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Joshua Abraham Norton ( 1818〔There are a number of different claims regarding Norton's date of birth. Norton's obituary by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' put him at 65 years old at the time of his death, which would suggest that he was born in 1814. But William Drury notes in his 1986 biography, ''Norton I: Emperor of the United States'', that the ''Chronicle's'' report − a reference to the inscription mounted to Norton's casket − was based on a guess by his landlady. Many sources follow Robert Ernest Cowan's 1923 account and Norton's 1934 tombstone in pinpointing Norton's birth as being sometime in 1819; Cowan specified 4 February 1819. But later biographers − Allen Stanley Lane, in his 1939 biography, ''Emperor Norton: The Mad Monarch of America'', and Drury − settle on 1818. Drury cites South African immigration records in which Norton's father, John, said that Norton was two years old when the family arrived South Africa on May 2, 1820. These records would put Norton's birth somewhere between mid 1817 and early 1818. In December 2014, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign reported on the rediscovery of an item in the 4 February 1865 issue of The Daily Alta California points to a birth date of 4 February 1818. The Campaign also showed that, in his 1923 account, Cowan doctored the original text of the ''Alta'' item to back his claim of 4 February 1819.〕 – January 8, 1880), known as Emperor Norton, was a citizen of San Francisco, California who in 1859 proclaimed himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States" and subsequently "Protector of Mexico". Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 (inflation adjusted to $ million in US Dollars) from his father's estate, arriving aboard the steam yacht ''Hurlothrumbo''. Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice. After losing a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, Norton became a less and less public figure. He reemerged in September 1859, laying claim to the position of Emperor of the United States. Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented. Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, and a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay. Similar structures were built long after his death in the form of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube, and there have been campaigns to rename the bridge "The Emperor Norton Bridge". On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at a street corner and died before he could be given medical treatment. At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, and Neil Gaiman. ==Early life== Genealogical and other research indicates that Norton's parents were John Norton (d. August 1848) and Sarah Norden, English Jews — John, a farmer and merchant; Sarah, a daughter of Abraham Norden and a sister of Benjamin Norden, a successful Jewish merchant — who moved the family to South Africa in early 1820 as part of a government-backed colonization scheme whose participants came to be known as the 1820 Settlers.〔("Joshua Abraham Norton" ) at 1820Settlers.com.〕〔William Drury, ''Norton I: Emperor of the United States'' (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), pp.10-15.〕 Most likely, Norton was born in the Kentish town of Deptford, England, which is part of present-day London.〔〔William Drury, ''Norton I: Emperor of the United States'' (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), p.14.〕 Pinning down Norton's exact date of birth has proved difficult. His obituary in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', "following the best information obtainable," cited the silver plate on his coffin which said he was "aged about 65," suggesting that 1814 could be the year of his birth. But Norton's biographer, William Drury, points out that "about 65" was based on nothing more than the guess that Norton's landlady offered to the coroner at the inquest following his death.〔William Drury, ''Norton I: Emperor of the United States'' (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), p.10. "The age on the coffin lid, however, was merely a guess. At the inquest, Eva Hutchinson, the landlady of Eureka Lodgings, the cheap hotel that was the Emperor's home for seventeen years, had testified that to the best of her belief he was 'a Jew of London birth.' And his age? Oh, about sixty-five. The coroner, lacking a birth certificate or any other material evidence, had simply accepted her word. And so the plate on his casket had been inscribed: JOSHUA A. NORTON DIED JANUARY 8, 1880 AGED 65 YEARS."〕 In a 1923 essay published by the California Historical Society, Robert Ernest Cowan claimed that Norton was born on February 4, 1819. However, the passenger lists for the Belle Alliance, the ship that carried Norton and his family from England to South Africa, indicate he was two years old when the ship set sail in February 1820.〔("1820 Settler Party: Willson" ) at 1820Settlers.com. This page contains information about the passage of the ship La Belle Alliance that carried young Joshua and his family from London to South Africa from February to May 1820, including the London passenger list showing Joshua to have been 2 years old at the time of his boarding.〕 The February 4, 1865, edition of the Daily Alta California newspaper included an item in which the ''Alta'' wished Emperor Norton a happy 47th birthday, indicating that his birth date was February 4, 1818 (not 1819, as Cowan claimed) — a date that would line up with the Belle Alliance passenger listing from two years later.〔The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, ("Homing in on the Birth Date?" ) December 2, 2014. Reports on Joseph Amster's discovery of an item in the February 4, 1865, edition of The Daily Alta California, in which the ''Alta'' wrote: "HIS MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY.—His Imperial Majesty Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Mexico, commences his forty-eighth year Saturday, February 4th, 1865."〕〔("Norton, Joshua Abraham – newspaper cutting" ) at 1820Settlers.com.〕〔("Joshua Abraham Norton, b. 4 February 1818," ) The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, 8 February 2015.〕 Moreover, it has been shown that Robert Ernest Cowan appears to have falsified the 1865 ''Alta'' item to advance his claim of an 1819 birth date〔 and that persistent online claims for an 1819 birth date, which can be traced to the early years of the Internet, are of doubtful provenance.〔("Zpub, Emperor Norton Records & the Emperor's Birth Date: A Case Study in Good Intentions & Undue Influence," ) The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, 16 February 2015.〕 Norton emigrated from South Africa to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father's estate.〔 He enjoyed a good deal of success in the real estate market, and by the early 1850s had accumulated a fortune of $250,000.〔〔 Norton thought he saw a business opportunity when China, facing a severe famine, placed a ban on the export of rice, causing the price of rice in San Francisco to skyrocket from four to thirty-six cents per pound (9 to 79 cents/kg).〔 When he heard the ''Glyde'', which was returning from Peru, was carrying of rice, he bought the entire shipment for $25,000 (or twelve and a half cents per pound), hoping to corner the market.〔 Shortly after he signed the contract, several other shiploads of rice arrived from Peru, causing the price of rice to plummet to three cents a pound.〔 Norton tried to void the contract, stating the dealer had misled him as to the quality of rice to expect.〔 From 1853 to 1857, Norton and the rice dealers were involved in a protracted litigation. Although Norton prevailed in the lower courts, the case reached the Supreme Court of California, which ruled against Norton.〔''Ruiz v. Norton'', 4 Cal. 355 (1854).〕 Later, the Lucas Turner and Company Bank foreclosed on his real estate holdings in North Beach to pay Norton's debt.〔 He filed for bankruptcy and by 1858 was living in reduced circumstances at a working class boarding house.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Emperor Norton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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