|
Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne was born the first of two surviving sons to Sir James and Lady Henrietta Felicite Tichborne in Paris, France in 1829. Lady Henrietta hated England and the English and wanted her son to be raised a Frenchman not an Englishman. As a result she kept him in Paris with her the first 15 years of his life while her husband managed the Tichborne Estates in England. French not English would be Roger’s first tongue, English a second language he spoke with an accent. Being the eldest son, his father was concerned, as he would one-day become head of one of England’s oldest families and assume its Baronetcy. So he lured his wife and son back to England and immediately enrolled Roger in Stonyhurst, a strict Jesuit seminary in Lancashire. Partly to ensure he received a decent education but mostly to see to it that he became an English gentleman in the society of his many cousins and equals. However having been secluded and spoilt by his mother in the formative years he had problems entering a mainstream educational system, but the priests and professors were able to confer a classical education and he graduated the better for having been there. Being the eldest son of an immensely wealthy family it was expected that his life would be spent in luxury whilst waiting for his father to die to inherit, however, going against his mothers wishes he joined the army in 1849 and used family connections to join the illustrious 6th Dragoon Guards, the Carabineers, in hopes of making a military career for himself. But it didn’t work out — he soon discovered he wasn’t officer material and not popular amongst the men, who made fun of his French accent. After resigning his commission he never really settled down to anything, in a continuation of bad decision making he fell in love with his first cousin, Catherine Doughty, a relationship also doomed from the outset. Disappointed in love and vocation he decided he needed to get away and find himself, setting his heart on exploring exotic South America. His parents were against it, tried desperately to talk him out of it but failed. Their marriage had not been a happy one and the constant fighting due to his mother’s temperament made being home intolerable for him, once describing it as hell on Earth. Departing in 1854 on what he knew would be a hazardous journey the 25 year old wrote his will and said goodbye to his anxious parents, who tried to talk him out of it again. Reaching Valparaiso, Chile, he sent his aunt a letter detailing his intention of traveling eighteen months in South America, before heading on to distant India. He had ample financial means at his disposal: His allowance was £500 a year and upon the death of his uncle doubled to £1000. From Chile he went to Lima, Peru, before returning to Valparaiso and crossing the Cordilleras to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in April 1854. A prolific letter writer and journal chronicler he was in almost constant contact with his overtly possessive mother, sending her and other relatives full details of his travels, hunting, fishing and natural history expeditions with Native Americans, and sending stuffed birds, skins of exotic animals and other souvenirs back to Tichborne Hall to be added to its ancestral collection. Retainers and estate staff followed his travels closely, enthralled by the exotic locales he visited and his mother allowed them to read letters he sent home. Like Indiana Jones, Roger roamed South America in search of adventure for about a year before deciding to sail from Rio to New York onboard the British registered cargo schooner, Bella. On the morning of April 30 they set sail but four days into the voyage it foundered either as the result of bad weather or possibly capsizing due to improperly stowed bags of coffee shifting in the cargo hold in rough seas and knocking off the center of gravity. Whatever befell Bella happened quickly; no one managed to abandon ship, and the only trace discovered was an upturned long boat and debris field. An inquest was held and the Bella, her passenger and crew were officially declared lost at sea. Lloyds of London paid up on insurance policies, memorial services were held and the last chapter in Roger’s young life had been written. A world away in England, Lady Tichborne refused to believe her son was dead, felt certain on an almost mystical level that he had survived the wreck and would return home. Her family tried to convince her otherwise, to accept that Roger was gone forever, but she refused. She had suffered through two miscarriages in her younger days and it had marked her for life — the two children who survived infancy were seldom out of her sight or thoughts. That she should have lost her eldest and dearest son was unacceptable, she found little consolation in her youngest Alfred who was a complete wastrel. As the years rolled by she grew more eccentric and increasingly excitable, insisting that a light be kept by the entrance to Tichborne Hall to enable her lost son to find his way to the door in the dark. Her husband tried to control her eccentricities, with limited success — the strong willed and increasingly cantankerous woman was convinced her son was alive and clung to that hope in the years that followed which saw her survive her husband (d1862) and outlive her last remaining child who died in 1866. To all intents and purposes she was alone in the world. She loathed England as much as she loathed her husbands family and missed her children greatly. She hired agents to visit docks and taverns frequented by sailors from all corners of the world to discover if any had been involved in sea rescues in the region the Bella went down. Lady Tichborne’s heartbroken quest became common knowledge and sailors down on their luck often visited the dowager to regale her with tales of shipwrecked survivors guaranteed to give the old woman increased hope and to see a sovereign or two deposited in their hands. Due to her willingness to pay for such information she was soon receiving unfounded reports that Bella survivors had indeed been picked-up at sea, and conveyed to an undisclosed safe harbor. Another story doing the rounds, which gave her hope, was that the ship had not sunk at all, that it was stolen by the crew who repainted and renamed it before sailing and selling it in Australia. Energized by these scurrilous claims she began placing ads in newspapers around the world offering a large reward for information on whereabouts of her son. Newspapers inevitably ran stories on the heartbroken dowager and the illustrious Tichborne family, possessors of England’s 9th largest fortune, and the missing Sir Roger, its awaited inheritor. “A handsome reward will be given to any person who can furnish such information as will discover the fate of Roger Charles Tichborne. He sailed from Rio Janeiro on the 20th of April 1854 in the ship La Bella, and has never been heard of since, but a report reached England to the effect that a portion of the crew and passengers of a vessel of that name was picked up by a vessel bound to Australia, Melbourne it is believed. It is not known whether the said Roger Charles Tichborne was among the drowned or saved. He would at the present time be about thirty-two years of age, is of a delicate constitution, rather tall, with very light brown hair, and blue eyes. Mr. Tichborne is the son of Sir James Tichborne, now deceased, and is heir to all his estates.” (Melbourne Argus) “In 1865 the dowager wrote to a Mr. Cubitt at Sydney, whose name she had seen in the Times in connection with a “missing friends” office, asking him to see what he could do. Mr. Cubitt entered into correspondence, and caused an advertisement to be inserted in various Australian papers; and at last, on the 9th of October in that year, there reached him from Mr. Gibbes, an attorney at Wagga Wagga, and an old acquaintance, a guarded letter saying that the latter had “spotted R. C. Tichborne” in Wagga Wagga… One of his clients was a man named Thomas Castro” [1] and he was of the belief Castro was Tichborne living incognito, and thus began one of histories great cases of disputed identity. Tichborne Claimant Wagga Wagga at the time was a small provincial town consisting of around 1000 people and everyone knew