and Alida Livingston of the Livingston family. Through his paternal grandmother, Margaret Alida Rebecca Armstrong, Astor was also a great-grandson of Senator John Armstrong Jr. Astor's paternal grandfather William Backhouse Astor Sr. John was a great-grandson of German–American fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd, whose fortune made the Astor family one of the wealthiest in the United States.
His four elder sisters were Emily, Helen, Charlotte, and Carrie. He was the youngest of five children and only son of William Backhouse Astor Jr., a businessman, collector, and racehorse breeder/owner, and Caroline Webster 'Lina' Schermerhorn, a Dutch-American socialite. John Jacob Astor IV was born on July 13, 1864, at his parents' country estate of Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York. Early life, education, and family John Jacob Astor IV in 1909 John Jacob Astor IV as Henry IV of France Astor was the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly $87 million (equivalent to $2.64 billion in 2022) when he died. He died in the sinking of the Titanic during the early hours of April 15, 1912. John Jacob Astor IV (J– April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family.