WEBVTT - The Butcher Baronet 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.080 You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:10.000 Radio and Aaron Minkey Listener discretion advised. In the summer 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:14.280 of eighteen sixty five, an Australian lawyer named William Gibbs 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.640 was sitting in his office reading the Sydney Morning Herald. 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.440 His eyes glazed over a large advertisement. The ad had 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.200 been placed in papers for weeks, and by now Gibbs 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.240 practically knew the words by heart. A handsome reward will 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.320 be given to any person who can furnish such information 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:37.000 as will discover the fate of Roger Charles Tickborne. He 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.760 sailed from the port of Rio de Janeiro on the 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.440 twentieth of April eighteen fifty four in the ship Labella, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.520 and has never been heard of since. Roger Tickborn ship, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.479 it seemed, had completely wrecked, but rumor had reached England 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.120 that the survivors had been rescued by ship headed to Australia, 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.680 and Roger's mother, Lady Tickborne, was conveyed iNTS that her 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.840 son still lived, making him the rightful heir to the 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:08.360 tick Born baronetcy. Gibbs put down the newspaper and looked 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.679 at his next client, a local butcher from Wagga Wagga 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:16.560 named Thomas Castro. Castro's situation was pretty bleak. There wasn't 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:18.880 much Gibbs could do to help him. Do you have 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.160 any other properties that you could maybe liquidate? He asked, 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.080 any valuable as you could sell any family abroad. Castor 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.160 was evasive. Yes, there was some property. He had an 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.880 entitlement back in England, but most of his possessions and 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.880 his paperwork had been lost in a shipwreck. Castro pulled 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.800 out a beautifully carved briar pipe and began smoking. It 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.319 was the pipe of a gentleman, and Castor had hoped 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.000 it added an air of legitimacy to the excuses he 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.520 made to his lawyer. Please, sir, he said, I have 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.840 a wife and daughter. Isn't there something you can do 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.279 for me? Gibbs asked for a closer look at Castro's pipe. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.920 On the side of the burn mahogany would were three 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:07.680 gilded initials, almost invisible in the surface. R. C. T. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:16.400 Roger Charles Tickborn. Gibbs salivated. His mouth tasted like copper. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.680 He rose to his feet and paced to the window, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.480 then paced back to his desk. All while the butcher 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:27.360 who had called himself, Thomas Castro watched him nervously. I think, 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.600 Gibbs said, still walking, pacing in steady circles around his 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.360 small hot office. I think you've been lying to me. 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:41.360 I don't know what you're talking about. Castro answered. I think, 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.480 Gibbs said, his voice triumphant, that your real name is 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:50.520 Roger Tickborne. Castro's eyes caught the newspaper still splayed on 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.800 Gibbs's desk. He saw the words reward, inheritance, and air. 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.960 The man cleared his throat, he in and exiled, and 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.040 then looked right into gives his eyes and said two 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:09.079 words that would send Victorian England into a frenzy to 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.680 words that would launch the longest trial England had seen 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.320 up until that point, Words that would tear families and 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.639 lives apart, Words that would captivate writers like Mark Twain 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:26.400 and George Bernard Shaw and ignite a populist movement. The man, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.000 using the name Thomas Castro, who from that day on 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.640 would most commonly be referred to as the claimant, looked 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:40.680 directly at his lawyer and said, you're right. I'm Danish 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:49.680 Schwartz and this is noble blood. The story of the 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.720 tick Borne claimant doesn't actually begin in Australia. It doesn't 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.600 actually begin in England either. It begins in France, in 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.800 a cell in eighteen o three, where an English nobleman 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:07.280 named Henry Seymour was imprisoned during the Napoleonic Wars. Also 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:11.040 imprisoned with him was a man named James Tickborne, one 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.880 of the sons of an English baronet. Henry Seymour didn't 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:16.880 let a little thing like being a prisoner of war 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.280 stop him from enjoying himself. While in captivity, He seduced 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.760 the daughter of the Duc de Bourbon and became the 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.480 father of a daughter whom they named Henriette. Years passed 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.480 and Henriette still hadn't found a husband. When she turned twenty, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.560 her father, Henry Seymour, took matters into his own hands 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.280 and decided to arrange a match with James Tickborne, his 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.560 former brother in arms as a prisoner of war in France. