Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-08
WHEN MOTHER
INSTINCT FAILhn
Lady Tichborne Identified
Fraudulent Claimant as
Her Long Lost
Son
By JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS
Copyrieht. 1915


,7Nts an unwise mother that knows -
i Ter own child.
Fifty years ago Henrietta, Lady T,.s
borne, widow of Sir James, baronet AZ x.
name fell upon the neck of a prodigal wh.-'
she identified as her lost Offspring 4.
heir to the Tichborne title and eatst..
And thereby her ladyship precipitataa
worldwide sensation, also trial lasting Il,
days and costing s1,oO0,O0O. 1t was n.
longest English trial Of record
| The strange story begins century =.
with Sir Edward Tichborne, baronet, wh...
estate yielded 100000 year. There b.,,.
no sons TO bless him, his heir to the M.
was a nephew, James, with two sons, Ros..
and Alfred-two Parisianized youths. vho..
mother hated England. Roger the eh.,
boy, prospective heir to the Tichboy..
baronetcy and estates. was betrothed "a N,
Cousin Katherine, but, being as wild
young subaltern as ever wore sword Il
his hip, was required to go abroad for
couple of years probation before he mI,A,
claim the hand of his lovely 1ancee.
Thus it was, in 1852. that young Rou.,
resigned his commission In the army ans
sailed for South America to begin life answ
in the open. For more than year Il.
wandered restlessly from place to plscs +
through Latin-Amerlca, until hearing that
his granduncle had died, that his father hsa
| succeeded to the baronetcy and that \.
was now heir to the title. Thereupon Ia
| sailed homeward from Rio Janeiro on ths
| ship Bella, which never came to port gh
| mother, the aforementioned Lady Henristt,
absolutely refused to believe that he haa
failed to escape whatever i'll fate mirh,
have overtaken the Bella. She had ''ur..
sentiment" that he was still alive and ths,
no would one day return to her. but wbts
she continued to reiterate this belief and h
persistently advertise for him, offering
handsome reward for knowledge Of hs
whereabouts, her husband died. leaving tha
baronetcy to her younger son, Alfred.
minor.
The Claimant Appears
Fourteen years after Lady Tichborne had
bid her son Roger farewell one of her ad.
vertisements brought her a clue. A wan
derer located in Australia and claiming Ia
be one Thomas Castro was said to bear an
unmistakable resemblance to her vanished
Roger. Through detective agency he was
brought to her in Paris, and here II was
she fell upon the neck of her alleged prod.
gal son, for whom the fatted calf was not
only killed, but basted, garnished and
cooked to turn. Lady Tichborne had
faced no danger of having the estates 90
out of her immediate family, inasmuch as
her son Alfred was already the recognized
heir to the title. But her identifying the
man from Australia aroused storm Of
borne trial, which she did not live to
witness.
At this dramatic hearing many Of the S
lost Rogers friends, relatives and brother |
officers, also men who had served under
him in the ranks, identified the quondam
Castro as Enthusiastically the lost Tichborne
heir. To tho witness stand, In his behalf.
also came sailors from the Bella who swoTa
that they had taken him from the wreck Of
that vessel. One Jean Luie, Dane, swors
that he had been steward of the American
ship Osprey, which, some 5000 miles on
Brazil. in April, 1854 had picked up
ships boat from the Bella, containing fyi
sailors and a delirious, helpless man who
later called himself Rogers" The OSPREY
had landed this man at Melbourne, Aus
tralia. He and the claimant to the Tieh.
borne baronetcy were positively one and The
same. Other witnesses identified wound
on the head of the claimant. also brown
mark upon his side, as having been borns
also by the lost Sir Roger.
But after all of this convincing testimony
had seemed to filch the title and estats
from the young lad, Alfred Tichborne. that
youths counsel played trump card sna
thereby caused the hundreds of spectator
in the courtroom to sit with bated breath
1t was a sealed envelope alleged to have
been given by Roger to his Cousin Katherins
when he sailed for South America ana
which had never been broken open. IL
man from Australia when asked to deserts
its contents swore that before his as.
appearance he had betrayed his fiancee and
that the envelope had contained instructoA
for her care in case of certain eventualusz
The Fraud Uncovered
The counsel for the defense then De-
family broke the seal. opened the paekst
and produced a note which read:
IF God spares me to return and MARI
my beloved Kate within three years, prons
ise to build a church and to dedicate Il e
the Blessed Mother"
This disclosure lost the suit to the alleges
Sir Roger Branded as a vllifier De
Al. RavaE EaaF
and. being found guilty, spent ten years =
prison. After gaining his freedom he cans
to New York. embarked upon a,Iecture toazs
failed in the enterprise. became bartenaa
in Chatham Square saloon. returned penn
less to England and there saved himssA
from starvation by accepting commlssloe
from newspaper to write his ''eonfession'
an extravagant statement whose details isH
although 1t admitted his claim
the Tichborne titles to have been fraaass