it became notorious that the mother was prepared to receive any one
kindly who professed to have news of her son, and naturally when the
story once got wind there were many who tried to profit by her
credulity. Among other adventurers, a tramp in the dress of a sailor
found his way to Tichborne, and, having poured into the willing ears
of the poor mother a wild story about some of the survivors of the
"Bella" being picked up off the coast of Brazil, and carried to
Melbourne, was forthwith regaled and rewarded. There is a freemasonry
among beggars which sufficiently explains the fact, that very soon the
appearance of ragged sailors in Tichborne Park became common. Sailors
with one leg, and sailors with one arm, loud-voiced, blustering
seamen, and seamen whose troubles had subdued their tones to a
plaintive key, all found their way to the back door of the great
house. Every one of them had heard something about the "Bella's" crew
being picked up; and could tell more on that subject than all the
owners, or underwriters, or shipping registers in the world. And poor
Lady Tichborne believed, as is evidenced by a letter of hers written
in 1857, only three years after the shipwreck, to a gentleman in
Melbourne, imploring him to make inquiries for her son in that part of
the world. Sir James, however, though no less sorrowful, had no faith;
and he made short work of tramping sailors who came to impose on the
poor lady with their unsubstantial legends. But Sir James died in
1862. Shortly before this event his only surviving son Alfred had
married Theresa, a daughter of the eleventh Lord Arundel of Wardour.
This, however, did not prevent the mother, in one of her crazy moods,
taking a step calculated to induce some impostor to come forward and
claim to be the rightful heir--which was the insertion of an
advertisement in the _Times_, offering a reward for the discovery of
her eldest son, and giving a number of particulars with regard to his
birth, parentage, age, date and place of shipwreck, name of vessel,
and other matters. She also incorporated in her advertisement the
stories of the tramping sailors about his having been picked up and
carried to Melbourne; and this mischievous advertisement was published
in various languages, and doubtless copied in the South American and
Australian newspapers. This is the first step we find towards the
formation of the imposture.
Time rolled on, and no Roger, true or false, made his appearance. One
day the Dowager happened to see in a newspaper a mention of the fact
that there was in Sydney a man named Cubitt, who kept what he called a
"Missing Friends' Office." To Cubitt accordingly she wrote a long
rambling letter, in which, among other tokens of her state of mind,
she gave a grossly incorrect account of her son's appearance, and even
of his age; but Cubitt was to insert her long advertisement in the
Australian papers, and he was promised a handsome reward. Cubitt, in
reply, amused the poor lady with vague reports of her son being found
in the capacity of a private soldier in New Zealand; and as there was
war there at that time the poor lady wrote back in an agony of terror
to entreat that he might be bought out of the regiment. Mr. Cubitt soon
perceived the singular person he had to deal with; and his letters
from that time were largely occupied with requests for money for
services which had no existence out of the letters. At last came more
definite information. A Mr. Gibbes, an attorney at the little town of
Wagga-Wagga, two hundred miles inland from Sydney, had, he said, found
the real Roger living "in a humble station of life," and under an
assumed name. Again money was wanted. Then Gibbes, apparently
determined to steal a march on Cubitt, wrote directly to the credulous
lady, and there was much correspondence between them. At first there
were some little difficulties. The man who, after a certain amount of
coyness, had pleaded guilty to being the long-lost heir, still held
aloof in a strange way, concealed his present name and occupation, and
instead of going home at once, preferred to bargain for his return
through the medium of an attorney and the keeper of a missing-friends'
office. All this, however, did not shake the faith of Lady Tichborne.
Then he gave accounts of himself which did not in the least tally with
the facts of Roger's life. He said he was born in Dorsetshire, whereas
Roger was born in Paris; he accounted for being an illiterate man by
saying that he had suffered greatly in childhood from St. Vitus's
dance, which had interfered with his studies. "My son," says Lady
Tichborne, in reply, "never had St. Vitus's dance." When asked if he
had not been in the army, he replied, "Yes," but that he did not know
much about it, because he had merely enlisted as a private soldier "in
the Sixty-sixth Blues," and had been "bought off" by his father after
only thirteen days' service. What ship did you leave Europe in?
inquired Mr. Gibbes, with a view of sending further tokens of identity
to the Dowager. To this inquiry, Roger Tichborne might have been
expected to answer in "La Pauline," but, as was shown in the trial,
this mysterious person replied, in "The Jessie Miller." "And when did
she sail?" "On the 28th of November, 1852," was the reply; whereas
Roger sailed on the 1st of March, 1853. Asked as to where he was
educated, the long-lost heir replied, "At a school in Southampton,"
where Roger never was at school. But it happened that Lady Tichborne
in a letter to Mr. Gibbes had said that her son was for three years at
the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, in Lancashire; Mr. Gibbes accordingly
suggested to the client "in a humble station of life," that his memory
was at fault on that point, but the client maintained his ground. "Did
she say he had been at Stonyhurst College? If so, it was false;" and,
he added, with an oath, "I have a good mind never to go near her again
for telling such a story." Yet this strange person was able to confirm
the entire story of the tramping sailors. He _had_ embarked in the
"Bella," he _had_ been picked up at sea with other survivors in a boat
off the coast of Brazil, and it was quite true that he was landed with
them in Melbourne. In short, he corroborated the Dowager's long
advertisement in every particular; but beyond that he had nothing of
the slightest importance to tell which was not absurdly incorrect. His
replies, however, were forwarded to the Lady Tichborne, with pressing
requests to send £200, then £250, and finally £400, to enable the lost
heir to pay his debts--an indispensable condition of his leaving the
colony. It is evident that the statements thus reported puzzled the
poor lady a little, and she seems to have been unable to account for
the lost heir sending his kind remembrance to his "grandpa," because
Roger's' paternal grandfather died before he was born; and his
grandfather by the mother's side had also died several years before
Roger left England, as the young man knew well enough. She was clearly
a little surprised to hear that the resuscitated Roger did not
understand a word of French, for "my son," she says, "was born in
Paris, and spoke French better than English." But yet, with the
strange pertinacity which causes people to cling to that which they
know to be wrong, and try to force themselves into belief of its
truth, she believed in the _bona-fides_ of the claimant for maternal
solicitude and the paternal acres. "I fancied," she said in one letter
to Gibbes, "that the photographies you sent me are like him, but of
course after thirteen years' absence there must have been some
difference in the shape, as Roger was very slim; but," she added, "I
suppose all those large clothes would make him appear bigger than he
is." Again, alluding to the "photographies," she remarks that at least
the hand in the portrait is small, and adds, "that peculiar thing has
done a good deal with me to make me recognise him. A year and a half
was consumed in these tedious hagglings with brokers and agents for
the restoration of a lost heir, and during great part of that time the
lost heir himself made no sign, but contented himself with begging
trifling loans of Gibbes on the strength of his pretensions. Sometimes
a pound was the modest request; sometimes more. He had married, and a
child was born, and on that occasion he implored for "three pound,"
plaintively declaring that he was "more like a mannick than a B. of
B.K. (supposed to mean a Baronet of British Kingdom) to have a child
born in such a hovel." Still the new man wrapped himself in
impenetrable secrecy. The Dowager Lady Tichborne complained that while
pressed to send everybody money, she was not even allowed to know the
whereabouts nor present name of her lost Roger; and she entreated
piteously to be allowed to communicate more directly. It was nothing
to her that the accounts the pretender had given of Roger's life were
wrong in every particular, except where her own advertisement had
furnished information. I think she said on this point, "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." In
the midst of this curious correspondence trouble once more entered the
old home at Tichborne. Sir Alfred, the younger brother of Roger, was
dead, and the poor half-crazed mother in a solitary lodging in her
loved Paris was left more than ever desolate. Widowed and childless,
she had nothing now but to brood over her sorrows, and cling to the
old dream of the miraculous saving of her eldest born, who, since the
terrible hour of shipwreck--now twelve years past--had given no real
token of existence. The position of affairs at Tichborne was
remarkable, for though there were hopes of an heir to Tichborne, Sir
Alfred had left no child. Should the child--unborn, but already
fatherless--prove to be a girl, or other mischance befall, there was
an end of the old race of Tichborne. The property would then go to
collaterals, and the baronetcy must become extinct. It was under the
weight of these new sorrows that the Dowager Lady Tichborne wrote
pitiable letters to Gibbes, promising money and asking for more
particulars; while enclosing at the same time to the man who thus so
unaccountably kept himself aloof a letter beginning, "My dear and
beloved Roger, I hope you will not refuse to come back to your poor
afflicted mother. I have had the great misfortune to lose your poor
dear father, and lately I have lost my beloved son Alfred. I am now
alone in this world of sorrow, and I hope you will take that into
consideration, and come back." It is hardly surprising that during
this time Mr. Gibbes was constantly urging his mysterious client to
relinquish his disguise. Why not write to the mother and mention some
facts known only to those two which would at once convince her? True,
he had already mentioned "facts," which turned out to be fictions, and
yet the Dowager's faith was unabated. Mr. Gibbes's client was therefore
justified in his answer, that he "did not think it needful." But
Gibbes was pressing, for it happened that the Dowager had in one of
her letters said, "I shall expect an answer from him. As I know his
handwriting, I shall know at once whether it is him." Accordingly we
find the Claimant, under the direction of Mr. Gibbes, penning this:--
"WAGGA-WAGGA, _Jan_. 17 66.
