by Michael King
December 10, 2007
Every once in a while, I like to wander through the pages of our web site here at St. John the Divine. I do this, like most people, to see what is new or updated. While taking my stroll this morning I found a mention in the history of our church of Angela Burdett-Coutts. It is mentioned that our church was originally a gift from her but not much else. I decided to do a quick “Google” of her name and was surprised to find many pages of information and history.
Angela Burdett-Coutts was born in England on April 24th 1814 and was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett and Sophia Coutts. Sir Francis was a baronet and M.P. and Sophia was the daughter of Thomas Coutts, a wealthy banker and founder of Coutts & Co.
In 1822, Thomas Coutts died and left his fortune in a family trust. In his will were many clauses and entanglements as to what was to be done with his fortune. After many years and the deaths of a number of beneficiaries, the fortune in its entirety, a sum of 2 million pounds, came to Angela. In 1837, she became the richest woman in England.
In recognition of her grandfather and her newfound wealth, she changed her name to Burdett-Coutts. With her wealth, she started to throw lavish parties for the upper classes and elite of England at her home called Holly Lodge in Highgate just outside London. Counted among her guests were Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens. It was Charles Dickens who suggested to Angela that she make some small donations to meaningful causes to impress the Queen. Thus she embarked on a life time of philanthropy and service to the poor and the Anglican Church.
As well as making donations to existing charities, she founded a number of her own. Her first endeavour was a home for young woman who wanted to escape from prostitution. 90% of the woman who entered this home returned to society without falling back to prostitution. After this, she created the Columbia Fish Market of Bethnal Green. It was an association founded to provide employment for the indigent.
She avoided taking any side in politics but was interested in any governmental process calculated to improve the condition of the African races or the education and relief of the poor or suffering in any part of the world.
Another of her significant contributions was to endow the bishoprics of Cape Town and Adelaide in 1847 and to found the bishopric of British Columbia in 1857. At around the same time, she made a gift of a church building which was built of corrugated iron in England, dismantled and shipped around Cape Horn to Victoria to becomeknown as the Iron Church and the first church of St. John the Divine.
Among her other philanthropic endeavours were:
She also established the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1883 and was closely involved with the creation of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In 1871, in recognition of her charitable work, Queen Victoria conferred on her a peerage, with the title Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield in the County of Middlesex. She became the first woman to be made a peeress in her own right. She was also given the Freedom of the City of London and the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh.
On February 12, 1881, at the age of 67, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts shocked polite society by marrying her secretary William Bartlett, 40 years her junior. Ahead of their time, he took her name in marriage.
By the end of her life, she had given away more than 3 million pounds (1 million more than she started with.) She died of acute bronchitis in 1906 and is buried near the West Door in the nave of Westminster Abbey.
Charles Dickens dedicated his novel “Martin Chuzzlewit” to her and King Edward VII is reported to have said “After my mother (Queen Victoria), the most remarkable woman in the kingdom.”
It was wonderful to read of Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts endeavours and be able to compare them favourably to the works being done at St. John the Divine more than a century after her gift of an Iron Church.