Astor family


The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to the Italian and Swiss Alps,
the Astors settled in Germany, first appearing in North America in the 18th century with John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest people in history.

Founding family members

John Jacob Astor was the youngest of four sons born to Johann Jacob Astor and Maria Magdalena vom Berg.
The Astor family can trace their ancestry back to Giovan Asdour and Gretta Ursula Asdour. Giovan was born in Chiavenna, Italy, and died in Zürich, Switzerland. Their son, Hans Pieter Asdor, was born in Switzerland and died in Nußloch.
John Jacob and his brother George, born in Walldorf left Germany and moved to London in 1778. There, they established a flute making company. In 1783, John Jacob left for Baltimore, Maryland, leaving his brother in charge of the London business, and was active first as a dealer in woodwind instruments, then in New York as a merchant in opium, furs, pianos, and real estate. After moving to New York, John met and married Sarah Cox Todd. She worked alongside her husband as a consultant, and was accused of witchcraft after her success with the company in 1817. The accusations never led to legal action. They had eight children, including John Jacob Astor Jr. and real-estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr..
John Jacob's fur-trading company established a Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria in 1811, the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost, which was in the then-disputed Oregon Country. Control of Fort Astoria played a key role in British and American territorial claims on the region.
John and George's brother Henry also emigrated to America. Henry was a horse-racing enthusiast, and purchased a thoroughbred named Messenger, who had been brought from England to America in 1788. This horse became the founding sire of all Standardbred horses in the United States today.
Melchior, the third of the four brothers, remained in Germany.
During the 19th century, the Astors became one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Toward the end of that century, some of the family moved from America to England and achieved high prominence there. During the 20th century, the number of American Astors began to decline, but their legacy lives on in their many public works including the New York Public Library. British descendants of the Astors hold two hereditary peerages: Viscount Astor and Baron Astor of Hever.
While many Astor family members joined the Episcopal Church, John Jacob Astor remained a member of a Reformed congregation to his death.

Family namesake places

For many years, the members of the Astor family were known as "the landlords of New York". Their New York City namesakes are the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and Astor Row, Astor Court, Astor Place, and Astor Avenue in the Bronx, where the Astors stabled horses. The neighborhood of Astoria, Queens, was renamed to incite John Jacob Astor to invest there.
Beyond New York City, the Astor family name is imprinted in a great deal of United States history and geography. Astor Street, in Chicago's landmark Gold Coast district, is named after John Jacob Astor. There are towns of Astor in the states of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Kansas and there are Astorias in Illinois, Missouri, and Oregon. In Astoria, Oregon, the primary elementary school, a filming location for the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop, is called John Jacob Astor Elementary. The city is also home to the Astoria Column.
In Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom, there was a secondary state school named Astor of Hever School. It was located within Oakwood Park, a former residence of the Astor family, which the family gifted to the Borough of Maidstone to be used for educational purposes. Whilst the Astor of Hever School changed its name in the early 2010s, it is still located on the Oakwood Park Estate, along with a Grammar School, a Catholic Secondary school and the Maidstone campus of Mid-Kent College. At one time the Oakwood Park Estate also contained an educational farm attached to the Astor of Hever School.
There is a neighborhood called Astor Park just south of downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin. At the heart of this neighborhood is a park ; the Astor family donated this land for the building of a trade school.
The Astors were also prominent on Mackinac Island, Michigan, and Newport, Rhode Island, with their summer house, Beechwood. At Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, there are the Lord and Lady Astor Suites; the hotel salon is called Astor's. There is even a Hostel in York, England called The Astor. In addition, a dormitory at St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, bears Astor's name.
The Danubius Hotel Astoria in the center of Pest, Budapest, Hungary, opened in 1914, was given its name by the original hotel owners and Mihály Gellér, the first General Manager of the hotel, who formerly worked for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. In Shanghai, China there is the Astor House Hotel in the Bund.
Mount Astor in Antarctica was named after Vincent Astor by the explorer Richard E. Byrd.

Astor family tree

Members by birth order

  1. John Jacob Astor Sr.
  2. William Backhouse Astor Sr.
  3. Charles Astor Bristed Sr.
  4. John Jacob Astor III
  5. William Backhouse Astor Jr.
  6. Matthew Astor Wilks
  7. DeLancey Astor Kane
  8. S. Nicholson Kane
  9. William Waldorf Astor I
  10. John Innes Kane
  11. Sybil Kent Kane
  12. Woodbury Kane
  13. Carrie Astor Wilson
  14. John Armstrong Chaloner
  15. Winthrop Astor Chanler
  16. John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV
  17. William Astor "Willie" Chanler Sr.
  18. Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler Sr.
  19. Margaret Chanler Aldrich
  20. Robert Winthrop Chanler
  21. Peter Augustus Jay
  22. Waldorf Astor
  23. James Roosevelt "Tadd" Roosevelt Jr.
  24. Marshall Orme Wilson Jr.
  25. John Jacob Astor V
  26. William Vincent Astor
  27. Louis Zborowski
  28. Theodore Chanler
  29. Ava Alice Muriel Astor
  30. Jimmy Van Alen
  31. William Waldorf "Bill" Astor II
  32. Francis David Langhorne Astor
  33. John Jacob "Jakey" Astor VI
  34. Michael Langhorne Astor
  35. Susan Mary Jay
  36. John Jacob "Jakie" Astor VII
  37. Gavin Astor
  38. John Astor (1923–1987)
  39. Prince Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky
  40. Princess Sylvia Sergeyevna Obolensky
  41. Simon Bowes-Lyon
  42. Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby
  43. John Jacob "Johnny" Astor VIII
  44. William Waldorf Astor III
  45. John Dalrymple, 14th Earl of Stair

