| Biography | Lady Randolph Churchill, CI DStJ (9 January 1854 29 June 1921), born Jeanette Jerome, was the American-born English wife of Lord Randolph Churchill and the mother of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Jeanette "Jennie" Jerome was born in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn in 1854, the second of three daughters of financier, sportsman, and speculator Leonard Jerome and his wife Clarissa. She was raised in Brooklyn and other parts of what would become New York City. She had two sisters, Clarita and Leonie. Leonard Jerome was rumored to also be the father of the American opera singer Minnie Hauk.
A noted beauty (an admirer, Lord d'Abernon, said that there was "more of the panther than of the woman in her look" ) Jennie Jerome worked as a magazine editor in early life. Hall family lore insists that Jennie had Iroquois ancestry, through her maternal grandmother; however, there is no research or evidence to corroborate this.
Lady Randolph was a talented amateur pianist, having been tutored as a girl by Stephen Heller, a friend of Chopin. Heller believed that his young pupil was good enough to attain 'concert standard' with the necessary 'hard work', which, according to Lovell, he was not confident she was capable of.
Jennie Jerome in the 1880s.Long considered one of the most beautiful women of the time,] she was married for the first time on 15 April 1874, aged 20, at the British Embassy in Paris, to Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough and Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane. Although the couple became engaged within three days of their initial meeting, the marriage was delayed for months while their parents argued over settlements. By this marriage, she was properly known as Lady Randolph Churchill and would have been referred to in conversation as Lady Randolph.
The Churchills had two sons. Winston (18741965), the future prime minister, was born less than eight months after the marriage. According to his biographer William Manchester, Winston was most likely conceived before the marriage, rather than born prematurely. (A recent biography has stated that he was born two months prematurely after Lady Randolph "had a fall.") When asked about the circumstances of his birth, he would reply, "Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it." Lady Randolph's sisters believed that the biological father of the second son, John (18801947) was Evelyn Boscawen, 7th Viscount Falmouth.
Lady Randolph is believed to have had numerous lovers during her marriage, including Karl Kinsky, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) and Herbert von Bismarck. |