Thomas Langlois Lefroy
Encyclopedia
Thomas Langlois Lefroy (8 January 1776 – 4 May 1869) was an Irish
-Huguenot
politician and judge. He served as an MP for the constituency of Dublin University 1830–1841, Privy Councillor of Ireland
1835–1869 and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
1852–1866.
, from 1790 to 1793. In 1793, his great-uncle Benjamin Langlois sponsored Tom's legal studies at Lincoln's Inn
, London. One year later, Lefroy served as Auditor of Trinity's College Historical Society, the still-active debating society of the college. Later still, he became a prominent member of the Irish bar (having been called to it in 1797) and published a series of Law Reports on the cases of the Irish Court of Chancery
.
, who was a friend of an older female relative. Jane Austen wrote two letters to her sister Cassandra mentioning "Tom Lefroy" but it does not seem to have been a serious relationship. While some have suggested that it may have been he whom Austen had in mind when she invented the character of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, this seems rather unlikely. While the courtship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen took place over the year or so that Pride and Prejudice was written, the comparisons between the then student Tom Lefroy and the accomplished Mr. Darcy are premature at best, especially in terms of success and connections. In his 2003 biography, Becoming Jane Austen, Jon Spence suggests that Jane Austen actually used personalities as the models for Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, but not in an expected way. Mr. Spence suggests that Jane Austen used herself as a model for Mr. Darcy and his measured demeanor while Tom Lefroy acted as the model for the more gregarious Elizabeth Bennett. So while the exact influence of Tom Lefroy on Pride and Prejudice continues to be debated, it does seem certain that his presence in Austen's life is in some way reflected in the novel.
In a letter dated Saturday (9 January 1796), Austen mentioned:
In a letter started on Thursday (14 January 1796), and finished the following morning, there was another mention of him.
Upon learning of Jane Austen’s death (18 July 1817), Thomas Langlois Lefroy traveled from Ireland to England to pay his respects to the British author. In addition, at an auction of Cadell's papers (possibly in London), one Tom Lefroy bought a Cadell publisher's rejection letter—for Austen’s early version of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions. Caroline Austen said in her letter to James Edward Austen-Leigh on 1 April 1869:
It was rather unlikely that Caroline Austen would address the Chief Justice Lefroy as only ‘Tom Lefroy’ (she indeed addressed him as the still living ‘Chief Justice’ in the later part of the letter). However, if it is true that the original Tom Lefroy purchased the Cadell letter after Jane’s death, it is possible that he later handed it over to Thomas Edward Preston Lefroy (T.E.P. Lefroy; husband of Jemima Lefroy who was the daughter of Anna Austen Lefroy and Benjamin Lefroy). T.E.P. Lefroy later would give Cadell’s letter to Caroline for reference. Cadell & Davies firm was closed down in 1836 after the death of Thomas Cadell Jr.. The sale of Cadell's papers took place in 1840, possibly in November.
In the latter years of Tom Lefroy's life, he was questioned about his relationship with Jane Austen by his nephew, and admitted to having loved Jane Austen, but stated that it was a "boyish love". As is written in a letter sent from T.E.P. Lefroy to James Edward Austen Leigh in 1870,
A fictitious account of their relationship is at the center of the 2007 historical romance
film Becoming Jane
. In this film, Lefroy is played by James McAvoy
.
, but finished third.
An idea of Lefroy's politics is given by the opening of an editorial in The Times
(of London) on Friday 27 February 1829 when he was opposing the Bill to admit Irish Catholics to parliament (if they met a high property qualification).
Lefroy may have been influenced by Huguenot family memories of persecution by French Catholics; this was the case with other opponents of Catholic emancipation such as William Saurin
mentioned above.
Richard Lalor Sheil
published a profile of Lefroy stating (amongst many hostile remarks on his combination of piety and moneymaking) that Lefroy was well-known for his interest in the conversion of Jews to Protestantism, leading Daniel O'Connell
to joke during a lawsuit over a collection of antique coins that Lefroy should be given the Hebrew coins as his fee while O'Connell received those with a Roman inscription. Patrick Geoghegan
's life of O'Connell, King Dan, states that O'Connell held Lefroy's legal abilities in contempt and regarded him as a prime example of a lawyer promoted above more meritorious Catholics (notably O'connell himself) because of his Protestant religion and Tory politics.
