and Ashe and are a must-see for Jane Austen fans.
Steventon: The Austens and the Digweeds
Let’s start in Steventon, where Jane Austen was born on the 16th December 1775. It was so cold that her father George baptised her at home rather than risk the short walk to his church.
The Rectory where Jane grew up and wrote first drafts of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey was demolished to make way for a more modern, less damp rectory on higher ground in the village (this new and improved rectory was recently on the market for a cool £8.5m).
A black and white engraving of the Rectory was included in the the first biography of Jane, written by her nephew James Edward Austen Leigh, but it may not be accurate. Just as Jane's portrait was "prettified" for the memoir, the depiction of the Rectory may have made it look bigger and more genteel.
New research based on the 2011 archaeological dig of the Rectory site has resulted in a more rustic depiction of Jane’s first home, brought to life by local artist Jo South and approved by the Director of the dig.
The Austen’s nearest genteel neighbours were the Digweed family, tenants of Steventon Manor (Jane’s brother Edward Austen Knight became their landlord when he inherited in 1794). Very little of the house Jane knew survived Victorian remodelling and then a fire in 1932.
But the position of the new Steventon Manor next to St Nicholas Church is just as Jane would have known it, and the church itself where she worshipped every Sunday is well worth your time.
Deane: The Harwoods and Lloyds
Walk 30 minutes north to the village of Deane and you will find a house Jane knew well. Deane House, home of “the squirearchal family of Harwood” (Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters), was the location of Jane’s first dance with Tom Lefroy.
Much has been made of this flirtation as Tom appears in Jane’s earliest surviving letter, written when she was just 20 in January 1796. Had her sister Cassandra had any inkling that Jane Austen fans would obsess over this trifling flirtation, I think she would have burnt this letter along with all the others she deemed too revealing for public consumption!
But the letter survived Cassandra’s bonfire/act of sisterly devotion, and shows that Jane clearly did enjoy Tom’s company, however fleetingly.
I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together
When John Harwood VI died in 1813 it was discovered that he was heavily in debt and the estate was at risk of repossession. His sons, Jane’s first dance partners, were left to pick up the pieces.
Walk along the path to All Saints church and you can’t miss Deane House, where Jane spent many an evening dancing, gossiping and flirting in her late teens and early twenties.
One other home that concerns us in Deane is the Parsonage, which also belonged to Jane’s father George Austen and was rented by three Lloyd women from 1789 to 1792: the widowed Martha Lloyd and her daughters Mary and Martha.
Jane was a teenager when the Lloyd sisters moved to Deane. Martha Lloyd became a lifelong friend, eventually living with the Austen ladies in Southampton and Chawton.
Jane’s relationship with Mary Lloyd was always more fractious, especially after Mary married Jane’s eldest brother James in 1797. In 1801 George Austen retired in Bath to allow James and Mary to move into Steventon Rectory, leaving Jane bereft at the loss of her childhood home and belongings.
Sadly the Parsonage that would have been known to Jane no longer stands.
Ashe: The Lefroys
From the scene of Jane’s first dance with Tom Lefroy we move to the scene of their last, the village of Ashe, which is about a mile west of Deane.
At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy
Jane’s great friend and mentor Madame Lefroy lived in the fine redbrick Rectory you can admire today from the road (like Deane House, it is a private home and not open to the public).
The Lefroys were a Huguenot family who came to England in the late sixteenth century (St Bartholomew’s Day massacre was in 1572).
By the time of Jane Austen, the Lefroys were a large clan of clergymen, diplomats and bankers. The Lefroy that caught Jane’s eye was from the Irish branch of the family and he was dependent on the financial support of his great-uncle Benjamin Langlois Lefroy.
Some believe this is why he couldn’t pursue Jane, as she had no dowry and they wouldn’t have had much to live on.
Tom went into the law, made his fortune and became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1852. He married in 1799 and had nine children.
Walking to the homes of Jane Austen's friends
You can follow in Jane’s footsteps, walking across the very same fields that Jane herself traversed to reach her friends in the villages of Deane and Ashe.
Overton Parish Council (another nearby village Jane knew well) has produced a series of walking trails beautifully illustrated by Jo Smith.
Take a closer look at the trails on the Overton Parish Council website or Visit Hampshire.
If you would like to book a private tour of these villages, please do get in touch.
Written by Nicola James 2025.
With gratitude to the scholarship of Deirdre Le Faye and the artistry of Jo Smith.