Two hundred and fifty years after her birth on 16 December 1775, Jane Austen fans will have a rare chance to see her will in The National Archives’ Love Letters exhibition, opening on 24 January.
The novelist was only 41 when she died on 18 July 1817, having moved to Winchester a few weeks earlier to be closer to her doctor.
On 27 April 1817, at her home in Chawton, Hampshire, Jane wrote her 90-word will on a small sheet of writing paper, which she folded and hid among papers on her desk, writing “My Will. To Miss Austen” on the outside.
In it she left “everything of which I may die possessed” to Miss Austen – her beloved sister Cassandra – with the exception of two bequests of £50.
Vicky Iglikowski-Broad, Principal Records Specialist in Diverse Histories at The National Archives said: “Jane Austen’s will reveals the depth of her affection for her sister, her lifelong companion and ally. Her own health rapidly failing, we see her leaving the bulk of her estate to Cassandra – rather than her brothers – at a time when women’s finances were often precarious.”
The National Archives holds death duty accounts which show Austen’s estate was worth £661 2s, after debts, probate and funeral expenses were met.
Jane also left everything “which may be hereafter due to me” to Cassandra, who later received a further £515 17s 7d when Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published five months after the novelist died.
Her only other bequests were £50 to her favourite brother Henry, who had gone bankrupt when his bank collapsed, and £50 to Henry’s housekeeper, Françoise Bigeon.
Jane Austen was buried at Winchester Cathedral on 24 July 1817.
Love Letters runs at The National Archives from 24 January 2026 –12 April 2026.
