The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-01-09
A CELEBRATED A s
The Story ofthe Tlchborne Claimant Brief
" Retold.

~ SbS
The Tichborne Claimant was sen.
fenced on February %, 1874, by Lord
Chief Justice Cockburn to fourteen
years penal servitude-seyon years each
on two separate counts in the indictment,
BY good conduct in prison he has now
secured his release by a communal
tion Of oTSr three years of the tern
for which he was sentenced. The Clai.
mant's friends some months ago bought
the celebrated Granville Hotel fol
him and now hat he is re.
leased he will probably begin life
afresh as a hotel keeper. First, how.
ever, he will be taken to q furnished
house in Hampshire, which in the early
part of this month was taken by Mr..
Quartermain East for his reception.
During the imprisonmentof their father
Mr.. Fast has taken upon himself the
responsibility of maintaining and edu-
eating the Claimants two daughters.
The young girls have had all the advan-
tages enjoyed by the children of their
protector, and the elder will go to live
with HIM and keep house. In order
that the claimant may not, at any rate
for some time to come, be worried by
pecuniary matters, Mr.. East purposes
making HIM an ample weekly allow
ance. It is understood that it is his de-
sire to be left alone with his family, at
least for o time.
Although the Tichborne story has
been often told, a brief summary may be
appropriately given at this j~uncture.
Roger Charles Tichborne, q child born
January s, 1929, of an ancient English
. family, was, after his father, Heir to
the title and estates of his uncle, Sir
Edward. He was educated in France,
and at the college of Stonyhurst, en-
tered the army in 1S49, and his mar
riage. with his cousin Kate, Sir Ed.
wards daughter, being opposed by her
parents, he resigned his commission in
1852 and went to sea. He is known tC
have arrived at Valparaiso June -, 1853
and having crossed the continent east
ward on April 20, 1854, he sailed from
Rio for New York in the Bella, which.
was lost at sea. His father succeeded
to the baronetcv March 5, 1853, and
died June IL, 1862. 1t then passed tC
the second son, Alfred Roger being
presumed to be lost, who died Febru-
airy %, 1866, and was succeeded by
his posthumous son, the present Sir
Henry Tichborns, born May % in
that year. In 1865 Sir James widow,
hoping Roger might be alive, had adj
vertised for HIM in the English and
Australian papers; in 1866 her adver-
tisement was answered by one Thomas
Castro, a butcher at Wagga Wagga.
Australia, who pretended to be her son,
asserting that he had been saved from
the wreck of the Bella. After some s2r.
respondence with Lady Tichborne,
Castro sailed for England, where he ar.
rived December %, 1866; in January,
1867, he joined her at Paris, and was by
her accepted as her SON, though most OF
the other members of the family repu.
dated him. In March he fled a bill
against the Trustees of the estate, and
having been occupied in the interim in
obtaining witnesses and testimony.
brought the action for the recovery of
the estates, valued at $4,000 a year, to
trial May IL, 1871. Lady Tichborne,
had died March IL, 1868, still believ.
ing Castro to be her son. The trial lasted
at IN session t03 days, and-with ad.
journments-till March 6. 1872, when
the jury declared themselves convinced
that the ciaiment was not Sir Roger,
and he was nonsuited. The principal
points against HIM were his ignorance
of French, which language the true
Sir Roger spoke admirably, and of In.
cidents happening during his sojourn
in France; the dissimilar1ty OF the hand
writing OF the two men the marked
physical differences; the claimants neg
lect, while in Australia to avail himself
of the large balances at Sir Rogers
credit, though he was pressed for mon
ey, and his own action IL seeking out
Immediately on his return to England
the Ortons a family In rather hum
BILE life, to whom he presented
himself and sent his photograph
as Arthur Orion. The claimant
was indicted for perjury as "Thomas
Castro, otherwise Arthur Orion" put
on trial April %, 1873, and, after Q
trial Of 1873 days duration, was convicted
and sentenced as above stated. The
case, altogether, is one of the most not
able recorded in legal history. After
concluding the first term Of seven years
for which he was sentenced. Castro
appealed for the remission ofthe second
seven years imprisonment on the
ground that the two proceedings on
which he was convicted and sentenced
to two several terms orrpenal servitude
were only one proceeding. and that the
two offences with which he was charged
were only one ~offense. Judah p. BEN
iamin argued this point before the
Court Of Appeals in London, June "a,
1880. but failed to convince the Judges
that it was well taken.