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.
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.William Drury, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), pp. 10–15.
There is not a birth record for Norton, but he was most likely born in Deptford.William Drury, Norton I: Emperor of the United States (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986), p. 14. 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,""Le Roi Est Mort", San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1880, p. 8. 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.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 which was 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 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.John Lumea, "Joshua Norton, Auctioneer," May 24, 2021.
Joshua Norton left Cape Town in late 1845 and arrived in Boston via the ship Sunbeam from Liverpool on March 12, 1846.John Lumea, "Joshua Norton First Set Foot in the United States in 1846 — in Boston," May 25, 2021. 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.
Norton's failed effort to corner the rice market in December 1852 set in motion a cascade of events — a rice contract dispute that he lost in the California Supreme Court in October 1854; the court-ordered foreclosure of all of his real estate interests; and loss of business clients — that forced him to declare bankruptcy in August 1856.John Lumea, "Joshua Norton's Losses, 1854–1856," The Emperor Norton Trust, 3 August 2021.
In September 1857, he served on a jury for a case of a man accused of stealing a bar of gold from Wells, Fargo & Co. and, in August 1858, Norton ran an ad announcing his candidacy for US Congress.John Lumea, "'A New State of Things?' A Pre-Imperial Proclamation from Joshua Norton in July 1859," March 8, 2022, The Emperor Norton Trust.
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:
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.John Lumea, "Joshua Norton at the Transamerica Pyramid," The Emperor Norton Trust, December 14, 2022.
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:
Norton's orders were ignored by the Army and Congress. A decree in July 1860 ordered the dissolution of the republic in favor of a temporary monarchy.Proclamation of Emperor Norton, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, July 27, 1860, p. 3. Genealogy Bank via The Emperor Norton Trust. Norton issued a mandate in 1862 ordering both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches to publicly ordain him as "Emperor," hoping to resolve the many disputes that had resulted in the Civil War.
Norton then turned his attention to other matters, both political and social. In a proclamation dated August 12, 1869, and published in the San Francisco Daily Herald, he declared the abolition of the Democratic and Republican parties, explaining that he was "desirous of allaying the dissensions of party strife now existing within our realm."An original copy of the edition of the San Francisco Daily Herald where the proclamation was published is at the California State Library. A photocopy of the section of the newspaper column that includes the proclamation is an illustration in Allen Stanley Lane, Emperor Norton: The Mad Monarch of America (The Caxton Printers, 1939), illustration page inserted between pages 168 and 169.
The failure to treat Norton's adopted home city with appropriate respect was the subject of a particularly stern edict that often is cited as having been written by Norton in 1872, although evidence is elusive for the authorship, date, or source of this decree:John Lumea, "On the Trail of the Elusive 'Frisco' Proclamation" , The Emperor Norton Trust, February 12, 2016.
Norton explicitly forbade any form of conflict between religions or their sects, and he issued several decrees calling for the construction of a suspension bridge or tunnel connecting Oakland and San Francisco. Long after his death, similar structures were built in the form of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube, and there have been efforts since the 1930s to name the Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton or at least to add "Emperor Norton Bridge" as an honorary name for the bridge.Mechanics' Institute, "'Emperor Norton Bridge' in 2022?" , talk by John Lumea, founder of The Emperor Norton Trust, March 22, 2022.
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.John Lumea, "Emperor Norton’s Residence, the Eureka Lodgings, Was Not Located (Exactly) Where You Think It Was," The Emperor Norton Trust, 26 September 2022.
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.Photographs of Emperor Norton , The Emperor Norton Trust. 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.