The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-16 00:00:00

A ROMANCE OF TSB ILLBOIIETAGE.

About thirteen years ago Mr. Roger Charles
Tiehborne, a young man, the eldest son of Sir James Tteh-
boene, Bart., the representative of an ancient Hampshire
catholic family, left Southampton for Havre. He had
been in the army, and, like other young men of rank and
fortune, had been gay and extravagant. In a tit of spleen
he left this country for France, whence he intended to set
out for South America. A nun-servant acoompanied him,
. .

but left him in France, and has recently died. The ship
in which Mr. Tichborne was supposed to have sailed to
South America was lost, and something belonging to him
was found with the relics of that ship, and, as he was
never heard from, he was mourned as dead. His mother,
the present Dowager Lady Tichborne, however, always
entertained some doubt as to the death of her son. Sir
James Tichborne succeeded his brother Sir Edward 'rich-
borne, who took the name of Doughty, after • relative,
who left him • large property, and Sir Edward's widow,
Lady Doughty, is still living. They had a faithful black
servant, named Andrew Bogle, who, on Sir' Edward's
death, was pensioned. He married a respectable white
woman from the neighbourhood of Southampton, and they
afterwards went to Australia, where the wife died. On
the death of Sir Francis Tichborne, his second son, Alfred
Joseph, succeeded him. He married a daughter of Lord
Arundel, of Wardour Castle, and died leaving an infant
son and heir. Soon after this the Dowager Lady rich-
borne received a communication from her long-lost son,
stating that he was in Australia, that he purposed coming
to England, and enclosed his photograph. This photograph
was recognised by her ladyship as the likeness of her eldest
son, making allowance for his present age, and the hard-
ships he hadundergone. The dowager, who resides chiefly
in Paris, wrote to him, requesting him to meet her in that
city. Soon afterwards Lady Doughty received a letter
from Andrew Bogle, stating that he had met with Mr-
Roger Charles Tichborne, and that he was going to accom-
pany him to Paris; and in the Panama Star of the 9th ult.
there is an account of the arrival of the Australian mail
steamer, and it is stated that among the passengers were
Sir R. C. Tichborne, Bart., Lady Tichborne, and Andrew
Bogle. The West India packet that brought the passen-
gers and mails from the Austialian mail steamer reached
Southampton on the 28th ult. The only person who saw
Mr. Roger Tichborne off from Southampton was the Rev.
Father Mount, the present respected catholic
priest of that town. The reverend gentle.
man, at the request of the Dowager Lady Tichborne,
obtained an introduction to the Australian passengers, one
of whom stated that he had made the acquaintance of Sir
Roger Tichborne, on his passage to Panama, and that the
latter intended to leave the Panama Isthmus in • French
mail packet, bound for St. Ramiro, to meet his mother in
Paris. This gentleman, at the request of Father Mount,
went and saw the Dowager Lady Tichborne, repeated his
statement, and asserted that the photograph in her lady-
ship's possession was the likeness of the person who tra-
velled as Sir it. C. Tichborne. The French mail packet is
daily expected at St. Nazaire. Great numbers of persons
believe that the Tichborne family have been imposed on
by some clever schemer in Australia. A few days, how-
ever, will decide the matter.
The following are extracts from Australian papers:
The Wooga Wagga Express, of July 21, has the follow-
ing —" For some months past a vague kind of rumour has
been current in Wagga 'Wagga to the effect that a veri-
table British peer was quietly residing, under an assumed
name, in our midst. It was a rumour, however, to which
very little credulity was attached, and was oftener the sub-
ject of jocular allusion than serious remark. It now turns
out that, though not quite correct in form, it still approxi-
mated very nearly to truth. As yet, we have certainly had
I no English nobleman for a resident, though we really have
been daily brushing up against • baronet for the Last two
or three years without knowing it. The individual to
whom we refer has, up to the present time, been known to
our townsmen only as ` Tom Castro,' and, during his re-
sidence amongst us, has occupied a very humble station in
life. Recent events have disclosed the fact that his reel
name is not Castro, but Roger Charles Tichbourne,
eldest son and heir-at-law to the late Sir James
Tichborne, Baronet, of Tichborne-park, Hants. To the
title and estates he now succeeds, together with an income
of between 10,000/. and 15,000/. per annum. The history
of the new baronet is rather a singular one. On or about
the year 1554, being then quite a lad, and of rather a
roving disposition, he quitted England in the ship Bella,
which was, a few weeks later, wrecked off the port of Rio
Janeiro. Young Tichborne escaped to the land, minus
his worldly goods, and then assumed the name of Castro,
and as nothing was afterwards heard of him, it was
believed that he had perished, and in the British
peerages he was reported dead. South American manners
not being suited to his tastes, he again embarked on board
a ship bound to Australia, and in due course arrived in
Sydney. Being then without either money or friends, he
was thrown entirely upon his own resources, and expe-
rienced Lis full share of the rough vicissitudes of colo-
nial life. After trying his hand at various callings and
travelling over a greater portion of the colony, he at last
became connected with a small business in Tumut, which
he subsequently gave up, and then removed to Wagga
Wagga, where, until within the last few weeks, he has
continued to reside, and where, in the early part of the
present year, he was married. Soon after his departure
from England, his father, Sir James Tichborne, died, and
his estates then passed to his second son, Alfred Joseph,
who was afterwards married to a slaughter of the Earl of
Arundel. After a time, a knowledge of these events
came to the ears of our quondam friend Castro, but, as
he had been much attached to his younger brother in his
early childhood, and as he felt that his lengthened
colonial wanderi,gs had, in a measure, unfitted him for
the life of an English country gentleman, he did not
attempt to disturb the succession, and still continued to
preserve his incognito. His brother Alfred Joseph is
now dead, and, as the strongest reason for the voluntary
resignation of his patrimony is now removed. Mr. Castro
has resumed his real name, and taken the title which be-
longs to him of right, and is now about to proceed to Eng-
as Sir Roger Charles Tichborne, to take posses-
sion of the family estates. Sir Roger was, we believe, to
have MAW by the Kaikoura, but arrived in Sydney •
few hours too late. The Tichbornes, or, as they were for-
merly called, the Dutchburns, are a very old family who
have been settled for many generations in Hampshire."
The Gout/men //crab?, of July 21. states :—" The mother-
in-law of the new baronet is Mrs. James l'ain, a (toulburn
resident, and wife of a labouring man. Lady Tichborne in
the daughter of Mrs. Pain's first husband, who was a
plasterer named Bryan, and met his death some years ago
by falling downstairs or off a holder during the progress of
the erection of a house." The Tamed Times of August 27
nays It may perhaps be in the recollection of many of
our readers that a than calling himself Thomas de Castro
left Tuna's and opened • butchering establishment at
Wagga Wagga. It now turns out that the said Thomas
De Castro is no less a person than Sir Roger Charles Tich-
borne, with lauded estates bringing in a rental of 9.000/.
per annum, and an accumulative fund of some 50,000 u. in
the bank. De Castro was in possession of his title and
property when living in Tumut. but not having been in
communication with his family for some years, he was not
aware of his good fortune."
The following letter was received by Lady Doughty :
" Sydney. August 20, 1540.—My Lady.—l hope these few
lines will find your ladyship, Mr. and MN. Radcliffe, and
family, quite well. I send your ladyship these to inform
your ladyship that Sir Roger and Lady Tichborne are in
Sydney, also one little girl six months old, that they leave
Sydney by the mail (Panama and New Zealand) on the
Ist proximo, a"d lam going with them. Sir Roger goes
direct to Paris to his mother, and I am going to take her
ladyship from Southampton to Upton. Her ladyship is a
native of Australia, about 22 or 93 years of age. We have
had an extremely cold winter this year. and I have had
may rheumatics very badly in consequence. My family are
all quite well, and I am bringing the youngest (Henry)
with me to England. I shall be so glad to see your lady-
ship ones more— a pleasure which I thought I should not
enjoy again ; but, please God, in two months' time I shall
set foot on Old England, and see all my friends once more.
—With my duty to your ladyship, I sag to remain, your
ladyship's humble servant, ANDREW lit ,RLE'"
te

