Angela Burdett-Coutts

A carte-de-visite portrait of Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), for most of her life the richest woman in England.

Angela Burdett-Coutts was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, the Radical Whig MP. Her mother was Sophia Coutts, the daughter of Thomas Coutts, the enormously successful banker. In 1837 she became the wealthiest woman in England when she inherited her grandfather’s fortune. She spent the rest of her life supporting good causes, including the Ragged Schools Union and the Temperance Society. Other charitable projects she funded included a home for former prostitutes, soup kitchens, working-class housing schemes and the building of Anglican churches. She also established the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1883) and the Westminster Technical Institute (1893). By the time of her death at her house in Stratton Street, Piccadilly, she had given away over three million pounds.

Among her many eminent friends were Charles Dickens, who dedicated Martin Chuzzlewit to her. In 1871, in recognition of her philanthropic work, Queen Victoria honoured her with a peerage, under the title Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield. She was the first woman ever to be created a baroness in her own right.

Having declined numerous proposals of marriage throughout most of her adult life, she shocked polite society when, on 12 February 1881 at the age of 67, she married her secretary, the American William Ashmead Bartlett (1851-1821), who was only 30. Contrary to popular custom, her new husband took his wife’s name, becoming by Royal Assent Mr Burdett-Coutts, although he did not become a baron. (Marriage confers a husband’s rank on his wife, but not vice versa.) In 1885 he was elected Member of Parliament for Westminster, and remained so until his death.

Baroness Burdett-Coutts was buried on 5 January 1907 near the west door in the nave of Westminster Abbey. Edward VII is reported to have called her ‘after my mother, the most remarkable woman in the kingdom’.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.