Impostor.- [Gutch (John Matthew)] Caraboo. A Narrative of a Singular Imposition Practiced...By a young Woman of the name of Mary Willcocks...alias Caraboo, Princess of Javasu, first edition, half-title, engraved portrait frontispiece by N. Branwhite, folding plate after E. Bird, half-title, portrait and title with lower outer corner repaired, some spotting, including to plates, soiling to half-title and final f. verso, 19th century half morocco, quite worn, Bristol & London, 1817 § Bates (Walter) Companion for Caraboo. A Narrative of the Conduct and Adventures of Henry Frederic Moon...Now Under Sentence of Imprisonment, in Connecticut...With an Introductory Description of New Brunswick..., second edition, portrait frontispiece, ownership name of Hubert G. Norman to front free endpaper, small ink shelfmark to head of title, occasional spotting or light soiling, some very light browning, some creasing and small nicks to leaf edges, modern cloth, original upper wrapper bound in, Allman and Co., 1817, light offsetting, uncut, 8vo (2)

⁂ Both scarce. The first mentioned is the account of an elaborate hoax in early 1817, in which a young woman arrived at Almondsbury in Gloucestershire claiming to be Caraboo, a princess of Javasu in the Indian Ocean who had been captured by pirates. The local newspapers of Bath and Bristol gave her increasing attention, but after about ten weeks she was exposed as Mary Wilcocks, daughter of shoemaker Thomas Wilcocks of Witheridge, Devon.


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