Age
We are never told Lady Catherine’s age per se, but she’s almost certainly a generation older than Fitzwilliam Darcy and Col Fitzwilliam, putting her in her 40s or 50s.
Family and Situation
Born Lady Catherine Fitzwilliam, she is the daughter of The Late Earl of ------ and the sister of the current Earl. She was also the sister of the late Lady Anne Darcy. Lady Catherine is now the widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh and the mother of Anne de Bourgh. Though Lady Catherine likely brought some money with her into her marriage, the fact that she married down the ladder (presumably to a baronet), suggests that her family was elite but not especially rich.
Lady Catherine also seems quite keen on her nephews Fitzwilliam Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam. With they are in residence, Lady Catherine “was, in fact, almost engrossed by her nephews, speaking to them, especially to Darcy, much more than to any other person in the room.” Lady Catherine never mentions Georgiana Darcy or Col. Fitzwilliam's elder brother or other siblings, so this fixation may be limited to her plans for Darcy as a future spouse to Anne.
Lady Catherine leads us to believe that there is considerable wealth tied up in Rosings Park, the family home, and that it has never been “entailed away from the female line.” How much income she currently has as a widow, however, is somewhat unclear. It is entirely possible that she continues at Rosings on the legal largess of her daughter, though it does not seem especially likely. Though we’re told explicitly that Lady Catherine is not the Justice of the Peace in her country, “whenever any of the cottagers were disposed to be quarrelsome, discontented, or too poor, she sallied forth into the village to settle their differences, silence their complaints, and scold them into harmony and plenty.”
Despite the temptation to think of Lady Catherine as always lurking at Rosings Park, we know she has a chaise and four and Elizabeth is told upon arriving in Kent that Lady Catherine “was still in the country,” suggesting that she does occasionally leave it. We do know though that Anne has not been presented at court, so it is unlikely that Lady Catherine is properly participating in The Season.
It does seem that Lady Catherine has patronage over the parish of Hunsford and her minister Mr. Collins is quick to refer to her as “his patroness.” We know that the household has several carriages which she frequently sends over the party at Hunsford parsonage, suggesting that her social circle is somewhat limited. Later on, Mr. Bennet implies that Mr. Darcy “has more to give” as regards the church, though, so her powers may be limited.
Other Connections
Lady Catherine has a symbiotic relationship with her obsequious parson, Mr. Collins. She seems to enjoy his praise and the convenience of being able to have him over to entertain her without having any respect for the man.
She also tells a story of sending a Miss Pope to a Lady Metcalf, who she mentions called on her the prior day, suggesting that they both live somewhere in the neighborhood.
Appearance
When Lizzy first meets her, we’re told “Lady Catherine was a tall, large woman, with strongly-marked features, which might once have been handsome.” Mrs. Bennet describes her as “a very fine-looking woman.”
Character
Oddly, George Wickham gives us one of the most cogent descriptions of Lady Catherine, saying “I have not seen her for many years, but I very well remember that I never liked her, and that her manners were dictatorial and insolent. She has the reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever; but I rather believe she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune, part from her authoritative manner, and the rest from the pride for her nephew, who chooses that everyone connected with him should have an understanding of the first class,” however it’s uncertain how much time the son of a steward would really have spent in Lady Catherine’s company. Elizabeth finds these observations to be very much the case; we’re told of Lady Catherine that “Her air was not conciliating, nor was her manner of receiving them such as to make her visitors forget their inferior rank. She was not rendered formidable by silence; but whatever she said was spoken in so authoritative a tone, as marked her self-importance, and brought Mr. Wickham immediately to Elizabeth's mind; and from the observation of the day altogether, she believed Lady Catherine to be exactly what he represented.”
We also know that Lady Catherine loves to give advice. Lizzy observes while at Rosings that Lady Catherine “inquired into Charlotte's domestic concerns familiarly and minutely, gave her a great deal of advice as to the management of them all; told her how everything ought to be regulated in so small a family as hers, and instructed her as to the care of her cows and her poultry.” Lady Catherine also weighs in on how Lizzy and her sisters ought to have been raised, what Lizzy should do to improve her performance on the pianoforte and how she has brokered a number of successful governess-pupil relationships among women of her acquaintance.
Though Lady Catherine often insists she knows more than anyone, we encounter several instances in which that is clearly not the case. She harangues Elizabeth about the scandal of Lydia’s elopement, first saying that she “knows it all” and that talking about how the whole thing was patched up by Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner, suggesting that she does not have the foggiest notion that Darcy was involved. This mis-information, however, does suggest that she is getting gossip from somewhere, even if she is not always in the know about her own family.
