Early life Achille Murat was born in the
Hôtel de Brienne in Paris, France. His father was
Joachim Murat, the son of an affluent farmer and innkeeper, who became one of
Napoleon's loyal followers. Joachim Murat was appointed
Marshal of the Empire for his military service, and was later awarded royal positions by Napoleon under the
First French Empire, including the throne of the
Kingdom of Naples. Achille's mother was
Caroline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon. She was styled
Grand Duchess of Berg and Queen of Naples, while Achille was considered the
crown prince. Murat's governess was
Catherine Davies from
Anglesey in Wales. In 1841, she published a memoir describing her eleven years' service with the Murat family.
Exile in Austria and emigration to the United States After Napoleon was exiled for a second time in 1815 on
Saint Helena island in the middle of the southern Atlantic Ocean, Joachim Murat was deposed and executed by his subjects. Young Achille and his siblings were taken by their mother into exile at the
Schloss Frohsdorf, near
Vienna in
Lower Austria. When Murat turned twenty-one, he obtained permission to emigrate to the United States. In 1821 he embarked from a Spanish port bound for the United States. On arrival in New York, Murat immediately applied for naturalization. After a few months in that city he made an extensive tour through the United States, using an assumed name at first. He had a striking resemblance to his famous uncle in countenance and mannerisms. Although he had renounced all his European titles and citizenship, his wide social connections brought Murat to Washington, where he befriended
Richard K. Call, the delegate of the
Florida Territory's at-large congressional district to the
United States House of Representatives.
On the Florida frontier Call told Murat of opportunities in the new
territory of Florida, which had been acquired by the United States from Spain in 1821. In the spring of 1824, the former "Prince of Naples" settled in
St. Augustine, reputedly renting what is now called the Prince Murat House on St. George Street. Murat soon became active in St. Augustine society by joining the
Masonic lodge and dabbling in local politics. He enrolled in the local militia and was briefly a volunteer under the command of his personal friend,
Brig. Gen. Joseph Hernández. Murat purchased an extensive property of and developed it into a plantation, utilizing slave labor to grow oranges, sugar cane, cotton, and tobacco. He named it '
Parthenope', in honor of his onetime principality in
Naples, Italy, which had been founded on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Parthenope (see
History of Naples). Murat's Parthenope was located about south of St. Augustine, on the west side of the
Matanzas River, at the mouth of Moses Creek. Murat liked to go nude and made a submersible chair to escape the heat of the north Florida summers, using it to sit naked in the waters of Moses Creek with mosquito netting over his head. A neighbor observed that he was obsessed with the "...eatability of the whole animal tribe". Murat was known to have experimented with eating baked
turkey buzzard, boiled owl, roasted crow, stewed alligator, lizards and rattlesnakes. He had an aversion to baths, did not like to change his clothes, "washed his feet only after he wore out his shoes", and slept on a mattress stuffed with
Spanish moss. Around 1825, Murat bought the land he would call
Lipona Plantation, east of
Tallahassee. He lived there during the remainder of
Florida's territorial and early statehood days. The name Lipona is an anagram of "Napoli" (Naples), the kingdom where Murat once thought he would succeed his father. He purchased Lipona at the prodding of the
Marquis de Lafayette, beneficiary of the
Lafayette Land Grant of July 4, 1825, which had granted him (LaFayette) of land near what would become the city of Tallahassee. Legend tells that the Marquis' agents arranged for a group of fifty or sixty Norman French farmers to settle on the land around 1831, but there is no documentation of this taking place. Many authors have repeated claims that Murat was an elected alderman of Tallahassee in 1824, mayor in 1825, and its longest-serving postmaster (1826–1838). The public record and historical evidence do not support these assertions. This and other misinformation about Murat appeared as early as 1888 in ''
Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography'' and was repeated in an 1890s tourists' "guide book" published by the Murat estate (i.e., Bellevue Plantation) that overstated Murat's involvement in local politics; the guide book is mentioned in Bradford Torrey's 1895 book entitled
A Florida Sketch-Book, which recalls Torrey's 1893 visit to the Murat estate near Tallahassee. Torrey wrote that Catherine Murat's neighbor and another local "indisputable citizen"—a judge—refuted the Murat claims published in the tourist's guidebook. Because the original city charter for the city of Tallahassee was not in effect until December 9, 1825, and the first municipal election was not held until January 2, 1826, there was no city council in existence in 1824 or 1825; thus Murat could not have been an alderman or mayor in those years. Federal records show
Isham G. Searcy as the federally appointed postmaster of Tallahassee for the period claimed in the Murat estate guide-book. Murat met
Catherine Daingerfield Willis Gray in 1826 and married her on July 12 of that year at
Tallahassee, Florida. They did not have any children. Gray was the great-grandniece of
George Washington. Murat's political sympathies seem to have been
Jacksonian throughout his time in Florida. At a political rally in 1826, he called one of the candidates, his neighbor David Betton Macomb, a "turncoat"; Macomb had led a toast to Kentucky statesman
Henry Clay on at least one occasion that summer (an alternative version of the story has Macomb upset that Murat's slaves were stealing his hogs). Macomb and Murat met at a local dueling ground near Hiamones Lake. Murat's shot went through Macomb's shirt without touching flesh, and Macomb's took off half of the little finger of Murat's right hand.
Friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson In the winter of 1826, during one of his periodic visits to St. Augustine, Murat met the American writer
Ralph Waldo Emerson. The two became close friends and enjoyed discussing topics of the day as well as politics, society, and history. Of Murat, Emerson wrote: :A new event is added to the quiet history of my life. I have connected myself by friendship to a man ... with as ardent a love of truth as that which animates me, with a mind that surpasses mine in the variety of its research, & sharpened & strengthened to an energy for action to which I have no pretension by advantages of birth & practical connection with mankind beyond almost all men in the world. Like his contemporary,
Alexis de Tocqueville, Murat was one of the first notable essayists on culture and mores in the new republic of the United States. During his residence at his plantation near St. Augustine, Murat began to write his observations on American politics and his daily life in Florida in fluent French, Italian and English. He wrote on slavery, economics, and literature as well, but his books never caught on with the public. Murat was a staunch defender of slavery although he professed to fight for human liberty.
To Europe and back Following the
July Revolution of 1830 in France, Murat returned to Europe, where he was assigned to the command of a regiment of the
Belgian Legion. While in
Belgium and France, he hoped to regain some part of the family fortune, based on the properties of his parents. His attempts were futile, and in 1834 the Murats returned to the Tallahassee area. In 1835, Murat and his wife moved to Louisiana, where he had purchased a
sugarcane plantation outside New Orleans and a town house in the city. The couple lived there for several years while he practiced law without much success. After their return to Florida, Murat mortgaged the Lipona property to the
Tallahassee Union Bank. He lost it in 1839 when he could no longer meet his financial obligations as a result of the delayed effects of the financial
recession of 1837. He and his wife were forced to move to a smaller plantation they named
Econchatti, in present-day
Jefferson County, Florida. Murat died there in 1847, and was buried in the
St. John's Episcopal Church cemetery in Tallahassee. Murat's maternal first cousin, Emperor
Napoleon III of France, provided his widow with a cash sum of $40,000 and an annual stipend so that she could live the life to which she had become accustomed. She proved to be a better handler of money than her husband had been, and purchased the
Bellevue Plantation in 1854. ==Ancestry==