LinLin raised a question about the emigrants who made the needlebooks which Mrs (Fanny) Dashwood presented to the Miss Steeles. I answered it briefly there, but here's a longer answer.

Emigrants (or emigres) were French people who had fled the French Revolution. Though some had brought their fortunes with them, many had not, and were forced to earn their livings (often for the first time in their lives) by making needlebooks, straw hats and the like.

As far as the emigres themselves were concerned, there were all sorts of differences between them (unity and solidarity not being a noted feature of the French Revolution), but roughly speaking they can be sorted into two groups: the first wave, who left as soon as the Revolution started, who were bitterly opposed to it and wanted the return of the old absolute monarchy and all their privileges; and the second wave, who supported the early stages of the Revolution but fled when things started to turn bloody. These two groups were often at daggers drawn with each other.

However, to their hosts in Britain (and elsewhere) they were all just emigrants, and received with anything from hostility and suspicion to a generous welcome. Buying their needlebooks was a small gesture of support, which no doubt made Fanny Dashwood feel virtuous.

Emigres associated with JA:

-- John Thorpe refers to the author who married an emigrant: this was Fanny Burney, who married Monsieur D'Arblay (one of the second wave -- he was one of Lafayette's officers and had fled with him)

-- Monsieur de Feuillide, the husband of JA's cousin Eliza; he seems to have been one of the first wave, but returned to secure his property and subsequently went to the guillotine.

Other famous emigres in fiction:

-- Charles Darnay, in `Tale of Two Cities', another who unwisely returned to France

-- All the people who are rescued by the Scarlet Pimpernel.