THE AUSTEN FAMILY. 



THE family of Austen (or Austyne, as written in 

 the earlier records) was long resident at Birching- 

 ton, a chapelry dependent on the parish church of 

 Monk ton, in the isle of Thanet, and county of Kent. 

 At all periods wills and other documents attest 

 their possession of landed estates in their native 

 county at Northwood, near St. Lawrence; Brom- 

 field, near Reculver ; with lands at Monkton, 

 Minster, Birchington, and elsewhere ; and many of 

 the tombs (not brasses) may be seen under the 

 matting at Birchington church. 



From 1539, the earliest period to which parish 

 registers extend, being the year subsequent to that 

 (1538) in which the total suppression of the monas- 

 teries and religious houses took place in England 

 (the twenty-ninth year of the reign of Henry 

 V1IL), a long and continuous succession of John 

 and Henry Austens for more than a century dwelt 

 near Minster, 



