Tichborne

Tichborne, an estate in Hampshire, 6-1/2 miles N.E. of Winchester, has been in the hands of the same family from Saxon times. The first baronet was created in 1626. But the name is chiefly remarkable for its associations with one of the most memorable trials of modern times. Sir Alfred Tichborne died in 1866, and a claimant appeared to the title and estates in the person of one Arthur Orton, an Australian butcher from London, who professed to be Roger Charles Tichborne, who was lost, at sea in 1854. The civil case was tried in 1872 in the Court of Common Pleas, and lasted for 103 days. The case for the plaintiff collapsed, chiefly owing to the searching cross-examination by Sir John Coleridge, afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England, and to the production of evidence that Roger Tichborne had tattoo marks which "the Claimant" had not, and in 1874 he underwent a trial for perjury, the case lasting 188 days, and resulting in a conviction, followed by a term of penal servitude. The cost of this trial was £55,315.