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.520 So what if James was twice Henriette's age, was ugly 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.680 and had the conversational abilities of a brick wall. Henriette 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.800 was twenty already an old maid, and James, as the 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.960 son of a baronet, was a suitable match, and so 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.600 the pair got married and had a son of their own, 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:05.960 Roger Charles Doughty Tickborn. James was his father's fourth son, 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.200 and so the odds weren't in his favor when it 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.200 came to him or his son Roger inheriting the baronetcy. 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.760 But as luck would have it, his older brother died 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.320 with no male heirs, his second eldest brother died young, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.680 also with no children, and his third brother only had 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.159 a daughter, a girl named Catherine, and so it was 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.240 young Roger who was raised with the knowledge that he 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.640 would one day become the baronet. As one might have predicted, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.640 the arranged marriage between Henriette and James Tickborne was rocky 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.200 at best. Although they eventually had another surviving son named Alfred, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:46.479 the spouses lived almost entirely separate lives. With her French pedigree, 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.279 Henriette believed that France would be the best place to 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.440 give her son Roger a proper education, and so she 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.920 brought little Roger with her to Paris, where he spoke 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.479 French before he spoke English. The little heir lived there 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.440 until his father intervened and sent him to a British 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.719 boarding school, where British schoolboys. Being British schoolboys, Roger was 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:10.320 endlessly mocked for his thick French accent. His adolescence was 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:15.000 not a happy one. After school, Roger joined the British 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.880 Army and during his leaves he would spend time at 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.800 Tickborne Park with his uncle Edward, the Baronet, his aunt 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.080 and his cousin Katherine. It's there that he found the 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.120 only joy in his young life because even though she 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.000 was his cousin, Katherine was beautiful and Edward, who was 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.359 tall and slim with dark hair and dark eyes, was 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.680 very handsome. The two cousins became enamored with one another. 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.440 The marriage between first cousins wasn't strictly forbidden in the 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.000 nineteenth century. Roger's uncle, Sir Edward, was not a fan 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.920 of the idea. He forbade Roger from seeing Katherine until 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.640 their youthful attraction diminished the planned in work. Whenever Roger 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.880 had time away from the army, he would sneak back 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.880 to see Catherine, the two meeting in secret by moonlight. 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.280 They exchanged love letters written in code, but Catherine's father, 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.320 Sir Edward, was never going to agree to the match. 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.600 Love sick lonely and desperate, Roger needed to get away. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.160 The twenty three year old resigned his military position, where 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.880 his regiment had just been stationed in the British Isles, 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.960 and he left on a private tour of South America. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.320 Roger's ship landed safely in Chile, where he received a 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.360 letter informing him that his uncle had passed away just 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.880 weeks after Roger had departed on his voyage. Now Roger's 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:45.320 father was the baronet. The air continued his journey, traveling 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.960 through South America for nearly a year, crossing the Andies, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.520 traveling to Buenos Aires and then to Brazil. It was 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.160 from a port in Rio de jan Era that Roger 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.160 boarded a boat called Labella, sailing for Jamaica, what would 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.680 be one of the final stops on his tour. No 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:07.920 one aboard Labella was ever heard from again. Four days later, 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.680 a wreck was discovered off the Brazilian coast, presumed to 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:16.160 be the ill fated Bella. By all appearances, every passenger, 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:21.560 including Roger Tickborne, had perished, but Roger's mother, Henriette now 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.280 Lady Tickborne, refused to believe that her eldest son was dead. 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.480 Roger had been her shining boy, the beautiful child she 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.520 had raised in Paris and spent the mornings with chattering 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.840 in French. He was the dashing soldier, well read, quiet, 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:43.400 always polite, and he couldn't possibly be dead without telling 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.840 her husband. One afternoon, Lady Tickborn snuck out to see 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.600 a psychic in London, at the type of place where 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.040 a woman of her stature would have been more than 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.600 a little embarrassed to be seen, but Lady Tickborn didn't care. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.480 She brought with her one of Roger's hats and a 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.760 newspaper clipping but the wreck of the Bella, and laid 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:06.000 her beating heart onto the psychic's velvet covered table. The 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.440 psychic smiled and told Lady Tickborne that, without a doubt, 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.760 her son was still alive. There were rumors that the 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.240 passengers of the Bella, or at least some of them, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.280 had been picked up by a ship and brought to Australia. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.720 Roger must have been among them. That was the conviction 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.880 that Lady Tickborne carried with her after the death of 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.200 her husband. When her indolent younger son, Alfred became the 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:35.000 new baronet, it was the conviction that Lady Tickborne carried 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.120 with her when Alfred's drinking and gambling nearly led him 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.800 to bankruptcy and he had to begin to lease out 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.360 the estates of Tickborne Park to tenants. And it's the 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.240 conviction that she carried with her when she issued out 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.000 a series of advertisements in Australian newspapers, including the Sydney 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.959 Morning Herald, which a lawyer in Wagga Wagga named William 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:07.600 Gibbs just happened to read. The man who had been 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.120 going under the alias of Thomas Castro, whom history would 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.480 refer to as the Claimant, made his way from Wagga 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.560 Wagga to Sydney, where he raised money from banks on 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.840 the declaration that he was Roger Tickborne, heir to a 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.839 title and a vast fortune. The claimant said he had 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.320 been on the sinking Bella, but had been rescued by 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.280 a ship and made it to Melbourne, and with his 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.480 memories adult from the trauma of the shipwreck, he had 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.240 made up the name Thomas Castro, taking on the surname 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.720 from a kind family he had met in South America. 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.720 The so called Thomas Castro then settled in Wagga Wagga, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.120 began working as an apprentice. Butcher got married and had 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.680 a daughter. But now the memories were flooding back. He 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.160 was actually Roger Tickborn and all he needed was enough 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.240 money to get back to England to see his mother. 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.480 In order to prove it while in Sydney, the claimant 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.720 meant a man from Roger Tickborn's past life, a servant 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.560 named Andrew Boggle. Boggle was born a slave in Jamaica, 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.680 but had stowed away with Roger's uncle Edward, and worked 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.559 with him as a man servant for many years until 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.880 Edward's death, when Boggle was cast off unceremoniously into forced 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.080 retirement with a tiny pension. Most long time servants at 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.720 the time were given a small property upon retirement. Boggle 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.640 had been given scarcely enough to support himself, which necessitated 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.520 his move to Australia, where living was cheaper. At first, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:39.000 Boggle didn't recognize the man calling himself Roger Tickborn. As 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:43.120 a youth, Roger was lean, all angles and long legs. 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.080 The man before him was nearly two hundred pounds, his 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.760 facial features less defined. During his time in Sydney, the 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.520 claimant would gain twenty pounds, and he would gain another 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.840 forty pounds on the ship from Australia to England. Sympathizers 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.520 explained he was just in joining his new found indulgent lifestyle. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.200 Skeptics would say the man was purposely trying to distort 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.559 his appearance. But Bogle looked closely and he made his determination. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.800 The man was most certainly Roger Tickborne. And so, with 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.200 the money he had raised in Australia, he his wife, 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.800 his daughter and Boggle would all depart back in order 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:32.840 to claim his inheritance from his mother, Lady Tickborne. So 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.880 the claimant made his way to England. He stayed at 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.320 a hotel in London and whispered to the man at 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.280 the front desk that his identity was actually that of 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.480 the missing Baronet, Roger Tickborne, but that it was top secret. 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:50.120 Moms the word. The receptionists promised. First thing that the 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.640 claimant set out to see Lady Tickborne at her London residence, 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:55.599 but when he got there he was told that the 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.720 lady was residing in Paris. Then the claimant went somewhere else. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.160 He went to a rough Cockney neighborhood in East London 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.040 called Wapon and as the first man he saw, if 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.560 he knew the whereabouts of family? Called Orton, Who's asking? 