A Tale of the Tichborne Family.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 127, 16 April 1872, Page 7

A Tale of the Tichborne Family.

Now that the Tichborne trial is again resumed it may not he unintwesting to be mad'! acquainted with an incident connected with the Tichborne family, which caused the name to become very famous in Hampshire, to continue so" for ages—one indeed, that if properly treated, together with all the episodes relating to its recurring festival, contains ample materials out of which an anterior Tichborne romance might be elaborated ; and although it occurred several centuries ago, endeared the family name to the poor who resided in the country for a long period —indeed, almost to the end of the eighteenth century. The origin of the word lady is Laf-die, i.e., loaf-distributor, and in the good old times many ladies made themselves beloved during their lives—and often long remembered after their deaths—by giving bread to the poor, or leaving a sum of money to provide a periodical distribution of food, called a "dole." A quaintly-written local chronicle informs us that the most noted among the doles in England was one left by a charitable and highly-esteemed lady of the Tichborne family, who, it states date their tenure of Tichborne manor, in the immediate vicinity of Airesford, in the county of Hants, from the ninth century. It has consequently remained their property for upwards of a thousand years. In the reign of Henry 11. the Lady Mabella Tichborne, who had been bedridden for many years, finding herself at death's door, asked her husband, the then Sir Roger Tichborne, to let her have theneecssa - y means to enable her to leave a bequest for tin purpose of giving a loaf of bread once a year for all who should apply for it on the anniversary of the Annunciation of the Mother of our Lord for ever. In compliance with that request her husband promised her the pro.luce <>f such portion of his property near the park as she could go round while a stake or brand which he caused to bo lighted would burn. He: thought that, exhausted as she was, at her very advanced age, by many infirmities, she would not be able to get over much ground. Delighted, however, with the otter, she got herself carried to the corner of the park, and then surprising everyone present, including Sir Roger himself, she made an immense effort, and actually managed to hobble round one of the richest and most productive fields of the domain, which contained as much as twenty-three acres of valuable land, yid is known to this day as the " Crawls."' When site had performed that feat, she got he "self taken back to bed, and calling all her household around her, she told them that the Tichborne family would lie prosperous so long as the dole was continued to the poor ; but that she left her curse upon every one of her descendants who should neglect the distribution, or appropriate the means so left to any other purpose ; and at the same time he prophesied that in the event of the dob) being withheld on anvconsideration of saving or greed, then the Tichborne family would fail, and the name lost for want of male issue. She further said that in such ca~e the baronet <>f the •lay would have seven sons, but the next heir would hare seven daughters, and no male children. It seems that in 1708 a great crowd of gipsies, thiefs, burglars, and all sorts of lawiess people went into the district in an unruly manner on March 27. Then the neighbours, as well as the magistrate, made an outcry against the dole, attributing to it the cause of the excesses committed, so that it has never been regularly given since ; and, very extraordinary to relate, there was a partial fulfilment of the nrophecy, for in 1803 the then bead of the family died and left seven sms, tho eldest or win mi succeeded to the baronetcy, but he died, leaving onlv seven daughters—that branch of the family then took the name of Douglit' 7 , so that the Tichborne name \vx; actially merged for a time. There is still in existence a beautiful painting illustrative of the dole, by a Belgian artist, named Tilbcrg, who went t > Hampshire in 1070, at the desire of Sir H. Tichborne, to paint the seene. Fourteen hundred loaves, each weighing a pound and ten ounces, were 'naked every yea;', and whenever more than that number presented themselves, all the extra applicants received twopence in lieu of alo if. "