page_title: William Backhouse Astor Jr.
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: William Backhouse Astor Jr. / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: William B. Astor, Jr. (1829–1892)
context_page_description: William Backhouse Astor Jr. was an American businessman, racehorse breeder/owner, and yachtsman who was a prominent member of the Astor family. Astor's elder brother, financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III, became head of the English line of Astors, and William Jr. was head of the male American line of Astors with his wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, serving as the head of New York society's "Four Hundred" during the Gilded Age.
context_section_description: William Backhouse Astor Jr. was born on July 12, 1829, in New York City, New York. He was the middle son of real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr. (1792–1875) and Margaret Rebecca (née Armstrong) Astor (1800–1872).  His siblings included elder brother John Jacob Astor III, who married Charlotte Augusta Gibbes; Emily Astor, who married Samuel Cutler Ward; Laura Eugenia Astor, who married Franklin Hughes Delano; Mary Alida Astor, who married John Carey; Henry Astor, who married Malvina Dinehart; and Sarah Astor, who died in infancy.
  Astor's paternal grandparents were fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox (née Todd) Astor.  His maternal grandparents were U.S. Senator John Armstrong Jr. and Alida (née Livingston) Armstrong of the Livingston family.
  A well-liked man, Astor graduated from Columbia College in 1849.
caption: William B. Astor, Jr. from New York State's Prominent and Progressive Men, 1900.
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