L&T Archive 1998-2003

The Buller boy

Richard Buller was another of Mr Austens pupils.
He stayed with them at Steventon 1790-95. He was about fourteen when he came there, one year younger than Jane. He was the son of the Bishop of Exeter and his wife(who was a daughter of the bishop of Winchester). After his time with Mr Austen he was readymade for Oxford. BA 1798, vicar of Colyton 1799, married 1800, MA 1801, and then he died! Yes, I'm afraid so, in 1806 only 30. He doesn't seem to have made any particular impression on Jane, but he remembered with fondness his time with them and invited them to Colyton in Devon. There is no direct description of any visit there, but it's very likely they did go, perhaps on their way to Lyme. In 1805 Jane met Buller(she was alway referring to him as just 'Buller'in her letters) and his wife in Bath, he was 'taking the waters' for his poor health. I don't know if Jane could bring up any stronger sympathy for him, because she had just lost her own father a couple of months earlier. Anyway next year he died and left a wife with two children.
It seems that I always write about people dying.
But reading the biograhies of the Austens and their relations and friends, it looks like there was always one or several people that Jane knew dying every year! Births and deaths constantly. That was life in her time, you had no chance of fogetting about how uncertain your life was.

Leif G-n