Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Burdett-Coutts, Angela Georgina, Baroness
BURDETT-COUTTS, The Right Hon. Angela Georgina, Baroness, is the youngest daughter of the late Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet, and grand-daughter of Mr. Thomas Coutts. In 1837 she succeeded to the great wealth of Mr. Coutts, through his widow, once the fascinating Miss Mellon, who died Duchess of St. Albans. The extensive power of benefiting her less fortunate fellow-creatures thus conferred, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts has wisely exercised, chiefly by working out her own well-considered projects. A consistently liberal churchwoman in purse and opinions, her munificence to the Establishment is historical. Besides contributing large sums towards building new churdLes and new schools in various poor districts throughout the country, Miss Coutts erected and endowed, at her sole cost, the handsome church of St. Stephen's, Westminster, with its three schools and parsonage; and more recently, another church at Carlisle. She endowed, at an outlay of £50,000, the three colonial bishoprics of Adelaide, Cape Town, and British Columbia; besides founding an establishment in South Australia for the improvement of the aborigines. She also supplied the funds for Sir Henry James's Topographical Survey of Jerusalem; and offered to restore the ancient aqueducts of Solomon to supply that city with water—a work, however, which the Government promised to (but did not) fulfil. In no direction are the Baroness's sympathies so fully expressed as in favour of the poor and unfortunate of her own sex. The course taught at the national schools and sanctioned by the Privy Council included many literary accomplishments which a young woman of humble grade may not require on leaving school; but the more familiar arts essential to her after-career were overlooked. By her ladyship's exertions the teaching of common things, such as sewing and other household occupations, was introduced. In order that the public grants for educational purposes might reach small schools in remote rural as well as in neglected urban parishes, Miss Coutts worked out a plan for bringing them under Government inspection by means of travelling or ambulatory inspecting schoolmasters, and it was adopted by the authorities. Miss Coutts's exertions, in the cause of reformation, as well as in that of education, have been no less successful. For young women who had lapsed out of well-doing, she provided a shelter and a means of reform, in a "Home" at Shepherd's Bush. Nearly half the cases which passed through her reformatory during the seven years it existed resulted in new and prosperous lives in the colonies. Again, when Spitalfields became a mass of destitution, Miss Coutts began a sewing-school there for adult women, not only to be taught, but to be fed and provided with work; for which object Government contracts are undertaken and successfully executed. Nurses are sent daily from this unpretending charity in Brown's Lane, Spitalfields, amongst the sick, who are provided with medical comforts; while outfits are distributed to poor servants, and clothing to deserving women. In 1859 hundreds of destitute boys were fitted out for the Royal Navy, or placed in various industrial homes. As a preliminary test of their fitness and characters, she had them first tried in a shoe-black brigade, which she established for the purpose. Many of these boys go into the army, and are in request as temporary porters at goods railway stations. In the terrible winter of 1861 the frozen-out tanners of Bermondsey were aided, and at the same time she suggested the formation of the East London Weavers' Aid Association, by whose assistance many of the sufferers from decaying trade were able to remove to Queensland. One of the black spots of London in that neighbourhood, once known to and dreaded by the police as Nova Scotia Gardens, was bought by Miss Coutts, and, upon that area of squalor and refuse, she erected the model dwellings called Columbia Square, consisting of separate tenements let at low weekly rentals to about two hundred families. Close to it is Columbia Market, one of the handsomest architectural ornaments of North-Eastern London. In Victoria Park stands one of the handsomest drinking fountains in London; a similar work of art for the use of both man and beast adorns the entrance to the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park; and a third stands near Columbia Market itself. These, with a fourth presented to the City of Manchester, and at the opening of which the citizens gave her ladyship a most enthusiastic reception, are all gifts to the public from the same munificent donor. The Baroness takes great interest in judicious emigration. When a sharp cry of distress arose some years ago in the town of Girvan, in Scotland, she advanced a large sum to enable the starving families to seek better fortune in Australia. Again, the people of Cape Clear, Shirkin, close to Skibbereen, in Ireland, when dying of starvation, were relieved from the same source, by emigration, and by the establishment of a store of food and clothing; by efficient tackle, and by a vessel to help them in their chief means of livelihood—fishing. Miss Coutts materially assisted Sir James Brooke in improving the condition of the Dyaks of Saráwak, and a model farm is still entirely supported by her, from which the natives have learnt such valuable lessons in agriculture that the productiveness of their country has been materially improved. Taking a warm interest in the reverent preservation and ornamental improvement of our town churchyards, and having, as the possessor of the great tithes of the living of Old St. Pancras, a special connection with that parish, the Baroness, in 1877, laid out the churchyard as a garden for the enjoyment of the surrounding poor, besides erecting a memorial sun-dial to its illustrious dead. In the same year, when accounts were reaching this country of the sufferings of the Turkish and Bulgarian peasantry flying from their homes before the Russian invasion, Lady Burdett-Coutts instituted the Turkish Compassionate Fund, a charitable organization by means of which the sum of nearly £30,000, contributed in money and stores, was entrusted to the British Ambassador for distribution, and saved thousands from starvation and death. This is but an imperfect enumeration of the Baroness's good works as a public benefactress. The amount of her private charities it is impossible to estimate. She is a liberal and discriminating patroness of artists in every department of art; being herself accomplished in many of them. Her hospitality is as comprehensive as her charity, not only to the great world, but to the poor. The beautiful gardens and grounds of her villa at Highgate are constantly thrown open to school children in thousands. In July, 1867, the Baroness received at Holly Lodge one of the largest dinner parties upon record. Upwards of 2,000 Belgian volunteers were invited to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, and some five hundred royal and distinguished guests. All partook of her large and gracious hospitality with as much comfort and social enjoyment as if they had met at a small social gathering. In June, 1871, Miss Coutts was surprised by the prime minister with the offer from her Majesty of a peerage. The honour was accepted with the title that commences this memoir. Her ladyship was admitted to the freedom of the City of London, July 11, 1872, and to the freedom of the City of Edinburgh, Jan. 16, 1874. On Nov. 1, 1880, the Haberdashers' Company publicly conferred their freedom and livery on the Baroness Burdett-Coutts in recognition of her judicious and extensive benevolence and her munificent support of educational, charitable, and religious institutions, and efforts throughout the country. The Baroness was married on Feb. 12, 1881, to Mr. William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, who obtained the royal licence to use the surname of Burdett-Coutts in addition to and before that of Bartlett.