#OTD 4th May 2023: Four Generations of Austen Descendant in Chawton

My father, Jeremy Knight—Jane Austen's 4th great nephew—walking his great-granddaughter around the Chawton estate. Little Pea—Jane's 7th great niece— was seven months old then.

Four years old this year, Pea lives in a cottage in the grounds of Chawton House. She's the latest generation of Edward Austen Knight's descendants to call Chawton home.

In the background on the left, you can see Chawton Cricket Club pavilion.

Records show that Edward and George Knight—Edward Austen Knight's sons and Jane's nephews—played for a Chawton village side in a match at Alton Butts in May 1820. This was decades before the formal formation of Chawton Cricket Club in 1883.

There are no records of Jane watching her nephews play cricket, but as a resident of Chawton just three years earlier, it seems entirely possible she did.

The Knight family have played on this pitch ever since.

My grandfather, Edward Knight III, was club president. My uncle Robert looked after the ground for decades. I watched my father, brother, and uncle all play on this pitch, sitting on the edge on sunny afternoons.

And every weekend from as early as I can remember—perhaps nine or ten years old—I helped Granny make the cricket teas. She baked cakes and scones while I buttered and filled rounds and rounds of sandwiches.

And now here's the newest generation, growing up in Chawton—still walking the same grounds, still part of the same village. 💛