CATHERINE of Tallahassee

Catherine WILLIS married a Prince! Not at all a storybook tale, her true-life July 12, 1826 Tallahassee wedding was the start of an extraordinary new chapter in Florida’s history.

Catherine’s Tallahassee marriage was to Prince Charles Napoleon Achilles MURAT, son of the King of Naples. Their wedding created an American nobility in Florida’s panhandle, two decades before the US Territory became a State.

Princess Catherine (WILLIS) Murat

Following the French revolt of 1830, the Murat’s travelled to Europe, stopping in London to pay a visit to Lord Dudley STUART. An English politician, Stuart had married Princess Christine, the daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1824. The two Christine’s shared a Napoleon heritage, and at a lavish gathering, given in honor of the Murat’s, Lady Stuart introduced her guest as, Catherine MURAT, “the niece of George Washington.”

At another London event, while viewing side by side photos of Napoleon and Washington at an art gallery, their host exclaimed, “Behold, in the Princess MURAT, the niece of both, a distinction which she alone can claim.” Catherine MURAT was indeed a niece of George Washington.

Princess Catherine Murat was the daughter of Colonel Byrd and Mary (Lewis) WILLIS of Tallahassee. The Willis family history speaks highly of their esteemed Princess, telling of Catherine’s journey to England, and stating she had returned home in advance of her husband, doing so, “under the protection of Mrs. PRINGLE, of South Carolina, a good American.”

Mrs. Pringle? The brother of Judith (MAYRANT) Pringle had died in 1757, leaving a four year old son. Judith raised her brother’s boy, John Mayrant, Jr. Years later, John Junior married Maria P. REES, a sister of Orlando Savage REES, a South Carolina Plantation owner and 1830s landowner of Florida’s Spring Garden Plantation in present day Volusia County. Catherine’s was a family rich in Florida history.

Florida’s pioneering family lines of Catherine (Willis) Murat run deep. Catherine’s father was appointed Pensacola Navy Agent, arriving in Florida Territory about the same time as the RANDOLPH family. A son, Lewis Willis, became a doctor, marrying first Harriet RANDOLPH, and second, Hester SAVAGE, as in the family of Orlando Savage Rees.

Catherine (Willis) Murat remained a prominent Tallahassee figure following the death of her husband in 1847. An 1858 Mount Vernon Ladies Association publication appointed her as Vice-Regent of the Florida Chapter, stating: “It may be interesting to know that this lady is the widow of Achilles Murat, son of the celebrated Marshal Joachim Murat, and brother-in-law of the first Emperor of France. She is also grand-niece of Washington, through the family of LEWIS.”

Mount Vernon Ladies Association rescued the original homestead of George Washington, and remains active in that cause to this very day.

“I walk along Tallahassee’s City of the Dead,” wrote traveler C. Vickerstaff Hine in 1891, writing of visiting the town’s Old City Cemetery. “At length, through the wicket-gate, I pass and am among memories of the past. Humble are many of these crumbling records. Others, obelisks of granite, tell of lives spent in marble halls, of life and social gayety. On one of these I read the inscription, “Prince Murat, King of Naples. The lofty monument to this fallen great one tells me that he lies beneath my feet. Near to this monument is another monument, a little lower than the first, as if, even in death, showing wifely submission. It is the monument that marks the last resting-place of the wife of Prince Murat, of the King of Naples, and appropriately, this monument marks the grave of a daughter of the Republic, born, as the inscription tells me, in the Old Dominion.”

Catherine (Willis) Murat resided at PARTHENOPE, the Murat Plantation in Tallahassee that she and her Prince established in 1823. Like that of the short-lived Greek colony of the same name in Prince Murat’s hometown of Naples, for which their Florida plantation had been named, Murat’s plantation too was short-lived. America’s Civil War ended the reign of Florida plantations. With the passing of her home, Catherine of Tallahassee died, and she was laid to rest in 1867, alongside her Prince.

The role of women in history is not easily found, but it’s a challenge gladly undertaken by the author of CitrusLAND books. The true-life American story, including the story of Florida, can only be told through the lineal descendants of the earliest pioneers, men and women alike. Each of twelve chapters in my CitrusLAND: Curse of Florida’s Paradise, Second Edition, begins with a dedication and brief biography of a central Florida Frontierswoman.

Telling the story of Florida through its people, CitrusLAND is described in detail at my website: www.croninbooks.com

CitrusLAND books are available at BOOKMARKIT ORLANDO bookstores; Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, and Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden, FL.

Also available at Amazon.com and the Kindle Store

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Ricks Blog resumes November 30, 2016

Part 7: Mary of Palatka