Joshua Norton First Set Foot in the United States in 1846 — in Boston
Didn’t Arrive in San Francisco Until 3½ Years Later
Left Cape Town Before Either of His Parents or His Two Nearest Siblings Had Died
Joshua Norton was born on 4 February 1818.
The period from 1846 to 1848, when Joshua was between 28 and 30, was a season of death for his immediate family.
Joshua’s older brother, Louis — the eldest of the Norton siblings, having been born in June 1816 — died in May 1846 after being thrown from his horse.
His mother, Sarah Norden, died in December 1846.
His younger brother, Philip — born in March 1820 — died of enteric fever in April 1847.
His father, John Norton, died in August 1848.
Earlier U.S. biographers of Emperor Norton — Benjamin E. Lloyd in 1876; Robert Ernest Cowan in 1923; Albert Dressler in 1927 — made numerous claims that later proved false. All were circumspect, however, about the exact timing and touch points that brought Joshua Norton from Cape Town to San Francisco, saying only that Joshua Norton “came to San Francisco” (Lloyd); “finally reached San Francisco” (Cowan); or “arrived in San Francisco” (Dressler) in late 1849. (Lloyd thought it was a year or two earlier.)
But, the prevailing U.S. narrative for at least 80 years and more — a narrative advanced in the books about Emperor Norton written by Allen Stanley Lane in 1939 and William Drury in 1986 — has been as follows:
Joshua Norton did not leave Cape Town until late 1848 or early 1849 — after the death of his father in August 1848.
He sailed directly from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, arriving in Rio early to mid 1849, and from Rio to San Francisco.
He may have spent a few months in South America between his arrivals in Rio and San Francisco.
His introduction to the United States was his arrival in San Francisco in late 1849.
For some time, Norton family historians and genealogists outside the United States have known this to be untrue.
It’s time to bring Norton aficionados here in the U.S. up to speed.
Nor do I exempt The Emperor Norton Trust from this — for, we are among those who have been under the sway of the conventional wisdom and thus blinded to the facts.
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IN 1846, Joshua Norton sailed from Liverpool to Boston on the ship Sunbeam, arriving in Boston on 12 March 1846.
Here’s part of the arriving passengers list — with Joshua Norton at the top — that is at the National Archives, in Washington, D.C. This page lists 41 passengers. The following page, also at the National Archives, lists the balance of passengers on the Sunbeam, 24, for a total of 65 — a detail that shortly will prove worth knowing.
Detail from Copy of Report and List of the Passengers taken on board the Ship Sunbeam bound from the Port of Liverpool for Boston, March 1846. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Series: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1820-1891; Record Group: Records of the U.S. Customs Service; Record Group Number: 36; Series Number: M277; NARA Roll Number: 020. Source: Ancestry.com
Here’s the Norton detail from this list:
Something to notice right away is that Joshua is listed as being 28 years old in March 1846 — which lines up perfectly with his birth date in February 1818.
Also interesting: The country to which Joshua “belongs” is England, and “U. States” is the country “of which [he] intends to become inhabitant.”
Additional detail is in this disembarkation ticket:
Disembarkation ticket for Joshua Norton, Ship Sunbeam, Boston, 12 March 1846. From United States Index to Passenger Arrivals, Atlantic and Gulf Ports, 1820-1874, database with images, NARA microfilm publication M334 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration). Source: FamilySearch
Here, we see the date of Joshua’s arrival in Boston: 12 March 1846. Whereas the arrivals list has England as the “Country to which Joshua belongs,” this disembarkation ticket lists England both as Joshua’s “Nationality” and his “Last permanent Residence.”
Assuming that the personal data was self-reported, the residence info begs a few questions:
Had Joshua been in England for some time before boarding the Sunbeam in Liverpool for Boston? If so, for how long? When did he leave Cape Town, and when did he arrive in England?
Moreover: Was Joshua Norton purposely trying to shed his associations with South Africa, where most recently he is reported to have served briefly as a member of the Cape Mounted Riflemen, a cavalry unit?
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ONE FACTOR that has made it easier to wonder whether this really is “our” English Joshua Norton or some other one is, in fact, the absence in these documents of any reference to South Africa.
That loose end is tied up in the arrivals notices that appeared in a couple of Boston newspapers.
Here’s the one that appeared in the Boston Courier of 13 March 1846 — the day after the Sunbeam arrived. Note the first entry:
Passengers arrival notice, Boston Courier, 13 March 1846, p. 2. Source: Genealogy Bank
The following notice appeared the next day in the Boston Semi-Weekly Atlas:
Passengers arrival notice, Boston Semi-Weekly Atlas, 14 March 1846, p. 4. Source: Genealogy Bank
In both of these notices, Joshua Norton is listed as being “of Cape of Good Hope.”
Perhaps, in 1846, Joshua — who, in declaring himself Emperor on 17 September 1859, did identify himself as being “formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope” — wasn’t being so secretive about his background, after all.
Or, perhaps, someone responsible for reporting the Sunbeam’s passenger information knew something of Joshua’s story.
Either way, this is our man.
Also: “Joshua Norton…and 64 in the steerage” equals 65 — exactly the number of passengers indicated in the the itemized manifest.
Was Joshua in steerage with the other 64, with his appearance in the newspaper notices just a happy coincidence of his being listed first on the passenger manifest? Or was he listed first, because he really was the only non-staff passenger above steerage?