MY DEAR MOTHER,--The delay which has taken place since my
last Letter Dated 22d April 54 Makes it very difficult to
Commence this Letter. I deeply regret the truble and
anxoiety I must have cause you by not writing before. But
they are known to my Attorney And the more private details I
will keep for your own Ear. Of one thing rest Assured that
although I have been in A humble conditoin of Life I have
never let any act disgrace you or my Family. I have been A
poor Man and nothing worse Mr. Gilbes suggest to me as
essential. That I should recall to your Memory things which
can only be known to you and me to convince you of my
Idenitity I dont thing it needful my dear Mother, although I
sind them Mamely the Brown Mark on my side. And the Card
Case at Brighton. I can assure you My Dear Mother I have
keep your promice ever since. In writing to me please
enclose your letter to Mr. Gilbes to prevent unnesersery
enquiry as I do not wish any person to know me in this
Country. When I take my proper prosition and title. Having
therefore mad up my mind to return and face the Sea once
more I must request to send me the Means of doing so and
paying a fue outstranding debts. I would return by the
overland Mail. The passage Money and other expences would be
over two Hundred pound, for I propose Sailing from Victoria
not this colonly And to Sail from Melbourne in my own Name.
Now to annable me to do this my dear Mother you must send
me"--
The half-sheet is torn off at this point, but it has been stated by
Lady Tichborne's solicitor, who saw it when complete, that the ending
originally contained the words "How's Grandma?" This must have again
puzzled the Dowager, for Roger had no "Grandma" living when he went
away. The date "22d April 54" was also incorrect, for the "Bella"
sailed on April 20th. But there were other difficulties; Lady
Tichborne had never seen, and, what is more, had never heard of any
brown mark on her son Roger; she could say nothing about the "card
case at Brighton" (which referred, according to Mr. Gibbes, to the
Claimant's assertion that he had left England in consequence of having
been swindled out of £1500 by Johnny and Harry Broome, prize-fighters,
and others at Brighton races); and lastly, the anxious mother could
not recognise the handwriting. The Australian correspondent was
somewhat disappointed that the mother did not at once acknowledge him
as her son. But the Dowager soon declared her unabated faith; sent
small sums and then larger, and finally made up her mind to forward
the four hundred pounds. Meanwhile she sent to him, as well as to her
other Australian correspondents, much family information. Among other
things she told him that there was a man named Guilfoyle at Sydney,
who had been gardener for many years at Upton and Tichborne, and
another man in the same town named Andrew Bogle, a black man, who had
been in the service of Sir Edward. Mr. Gibbes's client lost no time in
finding out both these persons, and soon became pretty well primed. It
was shortly after this period that it became known in Victoria and New
South Wales that there was a man named Thomas Castro, living in
Wagga-Wagga as a journeyman slaughter-man and butcher, who was going to
England to lay claim to the baronetcy and estates of Tichborne. From
the letters and other facts it is manifest that it was originally
intended to keep all this secret even from the Dowager. "He wishes,"
says his attorney, Mr. Gibbes, "that his present identity should be
totally disconnected from his future." It happened that one Cator, a
Wagga-Wagga friend of the Claimant, whose letters show him to have
been a coarse-minded and illiterate man, was leaving for England
shortly before the time that Castro had determined to embark. Whether
invited or not Cator was not unlikely to favour his friend with a
visit in the new and flourishing condition which appeared to await him
in that country. Perhaps to make a virtue of necessity, Castro gave to
Cator a sealed envelope, bearing outside the words, "To be open when
at sea," and inside a note which ran as follows:--
"WAGGA-WAGGA, _April 2nd_, 1866.
Mr. Cater,--At any time wen you are in England you should
feel enclined for a month pleasure Go to Tichborne, in
Hampshire, Enquire for Sir Roger Charles Tichborne,
Tichborne-hall, Tichborne, And you will find One that will
make you a welcome guest. But on no account Mension the Name
of Castro or Alude to me being a Married Man, or that I have
being has a Butcher. You will understand me, I have no
doubt. Yours truely, Thomas Castro. I Sail by the June
Mail."
All this secrecy, however, was soon given up as impracticable for
articles in the Melbourne, Wagga-Wagga, and Sydney journals, quickly
brought the news to England, and finally Castro determined to take
with him his wife and family. One of his earliest steps was to take
into his service the old black man Bogle, and pay the passage-money
both of himself and his son to Europe with him. Certain relics of
Upton and of Tichborne which the Claimant forwarded to a banker at
Wagga-Wagga from whom he was trying to obtain advances, were described
by the Claimant himself as brought over by "my uncle Valet who is now
living with me." The bankers, however, were cautious; and "declined to
make loans." Nevertheless, the Claimant had the good fortune to
convince a Mr. Long, who was in Sydney, and had seen Roger "when a boy
of ten years old riding in Tichborne Park," and accordingly this
gentleman advanced him a considerable sum. Finally the Claimant
embarked aboard the "Rakaia," on his way to France _viâ_ Panama, and
accompanied by his family, and attended by old Bogle, his son, and a
youthful secretary, left Sydney on September 2d, 1866, and was
expected by the Dowager in Paris within two months from that date. But
nearly four months elapsed, and there were no tidings. Between
Christmas day and New Year's eve of 1866, there arrived in Alresford a
mysterious stranger, who put up at the Swan Hotel in that little town,
and said that his name was Taylor. He was a man of bulk and eccentric
attire. He wrapped himself in large greatcoats, muffled his neck and
chin in thick shawls, and wore a cap with a peak of unusual
dimensions, which, when it was pulled down, covered a considerable
portion of his features. The stranger, at first very reserved, soon
showed signs of coming out of his shell. He sent for Rous, the
landlord, and had a chat with him, in the course of which he asked
Rous to take him the next day for a drive round the neighbourhood of
Tichborne. Rous complied, and the innkeeper, chatting all the way on
local matters, showed his guest Tichborne village, Tichborne park and
house, the church, the mill, the village of Cheriton, and all else
that was worth seeing in that neighbourhood. In fact, Mr. Taylor became
very friendly with Rous, invited him to drink in his room, and then
confided to him an important secret--which, however, was by this time
no secret at all, for Mr. Rous had just observed upon his guest's
portmanteau the initials "R.C.T." Indeed it was already suspected in
the smoking-room of the Swan that the enormous stranger was the
long-expected heir. Suspicion became certainty when the stranger
telegraphed for Bogle, and that faithful black, once familiar in the
streets of Alresford, suddenly made his appearance there, began
reconnoitring the house at Tichborne, contrived to get inside the old
home, to learn that it had been let by the trustees of the infant
baronet to a gentleman named Lushington, and to examine carefully the
position of the old and new pictures hanging on the walls. This done,
the stranger and his black attendant disappeared as suddenly as they
had come. But the news spread abroad, and reached many persons who
were interested. Roger's numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins heard of
the sudden appearance of the long-expected Australian claimant. The
Dowager in Paris, the mother of the infant, then at Ryde, all heard
the news; and finally Mr. Gosford, Roger's dearest and most intimate
friend and confidant, then in North Wales, got intelligence, and
hastened to London to ascertain if the joyful news could be true.
