Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (24 page)

  
1
  “O Turn thou”: William Johnson to EPB, March 28, 1814, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
2
  Betsy had prepared: EPB to Thomas Jefferson, March 25, 1815, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

  
3
  Jefferson feared that: Thomas Jefferson to EPB, April 24, 1815, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

  
4
  But Betsy’s uncle: Samuel Smith to Lafayette, April 18, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
5
  Richard
Gilmore sent: Richard Gilmore to Madame Licama, April 10, 1815, and Richard Gilmore to Madame Schimmelpennick, April 10, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
6
  And Jan Willink: John A. Willink to William Willink, April 17, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
7
  “conceived a residence”: James McIlhiny to EPB, August 29, 1815, including EPB’s annotation, MdHS, ms. 142; see also EPB’s annotation to six McIlhiny letters, c. 1861, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
8
  “so particular about”: Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), pp. 123, 128–29; E. M. Oddie,
The Bonapartes in the New World
(London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1932), pp. 73–79; Helen Jean Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 169.

  
9
  “cherished, visited”: Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte,
p. 127.

10
  “Europe more than”: EPB to William Patterson, September 23, 1815, in Eugène Lemoine Didier,
The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 61–62.

11
  “I am convinced”: William Patterson to EPB, November 16, December 15, 1815, MdHS, ms. 145.

12
  “I fear it may give”: James McIlhiny to EPB, September 5, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

13
  “It was with the most”: Edward Patterson to EPB, November 16, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

14
  “the same old”: John Spear Smith to EPB, November 18, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

15
  “I think it both wicked”: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, December 1, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

16
  “tales allegedly spread”: Mary Mansfield to EPB, December 27, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

17
  “Health Character attention”: EPB annotation, James McIlhiny to EPB, September 5, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

18
  “This will find you”: Edward Patterson to EPB, December 15, 1815, MdHS, ms. 142.

19
  “It appears to me”: Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 54–58.

20
  “consider me an apostate”: EPB to [John Spear Smith], August 22, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

21
  William did not understand: Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 62–63.

22
  “Satisf[y] her curiosity”: James McIlhiny to EPB, n.d. 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

23
  “Mr
Patterson’s objection”: EPB annotation to James McIlhiny, n.d. 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

24
  “Everyone who knows me”: Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 54–58.

25
  “the Conquerer of”: Eliza Godefroy to EPB, March 17, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

26
  “In my dreams”: EPB to Mary Caton Patterson, November 7, 1815, quoted in Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte,
p. 173.

27
  “The Plague sore”: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, January 14, 1816, May 1, 1816, May 30, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
1
  All Paris did: Eugène Lemoine Didier,
The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 63–64.

  
2
  “It is now generally reported”: John Spear Smith to EPB, April 18–May 25, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
3
  “You must certainly”: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, May 30, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
4
  It was true that lovesick: Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 149.

  
5
  “for some weeks”: EPB to John Spear Smith, August 22, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
6
  Those invitations came: Amelia Ruth Gere Mason,
The Women of the French Salons
(New York: Century, 1891), pp. 69, 128.

  
7
  “If I were a queen”: EPB to Sydney Morgan, November 28, 1816, in William Hepworth Dixon, ed.,
Lady Morgan Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence,
2nd ed. (London, 1863), pp. 45–47; Mason,
Women of the French Salons,
p. 138; Helen Jean Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), pp. 175–76.

  
8
  Warden also introduced: Mason,
Women of the Salons,
pp. 148–51.

  
9
  Sydney’s literary talents: Dixon,
Lady Morgan Memoirs,
introduction.

10
  Over her lifetime: EPB to Sydney Morgan, September 23, 1816, November 18, 1816, September 30, 1820, September 22, 1839, March 14, 1849, in Dixon,
Lady Morgan Memoirs,
pp. 42–44, 45–47, 62–65, 140–42, 454–56, 502–4.

11
  “their whining”: EPB to John Spear Smith, August 22, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

12
  “where no pleasures”: Ibid.

13
  “those
long wearisome”: Ibid.

14
  “shut up in our melancholy”: Ibid.

