THE NEW TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3177, 3 September 1881, Page 4

THE NEW TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

The following particulars regarding this latest aspirant for notoriety are given by the fSan Francisco corrrespondent of an Australian paper:—A man, who claims to be the real Sir Roger Tichborne, has called upon a prominent lawyer in San Francisco for legal advice as to the best means of regaining his rights in the family estates. The new claimant bears a strong physical resemblance to the genuine Roger as described by numerous witnesses at the trial. IIis ! body, from the waist up, is profusely tattooed, and bears the marks testified to by the English officers and soldiers who knew him. The initials of his cousin, of whom he was enamoured, Kate Doughty, the cross, the; heart, the woman, the.flowers, were all there as testified to. He coX-erses freely in French, and went into many.detail 3 about his'military education, which did not appear at all upon the trial. He explained how the command in the army —a cornetcy in the Dragoons—was obtained for him ; where he studied with his uncle, Colonel Dudley Seymour, of Q-rosvenor-square; how he passed his examination and joined his regiment in Ireland. He knows all about the troops and officers, and is able to give the details of the British drill and unifoi*m, and is an tactician. He never was in Rio Janeiro or Australia, but went direct from England to Lima, and disembarked there with his valet. Jules Perrault, with the intention of going overland across the Andes. It was on this trip he procured many curiosities, and sent them home. ; L!hese he describes, and gives the dates of (he last letters he sent home. While in the Andean Range he was taken sick, and was robbed by his valet, who left him, as he supposed, to die. He remained there, in an old woman's hut, perfectly insane, nearly a year. He came from there with an intent hatred of the whole world in general, and of his aunt in'particular, who would nut let him marry his cousin, TCnte Doughty. He took an oath not to reveal himself until that generation

'.:ad passed away, and in 1881, the day the oath expired, he started for tins city. Hβ has been in turn a sailor before the mast, soldier, workman at the Mare Island Navyyard in California, and at the present time has a small farm near San Diego, in this state, and a position in the lighthouse service. He fought through the war on the TTnion side. Tn 1866 or 1867 he married a Miss Williams, of Hew York, and now has four children, all christened with Tichborne family names. The Duke of Sutherland, while in San Francisco, was said to have become very ••iiiich interested in in the case, and a picture •if the man was given him. i he man's statement (it wus reported) was taken down by Dr. K-ussell, of the duke's party, and both nift nre and statement are now on the way to Rngland. An interview with the duke and Dr. Russell, after they had reached Philadelphia from .San Francisco, puts a different complexion on the case. Russell said to the interviewer, '• It's no such thing. I believe, from what 1 have hear!, the man's a humbug. There is a lawyer in California by the name of General Barnes, and while we were there we met him on the train, and he told us about the claimant, but there is nothing in it. The story is entirely absurd." " No," said the duke, "we never saw the man, and he may be a claimant for all we know, but we don't know anything about it."