Early Life
Jérôme was born Girolamo Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica as the eighth and last surviving child, fifth surviving son, of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. He was a younger brother of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte, Pauline Bonaparte and Caroline Bonaparte.
He studied at the Catholic College of Juilly, and then served with the French navy before going to the United States. On 24 December 1803, Jérôme married Elizabeth Patterson (1785–1879), daughter of Baltimore merchant William Patterson and his wife, Dorcas Spear. Napoleon was unable to convince Pope Pius VII to annul their marriage, and so annulled the marriage himself. Elizabeth was pregnant with a son at the time, and on her way to Europe with Jérôme. When they landed in neutral Portugal, Jérôme set off overland to Italy to attempt to convince his brother to recognize the marriage. Elizabeth then attempted to land in Amsterdam, but Napoleon had issued orders barring the ship from entering the harbour. Being with child, Elizabeth went on to England where Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 95 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, England. Jérôme and Elizabeth were divorced by a Special decree of the Maryland Assembly in 1815.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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