See BONAPARTE

Sharbell

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Bow Hill Mansion in Hamilton, now the Ukrainian American Cultural Center, where Joseph Bonaparte once briefly lived.

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And while Bordentown lays the biggest claim to Bonaparte’s legacy, the ex-king also left footprints in Philadelphia, upstate New York, Trenton and Hamilton.

According to Doug Kiovsky, the vicepresident of the Bordentown Historical Society, Bonaparte sporadically acquired marshlands in Hamilton. Actually, reading through old newspapers, it seems Bonaparte was constantly buying and selling land.

In 1818, three years after arriving in the United States, he purchased 150,000 acres in Northern New York which contained a lake. Bonaparte named the lake Diana; today it is known as Bonaparte Lake and is located about 32 miles northeast of Watertown, New York. He built a hunting lodge there in 1828. Just hold that thought for a moment.

Additionally, Bonaparte had several homes in Philadelphia, and once he settled in at his Bordentown estate, called Point Breeze, he continued to rent a house in Philadelphia on Chestnut Street.

Bonaparte married Marie Julie Clary in 1794. But when he fled to the U.S. after his brother Napoleon was captured, Queen Marie stayed behind in Europe. Some stories say she had no desire to board a ship and sail across the ocean. Other report that she was too frail to make the journey. Understandable, since Joseph Bonaparte sailed here in the hull of a ship, surrounded by wine casks, and bearing the name M. Bouchard.

Let’s recap for a moment. Joseph sailed to the U.S. alone, leaving his wife in Europe. He was 47 years old when he arrived here in 1815. Napoleon told Joseph to settle somewhere between New York City and Philadelphia so he would quickly receive any important news. Bonaparte owns thousands of acres of land close to Canada; he owns a house in Philadelphia; he eventually buys land in Bordentown.

Joseph is well-liked and hosts many parties with other aristocrats in Philadelphia. He moves around that city with ease. One day, he enters a shop on Dock Street in Philadelphia to buy suspenders. There behind the counter was Annette Savage. According to an 1891 article published in the Trenton Times:

“She was a beautiful girl of some nineteen summers and assisted her mother in waiting upon customers. Joseph Bonaparte was staying in Philadelphia at the time, and through the reports of the gentlemen in his suite, learned of the young girl’s remarkable beauty.”

For the record, across time, Annette is sometimes referred to as Ann; she is sometimes called Anne Holton.

The news story continues.

“Following the first visit, [Bonaparte] soon became infatuated with the young girl; he offered her presents which it seems she refused, and in other ways manifested her disapproval of his advances, for there was a mutual love existing between her and a young barrister … The mother, however, was flattered by the royal scoundrel and encouraged his attention.”

The mother, Margaret Larkey, reportedly “sold her child body and soul and received the price.” The barrister lover “was broken-hearted and the fair child became the victim of the royal profligate.”

Bonaparte often referred to Annette Savage as his “American wife” even though she became his mistress. She spent time with Bonaparte in Philadelphia and at Point Breeze. But according to a 1927 story, which ran in several newspapers around the country, “staid, moral, Philadelphians were shocked and Joseph Bonaparte was made to understand that his action was inexcusable.” Bonaparte, reportedly, became enraged.