Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844)


Several years after the banishing of his family from France in 1816, arriving under vigilant disguise as the Count de Survilliers, Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Naples and Spain and brother to Napoleon I of France, purchased the Point Breeze Estate near Bordentown from American patriot, Stephen Sayre. He lived there for 17 years, entertaining guests of great fame such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and the future 6th U.S. President, John Quincy Adams. The residents of Bordentown nicknamed the Count, “The Good Mr. Bonaparte”. He built a lake near the mouth of Crosswicks Creek that was about 200 yards wide and half a mile long. On the bluff above it he built a new home, “Point Breeze”. The current Divine Word Mission occupies its former site along Park Street.