Spouses by birth order

  1. Vincent Rumpff : husband of Eliza Astor
  2. Franklin Hughes Delano : husband of Laura Eugenia Astor
  3. Samuel Cutler "Sam" Ward : husband of Emily Astor
  4. John Winthrop Chanler : husband and widower of Margaret Astor Ward
  5. Caroline Webster Schermerhorn : widow of William Backhouse Astor Jr.
  6. James John Van Alen : husband and widower of Emily Astor
  7. Augustus Jay : husband of Emily Astor Kane
  8. James Roosevelt "Rosey" Roosevelt Sr. : husband and widower of Helen Schermerhorn Astor
  9. Count William Eliot Morris Zborowski : second husband of Margaret Laura Astor Carey
  10. Marshall Orme Wilson : husband of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor
  11. John Jay Chapman : husband of Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler
  12. Richard Aldrich : husband of Margaret Livingston Chanler
  13. Amélie Louise Rives : wife of John Armstrong Chaloner
  14. Ava Lowle Willing : first wife of John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV
  15. Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Green: wife and widow of Matthew Astor Wilks
  16. Natalina Cavalieri : second wife of Robert Winthrop Chanler
  17. Herbert Henry Spender-Clay : husband of Pauline Astor
  18. Margaret Louise Post : wife and widow of James Laurens Van Alen
  19. Robert Joseph Collier : husband of Sarah Steward Van Alen
  20. Nancy Witcher Langhorne : widow of Waldorf Astor; first female British MP to sit in the house of commons
  21. Minnie W. Collins : widow of William Astor "Willie" Chanler
  22. Julia Lynch Olin : second wife and widow of Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler
  23. Theodore Douglas Robinson : husband of Helen Rebecca Roosevelt
  24. Lawrence Grant White : husband of Laura Astor Chanler
  25. Violet Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound : wife of John Jacob Astor V
  26. Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky Neledinsky-Meletzky, first husband of Ava Alice Muriel Astor
  27. Helen Dinsmore Huntington : first wife and widow of William Vincent Astor
  28. Madeleine Talmage Force : second wife and widow of John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV
  29. Louis Bancel LaFarge : husband and widower of Hester Alida Emmet
  30. Roberta Brooke Russell : third wife and widow of William Vincent Astor
  31. The Hon. Sir David Bowes Lyon : husband of Rachel Pauline Spender-Clay
  32. Mary Benedict "Minnie" Cushing : second wife of William Vincent Astor
  33. John Aylmer Dalrymple, 13th Earl of Stair : husband of Davina Katherine Bowes-Lyon
  34. Gilbert James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster : husband and widower of Nancy Phyllis Louise Astor
  35. Joseph Wright Alsop V : second husband of Susan Mary Jay
  36. Irene Violet Freesia Janet Augusta Haig : widow of Gavin Astor
  37. Hon. Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton : first wife of William Waldorf "Bill" Astor II
  38. Janet Bronwen Alun Pugh : third wife and widow of William Waldorf "Bill" Astor II
  39. Roderick McEwen : husband of Romana von Hofmannsthal
  40. Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones : wife of William Waldorf Astor III, mother-in-law of British PM David Cameron
  41. Elizabeth Constance "Liz" Mackintosh : second wife of John Jacob "Johnny" Astor VIII
  42. Jools Miles Holland : second husband of Christabel Mary McEwen
  43. Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond : husband of Janet Elizabeth Astor
  44. Edward Richard Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham : first husband of Christabel Mary McEwen
  45. Laura Rose Parker Bowles : wife of Harry Marcus George Lopes

Lines of succession to the family titles

Both in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, the titles
Viscount Astor, of Hever Castle in the County of Kent, with subsidiary title Baron Astor, of Hever Castle in the County of Kent, and Baron Astor of Hever, of Hever Castle in the County of Kent, were granted with the standard remainder to the legitimate male heirs of the bodies of the original grantees.
Both of the current titleholders continue to sit in the House of Lords following the expulsion of the majority of the hereditary peers by the House of Lords Act 1999.The Right Hon. William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor

Network

Businesses

The following is a list of companies in which the Astor family have held a controlling or otherwise substantial interest.
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Philanthropy and non-profit organizations

Estates and historic sites