Jane Eyre’s cousins Diana, Mary, and St John have the surname Rivers.
Jane meets the Rivers siblings after fleeing Thornfield Hall, exhausted and nearly destitute. Diana and Mary welcome her into their home, Moor House, while their brother St John helps arrange work for her at a village school. At first, Jane does not know that the three siblings are related to her.
Their connection is revealed after Jane learns that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her £20,000. St John discovers that John Eyre was also his and his sisters’ uncle, making Diana, Mary, and St John Jane’s cousins. Jane chooses to divide the inheritance equally among the four relatives.
The surname Rivers can be confused with Reed, the family who raised Jane at Gateshead Hall. The Reeds are Jane’s maternal relatives by marriage, whereas the Rivers siblings are her newly discovered cousins through Jane’s paternal family.