Arthur Orton – new pose

Arthur Orton is the central figure in the famous 1873-74 trials in England contesting his claim to be Roger, son of James, the 10th Baronet Tichborne, and his wife Henrietta. Roger has been lost since a boat he was on sank in 1853 off the coast of Brazil. Orton is actually the son of a London butcher who, after apprenticing as a seaman, spends many years abroad, ending up in Wagga Wagga a city in New South Wales, Australia. In 1866 he is working there as a butcher under the name Thomas Castro when he announces that he is actually the missing Roger Tichborne. Despite being embraced by Henrietta, Ortons claim is contested by other family members, and he is convicted of fraud in 1874 and serves ten years in prison before dying penniless in 1898.