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You're listening to Episode 252 of Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World.

We will look at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason.

In this episode, we're talking about the amazing life of Joshua Abraham Norton.

I'm Dom Betanelli and joining me today is Jimmy Akin. Hey Jimmy, howdy Dom.

So Joshua Abraham Norton was a titan among men and he led a rollercoaster of a life.

Born in humble circumstances in the early 1800s, he rose to become a wealthy and powerful businessman

only to lose his fortune and return to humble circumstances.

But then he went into politics and rocketed to the highest office. He reigned for many years,

he was beloved by his subjects and there are new efforts to honor him today.

Who was Joshua Abraham Norton? What happened in his amazing life and why is he still so beloved

even today? That's all we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World.

Jimmy, let's start our story today at the beginning. Who was Joshua Abraham Norton and when was

he born? Norton was one of the most famous figures of the 19th century. In fact, he was

internationally famous, but as you said in the introduction, he was born in very humble circumstances.

Specifically, he was born in the English County of Kent in the town of Depvard, which is now part

of London. His parents were John and Sarah Norton and they happened to be Jewish, which meant

that they faced social stigmatization due to anti-Semitism, which was common at the time.

Joshua was their second child. He had an older brother named Lewis, and the exact time of

Joshua's birth is the subject of some debate because we don't always have good records from the

...