each other, Thomas Castro was a bankrupt butcher Gibbes knew well having been his drinking companion. Gibbes was also handling bankruptcy arrangements for his failed butcher shop and upon reading published descriptions of the missing baronet everyone seemed certain was in Australia, became unreasonably convinced that the affably inscrutable Castro and Tichborne were one and the same person. The plausibility was unwittingly fueled by Castro who had told him and everyone else who would listen that he came from a titled family, and was living under an assumed name. To Gibbes, to whom Castro owed a great deal of money, it all made sense and seemed to fit together. When confronted by the claim he was Sir Roger Tichborne, Castro wouldn’t confirm or deny it, but just laughed Gibbes declaration off, amused no doubt that anyone could confuse a butcher with a baronet. Considering he had recently married an illiterate servant woman, Mary Ann Bryant, and had been given a set of tin kettles as a wedding present, he would have found the hypothesis extremely amusing. But Gibbes wouldn’t desist — he followed Castro about town demanding he write to his long suffering mother and make arrangements to return to her and his estates. Castro was well and truly down on his luck, bankrupt and pondering his future, so decided to test the waters. Criminality was nothing new to him, he had previously stolen horses and fenced byproducts of stolen livestock in his shop. Through Gibbes & Cubitt correspondence began with the dowager Lady Tichborne announcing they had found her son, that he was a bankrupt and in need of funds to return home. When at last Castro began sending letters they contained appalling spelling and not the slightest trace of evidence to lead her to believe he was her son, the fact they came through a solicitor added credibility since at that stage the dowager never saw the letters and was only given their gist. When the greater Tichborne family became aware of her communication with the putative Sir Roger in a region of the world as distant and alien to them as Mars is to us they were immediately suspicious, it had been over a decade since Roger had been declared legally dead and his fate wasn’t an issue. The fact the Bella had sunk was a legal fact, Sir Roger’s wills had been finalized and there had never been a suggestion of survivors. The family implored the dowager to tread carefully, convinced the claimant was an impostor. Castro’s only interest was quick cash, plain and simple. He wrote to the dowager asking her to send it to help discharge his debts and aid passage home, but she wrote to Cubitt declining: “you do not give any details whatever about the person you believe to be my son, you do not name even the town where he is, and you do not say anything about the way he was saved from the shipwreck.” Without evidence Thomas Castro was her son she wisely refused to part with money, although she offered £200 to cover passage if proof was furnished, and believing Gibbes & Cubitt to be honorable men provided them with the following information to quiz Castro: “Roger Charles is born in Paris in the year 1829 or 30. He used to speak French, and being very delicate in health, he was kept at home till he was fifteen or sixteen. He then went to the Jesuits to the College they have at Stoneyhurst, in Lancashire. He remained there three years and a half. Afterwards he went into the Carabineers, and was there for a year and a half. He sailed at Portsmouth on the 13th of March 1853 to go to Valparaiso. He remained in those countries about a year, and then sailed on the 20th of April at Rio Janeiro to go to New York… He is a Roman Catholic, and used to be a very good one. His father Sir James was a Roman Catholic and I am one myself, and all the family is.” From this and other letters Castro was able to construct the rudimentary framework to continue his charade. His first action was to run to Goulburn with his wife and get remarried by a Roman Catholic priest. While there he perused a copy of Burke’s Peerage to obtain more information about the family he claimed to be head of. Writing to the dowager, he claimed he had arrived in Melbourne on the 24th of July 1854 after having been rescued from the Bella by a ship called Osprey, and had since been living humbly under the assumed name Thomas Castro. But in none of his letters or missives Gibbes or Cubitt was there information which wasn’t publicly available, either in the popular press or via libraries. Anxious for proof, one way or the other, the dowager recommended to Gibbes & Cubitt that they make contact with a former family servant, an African named Andrew Bogle, who had retired to Sydney with his adult sons and had once known Sir Roger well. Born a slave in Jamaica, he was rescued from bondage by Sir Edward Doughty, uncle of Sir Roger, who stunned his family by returning from the West Indies with the young lad in toe. Bogle remained affectionately by Sir Edward’s side the remainder of his life as valet, after which he retired to Australia in receipt of an annuity from Lady Doughty, with whom he kept in contact and from whom he had been informed of Sir Roger’s death and his mother’s refusal to accept it. Also living in Sydney at the time was a former head gardener from Tichborne Park named Michael Guilfoyle, who had redesigned its gardens and known Sir Roger. Encouraged and financed by Gibbes & Cubitt, Castro made his way to Sydney without a plan, taking events as they came at him. Colonial Sydney was a rough-and-ready place; although there was a wealthy ruling class it was a predominately self made merchant class with baronets few and far between on the ground. So news Sir Roger Tichborne was in Wagga Wagga and on his way to Sydney spread like wildfire and made newspaper headlines. To Castro’s amazement he was received like royalty, all the more warmly due to the fact he was romantically portrayed as a missing baronet found and on his way to claim his ancestral inheritance. After checking into the Metropolitan Hotel, he found himself surrounded by legions of pretentious sycophants, who gloried in the illusion of rubbing shoulders with an aristocrat. Not long after his arrival, Bogle arrived at the hotel to see for himself if Thomas Castro was the missing baronet; the Sir Roger he remembered from many years previous was a slim and well mannered young man, the mature man he encountered was the opposite. Amazingly all it took was a few moments together and he became convinced Castro was Sir Roger, Guilfoyle too made the pilgrimage and recognized the claimant almost instantly as the missing baronet. Both said he displayed such a detailed knowledge of people and events connected with the family or estate, details only the real Sir Roger could have known, that they were left in no doubt and wrote letters to that effect to the dowager. Thomas Castro was no fool — although historians like to belittle him as a functional illiterate, or put him down in other ways, this is unfair. He possessed a sharp and cunning mind; what details he had ascertained about the Tichborne’s from the edition of Burke’s Peerage was reïnforced by information found on the family in other publications and gleamed from the dowagers letters to Gibbes & Cubitt. So when he met associates of the family he possessed sufficient general knowledge to be conversant, and it snowballed in time to come. His secret was to get them talking about their memories and commit them to memory. By interjecting here and there, expanding on subjects with general information it made him appear knowledgeable. When the next witness came along he would beguile them with previous witness statements repeated as his own memories. This accounts for the disordered patchwork nature of his memories. He received constant invitations to dine with the local landed gentry, even the governor and his flunkies wanted to bask in the aristocrat’s glory but Castro wisely declined citing illness. The whirlwind kept swirling, everywhere he went he was received with affection, free beer in pubs and free meals in restaurants which resulted in his weight ballooning. When Gibbes arrived in Sydney to help his client with arrangements to return home to England the deception became lucrative — using his standing as a lawyer he arranged for Castro to