He was elected to the House of Commons
for the Dublin University seat in 1830, as a Tory (the party later becoming known as Conservative
). He became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland
on 29 January 1835. In 1838, Thomas Langlois Lefroy received American politician Charles Sumner
during Sumner's visit to Ireland. Tom Lefroy continued to represent the University until he was appointed an Irish judge (with the title of a Baron of the Exchequer) in 1841. In 1848 he presided over the sedition trial of the Young Irelander John Mitchel
.
He was promoted to Chief Justice
of the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland in 1852. Despite some allegations in Parliament, that he was too old to do the job, Lefroy did not resign as Chief Justice until he was aged 90 and a Conservative government was in office to fill the vacancy. This was in July 1866. One apocryphal story (in the memoirs of the Home Rule MP JG Swift MacNeill) describes Lefroy's son as denying in Parliament that his father was too old to perform his duties, but being himself so visibly old and feeble as to produce the opposite effect on parliamentary opinion. Another version of this story has the son defending his father's capacity although he himself had applied to be excused certain official duties on account of advanced age.
In a satirical pamphlet on the Trinity College Dublin election of 1865 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu suggests that Lefroy was so old that he had "ridden on the mastodon to hunt the megatherium" and mocks the manner in which the Conservative lawyer-politicians Joseph Napier
and James Whiteside
allegedly insisted whenever the Conservatives were in power (and might appoint them to replace him) that Lefroy is too old to perform his duties, only to insist whenever a Whig government is in power that he is in perfect health.
, the 3rd Earl of Rosse in Parsonstown to try Parsons’ new telescope called Leviathan of Parsonstown
. Tom later said to his wife (Letter 31 March 1846):
family, and one of their heads of the family, the Lord L'Offroy, died at the Battle of Agincourt
in 1415.
Lefroy who migrated to England in the 16th century, hence the French sounding name (the family head being a Lord L'Offroy). In 1765, Tom’s father (Anthony Peter Lefroy) was secretly married to Ann Gardner in Limerick (Ireland). Five girls were born without Benjamin Langlois (Tom’s great uncle and his family's benefactor) knowing it (Radovici mentioned five, but Cranfield mentioned four; it is possible that one of Tom's elder sisters died in infancy). Thomas Langlois Lefroy was the sixth child, also the first son. The list of Tom’s siblings (including him) is as follows:
Another son (Benjamin, born March 25, 1815) died in infancy. Tom Lefroy’s daughters never married.
.
, Esq., a famous English architect. A hurricane on 6 January 1839 destroyed some parts of the house, and Lefroy had to rebuild it. , the plan to adapt the manor house to be part of a newly built hotel, and to turn the 660 acres (2.7 km²) park into a golf course and housing estate collapsed and work at Carrigglas was terminated before the hotel or any of the new houses were occupied.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
-Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
politician and judge. He served as an MP for the constituency of Dublin University 1830–1841, Privy Councillor of Ireland
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
1835–1869 and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
thumb|200px|The Four CourtsThe headquarters of the Irish judicial system since 1804. The Court of King's Bench was one of the original four courts that sat there....
1852–1866.
Early life
Thomas Lefroy had an outstanding academic record at Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, from 1790 to 1793. In 1793, his great-uncle Benjamin Langlois sponsored Tom's legal studies at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
, London. One year later, Lefroy served as Auditor of Trinity's College Historical Society, the still-active debating society of the college. Later still, he became a prominent member of the Irish bar (having been called to it in 1797) and published a series of Law Reports on the cases of the Irish Court of Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
.
Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen
In 1796, Lefroy began a flirtation with English novelist Jane AustenJane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, who was a friend of an older female relative. Jane Austen wrote two letters to her sister Cassandra mentioning "Tom Lefroy" but it does not seem to have been a serious relationship. While some have suggested that it may have been he whom Austen had in mind when she invented the character of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, this seems rather unlikely. While the courtship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen took place over the year or so that Pride and Prejudice was written, the comparisons between the then student Tom Lefroy and the accomplished Mr. Darcy are premature at best, especially in terms of success and connections. In his 2003 biography, Becoming Jane Austen, Jon Spence suggests that Jane Austen actually used personalities as the models for Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, but not in an expected way. Mr. Spence suggests that Jane Austen used herself as a model for Mr. Darcy and his measured demeanor while Tom Lefroy acted as the model for the more gregarious Elizabeth Bennett. So while the exact influence of Tom Lefroy on Pride and Prejudice continues to be debated, it does seem certain that his presence in Austen's life is in some way reflected in the novel.
