Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/312

  [Reeves's The Rothschilds (with portrait); the Montefiore Diaries, ed. Loewe, 1890; Walpole's Life of Lord J. Russell, ii. 92, 307–8; Black's Jockey Club; Times, June 1879; Ann. Reg. 1879; Walford's County Families.] 

ROTHSCHILD, NATHAN MEYER (1777–1836), financier and merchant, born at Frankfurt-am-Main on 16 Sept. 1777, was the third son of Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1745?–1812). The surname ‘Rothschild’ came from the sign (‘zum rothen Schilde,’ i.e. the red shield) of the house, formerly 148 Judengasse at Frankfurt, in which the family long lived. The dwelling, which was restored in 1886, still survives, though the rest of the street, now known as the Börne Strasse, has been rebuilt. Several members of the family were distinguished rabbis in the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries (, Sechzig Epitaphien zu Worms).

Nathan Meyer's grandfather, Amschel Moses, was a merchant and banker in a small way of business at Frankfurt. There Meyer Amschel, Nathan Meyer's father, was born about 1745. Meyer Amschel was educated for the Jewish rabbinate at Fürth in Hesse, but was ultimately placed by his father with the Hanoverian banking firm of Oppenheim. After spending three years at Hanover, where he developed much financial aptitude, he returned to Frankfurt and, his father being now dead, set up for himself at his father's house, 148 Judengasse. His business combined the characteristics of a small bank and money-changer's office with an agency for the distribution of general merchandise and curiosities. His reputation for just dealing attracted the attention of William IX, landgrave of Hesse Cassel (known after 1803 as Elector William I), who inherited on his father's death in 1785 a private fortune, reputed to be the largest in Europe. The landgrave consulted Rothschild as to his investments, bought many works of art of him, and often came to his house to play a game of chess. In 1801 the landgrave appointed Rothschild his court agent. To this connection Rothschild mainly owed his success in life. At his patron's suggestion, and with his support, Rothschild soon took the first step in that career of loan contractor to European governments which his successors have pursued on an unparalleled scale. In 1803 he lent twenty million francs to the government of Denmark. The transaction was repeated several times within the following nine years, and during that period the finances of Denmark were largely regulated by Rothschild's advice. After the battle of Jena in 1806 the landgrave fled to Denmark, leaving in Rothschild's hands a large part of his fortune, variously estimated at 250,000l. and 600,000l., besides a great many of his works of art. Rothschild showed himself worthy of the trust. When French commissioners demanded of Rothschild the whereabouts of the treasure, neither threats of violence nor offers of bribes could induce him to reveal the secret (, Memoirs, 1891, i. 310–11). The whole sum of money, with interest, and the works of art were restored to the landgrave by Rothschild's sons on his resettlement in Hesse in 1815. Napoleon left Rothschild unmolested, and Napoleon's nominee, Prince Dalberg, prince-primate of the confederation of the Rhine, to whose dominions Frankfurt had been annexed, made him in 1810 a member of the electoral college of Darmstadt. Meyer Amschel Rothschild died at Frankfurt on 13 Sept. 1812. By his wife Gudule (b. 23 Aug. 1753), daughter of Baruch Schnappe, a Frankfurt tradesman, whom he married in 1770, he had ten children, of whom five were sons. His widow inhabited the ancestral dwelling at Frankfurt till her death, on 7 May 1849, at the age of ninety-six. Heine, in ‘Ueber Börne,’ gives an attractive picture both of the house and of its early inhabitants. Greville, when he visited Frankfurt in June 1843, caught a glimpse of ‘the mother of the Rothschilds’ (Diary, 1888, v. 177). The eldest son, Amschel (b. 12 June 1773, d. 6 Dec. 1855), was kept at home to assist his father, but the four younger—Solomon (b. 9 Sept. 1774, d. 27 July 1855), Nathan, the subject of the present notice, Karl (b. 24 April 1788, d. 10 March 1855), and Jacob or James (b. 9 May 1792, d. 15 Nov. 1868)—were sent abroad, and each ultimately established branches of their father's business in other countries. Solomon went first to Berlin, and afterwards to Vienna; Nathan finally settled in London; Karl settled in Naples, and Jacob or James in Paris. This dispersion of forces confirmed and increased the family's influence and prosperity. By his dying instructions the elder Rothschild enjoined his children to live at peace with one another, and to act strictly in concert in all business transactions. The sons and their descendants not only faithfully obeyed those injunctions, but strengthened their union by repeatedly intermarrying among themselves. The Naples house was closed in 1861, after the creation of the kingdom of Italy, but the four other firms continue their influential careers at London, Paris, Vienna, and Frankfurt.

The third son, Nathan Meyer, founder of the London branch, first came to England in 1797; he was sent by his father to Manchester