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Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (1785-1879), known
as "Betsy", was the daughter of a Baltimore,
Maryland merchant, and was the first wife of
Jerome Bonaparte, and sister-in-law of Emperor
Napoleon I of France.  Elizabeth's father,
William, had been born in Ireland and came to
North America prior to the American Revolutionary
War.  He was a Roman Catholicism|Catholic, and the
wealthiest man in Maryland after Charles Carroll
of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence.

They were married on December 24, 1803, at a
ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of
Baltimore.

Jerome's brother Napoleon ordered his brother back
to France and had the marriage annulled.  Jerome
returned to France with Betsy but she was denied
landing in continental Europe. She gave birth to a
son in 1805, in London. Jerome gave in to his
brother, returned to the French Navy and married a
German princess.

Betsy returned to Baltimore with her son, Jérôme
Napoleon Bonaparte|Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte.  She
is buried in the Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore,
Maryland.

An irony:  Betsy's brother's widow married the
older brother of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington.