ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS
door Kathleen van Overzee
So, who was Angela Burdett Coutts exactly
and - more importantly - what was her
relationship with Charles Dickens? I first
heard of Angela Burdett Coutts only a few
years ago when her name was mentioned
in connection with a portrait that hangs in
the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
Apparently, she was some kind of
benefactress, a member of that tiny but
determined contingent of Victorian women
collectively known as 'lady philanthropists'.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Winter 2005 no. 55
Let's start at the beginning.Angela Burdett Coutts -
originally Angela Burdett - was the fifth child of
Francis Burdett, a radical Member of Parliament
and a champion of reform, and Sophia Coutts,
daughter of Thomas Coutts, founder of the famous
Coutts Bank, which had even saved royalty from
financial embarrassment on
occasion. Angela appears to have
been a bit of an afterthought,
arriving no fewer than nine
years after the Burdetts' fourth
child. Thomas Coutts, her
grandfather, had married twice,
the second time to his mistress
and companion Harriot Mellon,
who earned her living on the
stage. When Coutts died, Harriot
inherited a half share in the bank
and an income of 50,000 pounds
a year - which is still a pretty
good income even by today's
standards. Harriot was generous
to the Burdetts and her other
stepchildren. She sought an heir
to the Coutts fortune among the
male members of the family and
found one in Dudley Coutts
Stuart. However, when Dudley
committed the unforgivable
offence of marrying a foreigner -
and not just any foreigner but a
Frenchwoman and a Bonaparte - he fell out of
favour with his step-grandmother. Harriot then
changed her will, making Angela the main
beneficiary under two conditions: she had to take
the name of Coutts and she must not marry a
foreigner. Exactly why Harriot singled out Angela
is a matter of speculation. Though their tastes
were different, they both had a determined but
sympathetic nature. Perhaps Harriot recognised a
kindred spirit, believing Angela would use the
fortune wisely. Whatever the reason, few could
deny, with hindsight, that she had made an
excellent choice. Angela inherited the fortune in
1837, at the tender age of 23. Her first action was
to move out of the family home and take up
residence in her 'own' home at 1 Stratton Street,
near Piccadilly. This was a most unorthodox step,
presaging a single-mindedness that would assert
itself at several times in her life. She took along
her governess, Hannah Meredith, who had joined
her eight years previously and would remain her
lifelong companion. Hannah Meredith - later
Hannah Brown - had a strong influence on
Angela's sense of moral and religious duty. Though
Angela was a firm supporter of the Church of
England, she was drawn to Evangelicalism,
possibly through Hannah Brown. Evangelicalism
stressed personal responsibility and urged the rich
members of society to use their wealth wisely. So,
there she was, the greatest heiress in country,
ready and willing to 'make a
difference' - but how? Enter Charles
Dickens! They met some time in
1838 at a dinner hosted by Edward
Marjoribanks, a senior partner at
Coutts Bank. She was 24 at the
time. He was on the threshold of
literary fame, having just published
the Pickwick Papers and David
Copperfield. Unlike Dickens, Angela
had never experienced poverty and
privation first hand, but she was
astute enough to realise that her
donations to charity - no matter
how large - would not
fundamentally change the appalling
conditions in which the majority of
the working population lived. He
began by helping her to sift through
the sackfuls of begging letters that
arrived on her doorstep and by
isolating the bona-fide cases of
hardship. Around this time Dickens
spent many an evening wandering
around the East End, not just in
search of material for his novels. It was there that
his attention was drawn to the armies of women,
young and old, who had resorted to prostitution in
order to survive. Angela, herself had also become
aware of the extent of the problem through her
own observations in her own neighbourhood of
Piccadilly. It was time for her to turn her hand -
and her fortune - to something a bit more
ambitious: a refuge for fallen women who were
still young enough to see the error of their ways
Angela Burdett Coutts, philanthropist.
Mezzotint after a portrait by J.R. Swinton,
1865.S
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXV 7
