THE TICHBORNE DOLE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 199, 23 November 1871, Page 7

THE TICHBORNE DOLE.

(From the *' CFenttemari'a Magazine" for Jitfy.)

The rumours which have been floating during the. fast few years respecting a returned. Australian emigrant claiming the ancient baronetcy of Tichborne, which have resulted in the present trial in the Court of Common Pleas, recall to mind a legend which has been current in the family for many generations ; the truth of which the writer of this paper can vouch for, as it came to him from a member of the family.

This very ancient house dates the possession of its patrimony, the manor of Tichborne, near Winchester, as far back as two centuries before the Norman Conquest. It is said to have derived its name originally from the river Itchen, at the head of which its possessions were situated, and thence was denominated De Itchenborne, which, in course of time, has been abbreviated into its present appellation of Tichborne.

About the middle of the twelfth century, the then head of the family, a gallant knight named Sir Roger de Itchborne, married Mabel, only daughter and heiress of Sir Ralph de Lamerston, of Lamerston in the Isle of Wight, by which he acquired considerable estates in that part of England, in addition to his own possessions in Hampshire. After many years- of wedded happiness, during which the Lady Mabel became celebrated for her kindness and care of the poor, death now approaching, worn out with age and infirmity, she besought her loving husband as her last request, that he would grant her the means of leaving behind her a charitable bequest, in the shape of a dole, or measure Of bread, to be distributed annually on the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, co all needy and indigent people who should apply for it at the hall door, without respect of persons or excluding any who should make the demand. The said bread was to be the produce of a certain piece of ground situated within the present park pailings, containing an area of fifteen acres, and of known value ; but should the applicants be greater in number than the produce, the worth of 2d. in money was to be given to each person in its stead.

The Lady Mabel's husband was induced to give his consent to his wife's request, only on condition of her being able to crawl or walk round the piece of ground demanded — a condition of apparent impracticability, from the fact of her having been bedridden for many years previous ; and this was to be done, too, while a certain brand or billet of wood was burning on the- fire in the hall at Tichborne. The venerable dame, however, nothing'dannted, ordered her attendants to carry her to the place she had selected, where, being deposited on the ground, she seemed to receive a renovation of strength, and to the surprise of her anxious and admiring lord — who began to wonder where this pilgrimage- might end — as- well as. of all who saw her, she succeeded in crawling round several rich and goodly acres within the required time. The field which was the scene of Lady Mabel's extraordinary feat retains the name of " Crawls " to the present day.

As soon as her task was complete she was re-conveyed tojher chamber, and, summoning the family to hei bedside, in ordor to secure her gift to the poor, for whom it was designed, and to render it binding upon her descendants, she proceeded in a most solemn manner to deliver a prophecy respecting the future inheritors of Tichborne ; predicting its prosperity as long as the annual dole existed, and leaving her malediction on any of her descendants who should be bo mean or covetous as* to discontinue or divert it ; declaring that when such should happen the old house would fall, the family would become extinct from the failure of heirs male, and that — as a final warning of the approach of their decay — a generation would appear of seven sons, followed immediately by one with seven daughters and no sons.

The custom thus founded in the reign of Henry H. continued to be observed most regularly for centuries. The 25th of March became the annual festive day of the family, and the friends and different branches of the house of Tichborne came from far and near to witness and assist at the performance of Lady Mabel's legacy. In the year 1 670 Sir Henry Tichborne, the third baronet of that name, and the direct lineal heir of Sir Roger and Lady Mabel, employed Giles Tilbury, an eminent Flemish painter, to represent the ceremony of distributing the Tichborne dole. The picture was valuable, as giving a faithful representation of old Tichborne House in the time of Charles 11., which Camden, a century before, had pronounced to be of very great antiquity. This picture passed, by marriage, into the hands of Michael Bloxmt, Esq., of Maple Durham, in Oxfordshire, who had married Mary Agnes, the eldest daughter of Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne, and it was sold by his descendants for the nominal value of £400 to the late Sir Edward Doughty, the ninth baronet of the house of Tichborne, who assumed the name of- Doughty on succeeding to the estates of his relative, Miss Doughty, of Snarford Hall, in Lincolnshire,

The dole continued to be given every year, without one omission, down to the end of the last century, when — under the pretence of attending the .TieM>oriie dole — yagabond?, gipsies, and

idlers of every description assembled from all quarters, pilfering^ through the neighbourhood, and causing many complaints amongst the magistrates and surrounding gentry. It was abolished by Sir Henry Tichborne in 1799, partly on account of the enormous tax it had become on the family, and partly to prevent a recurrence of the disorders which the annual distribution produced.

Then began the fulfilment of Lady Mabel's prediction. In 1803, four years after the cessation of the gift, a portion of the house fell, and the remainder was pulled down, the materials were sold, and the surrounding moat was filled up.' Sir Henry, the seventh baronet of the name of Tiehborne, -who had abolished the dole, had seven sons — Henry Joseph, who succeeded him in the title and estates, and became the father of seven daughters, but withont a son ; Benjamin, who died unmarried 1810 ; Edward, who became ninth baronet, but who left no heir, as his only son died before him j James Franciß, the tenth baronet — of whom presently ; John Michael, who was unmarried, and slain in the mutiny at Vellore in India in 1802 ; and Roger Robert, the seventh and youngest son, who died childless in 1849.

Sir Henry, the eighth baronet, and eldest of the seven sons, married Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Burke, Bart., of Marble Hill,, and by her had seven daughters, in the following order :—: — 1. Eliza, married to Lord Dormer ; 2. Frances, to Lord Arundell of Wardour ; 3. Julk, to Charles Talbot, Esq., and became the mother of Bertram, seventeenth Earl of Shrewsbury ; 4. Mary, who died unmarried in 1827 ; 5. Catherine, to Colonel Greenwood, of the Grenadier Guards ; 6. Lucy, to John Towneley, Esq. ; and Emily Blanche, the seventh and youngest daughter, to John, son of J. Bennett, Esq., M.P. fcr Wiltshire. Sir Henry died leaving no son.

In 1826, Sir Henry's second brother, Edward, who eventually became the ninth baronet, having inherited the extensive property of Miss Elizabeth Doughty of Snarford Hall, was obliged, by the strict terms of her will, to drop the name of Tichborne entirely, and assume that of Doughty solely; thus fulfilling, in some measure, that part of Lady Mabel's prediction which foretold that the name would become extinct. Sir Edward Doughty married, in 1827, Catherine, daughter of James, ninth Lord Arundell of Wardour, arid had an only son, who died before he attained the age of six years. Sir Edward's brother James, who eventually became the tenth baronet, mai*ried Henrietta, daughter of Henry Seymour, Esq., of Knoyle, in Wiltshire, and had two sons — Roger Charles, who was supposed to have been lost at sea off the coast of South America in the spring of 1854 (the claimant of the baronetcy from Australia calls himself the said Roger) ; and Alfred Joseph, the eleventh baronet, whose son Henry-— a posthumous child, born in 1866 — is now in possession* of the title and estates. "

When the only son of Mr. Edward Doughty (subsequently the ninth baronet) died May 30th, 1835, the hitherto singular fulfilment of Lady Mabel's prediction struck him so forcibly that he besought his elder brother, Sir Henry Joseph, to restore the ancient dole, which he agreed to do j and it was again distributed, with certain restrictions, in flour, and confining it to the poor of the parish of Tichborne only, on the 25th of March, 1836, after a suspension of thirtyseven years ; and in this manner it continues to be distributed to the present day.

The ancient dole measure, in which tie bread was weighed out, is still preserved in the family mansion, and has, on one side, the inscription, " Fundatum Henrlco Securido regnante;" and on the other, " Tichborne dole weight, lib lOoz avoir." The custom in general every year was to bake about 1200 loaves ; but on one occasion, when the 25th of March fell upon a Sunday, not less than 1225 loaves were distributed, with sums of 2d each to the value of £8. Giles Tilbury's picture, to which I have before alluded — representing the distribution of the dole in 1670, in the courtyard of the old mansion, and including upwards of 100 portraits — is still to be seen at the hall. An account of Chedecke Ttchborue, who perished on the scaffold in the sixteenth century, may be found in Disraeli's " Curiosities of Literature." Whether the resumption of Lady Mabel's gift may prove sufficient to ward off the fatal prediction which foretold the failure of the family, time alone will show. The male race has hitherto been supposed to depend upon the life' of a single child five years of age, unless the issue of the present trial — which seems likely to prove the most important cause celebre of this century — should result in giving the title and the estates, which amount to between £20,000 and £30,000 per annum, to the claimant from Australia.

It is stated that in Kew York city, recently, a quantity of human hair, silky, silver gray, and thirty inches long, was. sold for 35d015. an ounce — nearly twice as much as gold will bring. One house in that city has imported six thousand pounds of hair since January, paying for it 100,000 dols. in gold. Hair has advanced 25 per cent, in market value, and is likely to go up 25 per cent, raore.