London - The family of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of France's greatest rulers, may have come from a tiny Scottish village, according to new research published yesterday.
Evidence that Napoleon's grandfather came from Balloch, near the Scottish town of Crieff in Perthshire, has been uncovered by a local historian, Mr Robert Torrens. He found an account in a book published more than a century ago of how a labourer named William Bayne left Balloch shortly after the collapse of the Jacobite uprising of 1745. He and his family were shipwrecked in a storm and landed in Corsica, where they were hospitably received, according to Mr Torrens. "They were known as Bayne, or Buon, and his party," he told the Daily Telegraph. "In course of time, his sons were called Buon-departy.
"His grandson was named Buon-de-party and now figures in history as the great Napoleon," Mr Torrens said.