Birthplace of Catherine Willis

Catherine "Kate" Daingerfield Willis arrived in 1803, the great-grandniece of George Washington, or, as one newspaper put it, "about as close to royalty as America would allow.” By the time she left 64 years later, she was an accepted member of the French court - a real, live princess. The intervening years brought misfortunes, adventures, and the saving of her great, great uncle's famed home.

Patsy Lee was born enslaved. The closest we have to a birth year is that she was “about 6” in 1825 when she was brought to Tallahassee, Florida. She would be raised to be Kate's made, a duty she performed faithfully until Kate's 1867 death. Her bequest for a lifetime of service was 20 acres of land, a cabin, $100, and a number of royal relics. Patsy would live until the early 1910s, into her 80s or 90s, remaining on the land Kate gave her off Jackson Bluff Rd for the rest of her long life.

Catherine Daingerfield Willis was born August 17, 1803, near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and grew up here at her family’s home on Willis Hill. Her father was Colonel Byrd C. Willis, and her mother was Mary Lewis. She could trace her lineage, on her mother’s side, to George Washington’s sister Betty, making her the great-grandniece of the father of our country and “as close to royalty as America would allow.”

In her late teens, she married a man named Atcheson Gray of nearby Traveller’s Rest. Within a year, however, Atcheson had died. His child, born after his death, did not survive infancy. Following this tragic turn of events, Catherine returned to her father’s home in 1822, and rejoined society not long after. This led to rumors around Fredericksburg that she hadn’t properly mourned her deceased husband.

Col. Byrd Willis was jovial and charming, though a self-admittedly bad money manager. When the house burned at Willis Hill in 1825, he sold the land and decided to head for Florida with his family on the advice of a friend.  

The Willises took with them an unknown number of enslaved people of African descent. Among that number was a six-year-old Patsy. She would belong to Catherine until Emancipation. Even as young as she was, Patsy would have been expected to help around the house and the farm, doing what job she could such as gathering eggs, feeding animals, and carrying water.

“Willis Hill during the Civil War.” National Parks Service. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/willis.htm. 

Hanna, A. J. A Prince In Their Midst: The Adventurous Life of Achille Murat on the American Frontier. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946. 

McConnell, Matilda L. “Interesting Incidents in Life of Prince Murat.” The Tallahassee Democrat. June 8, 1922. 

Ball, Willis M. “Reminisces of Murat.” Detroit Free Press, March 29, 1891. 

“Sketch of the Life of La Princess Achille Murat of Florida.” Harrisburg Telegraph. July 6, 1867.