Juliana de Rothschild (née Cohen) (1831-1877)

Juliana, Baroness Mayer Amschel de Rothschild was born into the Cohen family, the eldest of the three daughters of Isaac and Sara Cohen. Her aunt Hannah Barent Cohen (1783-1850) had married Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) in 1806. Juliana married her cousin Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1818-1874) (known as ‘Muffy’ to his family) on 26 June 1850. Mayer was the fourth son of Hannah and Nathan.

Juliana was said to have inherited from her father his strong common sense, enquiring mind and princely heart. She received an education from governesses and tutors, and she had a considerable talent for languages. Her philanthropy and outlook on life was shaped by the loss of her father at a young age.

In 1850, Mayer bought the Manor of Mentmore for £12,400 and commissioned Sir Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, to design an elegant mansion in the 19th-century revival Jacobethan style as a country residence, and to display the couple’s collection of fine art. The resulting mansion, which incorporated the most modern features, stands four-square on a slight rise with towers at each corner, and is the largest of the English Rothschild houses, with a huge central grand hall with glazed roof, designed to imitate the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance palazzo. On 31 December 1851, aged just five months, Juliana and Mayer’s daughter Hannah (1851-1890) helped lay the foundation stone for the great mansion, described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era, with the family taking up residence in 1855. When not travelling, Juliana divided her time between her town house in 107, Piccadilly and the magnificent estate at Mentmore, where Mayer was a popular country gentleman and the couple dispensed bountiful hospitality to a select circle of artists, neighbours, friends and family, while the Baroness with her innate benevolence and strong practical good sense exhibited a lively interest in the welfare and intellectual progress of those living on the estate.

Mayer and Juliana had one child, a daughter, Hannah. Mayer died in 1874 leaving Hannah as his sole beneficiary; she inherited the vast estate of Mentmore and 107, Piccadilly, and was said to be the wealthiest British heiress of her day. In 1878, Hannah married the aristocrat and Liberal politician Archibald Philip Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929). 

In her later years, Juliana suffered from recurrent bouts of rheumatic fever. After the death of her husband, on medical advice she took to the sea, often accompanied by her daughter. In 1877, after cruising the Mediterranean she died on board her yacht at Nice. Her body was brought to London by special train via Calais and Dover to Victoria Station, where it was met by members of the family. Her funeral cortege departed from 107 Piccadilly, and she was buried next to her husband in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London.

Her obituary, published in The Jewish Chronicle, 16 March 1877 lamented “The lady with the masculine mind and the feminine heart is no more”, and described her as “philanthropic but not sentimental. Her strong intellect pointed to the purely practical. All her benefactions, which were neither few nor far between, pointed in this direction…”

See also Mayer Amschel de Rothschild »