Hannah Rosebery

1851-1890

Heiress

Descended from the Rothschild banking family of Frankfurt, Hannah became the richest woman in England when her father, Buckinghamshire MP and racehorse owner Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, died in 1878. She inherited Mentmore Towers, a house and estate commissioned from Joseph Paxton who had designed Crystal Palace for the 1851 Great Exhibition.

Hannah was introduced to her future husband by Mrs Disraeli, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, while at Newmarket races. She and Archibald Primrose, Earl of Rosebery, wed at Christ Church, Piccadilly, in 1878.

She was not the first of her family to marry out of the Jewish faith but the match caused consternation as the Rothschilds were the leading Jewish family of Europe. She kept Jewish customs and gave generously to Jewish causes. Their four children were brought up as Christians.

Hannah died aged 39. Herman Adler, in one of his first decisions as new Chief Rabbi, directed that a mausoleum should be erected over her grave next to her parents’ at Willesden. A departure from prevailing Jewish burial custom, this was the only mausoleum in the cemetery until its destruction by bombing in World War Two. The white marble tombs with carved balustrade and tiled floor remain and were listed Grade II by Historic England in 2017.

Hannah Rosebery at Whitehall
© Mary Evans Picture Library