[3] On 3 April 1817, a cobbler in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England, met an apparently disoriented young woman wearing exotic clothes who was speaking an incomprehensible language.

The cobbler's wife took this stranger to the Overseer of the Poor, who placed her in the hands of the local county magistrate, Samuel Worrall, who lived in Knole Park on the estate where Tower House is located.

Her authenticity was attested to by a Dr. Wilkinson, who identified her language using Edmund Fry's Pantographia (an encyclopedia of known alphabets and scripts) and stated that marks on the back of her head were the work of oriental surgeons.

On 13 September 1817 a letter was printed in the Bristol Journal, allegedly from Sir Hudson Lowe, the official in charge of the exiled Emperor Napoleon on St Helena.

It claimed that after the Philadelphia-bound ship bearing the beautiful Caraboo had been driven close to the island by a tempest, the intrepid princess impulsively cut herself adrift in a small boat, rowed ashore and so fascinated the emperor that he was applying to the Pope for a dispensation to marry her.

[7] In the United States, she briefly continued her role, appearing on-stage at the Washington Hall, Philadelphia, as "Princess Caraboo", with little success.

[9][10] A biopic, Princess Caraboo, written by Michael Austin and John Wells and starring Phoebe Cates, was released to mixed reviews in 1994.

[citation needed] Princess Caraboo, a full stage musical, opened on 30 March 2016 at London's Finborough Theatre, with a book and lyrics written by Phil Willmott and composed by Mark Collins.

The limited-run production opened to positive reviews and earned the Best New Musical and Best Lighting Design nominations at the Off West End Theatre Awards.