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For 10 weeks in 1817, Mary Baker lived as a princess: Princess Caraboo of Javasu.
She arrived in Almondsbury, a village in the South of England, wearing a turban and dressed in “Asiatic costume.” Every word she spoke befuddled the townspeople, and when she tried to put pen to paper, her alphabet made no sense to them. She called herself “Caraboo,” but beyond that, she remained a mystery.
Amazingly— “amazingly”— a Portuguese sailor then came to town and somehow — ”somehow” — could translate the princess’s story. He said she had endured quite the harrowing journey since leaving her native island of Javasu. Pirates descended upon her castle, kidnapped Princess Caraboo and sailed her around the world. Upon reaching the Bristol Channel, the princess spied a chance for escape and flung herself overboard. According to this sailor, she swam all the way to shore, where she then arrived in Almondsbury.
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The local county magistrate and his wife welcomed Princess Caraboo into their home. She became something of a local celebrity, demonstrating all sorts of supposedly Javasuvian customs, like fencing in the town square, swimming naked in the lake and climbing trees to pray to her god “Allah-Tallah.”
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But once the local papers printed a story about the curious case of Princess Caraboo, Mary’s ruse came tumbling down. A boardinghouse keeper recognized the face of her runaway servant. As the daughter of a Devonshire cobbler, she’d previously been known for her love of drama (unsurprising).
But even unmasked, the princess’s fame lived on. People delighted in the success of Mary’s stunt. As one poet wrote in the Bristol Mercury:
I admir’d thy Caraboo.
Such self-possession at command,
The bye-play great—th’ illusion grand:
In truth—’twas everything but True.
By the summer of 1817, Mary Baker crossed the Atlantic to take her show to America. People paid to visit with her and watch her “performance” in real-life. When she returned to England in 1824, however, her royal career was losing steam. So she hung up the turban and settled down; perhaps fittingly, she spent the next 40 years importing leeches and selling them to the local hospital.
More from me:
I wrote about the power of peer mentors for Slate. If you know me, you know this is something so important to me and my work!
ICYMI: I spent months talking to incarcerated people about prison libraries and book censors. Then I wrote this story about it for Esquire.
I’m rereading the Dear America series as an adult. Follow long on TikTok!
More grafs on grift:
The Distinctly American Ethos of the Grifter, The New York Times
The English Servant Girl Who Pretended to be an Exotic Princess, Atlas Obscura
Princess Caraboo: Imposter from Javasu, Stuff You Missed in History Class
If you haven’t read the Ripley series from Patricia Highsmith — I can’t recommend enough! Fast-paced, juicy and also quite tender at times. Perfect summer reading books, in my opinion.
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Gotta love the historic scammers.
(I'm not enamored of current-day scammers.)
Why not be a queen? We invent and re-invent ourselves every time we interact with the world. RuPaul said we're born and the rest is drag, and it's true. You choose the costume for the part you are playing - and in some cases the costume is chosen for you. Conform or rebel? I was/am as rebellious as I can get away with. I preferred audacious fashion choices in Leave It To Beaver land. What drag will I put on today? Trinity from The Matrix? Goth Coastal Grandma? High-End Restaurant Hostess?
Curious as to the various identities the rest of the Conflab assumes through costumes in their lives!
How about YOU?