One hundred and fifth in an occasional series  of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters.  How many marriage proposals did Jane Austen turn down?  The story of poor Harris Bigg-Wither, whose December 1802 proposal Austen accepted and then rejected the next day, is reasonably well-documented. Austen’s niece Caroline heard the story from her mother, who witnessed the aftermath, and years later, Caroline shared the details with her brother, James Edward Austen-Leigh, as he worked
