Philadelphia Austen Hancock

Philadelphia Austen Hancock (15 May 1730 – 26 February 1792) was an English socialite and the aunt of Jane Austen. Throughout her life, rumours circulated in India and England that she was the mistress of Warren Hastings, who was the godfather and suspected father of her daughter, Eliza de Feuillide.

Biography Hancock was born Philadelphia Austen on 15 May 1730 into a family that was part of the landed gentry. Her father, William Austen, was a surgeon. Her mother, Rebecca Hampson Walter, had been married before.

On 9 May 1745, Hancock was apprenticed to a milliner named Mrs. Cole in Covent Garden. She arrived in India on 8 August 1752. After Hasting's wife died in 1759, Hancock helped care for the children. Hastings later gifted her a rosewood Indian writing desk inlaid with ivory to thank her for her assistance. Even prior to the birth, rumours circulated throughout society that Hastings, not her husband Tysoe Hancock, was the biological father.

In 1765, the Hancocks returned to England aboard HMS Medway, accompanied by their Indian servants: Dido, Diana, Silima, and Clarinda. They arrived in London in the summer of 1765.

The artist John Smart painted a miniature portrait of Hancock, likely in 1768. Struggling financially, her husband returned to India with their maid, Clarinda, where he died in 1775. Philadelphia's daughter received an annual income of £700 a year from a £10,000 trust set up by Hastings, which provided for the family. Hancock went on a tour of Europe in 1777 with the intentions of finding a finishing school to send her daughter to. They first visited Germany, followed by Belgium in 1778. By October 1779 they settled in Paris, where they were introduced to Marie Antoinette and Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe. Hancock's connections in Parisian high society led to the marriage of her daughter to Jean Capot, Comte de Feuillide in 1781. Following her daughter's marriage, she went to live with her in Nérac. They travelled to England to visit relatives and settle financial problems on multiple occasions, eventually settling back there during the French Revolution.

Hancock died from breast cancer on 26 February 1792. She is buried in the churchyard at St John-at-Hampstead in London.