be given overtly generous lines of credit as Sir Roger Tichborne, allowing him to generate thousands of pounds in cash and goodsi from merchants and bankers. For his troubles Gibbes received a percentage and full payment of his client’s outstanding debts which otherwise would not have been paid. Castro’s original intention had been merely to obtain a few hundred pounds from the dowager Lady Tichborne to cover the passage of himself, wife and child to a new life in Panama where his brother ran a thriving business. However, finding himself so effortlessly accepted as Sir Roger Tichborne, he wondered how far it could take him. There is no doubt that Andrew Bogle would not have been fooled by Castro. Having spent most of his life in the presence of the British aristocracy he knew the difference between a baronet and a butcher. However following the death of his master, Sir Edward Doughty, he found himself redundant and although handsomely pensioned off he retained a mixture of bitterness and longing towards the family which had rescued him from slavery only to cut him adrift in Europe. Bogle had spent the greater proportion of his life living in country houses, accompanying his master on long holidays in the palaces and castles of dukes, and would have found the return to Earth hard to handle. One moment living in a country house, the next operating a stall in a Sydney market. He longed to return to his old life and saw Castro as a means to an end, he knew the Tichborne Baronetcy was now held by an infant, that Tichborne Park was leased out and managed by trustees due to the absence of an adult baronet, and it left the door open to an aristocratic resurrection. He was also aware the neurotic old dowager had refused to believe her son was dead, ignored official findings and listened to any cock and bull story spun by sailors regarding shipwreck survivors. There is no doubt Andrew Bogle approached Castro and offered him his services, to provide him with the necessary Tichborne family information, contacts and aristocratic social skills to enable him to claim Sir Roger’s estate — probably for a percentage of the inheritance — offering to accompany him to England and there act as his valet, in the same way he had for Sir Roger’s uncle, and in the process provide credibility. “Bogle was by far the most important witness in the case, but the extent of his acquaintance with Roger, though considerable, had been exaggerated.” [1] Bogle soon found himself totally committed to Castro’s success — not only had he invested his savings but his adult son had lent the claimant money, and once Lady Doughty discovered his involvement in the charade she stopped his annuity. Castro’s wife, Mary Ann, like him had nothing to lose by the undertaking and considering his success in Sydney had much potentially to gain in England. She happily went along for the ride, no doubt enjoying the curtseys and respect that being “Lady Tichborne” accorded her in Sydney. On the 25th of February 1866 the dowager Lady Tichborne unreservedly accepted Castro as her son. Without having received a single detail to justify her belief, she wrote imploring him to return at once. Her last letter to Gibbes shows her mind, not without delays and misgivings, was made up and in the intervening months her determination had strengthened. She wrote: “I think my poor, dear Roger confuses everything in his head, just as in a dream, and I believe him to be my son, though his statements differ from mine.” Members of the Tichborne family and household staff were stunned into silence by the news, one saying: “if they sent over an Egyptian mummy ticketed Roger Tichborne she would acknowledge it as her son.” [1] The party set sail in first class accommodation for England on September 2nd 1866 leaving furious creditors and £20.000 in bad debts behind in the name of Sir Roger Tichborne, residue of a mere three months’ high living. On the four month voyage to England Bogle lived up to his side of the deal by giving his charge as full a grounding on the Tichborne family as possible. His most difficult task was trying to turn him into a gentleman. During the voyage Castro was almost constantly drunk and offended other passengers during meals by telling stories inappropriate for the dinner table or by belching, breaking wind or picking his teeth. They arrived in England on Christmas day and soon settled in their new home - Essex Lodge, Croydon. London. Back from the Dead The arrival of the Tichborne Claimant was a momentous event for the family he claimed to be the head of, also for the Doughty, Arundel, Seymour, Bourbon Conti and Dormer branches who remembered their cousin Roger with affection and were stunned by claims of his survival. Out of a wide family circle only the dowager believed the possibility the claimant was her lost son, but the ties were strong and there’s no doubt should Roger be alive he’d be welcomed home warmly. But from the moment the claimant arrived his behavior aroused suspicion. Although he was at times only blocks from the homes of relatives the real Sir Roger had been on intimate terms with, the claimant never stopped to see them or attempted to contact them in anyway. His first port of call was to the Globe Inn in Wapping, where he tried to discover the whereabouts of his real family. The dynamic had changed: It was no longer a lark, it was serious, he needed a lot more preparation before he could face the Tichborne family. He feared he was being watched by agents, and so entered and left his house hidden under a heavy cloak and hat, often with a silk handkerchief to his face to conceal his appearance. While in London the first in a series of solicitors firms were contracted to advise on legal aspects, “the registers at Doctors Commons had already been searched for the probate of Roger Tichborne’s will, and a copy taken; and the next visit was to Lloyd’s, where the books were examined for details of the Bella and of the Osprey, which the claimant declared was the ship that had rescued himself and the survivors of the Bella’s crew.” [1] As mentioned the dowager Lady Tichborne had little time for England, the English and least of all her Tichborne relatives, and whenever possible she would escape to her native France. Which is where the Claimant and his party had to travel to see her, arriving with great trepidation on the 10th of January 1867. “In her letters to the claimant and his advisers she urged the necessity of his coming straight to her without mixing with his father’s relatives, towards whom she cherished all her former prejudices; and to the Seymour’s she was scarcely more explicit, insisting that it was her son, but declining to give any details and refusing to show the letters she had received from Australia.” [1] Prior to seeing the Claimant for the first time she also fired her closest adviser, James Bowker, who had urged caution from the start. To him alone had she shown the claimant’s letters and those from Gibbes & Cubitt in Australia — he missed no opportunity pointing out the improbabilities and inconsistencies in the claimant’s story believing it an attempt to extort money from a grieving mother, but she was too close to the fulfillment of her dream to allow anyone wake her. Accompanied by her legal representative the dowager prepared to see her long lost son at the Place de la Madeleine after 13 years absence. The putative Sir Roger lay fully dressed on a bed complaining he was too unwell to see his “mamma” at that time. However she appeared and entered the room. It was an overcast afternoon, the blinds half drawn as she leant over and kissed him saying “he looks like his father and his ears are like his uncle’s.” The claimant never uttered a word, he was literally sick from worry over the consequences of open exposure. She told an Irish servant to remove some of his clothes so she could get a better look, as another said “she has identified him!” Concerned for her new son’s health she sent for a doctor, in his presence she renewed her declaration that the invalid was her firstborn son. Castro would later write that he was literally stunned by the ease of his success. The dowager fussed with him like a new mother and for the next week they remained inseparable. Dining, talking and walking together. Whenever she asked him questions