She Who Dared | Brave Women Through History |Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906) Philanthropist, Queen of the Poor, and Charles Dickens

Known as “Queen of the Poor” and a friend and colleague of Charles Dickens, Angela Burdett-Coutts was a brave female philanthropist, often going against the advice of her peers to help the poor through her “scandalous projects.” Angela became heir to the Coutts estate at age twenty-three, including a 50% share of the Coutts & Co. Bank, and one of the wealthiest women in England.

The outspoken writer Charles Dickens and the philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts co-established Urania Cottage in 1847 as a haven for “fallen women”—prostitutes and petty criminals—where they could rehabilitate and learn practical skills to reintegrate into society. They also worked together to fund “Ragged Schools” to educate impoverished children and planned how to improve sanitation in the slums of Westminster. Dickens advised Burdett-Coutts on what the most deserving causes were.

Burdett-Coutts helped to support the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), established Holly Village, a housing project for her staff, contributed to improving the living conditions in London’s East End, and provided international aid, such as relief work in Ireland during the Great Famine.

Her life became exciting in 1881, when she married a secretary called William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett at sixty-seven. Like her father, a Member of Parliament, he was a shocking twenty-nine years old. He took her last name upon marriage. However, the marriage caused her to lose three-fifths of her income under the terms of her father’s will because Bartlett was American-born. This decimated her financial ability to fund charitable projects at the scale she had before. Despite economic setbacks, Burdett-Coutts remained dedicated to philanthropy, continuing her education, housing, and animal welfare work.