xxxvi THE AUSTEN FAMILY. 



About 1670, a son of the race, Stephen Austen, 

 was killed by a blow from one of the sweeps of 

 Minster windmill, having incautiously approached 

 too near after dismounting, leading his horse on 

 the downs with its bridle over his arm, while 

 making memoranda in his pocket-book. His son, 

 born the year of his father's death, is described 

 in a family deed as " of the precincts of the Palace 

 of Canterbury, gentleman/' 1695. 



Subsequently the direct line was represented by 

 a John Austen, who migrated from Birchington 

 to Canterbury, having inherited landed property 

 near that city, and settled his family at St. Martin's 

 Hill, lying without the walls, close to that first 

 Christian church established in the south of Eng- 

 land bo well known by the Dean of Westminster's 

 eloquent description ; and founded, according to 

 Bede, by Eoman Christians A.D. 182. John Austen 

 married, in 1703, Eebecca, one of the co-heiresses 

 of Thomas and Elizabeth Jenkin, of Canterbury, 

 whose pedigree, duly certified on the 20th August, 

 1663, by Sir Thomas Bish ; Clarencieux king-at- 

 arms " by virtue of His Majesty King Charles the 

 Second's commission for examining the armorial 

 bearings of the gentry of Kent " is still among 

 the family papers. 



His wife Kebecca died in 1744, and was buried 

 in the church of St. Martin, as were also nine of 



