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The- TiGHBORNE CASE.THE DISCOVERER “OF THE NEW ' “ CLAIMANT.'1_an interview with' JENKINS.HER REMARKABLE STORY. IMPELLED BY A VOICE FROM THE DEAD.WHICH SAID, tiE IS SIR ROGER „ TICHBORNE,”(From-the Sydney •' Daily Telegraph, December 24 th.)Mbs JuNKiHS,’who claims’ to have discovered, iu William Cresewell1 the missing Sir Roger Ticfaborne, haB been seen,by Q reporter from “ The Daily Telegraph, and telia a remarkable story of her connection with a remarkable case. Mr« Jenkina ia n married woman, and resides at Paddington.wan brought up at Wagga Wiggo, and waa a child when Arthur Orton went from that town to push hie claim to the Tich-borne estates. Though she live1*’’ she explained that ahe took vethe Tichborne cate to him before. since ascertained that ‘Gentleman L. is identical with Castro, Hampton, Si and Creswell. Creswell has had no than 15 different names since ho cami the colony. *■“ Dp to this time I was entirely ignorai of the circumstances surrounding the lift of this lunatic Creawell, and after hearing what Mr Barnes had to say, I paid another visit to Mr Freestone to see whether ha had done anything with the papers. On, my return home I was struck by an incident which occurred. The mail had been brought in while I wtB away, and out of a* pile of newspapers lying on the table t picked one up at random. It was ‘ The -Daily Telegraph,'1, and in big letters theTiohhorho-Orton-CrBswell Case.' You can imagine that I was all attention in a moment. 1 found that the heading was the prelude to a report of an application': that had been made in the Supreme Court by one Joseph Eckford to have Cresneii removed from tho asytum as Arthur Orton, An attempt had been made to' prove that Creswell was Orton, and had apparently succeeded, for an order was to be made sanctioning Creswell’e removal from the asylum to England. . fI at once saw that there were dacu-vg£ Wagga, er^nt 'ittle into, ab the time, as shB wasrest in - the but a child, and did not bother much about Berious things. Curiously • enough, her father, who was a justice of the peace, belisvsd in the claimant, and was a very strong advocate of his. So strongly, did he-feel in the matter that he actually refused to sit on tho bench with tho police magistrate .because thab magnate did not believe Orton’s claims were'genuine.As time went on, so she telle the story, Mrs Jenkins married, and settled down wibb her husband on a station about 15 milee from Young. Ghe thoughb no more about the Tichborne case until, suddenly, in June, 1884, her interest was aroused in it in a truly remarkable manner. She went into the office of a lawyer named Freestone in Young one day with a nurse of hers for the purpose of having a will drawn up. This n u rse was named Lockett, and claimed that she had valuable estatesand I drove into Yeung, and on the advice of Freestone, dispatched a latter to thehistory. A document in Creswell's handwriting, showing that he was in Gundaroo at a timo when the witnesses had sworn he was in Victoria was produced. The same document can be proved to be Tichborne’s writing. The effect of this was'to immediately break up tha Orton case, and An attempt was then made to remove Creswell as Creswell. To this end a cable was dispatched to England,'and a Thomas Ores-well left for the purpose of identifying Cresweil as bis brother. An application was heard in sit weeks’ time, but this al-Jeukiue kindness to her, she wished to leave her.the property. Mrs Jenkins knew that Mrs Lrolcett had a son and daughter, and sent for thc^i, and they participated in the will which was tybsequontly drawnup. Thie delay in the lawyer’s office, ■ while waiting for the children oi-the nurse, was occupied by a conversation kctween Mr Freestone and Mrs Jenkins. The taiv. led to transactions with lawyers in Loaded.' and Mr FreeBtono happened to mention that he had written to London regarding an estate of a Mrs, Cressweil, deceased. This Mrs Creswell was a sister of Mr Thos. Oates, he raid, the witness in tho groat Tichborne case. While he was saying this,. Mrs Jenkins stateB that she became interested, not from any reason that she could define, because she had never gone intD the Tichborne case, Or studied it in any way. Thelawyor continued to talk of the matter, and Bhe.to grew more and more interested. Mr Freestone said he bad some letters which'the-poor husband of tha, dead woman had written. He (the husband) bad gone mad, and went into the asylum. .Mrs Jenkins said Bhe was impelled to question Mr FreeBtene about tho man, but be said be knew him as Smith. He, showed her some of the document-.I papers which have since became famous as evidence, and among them were two letters !! | which the husband of Mm Creswell had‘‘They are valuable, Mrs Jenkins said. “They would be good evidence in the Tichborne case. That is the handwriting bf'StrRognr Ticliboiire.'' ■ ■How did you,know thatf’ asked the interviewer. “Did you ever tee Sir Roger’s writing V ■■ • No; I did not. Indeed, I have learned since that- there was- no handwriting of Tichborne’s in existence, as all that was available had been seized and destroyed by the tmissarioB of ArthnriiOrton, the claimant. I then asked Mr Freestone to tell mo something about the man himself. I asked him where Cresweil was.