Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

TICHBORNE CLAIMANT, THE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 933 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

TICHBORNE CLAIMANT, THE . See also:

Roger See also:Charles Tichborne (1829-1854), whose See also:family name became a See also:household word on See also:account of an See also:attempt made by an impostor in 1868 to personate him and obtain his heritage, was the eldest See also:grandson of See also:Sir See also:Edward Tichborne, the 9th See also:baronet, of a very See also:ancient See also:Hampshire family. Sir See also:John de Tichborne, See also:sheriff of See also:Southampton, was created a baronet by See also:James I. in 1621, and from him his 1 See H. Winnefeld, See also:Die See also:Villa See also:des See also:Hadrian (See also:Berlin, 1895). Jahrbuch des k. d. See also:arch. Instituts, Erganzungsheft III.: R. Lanciani, La Villa See also:Adrian (See also:Rome, 1906).descendants' inherited See also:great See also:wealth and the position of one of the leading See also:Roman See also:Catholic families in the See also:south of See also:England. Roger Charles, See also:born at See also:Paris on the 5th of See also:January 1829, was the eldest son of James See also:Francis Doughty-Tichborne (who subsequently became loth baronet and died in 1862) by Henriette Felicite, natural daughter of See also:Henry See also:Seymour of Knoyle, in See also:Wiltshire. This See also:lady, who hated England, was See also:intent upon bringing up her son as a Frenchman; the result was that he got hardly any See also:education until he went in 1846 to Stonyhurst, whence he proceeded in 1849 to See also:Dublin and joined the 6th See also:Dragoon See also:Guards. His eccentricity and his See also:French See also:accent made him a See also:butt in his See also:regiment, and, being disappointed of See also:war service, he sold out in 1852, and in the following See also:year proceeded on a trip to South See also:America. He sailed in See also:March 1853 from See also:Havre for See also:Valparaiso, whence he crossed the See also:Andes, reaching Rio de Janeiro in 1854. In See also:April of that year he sailed from Rio in the " Bella " and was lost at See also:sea, the See also:vessel foundering with all hands.

His See also:

insurance was paid and his will proved in See also:July 1855. The baronetcy and estates passed in 1862 to Roger's younger See also:brother, Sir See also:Alfred See also:Joseph Doughty-Tichborne, who died in 1866. The only See also:person unconvinced of Roger's See also:death was his See also:mother the See also:dowager Lady Tichborne, from whom every See also:tramp-sailor found a welcome at Tichborne See also:Park. She advertised largely and injudiciously for the wanderer, and in See also:November 1865 she learnt, through an agency in See also:Sydney, that a See also:man " answering to the description of her son " had been found in the See also:guise of a small See also:butcher at Wagga Wagga, in See also:Queensland. As a See also:matter of fact, the supposed Sir Roger did not correspond at all to the lost See also:heir, who was slim, with See also:sharp features and straight See also:black See also:hair, whereas the claimant was enormously See also:fat, with wavy, See also:light-See also:brown hair. His first See also:letter to Lady Tichborne was not only ignorant and illiterate, but appealed to circumstances (notably a See also:birth-See also:mark and an incident at See also:Brighton) of which she admitted that she had no recollection. But so great was her infatuation with her fixed See also:idea, that she soon overcame the first qualms of distrust and advanced See also:money for the claimant to return to See also:Europe. Like all pretenders, this one was impelled by his entourage, who regarded him in the light of an investment. He himself was reluctant to move, but the credulity of persons under the See also:influence of a romantic See also:story soon came to his aid. Thus an old friend of Sir James Tichborne's at Sydney, though puzzled by the claimant's answers, was convinced by a resemblance to his supposed See also:father. At Sydney, too, he made the acquaintance of Bogle, a See also:negro servant of a former baronet. Bogle sailed with him from Sydney in the summer of 1866, and coached him in the rudiments of the role which he was preparing to See also:play.