But the enormous individual had vanished again. The circumstance was
strange. Bogle had written letters from Australia declaring that this
was the identical gentleman he had known years before as Mr. Roger
Tichborne when a visitor at Sir Edward's; and the Dowager had declared
herself satisfied. But why did the long-lost Roger hold aloof? No one
could tell. There was no reason for such conduct, and so suspicion was
engendered. With infinite pains Mr. Gosford and a gentleman connected
with the Tichborne family ascertained that the person who had figured
as Mr. Taylor at the Swan had taken apartments for himself and his
family at a hotel near Manchester Square, and that he had even been
there since Christmas day. But once more the clue was lost. Sir Roger
Tichborne had gone away with his wife and children, and left no one
there but Bogle and his secretary. Then by chance Mr. Gosford
discovered that "Sir Roger" was staying at the Clarendon Hotel,
Gravesend. Forthwith Mr. Gosford, with the gentleman referred to, and
Mr. Cullington, the solicitor, went to the Clarendon Hotel at
Gravesend, where, after long waiting in the hall, they saw a stout
person muffled, and wearing a peaked cap over the eyes, who, having
glanced at the party suspiciously, rushed past them, hurried upstairs,
and locked himself in a room. In vain the party sent up cards, in vain
they followed and tapped at the door. The stout person would not open,
and the party descended to the coffee-room, where soon afterwards they
received a mysterious note, concluding:--"pardon me gentlemen but I
did not wish any-one to know where I was staying with my family. And
was much annoyed to see you all here." Lady Tichborne herself had
failed to recognise in the letters from Wagga-Wagga the handwriting
of her son, and Mr. Gosford was equally unsuccessful. The party
therefore left the house after warning the landlord that he had for a
guest an "impostor and a rogue." Still the idea that his old friend,
who had made him his executor and the depositary of his most secret
wishes, could have come back again alive, however changed, was too
pleasing to be abandoned by Mr. Gosford, even on such evidence.
Accordingly, by arrangement with an attorney named Holmes, he went
down again, and, more successful this time, had conversation with the
stranger who called himself Roger. But nothing about the features of
the man brought back to him any recollection, and subsequent
interviews but confirmed the first impression.
Meanwhile, Lady Tichborne had learned that he whom she called Roger
had arrived in England; and she wrote letters imploring him to come to
her, to which the Claimant, who had not been in London more than a
fortnight, answered, that he was "prevented by circumstances!" and
added, "Oh! Do come over and see me at once." On the very day after
the date of this letter, however, he arrived in Paris, accompanied by
a man whose acquaintance he had made in a billiard room, and by Mr.
Holmes, the attorney to whom his casual acquaintance had introduced
him. The party put up at an hotel in the Rue St. Honoré. They knew Lady
Tichborne's address in the Place de la Madeleine, scarcely five
minutes' walk from their hotel; but they had arrived somewhat late,
and "Sir Roger" paid no visit to his mother that day. Lady Tichborne
had in the meantime consulted her brother and others on the subject,
but though the opinions given by them were adverse to the claims of
the impostor, she only became more fixed in her ideas. Early the
morning after the Claimant's arrival, she sent her Irish servant, John
Coyne, to the hotel in the Rue St. Honoré with a pressing message, but
was told that "Sir Roger" was not well; his mistress, dissatisfied
with that message, sent him again, whereupon "Sir Roger" came out of
his bedroom and walked past him "slowly and with his head down,"
bidding him at the same time go and tell his mamma that he was not
able to come to her; and his mistress, still more dissatisfied, then
directed her servant "to take a cab immediately and fetch her son."
Coyne then went a third time and found "Sir Roger" with his attorney
and his casual acquaintance sitting at breakfast, but was again
unsuccessful. Lady Tichborne that afternoon went herself to the hotel,
and was then permitted to see her son in a darkened chamber, and in
the presence of his attorney and friend. "Sir Roger," said Coyne, who
tells the story, "was lying on the bed with his back turned to us and
his face to the wall," and he added that while he was in that
position, his mistress leaned over and kissed Sir Roger on the mouth,
observing at the same time that "he looked like his father, though his
ears were like his uncle's." Then "Sir Roger" having remarked that he
was "nearly stifled," Lady Tichborne directed Coyne to "take off her
son's coat and undo his braces;" which duties the faithful domestic
accomplished with some difficulty, while at the same time he "managed
to pull him over as well as he could." Upon this Mr. Holmes, solemnly
standing up, addressed John Coyne in the words: "You are a witness
that Lady Tichborne recognises her son," and John Coyne having
replied, "And so are you," the ceremony of recognition was complete.
Soon after this it was rumoured in the neighbourhood of Alresford,
that the Dowager Lady Tichborne had acknowledged the stranger as her
lost son Roger; that she had determined to allow the repentant
wanderer £1000 a year; and that he was going to take a house at
Croydon pending his entering into the possession of the Tichborne
estates. There happened then to be living in Alresford a gentleman
named Hopkins. He had been solicitor to the Tichborne family, but they
had long ceased to employ him. He had also been a trustee of the
Doughty estates, but had been compelled to resign that position, at
which he had expressed much chagrin. Hopkins had an acquaintance named
Baignet at Winchester, an eccentric person of an inquisitive turn.
Both these began at this time to busy themselves greatly in the
matter of the Tichborne Claimant, who, on his next visit to Alresford,
was accordingly invited to stay at Mr. Hopkins's house. From that time
Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Baignet became active partisans of the Claimant's
cause. Hopkins had not been the solicitor of Roger Tichborne, but he
had seen him occasionally from fifteen to twenty years previously; and
he made an affidavit, that "though he could not recall the expression
of Roger Tichborne's features," he had no doubt, from the knowledge
which the Claimant had shown of the neighbourhood of Tichborne and of
family matters, that he was the same person. All Alresford may, in
fact, be said to have been converted; the bells were rung on the
Claimant's arrival there; and Colonel Lushington, the tenant of
Tichborne house, invited the Australian stranger and his wife to stay
with him there. Colonel Lushington had never seen Roger Tichborne, but
he has explained that he was impressed by his visitor's knowledge of
the old pictures on the walls, which, it will be remembered, Bogle had
been sent by "Mr. Taylor" to reconnoitre. When the news came that "Sir
Roger's wife," on a visit with her husband to Col. Lushington, had had
a child baptised in the chapel at Tichborne, while Mr. Anthony
Biddulph, another convert, and a remote connection of the Tichborne
family, had become godfather, the bells of Alresford rang louder; and
nobody seemed for a moment to doubt the right of the Claimant to the
estates and title. Still it was felt strange that "Sir Roger" went
near none of his old friends. He had left Paris without an effort to
see his former circle of acquaintances. Chatillon, his early tutor,
had been brought by the Dowager there to see him; but Chatillon had
said, "Madame, this is not your son!" Neither the Abbé Salis, nor
Roger's dear old instructor, Father Lefevre, nor Gossein, the faithful
valet, who had played with him from childhood, and had known him well
as a man, nor, indeed, any person in Paris who had been acquainted
with Roger Tichborne, received a visit. In England the facts were the
same. The stranger would go nowhere, and at last it began to be
believed that he was afraid of detection.
