Princess Caraboo
Created | Updated Sep 13, 2002
On April 3rd, 1817 an odd woman dressed in an oriental style with a black turban was found wondering the streets of Almundsbury in Gloustershire. She could not speak English but could only communicate through gestures and a language that no-one could identify. It was just after the defeat of Napoleon and the government was still worried about infiltration from foreign agents trying to stir up rebellion.
This did not stop Mrs. Worrall from showing the strange woman hospitality, and try to discover more about her origin. Eventually a Portuguese sailor who had spent some time in the Indian Ocean helped to translate the Princesses strange language.
The sailor informed Mrs. Worrall that the Princess came from the Island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean, but that pirates had kidnapped her. After a lengthy journey she had finally managed to escape from her captives and swam ashore to England.
At this stage Mr. Worrall became interested in his wife's strange guest and informed the press that he had foreign royalty at his home. It soon became fashionable to seek audience with her. And so Princess Caraboo spent her days mixing with England's upper class, praying to her God Alla Tallah and swimming naked. She was everything that it was believed a foreign princess should be; beautiful, mysterious and exotic.
Eventually another wealthy woman called Mrs. Neale ended the fantasy when she proved that Princess Caraboo was in fact Mary Baker, a recent employee who had entertained the children with a strange nonsense language.
But Princess Caraboo's popularity did not end immediately, like Napoleon she became an example of someone who had gotten into high society not through family ties but through her own efforts.
She managed to get enough money from those who she had stayed with to leave England and sail to Philadelphia. Before she had reached there a newspaper reported that she had landed on Saint Helena where Napoleon was exiled. According to the story he had asked her for her hand in marriage but the Princess had reluctantly turned him down. This story is probably false.
After seven years in America Mary returned to England, where she eventually found work selling leeches outside Bristol's Hospital. She died on January 4th 1865 and was buried in an anonymous grave. Her story was eventually retold in the 1994 movie 'Princess Caraboo.'
Mary Wilcox was born in 1791 to Thomas and Mary Wilcox, in Witheridge, Devonshire. She was actually brought up not by a king and queen but by cobblers.
This did not stop Mrs. Worrall from showing the strange woman hospitality, and try to discover more about her origin. Eventually a Portuguese sailor who had spent some time in the Indian Ocean helped to translate the Princesses strange language.
The sailor informed Mrs. Worrall that the Princess came from the Island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean, but that pirates had kidnapped her. After a lengthy journey she had finally managed to escape from her captives and swam ashore to England.
At this stage Mr. Worrall became interested in his wife's strange guest and informed the press that he had foreign royalty at his home. It soon became fashionable to seek audience with her. And so Princess Caraboo spent her days mixing with England's upper class, praying to her God Alla Tallah and swimming naked. She was everything that it was believed a foreign princess should be; beautiful, mysterious and exotic.
Eventually another wealthy woman called Mrs. Neale ended the fantasy when she proved that Princess Caraboo was in fact Mary Baker, a recent employee who had entertained the children with a strange nonsense language.
But Princess Caraboo's popularity did not end immediately, like Napoleon she became an example of someone who had gotten into high society not through family ties but through her own efforts.
She managed to get enough money from those who she had stayed with to leave England and sail to Philadelphia. Before she had reached there a newspaper reported that she had landed on Saint Helena where Napoleon was exiled. According to the story he had asked her for her hand in marriage but the Princess had reluctantly turned him down. This story is probably false.
After seven years in America Mary returned to England, where she eventually found work selling leeches outside Bristol's Hospital. She died on January 4th 1865 and was buried in an anonymous grave. Her story was eventually retold in the 1994 movie 'Princess Caraboo.'
Mary Wilcox was born in 1791 to Thomas and Mary Wilcox, in Witheridge, Devonshire. She was actually brought up not by a king and queen but by cobblers.
