Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur OrtonAnonymous
History
Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
Anonymous
Impostors and imposture -- Biography
Family differences and unpleasantnesses seem to have been the actual,
even if remote, cause of the great imposition of Arthur Orton. Had
matters been conducted as one might have anticipated they would among
people blessed with the means of gratifying every whim and caprice,
Roger Tichborne would have lived and died like other men, and his name
would never have been known except as a quiet country gentleman of
English origin and French tastes, which led him into more or less
eccentricities, and caused him to be more or less popular among his
neighbours and dependants. But this was not to be. All great families
have their secret unpleasantnesses, and in these the Tichbornes were
by no means behindhand. The Tichbornes generally had a knack of
disagreeing, and this feeling was shown in excelsis by James, the
father of Roger, and his wife, who lived abroad for many years, she
being French in every sentiment, while the husband was but
naturalized, and now and again exhibited a desire to return to his
native land. When Roger was born there was but little chance of his
ever becoming the owner of either titles or estates, and so his
education was entirely foreign, his tutors being M. Chatillon, and a
priest named Lefevre. As time wore on, it became evident that Mr. James
Tichborne would in due course become Sir James, and he felt it his
duty to secure to his son an English education. This the mother
opposed most strenuously, and it was only by artifice that the boy was
brought to England. Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne, who had succeeded to
the baronetcy in 1821, had no son, and though time after time a child
was born to him, Providence blessed him with no male heir. Again and
again a child would be born at Tichborne, but it was always a girl.
Sir Henry had seven children, of whom six lived, all celebrated for
their good looks, and their tall and handsome proportions; but all
were daughters. Still there was Sir Henry's brother, Edward
Tichborne, who had taken large estates under the will of a Miss
Doughty--which led to the present junction of the Doughty and
Tichborne properties, and to the double surname--and with them had
assumed the name of that lady, and he was after Sir Henry the next
heir. Edward had a son and daughter. But one day there came the news
to James and his wife in France, that Sir Edward's little boy had
died, and then it was that the father perceived more clearly the error
that he had made in permitting Roger to grow up ignorant of English
habits and the English tongue. Edward Doughty was an old man. His
brother James Tichborne himself was growing in years. The prospect of
Roger one day becoming the head of the old house of Tichborne, which
had once been so remote, had now become almost a certainty. It would
not do for the Lord of Tichborne to be a Frenchman; sooner or later he
must learn English, and receive an education fitting him to take the
position which now appeared in store for him. All this was clear
enough to Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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