3-039-225 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Tichborne trial in the court of Queen's Bench, [London], 1871. 'Eighteen years ago, it appears, Mr. Roger Tichborne, a gentleman twenty-four years of age, heir to a baronetcy and large entailed estates, having had a disappointment in love, and being unkindly treated by his family, sailed for South America, to lead a wild and wandering life...The vessel foundered at sea, but a few men were saved in boats. It was long believed in England that Roger Tichborne was one of those drowned...In January, 1866, a person in New South Wales, there known as Thomas Castro, a horsebreaker and butcher, wrote to Lady Tichborne. He declared himself to be her son, Sir Roger; said that he had but lately seen her advertisement, and that he had made up his mind to come home - asking her to send him money for that purpose...The question for trial was whether this man was indeed the same man who had gone out to South America in March, 1853'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.