Susan May Williams was the daughter of Benjamin Williams, a prominent Baltimore merchant originally from Roxbury, Massachusetts

Roxbury, Massachusetts

Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...

, and his wife, Sarah Copeland, widow of Nathaniel Morton. In response to the opening of the Erie Canal

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

, which was in direct competition with the port of Baltimore, Benjamin Williams became one of the founders of the first railroad company in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

, chartered on April 24, 1827.

In November 1829 Susan married Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte

Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte

Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte was a son of Jérôme Bonaparte and Elizabeth Patterson, an American....

 (1805–1870), Napoleon's nephew, son of the King of Westphalia

Jérôme Bonaparte

Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...

. He had refused to wait for an arranged marriage to a European princess, opting instead for the promise of the $200,000 fortune she brought to the marriage. The groom's maternal grandfather, William Patterson

William Patterson

William Patterson may refer to:* William Patterson , 19th century engineer and boat builder* William Patterson , U.S. Representative from New York* William Patterson , U.S...

, one of the wealthiest men in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, gave the couple a mansion (now Montrose Mansion) as a wedding gift in an attempt to match the bride's dower.

Their children were Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Charles Joseph Bonaparte was an American lawyer and political activist from Maryland who served in the Cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt. Bonaparte was Secretary of the Navy and then Attorney General. While Attorney General, he created the Bureau of Investigation...

, United States Attorney General

United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...

 and Secretary of the Navy, and Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II was a son of Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte and Susan May Williams.-Biography:...

, who served as an officer in the armies of both the United States and France.

External links

• Text of a Baltimore Sun article about an illness she contracted. Mentions her parents and her sons.
• History of Montrose Mansion