Art / News
Princess Caraboo is latest sculpture by Getting Up To Stuff
The latest sculpture from mysterious artist Getting Up To Stuff is of one of the most intriguing people to ever call Bristol home.
Princess Caraboo was found wandering around the village of Almondsbury in 1817. After being taken to Bristol, it transpired that she was from Javasu, an island in the Indian Ocean.
She had been been kidnapped from her home by pirates, held captive on board their ship, escaped by jumping overboard in the Bristol Channel and swum ashore.
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Princess Caraboo became something of a celebrity. There was even a ball in Bath held in her honour.
But her ruse unravelled when a landlady of a boarding house in Bristol recognised the description of her in a newspaper and revealed that she had provided her with lodgings some six months earlier.
It transpired that the self-styled princess was in fact Mary Willcocks from Witheridge in Devon, the daughter of a cobbler.
She later stayed in the USA for seven years before returning to England and settling in Bedminster, where she sold leeches.
When she died in 1864 at the age of 75, she was buried in an unmarked grave in Hebron burial ground, which is where Getting Up To Stuff has placed his latest sculpture.
Getting Up To Stuff’s sculpture of Princess Caraboo is in Hebron burial ground in Bedminster
Princess Caraboo was recently named by Time magazine as one of the ten greatest imposters of all time.
“I love her story,” Getting Up To Stuff told Bristol24/7.
“A young woman, abandoned by her husband, suffering the loss of her child who gets apprehended as a vagrant and finds herself turned into a high society exotic fantasy by the wealthy and gullible. That takes some chops.”
All photos & video: Martin Booth
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Listen to Getting Up To Stuff on episode 14 of the Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
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