Baron Mayer de Rothschild

Baron Mayer de Rothschild
Spy cartoon, 1874
Born	(1818-06-29)29 June 1818 London
Died	6 February 1874(1874-02-06) (aged 55)
Children	Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery
Parent(s)	Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Relatives	Mayer Amschel Rothschild, grandfather

Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (29 June 1818 – 6 February 1874) was an English businessman and politician of the English branch of the Rothschild family. He was the fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836). He was named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family.

Known to his family as "Muffy", he was born in New Court, London. After studying at the University of Leipzig and Heidelberg University he became the first member of his family to receive an education at an English university, spending time at both Magdalene and Trinity College, Cambridge. Although apprenticed in the family's various banking houses in Europe, he never became a major part of the banking empire. He became High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1847, and was elected Liberal MP for Hythe in 1859. In 1847 he served on the committee of the British Relief Association.

Mayer's mother, Hannah (née Cohen), began the Rothschild acquisitions in Buckinghamshire. Thinking her sons unhealthy, she began to purchase parcels of land around Aylesbury in prime hunting country, where they could take outdoor exercise. By the middle of the 19th century, all three of her sons had large estates and mansions in the Vale of Aylesbury: Lionel de Rothschild at Tring; Anthony Nathan de Rothschild at Aston Clinton; and Mayer at Mentmore. There he built Mentmore Towers, the most sumptuous of the English Rothschild houses at the time. Other cousins were to follow: Ferdinand James von Rothschild at Waddesdon and Alfred de Rothschild at Halton.