Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer
Encyclopedia
Coutts
Coutts & Co. is one of the UK's private banking houses, now wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland . RBS acquired Coutts and all of its overseas subsidiaries when it bought NatWest. On 1 January 2008, Coutts' international businesses were renamed RBS Coutts, aligning them more closely with...
banking family. He is now remembered chiefly as a patron and collaborator of the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
.
Family history
His father was the Reverend James Drummond Money (d. 1875), and his mother was Clara Burdett (d. 1899). Clara was the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett (1770–1844) and Sophia Coutts (d. 1844). Sophia was one of three daughters of the wealthy banker Thomas CouttsThomas Coutts
Thomas Coutts was an Anglo-Scottish banker who was the founder of the banking house of Coutts & Co.He was the fourth son of John Coutts , who carried on business in Edinburgh as a corn factor and negotiator of bills of exchange, and who in 1742 was elected lord provost of the city...
. In 1875 Francis Money, as he was then named, married Edith Ellen Churchill. In 1881, his mother Clara's sister Angela Burdett violated the terms of the will making her the sole heir of the Coutts fortune, by marrying a foreigner (an American 40 years her junior). Seeing an opportunity, Clara and her son adopted the name "Coutts," as required by the will, and contested Angela's claims. A settlement was reached, and Angela received two-fifths of the income until her death in 1906, at which time Francis became the sole beneficiary.
Education and professional life
Money attended Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
(MA; LL.M., 1878). He became a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
in 1879 and later worked as a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Although often described as a banker, he was too interested in the arts to be a serious banker. He was at one point considered for a partnership in the firm, but this idea was abandoned, as he was thought too unstable in temperament for such a position. In any case, his preferred vocation was as an author. Adopting the pen name of "Mountjoy," he wrote and published at least 23 works between 1896 and 1923. Many of these were collections of poems (see List of works). He also worked for publisher John Lane
John Lane (publisher)
-Biography:Originally from Devon, where he was born into a farming family, Lane moved to London already in his teens. While working as a clerk at the Railway Clearing House, he acquired knowledge as an autodidact....
in London, writing prefaces for, and editing, collections of poems by other authors, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Flowers of Parnassus, 27 volumes, 1900–1906) and Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor was a clergyman in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression and was often presented as a model of prose writing...
(The Marriage Ring, 1907).
Collaboration with Albéniz
In the late 1880s Money-Coutts became involved with the finances of the LyricLyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
and Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
s. Through this connection he became an admirer of the music of Albéniz. Soon he became acquainted with the composer, eventually becoming an intimate friend and benefactor. They collaborated on a series of operas, for which Coutts wrote the libretti
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
. The first opera in the series was Henry Clifford
Henry Clifford (opera)
Henry Clifford is a grand opera in three acts composed by Isaac Albéniz to an English libretto written by Francis Money-Coutts . It premiered at the Gran Teatro del Liceo on 8 May 1895...
(1895), followed by Pepita Jiménez (1896), and an Arthurian trilogy, of which only one part, Merlin
Merlin (opera)
Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz. It is in three acts and the libretto was written in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer ....
(1902), was completed and staged.
List of works
Money-Coutts authored the following works:- Poems (1896)
- The Revelation of St. Love the Divine (1898)
- The Alhambra (1898)
- The Mystery of Godliness (1900)
- The Nutbrown Maid (1901)
- The Poet's Charter (1902)
- Musa Verticordia (1904)
- The Song of Songs: a Lyrical Folk-Play of the Ancient Hebrews Arranged in Seven Scenes (1906)
- The Heresy of Job with the Inventions of William Blake (1907)
- Romance of King Arthur (1907)
- Psyche (1911), poems
- Egypt and Other Poems (1912)
- The Royal Marines (1915)
- The Spacious Times, and Others (1920), poems
- Well (1922), a guidebook to the village of Well, YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
- Selected Poems (1923)
Title
Francis Money-Coutts became the 5th Baron Latymer in 1913 when its 336-year abeyanceAbeyance
Abeyance is a state of expectancy in respect of property, titles or office, when the right to them is not vested in any one person, but awaits the appearance or determination of the true owner. In law, the term abeyance can only be applied to such future estates as have not yet vested or possibly...
was terminated in his favour by King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
.
Sources
- Clark, Walter Aaron (1999). Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic. Oxford, New York: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. ISBN 019816369X - Kidd, Charles; David Williamson, editors (1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 9780333388471.