Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery
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Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (27 July 1851 – 19 November 1890), was an English social leader and philanthropist, daughter of Baron Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen. Hannah was at one time said to be the richest woman in Britain: on the death of her father in 1874, she inherited £2million, and the new family mansion Mentmore (now known as Mentmore Towers), and its priceless collections of art and furniture.
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[edit] Marriage and family
On 20 March 1878, Hannah married Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. The marriage produced four children: Harry Primrose, Lord Dalmeny (later 6th Earl of Rosebery); The Honourable Neil Primrose; Lady Sybil Primrose; and Lady Margaret Primrose. Notwithstanding this union, she remained a Jewess, was a member of the Central Synagogue, London, and took a deep interest in the concerns of the community. She made Lansdowne House the focus of social Liberalism, and was an important element in the organization of the Liberal party. Neil became MP for Wisbech, but was killed at Gezer during the 1st World War{Note-he almost joined the Jewish Legion before his death but did not do so because of a misunderstanding}; Sybil later married Sir Charles Grant of the Grant's Whisky family and became noted for her eccentricity, spending long periods up a tree communicating with her butler through a loudhailer. Margaret (known as 'Peggy') married an older man — a friend of her father's, Robert Crewe-Milnes, Marquess of Crewe. He later wrote a two volume biography of her father and his political life.
Hannah Rosebery, though not unattractive, was not a classically beautiful woman, and society gossip at the time held that the Earl of Rosebery had married her for her money. Rosebery was credited with three ambitions: to marry Britain's richest woman; to win the Epsom Derby; and become Prime Minister. This is probably apocryphal, but if true he succeeded on all three counts. Nevertheless, letters he wrote at the time of the engagement suggest he was deeply in love with Hannah and the marriage seems likely to have been one of genuine and mutual affection [1]
[edit] Work and philanthropy
Like her mother, Baroness Juliana de Rothschild, she was very active in philanthropic undertakings, building many model cottages, and three schools in and around the Mentmore estate. Today these cottages (recognisable by the "H de R" cypher on their gables) are highly sought after expensive properties in Wingrave, Cheddington and Mentmore.
She was especially attached to the Institution for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and also associated herself with the movement for promoting a better system of nursing. She was appointed by Queen Victoria, president for Scotland of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses, and was also resident of the Scottish Home Industries Association. She took much interest in the condition of working girls and founded the Club for Jewish Working Girls in Whitechapel.
Hannah added to her husband's library of precious books. Upon entering a book shop, she once remarked to her young daughters, "to your father this is a toy shop." After Hannah's death her husband was inconsolable and never remarried. Although it is now hinted that he was implicated in the Oscar Wilde affair, this has never been proven. He spent the last years of his life at Dalmeny, an insomniac, almost a recluse and reading his much loved precious books.
The priceless (continental) library of his books, which had always been kept at Dalmeny rather than Mentmore, was sold in 1995 at The Aeolian Hall, London by Sotheby's. The same auctioneers sold, with much publicity, Hannah's Mentmore inheritance in 1977.
[edit] Death
Lady Rosebery died in 1890 at Dalmeny, Scotland, near Edinburgh of bright's disease [2]. She was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London in accordance with the rites of the Jewish faith. Her husband was interred in the family vault at Dalmeny on his death in 1929.
[edit] Prominent English Rothschild family members
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836)
- Moses Haim Montefiore (1784–1885) (Married daughter of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the original family patriarch)
- Baron Mayer de Rothschild (1818–1874)
- Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879)
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild (1840–1915)
- 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)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Marquess of Crewe. Lord Rosebery (marriage) (Lady Rosbery's illness). John Murray, London. 1931
- ^ Young, Kenneth Harry, Lord Rosebery' (Page 21) Hodder and Stoughton, London 1974. ISBN 0-340-16273-2
- Jewish Chronicle Nov. 21 and 28, 1890
- London newspapers of Nov. 20, 1890
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
- Joseph Valynseele & Henri-Claude Mars, Le Sang des Rothschild, L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux, Paris, 2004.
