A sketch of Princess Caraboo, by Edward Bird.

Princess Caraboo (1791 - January 4, 1865), a noted impostor, pretended to be from a faraway island and fooled a British town for some time. Princess Caraboo A sketch of Princess Caraboo, by Edward Bird. ... 1791 (MDCCXCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... An impostor (or imposter, a common variant) is a person who pretends to be somebody else. ... Main street in Bastrop, Texas, a small town A town is a residential community of people ranging from a few hundred to several thousands, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas. ...

On April 3, 1817, a cobbler in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England, met an apparently disoriented young woman with exotic clothes who was speaking a language no one could understand. The cobbler's wife took her to the Overseer of the Poor who left her in the hands of the local county magistrate Samuel Worrall who lived in Knole Park. When he and his wife could not understand her either, they sent her to the local inn, where she insisted on eating a pineapple and sleeping on the floor. Later Mrs. Worrall let her stay at her family's mansion. April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Almondsbury is a small town near junction 16 of the M5, in South Gloucestershire. ... Gloucestershire (pronounced ; GLOSS-ter-sher) is a county in South West England. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... A magistrate is a judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. ... Knole House in 1880. ...

All they could immediately find out was that she called herself Caraboo and that she was interested in Chinese imagery. They sent her to the mayor of Bristol who ended up sending her to St. Peter's Hospital. There she declined all meat. A week later, Mrs. Worrall brought her to her husband's offices in Bristol. Bristol is a unitary authority with city and ceremonial county status in South West England. ...

Locals brought many foreigners who tried to find out what strange language the lady was talking, but apparently in vain. Then came a Portuguese sailor named Manuel Eynesso (or Enes) who said he knew the language and translated her story.

According to Eynesso, she was Princess Caraboo from the island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean. She had been captured by pirates and after a long voyage she had jumped overboard in the Bristol Channel and swum ashore. Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The location of the Bristol Channel The Severn Bridge and Bristol Channel, looking northwestward from England towards Wales The Bristol Channel coast at Ilfracombe, North Devon, looking west towards Lee Bay The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from South West...

The Worralls brought Caraboo back to their home. For the next ten weeks, this representative of exotic royalty was a favourite of the local dignitaries. She used a bow and arrow, fenced, swam naked and prayed to God, whom she termed Allah Tallah. She acquired exotic clothing and a portrait made of her was reproduced in local newspapers. A certain Mrs. Neale recognised her from the picture in the Bristol Journal and informed her hosts. Russian Ivan Tourchine and American Weston Kelsey fence in the second round of the Olympic Mens Individual Épée event at the Helliniko Fencing Hall on Aug. ...

Eventually the truth came out. The would-be princess was actually a cobbler's daughter, Mary Baker (née Wilcocks) from Witheridge, Devon. She had been a servant girl in various places all over England but had not found a place to stay. She had invented a fictitious language out of imaginary and gypsy words and created an exotic character. The British press had a field day at the expense of the duped rustic middle-class. The inner harbour, Brixham, south Devon, at low tide Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ...

Her hosts arranged for her to leave for Philadelphia and she departed June 28, 1817. In the USA, she briefly continued her role, but lost contact with the Worralls after couple of months. Nickname: City of Brotherly Love Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Official website: http://www. ... (Some entries on this page have been duplicated on August 1. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

There was a contemporary legend that she had visited Napoleon in the island of Saint Helena but that is probably untrue. For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ...

In 1821, she had returned to Britain but her act was no longer very successful. She briefly traveled to France and Spain in her guise but soon returned to England and re-married. In September 1828, she was living in Bedminster with the name Mary Burgess and gave birth to a daughter the next year. In 1839, she was selling leeches to the Bristol Infirmary Hospital. She died on January 4, 1865 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Hebron Road cemetery in Bristol. 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Bedminster is an area of Bristol to the south of the city centre; once a small town in Somerset. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Orders Arhynchobdellidaor Rhynchobdellida There is some dispute as to whether Hirudinea should be a class itself, or a subclass of the Clitellata. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ...

The hoax was the basis of the 1994 movie Princess Caraboo, written by John Wells, which added some fictional incidents to the true story. A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Princess Caraboo is a 1994 film, directed by Michael Austin, based on the real-life 19th-century character Princess Caraboo, who passed herself off in British society as an exotic princess who spoke a strange foreign language. ... John Wells (November 17, 1936 - January 11, 1998) was a British actor, writer and satirist. ...

External links

• John Matthew Gutch. Caraboo: A Narrative of a Singular Imposition, at http://www.resologist.net/carabooa.htm
• Mary Willcocks & the Princess Caraboo Hoax: Comprehensive article on the Mysterious People website

Books

• John Wells. Princess Caraboo: her true story (1994), ISBN 0330336304