Eliza de Feuillide
Eliza Capot, Comtesse de Feuillide (née Hancock; 22 December 1761 – 25 April 1813) was the cousin, and later sister-in-law, of novelist Jane Austen. She is believed to have been the inspiration for a number of Austen's works, such as Love and Freindship, Henry and Eliza, and Lady Susan. She may have also been the model from whom the character of Mary Crawford is derived. Biography Background Eliza was born in India into an English gentry family. She was fourteen years older than her first cousin Jane Austen. She was the daughter of George Austen's sister Philadelphia, who had gone to India and married Tysoe Saul Hancock in 1753. Eliza has been believed by some to be the natural child of her godfather Warren Hastings, later to be the first Governor-General of Bengal. This belief was due to rumours circulated at the time by Jenny Strachey, and many points suggested that Eliza was indeed the daughter of Tysoe Hancock. She moved to England with her parents, in 1765. In 1779 she settled in France and two years later she married a wealthy French Army Captain, Jean-François Capot de Feuillide, who was a count ("comte"). Eliza thus became Comtesse de Feuillide.