Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-02-05
CASE.
TIL, Story ofthe richborns Claimant Brief
ly Retold.

A CELEBRATED CASE.
TIL, Story ofthe Tichborne Claimant Brief
~ Retold.
The Tichborne Claimant was sen
fenced on February %, 1874, by Lord
Chief Justice Cockburn to fourteen
years penal seryitude--seven years each
on two separate counts in the Indictment.
BY good conduct in prison he has now
secured his release by a communta-
ton of over three years of the term
for which he was sentenced. The Clai-
mant's friends some months ago bought
the celebrated Granville Hotel for
him aad now that he is re-
leased he will probably begin life
afresh as a hotel keeper. First, how.
ever, he will 10 taken to a furnished
house in Hampshire, which in the early
part of this month was taken by Mr..
Quartermain East for his reception.
During the imprisonmentoi their father
Mr.. East has taken upon himself the
responsibility of maintaining and edu.
eating the Claimants two daughters.
The young girls have had all the adyan-
tages enjoyed by the children of thar
protector, and the elder will 60 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 hun an ample weekly allow.
ance. Ii is understood that it is his de-
sire TO be left alone with his family, al
least for a time.
Although the Tfchborne story has
been often told, q brief summary may be
appropriately given at this iuncture,
Roger Charles Tichborne, a child born
January 5, 1929. of an ancient English
family, was, after his father, heir to
the title and estates of his uncle, Sir
Edward. He wal 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, beng opposed by her
parents. he resigned his commission in
1852 and went to sea. He is known to
have arrived at Valparaiso June 10, 1858,
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 baronetcy March 5, 1853, and
died June IL, 1852. 1t then passed to
the second son, AlfreA Roger being)
presumed to be lost, who died Febru-
airy %, 1866, and was succeeded by
his posthumous son, the present Sir
Henry Tichborne, born May 2S in
that year. In 1865 Sir James widow,
hoping Roger might be alive, had adj
vertised for HIM in the English ard
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 cor.
respondence with Lady Tichborne,
Castro sailed for England, where he ar.
rived December 25, 1866; in January,
1867, he joined her at Paris, and was by
her accepted as her son, though most oil
the other members of the family D
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 $24 900 a year, to
trial May IL, 1871. Lady Tichborne,
had died March IL, 1868, still beliey.
ing Castro TO be her son. The trial lasted
at n session lob days, and-with ad.
journments-till March 6, 1872, when
the jury declared themselves convinced
that the claiment 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 s~oiourn
in France; the dissimilarlty 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 Mt Sir Rogers
credit. though he was pressed for mon
ey, and his W action in 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 Orton. The claimant
was indicted for perjury as Thomas
Castro. otherwise Arthur Orton,n put
on trial April 20, 1873, and, after q
trial of 1888 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 Of the second
seven years imprisonment on the
ground that the two proceedings on
which he was convicted and sentenced
to two several terms Of penal servitude
were only one proceeding. and that the
two offences with which he was charged
were only n o~fferse. 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.