“He was proceeding to tell me in a leisurely way thab he was a very harmless sort'of man. and that he knew him as Smith., He believed he did have something to do with tho Tichborne case, but bo could not remember what it was.“I stopped, him there, and said ‘That man ia Sir Roger Tichborne.’ Seeing anob satisfied that the man taken from the‘ asylum was William Creswell, and ha was taken back again. It is within my knowledge,' Mrs Jenkins said, * thab there was an infamous plot in existence 'ugainst the unfortunate Creswell. Some day it will all come but. I saved his life when I was the j instrument which moved the Supreme Court / judge to refuse the application to remoye/ him to England. /“ Creswell was taken back to the asylum; then, and has remained there ever aincjf About three days after the application whs beard and decided by Mr Justice Manning,Mr Freestone was found dead in bis bed.. The documen ts, which are yet to play a more important part than they have yeb dope iathe hlfiiory of the Tiohborne case, went out of hie possesion into that of another firm of lawyers. fThoy are now in the hdnd.s of a Goulburn,firm of solicitors, and Mr Prtesb-man has a copy of one of them. As these documents were written at Gundaroo by the man ab present confined in the/l'arra-matta Asylum, and as they ca-n be positively identified as the handwriting -oE Roger Tifchborne, they will Sic' powerful evidence.-' , P. ,“ Sincfe Creswell was taken/back to the asylum!” concluded Mrs Jen kins, “I have continuously worked to gab'her evidence in support Of a coif -iction, winch came to me in Che remarkable manner/£ have described.ir/i iYou already know something of the chain of facts which ' 1L“but there arepilos ot evidence oenina-enae yet published, which rian be made knofcit ab any time.” ~ i Jlook of puzzled doubt on the face oi the re porter, Mrs Jenkins added : “ It waB an extraordinary thing for me to say, as I knew absolutely nothing about tho case, and had never hoard of Creswell before. I suppose yoa’ll doubt it if I toll you why I said he was Sir Roger Tichborne.’1 She seemed reluctant to continue, and the interviewer hastened to assure her that he would accept her statement as concrete truth.“Then,” continued Mrs Jenkins, “I heard a voice; a voice which I recognised as that of a daughter of mine who had died some time before. It sounded over my right shoulder, and -I heard it so distinctly thatI asked Mr Freestone whether he had not heard it. The voice said, ‘ M», he is Roger Tichborne. Ma, be is Roger Tichborne. Mr Freestone heard nothing and was astounded at my remark. He had not regarded the papers seriously, but he satd he would look into them and see whether there waa any thing, special in them. He knew - he had hsird something about Creawell being mixed up in the Tichborne case, but could not remember what it wos.“I drove home again that evening, continued ,Mts Jenkins,- “and when I pot there I found a selection inspector named Barnes ab the house, I knew him wolf, and, after - dinner, we were looking at Borne papers on the table. He noticed a story in one of the periodicals, endII remarked that I knew the author. He said it , waa a pity that eomo-oue did nob write a geod Australian Btory, and I said, ’ Oh ! we have nothing to write about.’ ‘ Well,’ said Mr Barnes, ■ the Tiohborne case would not make a bad story. *'Ohl Do you know anything about that case!’ I said. * Yea !’ lie replied ; ‘ I think I do. I, know the real Sir Roger Tich-i, £5“ Thie reply,” said Mrs Jenkins, “ in the light of what had tuken place just before at the solicitor’s office, somewhat startled me; but I questioned Mr Barnes, and from him I extraoted a story which waB to the affect that he -had been working on the Burrangong diggings at the time Arthur Orton and a man called ‘Gentleman Harry were there together, ' The diggings were close by where we were living,” eaid Mrs Jenkins, “ and a hut woe stifl standing by the roadside where two diggerB had lived. This, Mr Barnes said, was the hut whicn Orton and his companion had occupied; and, strange to say, it wae the only hut out of many thousands which was then IQIb standing. There were rumours of a peculiar nature about the diggings relating to Gentleman Harry, said Mr Barnea, and when tho case came on in London, and we heard that Orton had claimed the Tichborne estates, I thought thab ‘Gentleman Harry’ had been murdered, es I suspected that he was Tiohborne, in order to allow the estates to be claimed without opposi-I asked him,” said Mrs Jenkins, describe ‘ Gentleman Harry.1 He did so, and X then said, * No, he waa not murdered j I know where he ie.’*llt;Po you know where M Gentleman Harry ** isV he eakh M Yes, I do, t w *“ * Then you know where Sir Roger Tick borne is.’'This came from Mr Barnes quite urn j concernedly, and I had never mentioned
Newspaper Details
Auckland Star
Auckland, Auckland, NZ
Thu, Jan 03, 1895
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
IA, USA 24 Jan 2025
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