In a letter dated Saturday (9 January 1796), Austen mentioned:
You scold me so much in the nice long letter which I have this moment received from you, that I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together. I can expose myself however, only once more, because he leaves the country soon after next Friday, on which day we are to have a dance at Ashe after all. He is a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man, I assure you. But as to our having ever met, except at the three last balls, I cannot say much; for he is so excessively laughed at about me at Ashe, that he is ashamed of coming to Steventon, and ran away when we called on Mrs. Lefroy a few days ago.
. . .
After I had written the above, we received a visit from Mr. Tom Lefroy and his cousin George. The latter is really very well-behaved now; and as for the other, he has but one fault, which time will, I trust, entirely remove — it is that his morning coat is a great deal too light. He is a very great admirer of Tom JonesThe History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. First published on 28 February 1749, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel...
, and therefore wears the same coloured clothes, I imagine, which he did when he was wounded.
In a letter started on Thursday (14 January 1796), and finished the following morning, there was another mention of him.
Friday. — At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea.
Upon learning of Jane Austen’s death (18 July 1817), Thomas Langlois Lefroy traveled from Ireland to England to pay his respects to the British author. In addition, at an auction of Cadell's papers (possibly in London), one Tom Lefroy bought a Cadell publisher's rejection letter—for Austen’s early version of Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions. Caroline Austen said in her letter to James Edward Austen-Leigh on 1 April 1869:
I enclose a copy of Mr. Austen’s letter to Cadell—I do not know which novel he would have sent—The letter does not do much credit to the tact or courtesy of our good Grandfather for Cadell was a great man in his day, and it is not surprising that he should have refused the favour so offered from an unknown—but the circumstance may be worth noting, especially as we have so few incidents to produce. At a sale of Cadell’s papers &c Tom Lefroy picked up the original letter—and Jemima copied it for me –
It was rather unlikely that Caroline Austen would address the Chief Justice Lefroy as only ‘Tom Lefroy’ (she indeed addressed him as the still living ‘Chief Justice’ in the later part of the letter). However, if it is true that the original Tom Lefroy purchased the Cadell letter after Jane’s death, it is possible that he later handed it over to Thomas Edward Preston Lefroy (T.E.P. Lefroy; husband of Jemima Lefroy who was the daughter of Anna Austen Lefroy and Benjamin Lefroy). T.E.P. Lefroy later would give Cadell’s letter to Caroline for reference. Cadell & Davies firm was closed down in 1836 after the death of Thomas Cadell Jr.. The sale of Cadell's papers took place in 1840, possibly in November.
In the latter years of Tom Lefroy's life, he was questioned about his relationship with Jane Austen by his nephew, and admitted to having loved Jane Austen, but stated that it was a "boyish love". As is written in a letter sent from T.E.P. Lefroy to James Edward Austen Leigh in 1870,
My late venerable uncle ... said in so many words that he was in love with her, although he qualified his confession by saying it was a boyish love. As this occurred in a friendly & private conversation, I feel some doubt whether I ought to make it public.
A fictitious account of their relationship is at the center of the 2007 historical romance
Historical romance
Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...
film Becoming Jane
Becoming Jane
Becoming Jane is a 2007 historical film directed by Julian Jarrold. It is inspired by the early life of author Jane Austen , and her posited relationship with Thomas Langlois Lefroy . Also appearing are Julie Walters, James Cromwell and Maggie Smith...
. In this film, Lefroy is played by James McAvoy
James McAvoy
James McAvoy is a Scottish stage and screen actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in 1995's The Near Room and continued to make mostly television appearances until the early 2000s. His notable television work includes State of Play, Shameless, and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune...
.
Political career
Lefroy contested Dublin University in an 1827 by-election, as a ToryTory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
, but finished third.
An idea of Lefroy's politics is given by the opening of an editorial in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(of London) on Friday 27 February 1829 when he was opposing the Bill to admit Irish Catholics to parliament (if they met a high property qualification).