THE VICTORIA TOWN ESTATE, LATE THE GOVERN-
MENT
NAVT-YABI), DE.u..—A public meeting was held at
the Guildhall on Wednesday night, the Mayor (Alderman
Cavell) iu the chair, at which a deputation of the Conser.
vative Land Society, consisting of Mr. Newnham Win-
stanley (director), and Messrs. C. L Gruneisen and J.
Wylson, secretary and surveyor of the society, attended, to
explain the system of allotment of the second portion of
the Victoria estate. It was stated by the Mayer that the
Navy-yard and all its buildings had entirely disappeared,
and in its place was a splendid esplanade fronting the sea,
with lines of new streets laid out, new roads constructed,
and a complete system of drainage completed under the
joint superintendence of the town council and the society.
The Mayor aided that Deal was immensely benefited by
these works, and that now a great want had been,
supplied, namely, the securing of sites for the erection of
villas and houses, every year visitors being unable to find
accommodation in the Old Town, and such was the increas-
ing dernanfl for hotel accommodation and lodging and
boarding houses, that the place occupied by the govern-
mentworks was the only locality with sea frontagesadapted
to meet the wants of the town. The sea promenade was
one of the finest on the sea coast, and the Mayor fur-
ther pointed out the view therefrom that day of nearly
500 ships in the Downs, detained by westerly winds, as
one of imposing interest and grandeur. After the deputa-
tion had explained the society's system, resolutions of
thanks to the society's deputation and to the board of the
Conservative Land Society, as well as to the Mayor, were
unanimously passed.
THE GovEmmExr CoNTRAcr TOR Rtric—The
following is the result of the tenders for the above con-
tract :—Henry White and Co., 25.600 gallons ; T. Lowndes
and Co., 15,000 gallons; Rook, Fenwick and Co., 11,000
4gslioas. Total-61,600 gallons.