15
  “tone of tristesse”: Sydney Morgan to EPB, May 26, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

16
  “an Eroneous”: James McIlhiny to EPB, September 18, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
1
  Betsy understood both: EPB to Sydney Morgan, May 23, 1818, in William Hepworth Dixon, ed.,
Lady Morgan Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence,
2nd ed. (London, 1863), pp. 80–84; for letters dealing with finances see, for example, Edward Patterson to EPB, September 20, September 25, 1816, March 14, 1817, in MdHS, ms. 142; EPB to William Patterson, September 19, 1821, in Eugène Lemoine Didier,
The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 89–90; EPB to Eliza Patterson, March 14, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
2
  Betsy was probably: EPB to Sydney Morgan, October 1, 1819, in Dixon,
Lady Morgan Memoirs,
pp. 108–11.

  
3
  William, in turn: William Patterson to EPB, April 23, 1827, MdHS, ms. 145.

  
4
  “I shall hasten”: Didier,
Life and Letters,
p. 86.

  
5
  Bo’s longing for home: Bo to William Patterson, November 6, 1820, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 75–77; Helen Jean Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 75.

  
6
  “Mamma goes out”: Didier,
Life and Letters,
p. 85.

  
7
  “She says she looks”: Ibid., p. 86; Charlotte Boyer Lewis, “Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: ‘Ill Suited for the Life of a Columbian’s Modest Wife,’ ”
Journal of Women’s History
18, no. 2 (2006), p. 50.

  
8
  “I was not surprised”: Virginia Tatnall Peacock,
Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century
(Books for Libraries Press, n.d., reissued by University, 2011), p. 57; Clarence Edward McCartney and Gordon Dorrance,
The Bonapartes in America
(Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1939), p. 37.

  
9
  “He seems, poor man”: Axel Madsen,
John Jacob Astor, America’s First Multimillionaire
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001); Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte,
p. 187.

10
  In the autumn of 1819: John Jacob Astor to EPB, April 23, 1820, MdHS, ms. 142.

11
  In March 1820: EPB to William Patterson, May 8, 1820, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 80–82; Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte:
The Belle of Baltimore
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), pp. 168–69.

12
  “If I took my son”: EPB to William Patterson, April 10, 1820, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 66–70.

13
  “necessity of application”: Ibid.

14
  “without an education”: Ibid.

15
  In a letter to Pauline: EPB to Princess [Pauline Bonaparte] Borghese, March 25, 1820, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 70–72.

16
  “spends everything he can”: EPB to William Patterson, April 25, 1820, ibid., pp. 74–77.

17
  Pauline seemed equally: EPB to William Patterson, November 28, 1821, ibid., pp. 93–96; Flora Fraser,
Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire
(New York: Knopf, 2009), pp. 227–37.

18
  Joseph Bonaparte was: Patricia Tyson Stroud,
The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

19
  “entirely ruined, his fortune”: EPB to William Patterson, November 28, 1821, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 93–96.

20
  “Since I have been”: Bo to William Patterson, n.d., ibid., p. 86.

21
  “There is no knowing”: EPB to William Patterson, January 29–30, 1822, ibid., pp. 102–5.

22
  “discourage all that tendency”: EPB to William Patterson, March 8, 1822, ibid., pp. 108–9.

23
  “exactly as she has done”: EPB to William Patterson, January 29–30, 1822, ibid., pp. 102–5.

24
  “are those who support”: EPB to William Patterson, December 21, 1821, ibid., pp. 96–97.

25
  “It is generally”: EPB to William Patterson, October 16, 1821, ibid., pp. 90–92.

  
1
  “You may not have reigned”: Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 172.

  
2
  “Did you see?”: There are several slightly different accounts of this meeting. See, for example, Eugène Lemoine Didier,
The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), p. 113; Virginia Tatnall Peacock,
Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century
(Books for Libraries Press, n.d., reissued
by University, 2011), p. 57; Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte,
p. 192.

  
3
  That enduring beauty: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, April 12, 1827, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
4
  “the extreme profligacy”: Earl of Ilchester, ed.,
The Journal of the Hon. Henry Edward Fox, 1818–1830
(London: Thornton Butterworth, 1932), p. 319.

