From a servant girl to a Princess, using fraud
If the title you just read suggests a fairy tale, and you are expecting to read one, you should stop reading right now. Still if you want to read a very interesting scam story about a cobbler’s daughter who managed to fool the nation, you are in the right place.
Story about Princess Caraboo
On Thursday April 3, 1817, a strange woman appeared in Almondsbury, a small town near Bristol in Gloucestershire, England. A cobbler in England met an apparently disoriented young woman with exotic clothes who was speaking a language no one could understand. Because she appeared to have been wandering the countryside alone, either lost or destitute, she was sent to see the Overseer of the Poor, who, in turn, sent her to Knole Park, home of Samuel Worrall, the Magistrate of the County. It was a dangerous time in England to be a homeless foreigner wandering the countryside. The British had recently defeated Napoleon and sent him into exile on the island of St. Helena, but the British authorities were still worried that foreign agents might be present in the country gathering information or trying to foment revolt. Anyone found guilty of disturbing the peace was in danger of being shipped to Australia or even executed. However, because the girl was very pretty, gracious and her hands were soft, not those of a laborer, the Worralls found her very interesting, and they tried really hard to help her and discover who she really is. This was very difficult, since she spoke a language they have never heard before. The girl soon began to collect the sympathies of the locals, and they brought many foreigners who tried to find out what strange language the lady was talking, until a Portuguese sailor “translated” her story: she was Princess Caraboo from the island of Javasu in the Indian Ocean. She had been captured by pirates, then jumped overboard in the Bristol Channel and swam ashore. Carboo being royalty meant a great deal for Worralls and they immediately announced her presence at their house to the newspapers, and soon all of England knew about Princess Caraboo. Few coming weeks were real easy street for princess Caraboo, she lived in a grand style, spending her days dancing, fencing, climbing trees, praying to her god 'Alla Tallah,' entertaining the numerous visitors who came to see her, and swimming naked in the lake when she was alone. She acquired exotic clothing and a portrait made of her was reproduced in local newspapers and this exotic royalty became favorite with the locals.
The truth always comes out
Exotic or not, the portrait of Caraboo, published in the Bath Chronicle daily paper, was the thing that brought the end to her royal living. A woman called Mrs. Neale recognized Caraboo, and revealed that Caraboo had recently been employed as a servant at her house, where she had entertained the children by speaking a strange, nonsense language of her own creation, and that her true name was Mary Baker, daughter of a cobbler in Witheridge, Devonshire. Caraboo reluctantly admitted that she was a fraud. Caraboo has actually 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. Things got even more bizarre when it was discovered that she was actually the cobbler’s daughter. Princess’s Caraboo reign lasted very shortly, but years after her story was the basis of the 1994 movie "Princess Caraboo", written by John Wells.
