The jury in the Tichborne trial

A carte-de-visite showing the jury in the first Tichborne trial (Tichborne v. Lushington), in which Arthur Orton tried to reclaim Tichborne Park from its occupant, Colonel Lushington. If he had been successful, he would also have established his identity and validated his claim to the Tichborne title and estates. A key on the back of the mount gives the names of all the members of the jury, which included three naval captains, a banker, a future earl, and an army colonel with the Victoria Cross.

A man claiming to be Sir Roger Tichborne, who had been lost at sea in 1854, had arrived in England from Australia, where he claimed he had been working as a butcher in Wagga Wagga under the name of Tom Castro. He was, in fact, one Arthur Orton, and bore little resemblance to the real Sir Roger, nor did he speak a word of French, the mother tongue of the real baronet. Neither of these facts stopped Sir Roger’s mother from immediately recognising Orton as her long-lost child, so desperate was she find her son again, nor from giving the impostor an allowance of £1000 a year. The other members of the family were not so easily convinced, and a trial ensued. In spite of 100 supporters who vouched for his claims, Orton’s case eventually collapsed at the end of a twenty-two day cross-examination. He was immediately tried for perjury, of which he was found guilty in 1874, and sentenced to 14 years of hard labour, of which he served ten. Released in 1884, he died in poverty in 1898, spending the last years of his life alternating between confessions and claims of innocence. His coffin bears the name ‘Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne.’

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.