The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-20
Bonaparte's Home in Jersey

Does the old joke still survive
which characterizes New Jersey as a
part of Spain and the iunoCuous Jer-
seyman as a Spaniard2 And II so.
to what extent? And also, If so. does
the jester remember why the State
and its citizens are or were thus
nieknamed?
I put these questions TO a group Of
'oid-timers in Camden. n. j., the other
day and while most of them remem-
.bered the Jest as one which had been
current in their youth. only one Of
them could adequately account for Its
origin. Yet half century ago. or
even later, any schoolhoy could have
answered offhand:
because New Jersey was the only
American State that empowered that
royal exile. Joseph Bonaparte, king
~of Spain during the Napoleonic re-
gime. to acquire a freehold property
within its borders, and because he did
actually purchase at Bordeutown an
estate then known as Point Breeze.
which to this day retains. after many
vieissitudes Of ownership. the more
imposing title Of Bonapartc park.
King Joseph had knocked in vain
n the doors of the Pennsylvania leg
islature for a special act which would
suspend in his favor the eXtant law
against the alien ownership Of any
real estate within the keystone Com
monwealth. Probably all the other
States save one would have followed
the example of Pennsylvania. That
single exception was New Jersey.
which in 1877 removed the bar against
foreigners and enabled the former king
to establish a sort Of mimic court in
a republican environment aud Quak-
or community.
He had fed 10 this country after
Waterloo under the transparent in
cognto Of the Count of Suryilliers,
and accompanied in his exile by his
daughters and his nephews and
nieces, the Murats orphaned sons and
daughters Of that Napoleonic marshal
who had risen from plebeian state 10
the kinFship of Naples and had paid
the penalty for his usurped dignity by
a military execution at the hands of
his own revolted soldiers The mar
'shal. IL viii BE remembered, had mar
ried Napoleons sister. Caroline
Therefore the Princes and Princesses
Murat had Bonaparte blood in their
veins.
Achille, the elder prince. wandered
away to Florida, married there and
died without issue. The younger.
Charles LuCien with his sisters. set
tied down in Bordentown within a
stones throw Of Uncle Josephs park.
and their mansion, renovated and re-
built on the original outline, but cut
up into several small houses. still sur
wives in Bordentown, together with
the hlackened ruins of the Lakeshonse
which Joseph Bonaparte built for
mis- daughter. Zenaide, upon the epo-
nymic lake which is now only a RENT
niscent creek
Gone not only is the lake with its
half dozen tiny islets which Joseph
achieved for himself by damming IN
the creek, but all vestiges OF the sec
ond mansion that he built for his own
residence near the border Of the lake
after the first had been destroyed by
fire. Gone also, or surviving only in
ruin and decay, are all or almost all
Of the ancient glories of the park. the
grass grown lawns which pastured
the latest and sleekest cows ever
seen in New Jersey, the rustic bridges
the arbors, the bowers and the car
riage drives.
The subterranean passages which
connected Josephs house with Ze-
naide's dwelling place have caved in
and left behind them wild supersti-
tons and absurd traditions as to the
uses for which they, were intended
The unromantic fact is that they were
excavated merely as a covered pas
sageway. especially convenient in cold
or stormy weather. between Josephs
residence and that of his daughter /
The romantic myth which still sur /
Wives among the credulous in Borden |
town and it's surroundings is that Jo- !
seph planned them as a battling laby- /
rinth through whose winding ways he {
might effect his escape to the water
side, bearing such treasure boxes as /
were portable by himself and his .
suite, and take ship for some un-
known port in case any foreign man I
of-war should sail up the Delaware |
in quest of the person or the property /
of the former king of Spain. Absurd |
as the myth is on it's very face, IL has
recently been revived in print
Equally mistaken is any supposed |
connection between the beautiful i
Italian villa that crowns the slopes +
of the park and the Bonapartes who +
lived in the older mansions This villa /
was built in the later '40's of the nine
teenth century by Henry Beckett, who I
purchased the park from King Joseph /
when the latter returned to France I
under the aegis of his nephew. the
prince president. soon to become the
Emperor Napoleon III. Mr.. Beckett
was an Englishman by birth. was long