In 1854, Roger Tichborne, the heir to an ancient, wealthy English baronetcy, was lost at sea off the coast of South America. Devastated, his mother, Lady Tichborne, refused to accept his death and placed advertisements in newspapers worldwide offering a reward for news of her son. In 1865, a butcher living in Wagga Wagga, Australia, named Arthur Orton claimed to be the missing aristocrat.
Despite being significantly heavier, uneducated, unable to speak French, and lacking basic knowledge of Roger's childhood, Lady Tichborne convinced herself he was her son and provided him a generous allowance. Upon her death, the rest of the Tichborne family refused to acknowledge him, sparking a historic legal saga. The civil suit to claim the estate began in 1871 and became a Victorian national obsession.
The trial lasted 102 days and collapsed when evidence revealed the claimant was actually Arthur Orton, a butcher's son from Wapping. A subsequent perjury trial lasted an unprecedented 188 days. Orton was convicted of perjury in 1874 and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor.
The case gripped Victorian society, dividing the nation along class lines, with working-class supporters viewing Orton as a victim of an aristocratic conspiracy.