ARTHUR ORTON
THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT
In 1853, Roger Tichborne sailed off to South America after an argument with his rich, upper-class family over a girl he wanted to marry. A year later, he drowned in a shipwreck. That should have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t.
Around the same time, another young man, a butcher’s son, Arthur Orton, also sailed to South America. He didn’t like working on a ship, so he ran away when the ship reached Chile. After eighteen months, he went home, but he didn’t stay long. Like Roger, he had a fight with his family over a girl. He left for Australia.
Lady Tichborne, who lived in France, refused to believe that her darling boy was dead. Her husband thought she was crazy, but by 1866 both he and their younger son, Arthur Tichborne, had died. Now she could do what she wanted.
She put an advertisement in the papers, offering a large reward for anyone who could help her find Roger. The advert even reached Australia, where Arthur Orton had been living for thirteen years. He had settled in the New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga, where he worked as a butcher. He was broke and needed cash desperately.
Arthur wrote to Lady Tichborne, claiming he was Roger and asked could he have some money, please? As it happened, there were two former Tichborne servants living in Sydney, Andrew Bogle and Michael Guilfoyle. He would have to convince them first.
For some reason, both men agreed that he was Roger. Maybe he had offered them their old jobs back. Maybe he had promised to share the money. In any case, that was enough for Lady Tichborne. In December 1866, she paid for him to travel to France.
Here, the story becomes really weird. Arthur didn’t look anything like Roger. Lady Tichborne’s
He knew nothing about Roger’s childhood, family or friends except what he had learned from Andrew and Michael.
Still, Lady Tichborne accepted him as her son. After all, the poor boy had been sick. He’d suffered a shipwreck. Naturally, he had forgotten.
She gave him an income of a thousand pounds a year. In those days, this was a fortune. If he’d been satisfied with it, he could have lived happily ever after and his story would never have made it into the history books.
But Lady Tichborne died. Arthur wasn’t going to settle for a thousand pounds a year when he could have it all. Arthur knew he’d have to fight the family for it.
So started a very long trial, which cost everyone a lot of money and ended up costing Arthur much more. He managed to bribe some witnesses, including his own family. A man called Jean Luie said he was a sailor who had cared for Roger after the shipwreck. Unfortunately he turned out to be a con artist called Sorenson. In the end, Arthur’s brother Charles admitted Arthur was his brother. Even Arthur’s old girlfriend identified him.
In 1873, Arthur was sentenced to fourteen years for perjury (telling lies in court). When he came out in 1884, he admitted he’d lied.
Arthur Orton died in 1898, a lot poorer than he had hoped to be.
Could it happen today? Probably not the way it did. The world is a much smaller place, with aeroplanes and the Internet. And if Arthur did try to make a claim, a DNA test would settle the matter.
But we still love a good story. Even today, some people still believe Arthur was who he said he was.
So perhaps a modern Arthur Orton would get away with it for a while–
DID YOU KNOW…?
In the 1920s, Australian cat burglar George McCraig was working in New York and London. He was known as the Human Fly because he was so good at climbing buildings. When he wasn’t stealing jewellery, George was working as a stuntman. Spiderman would have been jealous.