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 Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council. In 1995 he piloted through the House of Lords the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act and in 1996 the Trading Schemes Act. Astor married firstly Fiona Diana Lennox-Harvey on 1 July 1970. They had three daughters together: They were divorced in 1990 and in the same year Astor married Hon. Elizabeth Mackintosh, younger daughter of John Mackintosh, 2nd Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax. They had two children: John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever John Jacob "Johnny" Astor VIII, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, PC DL (born 16 June 1946) is an English businessman