Angela Burdett Coutts was described by King Edward VII as ‘the most remarkable woman in the kingdom’, summing up the feelings of the entire country at her funeral in January 1907, and yet one hundred years on, she is barely known. This was the prime motivation for businessman turned author Ian Townsend to put pen to paper with his debut novel ‘Precarious Fortunes’.
Precarious Fortunes
He came across Miss Coutts whilst researching a property in Harrogate. Apparently, she was the talk of the town in 1838 after seeking respite in Harrogate much as Agatha Christie did in 1926. However, her desire to escape the attention of suitors and beggars was met with an unfortunate incident when she was stalked by an Irish barrister named Richard Dunn. This made the national newspapers as she had to resort to prosecuting her unwanted admirer, making him the first stalker to be prosecuted under English Law. Although this incident is referred to in Ian’s novel he merely used Angela’s visit as a starting point allowing him the opportunity to show his admiration of a lady whose life changed so dramatically by an extraordinary inheritance.
For any lady to inherit a substantial sum was rare in early Victorian England but for a 23-year-old girl to benefit from a bequest making her the richest woman in the country was unheard of.
She inherited her grandfather’s fortune (including the bank he made famous) via his second wife, an actress he married 4 days following the death of his first wife. ‘Precarious Fortunes’ is a fictional adventure loosely based around Angela’s visit to Harrogate in 1838. Unsurprisingly, her new found wealth brought with it an abundance of suitors as well as a staggering number of begging letters. Somewhat saddened and overwhelmed by this insincere attention, she sought refuge in Harrogate, a place she had visited many times with her step grandmother, the actress and 2nd wife of her grandfather.
“As I researched the history of this great family I found myself itching to write” said Ian Townsend.
“I hope my story interests all lovers of period drama as it takes the reader deep into Victorian Harrogate and blends fictional characters with those like Angela Coutts, who really were there at the time”
“Not only did I want to write about Angela Coutts and the challenges she surely faced but also how remarkably vulnerable she was. No better example of this can be seen than the incident of the Irish barrister who burst into her bedroom reciting poetry. Things could have been worse if the intruder had been armed with something more than a book of prose”.
Undeterred she built schools and churches, provided clean water to parts of London, and fishing boats to Ireland following the potato famine, all of which contributed to her becoming known as the “Queen of the Poor”.
As much as she improved the lives of many people, her own suffered. She did not marry until she was 67 and then to a man half her age. Much of her good work went un-noticed as she made a considerable number of gifts and donation anonymously. In total, she gave away £3m during her lifetime. A quite remarkable lady.