Active measures were meanwhile in preparation for those legal
proceedings which have, within the past three years, occupied so large
a share of public attention. Mr. Holmes and many others were busy in
procuring information. The voluminous will of Roger Tichborne, setting
forth a mass of particulars about the family property, was examined at
Doctors' Commons. Then there were records of proceedings in the
Probate Court and in Chancery relating to the Tichborne estates, of
which copies were procured. The Horse Guards furnished the
indefatigable attorney with minute and precise statements of the
movements of the Carabineers during Roger Tichborne's service, and of
the dates of every leave of absence and return. Then the Dowager's
attorney procured from Stonyhurst lists of the professors and
officials during Roger's three years' study there; and finally, the
books of Lloyd's and the "Merchant Seamen's Register" were searched
for information about the movements of the "Pauline," the "Bella," and
other vessels. Coincident with these researches, there was a marked
improvement in the Claimant's knowledge of the circumstances of what
he alleged to be his own past life. There was no mention now of "the
Sixty-sixth Blues," or of having been a private soldier; no denial,
with or without an oath, of having been at Stonyhurst; no allusion to
any other of the numerous statements he had made to Mr. Gibbes on those
points. Then converts began to multiply, but not among the Tichborne
family, or in any other circle that had known Roger very intimately.
Affidavits, however, increased in number. People related wonderful
instances of things the Claimant reminded them of, and which had
happened in the past. On the one hand, these facts were regarded as
"genuine efforts of memory;" on the other, they were stigmatised as
the result of an organized system of extracting information from one
person, and playing it off upon another.
At the end of July 1867, there was a public examination of the
Claimant in Chancery, at which, for the first time, he made generally
known that famous account of his alleged wreck and--escape in one of
the boats of the "Bella," with eight other persons, which, with some
variations, he has since maintained. It was then that, in answer to
questions, he stated that he was not certain of the name of the vessel
that picked him up, but was "under the impression that it was the
'Osprey.'" He also said that her captain's name was "Owen Lewis, or
Lewis Owen," but he was "not certain," though he said that three
months elapsed between the date of his being saved and his being
landed in Melbourne in July 1854. Besides these, the most remarkable
points in his examination were his statements that, on the very next
day after his arrival, he was engaged by a Mr. William Foster, of
Boisdale, an extensive farmer in Gippsland, to look after cattle; and
that he henceforward lived in obscurity in Australia under the name of
Thomas Castro. The name of Thomas Castro, he added, had occurred to
him because, during his travels in South America, he had known a
person so named at Melipilla, in Chili.
Mr. Gosford was also examined on that occasion, with results which had
an important influence on the progress of the great _cause célèbre_.
Some time before that gentleman had been induced to have one more
interview with the Claimant in the presence of two of his most
influential supporters, who thereupon requested Mr. Gosford to test
their _protégé_ by asking him about some private matter between him
and his friend Roger in the past. Thus challenged Mr. Gosford naturally
bethought him of the sealed paper, in which Roger had recorded his
intention of building a chapel or church at Tichborne, and dedicating
it to the Virgin, in the event of his marrying his cousin within three
years; and he therefore requested the Claimant to declare, if he
could, what were the contents of a certain packet marked "private"
which Roger left in his hands when he went away. Having obtained no
definite answer, Mr. Gosford, for the sake of fairness, went a step
further, and said that it recorded an intention "to carry out an
arrangement at Tichborne in the event of his marrying a certain lady."
Still there was no answer; and thereupon Mr. Gosford, declaring that
the whole interview "was idle," left the place. That packet,
unfortunately, was no longer in existence. Some years after Roger
Tichborne's death appeared to be beyond all doubt, Mr. Gosford had
simply burnt it, regarding it as a document which it would be useless,
and which he had no right, to keep, and yet one which, on the other
hand, he should not be justified in giving up to any living person.
The fact of its being burnt he had for obvious reasons concealed, but
being now asked on the subject he was compelled to state the
circumstance. It is remarkable that, on the very morrow of that
disclosure, the Claimant for the first time made a statement to his
supporter, Mr. Bulpett, as to the packet. It may be supposed that Mr.
Bulpett and the Claimant's friends generally were inclined to draw
unfavourable inferences from his apparent ignorance of the contents of
the packet. He now, however, declared that not ignorance of its
contents, but delicacy and forbearance towards Mrs. Radcliffe, had
alone prevented his answering Mr. Gosford's test question. Mr. Gosford,
he said, was right. It did relate to "an arrangement to be carried out
at Tichborne," but an arrangement of a very painful kind. Then it was
that he wrote out the terrible charge against the lady whom Roger had
loved so well--confessing, it is true, his own diabolical wickedness,
but at the same time casting upon her the cruellest of imputations.
This, he said, was what he had sealed up and given to Mr. Gosford. Mr.
Bulpett, the banker, put his initials solemnly to the document, and
within a few months all Hampshire had whispered the wicked story. It
is to be observed that, during all this time, no word had been spoken
by the Claimant of his having confided to Mr. Gosford a vow to build a
church. Four years later, when under examination, he was asked whether
he had ever left any other private document with Mr. Gosford, and he
answered, "I think not." Then it was that counsel produced the copy of
the vow to build the church in Roger Tichborne's hand, which he had
fortunately given to his cousin on the sorrowful day of their last
parting; and finally there was found and read aloud the letter of
Roger Tichborne to Mr. Gosford, dated January 17th, 1852, in which
occur the precious words, "I have written out my will, and left it
with Mr. Slaughter; the only thing which I have left out is about the
church, which I will only build under the circumstances which I have
left with you in writing." Happily these facts render it unnecessary
to enter upon the question, Whether this story was not wholly
irreconcilable, both with itself and with the ascertained dates and
facts in Roger Tichborne's career?
The estates of Tichborne were not likely to be left undefended either
by the trustees or by the family, who, with the exception of the
Dowager Lady Tichborne, had, with one accord, pronounced the Claimant
an impostor. Accordingly, very soon after his arrival in England, a
gentleman named Mackenzie was despatched to Australia to make
inquiries. Mr. Mackenzie visited Melbourne, Sydney, and Wagga-Wagga,
and up to a certain time was singularly successful in tracing
backwards the career of Thomas Castro. He discovered that, some months
before the Dowager's advertisement for her son had appeared, and Mr.
Gibbes' client had set up his claim, the slaughter-man of Wagga-Wagga
had married an Irish servant-girl named Bryant, who had signed the
marriage register with a cross. He also found that the marriage was
celebrated, not by a Roman Catholic priest, but by a Wesleyan
minister. Searching further he found out that immediately after the
date of the arrival of a letter from the Dowager, informing Mr. Gibbes
that her son was a Roman Catholic, Thomas Castro and Mary Anne Bryant
had again gone through the ceremony of marriage in those names, and on
this occasion the wedding was celebrated in a Roman Catholic chapel.
By applying to Mr. Gibbes, Mr. Mackenzie then discovered that the
Claimant, before leaving Australia, had given instructions for a will,
which was subsequently drawn up and executed by him, in which he
pretended to dispose of the Tichborne estates, and described
properties in various counties, all of which were purely fictitious.
