Princess Caraboo arrives in Almondsbury

APR 03 1817

On 3 April 1817 a young woman speaking an unknown language appeared in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, and via a Portuguese sailor's 'translation' was identified as Princess Caraboo of Javasu, captured by pirates and escaped by swimming ashore. She was taken in by local gentry for ten weeks. A boarding-house keeper recognised her from a newspaper picture: she was Mary Willcocks, a cobbler's daughter from Witheridge, Devon, who had invented her language from imaginary and Romani words. She sailed for Philadelphia on 28 June 1817 and later sold leeches to hospitals in Bristol.