A King’s Encounter With the Spooky Jersey Devil (Part 1)
Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, would randomly rule Spain until his brother lost power. When Joseph heard that Napoleon had surrendered, he sailed off to America sans family. He made it to the safety of New York in late August, 1815. Joseph Bonaparte, left New York for Washington, DC, where he hoped to meet President Madison. He was intercepted en route by a messenger who informed him that the American president would not meet him. So Joseph turned around, and set about to get comfortable and make the best of his new life in America. He managed to transfer a big chunk of his fortune, much of it in the form of Spanish royal jewels he had grabbed on his way out of Spain, and invested it in his new country.
In his first few years in the US, Joseph lived in New York City and Philadelphia, where his house became a hub for French expatriates. He also bought a large land tract in Upstate New York that contained a 1,200 acre lake that he named Lake Diana, and that is now known as Lake Bonaparte. He eventually bought an estate, Point Breeze, in Bordentown, New Jersey. Joseph spent significant time and effort to expand and landscape it with extensive gardens in a picturesque style. Little did he know, but he was soon to meet a spooky beast in the Garden State.
