John Jacob Astor IV IV was born on July 13, 1864 at his parents' country estate Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York. He was the youngest of five children and only son of businessman, collector, and race horse breeder/owner William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn. His four elder sisters were Emily, Helen, Charlotte, and Caroline ("Carrie"). He was a great-grandson of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd, whose fortune made the Astor family one of the wealthiest in the United States. Astor's paternal grandfather William Backhouse Astor, Sr. was a prominent real estate businessman. Through his paternal grandmother, Margaret
John Jacob Astor IV on him was a gold pocket watch which his son Vincent claimed and wore the rest of his life. Astor was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan, New York City. Four months after "Titanic" sank, Madeleine Astor gave birth to his second son, John Jacob "Jakey" Astor VI. Astor left $69 million of his $85 million estate (equivalent to approximately $1.75 billion in 2017 dollars) to Vincent. This value included his estate in Rhinebeck and his yacht, the "Noma". To Madeleine Force Astor, he left $100,000 as an outright bequest as well as a $5 million trust fund from