Lefroy may have been influenced by Huguenot family memories of persecution by French Catholics; this was the case with other opponents of Catholic emancipation such as William Saurin
William Saurin
William Saurin was an Irish lawyer and politician. He was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1822, and for much of that period effective head of the Irish administration.-Background and education:...
mentioned above.
Richard Lalor Sheil
Richard Lalor Sheil
Richard Lalor Sheil , Irish politician, writer and orator, was born at Drumdowney, Slieverue, County Kilkenny, Ireland...
published a profile of Lefroy stating (amongst many hostile remarks on his combination of piety and moneymaking) that Lefroy was well-known for his interest in the conversion of Jews to Protestantism, leading Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...
to joke during a lawsuit over a collection of antique coins that Lefroy should be given the Hebrew coins as his fee while O'Connell received those with a Roman inscription. Patrick Geoghegan
Patrick Geoghegan
Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan, O.F.M. was a Roman Catholic clergyman who served firstly as Bishop of Adelaide, then briefly as Bishop of Goulburn, Australia....
's life of O'Connell, King Dan, states that O'Connell held Lefroy's legal abilities in contempt and regarded him as a prime example of a lawyer promoted above more meritorious Catholics (notably O'connell himself) because of his Protestant religion and Tory politics.
He was elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
for the Dublin University seat in 1830, as a Tory (the party later becoming known as Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
). He became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
on 29 January 1835. In 1838, Thomas Langlois Lefroy received American politician Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
during Sumner's visit to Ireland. Tom Lefroy continued to represent the University until he was appointed an Irish judge (with the title of a Baron of the Exchequer) in 1841. In 1848 he presided over the sedition trial of the Young Irelander John Mitchel
John Mitchel
John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...
.
He was promoted to Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland in 1852. Despite some allegations in Parliament, that he was too old to do the job, Lefroy did not resign as Chief Justice until he was aged 90 and a Conservative government was in office to fill the vacancy. This was in July 1866. One apocryphal story (in the memoirs of the Home Rule MP JG Swift MacNeill) describes Lefroy's son as denying in Parliament that his father was too old to perform his duties, but being himself so visibly old and feeble as to produce the opposite effect on parliamentary opinion. Another version of this story has the son defending his father's capacity although he himself had applied to be excused certain official duties on account of advanced age.
In a satirical pamphlet on the Trinity College Dublin election of 1865 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu suggests that Lefroy was so old that he had "ridden on the mastodon to hunt the megatherium" and mocks the manner in which the Conservative lawyer-politicians Joseph Napier
Joseph Napier
Sir Joseph Napier, 1st Baronet was an Irish Conservative Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently Lord Chancellor of Ireland....
and James Whiteside
James Whiteside
James Whiteside was an Irish politician and judge.-Background and education:Whiteside was the son of William Whiteside, a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, being called to the Irish bar in 1830.-Legal and judicial career:Whiteside very rapidly...
allegedly insisted whenever the Conservatives were in power (and might appoint them to replace him) that Lefroy is too old to perform his duties, only to insist whenever a Whig government is in power that he is in perfect health.
Interest in astronomy
Tom Lefroy was also interested in astronomy. On 30 March 1846, he visited William ParsonsWilliam Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, Knight of the Order of St Patrick was an Irish astronomer who had several telescopes built. His 72-inch telescope "Leviathan", built 1845, was the world's largest telescope until the early 20th century.-Life:He was born in Yorkshire, England, in the city of...
, the 3rd Earl of Rosse in Parsonstown to try Parsons’ new telescope called Leviathan of Parsonstown
Leviathan of Parsonstown
Leviathan of Parsonstown is the unofficial name of the Rosse six foot telescope. This is a historic reflecting telescope of 72 in aperture, which was the largest telescope in the world from 1845 until the construction of the 100 in Hooker Telescope in 1917...
. Tom later said to his wife (Letter 31 March 1846):
Family
According to the website of Carrigglas Manor (Tom Lefroy’s house in Longford, Ireland), the Lefroy family came from the town of Cambrai in North Western corner of France. They were a HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
family, and one of their heads of the family, the Lord L'Offroy, died at the Battle of Agincourt
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...
in 1415.
