Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts (born April 21, 1814 - December 30, 1906 ), née Angela Georgina Burdett , was a well-known British philanthropist of the 19th century. As the granddaughter of Thomas Coutts, founder of the famous London bank, Angela Burdett-Coutts was one of the richest women in Victorian England.
Life
Angela Burdett was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet , and Sophia Coutts, daughter of Thomas Coutts . In 1837 she became one of the wealthiest women in Great Britain with the £ 3 million inheritance from her grandfather. With the approval of the British royal family, she changed her surname to Burdett-Coutts.
Angela Coutts attracted a lot of public attention because of her wealth, was known for the numerous receptions and evening events at her country estate on the outskirts of London and received a large number of marriage offers. Her friends included Charles Dickens and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . Dickens dedicated his novel Martin Chuzzlewit to her . She shocked the public when she married her 29-year-old secretary, American William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, at the age of 67. Her new husband changed his last name to Burdett-Coutts.
In recognition of her services, Queen Victoria elevated her to Baroness Burdett-Coutts , of Highgate and Brookfield in the County of Middlesex in 1871 . The following year she was the first woman to be awarded the Freedom of the City by the City of London .
Burdett-Coutts died at the age of 92 and was buried in Westminster Abbey . The barony became extinct with her death because she had no sons.
philanthropy
Angela Burdett-Coutts donated much of her wealth to scholarships, foundations, and charities. One of her first acts was the establishment in 1847 of Urania Cottage, in Shepherds Bush, Middlesex, a home for young, homeless women who previously made a living from prostitution and petty crime. She was assisted by Charles Dickens . Burdett-Coutts avoided commenting on current politics whenever possible. But she took a large part in measures that should improve the living conditions of people worldwide. Although she tried not to prefer any Christian denomination, Burdett-Coutts is one of the notable donors of ecclesiastical institutions of the Church of England .
In 1845 and 1846, in view of the famine , it promoted fishing in Ireland , but also the emigrants to the USA. She also donated funds for the dioceses of Cape Town and Adelaide in 1847 and provided funds for the establishment of the diocese of British Columbia . Their foundations also include various schools. She also promoted social welfare and is a supporter of Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale's reform efforts . Angela Burdett-Coutts was one of the first supporters during Nightingale's mission in the Crimea and in 1855 had drying cabinets sent to her from Great Britain, among other things, so that Nightingale could organize a functioning laundry in the military hospital in Scutari ( Selimiye barracks ). In 1893 she persuaded Nightingale to write an article on nursing for the Chicago World's Fair .
She was one of the first to build housing for workers in the poorer parts of the city: on the grounds of Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green , an area known for crime and disease (slum). In 1872 they built four blocks of tenements that offered accommodation for more than 1,000 people. It was renamed Columbia Square. She also had a drinking water fountain built in Victoria Park for £ 7,000. Around 1860 she started a sewing school for adult women in Browns Lane, Spitalfields , also in London.
The range of organizations she supported with larger sums ranged from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to the British Horological Institute and various soup kitchens .
She also collected art, and the contemporary paintings she has acquired include Robert Scott Lauder's Christ Walking on the Sea .
Web links
- Baroness Burdett-Coutts
- find a grave
- Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts at the National Portrait Gallery
- Coutts Institute
- Coutts, Angela Georgina Burdett-, suo jure Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906) Oxford dictionary of National Biography
- Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts Biography on Victorianweb
- Coutts family tree
Single receipts
- ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 88.
- ↑ Mark Bostridge: Florence Nightingale . Penguin Books, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-14-026392-3 , p. 514
literature
- Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (Editor): Woman's Mission . First edition: Scribners, New York 1983. Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-108-05734-9
- Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts: Summary Account of Prizes for Common Things: Offered and Awarded by Miss Burdett Coutts at the Whiteland Training Institution. Publisher Hatchard & Co. London, 1860
- Eleanor Atkinson, Bobby / A dog that you never forget, translated and re-edited by Heide Schulz, Buchverlag König, Greiz 2016, ISBN 978-3-943210-91-0 (translation by Greyfriars Bobby)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burdett-Coutts, Angela, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Burdett-Coutts, Angela; Burdett, Angela Georgina |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British noblewoman and phlantropin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 21, 1814 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London, Piccadilly |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 30, 1906 |
| Place of death | London |