Editing Tichborne case (section)

==Sir Roger Tichborne==
===Tichborne family history===
The Tichbornes, of [[Tichborne Park]] near [[New Alresford|Alresford]] in [[Hampshire]], were an [[Recusant|old English Catholic family]] who had been prominent in the area since before the [[Norman Conquest]]. After the [[Reformation]] in the 16th century, although [[Chidiock Tichborne|one of their number]] was [[hanged, drawn and quartered]] for complicity in the [[Babington Plot]] to assassinate [[Queen Elizabeth I]], the family in general remained loyal to the Crown, and in 1621 [[Sir Benjamin Tichborne, 1st Baronet|Benjamin Tichborne]] was created a [[baronet]] for services to [[James VI and I|King James I]].<ref>McWilliam 2007, pp. 5–6</ref>

[[File:Tree-tich.png|thumb|upright=2.5|Tichborne family tree (simplified). The baronetcy became extinct in 1968 on the death of the 14th baronet.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Sir A. Doughty-Tichborne|journal= [[The Times]]|date= 20 July 1968|page=10}}</ref>]][[Henry Tichborne, 7th Baronet|Sir Henry Tichborne]], the seventh baronet, was travelling through [[Verdun]], France, when the [[Peace of Amiens]] broke down in May 1803, reigniting the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. As an enemy citizen, he was detained by the French authorities, who held him in captivity as a [[civil prisoner]] for some years.<ref>Woodruff, p. 6</ref> He shared his captivity with his fourth son, James, and a nobly born Englishman, [[Henry Seymour (Knoyle)|Henry Seymour of Knoyle]]. During his confinement, Seymour managed to conduct an affair with the daughter of the [[Louis Henri, Prince of Condé|Duc de Bourbon]], which produced a daughter, Henriette Felicité, born in about 1807. Years later, when Henriette had passed her 20th birthday and remained unmarried, Seymour thought his former companion James Tichborne might make a suitable husband{{snd}}although James was close to his own age and was physically unprepossessing. The couple were married in August 1827; on 5 January 1829 Henriette gave birth to a son, Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne.<ref>McWilliam 2007, pp. 7–8</ref>

Sir Henry had been succeeded in 1821 by his eldest son, Henry Joseph, who fathered seven daughters but no male heir.  As baronetcies are inherited only by males, when Henry Joseph died in 1845 the immediate heir was his younger brother Edward, who had assumed the surname of Doughty as a condition of a legacy.  Edward's only son died in childhood, so James Tichborne became next in line to the baronetcy, and after him, Roger. As the family's fortunes had been greatly augmented by the Doughty bequest, this was a considerable material prospect.<ref name= W2>Woodruff, p. 2</ref><ref name= Annear13>Annear, pp. 13–15</ref>

After Roger's birth, James and Henriette had three more children: two daughters who died in infancy and a second son, Alfred, born in 1839.<ref>McWilliam 2007, p. 8</ref> The marriage was unhappy, and the couple spent much time apart, he in England, she in Paris with Roger. As a consequence of his upbringing, Roger spoke mainly French, and his English was heavily accented. In 1845 James decided that Roger should complete his education in England and placed him in the [[Jesuit]] boarding school [[Stonyhurst College]], where he remained until 1848.<ref name= Annear13/> In 1849 he sat the British army entrance examinations and then took a commission in the [[Dragoon guards#British Dragoon Guards Regiments|6th Dragoon Guards]], in which he served for three years, mainly in Ireland.<ref>Woodruff, pp. 11–12</ref>

When on leave, Roger often stayed with his uncle Edward at Tichborne Park and became attracted to his cousin Katherine Doughty, four years his junior. Sir Edward and his wife, though they were fond of their nephew, did not consider [[Cousin marriage|marriage between first cousins]] desirable. At one point the young couple were forbidden to meet, though they continued to do so clandestinely. Feeling harassed and frustrated, Roger hoped to escape from the situation through a spell of overseas military duty; when it became clear that the regiment would remain in the British Isles, he resigned his commission.<ref>McWilliam 2007, p. 11</ref> On 1 March 1853 he left for a private tour of South America on board ''La Pauline'', bound for [[Valparaíso]] in Chile.<ref>Woodruff, p. 24</ref>

===Travels and disappearance===
[[File:RogerTichborne.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Roger Tichborne: one of two [[daguerreotype]]s taken in South America in 1853–54]]
On 19 June 1853 ''La Pauline'' reached Valparaíso, where letters informed Roger that his father had succeeded to the baronetcy, Sir Edward having died in May.<ref>Woodruff, p. 25</ref> In all, Roger spent 10 months in South America, accompanied in the first stages by a family servant, John Moore. In the course of his inland travels he may have visited the small town of [[Melipilla]], which lies on the route between Valparaíso and [[Santiago]].<ref>Woodruff, p. 26</ref> Moore, who had fallen ill, was paid off in Santiago, while Roger travelled to Peru, where he took a long hunting trip. By the end of 1853 he was back in Valparaíso, and early in the new year he began a crossing of the [[Andes]]. At the end of January, he reached [[Buenos Aires]], where he wrote to his aunt, Lady Doughty, indicating that he was heading for Brazil, then Jamaica and finally Mexico.<ref>Woodruff, pp. 27–28</ref> The last positive sightings of Roger were in [[Rio de Janeiro]], in April 1854, awaiting a sea passage to Jamaica. Although he lacked a passport he secured a berth on a ship, the ''Bella'', which sailed for Jamaica on 20 April.<ref name= A38>Annear, pp. 38–39</ref><ref name= ODNB>{{cite ODNB|last= McWilliam|first= Rohan|title= Tichborne claimant|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20855/53701?docPos=1|date= May 2010|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/53701|access-date= 17 March 2012}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

[[File:Tichborne Advertisement 02 Aug 1865.jpg|thumb|upright|right|August 1865 advertisement in ''[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]]'' seeking information as to Tichborne's fate]]
On 24 April 1854 a capsized ship's boat bearing the name ''Bella'' was discovered off the Brazilian coast, together with some wreckage but no personnel, and the ship's loss with all hands was assumed. The Tichborne family were told in June that Roger must be presumed lost, though they retained a faint hope, fed by rumours, that another ship had picked up survivors and taken them to Australia.<ref name= A38/><ref>McWilliam 2007, p. 13</ref> Sir James Tichborne died in June 1862, at which point, if he was alive, Roger became the 11th baronet. As he was by then presumed dead, the title passed to his younger brother Alfred, whose financial recklessness rapidly brought about his near-bankruptcy.<ref name= W32>Woodruff, pp. 32–33</ref> Tichborne Park was vacated and leased to tenants.<ref name= McW14>McWilliam 2007, pp. 14–15</ref>

Encouraged by a clairvoyant's assurance that her elder son was alive and well, in February 1863 Roger's mother Henriette, now  Lady Tichborne, began placing regular newspaper advertisements in ''[[The Times]]'' offering a reward for information about Roger Tichborne and the fate of the ''Bella''.<ref name= W32/> None of these produced results; however, in May 1865 Lady Tichborne saw an advertisement placed by Arthur Cubitt of [[Sydney]], Australia, on behalf of his "Missing Friends Agency". She wrote to him, and he agreed to place a series of notices in Australian newspapers. These gave details of the ''Bella''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s last voyage and described Roger Tichborne as "of a delicate constitution, rather tall, with very light brown hair and blue eyes". A "most liberal reward" would be given "for any information that may definitely point out his fate".<ref>Woodruff, pp. 37–38</ref>