Tom Lefroy’s siblings
Tom Lefroy was born of the Irish Lefroys, descendants of a HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
Lefroy who migrated to England in the 16th century, hence the French sounding name (the family head being a Lord L'Offroy). In 1765, Tom’s father (Anthony Peter Lefroy) was secretly married to Ann Gardner in Limerick (Ireland). Five girls were born without Benjamin Langlois (Tom’s great uncle and his family's benefactor) knowing it (Radovici mentioned five, but Cranfield mentioned four; it is possible that one of Tom's elder sisters died in infancy). Thomas Langlois Lefroy was the sixth child, also the first son. The list of Tom’s siblings (including him) is as follows:
- unnamed fifth elder sister (actual birth order unknown other than being older than Thomas)
- Lucy (1 January 1768 – May 1853)
- Phoebe (15 April 1770 – 5 December 1839)
- Catherine (18 September 1771 – 3 September 1805)
- Sarah (18 March 1773 – 1836)
- Thomas Langlois (8 January 1776 – 4 May 1869)
- Anthony (19 October 1777 – 7 September 1857)
- Anthony's son (Thomas Edward Preston Lefroy, 1815–1887) later married Anna Jemima Lefroy (1815–1855, daughter of Anna Austen Lefroy) on 9 September 1846
- Elizabeth (17 April 1780 – 22 July 1867)
- Benjamin (5 May 1782 – ?)
- Christopher (26 June 1784 – 14 February 1805)
- Anne (26 January 1786 – ?)
- Henry (5 May 1789 – 29 January 1876)
Tom Lefroy's children
Tom Lefroy married Mary Paul on 16 March 1799 in north Wales . From their marriage, they had seven children as listed in the Visitation of Ireland:- Anthony Lefroy (21 March 1800 – 11 January 1890), subsequently MP for his father's old seat of Dublin University.
- Jane Christmas Lefroy (24 June 1802 – 3 August 1896)
- Anne Lefroy (25 April 1804 – 24 February 1885)
- Thomas Paul Lefroy (31 December 1806 – 29 January 1891; wrote Memoir of Chief Justice Lefroy, published in 1871)
- The Very Rev. Jeffry Lefroy (25 March 1809 – 10 December 1885)
- George Thomson Lefroy (26 May 1811 – 19 March 1890)
- Mary Elizabeth Lefroy (19 December 1817 – 23 January 1890)
Another son (Benjamin, born March 25, 1815) died in infancy. Tom Lefroy’s daughters never married.
Jane Christmas Lefroy
Tom Lefroy’s first daughter was named Jane Christmas Lefroy. Scholars debate the derivation of this name. Some believe that the name 'Jane' was derived from Lady Jane Paul (Tom's mother-in-law). Others believe the name referred to Jane Austen. That is what is implied in the 2007 film Becoming JaneBecoming Jane
Becoming Jane is a 2007 historical film directed by Julian Jarrold. It is inspired by the early life of author Jane Austen , and her posited relationship with Thomas Langlois Lefroy . Also appearing are Julie Walters, James Cromwell and Maggie Smith...
.
Carrigglas Manor
Carrigglas Manor was a Gothic-style great house built for Lefroy and his family circa 1830 (Memoir of Chief Justice Lefroy). The family had lived in Carrigglas before 1837 (one of Tom's letter for Mary was dated 5 October 1834). James Gandon the famous architect of Dublin's Custom House designed and built a stable block and farmyard and walled garden for Lefroy. In 1837, Lefroy renovated the Manor with the help of Daniel RobertsonDaniel Robertson
-Career:Robertson may have worked under Robert Adam in London, England; later he worked at Kew and Oxford. Robertson was an early exponent of the Norman Revival, designing both St Clement's Church, Oxford and St Swithun's parish church in Kennington, Berkshire in this style as early as...
, Esq., a famous English architect. A hurricane on 6 January 1839 destroyed some parts of the house, and Lefroy had to rebuild it. , the plan to adapt the manor house to be part of a newly built hotel, and to turn the 660 acres (2.7 km²) park into a golf course and housing estate collapsed and work at Carrigglas was terminated before the hotel or any of the new houses were occupied.
See also
- Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Vol. I 1832-1885, edited by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition available on line at http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablet1.html#letter1 (The letters are public domain)
- Becoming Jane Fansite: About Tom Lefroy
- Shiel's Sketches of the Irish Bar: Vol. I & II 1880 (Donohue & Henneberry Press, Chicago)