In truth—’twas everything but True.

Mary Baker, Princess Caraboo of Javasu and more

The “Javasu” “alphabet” Mary Baker wrote for the people of Almondsbury (image via Wikimedia Commons)

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 sh…