The Tichborne family had not, and never had, any such estates as were
there elaborately set forth, nor did any such estates exist; and the
will contained no bequest, nor indeed any allusion to a solitary
member of Roger's family except his mother, whom it described as Lady
"Hannah Frances Tichborne," though her Christian names were, in fact,
"Henriette Félicité." Mr. Gibbes explained that it was the knowledge
which this document seemed to display of the Tichborne estates and
family which induced him to advance money, and that the Dowager Lady
Tichborne's letters being merely signed "H.F. Tichborne," he had
inserted the Christian names, "Hannah Frances," on the authority of
his client. Lastly, Mr. Mackenzie learnt that there had been a butcher
in Wagga-Wagga named Schottler, and that Higgins's slaughter-man, known
as Tom Castro, had once told some one that he had known Schottler's
family, and lived very near their house when he was a boy. Schottler
had disappeared, but he was believed to have originally come from
London. This information was slight, but it appeared to the shrewd Mr.
Mackenzie to be valuable. If the Schottlers were known to Tom Castro
as neighbours when he was a boy in London, it would seem to be only
necessary to find the Schottler family in order to discover who the
Claimant to the Tichborne estates really was. After much trouble,
though Schottler was not discovered, a clue was found. The solicitor
to the defendants in the Chancery suits obtained old directories of
London, and discovered that there was one Schottler, who had kept a
public-house, called The Ship and Punchbowl, in High Street, Wapping.
In that direction, therefore, inquiries were instituted. The
Schottlers had, it was found, gone and left no trace, but it was easy
to instruct a detective to inquire after old neighbours, to show them
a portrait of the Claimant, and to ask if any one in that locality
recognised the features. At last the man prosecuting inquiries found
himself in the Globe public-house in Wapping, the landlady of which
hostelry at once declared the carte de visite to be a portrait of a
mysterious individual of huge bulk who had visited her on the night of
the previous Christmas day, stayed an hour in her parlour, and made
numerous inquiries after old inhabitants of Wapping. His inquiries
included the Schottlers, and he had particularly wanted the address
of the family of the late Mr. George Orton, a butcher in the High
Street, who answered the description of an old "neighbour of the
Schottlers." The Christmas day referred to was the very day of the
Claimant's arrival in England, and the landlady of the Globe was
positive that the portrait represented her visitor, whoever he might
have been. Moreover, she informed the gentleman that, struck by his
inquiries after the Ortons, she had scanned her mysterious visitor's
features closely, and observed, "Why, you must be an Orton; you are
very like the old gentleman." Three daughters of old George Orton were
then applied to, but they declared that the portrait had no
resemblance to any brother of theirs. Neighbours, however, had
perceived that these persons, who had been extremely poor, had
suddenly shown signs of greatly improved circumstances. Further
inquiry led to the discovery that they had a brother named Charles, "a
humpbacked man," who had been a butcher in a small way, in partnership
with a Mr. Woodgate, in Hermitage Street, Wapping. He had recently
dissolved partnership rather suddenly, but he had previously confided
to Mr. Woodgate the curious information that he had a brother just come
home from Australia, who was entitled to great property, and who had
promised him an allowance of "£5 a month," and £2000 "when he got his
estates." When, after some trouble, Charles Orton was discovered, he
showed signs of being disposed to explain the mystery "if the
solicitors" would promptly "make it worth his while;" but in the very
midst of the inquiry he suddenly vanished from the neighbourhood, and
for a long while all trace of him was lost. Meanwhile, the Claimant
had, by some mysterious means, become aware that these inquiries were
in progress, for he wrote at this period to his confidential friend
Rous, the landlord of the Swan, as follows:--"We find the other side
very busy with another pair of sisters for me. They say I was born in
Wapping. I never remember having been there, but Mr. Holmes tell me it a
very respectiabel part of London." Shortly afterwards two out of the
three daughters of old Mr. Orton made affidavit that the Claimant was
not their brother, nor any relation of theirs; the other sister and
Charles Orton, however, made no affidavit. Four years later the
Claimant confessed that he was, after all, the mysterious visitor at
the Globe public-house on that Christmas eve; that he shortly
afterwards entered into secret correspondence and transactions with
the Orton family; that he gave the sisters money whenever they wrote
to say they were in want of any; and that after the period when
Charles Orton was solicited to give information to "the other side,"
he allowed him £5 a month--Charles Orton, who was then in concealment,
being addressed in their correspondence by the assumed name of
"Brand." The Claimant's explanation of these relations with the Orton
family, which he at first denied, was, that their brother, Arthur
Orton, had been a great friend of his for many years, and in various
parts of Australia, and that hence he was desirous of assisting his
family. At one time he said that his object was to ascertain if his
friend, Arthur Orton, had arrived in England; at another he stated, on
oath, that when he sailed from Australia he left Arthur Orton there.
The solicitors for the defendants in the Chancery suit, however, did
not hesitate to declare their conviction that the pretended Roger
Tichborne was no other than Arthur Orton, youngest son of the late
George Orton, butcher, of High Street, Wapping; that his visit to
Wapping on the very night of his arrival was prompted by curiosity to
know the position of his family, of whom he had not heard for some
years; and that his stealthy transactions with the three sisters, and
with the brother of Arthur Orton, had no object but that of furnishing
them with an inducement to keep the dangerous secret of his true name
and origin.
While all these discoveries were being made, the poor old lady went to
live for a time with her supposed son at Croydon; but even she could
not manage to stay in the extraordinary household, and after a time,
though still strong, despite the advice of her best friends, that the
huge impostor was her son, she left, and gradually becoming weaker and
weaker in body as well as mind, she was, on the 12th of March 1868,
found by a servant dead in a chair, and with no relative or friend at
hand, in a hotel near Portman Square, where she had sought and found a
shelter.
Amidst much that was vague in the Claimant's account of his past life,
there were, at all events, two statements of a precise and definite
character. These were, first, that he had been at Melipilla, in Chili,
and had there known intimately a man named Thomas Castro, whose name
he had afterwards assumed; and, secondly, that in 1854, he had been
engaged as herdsman to Mr. William Foster, of Boisdale, in Gippsland,
Australia. If he were an impostor, these statements were undoubtedly
imprudent. But they served the purpose of establishing the identity of
his career with that of the man whom he claimed to be, for Roger
Tichborne had, undoubtedly, travelled in Chili; and, according at
least to the tramping sailors' story, embodied in the Dowager's
advertisement, he had been carried thence to Australia. The importance
attached by his supporters to these apparent tokens of identity
sufficiently explains the Claimant's explicitness on these points.