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.640 The stranger responded. The claimant said that he was close 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.559 friends with Arthur Orton. They had worked together in Australia 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:21.400 on a cattle station. Orton, the claimant said, had done 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.280 incredibly well for himself and was now one of the 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.720 wealthiest and most successful men in Australia. The claimant was 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.200 told that the Orton family had left the area a 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:35.560 while back. Just over a week later, the claimant met 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.319 Lady Tickborne at the Hotel de Lille in Paris. Upon 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.480 seeing his face, Lady Tickborne burst into tears. It's my son, 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.160 she cried. She embraced him and declared for all the 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.360 world to hear that her lost son Roger, had been 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:57.920 found at last. Although Lady Tickborne was fully convinced that 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.760 the claimant was the lost heir and haply bestowed an 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.120 income of a thousand pounds a year on him, the 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.080 rest of the Tickborn clan remained less than convinced. The 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.400 claimant's physical stature aside, and by now he was nearly 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.040 four hundred pounds, he didn't speak a word of French, 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.200 nor did he speak with a French accent, and after 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.000 all French had been Roger's first language. The claimant mixed 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.440 up Greek and Latin, didn't know his Virgil, couldn't identify 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:28.480 distant family members, but then again, he didn't know small 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.040 strange details about Roger's life. He knew the type of 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.720 fly fishing tackle Roger had used and the name of 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.560 the dog he had adopted during his travels in South America. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.440 On one hand, he knew where certain paintings were located 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.400 at Tickborne Park. But on the other hand, he had 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.280 referred to his mother, Lady Tickborn, in a letter as Hannah, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.640 even though her name was Henriette. Still, Lady Tickborn would 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.360 hear nothing against the miraculous return of her son, and 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.160 though the family didn't allow him to formally claim the 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.160 baronet tight after the degenerate Alfred's death, that title went 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.880 to his infant son. The claimant still received a thousand 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.040 pounds a year annual income from her ladyship, and he 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.560 was quite content enjoying his new position in society as 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:19.080 a rogue noble, that is, until Lady Tickborn died. To 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.320 the outrage of the Tickborne family. The claimant took the 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.640 position of chief mourner at her funeral to them, he 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.320 was a low born impostor, an embarrassing blight on their 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.600 family name, and he would receive no title and no 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:37.320 more money. Bankrupt, the claimants set up a fundraising venture 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.320 in which he issued Tickborn bonds that holders could purchase 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.040 and then received interest for once he had claimed his 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.280 rightful inheritance. He made a living that way, affording enough 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.400 to temporarily maintain his posture living as a noble born gentleman. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.720 But if he actually wished to prove to the world 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.680 that he was Roger Tickborne, then the claimant had only 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:10.640 one an option. He needed to go to court. While 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.360 the claimant was living as either a pretender or a 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.520 populist hero, depending on your perspective, members of the Tickborne 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.960 family sent private investigators to try to look into the 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.200 story that they were told the cleimant had mentioned that 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.520 he used to work with a man named Arthur Orton 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.640 on a cattle ranch in Australia. Maybe if they could 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.720 find Orton, they would uncover the truth about the claimant. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.520 The Tickborne family agent traveled down to Australia and made 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.360 it to the old cattle station where the claimant had 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.240 claimed to work a place run by a man named 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:48.720 William Foster. Foster's widow checked the old employment records. There 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.120 was an Arthur Orton listed, but no one by the 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.240 name of Thomas Castro the claimants alias. Maybe he had 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.640 been using another alias at the time. The agent showed 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.120 the widow the photograph of the man claiming to be 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.640 Roger Tickborn. Oh I do know him, she said, that's 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:11.399 Arthur Orton. Arthur Orton, born in Wapping in England, was 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.000 the son of a butcher who had traveled to Chile 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.480 as a young man and later moved to Australia. He 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.359 worked at the cattle station owned by William Foster, but 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.679 his paper trail ends there. It's as if he disappeared 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.919 from existence or took up a new identity. When the 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.440 claimants civil trial came to court in eighteen seventy one, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.679 the defense lawyer asked about the mysterious Arthur Orton. The 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.120 claimant was evasive, saying they had been friends in Australia, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.840 but that saying anything else about the time they had 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:46.040 spent together would incriminate him. Finally, the lawyer asked the 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:50.560 man on the standpoint blank, are you Arthur Orton? No? 