BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS

Angela Burdett-Coutts was born the youngest of the six children of the radical politician Sir Francis Burdett and his wife Sophia. The latter was the youngest daughter of the wealthy banker Thomas Coutts by his first wife. For his second wife Coutts married the actress Harriot Mellon. He died in 1822, leaving his entire fortune to her. She remarried, thereby becoming the Duchess of St Albans. She took her custodianship of the Coutts fortune seriously. Therefore, she carefully monitored the character and conduct of her late husband s grandchildren. In 1837 the duchess died. It then emerged that she had chosen Angela to be the principal Coutts heiress. However, her grace s will contained two stipulations: that the recipient should take the additional surname of Coutts; and that s/he should not marry a foreigner, otherwise the estate should pass on to the next designated heir. Burdett-Coutts, as Angela became, was to honour the memory of her step-grandmother by being a supporter of actors; it was she who gave David Garrick s (d.1779) ring to Henry Irving.

Coutts & Co. were Queen Victoria s bankers. The firm gave the monarch considerable financial aid. For this, the sovereign was grateful. She and other members of the royal family were visitors at the heiress s home.

Burdett-Coutts determined to use her immense wealth for philanthropic purposes. Temperamentally, she would have been content to direct it solely towards Anglican causes. However, in 1840 she started a friendship with the writer Charles Dickens She may have served as the model for Agnes Whitfield in David Copperfield (1850). He made her aware that there were plenty of others parties beyond the Church of England that could benefit from her generosity. He acted as her lieutenant for much of her charitable work. She felt a sense of identity with Westminster because her father had been the district s M.P. for 30 years. Dickens was able to show her that the constituency contained areas of severe social blight that her munificence could help to alleviate in at least part. At his prompting, she helped finance the Ragged School Union, which had been founded in 1844. Their discussions informed his treatment of education in his novel Hard Times (1854), while Oliver Twist (1838) steered her towards trying to improve conditions in the East End. Her interests came to extend far beyond London. She assisted projects in Ireland and overseas.

In early 1844 both of Burdett-Coutts s parents died within a few days of one another. The Duke of Wellington furnished her with considerable emotional support. During the final years of his life they were very close to one another. This prompted considerable gossip. In 1847 she sought to consolidate their relationship by proposing to him. For a woman to do so was most unusual at the time. He declined her offer and they continued to be associated with one another although politically they differed. It was the duke who prompted her to develop a technical command of the details of banking so that such interventions as she might make in the affairs Coutts & Co. would be based on a solid understanding of its business activities.

In 1846 Burdett-Coutts and Dickens established Urania Cottage in Shepherd s Bush. This establishment sought to reform women who had been prostitutes or thieves and thereby prepare them for emigration.

The Anglican churches that Burdett-Coutts paid for the construction of or helped finance included: St Stephen (1850) in Rochester Row, Westminster; St John s Limehouse (1853); and St John s Deptford (1855). She paid for fountains and drinking troughs to be constructed in urban areas. The one in Hackney s Victoria Park cost 5000 to erect.

In 1857 Dickens s marriage collapsed. One of the consequences of this was that his closeness to Burdett-Coutts ended. However, she continued to be committed to funding projects in Westminster and the East End. The heiress formed the opinion that one way in which she might be able to help ordinary people in the latter was by making food more affordable for them. At the time, the existing markets charged stallholders tolls, which they, in turn, passed on to the public, thereby inflating the cost of provisions. In 1866 she secured a Parliamentary Act that entitled her to establish a new market. She commissioned the architect Henry Ashley Darbishire to design a market building for her. This cost 200,000 to construct. In 1869 Columbia Market opened. However, the venture failed. This was both because the owners of the East End s existing markets sought to undermine the venture at every opportunity and because the district s market traders had a strong preference for trading in open streets. She tried to find a fresh use for the building as a wholesale fish market. This too failed. She transferred the facility to the Corporation of the City of London in the hope that it might be able to make a success of it. The local government proved to be unable to and returned the property to her. Eventually, it was to be used as a warehouse, as well as accommodating some small manufacturing businesses.

In 1871 Burdett-Coutts was made a peeress in her own right. She assumed the title of Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

She commissioned the construction of Columbia Square (1872).¹ This provided affordable housing for over 1000 people. The Square consisted of four blocks of flats arranged around a courtyard. This feature was to prove to be influential on other designs for social housing.

In 1881 Burdett-Coutts married William Bartlett. He was an American citizen. Therefore, under the terms of the duchess s will, the bulk of the Coutts estate automatically passed to the baroness s sister Clara Money. As a result, the peeress s income fell by 60%. However, she remained committed to her philanthropic activities even if she was no longer able to perform them on them on as large a scale as she had been able to before.

At the time of their wedding, she was aged 66 and her groom 29. This disparity caused many contemporaries to comment disparagingly upon the union. However, the marriage proved to be durable and happy. Mr Bartlett was committed to supporting his wife in her work. He changed his surname to Burdett-Coutts. He was elected to the House of Commons. He sponsored the Hampstead Heath Act. This extended public access to Parliament Hill.

Location: Holly Lodge Estate, Holly Lodge Gardens, Highgate, N6 6AA. (www.hle.org.uk)

Coutts, 438-440 Strand, WC2R 0QS. (Website: www.coutts.com/about/historyl)

1 Stratton Street, W1J 8LA. Burdett-Coutts s townhouse. (orange, turquoise)

Website: www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/angela-burdett-coutts

¹. Formerly, Nova Scotia Gardens.

David Backhouse 2024