Was Dean W. R. Inge of St Paul's a great nephew of Jane Austen?

Question

I've  found a letter from Bishop Edward Churton, dated 1909, to Kitty, the wife of the then Dean of St Paul's. Churton states that Jane Austen was Dean Inge's great-aunt. Dean Inge is also known as Ralph Inge and William Ralph Inge. Anyone know if this could be true?

Comments

The Dean's mother Susanna Churton was the bishop's sister.  Their father was Edward Churton, Archdeacon of Cleveland.  Can't see who he married, but Jane Austen's only sister Cassandra doesn't seem to have married anybody.

One of her brothers changed his name to Knight, but none of them seems to have changed his name to Inge.

Not getting anywhere.  Hard to see how the bishop would get it wrong though.

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Actually the Archdeacon was a generation younger than Jane.  But his mother can't have been Jane's sister either.

An option still open is that the Dean's father's mother was a daughter of Jane's brother.   She had 6 brothers.

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It's probably true - although in some garbled form. Inge's wife was Mary Catherine Spooner (b. 1865) and there's a Henry Spooner (b. 1838) with a mother's maiden name of Knight. So just prove Henry is Mary's father, and his mother's father was Edward Knight (Jane's brother) and you're done...

Jane would then be Inge's wife's great-great-aunt.

Answer 1

The Dean's father William INGE was the son of Charles INGE & Mary Ann OLDERSHAW.

See the Clergy of the Church of England Database The person ID for Charles INGE is: 12928

The mother of Susanna CHURTON & wife of Edward CHURTON was Caroline WATSON the daughter of John James WATSON.