Eliza Jumel

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Eliza Jumel was a New York socialite. Born Eliza Bowen in Providence, Rhode Island to Phebe Kelley Bowen, a prostitute. Early in life Eliza Jumel worked as a prostitute herself. She would later claim to have been born on the high seas to a French naval officer and his aristocratic English wife. She kept her past a secret when she met and married the wealthy French wine merchant Stephen Jumel in 1804. Due to her low social standing, she was rejected by New York society. In 1810, they moved to what became known as the Morris-Jumel Mansion. In 1815, she traveled to Paris and became accepted as a Bonapartist sympathizer, going so far as to offer Napoleon safe passage to New York after his defeat at Waterloo, which he declined. Her opinions and actions in France proved too controversial, and in 1816, she was asked to leave the country by King Louis XVIII