Person:Elizabeth Patterson (15)

About Elizabeth "Betsy" Patterson

Elizabeth was the daughter of William Patterson, who came a poor boy from Ireland to Maryland, where he became a althy Baltimore shipbuilder, prominent merchant, and one of its wealthiest citizens. She was a beautiful girl of eighteen when she met Jerome Bonaparte at a social gathering in Baltimore, and despite the opposition of her father, a marriage was speedily arranged, the ceremony taking place, with all legal formalities on Christmas Eve, 1803, when the groom had but just passed his nineteenth birthday. Mr. Patterson's fears that the marriage would be offensive to the first consul proved to be well grounded. Attempts were unsuccessfully made through Robert R. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, and other influential persons, to reconcile Napoleon to his brother's marriage. He ordered Jerome to return immediately to France, "leaving in America the young person in question." Jerome refused to obey, and a year was spent in travel and in residence at Baltimore. Meanwhile Napoleon had proclaimed himself emperor, and in 1805 Jerome, hoping for a reconciliation [p.340] with his brother, took his wife to Europe. They reached Lisbon in safety, but there Jerome was arrested and taken to France, his wife not being allowed to land. Her message to the emperor was: "Madame Bonaparte demands her rights as a member of the imperial family." She then proceeded to England where a boy was born to her and christened Jerome Napoleon. The emperor refused to recognize the marriage, but promised Elizabeth an annual pension of twelve thousand dollars, providing she would return to America and renounce the name of Bonaparte, which conditions she accepted. Betsy returned to her father at Springfield, and in 1815 the State of Maryland granted her a divorce. She returned to Europe on occasional visits, where she was the centre of attraction, winning attention, not only from her husband's mother and other members of the family, but also from the Duke of Wellington, Madame de Stael, Byron, and even Louis XVII., who invited her to appear at court, but as she still received a pension from the exiled emperor, she declined.

Her husband married Catherine, the daughter of the King of Würtemberg, and soon after was made King of Westphalia. He then sent to America for his son, Jerome Napoleon. Madame Bonaparte refused to give him up, scornfully declining the offer from her husband of a ducal crown with an income of forty thousand dollars a year. The son frequently visited his father's family in Europe, where he was treated as a son and a brother. His subsequent marriage with Miss Williams of Baltimore caused his mother great anger. His cousin, Emperor Napoleon III. invited him to France, where he was legitimized and received as a member of the family. He declined a duchy, refusing the condition attached of surrendering the name of Bonaparte. On the death of King Jerome, in 1860, Elizabeth Patterson, as his American wife, unsuccessfully contested his will. The last eighteen years of her life were spent in Baltimore. She left a fortune of one million five hundred thousand dollars to two grandsons, Jerome Napoleon and Charles J. Bonaparte. (

See The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume I; and "Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte," by Eugene L. Didier.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte.