Angela Burdett-Coutts
Above the West Door of St Stephen’s is the head of a woman with angel’s wings. It is meant to be a portrait of Angela Burdett-Coutts, a slim, plain and shy woman, heir to a fortune from Coutts Bank and daughter of a radical politician. She was a devout Christian who believed she must use her immense fortune to improve the quality of life of the poorest people of London and beyond.
Born in 1814, she was the daughter of Sir Francis Burnett, and also granddaughter of Thomas Coutts, one of the founders of the
Scottish bank. It was his second wife, a former actress, who left her enormous wealth to Angela, her favourite stepgranddaughter, on condition she added Coutts to her name, making her 'the richest woman in England' second only to Queen Victoria.
Her lively and intelligent governess, Hannah Meredith, became her inseparable companion even after Hannah married Dr William
Brown who became part of Miss Burdett-Coutts’ household. And shy though Angela was, she had many distinguished male friends including Louis Napoleon, Gladstone, Disraeli, Dickens and the Duke of Wellington.
Her friendship with Charles Dickens had begun in 1835 when she was 21 and he was 23, and he soon became her closest adviser, directing her social work, bringing to her attention many ways in which she could help individual families in dire need(several of which she helped emigrate) and charities. She helped several Ragged Schools with improved schoolrooms, public baths and continuing financial help.
Above the West Door of St Stephen’s is the head of a woman with angel’s wings. It is meant to be a portrait of Angela Burdett-Coutts, a slim, plain and shy woman, heir to a fortune from Coutts Bank and daughter of a radical politician. She was a devout Christian who believed she must use her immense fortune to improve the quality of life of the poorest people of London and beyond.
Born in 1814, she was the daughter of Sir Francis Burnett, and also granddaughter of Thomas Coutts, one of the founders of the
Scottish bank. It was his second wife, a former actress, who left her enormous wealth to Angela, her favourite stepgranddaughter, on condition she added Coutts to her name, making her 'the richest woman in England' second only to Queen Victoria.
Her lively and intelligent governess, Hannah Meredith, became her inseparable companion even after Hannah married Dr William
Brown who became part of Miss Burdett-Coutts’ household. And shy though Angela was, she had many distinguished male friends including Louis Napoleon, Gladstone, Disraeli, Dickens and the Duke of Wellington.
Her friendship with Charles Dickens had begun in 1835 when she was 21 and he was 23, and he soon became her closest adviser, directing her social work, bringing to her attention many ways in which she could help individual families in dire need(several of which she helped emigrate) and charities. She helped several Ragged Schools with improved schoolrooms, public baths and continuing financial help.
Angela Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Burdett-Coutts by Unknown artist, oil on panel, circa 1840 NPG 6181 © National Portrait Gallery, London |
The population of London was rapidly expanding with not enough churches for the growing numbers. In Westminster there were only St Margaret’s, next to the Abbey, and St John’s, Smith Square.
When her parents died a few days apart in 1844, Angela decided that a fitting memorial to her father would be a new church in the most deprived area of his constituency. With the help of the Bishop of London, Charles Blomfield, Miss Coutts negotiated for a large site owned by the Abbey on Rochester Row on which to build a church, a school and a vicarage. Leases had to be bought, and it all took some time. But for the church, as can be seen today, no expense was spared. The Burdett-Coutts School still thrives, but the vicarage, that was on the corner now occupied by Westminster College, proved too big and difficult to heat. (The vicarage is now the far side of Vincent Square.) Though St Stephen's was always 'her' church, and she hoped to be buried in it, she built several others including another St Stephen's in Carlisle. |
She endowed three overseas dioceses, giving £50,000 each to Adelaide in Australia, Cape Town in South Africa, and Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. (Their arms are to be seen in St Stephen’s East Window.) She also gave much practical relief in many other areas, lending the government a quarter of a million pounds to alleviate the starvation in Ireland during the potato famine, helping a hundred Irish emigrate to Canada, sending help for the wounded in the Zulu wars and in the Crimea. She also ordered a 'drying machine' for her friend, Florence Nightingale, in Scutari, which was said to dry a thousand articles of linen of linen in 25 minutes, with an attached copper for boiling water and a spin dryer.
The list of her charitable works was endless: replacing slums with well-ventilated flats with gas, water, drainage and cooking ranges; improving schools which taught practical subjects like hygiene, cookery, needlework and managing a tight budget rather than purely academic subjects, and improved sewage. She tried to improve on the open sewers close to St Stephen’s, an area round the present Greencoat Place and Stilington Street, but could not get the cooperation of the well-to-do landlords. In many of these practical schemes she was helped by Dr Brown, Hannah Brown’s husband. So it was a tremendous blow when, during a visit to the South of France in 1855, Dr Brown died after a short illness. His body was brought home and buried in St Stephen’s. (A memorial to him is to be found on the right hand side of the North Door.)
