A subscriber recently asked me why my family left Chawton House.

Chawton House was built by John Knight, with the first major build starting in 1588, although it has been subject to extensions, renovations and updates ever since. You can read more about that here: janeaustensniece.substa…

Due to societal, political and economic changes (taxes on estate profits peaked at 80% in the 1940s), most large ancestral homes were sold in the 1950s/60s.

My grandfather Edward Knight III (Edward Austen's great great grandson, Bapops to me), was determined to keep Chawton and didn't sell, but the family fortune was long gone by the time I was born in 1970 and there wasn't the money to maintain the house.

I lived in the north wing with my parents, Carol and Jeremy Knight, and my older brother Paul. An aunt and uncle lived on the top floor with their three children, my cousins, all older than me. My grandparents lived in the main part of the house.

Bapops died in 1987, when I was 17, and Chawton was inherited by my father's older brother, my uncle Richard Knight, who is the 16th successive owner of Chawton House (it has never been sold).

Although I was blind to it as a child, the house needed a lot of restoration. Richard inherited the house but not the finances needed to maintain it.

My family and I moved out (Richard didn't live there in my childhood) and Richard set about finding a solution....and what a challenge that was. He was determined to retain the freehold to the property.

A few years later, Richard met American businesswoman Sandy Lerner (co-founder of Cisco Systems) and the Chawton House Trust was formed, with the house being leased to the trust (Richard still owns the house). Sandy's own charitable trust funded the restoration and she gifted her extensive collection of early women's writing (1600 - 1830).

Sandy Lerner received an OBE for her services to British culture and has since moved onto other interests.

Chawton House is still leased by the trust and has been open to the public for over a decade. It was once our private family home, it is now famous and loved by people around the world.

Chawton House may no longer the home of the Knight family, but Richard's son Adam Knight (my cousin, Jane's 5th great nephew and the current heir to Chawton House) has a home in the grounds, and my niece Millie and her daughter (Jane's 6th and 7th nieces) also live in a cottage in the grounds.

The Knight family's time in Chawton is far from over....