National Archives, London
24 January – 12 April 2025
I have lost a treasure, such a Sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed,- She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow, I had not a thought concealed from her, & it is as if I had lost a part of myself…”.
Cassandra wrote to her niece about losing her sister Jane, and the curator has placed Jane’s will in the Family section. Jane and Cassandra were so close through their lives, they never married, and were together until Jane died aged 41 years old.
I wanted to visit the National Archives to see the Loves Letters exhibition, as they have Jane Austen’s Will on show, and it is rarely seen. The National Archives ‘Love Letters’ exhibition is proving popular, and last Saturday (Valentine’s Day) saw the highest number of visitors in a single day throughout the Archives history!
Jane’s Will is in the Family section, as she was so close to her family, and especially to her sister Cassandra.
Jane wrote her Will on 27 April 1817, and left it unwitnessed. She wrote it on a small sheet of paper, which she folded and tucked among papers on her desk, marking the outside simply ‘My Will. To Miss Austen.’ I expected her writing to look scrawling, as Jane was so ill when she wrote it, and died three months later.
The text of Jane’s Will reads:
I Jane Austen of the Parish of Chawton do by this my last will I testament give and bequeath to my dearest sister. Cassandra. Elizabeth everything of which I may die possessed of which may be hereafter due to me, subject to the payment of my Funeral expences, & to a Legacy of £50. to my Brother Henry, & £50 to all de Byion which I request may be paid as soon as convenient. And I appoint my said dear sister the executrix of this my last will & testament.
April 27 1817.
The National Archives death duty accounts show that the total of Jane’s estate was worth £661, around £50,000 in today’s money, after debts, probate and funeral expenses.
After Jane’s death, Cassandra and Henry went back to Murray and paid to have Persuasion and Northanger Abbey published. Cassandra received a further £515 (around £38,000) in royalties five months after Jane’s death.
The Other Love Letters
Other letters include the one from Lord Alfred Douglas (Oscar Wilde’s lover) dated 25 June, 1895, to Queen Victoria begging her to exercise her power of pardon in the case of the poet and dramatist who was beginning his two years hard labour sentence for gross indecency.
A formal letter from Edward VIII is what they call an ‘Instrument of Abdication’. He loved Mrs Simpson so much, that if she could not be Queen he would abdicate the throne, and he did. The stayed together and in love for the rest of their lives.
Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard wrote to courtier Thomas Culpeper in 1541 – later used to prove they were having a treasonous affair, that led to their execution.
A never-before-seen love letter from the Cambridge Five spy ring’s ‘fifth man’ John Cairncross to his 27-year-old girlfriend Gloria Barraclough.
The exhibition brings together intimate correspondence and documents spanning more than 500 years, revealing how private emotions have shaped public history – and how, sometimes, they have upended it altogether.
There are a wide ranging examples of Love Letters in this exhibition, which runs from 24 January to 12 April 2026.
Lovely Links
The exhibition is found at the National Archives near Kew Gardens in south west London Love Letters
You can see Jane Austen’s Will at their dedicated page on the website.
