Great, great, great Aunt Jane Austen
The third maternal great grandfather of Keith, Gordon, and Barry Graham was Admiral Francis Austen (1774-1865), the brother of the famous authoress Jane Austen.
As a British naval officer, he traveled throughout the Caribbean as well as the Far East. At some juncture after the death of his second wife he fathered a child. The mother, Rebecca Bassett, was a former slave and domestic worker at the Admiralty House which was the living quarters for visiting officers. (The Admiralty House still stands today as a Bermuda landmark. Austen's name is also inscribed on a plaque in the Bermuda dockyards).
Francis was the captain of the eighty gun ship "Canopus" that chased Napoleon's navy across the Atlantic in the Battle of Santo Domingo. He was also the commander of the "St. Albans" which was involved in the opium trade with China, and supervised the transport of silver from Asia to England. He also partook in the navy's role in protection of slavery. He spoke unfavorably of the institution in his letters to his sister, Jane Austen.
Francis was the son of the Rev. George Austen (1731-1807) and Cassandra Leigh (1739-1827) whose fifth great grandfather was the Mayor of London.
Rebecca Bassett was the daughter of Thomas Bassett and Elizabeth. They were registered slaves on the plantation of Frances Dill. They were married March 26, 1826. They had four children.
Rebecca's union with Francis Austen produced Ann Elizabeth Bassett, whose name was later changed to Ann Elizabeth Austen (March 8, 1843 - August 23, 1906). She was the grandmother of Eva Geraldine Jackson. Eva was the grandmother of the Graham brothers. Hence Ann Elizabeth is their second great grandmother, Francis Austen their third great grandfather, and Francis' sister Jane Austen their great, great, great aunt.
There are a combination of paintings and photographs of the above ancestors with the exception of the Bassetts. A daguerreotype of Francis Austen exists.
Thanks for the above information to Mr. David Jackson, a cousin of the Graham brothers who has done substantial genealogical research into our family tree.
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