Susan May Williams

Who was Susan May Williams?

Susan May Williams Bonaparte was the daughter of Benjamin Williams, a prominent Baltimore merchant, and his wife, Sarah Copeland, widow of Nathaniel Morton. In response to the opening of the Erie Canal, which was in direct competition with the port of Baltimore, her father became one of the founders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad company in the United States, chartered on 24 April 1827.

In November 1829, Susan became the wife of Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte-Patterson, son of the King of Westphalia and his American first wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Patterson. He had refused to wait for an arranged marriage to a European princess, instead opting for the $200,000 fortune that Susan brought to the marriage. In an attempt to match the railroad heiress's dowry, the groom's maternal grandfather, William Patterson — one of the wealthiest men in Maryland — gave the couple Montrose Mansion as a wedding gift.

She had two sons:

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II, officer in the armies of both the United States and France;

Charles Joseph Bonaparte, United States Attorney General and Secretary of the Navy.