Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880), commonly known as Emperor Norton, was a resident of San Francisco, California, who declared himself Emperor of the United States in 1859 and Protector of Mexico in 1866, roles that he maintained until his death in 1880. Norton's notable acts include proposing the construction of what opened as the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936.
Born in England and raised in South Africa, Norton left Cape Town in late 1845, sailing from Liverpool to Boston in early 1846 and eventually arriving in San Francisco in late 1849. After a brief period of prosperity, Norton made a business gambit in late 1852 that played out poorly, ultimately forcing him to declare bankruptcy in 1856.
Norton proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States." He justified his reign by citing a need for political stability shortly before the American Civil War (1861-1865). Norton took the secondary title "Protector of Mexico" in 1866 as a sign of his opposition towards the French intervention in Mexico (1863-1867).
Norton had no formal political power yet acted as emperor for the rest of his life, and was treated deferentially in San Francisco and elsewhere in California. He issued currency in his name that was honored in some of the establishments he frequented. San Francisco merchants capitalized on Norton's notoriety by selling souvenirs bearing his image. Norton received free ferry and train passage and a variety of favors, such as help with rent and free meals, from well-placed friends and sympathizers. Some considered Norton to be insane or eccentric, but residents of San Francisco and the city's larger Northern California orbit enjoyed his imperial presence and took note of his frequent newspaper proclamations.
Norton was the basis for characters created by Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Morris and René Goscinny, Selma Lagerlöf, Neil Gaiman, Mircea Cărtărescu, and Charles Bukowski. Norton and his proposal for the Bay Bridge were featured on an episode of Bonanza.
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Early life
Norton's parents were John Norton (1794–1848) and Sarah Norden (1796–1846), who were English Jews. John was a farmer and merchant, and Sarah was a daughter of Abraham Norden and a sister of Benjamin Norden, a successful merchant. The family lived in the Kentish town of Deptford, England — today part of London — before moving to South Africa in early 1820 as part of a government-backed colonial scheme whose participants came to be known as the 1820 Settlers.
There is not a birth record for Norton, but he was most likely born in Deptford. A substantial body of evidence points to February 4, 1818 as his birth date.
Obituaries published in 1880, following Norton's death, offered conflicting information about his date of birth. The second of two obituaries 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 1815 was the year of his birth. Norton's biographer, William Drury, points out that "about 65" was based solely on the guess that Norton's landlady offered to the coroner at the inquest following his death. 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 La Belle Alliance, the ship that carried Norton and his family from England to South Africa, list him as having been two years old when the ship set sail in February 1820.
Raised and educated in Grahamstown, Joshua Norton moved to Port Elizabeth in 1839. Here, with money from his father, Norton went into business with his brother-in-law, Henry Benjamin Kisch. The business failed after 18 months, and Norton was employed as an auctioneer in Port Elizabeth as late as 1843. Sometime in 1843 or 1844, Norton moved to Cape Town, where he joined his father's business.
Joshua Norton left Cape Town in late 1845 and arrived in Boston via the ship Sunbeam from Liverpool on March 12, 1846. At various times, Norton claimed to have arrived in San Francisco aboard a ship from Rio de Janeiro in November 1849. He had success in commodities markets and in real estate speculation, and by late 1852, he was one of the more prosperous, respected citizens of the city.
Reign as Emperor
Declaring himself "Emperor"
By 1859, Norton had become completely discontented with what he considered the inadequacies of the legal and political structures of the United States. In July 1859, he issued a brief manifesto addressed to the "Citizens of the Union". It outlined in the broadest terms the national crisis as Norton saw it and suggested the imperative for action to address this crisis at the most basic level. The manifesto ran as a paid ad in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin.
Two months later, on September 17, 1859, Norton hand-delivered the following letter declaring himself "Emperor of these United States" to the offices of the Bulletin:
At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.
The paper printed the letter in that evening's edition, for humorous effect, and thus began Norton's whimsical 20-year "reign" over the United States.
Norton issued numerous decrees on matters of state, including a decree on October 12, 1859, to formally abolish the United States Congress. In this same decree, Norton repeated his order that all interested parties assemble at Musical Hall in San Francisco in February 1860 to "remedy the evil complained of."
In an imperial decree issued in January 1860, Norton summoned the Army to depose the elected officials of the US Congress:
WHEREAS, a body of men calling themselves the National Congress are now in session in Washington City, in violation of our Imperial edict of the 12th of October last, declaring the said Congress abolished;
Norton's imperial acts
By 1865 — and for the remainder of his life — Norton lived in a small room on the top floor of the Eureka Lodgings, a 3-story rooming house at 624 Commercial Street between Montgomery and Kearny streets. The building that housed the Eureka was lost in the earthquake and fires of April 1906. On this site now stands a 4-story apartment building at 650–654 Commercial.