If the latter, that could be seen as a commentary on the desperate financial straits in which the vast majority of emigrants of the time found themselves. Although Joshua's father's businesses — and, earlier, Joshua's own business — had foundered, he still was "merchant class" and could have had a level of savings, well above that of the "average emigrant," that enabled him to afford a better accommodation for the crossing.
Maybe, too, he already had something lined up in Rio, so that he didn't have to worry so much about spending a little more to help ensure his comfort on the way there.
At any rate: An item about the Sunbeam’s crossing that appeared in the Boston Pilot newspaper of 14 March 1846 — two days after the ship’s arrival — clears up the question of what kind of digs Joshua had on board.
Tucked in to the end of the item is the following: “The Sunbeam brings one cabin and 64 steerage passengers.”
Based on the 65-passenger manifest and the arrivals notices in other Boston papers reporting “Joshua Norton…and 64 in the steerage,” the Pilot item tells us that the steerage was full and that Joshua bought the only available cabin.
Something else we learn in this item is that the Sunbeam departed Liverpool on February 10th.
“Two Days Later from Europe,” item with details about the crossing of the ship Sunbeam carrying Joshua Norton from Liverpool to Boston, Boston Pilot, 14 March, 1846, p.7. Source: Boston College Libraries
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DETAILS of long-haul sailing in 1846 can tell us something of when Joshua Norton might have left Cape Town.
The ship that Joshua sailed from Liverpool to Boston, the Sunbeam, was built in 1845 by the shipbuilder Paul Curtis at his yard on the Mystic River in Medford, Mass., five miles northwest of Boston. The ship originally was owned by Salem, Mass.-born Augustus Hemenway (1805–1876), one of the most prominent and wealthy industrialists and philanthropists of the day.
Listing for the Sunbeam in Hall Gleason, “Old Ships and Ship-Building Days of Medford” (serial feature), Medford Historical Register, vol. XXXII, no. 4, December 1929, p. 70. Source: Internet Archive
When Joshua sailed on the Sunbeam, it was a “packet ship” — a mail ship — at a time when there was beginning to be intense competition in this sector between then-traditional wind-powered ships and newer steam ships.
The Sunbeam was a wind ship. In 1846, the Liverpool–Boston route went via Halifax. Ships like the Sunbeam were taking 30 days, give or take, to make the trip.
This means that Joshua Norton would need to have been in Liverpool by the first week of February 1846 in order to board a wind-powered ship that was going to depart Liverpool on February 10th and reach Boston by March 12th.
It stands to reason that a ship between Cape Town and London or Liverpool could have taken at least twice as long as the 30 days between Liverpool and Boston — meaning that…
Joshua probably would need to have left Cape Town no later than November 1845 in order to meet a 10 February 1846 ship from Liverpool to Boston.
Oil painting of the ship Sunbeam of Boston, uncredited and undated. This black-and-white photograph of the painting was published in Hall Gleason’s 1936 book, Old Ships and Ship-Building Days of Medford, 1630–1873. It is the first plate following page 52, here. Source: Medford Historical Society
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SO, HERE’S a tight timeline for Joshua Norton to get from Cape Town to Boston. This assumes that Joshua was making a beeline.
Leaving Cape Town November 1845
Leaving Liverpool 10 February 1846
Arriving Boston 12 March 1846
If Joshua spent time in England, he would need to have left Cape Town earlier.
But, even on the tightest of timelines, Joshua Norton left his home of South Africa well before either of his parents or his two nearest siblings had died.
The deaths of Joshua’s family members were not the occasion for his leaving South Africa.
Nor, in late 1845, did his departure have anything to do with the California Gold Rush.
Joshua had other reasons for leaving.
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THE ANSWER to the question…
How and when did Joshua Norton get from Cape Town to San Francisco, and how long did it take him to get there?
…goes straight to the heart of another question:
With how much money did Joshua Norton arrive in San Francisco, and how did he get it?
When Joshua left Cape Town, he surely would have known the sorry state of his living father’s business and financial affairs. And, with his older brother Louis — the eldest male — also still alive, Joshua would have had no reason to think that he, Joshua, stood to gain much of anything in the event of his father’s death.
But, whatever amount Joshua was entitled to receive from his father’s insolvent “estate” — in the wake of Louis’s death, still a larger portion of something very small — Joshua wouldn’t have been able to use any estate proceeds to fund his voyage, and he would need to have left a forwarding address to receive any benefit later.
Did Joshua stay in touch with any family or any lawyer working for his father?
Based on his business practices in San Francisco, Joshua was someone with a high tolerance for risk. So, maybe he was prepared to make his way from South Africa to the Americas with little more in his pocket than money for passage and food?
The prevailing narrative in the United States — that Joshua didn't set sail from South Africa until late 1848 or early 1849, after the death of his father — has left those of us who don't believe much (if any) of Joshua’s nest egg could have come from his family scratching our heads:
If (a) the trip from Rio to San Francisco took the reported "101 days" — meaning Joshua would have to have departed Rio by mid August 1849 for a late November 1849 arrival in San Francisco — and, if (b) Joshua didn't arrive in South America until early 1849, well, that wouldn't seem to leave enough time to earn more than a fraction of the famous "$40,000."
The thing is: A Boston arrival in early 1846 would have put San Francisco 3-and-a-half years in the future, rather than just a few months — making it more believable that, if Joshua arrived in San Francisco with a significant amount of "starter capital," he could have earned most of that in the interim between Cape Town and San Francisco.
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