Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-02
FAMOUS WOMEN OF HISTORY.
BY Willis ]. Abbot
BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS (THE
FIRST GREAT WOMAN PHLAN-
THROPIST), 1814-1906.
BY Willis ]. Abbot.
Copyrighted. 1919

J became necessary to send him TO jail
she declared her intlexible purpose to
remain single and to devote her life
and estate to charity. To the first
part of this purpose she remained true
until 1881, when, at the age of sixty
seven. she married Ashmead Bartlett.
an American gentleman resident in
London. The Coutts money once more
was made the means Of perpc.uating
the Coutts name for. instead of the
bride changing her name tine groom
changed his, becoming Ashnead Bart
lett Burdett -Coutts, thus doubling that
gentleman's wealth of nyphc.is az vel
as of other valuable things.
The list of Mss Burdett-c outts--she
was made a baroness in 1S11--benefac-
tions is as varied as it is intcrminable.
She could at once see the need of some
system of industrial education for the
dyaks of Borneo, and send needed fish
ing tackle and supplies to starving
Irish villages at Slibbereen. In the
neighborhood OF Be:hnul Green vas
locality called Nova Scotia gardens. a
spot which despite it's sylvan name was
the abode of squalor. wretchednes,i and
vice. a haunt of thieves and murderers
little vexed by the police She bought
the land, RACED the rookeries and In
stalled model tenements.
View of Economists.
Economic philosophers will tell us
that this was not well done that the
model tenements only raised surround
ing rents. and the thieves and murder
ers only sought out other cheap spots.
But the clouds of political economy
cannot wholly obscure the merit of
having cleaned up plague spot.
She established sewing srhools to keep
busy the starving poor of Londons
east end and she endowed Episcopal
bishoprics in New Zealand and Aus
Ito ,-lr
preyed on the poor of the south end
and built the Columbia fish market to
supply cheap food. turning from this
completed undertaking to finance a
offering to pay for the rebuilding OF
Solomon's aqueduct to supply the holy
city with water.
In 1878 she undertook extensive
charities in Turkey. Among those who
assisted in disbursing her funds and
distributing her bounty was William
Ashmead- Bartlett He was efficient,
faithful, trustworthy, and, above all,
sympathetic. On his return to Eng
land she engaged him in other of her
philanthropic labors.
Husbands Success.
The association developed into love,
despite the great disparity in their
ages. They We're married in 1881 and
Burdett-Coutts, as he became, was her
ready co-operator in her continually
widening, charitable work He showed
Furthermore that he was more than
merely the husband of a wealthy wom-
an by entering parliament and winning
high place in political life. His wife, in
her letters. was accustomed to say
that while her life had been happy
throughout, no period had been more
full of content than that following her
marriage.
She died in 1906 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. The first of wom-
an philanthropists. she set an example
for those who may follow her in the
personal attention to the causes she
aided. To them she gave not merely
her money, but her thought and her
life.