John Jacob Astor IV Alida Rebecca Armstrong, Astor was also a great-grandson of Senator John Armstrong, Jr. and Alida Livingston of the Livingston family. His maternal grandparents were Abraham Schermerhorn, a wealthy merchant, and socialite Helen Van Courtlandt White. He was also a nephew of financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III, and grandnephew of occasional poet John Jacob Astor, Jr. His sister Helen's husband was diplomat James Roosevelt "Rosey" Roosevelt, half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the Roosevelt family. Another sister, Carrie, a noted philanthropist, was the wife of Marshall Orme Wilson (brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. and socialite Grace
Bronwen Astor to his family and friends as Bill Astor), the eldest son of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor (1879—1952), and his wife, Nancy, Viscountess Astor (1879—1964). Upon her marriage, Bronwen became the mistress of Cliveden, the mansion which her mother-in-law had made famous with her political salons. Within three years of her marriage Bronwen's world was turned upside down by the infamous Profumo Affair, which brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government. Bill died from a heart attack in 1966, leaving Bronwen with two young daughters. Bronwen left Cliveden with her daughters, to live in Tuesley Manor, Godalming, Surrey. She opened