  
5
  “I every Day miss”: Sir George Dallas to [Lady Dallas], December 13, 1827, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
6
  “The land of romance”: See, for example, EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, February 5, 1923, November 9, 1823, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 113–16, 134–35, 159–60.

  
7
  “the next best thing”: EPB to William Patterson, December 4, 1829, ibid., pp. 231–32.

  
8
  “We must instill ambition”: EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, ibid., pp. 113–16.

  
9
  “Disappointments,” she wrote: EPB to William Patterson, December 24, 1822, February 15, 1823, ibid., pp. 126–26, 139–41.

10
  “young people are often”: EPB to William Patterson, October 15, December 11, 1822, ibid., pp. 124, 125.

11
  Thus far Betsy: EPB to William Patterson, December 24–27, 1822, in Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Marriage of Betsy Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte,” unpublished ms., MdHS, p. 17.

12
  “However advantageous”: Bo to William Patterson, March 3, 1824, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 166–67.

13
  Although Bo’s extravagance: Bo to William Patterson, August 16, 1824, ibid., pp. 168–69.

14
  When Bo returned: William Patterson to EPB, September 14, 1824, MdHS, ms. 145.

15
  “I have no confidence”: EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, May 22, 1823, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 113–16, 152–54.

16
  No matter how: EPB to Sydney Morgan, n.d., ibid., pp. 171–73.

17
  Betsy arrived at Le Havre: EPB to Sydney Morgan, November 28, 1825, ibid., pp. 184–85.

18
  “
mere
adventurers”: Jehanne Wake,
Sisters of Fortune: Marianne, Bess, Louisa, and Emily Caton, 1788–1874
(London: Chatto & Windus, 2010), esp. p. 189; EPB to William Patterson, November 2, 1825, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 181–83.

19
  “I should pass”: EPB to William Patterson, February 21, 1826, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 188–89.

20
  “My
dear child,” he wrote: Jérôme Bonaparte to Bo, March 6, 1826, ibid., pp. 190–91.

21
  “I have seen a great”: Bo to William Patterson, n.d., 1826, ibid., pp. 195–96.

22
  “I perceive that he”: William Patterson to EPB, April 23, 1827, MdHS, ms. 145.

23
  “You seem somewhat angry”: Ibid.

24
  “I am excessively tired”: Bo to William Patterson, January 7, January 25, 1827, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 210, 211–12.

25
  “think of doing something”: Bo to William Patterson, January 25, 1827, ibid., pp. 211–21.

  
1
  “Your father’s family”: William Patterson to Bo, August 14, 1825, in Eugène Lemoine Didier,
The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 176–77.

  
2
  The only stumbling block: William Patterson to EPB, July 24, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  
3
  “determined not to marry”: William Patterson to EPB, July 24, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  
4
  Still Betsy was kept: EPB to William Patterson, May 30, 1828, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 221–23.

  
5
  “If he were a Minor”: EPB to William Patterson, September 9, October 17, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  
6
  Betsy’s suspicions: William Patterson to EPB, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145; Edward Patterson to EPB, October 27, 1829, March 30, 1830, MdHS, ms. 142.

  
7
  “look back on”: William Patterson to EPB, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  
8
  “I think that”: EPB to William Patterson, December 4, 1829, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 231–32.

  
9
  “Please Understand, Maman”: Quoted in Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 206.

10
  “by nature rather indolent”: Edward Patterson to EPB, March 5 1830, MdHS, ms. 142.

11
  “I have gained”: EPB to William Patterson, December 21, 1829, in Didier,
Life and Letters,
pp. 233–34.

12
  “A
duller person”: Quoted in Helen Jean Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 207.

13
  Betsy’s attraction to Gorchakov: See Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Marriage of Betsy Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte,” unpublished ms., MdHS; “Portrait of Prince Gorchakoff,” MdHS, ms. 142; Burn,
Betsy Bonaparte,
pp. 206–8; Bourguignon-Frasseto,
Betsy Bonaparte,
pp. 240–41.