When he wasn't reading newspapers and writing proclamations, Norton spent most of his days as Emperor walking the streets, spending time in parks and libraries, and paying visits to newspaper offices and old friends in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. In the evenings, he often was seen at political gatherings or at theatrical or musical performances.
He wore an elaborate blue uniform with gold-plated epaulettes, at some time given to him secondhand by officers of the United States Army post at the Presidio of San Francisco. He embellished that with a variety of accoutrements, including a beaver hat decorated with a peacock or ostrich feathers and a rosette, a walking stick, and an umbrella. In the course of his rounds, he took note of the condition of the sidewalks and cable cars, the state of repair of public property, and the appearance of police officers. He also often had conversations on the issues of the day with those he encountered.
Caricaturist Edward Jump often depicted Norton with two noted stray dogs named Bummer and Lazarus, giving rise to the rumor that the dogs were Norton's pets. There is no evidence to support this.
Special officer Armand Barbier was part of a local auxiliary force whose members were called "policemen," although they were private security guards paid by neighborhood residents and business owners. He arrested Norton in 1867 to commit him to involuntary treatment for a mental disorder. The arrest outraged many citizens and sparked scathing editorials in the newspapers, including the Daily Alta California, which wrote "that he had shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line." In response to this widespread backlash, Police Chief Patrick Crowley ordered Norton released and issued a formal apology on behalf of the police force, and Norton granted an Imperial Pardon to Barbier. Police officers of San Francisco thereafter saluted Norton as he passed in the street.
Foreign relations
Throughout his reign, Norton commented on the policies and actions of foreign governments, issuing proclamations and sending letters to foreign leaders in attempts to establish congenial and fruitful relations with them and their countries and, if he felt it necessary, to coax better behavior.
Responding to instability in Mexico, Norton expanded his title to "Emperor of the United States and Mexico" in 1861. In 1862, the French Empire invaded Mexico after the latter was unable to pay war reparations following the disastrous Reform War. Two years later, in 1864, Napoleon III, then Emperor of the French, installed the Habsburg Maximilian I as his puppet ruler. Norton had stopped calling himself "Emperor" of Mexico and added the secondary title "Protector of Mexico" by early 1866. Contrary to the oft-repeated claim that he dropped the title shortly thereafter, Norton continued to identify and sign himself "Protector of Mexico" for the rest of his life.
Norton wrote many letters to Queen Victoria, including a suggestion that they marry to strengthen ties between their nations. That proved futile because the queen never responded.
Norton also sent at least one letter to Kamehameha V, the King of Hawaii at the time, regarding an estate in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Later years and death
Norton was the subject of many tales. One popular story suggested that he was the son of Emperor Napoleon III and that his claim of coming from South Africa was a ruse to prevent persecution. To have been an illegitimate son of Napoleon III, he would have had to have been conceived when the French Emperor was only nine; the Emperor's actual illegitimate sons, Eugène and Alexandre, became minor French aristocrats. His legitimate son, Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial, died fighting in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879. Rumors also circulated that Norton was supremely wealthy and was feigning poverty because he was miserly.
Starting a few years after Norton declared himself emperor, local newspapers, notably the Daily Alta California, began to print fictitious decrees. It is believed that newspaper editors themselves drafted the fake proclamations to suit their own agendas. Weary of that, in December 1870 Norton named the black-owned and -operated Pacific Appeal as his "imperial organ." Between September 1870 and May 1875, the Appeal published some 250 proclamations over the signature of Norton I. Historians and researchers who have studied Norton closely generally regard those proclamations as being authentic.
On the evening of Thursday, January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed on the corner of California Street and Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue), across the street from Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, while on his way to a debate at the California Academy of Sciences. His collapse was immediately noticed, and "the police officer on the beat hastened for a carriage to convey him to the City Receiving Hospital," according to the next day's obituary in the San Francisco Morning Call. Norton died before a carriage could arrive. The Call reported: "On the reeking pavement, in the darkness of a moonless night, under the dripping rain ... Norton I, by the grace of God, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, departed this life." Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle led its article on Norton's funeral with the headline "Le Roi Est Mort." (lit. "The King is dead", and the first half of the traditional proclamation of a new king).
It quickly became evident that Norton had died in complete poverty, contrary to rumors of wealth. Five or six dollars in small change was found on his person, and a search of his room at the Eureka Lodgings turned up a single gold sovereign, worth around $2.50. His possessions included his collection of walking sticks, his rather battered sabre, a variety of headgear, including a stovepipe, a derby, a red-laced Army cap, and another cap suited to a martial band-master. There was an 1828 French franc and a handful of the Imperial bonds that he sold to tourists at a fictitious 7% interest. Also found were fake telegrams, including one purporting to be from Tsar Alexander II of Russia congratulating Norton on his forthcoming marriage to Queen Victoria and another from the President of France predicting that such a union would be disastrous to world peace. Also found were his letters to Queen Victoria and 98 shares of stock in a defunct gold mine.