Melipilla is a long way off; and Boisdale is still further. It may
have been supposed that witnesses could not be brought from so far;
but vast interests were at stake, and the defendant in the Chancery
suit speedily applied for Commissions to go out to South America and
Australia to collect information regarding the Claimant's past
history. The proposition was strenuously opposed as vexatious, and
designed merely to create delay, but the Court granted the
application. Then the Claimant asked for an adjournment, on the ground
that he intended to go out and confront the Melipilla folks, including
his intimate friend Don Thomas Castro, before the Commission; and also
to accompany it to Australia. The postponement was granted, a large
sum was raised to defray his expenses, and he finally started with the
Commission, accompanied by counsel and solicitors, bound for
Valparaiso and Melipilla, and finally for Victoria and New South
Wales. When the vessel, however, arrived at Rio. the Claimant went
ashore, declaring that he preferred to go thence to Melipilla
overland. But he never presented himself at that place, and finally
the Commission proceeded to examine witnesses and to record their
testimony, which thus became part of the evidence in the suit. The
Claimant had, in fact, re-embarked at Rio for England, having
abandoned the whole project; for which strange conduct he made various
and conflicting excuses. Even before he had started, circumstances had
occurred which had induced some of his supporters to express doubts
whether he would ever go to Melipilla. When the Commission had become
inevitable, the Claimant had written a letter to his "esteemed friend,
Don Tomas Castro," reminding him of past acquaintance in 1853, sending
kind remembrances to a number of friends, and altogether mentioning at
least sixteen persons with Spanish names whom he had known there. The
purpose of the letter was to inform Don Tomas that he had returned to
England, was claiming "magnificent lands," and in brief to prepare his
old acquaintances to befriend him there. This letter was answered by
Castro through his son Pedro, with numerous good wishes and much
gossip about Melipilla, and what had become of the old circle. But to
the astonishment and dismay of the Claimant's attorney, Mr. Holmes,
Pedro Castro reminded his old correspondent, that when among them he
had gone by the name of Arthur Orton. A Melipilla lady named Ahumada
then sent a portion of a lock of hair which the Claimant acknowledged
as his own hair, and thanked her for. But this lady declared that she
had cut the lock from the head of an English lad named Arthur Orton;
and the Claimant thereupon said that he must have been mistaken in
thanking her, and acknowledging it as his. In the town of
Melipilla--sixty or seventy miles inland from Valparaiso--everyone of
the sixteen or seventeen persons mentioned by the Claimant as old
acquaintances--except those who were dead or gone away--came before
the Commission, and were examined. They proved to have substantially
but one tale to tell. They said they never knew any one of the name of
Tichborne. Melipilla is a remote little towns far off the great high
road, and the only English person, except an English doctor there
established, who had ever sojourned there, was a sailor lad who, not
in 1853, but in 1849, came to them destitute; was kindly treated;
picked up Spanish enough to converse in an illiterate way; said his
name was Arthur, and was always called Arthur by them; declared his
father was "a butcher named Orton, who served the queen;" and said he
had been sent to sea to cure St. Vitus's Dance, but had been ill-used
by the captain, and ran away from his ship at Valparaiso. This lad,
they stated, sojourned in Melipilla eighteen months, and finally went
back to Valparaiso and re-embarked for England. Don Tomas Castro, the
doctor's wife, and others, declared they recognised the features of
this lad in the portrait of the Claimant; and being shown two
daguerreotype portraits of Roger Tichborne, taken in Chili when he was
there, said that the features were not like those of any person they
had ever known. Searches were then made in the records of the consul's
office at Valparaiso, from which it resulted that a sailor named
Arthur Orton did desert from the English ship "Ocean" in that port at
the very date mentioned, and did re-embark, though under the name of
"Joseph M. Orton," about eighteen months later.
To Boisdale, in Australia, the Commission then repaired, and though
this is many thousands of miles from South America, but here similar
discoveries were made. Mr. William Foster, the extensive cattle farmer,
was dead, but the widow still managed his large property. In reference
to the Claimant's statement that in July, 1854, the very day after he
was landed by the vessel which he believed was named the "Osprey," at
Melbourne, he was engaged by Mr. William Foster, and went with him at
once to Gippsland, under the assumed name of Thomas Castro, the lady
declared that her husband did not settle at Boisdale, or have anything
to do with that property till two years later than that date, and that
they never had any herdsman named Thomas Castro. The ledgers and other
account books of Mr. Foster were then examined, but no mention of any
Castro, either in 1854 or at any other time, could be found. On the
other hand, there were numerous entries, extending over the two years
1857 and 1858, of wages paid and rations served out to a herdsman
named Arthur Orton, whom the lady perfectly well remembered, and who
had come to them from Hobart Town.
All these discoveries were confirmed by the registers of shipping,
which showed that Arthur Orton embarked for Valparaiso in 1848,
re-embarked for London in 1851, and sailed again for Hobart Town in
the following year. But there were other significant circumstances.
The ship in which Arthur Orton had returned from Valparaiso was called
the "Jessie Miller," which was the very name which the Claimant in his
solemn declaration, prepared by Mr. Gibbes, gave as the name of the
vessel in which he came out to Australia. In the same document he had
stated the date of his sailing from England as the "28th of November,
1852," and this was now discovered to be the very day, month, and year
on which Arthur Orton embarked in the vessel bound for Hobart Town. Mr.
Foster's widow had specimens of Arthur Orton's writing, and other
mementoes of his two years' service among them, and she unhesitatingly
identified a portrait of the Claimant as that of the same man. Among
other witnesses, a farmer named Hopwood deposed that he had known
Arthur Orton at Boisdale under that name, and again at Wagga-Wagga
under his assumed name of Thomas Castro. At Wagga-Wagga the will
executed by the Claimant, and already referred to, was produced, and
it was found that amidst all its fictitious names and imaginary
Tichborne estates, it appointed as trustees two gentlemen residing in
Dorsetshire, England, who have since been discovered to have been
intimate friends of old Mr. Orton, the butcher. The testimony on the
Claimant's behalf before the Commission threw but little light. It
consisted chiefly of vague stories of his having spoken when in
Australia of being entitled to large possessions, and of having been
an officer in the army, and stationed in Ireland. Such testimony
could, of course, have little weight against the statements of the
Claimant in writing, made just before embarking at Sydney, with a
view of satisfying capitalists of his identity, and betraying total
ignorance of Roger Tichborne's military life.
While these exposures were being made abroad, matters at home began to
look very bad for the Claimant. Charles Orton, the brother of Arthur,
called upon the solicitors for "the other side," and volunteered to
give information. In the presence of Lord Arundel and other
witnesses, this man then stated that the Claimant of the Tichborne
estates was his brother Arthur, that he had been induced by him to
change his name to Brand, and to remain in concealment, that in return
the Claimant had allowed him £5 per month; but that, since his
departure for Chili, the allowance had ceased. Letters of Charles
Orton to the Claimant's wife, asking whether "Sir Roger Tichborne,
before he went away, left anything for a party of the name of Brand,"
have been found and published; and this same Charles has, since the
conviction of the Claimant, put forth a statement of the whole matter,
so far as he was concerned. Under these circumstances, Mr. Holmes
withdrew from the case, and the county gentlemen who, relying in great
measure on Lady Tichborne's recognition, and the numerous affidavits
that had been made, had supported the Claimant, held a meeting at the
Swan, at Alresford, at which, among other documents, certain
mysterious letters to the Orton sisters were produced. These letters
were signed, "W.H. Stephens," and they contained inquiries after the
Orton family, and also after Miss Mary Anne Loader, who was an old
sweetheart of Arthur Orton's, long resident in Wapping. They enclosed
as portraits of Arthur Orton's wife and child, certain photographic
likenesses which were clearly portraits of the Claimant's wife and
child; and though they purported to be written by "W.H. Stephens," a
friend of Arthur Orton's just arrived from Australia, it was suspected
that the letters--which were evidently in a feigned hand--were really
written by the Claimant. They manifested that desire for information
about Wapping folks, and particularly the Ortons, which the Claimant
was known to have exhibited on more occasions than one; and they
indicated a wish to get this information by a ruse, and without
permitting the writer to be seen. But the correspondence showed that
the sisters of Orton had discovered, or at least believed that they
had discovered, that the writer was in truth their brother Arthur. The
Claimant, however, being called in and questioned, solemnly affirmed
that the letters were "forgeries," designed by his enemies to "ruin
his cause." Nor was it until he was pressed in cross-examination,
three years later, that he reluctantly confessed that his charges of
forgery were false; and that, in fact, he, and no one else, had
written the Stephens' letters. The Claimant's solemn assurances did
not convince all his supporters at the meeting at the Swan, but they
satisfied some; and funds were still found for prosecuting the
Chancery, and next the great Common Law suit which was technically an
action for the purpose of ejecting Col. Lushington from Tichborne
house, which had been let to him. Col. Lushington was then a supporter
of the Claimant, and had not the least objection to be ejected. But
the action at once raised the question whether the Claimant had a
right to eject him. Of course that depended on whether he was, or was
not, the young man who was so long believed to have perished in the
"Bella;" and accordingly this was the issue that the jury had to try
on Thursday, the 11th of May, 1871, that Sergeant Ballantine rose to
address the jury on behalf of the Claimant, and it was not until the
6th of March, 1872, that the trial was concluded--the proceedings
having extended to 103 days. On both sides a large number of witnesses
were examined, many being persons of respectability, while some were
of high station. The military witnesses for the Claimant were very
numerous; and among them were five of Roger Tichborne's old brother
officers, the rest being sergeants, corporals, and privates. There
were Australian witnesses, and medical witnesses, old servants,
tenants of the Tichborne family, and numerous other persons. With the
exception of two remote connexions, however, no members of the
numerous families of Tichborne and Seymour presented themselves to
support the plaintiffs claims; and even the two gentlemen referred to
admitted that their acquaintance with Roger was slight, and that it
was in his youth; and finally, that they had not recognised the
features of the Claimant, but had merely inferred his identity from
some circumstances he had been able to mention. The plaintiffs case
was almost entirely unsupported by documentary evidence, and rested
chiefly on the impressions or the memory of witnesses, or on their
conclusions drawn from circumstances, which often, when they were
inquired into in cross-examination, proved to be altogether
insufficient.
