The bankers sister henry austen had set up as a banker in 1804 and built up a small empire of country banks but heny went unmentioned for the good reason that he had gone spectacularly bust in the crash of 1816 the year before jane died a fascinating figure in his own right highly revealing of the corruption and decadence as well as the inequality and the desperation that characterised the regency period henry was intimately connected to the centres of power in high society the history