Tichborne case

Sir Roger Tichborne (* January 5, 1829, † April 1854 ) was the eldest son and heir of Sir James Doughty - Tichbornes, the 10th Baronet, a British nobleman.

Life

The Tichbornes, established before the Norman Conquest in Tichborne, a village in southern England, Hampshire, were among the few aristocratic families who had clung to their Catholic faith about the Reformation beyond. Lady Tichborne was half French girl ( she was from a collateral line of the Bourbons ). Her marriage to Sir James was unhappy, and she hated life in England. She wanted her son Roger growing up in France, but he was sent by the Father according to Stonyhurst, a then well-known and elite, led by the Jesuit Catholic Public School. After a brief career in the army and an unhappy love affair with his cousin, Katherine Doughty, Sir Roger wanted to emigrate to South America. In April 1854 he broke onto the "Bella" from Rio de Janeiro to Kingston ( Jamaica). The ship never arrived; it was suspected that it was gone down and there were no survivors.

After the death

Lady Tichborne refused to accept the death of his son. She believed rumors that another ship had taken survivor of the "Bella" on board and brought to Australia. After the death of her husband in 1862, she began to advertise in newspapers to obtain information about the fate of her son. In May 1865 came with Arthur Cubitt in contact, the owner of an Australian agency that sought to missing. The banishment of criminals to Australia was completed only in the 1850s, the land was full of people who tried to hide their identity. Lady Tichborne instructed the Agency to search for her son. It was about an annual income of 20,000 pounds at Tichborne, that was almost an invitation for impostor. A butcher named Arthur Orton ( born March 20, 1834 in Wapping, London, † April 1, 1898 ) in New South Wales declared at once that he was in fact Roger Tichborne, and survived the sinking of the " Bella ".

In January, wrote in 1866 of " candidate " as he was now generally called, his first letter to Lady Tichborne. It resembled the attempts at writing of an illiterate, whereas Roger Tichborne was twelve years earlier, an educated man. Nevertheless, as Orton came to Sydney, some wanted the candidate to recognize as Roger Tichborne, including an old black servant of the Tichborne family. Those who wanted to believe him, even as reflecting circumstance in importance, that he had only under the pressure of the agent Cubitt and Gibbes, a turned- lawyer who revealed his true identity.

Even before Lady Tichborne had sent the money for his passage, the candidate had embarked with his wife and children to England, where he arrived Christmas 1866. From there he traveled to Paris, where he met Lady Tichborne, which confirmed him as their son. She died the following year.

Now, the story made headlines. It was spread to countless newspaper pages and provoked strong but conflicting emotions. The rest of the family rejected the candidate returned as an impostor, without having seen him. For many this material interests played a role, but he threatened her inheritance rights.

But regardless they would not accept the uncouth and uneducated fellows from the Australian Outback as relatives. Within two years after his arrival in England of 180 kg was thick; the real Roger Tichborne had been against a slender, elegant man. Opponents of the candidate also pointed out that no one had recognized him from the Tichborne family except his eccentric mother. And his supporters could have adequate information about the family history it is now to allow the maintenance of the fraud.

The following trial Orton / Tichborn caused a great sensation in England in the 19th century. As a result of numerous, far-fetched protection and prosecution witnesses, and the moves of lawyers he took a long time and cost the Orton supporters around 60,000 British pounds, but Orton was born in 1872 but declared an impostor and 1874 sentenced in prison for double perjury to 14 years.

Meyers encyclopedia from 1888, wrote: " Although as the castaways quite dissimilar in the trials of the Tichborne claimant, moreover, proved crude and uneducated, the agitation for it was also after his conviction as for some time both in Tichborne meetings and newspaper articles continued in the Parliament. As Orton but was released from prison in 1884, the interest was extinguished for him. "