he couldn’t answer he would blame memory loss resultant from a head injury, illness, alcoholism or the passage of time. The fact he could not remember French, his mother tongue, didn’t worry the dowager either. He fed her a continuous diet of memories extracted from Guilfoyle, Bogle and other sources all intermingled with his colorful adventures in the colonies which not only warmed the old womans heart but entertained her. Her servants remarking that they had seen her smile and laugh for the first time in many years. She was particularly pleased by the fact her son had married and that she was a grandmother. A steady stream of people who had known Sir Roger during his Parisian youth were brought to see the claimant in the dowager’s presence — not one thought he was her son. The dowager invited Sir Roger’s tutor, Monsieur Chatillon, who had been his tutor and companion in France until he was 15 and remained close the remainder of his life. Chatillon went to the hotel with anticipation, the prospect of his old friend and charge being alive filling him with joy. Shown into the room he advanced to shake the claimant’s hand and stopped abruptly, “No, my Lady, this is not your son!” he said. The dowager seemed indifferent to his skepticism. “You do not embrace Roger!” she exclaimed obliviously. “No, my Lady,” replied Chatillon, “it is not he.”[1] The claimant remained silent, holding a handkerchief to his face, as the dowager ignored his reaction and explained to Chatillon that Roger no longer spoke French and conversation must be conducted through an interpreter who sat nervously in a chair. The group sat and Chatillon put a series of question to the claimant via the translator, but he could not answer a question satisfactorily. He didn’t remember holidays in Normandy or Brittany and could only recall unrelated episodes. Bored by the examination, the dowager interrupted, “Chatillon, you must not ask him any more, he has seen so many things that he no longer remembers anything.” [1] Chatillon departed with the promise he could meet the claimant again at his hotel, but on every occasion he presented himself there he was told the claimant was too ill to see anyone. There was only so much information Bogle could give him. He had been the valet of Sir Roger’s uncle not his father — whilst he possessed a great deal of general knowledge on the family he knew next to nothing about the introspective early years of Sir Roger and his mother in Paris. It would remain their weakest link and would come back to haunt them, but despite the indicators of deceit the dowager agreed to return to England with the claimant, and declared to her stunned family that it was her intent to take up residence with her son and family in his Croydon home. In addition she bestowed £1000 a year on him in lieu of obtaining control of the Tichborne estates, solicitors already preparing the legal mechanisms. True Believers “Some men has plenty money and no brains, and some men has plenty brains and no money. Surely men with plenty money and no brains were made for men with plenty brains and no money.” [A phrase the Claimant had written inside his pocket book.] By the time the happy family arrived back in England the greater Tichborne family were far from impressed. Their London family bankers had been contacted by colonial counterparts and a host of other creditors demanding payment of the putative Sir Roger’s Sydney debts, which they duly refused. The family informed the dowager that they would not permit the trustees of the Tichborne Estate to hand over authority to her alleged son without being satisfied beyond doubt of his identity, threatening legal injunctions if need be. The claimant and his growing coterie had grasped long ago that they would inevitably have to go to court to win control of the lucrative Tichborne Estate — the dowager accepting him as her son was not going to be enough. They knew an incredulous family would block them at every turn and the only way to succeed would be via the courts. As time passed an incredible public relations machine formed around him, legal firms were hired for advice and teams of solicitors clerks were sent across England to locate anyone associated with Sir Roger or the Tichborne family prepared to meet and recognize the claimant. Some sent as far away as the continent and South America looking for useful people or information. Like a modern politician the claimant had tame journalists and spin doctors producing slick press releases to provide the tabloid reading public with a steady diet of Tichmania, copies of affirmative affidavits. Information summaries and misinformation were spoon-fed to journalists to encourage potential witnesses to come forward and influence a yet to be convened jury. One of the more successful pieces of misinformation circulated was that the claimant had rejected a secret Tichborne offer to acknowledge him as Sir Roger on condition the finances were divided with the infant baronet and custodians. Regardless of the fact it was disputed it helped convince the public that he really was who he claimed to be and that a conspiracy involving (alternatively) the aristocracy, government, Roman Catholic Church and upper classes in general were trying to defraud him of his name and inheritance. It all worked a treat. His solicitors were inundated with requests from people claiming to have once been on close terms with Sir Roger or the family and wanting to judge for themselves. When potential witnesses met the claimant it was in a controlled setting, a legal representative would be present to take notes and if the encounter was successful the notes would be given to a clerk to rewrite into a melodramatic affidavit the witness signed after having been treated to cigars and brandy and regaled by the Claimants colorful stories. A compilation of affidavits was printed in book form and provided to witnesses prior to meeting the claimant, it added credibility to his claim and helped stimulate memories in those about to see him. Bogle and solicitors recommended targeting Hampshire for witnesses, as the Tichborne family were one of the oldest in England and had lived in Hampshire for almost a thousand years, thus were known to all and sundry. Local businessmen, merchants, tradesmen and estate tenant farmers turned out to meet and recognize him, as did a substantial percentage of the local gentry, including Guildford Onslow MP. The fact the dowager had acknowledged him as her son was enough for them, and the press’s sensational coverage of the story left no room for doubt. By this stage the claimant had come into possession of masses of information not only on the real Sir Roger but also gossip on the Tichborne family. By sitting back and letting discharged servants ramble (often over brandy) he had discovered many a family secret which he was able to reveal at opportune moments to throw skeptics off balance. Secrets such as gossip circulating Tichborne Park that Sir Roger had slept with his first cousin Kate Doughty, which was his true reason for going to South America, to avoid scandal. Many would stagger away from a meeting perplexed, supporters claiming “only the real baronet could known these things.” Castro wisely tried to keep his distance from members of the Tichborne family. Cousins of Sir Roger were always writing wanting to see him, to judge for themselves, however the claimant knew they would be difficult to convince. Wherever possible he would decline citing illness as the excuse, meeting them was inevitably a setback for him. Whenever family members or representatives of the family interviewed the Claimant they were stunned anyone could mistake him for Sir Roger, some even laughed out loud. Seldom could he answer direct questions, he couldn’t even remember the Christian names of his alleged aunts or the contents of the will Sir Roger had left. Whenever tones turned negative he would escape into amateur dramatics, claim he was feeling unwell or memories were too painful to dredge up, when a handkerchief was raised to his face it was a signal to his minders to bring the interview to a close. The real Sir Roger had served in the 6th Dragoon Guards, the Carabineers, and soon former comrades were coming forward to see him. One named of Carter had left the army to become a domestic servant. Unemployed, he wrote to the claimant asking if he remembered who he was and after meeting him was hired as a live in assistant. Through Carter, other down on their luck old soldiers came forward to identify the claimant as their old master. As another indigent ex-soldier named McCann moved into the claimant’s now swelling London home. McCann signed an affidavit claiming to have recognized the claimant as Sir Roger due to marks being present on his ankles where he had been bled (i.e. leeched). He also claimed his recognition was backed up by the shape of the claimant’s forehead, head, and ears. The ears he said he knew well, having seen Sir Roger in bed every morning for over a year, as former Sergeant Moody recognized the Claimant due to his features and “full rolling eyes.” Besides Bogle and the dowager the most important person to identify the claimant was one of the Tichborne family physicians, Dr. Lipscombe. He had attended to Sir Roger prior to his departure for South America, and claimed he knew his physique well enough. On examining the claimant he declared he found present every known scar, blemish, tattoo and defect he had seen earlier in Sir Roger’s life, including a rare defect of the penis. The claimant’s penis was retractable, that is, withdrew like a horses inside the body when not erect. So rare was this condition that Dr. Lipscombe was left in no doubt of the claimant’s identity. His important affirmation was soon followed by one of Sir Roger’s childhood nanny’s and a host of other former members of the household staff, however besides the dowager not one member of the Tichborne or allied families were of the same opinion. Many of those who swore on oath that the claimant was Sir Roger were honest, upright and honourable men and woman who had been deceived or misled. Most were lucky if they could prove having had brief contact with Sir Roger or the family prior to his death, many had no idea of the case against him and when it unfolded in court scores withdrew their affidavits. The fact the dowager had acknowledged him as her son was sufficient evidence for them. In Hampshire the lure to many was ingratiating themselves with the new lord of the manor in hopes of securing estate business or being rewarded by cheaper rents. However it must be said a great many supporters and witnesses acting for the claimant were on par with him criminally and morally — they were out to swindle a fortune. Many were paid for their affidavits and to commit perjury, the threat of jail merely a holiday at the Queen’s expense. Due to the fact there was no adult baronet Tichborne Hall and its collection of art and family mementos was leased in trust to a Colonel Lushington, who had never met Sir Roger prior to his resurrection but having followed the controversy in newspapers agreed to allow the claimant to visit the mansion and testified to his recognition not only of rooms but contents. Allegedly pointing to blank spaces on walls declaring correctly that certain paintings had once hung there, and pointing to paintings and correctly noting they had been cleaned. He was also able to identify artworks the real Sir Roger had drawn, preserved birds and other items he had sent back from South America. The secret to these and many other miraculous instances of manifest identity were resultant from the dowager’s gullibility, having been thoroughly taken in by the claimant, he had asked her to forward his old letters and diaries so he could reminisce with his family about the happy times an head injury had robbed memory of. Public interest in the claimant was enormous and growing, with Victorian society divided firmly along class lines. The upper classes were appalled by the suggestion that a high born baronet could lower himself to becoming a colonial butcher and marry an illiterate servant girl of convict stock, whereas the common people were appalled by the suggestion that there was anything wrong with being working class. “Even before the first case, but growing much as it proceeded, the Tichborne question achieved political import. Elites of Victorian Britain saw that the Claimant was an impostor, and denounced all his works. As a very large section of the common people went opposite, believing the elites’ opposition to be inspired by hatred of the Claimant for having repudiated ruling-class allegiance and style by living as he had in Australia… The Tichborne issue became one of class, both in its point of central dispute and in determining stances that various people took” [2] Although the dowager had accepted the invitation of her resurrected son and moved into his suburban London home, the move was doomed from the outset. Within a few months she moved out saying that living there didn’t agree with her health, telling friends there was never a quiet moment and constant human traffic; solicitors, clerks, angry money lenders, bedraggled ex-soldiers and servants who tramped through at all hours to sign affidavits recognizing the claimant as her son and impose on his hospitality. Raucous drinking binges, and strangers passed out in hallways were an every day occurrence — it was certainly no place for a real lady. The dowager also noted that living there put her at great financial expense. Although she gave her would be son a very generous allowance, the cost of traveling and sending solicitors clerks all over the country in search of witnesses or information was costly and he was in the debt of unscrupulous loan sharks. The dowager was frequently called upon by him or his wife for help, after moving out she received constant requests for money. Although she never disavowed the claimant it beggars the mind to believe that after all the privations of having lived with the ill mannered butcher and his common wife that she still believed he was the gentle, refined son of happy memory. Delusion or neurosis aside the difference physically and spiritually was night and day. However taking into account her disagreeable attitude towards her husband’s family there’s no doubt she delighted in the knowledge that her recognition of the claimant was a source of exasperation to them; their fear of being deprived of their ancestral estates and privilege in favor of a colonial butcher put the fear of god in them and a bounce in the dowagers step. On the 12th of March 1868 the dowager Lady Tichborne died of heart failure at Hewlett’s Hotel in Manchester St, London, and the claimant wasted no time in declaring that she had been poisoned. The death of the dowager was an irreparable blow, the claimant’s sustaining £1000 a year allowance came to an abrupt end. The family had tolerated him in the interests of the dowager’s health but now that she was dead they declared war on him. Knowing he would move to claim her assets Tichborne family solicitors moved. They commenced a Chancery suit, Tichborne v. Castro, to prevent him impounding her property and force their adversary to seek remedy through the courts — if he dare. Before the Battle The Tichborne family, including its aristocratic Doughty, Arundel, Seymour, Bourbon Conti and Dormer branches were incensed by the audacity of the impostor and staggered by the dowager Lady Tichborne’s acknowledgment of him as her son. All attempts to convince her otherwise had failed — she point blank refused to hear a critical word against him and froze all dissenters out of her life. The family realized the only harm he could inflict was to the family’s reputation and the dowager’s finances. Whereas he could swindle her of vast sums of money the impostor could not assume the baronetcy or take possession of its estates merely on the her say so. He would have to go to court and obtain legal recognition as Sir Roger Tichborne to have the executed will nulified, a move they made crystal clear would be strenuously resisted. Anticipating a long and acrimonious court battle well in advance of papers being served, the family had quietly hired a team of eminent solicitors and private detectives who traversed the world in search of evidence to resolve the matter. Distances being so vast and time consuming to cross they hired investigators in Australia and South America to assist them. Had Castro kept in touch with friends in Wagga Wagga he would have known a small army of investigators from Sydney had gone door to door asking locals if they knew anything about him, investigators discovering that before he had assumed the name Thomas Castro he had been known in other parts of the Australian colonies as Arthur Orton formerly of Wapping, London. They discovered before he settled in Wagga Wagga he had lived as Arthur Orton on the island colony of Tasmania, working in Hobart as a butcher. When investigators arrived in Hobart they found scores of people who remembered him and when shown the claimant’s photo identified the sitter as Arthur Orton, a fact established irrefutably by Mrs. Elizabeth Jury, an in-law of one of his sisters from whom he had borrowed money and never repaid. The holes in the claimant’s story had become gaping, through bravado or stupidity he never anticipated investigators would be sent to remote corners of the globe to investigate his claims. One of the most damaging half truths he had told was that as Sir Roger he had lived in Melipilla, Chile, a claim investigators duly looked into. They traveled to Chile and visited the small town where they asked locals if they remembered the young aristocrat as having been there in the stipulated time-frame, however none had seen such a gringo, the only Englishman anyone could recall was a young sailor who had jumped ship in Valparaiso named Arthur Orton. Betrayal The biggest blow to the claimant’s case came when Charles Orton, brother of Arthur Orton (referred to from here as such), was located by the Tichborne family solicitors. The odious man had been blackmailing the claimant for months after discovering he was sharing his newfound wealth with his widowed sisters, who were in receipt of £5 a month. He tracked his brother down and demanded likewise; whereas he had been giving his sisters money as an expression of brotherly love Charles extorted it from him and quit his job as a butcher to live off it. The linkage of Thomas Castro with Arthur Orton broke in the popular press and the claimant hotly denied he was the Wapping born butcher. The Orton family had long since dispersed to the four corners of the globe but Tichborne investigators were able to locate two of the London based Orton sisters who when shown photographs of the claimant denied it was their brother. A dramatic meeting was arranged between the claimant and the only locatable brother of Arthur Orton, Charles, at his solicitors chambers. The claimant looked up at him from his chair via the corner of his eye as the solicitor asked him if he knew who the man in the chair was, Charles Orton replied “No!” in a firm voice but refused to sign an affidavit — he would only sign a statement to that effect but not a legally binding document. The fact that Charles, who looked eerily similar to Arthur, had been tracked down spooked the claimant who increased his allowance on condition he move and live under an assumed name. The Orton identification undermined the claimant in the public eye and in an attempt to defeat it he paid and conveyed residents of Wapping, who had allegedly known the once prominent family of East End butchers, to attend “Tichborne Defence Fund” rallies to denounce the identification; where it was claimed that no son of a butcher would be able to convince the aristocracy he was born on their exalted level. However when the claimant ran into crippling financial difficulties and couldn’t meet his obligations to his brother there was trouble, Charles threatened to sell his story to the Tichborne camp and the claimant promised him £1000 if he kept quiet and patient. But these were two virtues not present in his brothers character. He approached the Tichborne solicitors and sold his brother out, he also provided them with leads further aiding in unraveling the story, names of his old friends in Wapping and most damagingly of all his old sweetheart Mary Ann Loder, with whom he had been engaged in 1852. Charles Orton signed an affidavit retracting his previous statement and affirmed the claimant his missing brother, Arthur Orton. What the claimant’s reaction was is unknown, he undoubtedly believed he could neutralize his statement with those of his still loyal sisters and by pointing out the Tichborne solicitors had paid him for his assistance. Battle Royal Legal fees and associated costs were running out of control, with the dowager dead and his allowance but a fond memory he was urged to sell “Tichborne Bonds” as a way of generating revenue. Supporters were encouraged to invest in the claimant for a relative percentage of money and assets inherited from the fabulous Tichborne Estate. Orton held public rallies in squares and music halls thundering an upper class conspiracy against him for having become a member of the working class. He urged people, mostly poor and hungry, to buy bonds and help him defeat their common enemy. It took him in a dangerous new direction, politics, the downtrodden pleading with him to form a party and run for office to save them from the capitalist oppressor. Had the claimant thought with a clear mind he would have called it quits after the funeral of the dowager Lady Tichborne and not pushed his already spectacular luck any further with the legal system, as amongst the throng of mourners was a large contingent of old familiar faces from Wapping, including a ghost from the past, Mary Ann Loder. The Tichborne family were sending him a clear message but it was not received. The Tichborne Claimant litigation was a long and complex legal motion, one which jurists have been studying ever since, but to condense it in a nutshell: On the 23rd of June 1868 an order was obtained from Vice Chancellor Stuart, directing an issue to be tried by the Court of Common Pleas as to whether the claimant was or was not the heir to Sir James Doughty Tichborne; and on the 29th a writ was issued by the claimant against Colonel Lushington, the tenant of Tichborne House, with the nominal object of ejecting him, but the real one of establishing the claimant’s title as landlord of Tichborne. It would be the trial of the century, a who’s who of the Victorian judiciary, the most eminent jurists of the day lined up representing opposing benches. Leading the Tichborne legal team was the Solicitor-General of England himself, Sir John Coleridge backed-up by Mr. Hawkins QC, regarded as the best cross examiner in England. The claimant represented by Dr. Edward Vaughan Kenealy QC, an erasable Irish jurist who fought cases with the tenacity of an east end street fighter. No one could have foreseen it would degenerate into the longest running legal action in British history, as the court battle unfolded it generated immense interest around the world. In the U.S. author Mark Twain became obsessed with the Claimant and based characters in “Huckleberry Finn” on Orton. Gilbert and Sullivan based their opera “Trial by Jury” on the case, while before each session the streets outside the court were thronged with people wanting to sit in the public galleries — even European royalty stood in line for tickets. Dr. Kenealy tabled all the familiar evidence in his clients favor, centrally the identification of the plaintiff by the dowager Lady Tichborne, arguing that a mother always knows who her child is. The opposing council rebutting by declaring the aged dowagers recollection was faulty, they showed how she had told journalists, prior to Orton’s arrival on the scene, that Sir Roger was 32 when he was 36 and had very light brown hair when it was in fact black (Orton’s was brown with hints of red) She said he had a round face when photographs show he had a long thin head. They also pointed out that once the dowager had met the claimant her memories of Sir Roger changed to harmonize with him. She described various facial and bodily features as resembling those of her husband or other relations, in the same way a parent does when meeting a newborn child. An endless procession of witnesses were called including Colonel Lushington and inevitably Andrew Bogle, Bogle was the most important living witness now that the dowager was dead and no matter how hard opposing council tried they could not shake him. Bogle was well prepared and denied having ever given the claimant information, coaching or having played any part in a deception. His replies were sharp and unflappable. Affirmative witness after witness, affirmative affidavit after affidavit was presented, the gallery found nothing new in this, Orton’s spin doctors had already saturated the press with his story and it wasn’t until the opposing bench could cross-examine evidence that the public heard there was another version. Tichborne attorneys wasted no time and systematically dismantled the Claimant’s intricate web of lies, pointing out:
