THE CLAIMANT, OF THE TICHBORNE BARONETCY.

Otago Witness, Issue 802, 13 April 1867, Page 4

THE CLAIMANT, OF THE TICHBORNE BARONETCY.

Un ": (P^om the MancJit'ster Examiner. y According toipresent.appearances, there Js ; reason to, beljeve. ,th^t, the person who .recency' returned, from ..Australia, and re'pres^pted .himself .tp be. Sir Roger Tichbo;ne,,wilj not '_ be- able to substantiate his claims, , to the iitle and property.' ' A correspondent of the Post, writing from .Winchester, says :— r' 1 Nothing can. be more wearisome, t"han, following the tsrdy steps ,of\lh } c presumed baronet. If doubt formerly existed, it is now increased tenfold. ,Hqw, are the mysterious proceedings of Sir Roger, to be accounted for? Are they due to eccentricity, or are , they owing to fraud? To what, in shqrt;'can they be attributed ? There are several signs' of weakness in the case. If the hero be the person he represents himself, what possible' ''motive can exist for such profound secresy? Why doe's he hire private apartments at Alreaford? Why does he.,,shut himself up in • his "apartments at Gravesend ? Why does he,,refuse to see old friends of the family, and bolt 'tis bedroonT'aoor to prevent admission '? , One gen,tlemsb, who acted for .years - as land steward to Sir Kd ward .Doughty Tichborne, on, hearing of the arrival of •'•"Sir. "Roger," left bis comfortable seat in Wales for Alresford, ahd,V having arrived '.at the Swan, f h' e^was'.'told that the,' person of whom be 'w.^9, in,, quest was.,' gone to , Gravesend. Thi.ihjsr; Mr Gosfbrd hastened, out of pure .friendship to the family, only to be denied admission ; but, since that we are informed Mr (xosfofd contrived to see ihe gentlemen at.Grriive'send, '^nd.itl is ..understood that' he j the individual he has re'presentedjhimself ,to' be.' ' AgaiD, if he be ]' t Sif itog^'jWhy does he- not hasten to Cme^t^is '.anxious parent?, , pne. would ■fJtin'S^hat^any t ' man who, had, [.been, separated frora^'frs^fftm.ilyj fck so. : many year?, ,who „had. [( been /.lamented aa lost, and ;Bu^denly ; returng,V would' |be ' most anxious to We'jxia qn.ee ,'more, to recount the' many "adventures,- heh,ad seen, and fight yhis*. battles o'er again.'", amidst the family. circle!... But he does nothing of the kind, jremainipg, up to (the 'end of last week, at, the; hotel at Gravesend in which .he' took'.'up'.h'iß,', v , abode a' fortnight since Many.,', ,do not , hesitate to express tbeir N doubts oa the whole transaction. But pace .more, assuming that his claims are fraudulent, how' shall.Bosle's participation m'the'affair, be disposed of,? Without his .countenance from ' first, no credence .jypuld.'have been' "given to the tale. Is Bogle deceiVed,"or is he a conspirator ? If l ;Sir Roger Vbe ad impostor, Bogle must be one or f the other." .. ;j '^ • The" Pall Mall remarks that the soi-c'i^ant' Sir. .Roger arrived in England on Christmas- Day,, but up to the present moment he hag; not • presented himself to any member, of 1 his family ; and it was with the greatest difficulty that the family solicitor,; who had- been the confidential adviser of the late Mr Tichborne, succeeded in obtaining an interview with the individual who claims the name,., on the Bth instant. He found the new comer to be an, enormously fat man, in -no way resembling,- , the , "late" Mr Tichborne, either in voice, feature, or manper, and entirely ignorant of family circumstances, with which one should have supposed the real S,ir Roger necessarily to have been familiar. • Nevertheless, ; the • soi-di3ant baronet is going ; over- to Paris, accompanied, by a solicitor, to endeavour to convince his mother that. he is really her loDg-lost son. The Hampshire papers publish the following, interesting letter, from. the Rev. Mr Gaider, a Roman Catholic clergyman, who resides at Guernsey. .He says :—": — " It is in my power to add a few particulars, (and rectify • others) to, the newspaper accounts of-the romantic case of the longlost Sir Roger Tichborne, Bart." I have known him from his childhood, as well aa his late brother Sir Alfred; and his, father and mother and the whole family, were intimately kno.wn to . me for years. I was domestic chaplain to, the late. Sir. Ed ward Tichborue Doughty, fiart., in Hampshire, when Mr Roger, who had, "been an officer in the Hussars, left Engknd,for South America; and I.was present at the iarewell interview between his, uncle and himself. This was in the springqf 1852, not : lßs^. On leaving Southampton ' for . . Hayrej ,. he sent me, .through -.the^. family .steward, .some loose English money, be,, had, still in his pocket for thj» poor, begging' tb^t I' would pray for him! ' it He embarked, at Havre for Valparaiso .on board a failing ship. .He wrote home from ,the ,latter place, after a four months, passage, tha^. he would visit Peru and the interior, which' he did.' Towards .the beginning 01,1853, .he wrote again from .yalparaiso*-! saw, the' letter— that, being tir!ed.,'pf travelling .he .was about to embark for New York on board the' ship 8e11a,.., of Liverpool, 1 and that at New 'York he would take -mail steamer,' and return to England. From that time he neyeAw.as heard of till lately. .There were rumours .that, the Bella had foundered at sea. His mother— the L,adv Tiehborne