On reaching See also:

London on See also:Christmas See also:Day 1866 the claimant paid a flying visit to Tichborne See also:House, near Alresford, where he was soon to obtain two important See also:allies in the old family See also:solicitor, Edward See also:Hopkins, and a See also:Winchester See also:antiquary, Francis J. Baigent, who was intimately acquainted with the Tichborne family See also:history. He next went over to Paris, where in an hotel bedroom on a dark January afternoon he was promptly " recognized " by Lady Tichborne. This " recognition " naturally made an enormous impression upon the See also:English public, who were unaware that Lady Tichborne was a monomaniac. That such a See also:term is no exaggeration is shown by the fact that she at once acquiesced in her supposed son's See also:absolute See also:ignorance of French. She allowed the claimant 1000 a year, accepted his wife, a poor illiterate girl, whom he had married in Queensland, and handed over to him the diaries and letters written by Roger Tichborne from South America. From these documents the claimant now carefully studied his See also:part; he learnt much, too, from Baigent and from two See also:carabiniers of Roger's old regiment, whom he took into his service. The villagers in Hampshire, a number of the See also:county families, and several of Tichborne's See also:fellow See also:officers in the 6th Dragoons, became eager victims of the delusion. The members of the Tichborne family in England, however, were unanimous in declaring the claimant to be an impostor, and they were soon put upon the track of discoveries which revealed that Tom See also:Castro, as the claimant had been called in See also:Australia, was identical with See also:Arthur See also:Orton (1834-1898), the son of a Wapping butcher, who had deserted a sailing vessel at Valparaiso in 185o, and had received much kindness at Melipilla in See also:Chile from a family named Castro, whose name he had subsequently elected to See also:bear during his sojourn in Australia. It was shown that the claimant, on arriving in England from Sydney in 1866, had first of all directed his steps to Wapping and inquired about the surviving members of his family. It was discovered, too, that Roger Tichborne was never at Melipilla, an assertion to which the claimant, transferring his own adventures in South America to the account of the man whom he impersonated, had committed himself in an See also:affidavit. These discoveries and the deaths of Lady Tichborne and Hopkins were so discouraging that the " claimant " would gladly have " retired " from the baronetage; but the pressure of his creditors, to whom he owed vast sums, was importunate.

A number of " Tichborne bonds " to defray the expenses of litigation were taken up by the dupes of the imposture, and an See also:

ejectment See also:action against the trustees of the Tichborne estates (to which the heir was the 12th baronet, Sir Henry Alfred Joseph Doughty-Tichborne, then two years old) finally came before See also:Chief See also:Justice See also:Bovill and a See also:special See also:jury at the See also:court of See also:common pleas on the 11th of May 1871. During a trial that lasted over one See also:hundred days the claimant exhibited an ignorance, a cunning and a bulldog tenacity in brazening out the discrepancies and absurdities of his depositions, which have probably never been surpassed in the history of See also:crime. Over one hundred persons swore to the claimant's identity, the See also:majority of them—and they were See also:drawn from every class—being evidently sincere in their belief in his cause. It was not until Sir John See also:Coleridge, in a speech of unparalleled length, laid See also:bare the whole See also:conspiracy from its inception, that the result ceased to be doubtful. The See also:evidence of the Tichbornes finally convinced the jury, who declared that they wanted no further evidence, and on the 5th of March 1872 See also:Serjeant See also:Ballantine, who led for the claimant, elected to be non-suited. Orton was immediately arrested on a See also:charge of See also:perjury and was brought to trial at See also:bar before Chief Justice See also:Cockburn in 1873. The See also:defendant showed his old qualities of impudence and endurance, but the indiscretion of his counsel, Edward See also:Kenealy, the testimony of his former sweet-See also:heart, and Kenealy's refusal to put the Orton sisters in the See also:box, proved conclusive to the jury, who, on the one hundred and eighty-eighth day of the trial, after See also:half-an-See also:hour's deliberation found that the claimant was Arthur Orton. Found guilty of perjury on two See also:counts, he was sentenced on the 28th of See also:February 1874 to fourteen years' penal See also:servitude. The cost of the two trials was estimated at something not far See also:short of £200,000, and of this the Tichborne estates were mulcted of fully £90,000. The claimant's better-class supporters had deserted him before the second trial, but the See also:people who had subscribed for his See also:defence were stanch, while the populace were convinced that he was a persecuted man, and that the See also:Jesuits were at the bottom of a deep-laid See also:plot for keeping him out of his own. There were symptoms of a See also:riot in London in April 1875, when See also:parliament unanimously rejected a See also:motion (by Kenealy) for referring the Tichborne See also:case to a royal See also:commission, and the military had to be held in readiness. But the agitation subsided, and when Orton emerged from See also:gaol in 1884 the fickle public took no See also:interest in him.

The sensation of ten years earlier could not be galvanized into fresh See also:

life either by his lectures or his alternate confessions of imposture and reiterations of innocence, and Orton sank into poverty and oblivion, dying in obscure lodgings in Marylebone on the 2nd of April 1898. (T.

End of Article: TICHBORNE CLAIMANT, THE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
TIC 		[next]
TICINO (Fr. and Ger. Tessin)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries