I have had a special interest in the PRINCESS CARABOO HOAX of 1817 ever since I found that MARY WILCOCKS who carried out the deception featured in my family tree.
The story of the hoax is briefly described below.
In the Spring of 1817, a young woman arrived in a distressed state, dressed in strange attire of oriental fashion, at Almondsbury in Gloucestershire speaking in a language which the villagers could not understand. She was taken in by the kindly wife of a local dignitary and became a centre of attraction.
Learned gentlemen, came to see her, bringing with them anyone they thought might be able to understand her strange language. A gentleman who had made several voyages to the Indies claimed to have extracted from her signs, gestures and articulation that she was CARABOO, a princess of Javasu in the Indian Ocean who had been carried off by pirates by whom she had been sold to the captain of a brig. After long voyages, being near land, she had jumped overboard and swam ashore following which she had wandered for six weeks before finding herself at Almondsbury.
For ten weeks, CARABOO held court with fashionable people seeking audience. The Bath and Bristol papers gave her increasing attention which eventually led to her undoing. She was exposed as MARY WILCOCKS, the daughter of shoemaker THOMAS WILCOCKS and MARY BURGESS of Witheridge, Devon. She was also known as MARY BAKER, the name of her supposed first husband.
MARY was then given “an offer she could not refuse” to take a passage procured for her by her recent hosts on a boat sailing for Philadephia and in order to escape further attention the passage was booked in her mother’s maiden name of BURGESS.
The full story was detailed by J M Gutch, the editor of a Bristol paper, in his “CARABOO - a narrative of a singular imposition” (pub 1817 by Baldwin, Cradock and Joy of London). There were many subsequent accounts published over the years based on the Gutch book but incorporating little further research.
In 1994, a film “PRINCESS CARABOO” was made in England by an American company and shown in America, the United Kingdom and Australia. This film concentrated on the three months of the hoax and the facts were changed in several respects, particularly the ending, to make a better story for the screen.
However about the same time, the late John Wells, actor, writer and director who both appeared in and co-scripted the film and who was very interested in the full story, decided to write a detailed book including what could be found about her early and later life. He carried out a lot of research and hearing that I had done likewise contacted me. He borrowed my files and we found that my work complemented his and filled lots of gaps. We subsequently did further research jointly. His book “PRINCESS CARABOO - her true story” was published as a paperback by Macmillan Pan (1994).
There are still periods of her life not covered and I am continuing research. In particular, there is a gap from November 1817 when she was in New York (where she had gone from Philadelphia) to the date of her leaving America.
This latter date, had always been understood to have been in 1824. However, a report in a Bristol newspaper has been found which suggests that her return might have been in 1821. The late 1820s are understood to have been spent travelling in the South of France and in Northern Spain.
The trail is picked up again in September 1828 at Bedminster where it is believed she was the MARY BURGESS sic) who married RICHARD BAKER. It is not known whether this was the same BAKER to whom she was previously supposed to have been married.
As evidenced by census and rating returns, MARY was certainly living at Bedminster until her death in 1864 . From about 1839, she was selling leeches to the Bristol Infirmary.
I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone who can give me any leads for further research for the period from November 1817 onwards in respect of her time in America, France, Spain or back in England.
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