wife of Sir James, wlto'. succeeded hi» brother, Sir Edward, in 1854— was always convinced her Ron Roger was alive, and spent no end of money upon a number of importers who came to her with l news* from her Ron. Nothing will . be found so easy as to identify the claimant to the baronetcy, whose interesting tale of adventure fills the papers, or to di-prove his claim. I could, for one, make sure of either, if I had a five minutes* intervievr wirh him. as I possess a perfect knowledge ot Roger Tichbornt's life as a boy, a youth and young man, up to his departure from England. The TtcnuoßNE Bahonetct. — The re* turn from Australia of a gentlemen w ho professes to be the rightful heir to the baronetcy of Tichborne and property attached thereto, has already been reported in our columns. A correspondent of the Morning Post at Winchester, pays: — " Alresford is divided into two fierce and hostile camps. The followers of the new comer, however, by far outnumber his opponents, and heavy betting — five to one— is staked on the genuineness of the new found heir. Every feature, every movement, every action of the new comer, ha 9 been closely scrutinised. It i 3 alleged tbst Sir Roger had many peculiar marks about his person which would infallibly determine the knotty point of identification. Thus it is asserted that his eyes twinkled very much whilst speaking ; so do this gentleman's. That his ri^ht knee turned a little inwards ; po does this gentleman's. That he held his bead a little inclined to theright; ditto. One man declared that if he could get " a full-faced" view of hia hack he should know him directly,' and upon being gratified, exclaimed immediately that he " would swear to him' all over theworld." During his retirement the "pretender" amused himself by watching the arrivals in the court-yard of the Swan hostelry, atjd as each person descended he described to his host y*ho be was and whence he ca ne. This person was Farmtr ■- -■, and i (hat Mr So-and-so. Taking a walk through the town, accompanied by the landlord of the Swan, he met several persons, whom he recognised, called them by ;name, and referred to particular incidents of pa9t years —incidents which cauld be only known toone very familiar with the individual of whom he was discoursing. ' He is reported to have marched round the estate— to have inquired respecting an old tree which hag been removed many years — to have sighed over the. loss of a memorial plate on one of the tombe of his forefathers in the Tich» bourne mausoleum, and to have invited his friend to pay a visit to the residence of an old acquaintance who has left the neighborhood these ten years, Though 1 he recognised several individuals, the more satisfactory announcement that he was recognised by many cannot with truth be made. This belief in imposture is rudely shaken when one hears that tradesmen refuse to receive payment of i heavy bills before "Sir Roger" takes pos- 0 session of his estate; when bankers cash H cheques for "Sir Roger;" when agents, II whose interests would be greatly prejudiced B by his accession, declare that they begin to ■ waver in their incredulity. Certainly " Sir H Roger" has assumed the heirship. It it ■] a fact that he has employed a man to go §j round Alresford to collect bills owing by B the e3tate, giving particular directions H that he is " not to collect any Jews' H debts." Requested by the solicitor toHj deliver hia credentials, " Sir Roger" H calmly referred him to his solicitors iaR London, Messrs Wells. When he leftn Alresford, he stated that he was about to H visit London, and should go thence to tbeffl Clarendon Hotel, Gravesend. Since thatH time he has not hidden himself, but has fl kept up a correspondence with his host atH Alresford, who last Saturday received iN communication from him to the effect that HI he was preparing to go to Paris on a visit H to his mother, after which he should re. Bj turn to Alresford to demand possession of H the estates. It I*3 positively stated thuH upwards of LIOOO has been forwarded by H Lady Doughty Tichborue to her ; son/oafßJ the faithot the representations which have BH been -made to her ladyship." < The "Melbourne Argus" of the 26ch itut^B records the following novel sticking-up cisc Bh — l lt would appear frotn a charge which wW heard at the City Court yesterday, that onljrHH bave vre to fear violence from male robber^H bat that we must also ba ready to res et tbtjHl attacks of several ot the other sex, flumH have resorted to this means of increasindHß their income. Charlotte Robinson and Elia9H James, two old offenders, were charged wiij^HH vagrancy. The s constable stated that the po^^| soners had stuck a man up against adcotflD mid one held him by the throat whilst ti^Hj I other rifled his pockets. In the court, oaeodH the women assumed an air of injured icoJHl cence, indignantly asserting that ahe bore JBB unimpeachable character, never having beoHH brought before the Court for any " serienflfl offence. The other prisoner, whi'e. vainMßßß endeavoring to drop a few tears, eipreMJMM the profounde.it sorrow for what bad occum^Bfl and promised thiit if released, she would aBW form, Tbe Bench, however, did not appa^HH .to RYir.pathiso with them, for they sent etdHß of them to guol for a mouth." . KB