But the cross-examination of the Claimant himself was really the
turning-point of the trial. It extended over twenty-seven days, and
embraced the whole history of Roger Tichborne's life, his alleged
rescue, the life in Australia, and all subsequent proceedings. Besides
this, matters connected with the Orton case were inquired into. Much
that was calculated to alarm supporters of the Claimant was elicited.
He was compelled to admit that he had no confirmation to offer of his
strange story of the rescue, and that he could produce no survivor of
the "Osprey," nor any one of the crew of the "Bella" alleged to have
been rescued with him. The mere existence of such a vessel was not
evidenced by any shipping register or gazette, or custom-house record.
It was moreover admitted that he had changed his story--had for a
whole year given up the "Osprey," and said the vessel was the
"Themis," and finally returned to the "Osprey" again. All the strange
circumstances of the Wagga-Wagga will, the Gibbes and Cubitt
correspondence, the furtive transactions with the Orton family, the
curious revelations of the commissions in South America and Australia,
were acknowledged, and either left unexplained or explained in a way
which was evasive, inconsistent, and contradictory. His accounts of
his relations with Arthur Orton were also vague, and his attempts to
support his assertion that Castro and Orton were not one and the same,
but different persons, were unsatisfactory, while by his own
confession his habitual associates in Australia had been highway
robbers and other persons of the vilest class. With regard to his
life in Paris he admitted that his mind was "a blank," and he
confessed that he could not read a line of Roger Tichborne's letters
in French. He gave answers which evidenced gross ignorance on all the
matters which Roger's letters and other evidence showed that he had
studied. He said he did not think Euclid was connected with
mathematics, though Roger had passed an examination in Euclid; and
that he believed that a copy of Virgil handed to him was "Greek,"
which it doubtless was to him. He was compelled again and again to
admit that statements he had deliberately made were absolutely false.
When questioned with regard to that most impressive of all episodes in
Roger's life, his love for his cousin, now Lady Radcliffe, he showed
himself unacquainted not merely with precise dates, but with the broad
outline of the story and the order of events. His answers on these
matters were again confused, and wholly irreconcilable. Yet the
Solicitor-General persisting for good reasons in interrogating him on
the slanderous story of the sealed packet, he was compelled to repeat
in Court, though with considerable variations, what he had long ago
caused to be bruited abroad. Mrs. (she was not then Lady) Radcliffe, by
her own wish, sat in Court beside her husband, confronting the false
witness, and they had the satisfaction of hearing him convicted, out
of his own mouth, and by the damnatory evidence of documents of
undisputed authenticity, of a deliberate series of abominable
inventions. It was during the course of this trial that the
pocket-book left behind by the Claimant at Wagga-Wagga was brought to
England. It was found to contain what appeared to be early attempts at
Tichborne signatures, in the form "Rodger Charles Titchborne," besides
such entries as "R.C.T., Bart., Tichborne Hall, Surrey, England,
G.B.;" and among other curious memoranda in the Claimant's handwriting
was the name and address, in full, of Arthur Orton's old sweetheart,
at Wapping--the "respectiabel place" of which he had assured his
supporters in England that he had not the slightest knowledge. The
exposure of Mr. Baigent's unscrupulous partisanship by Mr. Hawkins, and
the address to the jury by Sir John Coleridge, followed in due course,
and then a few family witnesses, including Lady Radcliffe, were heard,
who deposed, among many other matters, to the famous tattoo marks on
Roger's arm; and, finally, the jury declared that they were satisfied.
Then the Claimant's advisers, to avoid the inevitable verdict for
their opponents, elected to be non-suit. But, notwithstanding these
tactics, Lord Chief-Justice Bovill, under his warrant, immediately
committed the Claimant to Newgate, on a charge of wilful and corrupt
perjury.
Those who fondly hoped that the great Tichborne imposture had now for
ever broken down, and that the last in public had been seen of the
perjured villain, were mistaken, as, after a few weeks in Newgate, the
Claimant was released on bail in the sum of £10,000--his sureties
being Earl Rivers, Mr. Guildford Onslow, M.P., Mr. Whalley, M.P., and Mr.
Alban Attwood, a medical man residing at Bayswater. Now began that
systematic agitation on the Claimant's behalf, and those public
appeals for subscriptions, which were so remarkable a feature of the
thirteen months' interval between the civil and the criminal trial.
The Tichborne Romance, as it was called, had made the name of the
Claimant famous; and sightseers throughout the kingdom were anxious to
get a glimpse of "Sir Roger." It was true his case had entirely broken
down, but the multitude were struck by the fact that he could still
appear on platforms with exciteable members of Parliament to speak for
him, and could even find a lord to be his surety. It was not everyone
who, in reading the long cross-examination of the Claimant, had been
able to see the significance of the admissions which he was compelled
to make; and owing to the Claimant's counsel stopping the case on the
hint of the jury, the other side of the story had really not been
heard; and this fact was made an argument in the Claimant's favour.
Meanwhile, the propagandism continued until there was hardly a town in
the kingdom in which Sir Roger Charles Tichborne, Bart., had not
appeared on platforms, and addressed crowded meetings; while Mr.
Guildford Onslow and Mr. Whalley were generally present to deliver
foolish and inflammatory harangues. At theatres and music halls, at
pigeon matches and open-air _fêtes_, the Claimant was perseveringly
exhibited; and while the other side preserved a decorous silence, the
public never ceased to hear the tale of his imaginary wrongs. _The
Tichborne Gazette_, the sole function of which was to excite the
public mind still further, appeared; and the newspapers contained long
lists of subscribers to the Tichborne defence fund. This unexampled
system of creating prejudice with regard to a great trial still
pending was permitted to continue long after the criminal trial had
commenced. There had been proceedings, it is true, for contempt
against the Claimant and his supporters, Mr. Onslow, Mr. Whalley, and Mr.
Skipworth, and fine and imprisonment were inflicted; but the agitation
continued, violent attacks were made upon witnesses, and even upon the
judges then engaged in trying the case, and at length the Court was
compelled peremptorily to forbid all appearances of the Claimant at
public meetings.
