He was adopted as an infant by Princess Caroline, educated at Charles Burney's academy at Greenwich, and taken by Caroline on her Continental travels. Her enemies accused him of being her natural son.

REFERENCES TO William Austin:

Lady Morgan to Lady Olivia Clarke, 2 April 1819 in Lady Morgan’s Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence. Second Edition, Revised 2 vols (London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1863)