It is perhaps obvious to point to Jane Austen’s links to the wider world via the international careers of her sailor brothers. But closer to home, the women Austen was acquainted with also brought her into contact with other countries, cultures, and the growing impact of imperialism.

This presentation will explore women who were part of Austen’s Southampton social network, including:

• Ann Newell, absentee landowner of plantations and enslaved people;
• Mary Lance, born in Constantinople and buried in Paris, whom Austen observed “liked to be rich”;
• and Anne Middleton, a mixed-race plantation heiress, married in India, whose private life was splashed across national newspapers.

These were women who could easily find themselves portrayed among the characters in Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sanditon.

Dr Cheryl Butler organised the recent BALH conference Placing Jane. She is the author of Jane Austen & Southampton Spa and First Impressions: Jane Austen’s Southampton Circle 1780–1820, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Honorary Fellow of the University of Winchester, and contributing editor of the Southampton Records Series.