The great "Trial at Bar," presided over by Sir Alexander Cockburn,
Lord Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench, Mr. Justice Mellor, and Mr.
Justice Lush, commenced on the 23d of April, 1873, and ended on the
28th of February 1874--a period of a little over ten months. On the
side of the prosecution 212 witnesses gave their testimony; but the
documentary evidence, including the enormous mass of Roger Tichborne's
letters, so valuable as exhibiting the character, the pursuits, the
thoughts, and feelings of the writer, were scarcely less important.
The entire Tichborne and Seymour families may be said to have given
their testimony against the defendant. Lady Doughty had passed away
from the troubled scene since the date of the last trial; but she had
been examined and cross-examined on her death bed, and had then
repeated the evidence which she gave on the previous occasion, and
declared that the Claimant was an impostor. Lady Radcliffe again
appeared in the witness-box, and told her simple story, confirmed as
it was in all important particulars by the correspondence and other
records. Old Paris friends and acquaintances were unanimous. Father
Lefevre and the venerable Abbé Salis, Chatillon the tutor and his
wife, and numerous others, declared this man was not Roger Tichborne,
and exposed his ignorance both of them and their past transactions.
When questioned, the defendant had sworn that his father never had a
servant named Gossein; but the letters of Sir James were shown to
contain numerous allusions to "my faithful Gossein," and Gossein
himself came into the witness-box and told how he had known Roger
Tichborne from the cradle to his boyhood, and from his boyhood to the
very hour of his going on his travels. On the Orton question, nearly
fifty witnesses declared their conviction that the defendant sitting
then before them was the butcher's son whom they had known in Wapping.
The witnesses from Australia and from South America unhesitatingly
identified the defendant with Orton; but it is more important to
observe, that their testimony was supported by records and documents
of various kinds, including the ledgers of Mr. Foster of Boisdale,
letters under the defendant's own hand, and writings which it could
not be denied were from the hand of Arthur Orton.
On the other side, the witnesses were still more numerous. They
included a great number of persons from Wapping, who swore they did
not recognise in the defendant the lad whom they had known as Arthur
Orton. Many others swore they had known both Orton and the defendant
in Australia, and that they were different persons, but their stories
were irreconcilable with each other, and were moreover in direct
conflict with the statements of the Claimant on oath, while several of
these witnesses were persons of proved bad character, and unworthy of
belief. Great numbers of Carabineers declared that the defendant was
exactly like their old officer; but while ten officers of that
regiment appeared for the prosecution, and positively affirmed that
the defendant was not Roger Tichborne, only two officers gave
testimony on the other side; and even these admitted that they had
doubts. Eight years had elapsed since Mr. Gibbes fancied he had
discovered Sir Roger at Wagga-Wagga, but still no Arthur Orton was
forthcoming; nor did the sisters of Orton venture to come forward on
behalf of the man who had been compelled to admit having taken them
into his pay. Not only was the Claimant's story of his wreck and
rescue shown to be absurd and impossible, but it was unsupported by
any evidence, except vague recollections of witnesses having seen an
"Osprey" and some shipwrecked sailors at Melbourne in July, 1854; and
it was admitted that if their tale were true the phantom vessel and
the fact of its picking up nine precious lives must have escaped the
notice of Lloyd's agents, of custom-house officers, and of the
Australian newspapers. More, the Claimant's "Osprey" must have escaped
the notice of such authorities in every port which she had entered
from the day that she was launched. So, indeed, the matter stood until
the witness Luie, the "pretended steward of the 'Osprey'" swore to his
strange story, as well as to the defendant's recognition of him by
name as an old friend. The Luie episode, terminating in the
identification of that infamous witness as an habitual criminal and
convict named Lundgren, only recently released on a ticket-of-leave,
together with the complete disproof of his elaborate "Osprey" story,
is familiar to the public. It was a significant fact, that other
witnesses for the defence were admitted to be associates of this
rascal; while one of the most conspicuous of all--a man calling
himself "Captain" Brown--had pretended to corroborate portions of
Luie's evidence which are now proved to be false.
Some allowance may perhaps be made in the defendant's favour for the
singularly unskilful and damaging character of his counsel Dr.
Kenealy's two addresses to the jury, which occupied no less than
forty-three entire days. This barrister not only made violent personal
attacks on every witness of importance for the prosecution, without,
as the judges observed, "any shadow of foundation," but he assailed
his own client with a vehemence and a persistence which are without
parallel in the case of an advocate defending a person against a
charge of perjury. He gave up statements of the defendant at almost
every period of his extraordinary story as "false;" declared them to
be "moonshine;" expressed his conviction that no sensible person could
for a moment believe them; acknowledged that to attempt to verify them
in the face of the evidence, or even to reconcile them with each
other, would be hopeless; set some down as "arrant nonsense,"
denounced others as "Munchausenisms," and recommended the jury "not to
believe them" with a heartiness which would have been perfectly
natural in the mouth of Mr. Hawkins, but which, coming from counsel for
the defence, was, as one of the learned judges remarked, "strange
indeed." But the doctrine of the learned gentleman was, that the very
extent of the perjury should be his client's protection, because it
showed that he was not a man "to be tried by ordinary standards."
When, in addition to this, he laboured day after day to persuade the
jury that Roger Tichborne was a drunkard, a liar, a fool, an undutiful
son, an ungrateful friend, and an abandoned libertine--declared in
loud and impassioned tones that he would "strip this jay of his
borrowed plumes," and indignantly repudiated the notion that the man
his client claimed to be had one single good quality about him, the
humour of the situation may be said to have reached its climax. Yet Dr.
Kenealy at least proved his sincerity by not only insinuating charges
against the gentleman who disappeared with the "Bella," but by
actually calling witnesses to contradict point blank statements of his
own client which lay at the very foundation of the charges of perjury
against him. There were, it is true, many unthinking persons of the
kind that mistake sound for sense, who considered Dr. Kenealy a vastly
clever fellow. If he be so, then the world in general, and the
constitution of the English bar in particular, are wrong; but anyhow
one thing is certain, that the counsel damaged the case materially,
and showed himself eminently unfitted for the position of leader. Mr.
Hawkins' powerful address quickly disposed of Dr. Kenealy and his
crotchets. The inquiry was raised into a calmer height when the Lord
Chief-Justice commenced his memorable summing up, going minutely
through the vast mass of testimony--depicting the true character of
Roger Tichborne from the rich mine of materials before him,
contrasting it with that of the defendant as shown by the evidence,
and, while giving due weight to the testimony in his favour, exposing
hundreds of examples of the falsity of his statements made upon oath.
The verdict of Guilty had been anticipated by all who paid attention
to the evidence. The foreman publicly declared that there was no doubt
in the mind of any juryman that the man who has for eight years
assumed the name and title of the gentleman whose unhappy story is
recorded in these pages is an impostor who has added slander of the
wickedest kind to his many other crimes. But not only were they
satisfied of this; they were equally agreed as to his being Arthur
Orton. The sentence of fourteen years' penal servitude followed, and
was assuredly not too heavy a punishment for offences so enormous. Yet
there are others still at large, who, having aided the impostor with
advice and money, should not be allowed to escape, while the more
clumsy scoundrel suffers the award of detected infamy.
Thus ended the great Tichborne impersonation case, the most remarkable
feature in which was, not that a rude ignorant butcher should proclaim
himself a baronet, but that thousands of persons sane in every other
respect should have gone crazy about him, and should, despite the
evidence given--sufficient many hundreds of times told, or for any
reasonable being--even now persist that Roger Tichborne still lives,
and is the victim of a gross conspiracy. What need is there to point
out the idiotcy of such ravings? What necessity ever to contradict
statements which contradict themselves?
* * * * *