His council’s response was that he had suffered memory loss as a result of a fall from a horse in Australia, combined with brain-fever resultant from the shipwreck and years of alcoholism. But could anyone forget his mother’s name? The claimant had; in statements he referred to her as Hannah Frances, whereas her name was Henriette Felicité. When Orton’s legal team introduced testimony and affidavits from former army comrades of Sir Roger, opposing council soon countered with an equally long list of Carabineer officers and old troopers testifying that their colleagues were mistaken, and that many of the specific incidents recorded by the claimant were a confused jumble of circumstances picked up at second or third hand. Orton’s recollection of officer candidate study was vague at best, he had never even heard of the Queen’s Regulations. His alleged survival of the wreck of the Bella, although sounding good on paper, couldn’t withstand scrutiny and his story changed frequently. He originally claimed the ship which had rescued him from the Bella’s longboat was called the Osprey, but he could not be certain, the name of her captain was Owen Lewis or Lewis Owen, on that too he could not be certain. He said he never saw other survivors of the Bella or met the passengers or crew of the Osprey, nor did he know what had become of them. Investigators looked long and hard into this claim but were never able to find any evidence to support the Osprey’s existence, and why any ship would pick up a shipwreck survivor off the east coast of South America and take him all the way to Australia and not (as maritime law dictates) to the nearest safe harbor to report a ship having gone down was never answered. Another of the great nagging questions was why, if he was Sir Roger, had he never sent word to his family upon arrival in Australia that he was safe and sound to relieve their pained minds? “I thought I would come home some day and surprise them,” Orton replied, “I was in the saddle at six in the morning until eight or nine at night. I used to feel tired, and even on Sunday I was often obliged to go to neighboring stations. So the time passed on, and I never wrote at all. It was certainly from no motive that I didn’t write. It was more from carelessness and neglect.” On arrival in London, prior to meeting the dowager and inaugurating his claim, he had gone to Lloyd’s of London to ascertain pertinent details of the Bella. Orton hotly denied having done this and turned white when the clerk who had conducted this search was produced in court, at which point he conceded that he had gone to Lloyd’s but on another matter. Just as the claimant’s fortunes were waning his legal team set off a bomb shell: they had found a sailor from the Osprey! — Jean Luie — who was prepared to testify that he had been present when the claimant was rescued from the sea and had nursed him back to health. He testified under oath that the claimant had declared himself Sir Roger Tichborne, it set the cats amongst the pigeons and put the rose back in Orton’s ashen cheeks. However the Tichborne camp were on the ball and during two days of examination witnesses proved the details Luie had given were false, he was exposed a confidence trickster known to police as Sorensen and he took flight as fast as his testimony was struck off. Luie, or Sorensen, was captured and sentenced at the Central Criminal Court in London to seven years imprisonment for perjury, as were several other “witnesses” hired by Kenealy or Orton who were exposed lying for the claimant. The court heard testimony from Chabot, a handwriting expert, who had compared the letters and signatures of Sir Roger, letters obtained from Miss Loder authored by Arthur Orton and the claimant. His opinion was Arthur Orton and the claimant were the same author. Medical evidence as to similarities between the persons of Sir Roger and the claimant, as given by Dr. Lipscombe, were discounted due to the fact he had lied about his close association with the real Sir Roger. Having only treated him twice, prior to his leaving for South America, and having an undisclosed association with intimates of the Claimant. Mary Ann Loder, Arthur Orton’s youthful sweetheart, took the stand and pointed the claimant out as her old flame. She also stated that Arthur Orton had the regressive penis abnormality as extant with Sir Roger Tichborne. The court was also shown the former Thomas Castro’s pocket book in which Miss Loder’s address was recorded. It, combined with attestation from Charles Orton identifying the claimant as his brother, drove the final nails in his coffin. In private Kenealy and others advised Orton to withdraw his suit and flee the country, but he wouldn’t be moved by stubbornness or delusion. By now the jury, who were comprised predominantly of the working class, had heard enough and were convinced of the claimant’s true identity. They protested of the irrelevance of hearing further witness testimony or prolonging the case and Orton’s action collapsed after 102 days in court. He was charged with perjury and sent to trial — found guilty after 188 days on trial, the claimant was ordered to stand as Justice Mellor pronounced sentence. For perjury charged in the first count of the indictment he was sentenced to seven years penal servitude, a similar term for perjury charged in the second count including forgery of the Tichborne Bonds. The two terms to run consecutively, amounting to a sentence of 14 years penal servitude. By the time the tide had turned and he came to realize his deception was approaching its finale he later wrote he felt relieved that the years of pretense, of having to be on guard and show were finally over and as the judge convicted him he felt the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders. He was genuinely stunned by the depth of populist hysteria generated by the case. After pronouncement of the sentence he had to be shuttled from the courtroom via the House of Commons to save him from a mob who wanted to carry him to freedom. In the wake of his legal defeat many of Orton’s supporters remained loyal as ever, refused to believe they had been duped and believed an establishment conspiracy was at the root of his failure. It was and remains the sheer volume of evidence, real and fabricated, witness identifications and conspiracy theories which convinced so many people Orton was the missing baronet. Even with his defeat in the courts of justice, even after a written confession, people choose to ignore these facts and believe he really was Sir Roger Tichborne. Over the years numerous books have been published ignoring the contradictory evidence to assert he was the victim of an elaborate classist conspiracy, most recently Australian author Edward Docker, whose book Furphies: Fact or Fantasy in Australian History champions this view. These authors are bedazzled by the audacity of Orton and the sheer bulk of evidence cited in his defence, believing it too improbable that anyone would attempt such an audacious deception. They fail to put the Tichborne Claimant affair in its proper historical context, Arthur Orton was not the first or last of the world’s great impostors. Before him was Carl Frederick Naundorph, a German impostor who claimed to be the Dauphin, son and heir of King Louis and Marie Antoinette who perished in the dungeons of the French Revolution. After Orton came Anna Anderson, another German impostor and fantasist who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II, who was murdered with his family in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Neither could speak their alleged mother tongues and both achieved equal if not greater fame and controversy than their colleague Arthur Orton. All had a similar modus operandi and were able to convince scores of respected people they were who they claimed using the following seven tools of misinformation:
Who Was Arthur Orton? Much like Roger Tichborne, Arthur Orton had a secluded early life. Unable to attend school on a regular basis due to a nervous condition known as St. Vitus’ Dance he developed inwardly which resulted in an active imagination. Although historians dismiss him as almost illiterate and a ignoramus the truth is opposite — although his education was rudimentary he was a fast learner and made up for scholastic deficiencies with a cunning intellect and natural talent for rhetoric. His father, George Orton, had been a respectable butcher on High Street, Wapping, with a large family consisting of eight sons: Thomas, Charles, George, William, Robert, Alfred, Edmond and Arthur along with four daughters: Elizabeth Ann, Margaret Ann, Mary Ann and Matilda. Arthur was the youngest son, born on the 20th of March 1834. It was on his father’s insistence that as a teenager he became apprenticed to Captain Brooks of the 160 ton brig Ocean, in hopes the sea would cure his emotional condition. However the hardships of life at sea were too much for the lad to handle and he jumped ship in Valparaiso, Chile, in1849. He wandered forlornly into the town of Melipilla where locals took pity on the crestfallen sailor boy who told them he had jumped ship due to bastardization. An English doctor by the name of Hayley took him into his home and with his Chilean wife cared for the lad for several months until he decided to return to Valparaiso and catch a ship home in 1851. He resumed work in his father’s butcher shop alongside his brothers, settled down and became engaged to local girl Mary Ann Loder. He was an affable, charismatic man with a strong, albeit intangible, belief in himself. He was a hard worker and legendary in the slaughter yard, where he could kill and butcher a bovine in a remarkably short period of time. However in Victorian society the butcher was the lowest rung of the working class and Arthur wanted more from life, seemed dissatisfied with the lot, had delusions of grandeur. From an early age he would delude himself and others by hinting that he was born of a titled family whose name he had to keep secret, and that one day he would inherit great wealth. He left a secure future in London to create a new life for himself in Australia — along the way he became an outlaw, sheep stealer and changed identities frequently, until arriving in Wagga Wagga as Thomas Castro where fate placed the Tichborne identity in reach. Orton’s whole life had been primed for such an opportunity, like a key sliding into a lock it felt natural, preordained to him. The Confession Arthur Orton was released from prison in 1884 a changed man, his family and friends had all vanished long before and the years spent in prison had seen him become a Christian. In his cell he spent idle time reading and meditating on the scriptures, lamenting all the errors he had made during his life. On release he wanted to get right with God and society and so penned a confession, in which he we wrote:
Although a great deal of disdain has been vented at him over the years he was in his heart a decent man, in his confession he never took revenge on those who had betrayed, used and abandoned him. Historians are in no doubt the Tichborne Claimant affair was an elaborate fraud from the outset, that Andrew Bogle coached him, introduced him to people who could help and that others jumped onboard to further their agendas. However the only reference he made to that was he “had been badly used” and never implicated others (living or dead). He accepted full responsibility for his actions and apologized to the swindled public and Tichborne family who had been made to look like traitors to their blood. In typically flamboyant style Orton retracted his confession when the opportunity of taking to the music hall stage arose, performing a pitiable parody of himself as “The Tichborne Claimant” which often resulted in him being pelted with fruit. Arthur Orton died on April Fools Day 1898 aged 64, a lonely, tragic figure. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Paddington Cemetery, London, and in a fitting last act had Sir Roger Tichborne’s initials engraved on his casket. Although there is a great deal about him we will never know, one thing is certain, Arthur Orton was certainly a more complex and interesting man then the real Sir Roger was or would ever likely have become had he lived, it’s a pity he took his secrets to the grave. Winners & Losers There were no winners in the Tichborne Claimant affair — all were losers by varying degrees, the deserving loser was of course Arthur Orton who spent a decade in the horrendous Victorian penal system doing hard labor. He was exploited by his key supporters and associated hangers on who milked the affair for self enrichment and to further other agendas. His entourage raised tens of thousands of pounds for his legal bids and embezzled most of it. What wasn’t pilfered was squandered by Orton himself on a lavish lifestyle, a rich living which saw his weight balloon to crippling proportions. He was bankrupt before the end of the trial by debts accumulated over the preceding eight years so enormous that had he won the case bailiffs would have confiscated and liquidated the Tichborne Estate leaving him penniless. Was it ego, delusion or blind ambition which made him to dig an inescapably deep hole for himself? Due to the dowager Lady Tichborne’s dementia or vindictive nature the Tichborne family itself were the principal losers. Although they won the case and their ancient ancestral estates were secure, financially it was another matter — they had been depleted a significantly. The Tichborne Estates annual income was £15.000 and its legal costs alone were in excess of £91.677, the preceding expenditure on investigators, lawyers and sundry expenses would probably double that figure. Prior to the claimant’s arrival on the scene the estate had been seriously undermined financially by Sir Alfred Tichborne, brother of Sir Roger, who lived outrageously extravagantly and died of rich living owing money lenders a great deal. Trustees had to restructure estate finances to save it, enabling his infant son Henry to inherit Tichborne Park on a sound footing. Having to spend a fortune more defending it from Arthur Orton was a burden they could have done without. The cost of the Tichborne Claimant affair to the British, Chilean and Australian taxpayers who had to foot the bill for court costs, international commissions of inquiry, etc., was tabulated by Mark Twain at US$400,000, millions of dollars in todays value; it was until recently the longest running action in British legal history, per capita it remains the most expensive. John Godl archive@collector.org _______________________________________________________________________ Bibliography and Sources:
Footnote: Although the Tichborne Baronetcy became extinct in the 1960s the family still owns stately Tichborne Hall in Hampshire, and finds the Claimant affair a fascinating chapter of their family history. A member of the family now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and visited Wagga Wagga several years ago where she was warmly received by locals still fascinated by an event which made Wagga Wagga internationally famous. Descendants of the Arthur Orton and his family still live in the UK, although branches of that large clan live as far afield as Australia and the US. They are in agreement that the claimant was their ancestor Arthur Orton, son of George Orton of Wapping, and for generations have been amazed anyone could have thought otherwise. Andrew Bogle, like Mary Ann Orton, ended up spending the remainder of his life in the work house. He has direct descendants in England and Australia. In the land of his birth, Jamaica, he has many more distant relations and the Bogle clan is well known there. The name Bogle originated in Scotland and was adopted by African slaves in Jamaica, probably derived from an old slave master or owner in the 18th century. | |
See also: | |
 |  |
| On This Day in Snigglery | August 3, 1997: Mary Schmich writes a column expressing bemusement that another column of hers has been circulating widely on the internet impersonating a commencement address by Kurt Vonnegut. (See Forgeries for more of this sort of thing) |
|---|---|
 |