RELEASE OF THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1184, 7 November 1884, Page 3

RELEASE OF THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

(Vfdlingt m Peat.)

The release i f the Claimant marks another import int stage in the history of one of the most extraordinary cases ever known. A brief record of the sequence of events connected with it may not be without interest, for although everyone knows something about tire Claimant, a new generation has grown up since the wonderful trials connected vith his case were the chief, almi st the only, topic of general cooveisation in all En glish speak ng communities. Kogcr Charles I'rchborne, son of Sir Janies Ticliborne, Bart., was born in 1829, and entere I the army in 1849. In 1832 he was refused by his cousin, Kate Doughty, and in March 1853 he left Havre for Valparaiso, where he arrived on June 19. On April 20 of tne following year he left Bio de Janeiro in the brig Bella, which was supposed to have foundered at sea with ail bands. The fact of his death was y established by a chancery suit, but lis mother absoln e ! v refused to believe he was dead, and in 1865 she advertised f»r iufor* ■nation concerning him. In 1866 the Claimant was discoveie I at Wtigga VV’aggs, in Austral i, and asserted that he was Tii h'< me, and that he and eight otheis had been saved from the Bella and brought to Australia, and that be had lived there for 13 years under the name of Castro. He claimed theTi-hhome estates, went Hooie. and in Paris, in January 1867, he met and was aoanowle iged as her son by the Dowager Lady Ticblmine. None of the rest of the family acknowledged him, but Sir Clifford Constable and other former bro.her officers profi ssed to rerogn se him. The Claimant issued first a Chancei v suit, and then an accion. in the Common Plras, which was resisted ort behalf of the heir, Sir Henry, then a minor. The trial began on the 11th May. 1871. befo-e Cnief Justice Boville, and the Claimant's examination lasted 22dayi. The trial lasted 10.3 dais, the Attorney-General,, Sir J. D. Coleridge, who led for the defendant, sneaking for 26 ■ 'ays. Oo the 6th March 1873, the plain* tiff was nonsuited. The cost of the trial, p ltd out. of the family estates, w s : 92,090. On the 7th Match Tichjmri.e alias Castro, was artesied and dodged in Newgate on dirges of pet jury and forgery. <ln the 23hi of Aptil he was imbe ed as Thomas Castro, o tan Arthur 'Orton, before Chi f Justi e Coekburn ami Justices JMellor an 1 Lush atb r. The cafe for the prosecution lasted until Ju'y 10, and on its 124 th day the ct se for ‘he defence closed, and then there was rebutting evidence. Dr Ke eily's speech, as counsel for the prisoner, lasted *rom ecemher 2to January 14, 1874, and Mr Hawkins’ reply for. the, Crown from the 15 hto the 28th of Jama y. The Chief Justice’s summing up lasted from January 29 to February 28, and on the latter day tins, the longest criminal trial on tecord, terminated with a verdict “that the Claimant did falsely swear that be was Koger Charles Tichborne, that he seduced Catherine N. E. Doughty in 1851, and that he was not Arthur Onon.” For this he was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment with hard labour, and this sentence was afterwart’s confirmed on appeal to the House of Lords. Since that time he hj s been in gaol, but he has never for one moment falteiedin the assertion that he is really Roger Charles Tichborne, and there ate still a gn at many people who believe that he is that pet sou. The mystery will never probably be fully o'eared up His 14 years' sentence has been reduced to 10 years and a-halfby good conduct in gaol, and one-, more he is a free mm What will fo low his release r miioe to be seen A late English paper notes the foiraation of a Demonstration Committee to c lebrate bis telease and the pa-a ng of the fol'cing resolution by it:—"Teat the friends of the cause he desired to augment the Demonsc atiun Fund by giving Tichborne a suitable reception on his liberation, and that moneys collected he fotwardul to Mrs K-nealy. the treasurer.” The Claimant's adherents are evptessing, through the branch s of the Magna Charta Association and other organisations, their fears that his ticket of leave wid be hampered with such restrictions as will pi event his participa tion in those public demonstrations which they are preparing for him—especially in one to be held immediately on the Claimant’s release from prison. It has been reported to the London branches that a draft address, to be presented to the Claimant on the occasion of his release, has been prepared by the Bristol Science-test Tichborne Committee. It opens thus Sir Roger Tichborne, we offer you our hearty congratulations that you have survived your long and spirit-crushing imprisonment. You have outlived the iniquitous and illegal sentence which consigned you to a double term of penal servitude, a sentence for which there was no known precedent.” Other bodies are also preparing addresses. We should not be surprised if some more strango phases of this great romance of real life will yet present themselves.

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