Legacy
"San Francisco lived off the Emperor Norton," claimed his biographer William Drury, "not Norton off San Francisco."
In popular culture
Mark Twain resided in San Francisco during part of Emperor Norton's public life, and modeled the character of the King in his 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on him. Robert Louis Stevenson made Norton a character in his 1892 novel, The Wrecker. Stevenson's stepdaughter Isobel Osbourne mentioned Norton in her 1937 autobiography This Life I've Loved, stating that he "was a gentle and kindly man, and fortunately found himself in the friendliest and most sentimental city in the world, the idea being 'let him be emperor if he wants to.' San Francisco played the game with him."
From 1953 through 1962 The San Francisco Chronicle conducted "the Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt ... burying a medallion and printing clues until it was found. The medallion could be turned in at The Chronicle’s headquarters for $1,000." People dug everywhere including large sections of parks and beaches.
There have been a number of television adaptations of the Norton story. In the June 15, 1956, episode of the western anthology series Death Valley Days, titled "Emperor Norton," Parker Garvie played the title character. In the February 27, 1966, episode of the western television series Bonanza, titled "The Emperor Norton," Sam Jaffe played the title role. The episode also featured William Challee as Sam Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain. In the December 18, 1956, episode of Broken Arrow season 1, episode 11, titled "The Conspirators," Florenz Ames played the "Emperor Norton."
Joshua A. Norton as Emperor Norton also appears as a character alongside Mark Twain in the issue #31 "Three Septembers and a January" of the graphic novel series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, where his delusion is caused by Morpheus, the King of Dreams and Nightmares. Norton has also been credited as the inspiration for "Emperor Smith", subject of the 22nd volume of Lucky Luke.
Since 1974, the Imperial Council of San Francisco has been conducting an annual pilgrimage to Norton's grave in Colma, California, just outside San Francisco. In January 1980, ceremonies were conducted in San Francisco to honor the 100th anniversary of the death of "the one and only Emperor of the United States."
A bar in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco is named Emperor Norton's Boozeland in honor of his legacy. Among its many art-deco style furnishings is an authentic promissory note issued by Emperor Norton and purchased by one of the bar's co-owners.
Public tributes
There have been perennial efforts to name major public San Francisco landmarks after Emperor Norton or to enact other permanent local tributes to him.
"Emperor Norton Place" – Honorary naming of 600 block of Commercial Street
In February 2023, San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution to add "Emperor Norton Place" as a commemorative name for the 600 block of Commercial Street. The resolution was adopted by the Supervisors, and approved by Mayor London Breed in April 2023, with signage installed in early May.
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
In 1939, the fraternal group E Clampus Vitus commissioned and dedicated a plaque commemorating Emperor Norton's call for the construction of a suspension bridge between San Francisco and Oakland. The group intended to place the plaque on the recently opened San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge or, failing that, the new Transbay Terminal. However, that was not approved by the bridge authorities and the plaque was installed at the Cliff House in 1955. It was moved to the Transbay Terminal in 1986, in connection with the 50th anniversary of the bridge. The Terminal was closed and demolished in 2010 as part of the project to construct a new Salesforce Transit Center, and the plaque was placed in storage. After being restored in late 2018, it was rededicated and reinstalled at the new transit center in September 2019 but, after being vandalized in 2020, was moved to Molloy's Tavern in Colma, California, in 2021.
In November 2004, San Francisco District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, after a campaign by San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank calling for the entire bridge to be named for Norton. On December 14, 2004, the Board approved a modified version of this resolution, calling for only "new additions," i.e., the planned replacement for the bridge's eastern section, to be named "The Emperor Norton Bridge." Neither the City of Oakland nor Alameda County passed any similar resolution, so the effort went no further.
In June 2013, eight members of the California Assembly, and two members of the California Senate, introduced a resolution to name the western section of the bridge after former California state Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. In response, there were public efforts seeking to revive the earlier Emperor Norton effort. An online petition launched in August 2013 called for the entire bridge system to be named after him. The petition was the impetus for the creation of The Emperor's Bridge Campaign, now known as The Emperor Norton Trust, which continued the bridge-naming effort until 2022, citing the precedent of 30 California bridges for which the state had authorized multiple names. The Trust called on the legislature simply to make "Emperor Norton Bridge" an honorary name for the Bay Bridge, leaving in place all existing names. Most recently, the organization hoped to sponsor a legislative resolution that would take effect in 2022, the 150th anniversary of Emperor Norton's proclamations of 1872, setting out the original vision for the bridge. The legislature did not take up the issue in 2022, and the Trust suspended its bridge-naming effort.