-
Skip These Ads
-
Skip These Ads|
|
 |
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BUN-CAL |
|
|
BURDETT, SIR FRANCIS (1770-1844) , English politician, was the son of Francis Burdett by his wife Eleanor, daughter of William Jones of Rainsbury manor, Wiltshire, and grandson of Sir Robert Burdett, Bart. Born on the 25th of January 1770, he was educated at Westminster school and Oxford, and after-wards travelled in France and Switzerland. He was in Paris during the earlier days of the French Revolution, a visit which doubtless influenced his political opinions. Returning to England he married in 1793 Sophia
Middlesex , but his return was declared void in 1804, and in the subsequent contest he was defeated. In 18o5 this return was amended in his favour, but as this was again quickly reversed, Burdett, who had spent an immense sum of money over the affair, declared he would not stand for parliament again.At the general election of 18o6 Burdett was a leading supporter of James Paull, the reform candidate for the city of Westminster; but in the following year a misunderstanding led to a duel between Burdett and Paull in which both combatants were wounded. At the general election in 1807 Burdett, in spite of his reluctance, was nominated for Westminster, and amid great enthusiasm was returned at the top of the poll. He took up again the congenial work of attacking abuses and agitating for reform, and in 1810 came sharply into collision with the House
House
scheme of parliamentary reform, and returning to the subject in 1817 and 1818 he anticipated the Chartist movement
Consequently he resigned his seat early in 1837, but was re-elected. However, at the general election in the same year he forsook Westminster and was elected member for North Wiltshire, which seat he retained, acting in general with the Conservatives, until his death on the 23rd of January 1844. He left a son, Robert, who succeeded to the baronetcy, and five daughters,the youngest of whom became the celebrated Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Impetuous and illogical, Burdett did good work as an advocate of free speech, and an enemy of corruption. He was exceedingly generous, and spent money lavishly in furthering projects of reform. See A. Stephens, Life of Horne Tooke (London, 1813); Spencer
BURDETT-COUTTS, ANGELA GEORGINA BURDETTCOUTTS, BARONESS (1814-1906), English philanthropist, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, was born on the 21st of April 1814. When she was three-and-twenty, she inherited practically the whole of the immense wealth of her grandfather Thomas Coutts (approaching two millions sterling, a fabulous sum in those days), by the will of the duchess of St Albans, who, as the actress Henrietta Mellon, had been his second wife and had been left it on his death in 1821. Miss Burdett then took the name of Coutts in addition to her own. " The faymale heiress, Miss Anjaley Coutts," as the author of the Itagoldsby Legends called her in his ballad on the queen's coronation in that year (1837), at once became a notable subject of public curiosity and private cupidity; she received numerous offers of marriage, but remained resolutely single, devoting herself and her riches to philanthropic work, which made her famous for well-applied generosity. In May 1$71 she was created a peeress, as Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield, Middlesex . On the 18th of July 1872 she was presented at the Guildhall with the freedom of the city of London, the first case of a woman being admitted to that fellowship. It was not till 1881 that, when sixty-seven years old, she married William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, an American by birth, and brother of Sir E. A. Ashmead-Bartlett, the Conservative member of parliament; and he then took his wife's name, entering the House of Commons as member for Westminster, 1885. Full of good works, and of social interest
The extent of her benefactions during her long and active life can only be briefly indicated; but the baroness must remain a striking figure in the social history of Victorian England, for the thoughtful and conscientious care with which she " held her wealth in trust " for innumerable good objects. It was her aim to benefit the working-classes in ways involving no loss of independence or self-respect. She carefully avoided taking any side in party politics, but she was actively interested in phases of Imperial extension which were calculated to improve the condition of the black races, as in Africa, or the education and relief of the poor or suffering in any part of the world. Though she made no special distinction of creed in her charities, she was a notable benefactor of the Church of England, building and endowing churches and church schools, endowing the bishoprics of Cape Town and of Adelaide (1847), and founding the bishopric of British Columbia (1857). Among her many educational endowments may be specified the St Stephen's Institute in Vincent Square, Westminster (1846); she started sewing schools in Spitalfields when the silk trade began to fail; helped to found the shoe-black brigade; and placed hundreds of destitute boys in training-ships for the navy and merchant service. She established Columbia fish market (1869) in Bethnal Green, and presented it to the city, but owing to commercial difficulties this effort, which cost her over 200,000, proved abortive. She supported various schemes of emigration to the colonies; and in Ireland helped to promote the fishing industry by starting schools, and providing boats, besides advancing 250,000 in 188o for supplying seed to the impoverished tenants. She was devoted to the protection of animals and prevention of cruelty, and took up with characteristic zeal the cause of the costermongers' donkeys, building stables for them on her Columbia market estate, and giving prizes for the best-kept animals. She helped to inaugurate the society for the prevention of cruelty to children, and was a keen supporter of the ragged school union. Missionary efforts of all sorts; hospitals and nursing; industrial homes and refuges; relief funds, &c., found in her a generous supporter. She was associated with Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale; and in 1877-'878 raised the Turkish compassionate fund for the starving peasantry and fugitives in the Russo-Turkish War (for which she obtained the order of the Medjidieh, a solitary case of its conference on a woman). She relieved the distressed in far-off lands as well as at home, her helping hand being stretched out to the Dyaks of Borneo and the aborigines of Australia. She was a liberal patroness of the stage, literature and the arts, and delighted in knowing all the cultured people of the day. In short, her position in England for half a century may well be summed up in words attributed to King Edward VII., " after my mother (Queen Victoria) the most remarkable woman in the kingdom." BURDON-SANDERSON, SIR JOHN SCOTT, Bart. (1828-1905), English physiologist, was born at West Jesmand, near Newcastle, on the 21st of December 1828. A member of a well-known Northumbrian family, he received his medical education at the university of Edinburgh and at Paris. Settling in London, he became medical officer of health for Paddington in 1856 and four years later physician to the Middlesex and the Brompton Consumption hospitals. When diphtheria appeared in England in 1858 he was sent to investigate the disease at the different points of outbreak, and in subsequent years he carried out a number of similar inquiries, e.g. into the cattle plague and into cholera in 1866. He became first principal of the Brown Institution at Lambeth in 1871, and in 1874 was appointed Jodrell professor of physiology at University College, London, retaining that post till 1882. When the Waynflete chair of physiology was established at Oxford in 1882, he was chosen to be its first occupant, and immediately found himself the object of a furious anti-vivisectionist agitation. The proposal that the university should spend 1o,00o in providing him with a suitable laboratory, lecture-rooms, &c., in which to carry on his work, was strongly opposed, by some on grounds of economy
pathology
End of Article: BURDETT, SIR FRANCIS (1770-1844) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/BUN_CAL/BURDETT_SIR_FRANCIS_1770_1844_.html"> BURDETT, SIR FRANCIS (1770-1844) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) BURDER, GEORGE (1752-1832) |
(Next) BURDWAN, or BARDWAN |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
Free & Cheap Cell
Phones |
Cheap Long Distance
Phone Service Carriers |
Talk America Local Phone Service
|
Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare
Cell Phone Plans & Companies |
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards |
Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone
Service | Wireless
Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
Online First Aid and CPR Certification . The Online Christ Centered Ministries . The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained . The Inerrancy Discussion Board . Free Email Accounts . Home Equity Loans . JasonGastrich.com . The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference . Young Earth Creation Science . San Diego Music Lessons . 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings . Gastrich.net . Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success . Louisiana Baptist University . NKJV Web Hosting and Services . Michael Newdow . San Diego Soccer Training . Christian Guitar Lessons . Jesus Christ Saves Ministries . Eternal Security
