Caroline Hubback

CAROLINE HUBBACK

In April 1928 58 year old Caroline Hubback travelled from Rome where she worked as a translator to visit the grave of her former barrister grandfather, John Hubback in St Luke’s churchyard in Brislington. John Hubback  was Jane Austen’s nephew in law and tragically spent 35 years in Brislington House Asylum ( now Long Fox Manor) where he was a patient after suffering a mental breakdown in 1847 aged 36. The gravestone also commemorates  his wife, Catherine Anne Hubback, Jane Austen’s niece who to provide for herself and her three sons  , became a novelist.

In 1850 she published a version of Jane Austen ’s unfinished novel, “The Watsons”, as “The Younger Sister”. Catherine dedicated the novel to her aunt and wrote “Though too young to have known her personally, was from early childhood taught to esteem her virtues and admire her talents”. Austen stopped writing ‘The Watson’s “after her father died in 1805 when the family were living at 3 Green Park Buildings East, Bath. Revd George Austen is buried in St Swithin’s churchyard. Over thirteen years Catherine published nine more novels and her work became much admired by middle class Victorian young ladies.

Catherine eventually emigrated to America in 1871 where her two younger sons were living. She regularly visited her husband with her family, even after she had moved to the USA.  On her final visit before her death in 1877 aged 59, John failed to recognise her. He outlived her for eight years and died in 1885 aged 74. The inscription on the gravestone reads “And There Was No More Sea” from Revelations 21.v1. Accompanying Caroline Hubback to Brislington in 1928  was her father, 84 year old John Henry Hubback, Catherine ’s eldest son, who was a retired Liverpool corn merchant. Caroline and John signed the visitors book at St Luke’s on 14 April 1928, which can still be seen today.  The connection was only discovered in 2023.  Caroline and her father stayed at the Pulteney Hotel, Great Pulteney Street , Bath ( now Connaught Mansions flats ) .The hotel was advertised as “The most palatial hotel in the Queen of English Spas”,offering a “Cultured repose and artistic refinement….patronised by the most distinguished  personages “.

It is unlikely  that Caroline and John Henry Hubback noticed a memorial in the porch of St Lukes, tucked away in a dark corner, virtually unseen to any one entering or leaving the church. Stephen Stuart Bridges died in 1787 aged 46, probably an illegitimate son of the Bridges/Brydges family who were landowners of Keynsham from the 16th – 18th centuries. If this is correct, Bridges would have been a tenuous relation of Jane Austen (and the Hubbacks) by Austen’s maternal great grandmother, The Honourable Mary Brydges ( 1666 – 1703 ), sister of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos.

Like her illustrious  great great aunt Jane, Caroline  Hubback never married and also became a writer. She translated a  significant   work by  the founder of psychoanalysis   ,Sigmund  Freud ,   “Beyond The Pleasure Principle “  (1922 ) becoming the first person to use the word “angst” in English. Caroline’s translation made Freud’s complex ideas accessible to the English speaking world. Freud corresponded with life long friend, Welshman , Ernest Jones of the Institute of Psychoanalysis , and praised Caroline’s translation of Freud’s treatise on the psychology  of the sexual libido  which was published by the Institute of Psychoanalysis  and The Hogarth Press which was  founded and run by Virginia and Leonard Woolf.

Caroline had  obtained a degree in Classical Greats at Oxford and later lectured at Cambridge Training College. She was also the first headmistress  of Chester City High School 1905 – 09,  where anti permissive  “Clean Up TV” campaigner  Mary Whitehouse was later a pupil. Caroline  lived in Italy working as a translator  from 1921 – 39.  She  died in 1959 aged 87.

Jonathan Rowe will give a  double bill talk on “Jane Austen’s Bristol”  and “Catherine Anne Hubback” for Brislington Conservation and History Society on  28th May 2026 at 7.30 at St Cuthbert’s Church Crypt, Sandy Park Road. In Autumn 2026 Gemini Players will present the stage  World Premiere of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, “Lesley Castle” adapted by Jonathan Rowe at St Luke’s Church Hall, Church Parade, Brislington. Jane Austen wrote “Lesley Castle” in 1792 aged 16 and it is the only one of her works to be partly set in Bristol.

Jonathan Rowe 2025