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.560 The claimant responded, I am not at stake in the 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.360 trial was Tickborne Park, which consisted of over two thousand 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.280 acres manners farm land in Hampshire and a number of 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.040 other properties in London and beyond. The baronet title would 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.600 afford whoever held it an annual income of what to 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:14.240 day would be several millions of dollars. The witnesses lined 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.600 up to testify. Some pointed out that the claimant couldn't 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.960 speak French, or claimed that the real Roger Tickborn had 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:26.080 had tattoos. But some witnesses, former soldiers in Roger's battalion, 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.120 a servant that Roger had traveled with in South America, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.840 maintained that after spending time with the man, the claimant 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:37.480 was Roger Tickborne. The defense lawyer had two hundred witnesses 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.240 ready to go to disprove that claim, but the judge 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.679 held up his hand no more witnesses would be necessary. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:49.199 The case was dismissed and the claimant was arrested on 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:56.159 charges of perjury. During that civil trial, the claimant had 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:00.640 become a massively popular figure of the public imagination. Here 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.720 was a working class hero with a Cockney accent going 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.639 up against the aristocracy and the criminal system, being denied 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.800 something that belonged to him. I appealed to every British 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.399 soul who was inspired by a love of justice and 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.560 fair play, and is willing to defend the weak against 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.720 the strong, The claimant wrote in an essay appealing for 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:26.040 donations for his upcoming criminal trial. Support poured in his 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:32.240 story was a Victorian sensation. His trial followed breathlessly. Knick 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.240 knacks were sold featuring the major players of the story. 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.480 Tickborne was recreated in wax at Madame Tousseau's In a 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.520 political cartoon published in Punch magazine in eighteen seventy one, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.359 the claimants to destroy the shoulders of a man demarcated 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.959 as quote representing the British public. The quote British public 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.399 man is sweating and read under the significant weight of 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.840 the claimant, his cheeks puffed out with effort. On either 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:04.320 side of the men are crowd holding signs Australia police, socialism, politics. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.800 The caption of the cartoon reads, I cannot be expected 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.600 to attend to any of you with this interesting topic 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.800 on my shoulders. George Bernard Shaw wrote about the case 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.359 and its peculiar contradictions and the introduction to his play 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.400 Andrew Cles and the Lion, A Shaw wrote, the claimants 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.639 attempt to pass himself off as a baronet was supported 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.800 by an association of laborers, on the ground that the 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.080 tick Borne family, in resisting it, were trying to do 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.560 a laborer out of his rights. Two Shaw, the paradox 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.880 was obvious, who had to believe simultaneously that this man 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.920 was a cockney workman just like you, and at the 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.480 same time that he was a born and raised, legitimate aristocrat. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.960 Mark Twain also paid attention to the massively popular trial. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.240 While in London, the celebrated writer was at a party 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.120 with the claimant, where he noticed the way Uppercross men 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.240 and women in high society always referred to him as 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.320 Sir Roger. It was Sir Roger, always, Sir Roger, on 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.760 all hands, no one withheld the title. Of course, the 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.879 upper Cross didn't really believe that the man was Sir Roger. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.560 The only reason that this man had been invited to 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:15.760 all these parties in the first place had been a 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.080 sort of a joke, a hilarious little pantomime like seeing 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:23.320 a monkey dressed in human clothes. But the claimant maintained 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.880 that he was Roger Tickborne, never wavering even as lawyers 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.480 and witnesses abandoned his case. His criminal trial for perjury 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.000 lasted one hundred and eighty eight days, one of the 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:41.280 longest trials in English history, but the deliberation lasted only 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:46.120 thirty minutes. The jury declared that he was not Roger Tickborn, 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.399 and he was guilty on two counts of perjury and 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:54.359 sentenced to fourteen years in prison. The loss in court 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.879 did nothing to quell the groundswell of popular support among 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.960 the working class for the claimant and his lawyer, an 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.040 eccentric irishman named Keennoy, who was ultimately disbarred thanks to 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.159 his violent and excessive performance in court during the trial. 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:12.439 But Kenoy used that popularity to launch a campaign for 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.360 election to Parliament, which he won in a landslide victory. 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:19.560 But if the people were hoping for a champion, they 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.119 had unfortunately chosen the wrong one. Keen only attempted to 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.960 get the House of Commons to establish a Royal Commission 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.520 to re examine the Tickborn case, but it only received 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:38.600 a single gay vote. His own popularity and fervor over 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.440 Roger Tickborne and his mysterious disappearance and reappearance gradually dissolved, 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:47.720 and newspapers moved on to covering newer and more exciting gossip. 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.879 In eighty four, after serving a ten year sentence, the 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:55.520 man the public had come to know as the Claimant 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.919 was released from prison. He had lost nearly a hundred 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.880 and fifty pounds. Ironically, his time in jail had made 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:04.719 him look even more like Roger Tickborn than ever before. 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.560 His old supporters attempted to rally him into their populist 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.480 political movements, but the claimant had no interest in any 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:15.359 of that. Instead, he made paid appearances at dance halls 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:18.919 and circuses and married a young music hall singer he 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.879 had long since separated from his Australian wife. When no 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:25.280 one in England seemed to care about him anymore, he 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.520 went to America, where he thought he still might make 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.240 some money. But no one in America cared about who 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:33.160 he was either, and the claimant worked as a bartender 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.840 there Before coming back to England. A newspaper paid him 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.159 a few hundred pounds for a confession that he was 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:43.440 Arthur Orton all along. The claimant retracted that confession as 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.040 soon as he spent the money. The claimant died in 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:52.640 abject poverty on April Fool's Day in eighteen. His funeral 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.840 was attended by nearly five thousand people. For one last moment, 0:23:57.240 --> 0:24:00.520 the public seemed to care about him again. Some call 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:04.760 it foolishness or kindness or mercy, but for whatever reason, 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:08.399 the Tickborne family permitted a card on the claimant's coffin 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:15.600 that said Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tickborn. And so it 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.520 was a coffin that bared the title of a baronet 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:28.199 that was laid into a pauper's grave. That's the end 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.680 of the claimant's life, but his story doesn't end there. 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:33.520 Stick around after a brief sponsor break to learn more 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:36.560 about how the Tickborn case lives on a century later. 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:49.320 Because the Tickborne controversy had happened a century before the 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:53.080 discovery of DNA evidence, it's impossible to determine for certain 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:56.280 who the claimant actually was. He went to his grave 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:00.199 still declaring that he was Roger Tickborn. Years later, the 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:03.119 claimant's daughter would go on to say that her father 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.560 had confessed to her that he had accidentally killed Arthur 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:09.760 Orton back in Australia, and that's why he couldn't reveal 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:13.200 the true details of his past. The claimant's daughter would 0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:17.040 spend a lifetime declaring that she was Roger Tickborne's daughter. 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:20.719 Some believe that the claimant was Arthur Orton all along, 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:23.200 and that he was helped in the details of Roger's 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:26.960 life by the disgruntled servant Boggle, angry at the Tickborne 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:31.200 family for terminating his position and looking for revenge, Perhaps 0:25:31.240 --> 0:25:35.760 they orchestrated the conspiracy together. Another theory is that the 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:39.439 real Roger Tickborn had made it to Australia and befriended 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:42.280 the man who would later claim his identity. Maybe that 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:46.080 man had killed the real Roger Tickborn. In his nineteen 0:25:46.160 --> 0:25:50.040 fifty seven book The Tickborne Claimant, Douglas Woodruff argues that 0:25:50.119 --> 0:25:53.000 it's possible the claimant actually might have been the real 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:57.560