By now Dickens was occupied with his own career and Miss Coutts’ closest and dearest male friend was the elderly Duke of Wellington. It was a very loving relationship; in fact Angela proposed to him when she was 33 and he was 78, but the Duke insisted she should not throw herself away on a man old enough to be her grandfather, though the companionship continued, and on his death she was treated almost as is widow.
Her world-wide charitable work never stopped, and in May 1871 Queen Victoria made her the first woman ever to become a Baroness in her own right. She was also the first woman to be given the Freedom of London and cheered by the people as 'Queen of the poor'. But a change came when she met, on a Mediterranean cruise, a handsome young American, Ashmead Bartlett, who was less than half her age. To the utter dismay of all who knew her, including the Queen, she determined to marry him when she was 69 and he was 30. It was a happy enough union, but a condition of her original inheritance was that she should not marry a foreigner, and so she forfeited three fifths of her income. Though Bartlett became a Conservative Member of Parliament, he did not manage her money well, so she could no longer give large sums of money to her charities.
As she grew old she still occasionally attended St Stephen’s, even though she had to cut her contribution to its running costs and hand the schools over to the London County Council, but the congregation always stood as she entered. She became ill with bronchitis shortly before Christmas 1906. As she lay dying, some of her last words were to the vicar and his wife at St Stephen’s: 'Tell the Vicar and Mrs Twining I am so grievously sorry for what I did over the schools and the church, and that I behaved so badly to the Vicar who did all in his power to help me. They were both such true and good friends to me.' She died on the morning of Sunday, 30 December 1906.
She lay in state in her house in Piccadilly and 25,000 people filed past her coffin. She had always wished to be buried close to her beloved friend, Hannah Brown, in St Stephen’s, but the Dean of Westminster offered a place in the Abbey so long as she was cremated. Her husband accepted, but at the last moment refused the cremation. The Chapter at the Abbey were furious and most of them did not attend the funeral. Mrs Twining recorded that this great heroine of the people, who though she had a grand funeral, was eventually buried in quick lime without a coffin, close to the memorial of that other great social reformer, her friend, Lord Shaftesbury. A simple memorial to Angela Burdett-Coutts can be found close to the West Door of Westminster Abbey.
The list of her charitable works was endless: replacing slums with well-ventilated flats with gas, water, drainage and cooking ranges; improving schools which taught practical subjects like hygiene, cookery, needlework and managing a tight budget rather than purely academic subjects, and improved sewage. She tried to improve on the open sewers close to St Stephen’s, an area round the present Greencoat Place and Stilington Street, but could not get the cooperation of the well-to-do landlords. In many of these practical schemes she was helped by Dr Brown, Hannah Brown’s husband. So it was a tremendous blow when, during a visit to the South of France in 1855, Dr Brown died after a short illness. His body was brought home and buried in St Stephen’s. (A memorial to him is to be found on the right hand side of the North Door.)
By now Dickens was occupied with his own career and Miss Coutts’ closest and dearest male friend was the elderly Duke of Wellington. It was a very loving relationship; in fact Angela proposed to him when she was 33 and he was 78, but the Duke insisted she should not throw herself away on a man old enough to be her grandfather, though the companionship continued, and on his death she was treated almost as is widow.
Her world-wide charitable work never stopped, and in May 1871 Queen Victoria made her the first woman ever to become a Baroness in her own right. She was also the first woman to be given the Freedom of London and cheered by the people as 'Queen of the poor'. But a change came when she met, on a Mediterranean cruise, a handsome young American, Ashmead Bartlett, who was less than half her age. To the utter dismay of all who knew her, including the Queen, she determined to marry him when she was 69 and he was 30. It was a happy enough union, but a condition of her original inheritance was that she should not marry a foreigner, and so she forfeited three fifths of her income. Though Bartlett became a Conservative Member of Parliament, he did not manage her money well, so she could no longer give large sums of money to her charities.
As she grew old she still occasionally attended St Stephen’s, even though she had to cut her contribution to its running costs and hand the schools over to the London County Council, but the congregation always stood as she entered. She became ill with bronchitis shortly before Christmas 1906. As she lay dying, some of her last words were to the vicar and his wife at St Stephen’s: 'Tell the Vicar and Mrs Twining I am so grievously sorry for what I did over the schools and the church, and that I behaved so badly to the Vicar who did all in his power to help me. They were both such true and good friends to me.' She died on the morning of Sunday, 30 December 1906.
She lay in state in her house in Piccadilly and 25,000 people filed past her coffin. She had always wished to be buried close to her beloved friend, Hannah Brown, in St Stephen’s, but the Dean of Westminster offered a place in the Abbey so long as she was cremated. Her husband accepted, but at the last moment refused the cremation. The Chapter at the Abbey were furious and most of them did not attend the funeral. Mrs Twining recorded that this great heroine of the people, who though she had a grand funeral, was eventually buried in quick lime without a coffin, close to the memorial of that other great social reformer, her friend, Lord Shaftesbury. A simple memorial to Angela Burdett-Coutts can be found close to the West Door of Westminster Abbey.
Location |
|
