Baron Mayer de Rothschild
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Baron Mayer de Rothschild (1818 - 1874) was the third son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777 - 1836). He was named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family.
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Life
Born and raised in England after his parents settled there, and anglicised in every way, Mayer de Rothschild nevertheless styled himself "Baron Mayer" as was his right as a younger son of an Austrian nobleman.
Mayer's mother Hannah (nee Cohen) began the Rothschild settlement of Buckinghamshire. Thinking her sons unhealthy, she began to purchase parcels of land around Aylesbury in prime hunting country, where they could take outdoor exercise. By the middle of the 19th century, all three of her sons had large estates and mansions in the Vale of Aylesbury: Lionel at Tring; Anthony at Aston Clinton; and Mayer at Mentmore. Here he built Mentmore Towers, the most sumptuous of the English Rothschild houses at the time. Other cousins were to follow later at Waddesdon, and Halton
A fan of thoroughbred horse racing, Rothschild owned "Favonius" who won the 1871 Epsom Derby.
In 1873 Baron Mayer bought 90 acres (360,000 m²) of land at Ascott two miles from Mentmore. This was given to his nephew Leopold de Rothschild who enlarged the existing Ascott House to the neo-Tudor extravaganza it is today.
Family
Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana (nee Cohen) had one child, a daughter, Hannah, later Countess of Rosebery. She was his sole heiress, and through her, Mentmore Towers passed to the Earl of Rosebery.
Prominent English Rothschild family members
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836)
- Moses Haim Montefiore (1784-1885) (son-in-law of family patriarch Mayer Amschel Rothschild
- Baron Mayer de Rothschild (1818-1874)
- Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879)
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild (1840-1915)
- Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (1851-1890) (Daughter of Baron Mayer de Rothschild)
- Charles Rothschild (1877-1923)
- Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (1868-1937)
- Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild (1910-1990)
- Miriam Rothschild (1908-2005)
- Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild (b. 1936)